News: European, Asia-Oceania Championship Results, Japan Eliminated from WCS2012

Note: 11/21/12 - Due to an HTML error, part of this post was not displaying properly yesterday. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Today the official results of the European and Asian-Oceania events were made public, revealing the final opponents of Brandon Smith and his fellow Americans at the 2012 World Championship. Due to the differing tournament structure, Europe will field only its champion, while the top three of the Asian-Oceania championship will be competing along with in Tokyo.

Representing Asia is national champion Irwin Jansen Arogo from the Philippines, using a Spectral Duke Dragon-Garmore combination deck. The runners-up were Henry of Indonesia, Sham Chun Lok of Hong Kong and Frenky of Singapore. Chun Lok fought with a Tsukuyomi deck, and Frenky a Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion-based Narukami deck.

On the European side, champion Christopher Fernau of Germany will be representing with his Garmore deck. Second place finalist Anthony Francis of France also used Garmore, while Daniel Cottom of Great Britain came out as the first nationally competitive Pale Moon deck in Cardfight history, basing his build around Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Luquier.

Due to all of the Japanese participants being eliminated or having otherwise not attended in the Asian-Oceania championship, the world championship's host country is no longer able to take the title in this year's event. This is the first such tournament in Vanguard's history in which Japan was both an eligible participant and was ultimately unable to take the title. Due to the similar elimination of France, Great Britain, Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore, the final participating countries in the tournament are the United States, Mexico, Canada, Germany, the Philippines, Indonesia and Hong Kong. Barring sickness, injury or some other intervention by which a participant would be substituted, the finalists for the December 9 championship in Tokyo are:

1. Brandon Smith (Canada) - Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke Dragon)
2. Christopher Sok (United States, New York) - Gold Paladin (Garmore-Pellinore)
3. Gabriel Espinosa (Mexico) - Narukami (Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion)
4. Raymond Wong (United States, New York) - Gold Paladin (Garmore-Pellinore)
5. Christopher Fernau (Germany) - Gold Paladin (Garmore)
6. Irwin Jansen Arogo (Philippines) - Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke Dragon)
7. Henry (Indonesia) - Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke Dragon-Garmore)
8. Sham Chun Lok (Hong Kong) - Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)

As six of the eight participants are Gold Paladin cardfighters, the odds heavily favor this clan, and some fighters are already predicting that the clan's runaway success will steal all of the top spots in the tournament. However, the finalist Narukami and Oracle Think Tank decks remain wild cards for the tournament, as all of these decks have an equal chance at the championship title.