​Who doesn’t love an underdog?

First, he overcame Canadian star Matt Peddle. Then, he defeated Comic Odyssey’s Juan Cardenas. Finally, he conquered the same team’s Michael Fukuyama. Nareg Torossian has broken out of obscurity and gone straight into the spotlight—he’s the Shonen Jump Indy 2005 champion!

​410 duelists came down to this: two competitors remained, one from a barely-known team from Massachusetts and one from Team Comic Odyssey!

Fukuyama won the die roll and opted to go first, setting one card to each of his zones. Torossian summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, broke the face down, and then attacked the face down monster, revealing Tsukuyomi! That was a quick two-for-one for Torossian. Fukuyama got him back though, by using Delinquent Duo next turn and then clearing away Breaker with D. D. Warrior Lady. He set another spell or trap and passed.

Torossian won the roll. He opened with a single spell or trap set and quickly ate an attack from Sangan. Cardenas set a spell or trap himself, and it was Torossian’s turn yet again.

Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer smashed into Sangan, and Cardenas took a copy of Tsukuyomi into his hand. Torossian set one more spell or trap and passed. Cardenas blew away his original set—Ring of Destruction—with Dust Tornado. He then drew for his turn, took out Kycoo with Tsukuyomi, set a spell or trap, and passed. Torossian set one too, passed back, and Cardenas looked to press his advantage!

Jesse Twohig traveled from Nebraska for this Shonen Jump Championship, but he had me completely thrown off when he laid a Comic Odyssey playmat on his side of the field.

“I’m not on Comic Odyssey. I just really want to be on the team,” he said with a smile.

He played against Chris Marck, a new name to the Shonen Jump Championship scene, in a battle of the unknowns.

“I’m 75 percent sure that I’m going to the semis,” said Cardenas, in a rare show of self-confidence before Gessler arrived at the table.

Gessler introduced himself as part of Team Royal Nightmare, a local team. Cardenas is a headliner from Team Comic Odyssey, and needed no introduction. Both competitors shuffled their decks thoroughly, and Gessler won the die roll.

​In game 1, Nareg went first. He summoned Sangan to the field and set a spell or trap. Matt’s first monster was D. D. Warrior Lady, but she drew the ire of Nareg’s set Torrential Tribute. This allowed Nareg to use the effect of Sangan to add his own  D. D. Warrior Lady to hand, which he summoned on his following turn to begin assaulting Matt’s life points. Matt went on the defensive, setting a monster that was revealed to be D. D. Assailant when Nareg attacked it the following turn. Nareg set one monster and then passed the turn to Matt. Matt tried to attack with D. D. Assailant, but it was driven off by Nareg’s Magic Cylinder.

​Check out the Top 8 decklists from SJC Indianapolis here!