The World Championship logo
The Dragon Duel World Championship was an international, invitational Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (TCG) and Yu-Gi-Oh! Official Card Game (OCG) tournament held annually between the top-ranked Dragon Duel duelists of various countries. It was held alongside the World Championship from 2012 to 2019.
In order to receive an invitation to the World Championship, a player had to earn an invite at their respective region's Dragon Duel World Championship Qualifiers tournament. These regions were North America, Central America, South America, Europe and Oceania for the TCG as well as Asia, South Korea and Japan for the OCG.
Each year, the Dragon Duel World Championship had 12 competitors (except for 2014, presumably due to a competitor not being able to attend on a short notice), with the amount of invites per region varying slightly from year to year. In 2019, the final year the tournament took place, the amount of invites per region were as follows: 3 for Europe, 2 for North America and Japan as well as 1 for Central America, South America, Oceania, Asia and South Korea.
The Dragon Duel World Championship followed the same format as the main World Championship, meaning it used a special banlist, where all cards are set at their lowest allowed status in any region (i.e. TCG or OCG). For example, a card that was on the Semi-Limited list in one region but the Limited list in another was Limited on the World Championship banlist, and a card that was Forbidden in one region but Unlimited in another was Forbidden. In addition, any cards that were not legal in any one of the regions were automatically Forbidden on the World Championship list.
Along other prizes, the winner of the Dragon Duel World Championship received a guaranteed invite to next year's tournament. However, if the winner was too old to compete in Dragon Duel tournaments the following year, they would get to participate in the main World Championship instead, an arguably even greater prize. Of the eight Dragon Duel World Champion, five "aged up" into the TCG/OCG World Championship.
In early 2023, Konami restructured the Dragon Duel tournament system, which lead to the end of the Dragon Duel World Championship.[1]
Tournaments[]
2019[]
Date: 10 - 11 August 2019
Location: 
Berlin, Germany
Attendance: 12
Ref: [2]
Champion: 
Shang En Sun (Salamangreat)
Runner-Up: 
Vitus Krogh (Salamangreat)
Third Place: Eric Töpel (Salamangreat)
Fourth Place: 
Takuma Aotsuka (Windwitch Gren Maju)
2018[]
Date: 4 - 5 August 2018
Location: Chiba, Japan
Attendance: 12
Ref: [3]
Champion: 
Charley Futch (Gouki)
Runner-Up: Kai Heidinger (Gouki)
Third Place: Naoki Shitagaki (Altergeist)
Fourth Place: 
Kyong-Min Kim (Altergeist)
2017[]
Date: 12 - 13 August 2017
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Attendance: 12
Ref: [4]
Champion: 
Ryan Yu (Chain Burn)
Runner-Up: 
Rafael Reich (Kaiju Invoked True Draco)
Third Place: Eric Töpel (True Draco)
Fourth Place: Charley Futch (ABC)
2016[]
Date: 20 - 21 August 2016
Location: Orlando, Florida, USA
Attendance: 12
Ref: [5]
Champion: Po-Hsiang Peng (Domain Monarch)
Runner-Up: Aiden Tiemann (Dracoslayer Performapal)
Third Place: Wook-Young Hong (Blue-Eyes)
Fourth Place: 
Declan Matthews (Majespecter)
2015[]
Date: 15 - 16 August 2015
Location: Kyoto, Japan
Attendance: 12
Ref: [6]
Champion: 
Mijail Flores (Tellarknight)
Runner-Up: DeAndre Mason (Qliphort)
Third Place: 
Zoltan Kolonics (HERO)
Fourth Place: Haruka Yamasaki (Tellarknight)
2014[]
Date: 9 - 10 August 2014
Location: 
Rimini, Italy
Attendance: 11
Ref: [7]
Champion: Chan-ho Kim (Bujin)
Runner-Up: 
Ivan Alvarez (Madolche)
Third Place: Brandon Bird (Madolche)
Fourth Place: Clayton Hill (Infernity)
2013[]
Date: 10 - 11 August 2013
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Attendance: 12
Ref: [8]
Champion: Oliver Tomajko (Dragon Ruler)
Runner-Up: Mao Goto (Spellbook)
Third Place: 
Marco Ruiz (Dragon Ruler)
Fourth Place: Niels Kühnberger (Spellbook)
2012[]
Date: 11 - 12 August 2012
Location: Roppongi, Japan
Attendance: 12
Ref: [9]
Champion: Yu Hao Liou (Dino Rabbit)
Runner-Up: Toya Minami (Inzektor)
Third Place: Zachary Leverett (Hieratic)
Fourth Place: 
Brandon Medrano (Final Countdown)
References[]
- ↑ https://yugiohblog.konami.com/2023/02/announcing-the-dragon-duel-championship/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2GZHz_wwZU
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmrydVFFuZ0
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180331170604/https://www.konami.com/yugioh/wcs2017/ja/
- ↑ https://yugiohblog.konami.com/2016/08/finals-standings-dragon-duel-world-championship/
- ↑ https://www.yugioh-card.com/japan/event/world_championship/2015/
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20171015145922/http://www.yugioh-card.com/japan/topics/?201408135
- ↑ https://yugiohblog.konami.com/event/championships/yu-gi-oh-world-championship-2013/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150513075454/https://www.yugioh-card.com/chi/cn-t/magz/pdf/hk_201210.pdf
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