In short, anyone who made it through the preliminaries would be a "Duel King." For the participants, that was already an extremely high honor.
One could imagine just how fierce the preliminary matches would be. Once this format was announced, there would likely be a great increase in magisters whose sole goal was to enter the main tournament. After all, there could only be one champion, but there would be sixteen "Duel Kings." The odds of earning the title of [Duel King] had suddenly increased sixteenfold.
Finally, there were the rewards.
The rewards for this World Cup were extremely generous.
Anyone who advanced from the open qualifiers would receive a medal and prizes. Those who entered the main tournament would each receive a trophy.
The names of all sixteen players would be engraved upon the enormous trophy that had already been erected in Duel City.
Every subsequent World Cup Duel Challenge would also add another enormous trophy, with the names of the sixteen "Duel Kings" engraved according to their rankings. Naturally, the prizes aside from the trophies would be even more valuable.
However, the rulebook made no mention of the "Gift of God." After all, Principal Arte could not yet determine how many people would receive the "Gift of God."
Thus, the "Gift of God" could only temporarily exist as a rumored "hidden reward."
After reading the entire rulebook, Dark finally gained a detailed understanding of this World Cup's rules.
He pondered for a moment. With a full sixteen slots available, perhaps he... was not entirely without hope.
"Still, whether I have a chance is one thing. Whether I get lucky is another."
"The preliminaries use single-elimination. If I'm unlucky enough to run into a champion-level powerhouse, it wouldn't be impossible for me to be eliminated in the first round."