Preparation for a Regional/YCS Event (United States of America)
One aspect of the Yu-Gi-Oh! game that thousands of duelist across the TCG world take part is the participation in competitive events at regional and YCS competitions. These competitions are very similar to that of local tournaments you may participate at a card shop: people get together at one location and participate in a tournament. What make these tournaments different is the sheer possible tournament size and the variety of decks that you may see at a tournament event like a regional competition or YCS event.
What are regional tournaments/YCS events?
While your preparations for these events are the same, there is a minor distinction between the two events. Originally, YCS events and regional tournaments were organized by two different organizations. Now, they are organized by one organization and serve the purpose of offering opportunities to win your way to the World Championship Qualifiers (WCQ), which could later result in you getting a seat at the World Championship.
Throughout the year, there are roughly 3-4 regional competitions across the country every weekend. YCS events, which are usually much larger in size and offer more “side events” for duelist to participate in, do not occur as often and normally attract a larger crowd of people. YCS events tend to gather more attraction because some of the bigger names in the dueling world go to YCS events to compete.
What do you need for a YCS/Regional competition?
Here, we are going to go over what you would physically need for a YCS/Regional event.
1.) A deck and deck essentials: First and foremost, in order to compete at a YCS/Regional event, you need to have a deck. It doesn’t even have to be your own deck; you could borrow your friend’s deck and compete with that! Click here to go over Deck Construction Basics.
As far as essentials go for decks, be sure to have a sleeves (even if your cards are already sleeved, be sure to bring some extra sleeves that MATCH the sleeves you are using) in case the ones you use go bad and a deck box to hold your deck.
2.) Duelist and Deck Registration: These registration papers, while provided at these events, are available online to be filled out and brought to the event. The deck registration tells the tournament organizers what you’re are running in your deck (they won’t tell anyone) to ensure that you are not running any illegal cards (cards that are forbidden from play) or too many of certain powerful cards (cards that are Limited or Semi-Limited. More information about Semi-Limited and Limited cards can be found here).
3.) Entry Fee: At the cost of $20, you get 5 packs of the latest TCG boost pack and entry into the competition. Once you are granted entry into the competition, you can participate in any number of rounds of competitive play offered. NOTE: Entry into the tournament does NOT grant you entry into any of the side events (we will discuss side events later).
4.) COSSY ID Card/Number: A COSSY ID card is your ID card in the Yu-Gi-Oh! competitive circuit. They be obtained at your local card shop for free (a list of sanction Yu-Gi-Oh! shops can be found here.) On your COSSY ID Card, you will get your COSSY ID number (keep track of this number; you can participate in tournament events as long as you have your COSSY ID number.)
5.) Food/drink stuff: While you cannot eat or drink during your duels, you can have snacks and drinks during the interim periods. It’s not that you cannot buy food or drink at nearby vendors, but in my experience playing you would be much better off bringing your own snacks and/or drinks. That way you can have control over what you have and are not at the mercy of what is available to you. Do not bring a cooler/large ice chest; that will attract too much unwanted attention to yourself and is hard to keep track of once you start playing.
What should one do to prepare for a YCS/Regional Event
1.) Deck Preparation: Knowing how your deck works and experience with that deck is crucial to having the best chance at a good time dueling. This doesn’t mean you have to bring the perfect deck to the competition, but knowing how your deck strategy works is key to putting up the best fight you can. Judges will be able to help you with any ruling troubles you may run into, but they won’t help you with your deck strategy. Even if by yourself, you can at least shuffle your deck and test your opening hands to at least familiarize yourself with different possible opening hands; be sure to alternate whether you go first or second to give yourself well-rounded practice.
If possible, try to attend at least one local card shop tournament to give you an idea as to how it would work at a regional or YCS event. It will also help you practice your side deck strategies and see if they actually work for you; after all, it is your deck and what you choose to run or not is yours to make. It will also help you see how other decks work.
2.) Know where the regional/YCS is being held and how to get there: Be sure to map out how you are going to get to the event so that you can be on time. I suggest getting there 30 minutes before they start registration to ensure that there is NO reason for you not get in (some regional events have a cap on how many people they will let enter. From personal experience, I have seen over ~150 people denied entry into the tournament because so many people showed up and they didn’t have enough space to hold everyone.
3.) Complete and print out your registration forms: While these forms will be offered at the event you are going to, it would be in your best interest to complete those forms ahead of time so that you can just walk up, pay the entry fee and give them the lists. Then, you get your five packs and you wait for the pairing listings to go up.
4.) Bring your own way to calculate Life Points: It is heavily advised that you bring a notepad and a pencil or pen to help keep track of Life Points (both you and your opponent’s). While you can use a calculator, it is easy to erase the screen or the calculator to turn itself off from lack of activity. Keep track of both player’s life points to ensure that both of you are on the same page.
5.) If you deck requires counters, dice or coin; Bring those!: Tournament personnel won’t be able to provide you with dice, counters (e.g. coins, damage counters, or even dice), or coins for your games, so be sure to bring them!
Day of YCS/Regional Event
When you get to your YCS/Regional event, you will need to find the area in which the tournament is being held. You could ask some of the facility staff to see if they know where the event is being held. Otherwise, you will need to do some walking around and hope to find a sign to guide you (and your group).
Once you find the tournament area, you will want to get in line right away (especially if you arrive after registration starts) so you can register. Once you are registered, I would walk into the dueling area to open your packs, sleeve your deck or change sleeves, and do whatever you do to get yourself in the zone. Expect to be there for the whole day; since tournament organizers don’t know how many people are coming, and you could be there for 12+ hours.
When the first round pairings are announced, you’ll head to where they are (each location is different) and find your name. There, you will find 1.) the table you are at 2.) your name and your cossy id 3.) your opponent’s name and his/her cossy id. Once you find this information out, head out to your table and grab a seat. There you wait until your opponent arrives. Confirm that he/she is indeed your opponent (by name). Then, both players will pull out their Main Decks and shuffle them. Each player has the opportunity to cut their opponent’s deck. Then, from there you wait for the head judge to announce the start of the round. Once the round starts, you determine who goes first then the duel begins. To learn how a normal duel/turn in a duel goes, click here.
One aspect of the Yu-Gi-Oh! game that thousands of duelist across the TCG world take part is the participation in competitive events at regional and YCS competitions. These competitions are very similar to that of local tournaments you may participate at a card shop: people get together at one location and participate in a tournament. What make these tournaments different is the sheer possible tournament size and the variety of decks that you may see at a tournament event like a regional competition or YCS event.
What are regional tournaments/YCS events?
While your preparations for these events are the same, there is a minor distinction between the two events. Originally, YCS events and regional tournaments were organized by two different organizations. Now, they are organized by one organization and serve the purpose of offering opportunities to win your way to the World Championship Qualifiers (WCQ), which could later result in you getting a seat at the World Championship.
Throughout the year, there are roughly 3-4 regional competitions across the country every weekend. YCS events, which are usually much larger in size and offer more “side events” for duelist to participate in, do not occur as often and normally attract a larger crowd of people. YCS events tend to gather more attraction because some of the bigger names in the dueling world go to YCS events to compete.
What do you need for a YCS/Regional competition?
Here, we are going to go over what you would physically need for a YCS/Regional event.
1.) A deck and deck essentials: First and foremost, in order to compete at a YCS/Regional event, you need to have a deck. It doesn’t even have to be your own deck; you could borrow your friend’s deck and compete with that! Click here to go over Deck Construction Basics.
As far as essentials go for decks, be sure to have a sleeves (even if your cards are already sleeved, be sure to bring some extra sleeves that MATCH the sleeves you are using) in case the ones you use go bad and a deck box to hold your deck.
2.) Duelist and Deck Registration: These registration papers, while provided at these events, are available online to be filled out and brought to the event. The deck registration tells the tournament organizers what you’re are running in your deck (they won’t tell anyone) to ensure that you are not running any illegal cards (cards that are forbidden from play) or too many of certain powerful cards (cards that are Limited or Semi-Limited. More information about Semi-Limited and Limited cards can be found here).
3.) Entry Fee: At the cost of $20, you get 5 packs of the latest TCG boost pack and entry into the competition. Once you are granted entry into the competition, you can participate in any number of rounds of competitive play offered. NOTE: Entry into the tournament does NOT grant you entry into any of the side events (we will discuss side events later).
4.) COSSY ID Card/Number: A COSSY ID card is your ID card in the Yu-Gi-Oh! competitive circuit. They be obtained at your local card shop for free (a list of sanction Yu-Gi-Oh! shops can be found here.) On your COSSY ID Card, you will get your COSSY ID number (keep track of this number; you can participate in tournament events as long as you have your COSSY ID number.)
5.) Food/drink stuff: While you cannot eat or drink during your duels, you can have snacks and drinks during the interim periods. It’s not that you cannot buy food or drink at nearby vendors, but in my experience playing you would be much better off bringing your own snacks and/or drinks. That way you can have control over what you have and are not at the mercy of what is available to you. Do not bring a cooler/large ice chest; that will attract too much unwanted attention to yourself and is hard to keep track of once you start playing.
What should one do to prepare for a YCS/Regional Event
1.) Deck Preparation: Knowing how your deck works and experience with that deck is crucial to having the best chance at a good time dueling. This doesn’t mean you have to bring the perfect deck to the competition, but knowing how your deck strategy works is key to putting up the best fight you can. Judges will be able to help you with any ruling troubles you may run into, but they won’t help you with your deck strategy. Even if by yourself, you can at least shuffle your deck and test your opening hands to at least familiarize yourself with different possible opening hands; be sure to alternate whether you go first or second to give yourself well-rounded practice.
If possible, try to attend at least one local card shop tournament to give you an idea as to how it would work at a regional or YCS event. It will also help you practice your side deck strategies and see if they actually work for you; after all, it is your deck and what you choose to run or not is yours to make. It will also help you see how other decks work.
2.) Know where the regional/YCS is being held and how to get there: Be sure to map out how you are going to get to the event so that you can be on time. I suggest getting there 30 minutes before they start registration to ensure that there is NO reason for you not get in (some regional events have a cap on how many people they will let enter. From personal experience, I have seen over ~150 people denied entry into the tournament because so many people showed up and they didn’t have enough space to hold everyone.
3.) Complete and print out your registration forms: While these forms will be offered at the event you are going to, it would be in your best interest to complete those forms ahead of time so that you can just walk up, pay the entry fee and give them the lists. Then, you get your five packs and you wait for the pairing listings to go up.
4.) Bring your own way to calculate Life Points: It is heavily advised that you bring a notepad and a pencil or pen to help keep track of Life Points (both you and your opponent’s). While you can use a calculator, it is easy to erase the screen or the calculator to turn itself off from lack of activity. Keep track of both player’s life points to ensure that both of you are on the same page.
5.) If you deck requires counters, dice or coin; Bring those!: Tournament personnel won’t be able to provide you with dice, counters (e.g. coins, damage counters, or even dice), or coins for your games, so be sure to bring them!
Day of YCS/Regional Event
When you get to your YCS/Regional event, you will need to find the area in which the tournament is being held. You could ask some of the facility staff to see if they know where the event is being held. Otherwise, you will need to do some walking around and hope to find a sign to guide you (and your group).
Once you find the tournament area, you will want to get in line right away (especially if you arrive after registration starts) so you can register. Once you are registered, I would walk into the dueling area to open your packs, sleeve your deck or change sleeves, and do whatever you do to get yourself in the zone. Expect to be there for the whole day; since tournament organizers don’t know how many people are coming, and you could be there for 12+ hours.
When the first round pairings are announced, you’ll head to where they are (each location is different) and find your name. There, you will find 1.) the table you are at 2.) your name and your cossy id 3.) your opponent’s name and his/her cossy id. Once you find this information out, head out to your table and grab a seat. There you wait until your opponent arrives. Confirm that he/she is indeed your opponent (by name). Then, both players will pull out their Main Decks and shuffle them. Each player has the opportunity to cut their opponent’s deck. Then, from there you wait for the head judge to announce the start of the round. Once the round starts, you determine who goes first then the duel begins. To learn how a normal duel/turn in a duel goes, click here.