Circuit Opener H1 tournaments have long since concluded. Circuit Opener H2 kits have reached TO’s hands and are already being scheduled and run weekly. Dozens and dozens of highly-desirable QR code cards have been handed out. As we wrap up the 2023 competitive season, a question lingers on everyone’s mind: when do we break the circuit?
The 2024 Circuit Breaker Invitational will be held on January 13-14, 2024 at 22:00 UTC. The event will be online, hosted in the Null Signal Games Online Events Discord and played on Jinteki.net. It will also be streamed on the Null Signal Netrunner Twitch channel. The event will be Standard format and run as single-sided swiss. The winner will receive the prestigious title of this season’s Circuit Breaker, and we’re cooking up some exciting and unique prizing as well, but I can’t reveal that just yet!
In 2023, we hosted the event at a start time which was convenient for EMEA players but significantly more challenging for players in APAC and the NA West coast. The World Championship alternates between the Americas and Europe each year, and we’ve decided to take the same approach with the Circuit Breaker Invitational. For this Invitational, the first round of Swiss will begin at 14:00 PST / 9:00 AEDT / 22:00 UTC.
To be invited to participate in the Invitational, you must have a valid top placement from the 2023 season. A top placement can be any of the following:
- 1st place at a Circuit Opener, at Nationals, or at an Accelerated Meta Test (AMT)
- 2nd place at a Circuit Opener with 24+ entrants
- 2nd place at an AMT with 20+ entrants
You may also be invited if you finished just below a top placement position behind a player or players who had already secured an invite. That is to say, invites are passed down to the highest-placing entrant without an invite at each Circuit Opener, Nationals, or AMT.
You must claim your top placement on an AlwaysBeRunning event with at least 8 attendees. The deadline to register is 23:59 UTC on December 31, 2023. To register, fill out the application form here; shortly afterward you will receive a link inviting you to obtain a ticket to the event. Entry is free of charge, but we do suggest a donation of $10 USD to help cover the shipping costs for prizes. If you’re planning on running a Circuit Opener after December 31st, don’t fret – the invite won at that event will be eligible for the Circuit Breaker Invitational in 2025.
We look forward to seeing what well-refined, creative, and powerful decks our Circuit Breaker hopefuls come up with! This event is expected to be highly competitive, featuring the best players from around the world duking it out, and personally I couldn’t be more excited. Good luck earning those invites!
