KeyForge Celebration 2025 Recap
As 2025 draws to a close, yet another KeyForge Celebration starts to fade into memory. Only the faint echoes of its splendor linger between the walls of its iconic venue, Gamezenter. However, in the hearts of the 144 individuals who took part, legends were born. Tales of triumphs, obstacles, achievements, and losses. Tournaments have concluded, championships will eventually be forgotten, but legends? Legends never die.
KeyForge Community, Ghost Galaxy is once again humbled by the passion and dedication you show for your game. You move mountains to attend events, tune into streams to cheer from a distance, create local communities, and arrange amazing activities for fellow players to enjoy. Every one of these actions is as legendary as the greatest champion.
KeyForge Celebration 2025 spanned four amazing days from November 6 to 9. The event was a refinement of our monumental line-up of tournaments and activities. It was all to pay tribute to our fans and add more to the legend of the fantastic game that brings us all together: KeyForge.
KeyForge Celebration 2025 Begins!
This is how Legends are forged
KeyForge Celebration continues to have a strong line-up of competitive events where the greatest players can show their passion, dedication, and skill amongst a crowd of like-minded enthusiasts. We ran a Last Chance Qualifier, three invite-only World Championships, and three of our traditional Open tournaments to pre-qualify the winners for the 2026 World Championships. That’s seven competitive tournaments in one weekend!
Congratulations to the six legendary champions: Dave C (Sealed Worlds), Willy510 (Archon Worlds), Ellimac (Alliance Worlds), NedMike (Sealed Open), Varghast (Archon Open), and Dorian11 (Alliance Open)!
All of those players are incredible, but even more incredible is that across all tournaments, we saw 403 sign-ups. No fewer than 48 total players made Top 8s. We had to write a separate article to celebrate all the additional personalities, decks, houses, and cards that claimed victory over the weekend!
Isfet (Left) vs Dave C. (Right), Observed by Judge Gee (Center)
Community, Front & Center
Andrew aka Dead-Sync of Bad Penny Press Introduces Community
Andrew aka Dead-Sync of Bad Penny Press Introduces Community
KeyForge Celebration has always been a place where community events run alongside all of the official shenanigans that Ghost Galaxy plans. Starting in 2024, we offered to highlight these activities if community organizers submitted a few details ahead of time. We’re proud to report that six community-driven activities ran in 2025, and they were all successes!
We want to shout out Bad Penny Press in particular, and their Community format. This format brings known community content creators, teams, podcasts, and other things together on themed cards with whacky powers. Organizers had collectible versions of their cards that players could find throughout the weekend, and it proved to be extremely popular. Thanks, Bad Penny Press, and we’re taking notes!
International commitment to KeyForge also continues to be incredible. We are grateful to have seen a global community visit us from the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Taiwan, Vietnam, Italy, Brazil, South Korea, China, and more!
Among our visitors was Willy510 of Taiwan. We saw Willy and his friend Wei Do last year, and they had a wild journey into Top 8 finishes. They returned in 2025 with a larger contingent of players, and Willy in particular had some unfinished business. Through fierce competition, he battled his way back to a Top 8 and ultimately took the title of Archon World Champion!
Ghost Galaxy is absolutely thrilled that players from around the world want to travel and compete in these events. We appreciate our international community and look forward to seeing them in the years to come.
Willy510 (Center, Right) and Friends Celebrate Victory
KeyNote Brings the Light (and Darkness)
KeyForge Celebration isn’t complete without the KeyNote presentation, where our CEO and the Strangest Star in the Ghost Galaxy, Christian T. Petersen, reviews the year we came from and the road ahead.
This year’s KeyNote presentation covered many topics, including: KeyForge sets released in 2025, the popularity of the Prophetic Visions set, timelines for future set releases, Organized Play timelines, and more.
During the KeyNote, the Darkness descended to reveal the results of the Certain Darkness event. This was a special KeyForge storyline event hosted exclusively at retail locations across the world. Two of the Crucible’s great houses were destroyed, never to grace KeyForge again. We won’t spoil which ones here, check out the KeyNote to see the results!
a Stream of Gleaming Æmber
Ghost Galaxy has been streaming the action live from all of its events for quite some time, and KeyForge Celebration 2025 was no different!
Coverage, including matches in the Last Chance Qualifier, Open tournaments, Sealed World Championship, Alliance World Championship, and more, can be found on Ghost Galaxy’s official YouTube.
Linked here is the thrilling conclusion to the weekend, the Archon World Championship Finals. This is where you can see Willy510 and Lorenzo99 battle to claim the title of Archon World Champion.
Like and subscribe to Ghost Galaxy for more official videos and coverage to come in 2026 and beyond!
Quite Simply, Thanks!
We could continually thank the KeyForge Community for everything they do and yet it would never truly suffice. The amazing events we host are made possible by the enthusiasm and participation of fans. Without that backing, these events simply wouldn’t happen. Additionally, there are other essential organizations and individuals that deserve recognition, and we would be neglectful if we didn’t acknowledge them.
Gamezenter continues to be the best venue we could hope for. We love the building and its amenities, but it’s the efforts of their incredible staff that make it the Home of KeyForge. Every conversation and every action show that they’re invested in making events like KeyForge Celebration the best they can be because they care about the experiences of our guests more than anything else. Thanks, Gamezenter!
Accommodations were provided by DoubleTree Roseville. Community organizers were also able to work with them to host additional fun beyond the Gamezenter. Their on-site restaurant, Axel’s, was once again host to our annual Vault Warrior Feast. Partnerships with these organizations has helped make the event both comfortable for our guests and sustainable for the future. Thank you, DoubleTree and Axel’s!
Finally, there are Marcus D’Amelio and Gee Barger. For those who do not know, these gentlemen have long been our partners for judging official Ghost Galaxy events. They have been with us through four KeyForge Celebrations, three Gen Cons, and 15 Vault Tours. Each of them has a different approach, but they share a dedication to making fan experiences the best they can be through continual refinement. It’s a pleasure working with you, gentlemen, and thank you!
For now, the forge will cool and the Crucible will slumber. Organized Play 2025 is officially over. Please join us in 2026.
See you in the Crucible!
