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The WCQ logo (pre-2023)
The WCQ logo (from 2023)
World Championship Qualifiers came up in 2010 as an official name for all National Championships and Continental Championships held in many countries around the world. National Championship were held in selected countries by Konami, then occurred a Continental Championship for each continent or region which reserved seats for the World Championship.
Historically, starting from 2003, there were only National Champions in both the TCG and OCG, the winners (or in some cases, multiple top players) of which would be invited to the World Championship. Over the years though, more and more TCG regions introduced Continental Championships: The first one was the South American one, which started in 2005. One year later, Europe followed suit. 2010 was the year of the first Central American Championship. Last but not least, the US and Canadian Nationals were fused into the North American Championship and the Oceanic Championship was introduced in 2011. From this point onwards, the only way a TCG player could qualify for the World Championship was via one of the Continental Championships.
The OCG underwent a slightly different timeline. Originally, the various Asian National Champions would be invited to the World Championships. The only exception was Japan, where the Top 2 players from the two regions (West and East) would qualify, making for a total of four players. It stayed this way until 2014, when various National Championships were replaced by the Asia Championship. Now, only the Top 2 players from the Asia Championship would be invited, instead of all the National Champions. The only countries that remained 'independent' were South Korea and Japan.
In 2023, the year of the first World Championship after the Covid-19 pandemic, there two more changes made in regards to the OCG region: Firstly, the two Japanese WCQs (West and East) were abolished and replaced by a unified Japan Championship, which would now be the only place where Japanese players could earn a World Championship invite. Secondly, a WCQ tournament was held in China for the first time in Yu-Gi-Oh! history.
The amount of World Championships invites per region varies slightly from year to year. As of 2024, they are the following: 7 from Europe, 6 from North America, 4 from Japan, 2 from Oceania, Central America, South America and Asia as well as 1 from China and South Korea. Additionally, the reigning World Champion (Between 2012-2019 also the Dragon Duel World Champion, if they were old enough to participate in regular events) also receives an invite.
As for National Championships, the hosting countries have varied quite a bit over the years. Generally speaking, there has been a trend of Konami getting rid of smaller Nationals. Because of this, post-Covid National Championships will almost always exceed 100 players. The biggest Nationals (typically found in Germany and France) are much larger, having attracted about 2000 players each in recent years.
In 2022, another small change to the Nationals system was made, as the countries of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa no longer hold one unified National Championship. Instead, multiple smaller tournaments, called State Championships, are held.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime, several National Champions have been seen, although limited to the United States and Japan.
Seto Kaiba was formerly the Japanese National Champion prior to pulling out of the latest National Championship, leaving Weevil Underwood to claim the title. In the 4Kids dub, he is an American National Champion along with Weevil Underwood.[142]Yugi Muto later takes the title from Weevil when he defeats him in the first match of the Duelist Kingdom tournament.[143] By defeating Maximillion Pegasus and winning the Duelist Kingdom tournament, Yugi Muto becomes the "King of Games" and the Duel Monsters World Champion.
"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.)[144]
Rebecca Hawkins is the youngest person to become the American National Champion, the Champion after Keith. This is also changed to Intercontinental Champion in the dub.
Later in the series, Leon von Schroeder became the European National Champion, participating in Seto Kaiba's KC Grand Prix Championship.