World Championship Qualifiers

National Tournaments happen in selected countries, organised by Konami, usually through their official distributors in the nation.

In Europe, there is also a continental championship featuring duelists from across the continent.

2004 National Champions

 * The 2004 American Champion was Theerasak Poonsombat.
 * The 2004 Italian Champion was Dario Longo.
 * The 2004 German Champion was Chi-Vinh Le.
 * The 2004 Spanish Champion was Rodrigo Togores.
 * The 2004 Irish Champion was Mark Kenny.

2005 National Champions

 * The 2005 American Champion was Max Suffridge.
 * The 2005 Belgian Champion was Guy Israel.
 * The 2005 German Champion was David Kretschmer.
 * The 2005 Dutch Champion was Guan Her Ng.
 * The 2005 United Kingdom Champion was Adam Kruszynski.
 * The 2005 Canadian Champion was Dexter Dalit.
 * The 2005 Italian Champion was Namer Merli.
 * The 2005 Polish Champion was Paweł Marcinkowski.
 * The 2005 Croatian National Champion was Joso Zrilić.
 * The 2005 Hungarian National Champion was Szili Atilla

2006 National Champions

 * The 2006 American Champion was Austin Kulman.
 * The 2006 Italian Champion was Dario Longo.
 * The 2006 Canadian Champion was Calvin Tsang.
 * The 2006 German Champion was Michel Grüner.
 * The 2006 Austrian Champion was Phillip Bohar.
 * The 2006 Swiss Champion was Remo Lehmann.
 * The 2006 Irish Champion was Darren Walsh.
 * The 2006 United Kingdom Champion was Wayne Pinkney.
 * The 2006 Dutch Champion was Baran Güntekin.
 * The 2006 Polish Champion was Jarek Pajor.
 * The 2006 Croatian National Champion was Karlo Mrvić.
 * The 2006 Spanish National Champion was Anthony Apaestegui.

2007 National Champions

 * The 2007 American Champion was Adam Corn.
 * The 2007 Canadian Champion was Dexter Dalit.
 * The 2007 German Champion was Vittorio Wiktor.
 * The 2007 Austrian Champion was Hanspeter Rokita.
 * The 2007 Swiss Champion was Roman Patané.
 * The 2007 Belgian Champion was Jonas Couvreur.
 * The 2007 Italian Champion was Marco Mazzuoccolo.
 * The 2007 English National Champion was Andrew Lam.
 * The 2007 Irish National Champion was Brian Dunne.
 * The 2007 Portuguese National Champion was Helio Babo.
 * The 2007 Polish National Champion was Paweł Brzostowski.
 * The 2007 Croatian National Champion was Marko Božac.
 * The 2007 Finnish National Champion was Alexander Trivedi.
 * The 2007 Jamaican National Champion was Neufville Brown.
 * The 2007 Spanish National Champion was Anthony Apaestegui.
 * The 2007 Hungarian National Champion was Kis Gábor

2008 National Champions

 * The 2008 Danish Champion was Soheil Afriday.
 * The 2008 German Champion was Florian Chitic.
 * The 2008 Austrian Champion was Tolga Erkoc.
 * The 2008 Italian Champion was Emanuele Giusti
 * The 2008 Swiss Champion was Marco Ahr.
 * The 2008 Irish Champion was Brian Donnelly.
 * The 2008 Mexican Champion was Alejandro Vivaldo Reyes Suarez.
 * The 2008 Spanish Champion was Borja Atienza.
 * The 2008 Finnish Champion was Jaakko Penttinen
 * The 2008 American Champion was Chris Bowling
 * The 2008 Canadian Champion was Lazaro Bellido
 * The 2008 Hungarian Champion was Kis Gábor

In the Anime/Manga
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime, several national champions have been seen, although limited to the United States and Japan.

American National Champions in the Anime/Manga
"Bandit" Keith Howard was a former American national champion until he lost the title to Maximillion Pegasus. (In the English dub, Keith was classified the Intercontinental Champion as the setting for the series was made more vague.)

Later in the series, Leon von Schroder (Leonhart von Schroider in the Japanese) became the American National Champion, participating in Seto Kaiba's KC Grand Prix Championship.

Japanese National Champions in the Anime/Manga
Seto Kaiba was formerly the Japanese national champion prior to pulling out of the latest national championship, leaving Weevil Underwood to claim the title.