Am I the only one who feels like they’ve been online for two months straight? The entire community is more ‘jacked in’ than we’ve ever been. The world outside is grey and dreary, but the colours on this vidscreen are more brilliant and alive than they’ve ever been.
But I’m not clacking away at this terminal to make small talk. I’m here to report that we at NISEI have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Regionals season.
Many tournament organizers haven’t yet had the opportunity to use their Store Championship kit. As we don’t yet know when it will be appropriate to host in-person events, we didn’t feel it was reasonable to ask players to purchase another Championship kit that they are currently unable to use. Plus, releasing such a kit would inevitably lead to a clear overlap of Store Championship and Regionals seasons, and make both of them that much less special. Cancelling 2020 Regionals is the cleanest solution to these issues.
You may have some questions about what this means. We have answers:
How does this affect byes?
If you had byes from an earlier NISEI event that you were planning to use during 2020 Regionals, fret not! NISEI byes do not expire. Those byes awarded during the Store Championship season will remain valid for the 2021 Regionals season.
What about prize support?
As you can imagine, we already went to the trouble of commissioning art and prizes for the Regionals season. Rest assured that these won’t go to waste. Details for how the community can get their hands on these awesome promos will be made available at a later date.
When we previewed the Q1 prize kits back in March, we announced that they would be available for purchase when it is again safe to gather. This is still true. When we can safely recommend that players gather for in-person events, the previewed kit will be made available as that quarter’s kit.
What’s going to happen for Nationals?
At this time, we have no plans to cancel Nationals. That said, we aren’t quite ready to announce them either, so stay tuned.
2020 has been a challenging year. But we’re glad to see the global community, as well as each and every local one, continue to thrive on Jinteki.net. The sheer number of logged tournaments on Cobr.ai is proof that players have been quick to adapt. And, looking at the variety of invented formats, quick to innovate, as well.
Thanks for being patient with us while we adapt and innovate, too.
