Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship changing qualifying method

While brackets are a great way to determine a champion, they can be unfair in some formats.  Sometimes a very good player can be defeated while other less-skilled players move on.  Konami recently realized this and has announced that they changed their tournament qualifying for the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2017.

Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. (KONAMI) is thrilled to announce a change to earning invitations to the 2017 Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME (TCG) World Championship! In previous years, Duelists would earn invitations to the World Championship solely by their performance at their World Championship Qualifier (WCQ). For 2017, not only will top-performing Duelists continue to earn invitations to the World Championship at their WCQ, but Duelists that compete and do well at events throughout the course of the Dueling season can now receive “World Qualifying Points” to earn an invitation to the World Championship.

For the 2016-2017 Dueling season, players will receive World Qualifying Points if they earned a WCQ invite from a qualifying event, such as Regional Qualifiers, Dragon Duels, OTS Championships, Nationals in Latin America, and the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series. Players that make the Top Cut at the WCQ will also earn World Qualifying Points. World Qualifying Points are awarded based on the total number of invites awarded at that event. For example, at a Regional Qualifier that awards 32 WCQ invites, the Duelist who comes in 1^stplace will earn 32 points, the 2^nd place Duelist will earn 31 points, and so on, down to the 32^nd place Duelist who will earn 1 point. World Qualifying Points will be given retroactively for any event that qualified Duelists for their 2017 WCQ. (These points are separate from any other points earned to qualify for other KONAMI Organized Play events, i.e. Ultimate Duelist Series points used to qualify Duelists for the UDS Invitational.)

For the 2017 North American WCQ, the Top 4 Duelists at the end of the playoff rounds will earn invitations to the World Championship.  The remaining 3 North American Duelists who will earn invitations to the World Championship will be determined via the World Qualifying Points list. At the conclusion of the North American WCQ, the top 2 World Qualifying Points-earners from the United States and the top World Qualifying Points-earner from Canada who did not already finish in the Top 4 of the WCQ, will earn an invitation to the 2017 World Championship. For Latin America, the top World Qualifying Points-earner of the 2016-2017 Dueling season, along with the Top Duelist from the Central American WCQ and the Top Duelist from the South American WCQ, will earn an invitation to the World Championship.

Now, even more Duelists will need to believe in the ‘heart of the cards’ throughout the Dueling season for a chance to clash against Duelists from around the world with hopes of being crowned the next Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG World Champion!

It sounds like a great way to get more people involved and get more players involved in the World Championship.

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