Promo image- click for larger view
"It’s a new OP initiative that encompasses both the Official Tournament Stores and our Premiere Events, so it’s the first program that brings all our organized play activities together," Hoashi said. "It culminates in the UDS Invitational so that the player that wins that is crowned the Ultimate Duelist."
"We have specific periods of time which are down-time for the [Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series] YCSs," she said. "We don’t usually hold YCSs during the winter months because of the weather. We also have a down-time during the summer months because we’re leading up to the World Championship, and we don’t really start up these big events until September. So we’ll have an invitational during the winter months when we don’t have YCSs, and during the summer months when we have down time."
Players can collect prizes and points as part of the new program, and depending on how many points they accumulate, they get an invite to the UDS Invitational. Points can be earned at the local level, at premiere events, and for participation in YCSs and its public events. Judges can also collect points. There will be two seasons per year, a Winter Season and a Summer Season, each culminating in an Ultimate Duelist Invitational.
Konami was also showing off prototypes of upcoming releases, including the two ARC-V Starter Decks (see "'Yu-Gi-Oh!: ARC-V Starter Deck'"), pictured above, which will release on May 29.
The Duelist Pack--Battle City release will be based on the Battle City story arc from the original classic Yu-Gi-Oh! animated series. "The Duelist Packs have primarily been 30-35 card sets, this is a larger set size, and we have five brand new cards from the Battle City era that have never been made into the TCG," Hoashi said. Pictures and release date were not available.
