Stephen Chan

Following on from @Montre_OP I am also providing my feedback on the Bandai World Finals (Gundam Card Game) publicly. I have also filled out the feedback form with the same content. I named myself on the feedback form (and am prepared to suffer any negative consequences that may follow). Firstly I will deal with preparation for the trip and travel to Japan. PlayTCG handled this as far as I am aware and my experience was largely very positive. I was able to specify the exact flight that I wanted and this was booked with no issues. Additionally, staff at Play were more than happy to forward any and all questions on to Bandai and generally were very helpful. There were some communication issues however. Firstly, it turned out that we were unable to add companions to our rooms. While I travelled alone, the vast majority of my fellow competitors travelled with a friend or family member. They were forced to book separate accommodation when the rooms we had easily could have slept two. Additionally, unlike every previous year, we weren't allowed to bring any guests into the venue with us - but this was only communicated shortly before the event, long after flights will have been booked. Secondly, we received information about the format of worlds less than one month before the event. I have more to say about this in the tournament section, but this was a major issue. Thirdly, the schedule for the event was only sent to us about a week before and was changed constantly. We were told to keep Friday free for media, but then a few days before the event were told that actually that wasn't happening anymore so we had a free day. Call times changed regularly (my call time for day 2 changed five times within a 12 hour period). Overall, the impression I had is that many things had been left to the very last minute on Bandai's end and this resulted in a poor experience for competitors. Next up is the big one, and where I have by far the most to say. I think that the Gundam World Finals was, frankly, embarrassing. Starting from the beginning with the positives, I was delighted that the format was B03 with a sideboard all the way through. This was an excellent decision by Bandai and should be standard at all major events going forward. Additionally, the tournament was very smooth once it began and rounds proceeded in a timely manner. That's it for the positives. Onto the areas that need improvement. While I was extremely happy that the format was B03 with a sideboard, the decision to apply this to the Japanese Finals and not the American finals (or indeed any finals in the GD02 meta) put the Japanese players at a MASSIVE advantage compared to the rest of us. We were left to our own devices to figure out an entirely new format while Japan's representatives had a whole tournament's worth of experience (forgetting the weeks of additional testing) on us. This is not me disparaging the Japanese players in any way, they were extremely skilled and deserved the placements they got, but in my opinion either none of the Finals should have been with a sideboard or all of them should have been in order to avoid one ore multiple regions having an unfair advantage before the World Finals. On the topic of representatives, I do not understand how the numbers were chosen. As far as I understand the largest playerbases for Gundam are in the west, yet we had the smallest number of competitors. It was equally difficult to qualify in Europe and NA, yet NA got an extra competitor (who ended up winning the whole event!). When you look at the distribution, there were 9 players from Asian counties and only 7 from the rest of the world. There needs to be a fairer system for qualifying for Worlds, though this is beyond the scope of this feedback so I'll drop the point here. The prizing was incredibly disappointing. As cool as the Zaku was, I am in utter shock that we didn't even get a simple playmat (the only game not to receive one). The decision to make the Top 3 promos non playable cards is also poor - why couldn't they simply have been a token? It's clear that this change was made to ensure extra copies of prize cards don't escape into the wild, but that doesn't mean the cards need to be completely unplayable. As the player who came 4th, I am also extremely frustrated that I played 6 games more than anyone else in the top 8 and received nothing extra in terms of prizing. Even an extra participation promo would have gone a long way to making my achievement feel more special. Finally, the World Champion doesn't get an automatic qualification for next year's event. That is absolutely mad. Bandai is literally the only TCG company in the world that doesn't have a process in place to instantly qualify at LEAST the winner. The prizing needs a total overhaul. Here is my proposition: Participation - Playmat, 10x Resources, 1x EX Base, 1x EX Resource Top 8 - Top 8 Medal, Top 8 Promo Card (e.g., Char's Zaku II from this year), UNPAID invite to World Finals next year. 4th - Trophy, Additional Top 8 Promo 3rd - Trophy, 3rd Place Prize Card, Additional Top 8 Promo 2nd - Trophy, 2nd Place Prize Card, 2 Additional Top 8 Promos, PAID invite to World Finals next year 1st - Trophy, 1st Place Prize Card, 3 Additional Top 8 Promos, PAID invite to World Finals next year Moving on to the tournament itself. Our call time was 11am in the hotel and we didn't begin play until close to 2pm (most of the time was spent sitting around waiting to start). We were not provided with any food and were told to buy our own beforehand, but then were told at the entrance to the venue that eating inside was prohibited! To add insult to injury, we weren't allowed to leave the venue once we were inside or we would be disqualified. We were forced to resleeve all cards in bandai sleeves but were not allowed to use inner or outer sleeves. The sleeves were completely destroyed within a matter of 2-3 games and massively detracted from the play experience. We were also prohibited from using any of our own tokens or dice. Finally, we were not given a playmat of any kind (even a paper one!) which meant half the room were playing in a WORLD FINALS on the bare tabletop. We were made to play 3 rounds of swiss with a cut to top 8. While this was straightforward in terms of a clean cut, it made no sense with the number of players. With only 16 players playing in the World Finals, this should be a true test of skill across many rounds. In my opinion at least 5 rounds of swiss should have been played, and realistically I think 7 would have been appropriate with a cut to top 4. When we were done with swiss, we were surprised and told that we would actually be playing top 8 and top 4 rounds on the same day. This was not communicated to any of us beforehand and came as a huge surprise - most of us had only brought enough snacks and drinks for a few hours and did not expect to be playing until 9pm. Top cut games determined first player via die roll rather than swiss placement, which felt very strange. Additionally, once you were out of the tournament you were escorted out of the venue no matter what. I know One Piece players who went 0-3 in the first few rounds and were made to leave before I even entered the venue. I won't rehash everything but on day 2 our call time changed 5 times and upon arrival at the venue our phones were confiscated and we were then made to wait FOUR HOURS before play began. There was literally no acceptable reason for this. Finally on this topic I will touch on the broadcasts. The decision to only stream the 3/4 and 1/2 matches was baffling. The ENTIRE point of a world finals, and a competitive circuit at all, is advertising. This was the most anticipated event of the entire year for every Gundam player, especially because of the different format to usual, and yet for some reason there was basically no stream? This is totally unacceptable and represents a huge downgrade from what Bandai themselves did last year. Overall, one only has to look at the broader industry to see how far behind Bandai has fallen. Pokemon, Star Wars: Unlimited and Riftbound put on productions that are appropriate for the scale of a World Finals. Even Bushiroad do a SIGNIFICANTLY better job. As a participant at a Bandai World Finals I felt like I had just flown 14 hours to attend a glorified locals. The Bushiroad World Finals I attended in 2019 had better prizing, a better player experience, and a better viewer experience. The World Finals should be a celebration of the game and of the most dedicated and strongest players in the world. Instead, this event felt like something thrown together at the last minute out of a sense of obligation rather than pride. I am extremely disappointed with what I experienced and Bandai need to do better. @GUNDAM_GCG_JP @GUNDAM_GCG_ENG @official_BCG_EN

[Notice] Based on the usage rates and effectiveness of all cards used during the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 25-26 GRAND FINAL, we are currently deciding whether adjustments should be made to the banned and restricted card lists. Whether adjustments are made or not, further details are planned to be announced on 3/27(Fri). #GCG #GundamCardGame