Time Limits:

Swiss Rounds are now 50 minutes, up from 45 minutes, for Tier 1, 2, and 3 events. (Locals, Regional Qualifiers, OTS Championships, YCSs, Nationals, and WCQs).

Top Cuts are no longer timed.

The Final Match of a Single-Elimination tournament is no longer timed.

Number of Rounds:

The number of rounds (Swiss and Top Cut) have been modified and split into two different charts, one for Tier 1-2 events, and the other for Tier 3-4 events.

Tier 1-2:

Tier 3-4:

• 3 additional rounds of Swiss have been added to Day 2 for all tournament sizes
• Top Cuts are limited to only a maximum of 8 players, changed from scaling up to 64.

Important to note that this does not affect prizing for being outside of the Top 8, such as the Top 32 Card Trooper or Top 16 Effect Veiler – this is now based off of your standings after the final round of Swiss, rather than having to play in the corresponding Top X Single Elimination rounds.

End of Match Procedures

The biggest changes of them all, End of Match Procedures have been entirely reworked. This also resulted in additional changes to Draws and reporting your Match Result.

If the Match does not finish within 50 minutes, the result will be a double loss.

• When time ends in the Round, the Match is over. Neither Duelist may begin or continue any action that may take place in the Game.
• If time expires and the Match has not finished it will be a double loss.
• A Match is considered finished when one of the Duelists has either won two Duels or lost 2 Duels.
• If the Duelists have completed 3 Duels without the Match finishing and there is time remaining in the Round, the Duelists will go into a 4th Duel.

A Double Loss means that there is no winner for the entire Match, not that each Duelist receives a game loss within that Match. This means that Draws are not a possible Match result anymore and there is no more playing until the end of the current phase and comparing Life Points. If the Match you are in has not concluded in either Duelist having two Game Wins or Game Losses, neither Duelist is considered the winner of that Match.

The new End of Match Procedures apply for both Swiss and Single-Elimination.

Match Draws

Matches can no longer end in a Draw, intentional or otherwise, so the section covering Intentional Draws has been removed.

Reporting Match Results

Due to the changes to End of Match Procedures, additional clarification was added for Match Results submitted after the 5 minute mark has passed after the Round has ended. Keeping in mind that the Duelist responsible for reporting the Match Result is subject to a PE – Major infraction and a Game Loss to be applied to the next Round if they have not reported their match result within the 5 minutes:

• If the Round ended due to hitting the time limit, both Duelists are equally responsible for reporting their Match Result as a double loss, rather than the winner of the Match being solely responsible for reporting the result in normal circumstances.
• The PE-Major penalty for not reporting your Match Result within the 5 minute mark is addition to the double loss for the Match Result.

Sources:
KDE-US: https://yugiohblog.konami.com/2025/news-updates/tournament-policy_v2-5/
KDE-EU: https://www.yugioh-card.com/eu/tournament-policy-ver-2-5-updates-and-changes/