Would using counterfeits really be that much of a stain if almost everyone(if not everyone) was using them to get access to cards they couldn’t get without losing an arm and a leg? It would be like steroid use in actual sports: open secret because everyone uses them, not to mention that counterfeits would certainly close the wealth gap in the dueling circuit staple-wise, if not annihilate it entirely. What are they going to do, blacklist every non-rich duelist, regardless of actual skill level?
Honey, they blacklist people from competitions for all sorts of shit. And they could.
The Pro Circuit isn't a wealth gap thing even, it's a 'you need to be tied to a talent agency', without the agency, you ain't getting fuckin' nowhere, darlin'.
From the way YGO's shows structure it, you don't just join into the Dueling Circuit, the one where the actual Names are. By paying in.
You have to get invited. You need to have managers. Sponsors. Financial backers. Have an entire identity created for you.
What, do you think in the anime, this works like your YCS circuit?
No, the way the show's made it clear is you get hired, and there's a cartel system similar to a Medieval guild where if you ain't in, you ain't in, which is why people go to Duel Academy, to get in with the agencies and companies involved
And most of the tournaments in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, are also Invitation Only or you have clear through a filter.
This entire conversation is devolving into moving goalposts.
The whole point is the world Takahashi-sensei constructed is a hyper exaggeration of 1990s Magic the Gathering where there were these nightmare near unpullable foils that Rare Cards are like.
And the anime, from how its extended universe has structured it, is that being a Professional Duelist is less of a Professional Gamer, and more to do with Idol Culture, Japanese Voice Actors, or Johnny's, resulting in a less pre-planned version of Wrestling.
Where the companies get to dictate who gets to have a career. There's no breaking into the industry without getting one of those firms to sign you on.
And as I said, the counterfeits in Battle City, of what I recall, were only allowed because Kaiba LET them be allowed, as if you don't pay attention, Battle City is basically a roach motel for GHOULS, a trap designed to draw them in so Kaiba could crush the entire organization and get the Egyptian God Cards for himself.
Also the cards in Yu-Gi-Oh! are made of some weird environmental resistant stock, possibly sharp as steel if you know what you're doing, with microchips included.
The production might inherently cause some mild scarcity issues. No neverminded magic cards exist, with the Egyptian Gods being the least weird variant of those.
Why are you so desperate to find an out to the franchise's world building and not confront it on its own terms?
