Statement of Purpose & Ethics

Last updated June 18, 2014.
Preamble
Over the past three years the research methods, style of presentation and integrity of Cardfight Pro as a publication have undergone dramatic transformative revisions that stretch the limits of what can be defined as a web log. Although statements have been made in the past regarding the general direction and purpose of Cardfight Pro as an organization, there has never before been a single defining document which outlines the goals, methods and ethics it answers to. In light of recent events, it is the view of the head editor that such a document, testifying the will of the organization and the responsibilities of its editors, is called for.

Cardfight Pro maintains that it is not in fact a blog, but is a journalistic resource of integrity that is also hosted on Blogger and makes use of its features. It is generally recognized as a reputable source by the global community of cardfighters, and handles a certain responsibility of disseminating information about the progression of the game across the world, with special attention given to professional play. In absence of other uncensored and unbiased publications independent of Bushiroad Inc. and its related companies, the weight of that responsibility to report professionally and in a trustworthy manner to the general public is severe.

We recognize a special right of the public to be informed and a right of the individual to inform. Even when the truth is painful, it must be pursued. That is not just the right of journalists, but our obligation to the next generation; the community of cardfighters owe to its successors an explanation of why and how we can come to do terrible things. When a chance at absolute truth is present, it must be taken. This process of handing information down among generations of people is a defining feature of human cognition, and through it the praxis of journalism may be considered a form of fuller humanization of those involved. We recognize that truth and transparency will beget deeper understanding of one another.

Journalistic Ethics
Websites hosted by Blogger and their associated writers are not presently afforded the protection of state-specific shield laws within the United States of America unless sufficient professionalism is demonstrated; what constitutes professionalism is not clearly established, and there is no nationwide recognition of bloggers as journalists. This much we acknowledge. However, the Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics defines and provides guidelines for the field of journalism as a practice. Journalism is a self-recognizing field wherein a journalist is defined by their recognition among other journalists. Academic degrees, the presence of a publisher or the titles associated with any particular company position are irrelevant in this matter. A journalist is made when journalism is practiced, when the truth is pursued through conscientious reporting and voice is given to the voiceless. Those who act according to the Code of Ethics are journalists, and any individual can be a journalist with or without a publication; to arbitrarily restrict that privilege based on the possession of a print platform is to be counter to the very principles of the field and to obstruct free speech.

With or without recognition as a journalistic resource, Cardfight Pro recognizes and abides by the SPJ Code of Ethics to the best of its journalists' abilities. The full scope of the SPJ is available online, but the premises of it and how they affect Cardfight Pro are outlined below in a condensed list. Due to the nature of the Code, it is not and cannot be made legally binding. The Code transcends all legal systems and extends as an international master work of ethics under which each journalist is to interpret independently. Failure to comply with the Code has no legal ramifications, but due to the trust-based nature of journalism it is impossible to work in the field without observing it, as job security, the reliability and bartering of information, promises to sources, and guarantees of anonymity all rely on observance of the Code.

Through abiding the Code, Cardfight Pro promises to:
-Publish information only if it has been validated to the best of our ability, and believed to be reliable. Rumor and hearsay will be clearly labeled or not published at all.
-Pursue both the objective and humane realities surrounding current and past events, providing an opportunity for dialogue among the public on key issues and for individuals to be represented.
-Identify sources where possible, and protect those sources who must be protected.
-Keep promises.
-Not falsify or distort the facts.
-Avoid advertorial and subservience to corporate interests. Uninhibited advertorial will never be permissible on Cardfight Pro, and private interest will never write or buy the news.
-Question the motives of companies as much as those of private individuals are, and never become slaves to hit count.
-Promote transparency between all parties.
-Never plagiarize.
-Seek and fight for the truth even where it is unpopular to do so.
-Break stereotypes and promote understanding of subjects as people, accepting views in conflict with those of the editors.
-Treat victims with compassion and tact.
-Avoid dramatizing personal tragedies.
-Not report harmfully, except where both necessary and unavoidable.
-Weigh carefully the public right to information and the right of private individuals to privacy, and act in balance to these principles.

Kindness, empathy, ruthlessness and antipathy are tools; these qualities should not obstruct the truth, but assist it. In like, advertisers and sponsorship are necessary evils which support journalism, but are never pillars of it. If it does not support the pursuit of an objective and humane truth, it has no place in Cardfight Pro.

Loyalties & Goals
Cardfight Pro recognizes the following charges of it as a publication;
-To uphold the ideals of Akira Ito in cultivating a safe environment for both children and adults to play, compete and interact together.
-To promote and support a professional community of cardfighters in cultivating their careers with integrity and dignity around the world.
-To pursue the truth as it is owed to the public, even at the risk of personal endangerment.
In informing the public on the actions of pros, we recognize that even casual fighters that play for fun can learn and use the techniques developed in the course of professional Cardfight. We also duly recognize the potential conflict of interests between the company and the community, the internal elements of Bushiroad, the visionaries and technicians, and between the fundamental artistic pursuits of what the game should be as envisioned by its many authors versus the practical reality of how it is implemented and is under the established system. Where Ito and Bushiroad conflict, it is our choice to side with Ito.

Therefore, our first loyalty is to Akira Ito and the art of the game and our second loyalty is to the player base. Nowhere within this does Bushiroad Inc. nor any other corporate body have direct influence or control over the publication. The actions of Cardfight Pro International as a journalistic body must always be in harmony with these ideals. The betterment of the community, the individual growth of veteran cardfighters as well as newcomers, and the artistic vision of Ito must each be respected by CFPro as an organization. Whosoever holds the chair of head editor must never compromise one principle for the other, nor attempt to subvert these ideals for his or her own personal gain, nor yield to attacks on these ideals. Cardfight!! Vanguard is a game which brings people together; and Cardfight Pro should do the same.

News: Soul Saver-Thing Saver Fusion Deck Emerges in Fourth Tachikawa VGCS, Cat Butler Raizers in First

Original photo by FarEastBirds.

Nine hours ago the fourth Tachikawa Vanguard Championship closed with a Nova Grappler cardfighter playing the new Raizer Legion deck in first place, followed closely by a Royal Paladin fighter in second running a Cosmo Dragon deck that synthesized three-year-old Soul Saver Dragon support with BT16: Legion of Dragons and Blades' recently-released Seeker units. Third and fourth were likewise filled by Thing Saver and Raizer fighters. Both Nova Grappler and Royal Paladin have enjoyed considerable popularity among professional cardfighters since the set's release day, gaining favor for their aggressive self-standing vanguards whose speed--able to bring out their skills as early as turn 3--has supplanted the formerly dominant Nouvelle Vague deck, a deck once feared as having potentially solved competitive play. Out of the Tachikawa VGCS' 96-person turnout, not a single person ran Dragonic Nouvelle Vague.

Fourth Tachikawa VGCS Deck Breakdown
33 Seeker
21 Raizer
16 Metalborg
7 Star-vader, "Ω" Glendios
6 Spike Brothers
5 Musketeer
5 Brawler
2 Duo
1 Gold Paladin

According to tournament organizer Kohaku, the top 16 for the tournament consisted of five Seeker decks, five Raizers, two Spike Brothers, two Musketeers and two Metalborg decks. Although written deck recipes are not yet published, the top 2 decklists from the VGCS were photographed and uploaded to Twitter, and have been transcribed below. The first place deck was a streamlined version of Beast Deity Cup champion Silver Crow's Raizer build, running just four grade 3s to accommodate a Cat Butler playset, and focusing on setting up Legion quickly with Shieldraizer and Energy Charger while building card advantage using Street Bouncer.

Original photo by Yukiya.

Second place cardfighter Yukiya's Cosmo Dragon deck brought some much-needed innovation to the emergent format, running five grade 3s with a single copy of Soul Saver Dragon made searchable using the time-tested grade 1 Pongal. Yukiya's alternate artwork Soul Saver (illust. Studio TMS) served as a finishing move after several bouts of Thing Saver Dragon's restanding skill, taking advantage of the deck's strong soulcharging engine using multiple copies of File, the draw trigger Margal and Legion's special property of sending the entire Legion pair to the soul when another grade 3 is ridden.

Soul Saver Dragon's on-ride soulblast 5 is well remembered for being one of the first mass field power boosts in the history of the game, but is rarely played today due to contemporary cards often gaining comparable levels of power with minimal setup. Soul Saver also served an alternate purpose in facilitating the same kind of minimal grade 3 count as is played in Raizers, and due to the nature of her support is flexible enough to work either as a strategy in her own right or purely as a setup for Thing Saver Dragon to build more soul for his Soulmate Legion skill. Yukiya tweeted that the trigger count for the deck was 8-4-4, presumed to be eight critical triggers, four draw triggers and four heal triggers based on the general trends within Japanese play.

The fourth Tachikawa VGCS results were mirrored at the Fighter's Road 2014 Sapporo regional qualifier, where first place was taken by a Thing Saver Dragon cardfighter who was reportedly using a more normalized deck, followed in second by another Raizer fighter picking up on recent trends. Decklists for FR2014 Sapporo are expected to go out in the next few days.

The VGCS tournaments are a series of unofficial tournaments organized by fans and cardshops. Unlike Bushiroad's larger official tournaments, most VGCS events are done using a best of 3, Swiss tournament model. Turnout is typically 70-80 persons, but some events see 100 or more participants, all of whom compete using pseudonyms and internet handles rather than their real names as in official events. The VGCS model of fan-organized play has begun to gain popularity internationally, with the bi-monthly BeNeLux tournaments serving as their European equivalent.

Fourth Tachikawa Vanguard Championship
First place
Grade 0
x1 Transmigrating Evolution, Miraioh (FV)
x4 Cat Butler
x4 Raizer Girl, Kate HT
x4 Raizer Crew DT
x4 Meteoraizer CT
x4 Minimum Raizer CT
Grade 1
x4 Shieldraizer
x4 The Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout
x3 Energy Charger
x3 Cannonraizer
Grade 2
x4 Ultimate Raizer, DF
x4 Phoenix Raizer, FW
x3 Street Bouncer
Grade 3
x4 Ultimate Raizer, MF

Second place
Grade 0
x2 Advance Party Seeker, File (FV)
x4 Unstated Heal Trigger
x4 Unstated Draw Trigger
x8 Unstated Critical Trigger
Grade 1
x4 Guardian Law Seeker, Shiron
x4 Pongal
x3 Lake Maiden, Lien
x2 Glynngal Seeker
x1 Good Faith Seeker, Cynric
Grade 2
x4 Blaster Blade, Seeker
x4 Full Bloom Seeker, Cerdic
x4 Crossbow Seeker, Gildas
x1 Knight of Loyalty, Bedivere
Grade 3
x4 Seeker, Thing Saver Dragon
x1 Soul Saver Dragon

News: Cardfight!! Vanguard Manga to Release April 29th, Volumes 2 and 3 to Follow

After several years of anticipation, Itou Akira's long-awaited Cardfight!! Vanguard manga will finally be reaching western shores at the end of this month. Vertical Inc.'s English translation of the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga will come in two variations, both of which are 220-240 page paperbacks that come with an alternate artwork print of Blaster Blade using Studio TMS' artwork PR/046EN.

The Special Edition will also come with two 25-card Flash Fight decks, a playmat and storage box. The Special Edition of volume 1 is limited to 4500 copies, of which 2400 were already ordered by the beginning of March, and only first edition prints of the manga will contain the promo card. The Japanese print of this Blaster Blade promo is visible below for comparison.

The Cardfight!! Vanguard manga is highly regarded in the community for having a more cohesive take on the franchise's storyline, being written without the same time restrictions as the weekly anime and with less product placement; unlike in the animated series that models its narrative around upcoming booster sets, cards in the manga are created to tell a story first and made into reality later. Itou's writing acts as the source material for many ideas used in the anime and light novels, but instead of diverging into tournament arcs and championships, his manga gives focus to the daily lives of the cast and personal pressures they face.

Both versions of volume 1 are available on Amazon, although it should be noted that Amazon's listing erroneously lists the Special Edition as hardcover. Volume 2 is currently slated for a June 24th release, and volume 3 is to follow on August 26th. The promo cards for those volumes have not yet been announced, but it's feasible that they may follow the trend set by the first card have the next two contain Studio TMS' alternate artworks for Dragonic Overlord and Blaster Dark.

Itou's manga first appeared in July 2010 at the Tokyo Toy Show, with the first pages of the manga being previewed alongside an early PV for the first season of the anime. The manga began its formal Japanese run in KeroKero Ace magazine in November of the same year, where the first chapter was serialized ahead of the anime (which would not begin airing until January 2011), and the second chapter followed in December. Itou's manga continued to be serialized chapter by chapter in KeroKero Ace for three years of unbroken publication, until the magazine suddenly collapsed in July 2013, due to an executive decision by the publishers, Kadokawa Shoten.

In September the manga switched publications to the newly-created Monthly Bushiroad magazine, and has continued to have new chapters printed every month since that time. Thus far seven volumes have been compiled from Itou's chapters, with volume 1 originally being released in March 2011, volume 2 in August of that year, volume 3 in January 2012, volume 4 in June, volume 5 in November, volume 6 in August 2013, and most recently volume 7 in December 2013. The English-language volumes so far follow a bi-monthly schedule, and at that rate could be forecasted to catch up to the Japanese volumes by April of next year.

Feature: Interview with Former Japanese National Champion Kokubo Hikaru

On August 22nd 2013, Dengeki Online published an interview with Kokubo Hikaru, at the time the reigning Japanese national champion and the first Pale Moon cardfighter to ever hold the title. The interview was conducted as part of comprehensive coverage of Bushiroad's events, and was done alongside other interviews with the winners from the Weiss Schwarz, Chaos and Victory Spark tournaments. As the state of the English card game is now firmly in the BT12-on format Kokubo became champion in, his strategies are increasingly relevant for international cardfighters. Below is a translation of his interview, held on the 11th of that year following the national championships.

Kokubo v. Uemura Shouhei, FR2013 finals. Image source.

Interview with the Champion, Kokubo Hikaru/優勝した小久保光さんにインタビュー
――勝因はなんでしたか？
What was the reason for your victory?
スイスラウンドはライド事故で負けてしまった相手との決勝だったのですが、一瞬のチャンスをモノにできたのがよかったかなと思います。
"During the Swiss rounds I had an opponent who lost because of a problem with riding and I won because of that, but I wonder if that momentary opportunity was a good thing or not."
――ここ一番で活躍してくれたカードはなんでしょうか？
What is your most used card?
　《パープル・トラピージスト》かなと思います。このPRカードがあってくれてよかったです。
"I think it's "Purple Trapezist." I'm grateful to have this PR card around."
――WGPも始まりますが、どのように挑みたいですか？
The WGP (World Grand Prix) is already beginning, but how would you challenge it?
これからも変わることなく、大好きな“ペイルムーン”を使っていきたいです。このクランは強いです!!
"Without changing anything for the future, I would do it using the Pale Moon that I love. This clan is really strong!"

The "riding problem" that Kokubo identified is the everpresent fear of what has been called gradelock or misriding in the English game, where a cardfighter is unable to reach grade 1, 2 or 3 at the right moment and spends a turn or more behind the opponent. Winning by way the opponent being gradelocked has been a source of conflict around the world, as many fighters both professional and otherwise consider gradelock the game's worst aspect because of how it prevents one from putting up an effective fight, and thus the wins are felt to be illegitimate both by the defeated and the victorious. Particularly in BT10-on formats where grade 1 and 2 10000 and 12000 power attackers are prevalent, gradelock can spell a rapid death sentence with no opportunity to catch up. The deck that never becomes gradelocked has become a holy grail for professional play. However, it should be noted that Kokubo was referring to the Swiss elimination rounds used to determine the top 2 fighters, not the actual game that decided the Japanese national championship.

Kokubo is well known for his Luquier “Я” deck and accompanying strategies, as his major victory with the build came on the heels of the second Tachikawa Vanguard Championship results just days earlier. At the time this confirmed Luquier “Я” for the larger community as one of the best decks of the format, and also brooked a major division in play style. Kokubo Hikaru's Luquier deck was played with four of each Dragon Tamer for crossride consistency, but there was also a strong camp in favor of playing Luquier “Я” with Miracle Pop Eva for a game-changing endgame assault with four to five attacks in the turn that any deck would be hard pressed to survive. Kokubo's decision to focus on his crossride was partially based in the importance of the Dragonic Descendant matchup in Japanese play at the time, which defined the viability of many decks; the difference between base 11000 and 13000 defense was the difference in whether an unboosted Descendant could be guarded for two triggers to pass, or no pass with a single 10000 power shield.

Press Release: Houston Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League Qualifier Added to North American Team League 2014 Series

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles, CA (March 13, 2014) – Due to popular demand, Bushiroad is adding a 7^th qualifier to its North American Team League 2014 tournament series.

The Sam Houston Ballroom and Conference Center in Houston, Texas will be host to the Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League qualifier on May 31, 2014.

Sam Houston Ballroom and Conference Center

6833 West Sam Houston Pkwy S

Houston, TX 77072

The same venue will play host to the Weiβ Schwarz Neo-Showdown and Future Card Buddyfight Buddy Challenge the following day on June 1, 2014.

In total, there are now five qualifiers spread throughout the United States in New York, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, and Los Angeles, and one qualifier each in Mexico and Canada. The championship for all three tournaments will take place at Anime Expo 2014 in Los Angeles, California on July 5, 2014.

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Bushiroad Inc. consists of 6 sub-entities: Bushiroad Inc., Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd, Bushiroad USA Inc., Bushiroad Media, New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd., and Hibiki Music Inc.

Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd was established in Singapore on November 12, 2011 in order to expand the overseas market for Bushiroad card games such as Cardfight!! Vanguard, Weiβ Schwarz, Chaos TCG and Victory Spark.  

Bushiroad USA Inc. was established in Los Angeles, California on May 18, 2012, to better cater to the growing demand and interest in Cardfight!! Vanguard from both players and retailers in the USA.

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Cardfight!! Vanguard Website (Japanese) - http://cf-vanguard.com/

Cardfight!! Vanguard Website (English) - http://cf-vanguard.com/en/

Bushiroad (Japanese) - http://bushiroad.com/

Bushiroad (English) - http://bushiroad.com/en/

Press Release: Record Sales of Cardfight!! Vanguard Winter-Spring Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles, CA (March 7, 2014) – In less than a month after the release dates, three of the most recent Cardfight!! Vanguard expansions are now sold out. These expansions, released in February, are the highly anticipated Trial Deck Vol. 10: Purgatory Revenger, Trial Deck Vol. 11: Star-vader Invasion and Booster Pack Vol. 12: Binding Force of the Black Rings.

The introduction of the new “Link Joker” narrative and the popularity of the newly-released clan, along with tie-ins to the themed Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League 2014 “Invasion” campaign resulted in an unprecedented surge of purchases from retailers across the world. Despite an increased print run for all three products, both Trial Decks and the Booster Pack sold out within two weeks of their release dates in February.

Director of Bushiroad South East Asia and Bushiroad USA, Mr. Masayuki Goto, shared, “We are very pleased with this milestone for our new expansions and we hope that players and retailers alike will enjoy our line-up of products for this season together with many big events this year.”

A second print run is scheduled to keep up with the high demand for these three expansions and Bushiroad will make every effort to ensure there is no shortage of product on the market.

Cardfight!! Vanguard was recently ranked 5^th in both the “Top 10 Hobby Channel Collectible Games” and “Top 5 Collectible Games Over-all” for Summer 2013*, and had a strong showing in the top hobby game picks of 2014**, securing 6 out of 11 spots for all titles, including Weiβ Schwarz and the newly-released Future Card Buddyfight on ICV2.

* ICV2 #83, Fall 2013 p.17

**ICV2 #83, Fall 2013 p.14

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Bushiroad Inc. consists of 6 sub-entities: Bushiroad Inc., Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd, Bushiroad USA Inc., Bushiroad Media, New Japan Pro-Wrestling Co., Ltd., and Hibiki Music Inc.

Bushiroad South East Asia Pte Ltd was established in Singapore on November 12, 2011 in order to expand the overseas market for Bushiroad card games such as Cardfight!! Vanguard, Weiβ Schwarz, Chaos TCG and Victory Spark.  

Bushiroad USA Inc. was established in Los Angeles, California on May 18, 2012, to better cater to the growing demand and interest in Cardfight!! Vanguard from both players and retailers in the USA.

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Cardfight!! Vanguard Website (Japanese) - http://cf-vanguard.com/

Cardfight!! Vanguard Website (English) - http://cf-vanguard.com/en/

Bushiroad (Japanese) - http://bushiroad.com/

Bushiroad (English) - http://bushiroad.com/en/

Press Release: Bushiroad Announces Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League 2014 Plans

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bushiroad Announces Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League 2014 Plans

Los Angeles, CA (February 24, 2014) – Bushiroad announced their plans for their 2^nd Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League series which will take place between April to July 2014. The Cardfight!! Vanguard “Team League” tournament series focuses on the team format. Players of all ages may form teams, consisting of 3 members, to face off against other teams.

The key change between Team League 2013 and Team League 2014 is the featured Regional Championships across multiple countries between April to July 2014.  These Regional Championships will lead up to the Continental Championships for each of the 3 regions (North America, EU, Asia-Oceania) in July 2014. Bushiroad will sponsor the travel and accommodation fees of most winning teams from each Regional Championship.

 [North America]

April 18-19	Mexico, México D.F.
April 19-20	Canada, Vancouver
May 3-4	USA, New York
May 17-18	USA, Atlanta
June 13-14	USA, Columbus
July 4	USA, Los Angeles

 

[Europe]

April 19-20	France, Paris
May 3-4	Germany, München
May 10-11	Sweden, Stockholm
June 28-29	United Kingdom, Scotland
June (TBC)	Portugal, Coimbra
July (TBC)	Ireland, Dublin
July (TBC)	United Kingdom, London

[Asia-Oceania]

Dates	Location
April 26-27	Philippines, Metro Manila
May (TBC)	Indonesia, Jakarta
June 7-8	Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
June 21-22	Australia, Melbourne
June 21-22	Singapore

* Dates and locations are subject to change.

For an immersive experience within the current Cardfight!! Vanguard narrative universe, players form teams to “protect” or “invade” their region during the Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League 2014. Teams who choose to protect are the “Cray Defenders,” while teams who invade are the “Void Invaders.” The results will be updated on Cardfight!! Vanguard’s website and Facebook page to reflect the progress of the campaign. 

The Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League 2014 will be held in conjunction with the “Neo-Showdown” and “Buddy Challenge,” which will be the first major English tournaments for Weiβ Schwarz and Future Card Buddyfight respectively.

Producer of the English Edition Cardfight!! Vanguard and Weiβ Schwarz, and Co-Producer of Future Card Buddyfight, Shunichi Taira explained that the changes in the qualifying format were to cater to the growing communities for Cardfight!! Vanguard, WeiβSchwarz and Future Card Buddyfight. “We are excited to have future major events feature all current English editions of our games. We will plan for these events to be held in multiple central locations around the world to cater to players everywhere”.

More information can be found at the respective links below:

Cardfight!! Vanguard Team League 2014: http://cf-vanguard.com/en/event/team-league-2014/

News: Card Lores to Cease Web Publication on February 28th

Early this morning in Japan the card of the today profile for Dragonic Overlord the "Яe-birth" brought with it a special announcement. On February 28th, the "Unit Information" feature in the Japanese card of the day profiles will end, with card profiles being moved exclusively to Monthly Bushiroad magazine as "Unit Description Original Novels: Stories from the Planet Cray." In place of the card lores, on March 3rd the Today's Card section will instead feature "A Word from Vanguard R&D" discussing card mechanics and the design ideas behind cards.

Monthly Bushiroad's most recent short story, page 1/3.

The announcement comes as a major disappointment to international fans, and has been subject to strong criticism in the west. While the English-language equivalent column never included the "Unit Information" section, unofficial translations of the Japanese card profiles have been circulated since they first began in January 2011. By dropping these lores from web circulation and moving them exclusively to Monthly Bushiroad--which until now had specialized in supplementary short stories about the units--the card game's narrative has been restricted to a much smaller readership of Japanese-literate consumers.

As Japanese fans rarely provide clear scans of Monthly Bushiroad, this may be the end of the card lore for the west. Overseas fans would have to purchase and scan issues of the magazine to make the lore easily available again. As Monthly Bushiroad is an anthology-sized monthly magazine with a short print run, and subscriptions to foreign publications are difficult to obtain in the United States without going through Kinokuniya, the task of acquiring and scanning each month's short stories is daunting. And because the lores are also longer and more detailed, and cannot be quickly transcribed for assistance from electronic dictionaries and machine translators, the translation will also prove considerably more difficult than before.

News: Fighter's Collection 2014 to Release in May, Majesty Lord Blaster to See Reprint

Illustration: Yamazaki Nanae, Sekiyama Konomu, Ebira, Tanimeso, Kawasumi, Ririnra.

As part of his coverage for the upcoming Great Vanguard Festival, Doctor O has revealed the next issue in the Fighter's Collection series of boosters, VG-FC02: Fighter's Collection 2014. Stated to support all of Cray's clans with new RRR-print grade 3s, the set will go on sale on May 2nd, coincidentally on the same day as the international release of Catastrophic Outbreak. According to the Japanese Cardfight portal, this entry in Fighter's Collection will support "all 23 clans" with exception given to Etranger. Like in the upcoming EB10, Bermuda Triangle units will have both black and white prints of the same card, with different artwork.

Most interestingly, the recently-unrestricted Majesty Lord Blaster is explicitly stated to be reprinted in the set, both on cf-vanguard and by Doctor O, and will be one of the Special Parallel prints for FC2014 in the same style of the 2013 set with golden calligraphy foil in place of its flavor text. Note that SPs in a Fighter's Colleciton set are considerably less rare than in standard booster sets, as there is an SP in every box rather than in every case of 16 boxes.

Prior to its store date, boxes of this year's Fighter's Collection will be sold on-site at Vanguard Fest 2014 on April 26th and 27th. It will be priced at 3000 yen a box (approx. $30) and each pack will contain 10 packs.

Rumor: Cardfight!! Vanguard Manga to See English Translation

The following is being treated as a partially substantiated rumor and the story may develop significantly as more information comes to light. Please read with caution.

While the Cardfight!! Vanguard media franchise is known internationally as an anime and Trading Card Game, for the past two years the third piece of the puzzle that has yet to see English-language localization has been the original manga written by franchise creator Itou Akira. First debuted at the 2010 Tokyo Toy Show along with a preview video of the anime, and acting as the source material for the animated series, the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga has so far had only one official adaptation, of its first chapter released in preview materials during the 2012 World Championships and at promotional events. Outside of these fragmentary distributions, potential readers have been forced to rely on web-based fan translations or Japanese language mastery to read the manga. But if Amazon is anything to go by, this is about to change.

Amazon.co.uk has put up a preorder listing for volume 1 of the Cardfight!! Vanguard manga, published not by Kadokawa Shoten as the Japanese volumes were, but by VERTICAL. A New York-based publisher of Japanese popular media, VERTICAL is most noted for its translations of the manga adaptations of 5 Centimeters Per Second, Summer Wars and the works of classic artist Tezuka Osamu. The company was also responsible for translating Mobile Suit Gundam: THE ORIGIN. The English volume 1 is listed at 180 pages long, compared to the original Japanese volume's 193 pages. The reason for this discrepancy in page count is unknown. Volume 1's ISBN-10 is 1939130417 and ISBN-13 is 978-1939130419, and its release date is March 27 2014 according to the Amazon listing. Note that the preorder listing is exclusively on Amazon UK, but the New York publisher suggests that the manga will be released in the United States as well.

The current blurb on Amazon reads "From the makers of the YuGiOh trading card game comes Cardfight!! Vanguard, the manga that inspired the hit Vanguard card game. In similar fashion to YuGiOh and Magic the Gathering, the teenage cast of Cardfight!! Vanguard play a high-fantasy themed card game - initially they play for kicks, but eventually the stakes grow much higher... The basis of the hit trading card game and animation franchise, Cardfight!! Vanguard is a modern fantasy tale of trading card playing and making friends through gaming." There are some small inaccuracies within the description, as Itou was only involved as an assistant on the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and the author of the Yu-Gi-Oh! R spinoff, with no involvement in the card game outside of designing promotional cards.

Presuming that the information is correct, one point that is uncertain about this volume is whether or not the Alfred Early promo card that was included in the Japanese release will be brought over for the manga's English language release, as the card was already distributed with boxes of VGE-BT07: Rampage of the Beast King in 2012. As the release of VGE-BT10: Triumphant Return of the King of Knights is nearing, and it was within this set that the manga cards were rereleased in Japan in RRR rarity promo cards as box toppers, the release of the English manga would be the perfect opportunity to distribute these foiled reprints for westerners.

News: Black Rings Rise Over Tokyo Vanguard Championship, Chaos Breaker and “Я” Daiyusha Top

The West Tokyo VGCS finished on Monday evening, concluding a collaborative effort between the organizers of the Fateclo and Pitarui VGCS tournaments. 107 cardfighters participated in the West Tokyo VGCS, making it the second largest fan tournament in the game's history after the Hachiouji VGCS (114 cardfighters), albeit at only one third the size of a typical regional tournament. This was also the first Cardfight!! Vanguard competition to employ a new tournament structure which combined two different systems, four preliminary rounds of Swiss draw followed by four rounds for the finals using the remaining top 16 cardfighters. Each round lasted 50 minutes, and was conducted in a best of 3 games format between participants.

Unlike in the wholly elimination-based tournaments typical of official events, the Swiss format popular in fan tournaments has each participant play a certain number of rounds regardless of how many losses they take, scoring points based on their number of wins, losses and draws. While this guarantees every participant a certain amount of games even if they do not make the top cut, Swiss is not very time efficient because the same large number of players have to be paired each round where in an elimination tournament a certain percentage of players are eliminated in each round after the second, and a player that scores too highly in a protracted tournament may cause scenarios in which it is impossible for them to not place first, making the final round of the tournament effectively meaningless. The West Tokyo VGCS went for an optimal compromise by dividing the tournament into four Swiss rounds that would guarantee at least eight games to each player, then cutting to top 16 for the last four rounds, alleviating the time and point concerns approximately four hours into the event.

Of the fighters attending, 28 played Link Joker, 26 Revengers, 13 Eradicators, 6 Dimension Police, 5 Oracle Think Tank, 5 Great Nature, 5 Nova Grappler, 4 Pale Moon, 4 Angel Feather, 2 Granblue, 2 Aqua Force, 2 Kagerou, 2 Liberators, 1 Royal Paladin, 1 Spike Brothers and 1 Dark Irregulars. First through third place in the West Tokyo VGCS were won by Link Joker cardfighters, with fourth place going to a Dimension Police fighter wielding Dark Dimensional Robo, “Я” Daiyusha as his ace in the hole. Other highlights include a Zerachiel deck, as well as a Great Nature deck running Chatnoir, Polaris and Leo-pald “Я” in the top 8, as well as a Tetra Drive Dragon deck. Each decklist of the top 4 has been translated into English below.

The Second Hakata VGCS was also dominated by Link Joker, with 7 of the top 8 being Link Joker decks, and the remaining build being a Raging Form Dragon deck. Decklists are not yet available, but this is yet another tournament pointing to the strong impact of VG-BT13: Catastrophic Outbreak on the format. Chaos Breaker Dragon has now become firmly established as one of the dominating forces of the format, owing to its strong control-based play style that exceeds past decks in scope by preventing units from being called as well as retiring them later on. The effect this has on the game is fairly close to some predictions of how format warping the card would be, in stark contrast to antagonist clans of the past. During the 2011 and 2012 tournament seasons, Shadow Paladin and Aqua Force followed a set formula of a dramatic introduction with only one or two deckbuilds, neither of which were especially prominent in competitive play. Link Joker however has had an immediate effect on the game from the beginning, and while that effect only began to really pick up speed in wake of BT13, their control-based play style and multiple strong customization options make them a deck to watch in the Fighter's Climax 2013 tournaments.

The VGCS tournaments are a series of unofficial tournaments organized by fans and cardshops. Unlike Bushiroad's larger official tournaments, most VGCS events are done using a best of 3, Swiss tournament model, with entry fees in the vicinity of 1000 yen per person that go toward grand prizes like booster boxes, Nintendo 3DS handhelds and other merchandise. Turnout is typically 70-80 persons, but some events see 100 or more participants, all of whom compete using pseudonyms and internet handles rather than their real names as in official events.

West Tokyo VGCS First Place
Handle Name: Battledome/バトルドーム

Grade 0

x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT

x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT

Grade 1

x4 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x1 Opener of the Black Door
x1 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon

Grade 2

x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x4 Star-vader, Mobius Breath Dragon

x3 Star-vader, Colony Maker

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Second Place
Handle Name: Masa/マサ

Grade 0

x1 Extending Black Ring, Pleiades (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x3 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT

x3 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT
x2 Star-vader, Scouting Felis DT

Grade 1

x3 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x3 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon

Grade 2

x4 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x3 Star-vader, Mobius Breath Dragon

x4 Star-vader, Colony Maker

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Third Place
Handle Name: DDB/ＤＤＢ

Grade 0

x1 Star-vader, Dusttail Unicorn (FV)
x4 Star-vader, Stellar Garage HT

x4 Star-vader, Meteoliger CT

x4 Star-vader, Weiss Soldat CT

x4 Star-vader, Nebula Captor DT

Grade 1

x2 Demonic Bullet Star-vader, Neon
x4 Prison Gate Star-vader, Palladium
x4 Barrier Star-vader, Promethium
x4 Star-vader, Chaos Beat Dragon

Grade 2

x3 Unrivaled Star-vader, Radon
x4 Soaring Star-vader, Krypton

x4 Star-vader, Colony Maker

Grade 3

x4 Star-vader, Infinite Zero Dragon

x4 Star-vader, Chaos Breaker Dragon

Fourth Place
Handle Name: Flonne-senpai's pillow is gigantic/フロン先輩の枕はデカい
Grade 0
x1 Dimensional Robo, Daimagnum (FV)
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daibattles CT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daicrane DT
x4 Dimensional Robo, Gorescue HT
x2 Justice Cobalt CT
x2 Army Penguin DT
Grade 1
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daibrave
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daishield
x4 Commander Laurel
x2 Dimensional Robo, Dailander
Grade 2
x4 Dimensional Robo, Daidragon
x4 Dimensional Robo, Kaizard
x1 Dimensional Robo, Daibarrett
Grade 3
x4 Dark Dimensional Robo, “Я” Daiyusha
x4 Super Dimensional Robo, Daikaiser
x2 Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha

News: Dragonic Overlord the End and "THE BLOOD" Storm Atlanta World Championship Qualifier

The second regional qualifier in the World Championship 2013 tournament series has concluded, with first place going to Johnathan Luu and his Dragonic Overlord the End deck. Second place was taken by Daniel Sirois using Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion "THE BLOOD," with third also going to a "THE BLOOD" cardfighter Christopher Hairston, and fourth to Christian Okezie with Blazing Lion Platina Ezel. In stark contrast to the Toronto results from the previous weekend, Atlanta's top 4 is more in line with what was expected from the 2013 tournament season. Outside of the top 4, Oracle Think Tank was reportedly a popular choice, with different cardfighters bringing Tsukuyomi, CoCo and Goddess Amaterasu through the elimination rounds.

Johnathan Luu's decklist has been leaked onto the internet through an interview conducted by YouTube channel Team Limit Break. The full decklist has been reproduced in text below.

Johnathan Luu
Grade 0
x1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe (FV)
x4 Dragon Monk, Genjo HT
x3 Gatling Claw Dragon DT
x3 Dragon Dancer, Monica DT
x2 Embodiment of Armor, Tahr CT
x4 Blu-ray Dracokid CT
Grade 1
x4 Wyvern Guard, Barri
x4 Embodiment of Armor, Bahr
x2 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
x3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
x1 Flame of Hope, Aermo
Grade 2
x4 Burning Horn Dragon
x1 Bellicosity Dragon
x2 Berserk Dragon
x1 Cross Shot, Garp
x4 Dragon Knight, Nehalem
Grade 3
x4 Dragonic Overlord The End
x3 Dragonic Overlord

Although running stand triggers in DOTE decks has proven popular since the rise of Kaden Kawakami as the presiding North American national champion, Luu preferred critical triggers for a stronger early game to throw the opponent to higher damage faster, and to avoid having dead drive checks when fighting with just his center lane. Luu was mindful of the current state of competitive play, building his deck with Majesty Lord Blaster matchups in mind and preferring base 10000 grade 2 rides to deny the majority of Wingal Brave combos.

It should be noted when considering these results is that runner up Daniel Sirois was pressed for time. Conflicting reports from eyewitnesses at Atlanta state that Sirois was either disqualified during the finals for incurring too many penalties or deliberately incurred enough penalties to get disqualified so that he could leave the tournament in a timely manner.

The next tournament in the World Championship will be the first European qualifier in Brussels on September 14, followed by the third North American qualifier in Chicago on the 15th.