Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel's first tournament starts on February 17th
Konami say they'll be investigating cheating
Konami have announced that Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel will run its first in-game event, the XYZ Festival, between the 17th and 24th of February. XYZ Festival duels will tweak the rules, limiting the cards in your Extra Deck to XYZ monsters, and offer medals to those who take part. These medals will then grant you some unannounced rewards when the event ends.
This announcement comes alongside a promise to investigate reports of cheating, as Konami say they "strive to create a safe and enjoyable gaming environment for all Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel players".
The XYZ Festival is set to start and finish at the following times:
- West Coast US: Wednesday, February 16th, 23:30 PST - Wednesday, February 23rd, 20:59 PST
- East Coast US: Thursday, February 17th, 02:30 EST - Wednesday, February 23rd, 23:59 EST
- UK: Thursday, February 17th, 07:30 GMT - Thursday, February 24th, 04:59 GMT
- Europe: Thursday, February 17th, 08:30 CET - Thursday, February 24th, 05:59 CET
Taking part in this event will net you medals, regardless of whether you win, lose, or draw in duels. You will need to stick around to the end of a duel to collect your medals, though, so you won't get anything if you surrender. When the event ends, you'll get rewards based on how many medals you collected. You must log into Master Duel between February 24th and February 26th to claim these rewards. You can also earn double medals if you use a custom deck, so check out our lovely list of the best Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel meta decks to see which deck you should build.
To quell fears of foul play during this event, Konami also confirmed that they have received reports of cheating during duels and are working to prevent such issues. While their statement is little more than an acknowledgement of existing cheaters in Master Duel, they do promise to "take strict action, including banning the accounts of users who abuse any aspect of the game".
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel debuted as one of Steam's most popular games in late January and has recently launched on mobile devices worldwide. Earlier this week, Konami announced that Master Duel had reached 10 million downloads across all platforms. They are currently giving away 1000 Gems to celebrate this milestone, which you can claim in the missions tab until March 31st 2022.