TheYu-Gi-Oh!World Championship is back. After having been canceled every year since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Konami has just announced the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship will be held in 2023 at the Tokyo International Exhibition Center, and it will feature Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel for the very first time.The World Championship is scheduled for the August 5 and 6 weekend. There will be three separate tournaments taking place, including one for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, one for Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, and one for Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel. Both Duel Links and Master Duel will have in-game qualifiers beginning in May.Related:To Fight Fascism, Follow Yu-Gi-Oh!’s ExampleUnlike Duel Links, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is a faithful recreation of the trading card game available on both mobile, console, and PC platforms.Released in January of last year, Master Duel proved to be extremely popular, surpassing40 million downloads by Julyand50 million downloads by November. Master Duel has several multiplayer modes, but also single-player content including a story mode and multiple tutorials.
In-game qualifiers for Master Duel begin on May 16, while Duel Links qualifiers begin May 30. The format for Master Duel’s World Championship Finalswill be Team Battle, with the eight best teams in the world dueling to be the strongest on the planet. The full schedule for the first stage and regional qualifying dates can be viewed below.
As for the TCG, qualifiers will take place over the summer, with the European Championship scheduled to take place on June 30 to July 2. The regional tournament will be held at the Jaarbeurs exhibition center in Utrecht, Netherlands. Other regional tournaments and dates can be found on theYu-Gi-Oh! Twitter channelandofficial site.
Konami has alsoupdated its COVID-19 guidelinesfor in-person tournaments to no longer require a mask or proof of vaccination, although it does “strongly” encourage both. Konami also still “reserves the right to implement a mandatory mask and/or vaccine requirement for any event.”
Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championshipwas supposed to return last year, but an unexpected surge of cases kept Japan’s borders closeduntil October 2022. With Japan now open to tourists once again, the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship can go on with the big in-person tournament in Tokyo.
