Scripted Duel

A scripted Duel has been an annual tradition at public Tournaments since 2011. It is a non-canon Duel in which 4Kids Entertainment English dub voice actors are invited to reprise their roles in a theatre-like fashion. As the voice actors read their parts through the duel, a live video feed of a Playing Field managed by two duelists shows the current state of the duel. These duelists – and in one instance, even a cameraman – may sometimes have special roles to act out certain card effects: Pegasus hid a monster underneath the "Toon World" card before summoning a Toon counterpart and places Toon monsters underneath "Toon World" when a monster would be protected by its own effect; Yugi placed a deck full of "Kuriboh" on the field when activating "Multiply"; Pegasus performed a winding action with his hand when activating Wind-Up effects; Yugi took out four copies of "Magical Hats" when using its effect. More recently, certain music is played for dramatic effect during certain turning points, such as when Yugi transitions into Yami Yugi, calls upon the Heart of the Cards, or plays "The Eye of Timaeus".

One duel is presented per year, during the summer in the United States, at the North American World Championship Qualifiers. An exception was during the fall, at a regional Championship Series tournament, where two duels were presented. Another exception was during the World Championship in 2013, which happened to be hosted by the United States.

Script
The script contains a small plot involving two or more characters meeting at the tournament event and one of them eventually challenging another to a duel. This script also gives a lot more references to Game Mechanics such as chains and missing the timing as opposed to dialogue in the manga or anime, as well as often breaking the fourth wall. The dialogue is intended to be humorous and is slightly cruder compared to 4Kids dialogue, to complement the more mature audience of tournament players.

Decks
The live video feed features duelists with physical copies of the cards mentioned in the script. Duelists draw and play cards normally. Whenever a card is to be searched from the deck per Card effect, the card meant to be searched is already on top of the deck or in an otherwise pre-determined location in order to avoid shuffling the rigged deck.

The decks are played with the characters' most iconic monsters from the anime, although occasionally cards that the character have never played or have never even been seen in the series have been shown, usually Staple cards. The script does not adhere strictly to the Advanced Format, and it is not uncommon for characters to play cards Forbidden at the time.

The duel is conducted under the rules set in the anime, with each duelist starting with 4000 Life Points and using card effects as shown in the anime. In rare scenarios, a played card is to ignore its anime effect and adhere to its TCG/OCG effect. Rarer still, a played card may not adhere to its effect depicted in either the anime or the TCG/OCG.

Featured Actors
So far, characters from Yu-Gi-Oh! (anime) Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, and Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V have been represented, although Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series have both been referenced.


 * Greg Abbey as Tristan Taylor, Yusei Fudo
 * Billy Brake as himself
 * Wayne Grayson as Joey Wheeler
 * Dan Green as Yugi Muto, Yami Yugi
 * Darren Dunstan as Maximillion J. Pegasus
 * Ted Lewis as Bakura, Yami Bakura
 * Mike Pollock as Arthur Hawkins
 * Jonathan Todd Ross as Marik Ishtar, Yami Marik
 * Erica Schroeder as Mai Valentine, Akiza Izinski
 * Eric Stuart as Seto Kaiba
 * Marc Thompson as Astral
 * Michael Liscio Jr. as Yuya Sakaki

List of Scripted Duels

 * Yugi vs. Yusei at North American World Championship Qualifiers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 17, 2011
 * Yusei vs. Akiza at Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Providence in Providence, Rhode Island on October 21, 2012
 * Mai, Joey, and Yugi vs. Pegasus and Bakura at Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series Providence in Providence, Rhode Island on October 22, 2012
 * Joey vs. Kaiba at North American World Championship Qualifiers in Columbus, Ohio on July 1, 2012
 * Kaiba vs. Pegasus at North American World Championship Qualifiers in Chicago, Illinois on July 14, 2013
 * Mai vs. Yugi at World Championship 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 11, 2013
 * Astral vs. Yugi at North American World Championship Qualifiers in Detroit, Michigan on July 13, 2014.
 * Marik vs. Pegasus at North American World Championship Qualifiers in Nashville, Tennessee on June 28, 2015.
 * Yusei vs. Yuya at North American World Championship Qualifiers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 10, 2016.
 * Joey vs. Pegasus at North American World Championship Qualifiers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 10, 2016.

Trivia

 * In the first three scripted duels that Yugi has been in, he has Summoned "Dark Magician" via "Sage's Stone" and subsequently used it for the Summon of either "Dark Paladin" or "Magician of Black Chaos".