World Championship 2012 The 2012 World Championship is a " Yu - Gi - Oh ! Official " and " Trading Card Game " tournament , which determined the world champion for the year 2012 . Marking the 10th anniversary of the " Yu - Gi - Oh ! Trading Card Game " , players from all over the world gathered to the Tokyo Midtown Hall , Tokyo , Japan to attend the event . The main event was won by Saito Akikazu from Japan and the Dragon Duel was won by Yu Hau Liou from Taiwan . Konami streamed live videos online for some of the Matches from this tournament . Competitors . The 26 competitors and the respective Deck types they qualified with are as follows . Players did not necessarily use the same Decks in this tournament . Events . Timetable . The scheduled timetable of events was as follows . Times are in . Swiss rounds . The pairings for round three were : The pairings for round four were : The pairings for round five were : The following feature Matches were streamed live with Japanese only commentary : Top cut . After five rounds of Swiss , the top eight players got to qualify for the next day . The top eight were as follows : All the Matches of the knockout rounds , including the final , were streamed live with both English and Japanese commentary . Prizes . All players who participated received a game mat featuring " Legendary Magician of Dark " and " Legendary Dragon of White " . The prize cards for this event were 2012 - EN001 " Legendary Dragon of White " , 2012 - EN002 " Legendary Magician of Dark " and 2012 - AE003 " King Landia the Goldfang " . Decks . With the exclusion of " TCG " and " OCG " exclusive cards the overall event was favored by the " OCG " metagame , hence the dominance and win of " Inzektor " Decks , a widely played and a very effective Deck in the " OCG " . Initially Chaos Dragon s Decks were played amongst many players during the event but without the " TCG " exclusive cards such as " Tour Guide From the Underworld " the Deck could not retain its fast paced capability as it does in the " TCG " . During the top cut " Inzektor " Deck were played by every European player and every Japanese player , with the exception of Yohei Arimura , who used a " Skill Drain " Deck , which is effective against " Inzektor " . Yohei Arimura ' s Deck utilized " Skill Drain " , " Necrovalley " and " Dimensional Fissure " , which can effectively damage the key engines of " Inzektor " Decks , by disabling " Inzektor Dragonfly " and " Inzektor Hornet " plays , as well as Summoning high ATK monsters , such as " Malefic Stardust Dragon " at ease . A variation of an " Exodia " Deck was used by Jarel Winston . The Deck ' s main focus is to gain a lot of draw power by having the opponent have much more Life Points and draw " Exodia " . The Deck utilized cards such as " Gift Card " to increase the opponent ' s Life Points , chain able cards , such as " Reckless Greed " and " Waboku " , to use the Deck ' s key card " Hope for Escape " . Winston also ran cards such as " Upstart Goblin " and " Twister " to increase the Life Point difference , as well as gain draw power and remove " Royal Decree " . This strategy allowed Winston to draw 5 additional cards with " Hope for Escape " twice . Coverage . Konami was broadcasting live coverage of the tournament via Ustream . The event can be viewed on either of the following locations : All of the live streamed matches were made available to watch again after the tournament had concluded . These can be viewed at the following locations :