Day 2 in WCS 2013 (Event day 2)

Its the final day of WCS 2013! Not going to do a post for tomorrow since its gonna be basically heading to the airport at 9am, so this will be the final part of this coverage post, enjoy!

Took this chance to also quickly grab a photo with Dan Green and Erica Schroeder :) Doubt they will be reading this but still thanks for signing my many cards~

 So basically the day started quite early, had breakfast then headed to the event site by 8am. Though there wasnt much going on there until 9.30am when the event started. Nothing really new mentioned during the player briefing, except that since there was more time today, they will allow the players to shuffle as they normally would, instead of the special shuffling method for yesterday.

Event started slightly later at about 9.40 but it still started pretty on time. Dan Green and Erica Schroeder were the emcees again~ Here are the top 8 Expert class players in order of the standings from yesterday.

 On the other side, these are the top 8 for Dragon Duels!

 Quick look at the top 8 pairings for Expert class, had to go to the stage so no chance to take the top 8 Dragon duel pairings after that, apologies

As before, not much photos i can take from the stage, not very professional thing to do. Basically top 8 and top 4 ran pretty much back to back so not much photos at this point of time. I was helping to handle translations for the Taiwan rep who made champion in the end mainly for today.

By the time that was over, it was already 1pm. Quickly headed over to the registration counter, but was very sad, since there was no more registration being accepted for Win-a-mats or any other events. Furthermore, they also ran out of all the gifts for trading in stamps for so there wasnt anything i could participate for to get memories back, sad face...

Anyway with not much of a choice left, decided to head around and check out what was going on. News already got out that there was nothing left to trade, so all the mini games had no more 'business'. The only one still active was the giant card duel. Thought of trying it out, but thought that i would come back at a later time to play.

Walking around, I found Hazael, one of the fans i got info for card shops and advice on stuff to do in Vegas. Really appreciate the help Hazael! Since he just happened to be taking a photo for the token machine, we decided to take a photo together and bring back a token each :)

In the mean time, the reps are really getting flooded with mats this year. It wasnt announced earlier, but they gave out 3 mats, 4 astral packs and a score sheet for the reps who took part in the challenge the champion segment. This was pretty good especially for the Asia players since none of us have any access to these mats usually.

 Also met up with another blog reader Allen, who was also judging for Win-a-Mat that day. Had a pretty nice chat with him~

 Also chatted with more readers for the blog, Van and Jonathan and even got to play a few games with them. Luckily deck didnt let me down and i pulled off the draw 3 and Felgrand with Bureido field :p

Had a great time chatting with them and sharing some thoughts on the upcoming ban lists, decks used, and alot of other stuff!

Its time to duel! I mean, time for the live duel! This was a live duel between Yugi (Dan Green) and Mai (Erica Schroeder). Yugi had the old stuff while Mai had stuff like Harpie Channeler and Harpie's Pet Phantasmal Dragon. Everyone enjoyed the duel quite abit, with the main highlight by Yugi's Kuriboh. Wont spoil it for you if you havent watched it, check out the youtube link put up by others below~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rLCzGx_cKU

 Dragon Duel playing for 3rd and finals went back on after the live duel, so back to the side event area~ Not really blogging on the results and how the tournament went since there was live streaming and the usual Konami posts (http://www.konami.com/yugioh/blog/?cat=244) so check that out if you want.

By the time we came back after the live duel, it was already quite late though. Hall was closing at 4.30pm, partially also to encourage everyone to go to the main event area. With the events closed, i quickly headed over just to get a quick shot at the Giant card duel area~

Back at the main event area, also met up with another fan. Signed some stuff for him then had a chat with him too. Seems like biggest thing that everyone is wondering about is the special rule to be announced in end September. Thanks again for reading the blog guys, do keep following us~

Its Dragon duels finals and the new Dragon Duel champion is Oliver Tomajko (USA)! Congratulations!

Dont have a photo of the expert class finals going on stage since I was helping out there, so skipping abit, congratulations to the new Worlds champion, Huang Shin En (Taiwan)!

On an extra note, during the prize presentation, it was announced that they are planning for WCS 2014 to be held in Europe~

Here are the top 4 for the expert class and dragon duels! (In order for champion to 4th from left to right)

Time for a close-up on the trophy. The trophy is like a mini gundam kit, you have to assemble the whole thing. Really looks pretty cool though!

 Heres a detailed look at the deck and prize card for the champion!

Champion was getting swamped at the end of the event. Interview with Vjump, phone interview with Yahoo news Taiwan, Taiwan tv news, video deck profiles and also doing autographies. Yes, i still had to carry on doing translations here even.

So anyway, thats about the end of the photos. Basically after that, went for dinner with all the Asia players, then we headed back to the room. Somehow wave of drowsiness took over and I knocked out for over 2 hours. Woke up and finally did up this blog post.

Some quick thoughts on my experience for this year's WCS compared to the last 2
1. I still preferred WCS 2011 most of all. Even though player management is much easier if theres a main event area and side event area, not much of a point if you end up having nobody watching in the main event area since everyone was just outside playing for mats and stuff. This issue was still ok in WCS 2012 but there weren't mats and stuff so there was still a good number of people at the main event area. I honestly felt very detached from the other players this time round which was pretty sad.

2. Also maybe it is me, but I kinda liked it when they gave the freebies to all player participants, just giving out some score sheets, pens etc. Its a nice gesture that gave everyone memories of the event. This time round, if you dont win a mat, the other thing you can get is just a poster. Which is kinda meh

* Nice to get a photo with Mr Ander (Head Judge WCS 2012), Mr Robert (Head Judge WCS 2013) and Mr Paul (Head Judge WCS 2011). They even specially put on the head judge t-shirt just for this photo, had the pleasure of working with them for the last 3 years as a translator, totally great guys!

So this marks the end of the WCS 2013 finally. Despite my comments above, I still enjoyed myself the last few days. As always, its great to get to meet up with all the different players from all the different countries, that is always the most fun experience of all. Thanks alot and hope to see you next year in Europe!