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01 Jun 2008
Event Coverage - New Zealand National Championship 2008
Congratulations Chris Gehring - New Zealand National Campion 2008. Chris has capped off a remarkable 2008 season that included three straight Regional Qualifier victories an Armageddon Sunday win and now National Champs. The impressive part of this acheivement is each tournament was won playing a different deck design!! Great respect must be given to finalist Keegan Walls, who ran the top tables all day long with this anti-meta Gravekeepers deck. The composure which Keegan displayed through the entire tournament was impressive to say the least, especially the exciting Championship Match he put on for spectators. Sam Bell again proved his outstanding ability, entering top 8 in #1 position and only loosing to the eventual champion during the entire tournament. Semi-fianlist James Read is the sensation story of the tournament. James picked up a Yu-Gi-Oh! deck for the first time just 6 months ago!! From day 1 he put together a Gladiator Beast deck and then played and played and played it until he knew all its ins-and-outs. James is a great example to all new duelists that you can make it to the top fast if you know your deck well. This intelligent young man is one to watch out for. People said that Brook Haami had been out of the game too long and is now a has been. The previous #1 ranked player in New Zealand deserves more respect and should never be under-estimated. Brook made the top 8 with style, playing a deck with new technology that was devastating in the Gladiator Beast meta-game. Another near miss for Hayden Brown but again he proves that he is one of the best and most consistent duelists in the country. Hayden has obviously had a positive on his local community as he is joined in the final 8 by fellow Nelson player Chris Egerton. The break out story of National Champs has to be Paratene Edwards, the lastest champion duelist from the Hastings Iconix community. In his top 8 player interview Paratene's advice to up and coming duelists is to be original and he is a man of his own words. Not conforming to the established deck types, Paratene took names on the top tables all tournament with his home-brew deck It was a weekend of Yu-Gi-Oh! like no other. New stars were born, current stars shone and old stars were re-discovered. At the end of the day an un-disputed Champion of New Zealand was crowned. Congratulations again Chris Gehring. Discuss on the Game Player Forums
Final Placings
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