Esports | Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG | Julien Kehon — The Three-Duel World Final at Maison de la Mutualité

On 31 August 2025, Julien Kehon and Tom Kleinegräber sat across the table in the main hall of Maison de la Mutualité in Paris for the Championship Match of the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2025, with physical cards—not Duel Links or Master Duel—deciding the Trading Card Game title.

KONAMI ran this publisher-sanctioned, invitation-only event with a special World Championship Forbidden & Limited List, and its policy allowed qualified players from TCG and OCG regions to use cards from either regional release.

Seven Swiss rounds on Saturday reduced the field to eight Duelists, while Sunday consisted of the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and Championship Match.

Each match went to the first player to win two individual Duels, so the final’s 2–1 result meant all three Duels affected the title.

Kehon won the opening Duel after going first and establishing a K9 Vanquish Soul board that Kleinegräber’s Lunalight deck could not dismantle.

Kleinegräber answered in Duel Two, using Book of Eclipse during a prolonged exchange to create the opening his Lunalight strategy needed for the equalizing win.

In the deciding Duel, Kehon again went first and added Droll & Lock Bird to his setup, restricting Kleinegräber’s ability to search his Deck before Kehon completed the final win.

The result closed a Top 8 run that Kehon began from eighth place in the Swiss standings, followed by elimination-match victories over Yuna Dicks, Wilfredo Flores, and Kleinegräber.

KONAMI’s official result names the French-American Kehon as champion over Germany’s Kleinegräber, while contemporary on-site reporting records the three-Duel sequence and the K9 Vanquish Soul versus Lunalight matchup.

Maison de la Mutualité at 24 Rue Saint-Victor remains identifiable by its pale Art Deco façade and the building name carved above the entrance; the cover photograph shows that venue exterior, not the 2025 match itself.

Primary sources: https://www.konami.com/games/eu/en/topics/18810/ ; https://www.yugioh-card.com/eu/event/wcs2025/ ; https://www.db.yugioh-card.com/yugiohdb/member_deck.action?cgid=951b1e71a6a30f01ee6f025086d06941&dno=80&request_locale=en

Independent sources: https://bleedingcool.com/pop-culture/a-johnston-at-the-yu-gi-oh-world-championships-2025-in-paris/ ; https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/08/31/france-hosts-yu-gi-oh-world-championship-for-the-first-time_6744900_7.html

Photo: Chabe01, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maison_Mutualit%C3%A9_Paris_4.jpg