In a surprise announcement, Konami changed the current widely loathed time rules in the TCG for the upcoming Worlds Championship 2025 tournament. After accidentally telling people the new time rules will apply to all events, the official Twitter account eventually corrected the mistake, reporting that the changes will be enforced only in the prestigious tournament in Paris, and then for the rest of the playerbase. Maybe.
Originally, when the round ended after 45 minutes, the turn player could still finish the current phase, after which they compared their LP with their opponent, thereby determining the winner of that game. These rules let to many lamenting the state of the paper game, as players were pressured to play unpopular cards that change LP just to win (or tie) the match at the very last minute. Worse, some winners of Game 1 felt encouraged to deliberately play slowly, letting the timer run out so they could win the entire match properly finishing Game 2.
The new time rules now let players play 50 minutes in the round, after which, if there isn’t a player in the match with 2 game wins, the game and the match are immediately over and both players are executed on the spot by a shot in the head. The apparent reasoning behind the change, as Konami never explains anything ever, is that players will try their best to end games quickly by either playing faster, reading less or conceding much earlier than before. Additionally, winners of Game 1 will no longer play slowly, as in order to win the entire match and not get shot in the head, they must win one more game in the time that’s left.
“These changes bring a lot of concerns to the entire playerbase, pro and casual alike,” said Sher Winters, an aspiring pro player with multiple YCS tops. “Some players believe that by winning Game 1 without enough time to close Game 2, they will now be held hostage to the whims of their opponent, who might have both players in the match shot in the head just out of spite. It used to suck to get a draw because of an LP burn effect, but I think getting shot in the head feels a bit worse.”
Some community members responded to similar sentiments by stating that no sane person would be willing to have both players get shot in the head out of spite, because having your opponent getting shot in the head leads you to having much worse tie-breakers for the top cut.
Some of the biggest opponents for the rules changes are Konami judges, who are worried that increased pressure and desperation by players will lead to more judge calls. Additionally, the judges are the ones that will have to pull the literal triggers on the slow-playing players and stop their stalling for good. “We no longer just have to know the rulings and proper game procedures, now there’s target practice involved,” said Sal Gallez, an RC-2 judge. “We’ve also had people say that they refuse to be shot in the head by someone who’s just a floor judge. Sorry to those folk, but head judges will be participating only during top cuts or featured matches on stream. As for my message to Konami – please stick to only killing Edison format, not players.”
