Is this the end of competitive play?
 

After a period of inactivity, Bandai relaunched Jonin events. At first I believed this could be a resurgence of interest for competitive play, however it appears that they were simply labeling prize cuts with a once prestigious title. While it was near impossible to make much profit off of Shonen Jump Championships, especially when travelling, playing for somewhat valuable prizing added an edge to the competitive atmosphere. Players spent money to travel to events in hope of winning something worthwhile. The prizing may not have fully justified going financially speaking, but having a valuable as a symbol of your accomplishment made it easier. In a game that's "pro scene" is purely based on players commuting, motivation is needed to keep it active. The new prizing ruins this incentive based system as it is plain stupid to consider going to events outside of your general area for such garbage. Without a reason to play on a higher level, I believe the major attraction of this game would be lost. My question is do you think this means the end of Naruto being a competitive card game?

I dont quite understand...I mean its not even really prize cuts, because if u look at prizing as a whole (chunin,jonin, sjc) the prizing is greater than b4. (assuming sjc prizing is actually doubled). I personally do not believe they brought jonins back expecting them to get any where near as many people an sjc SHOULD and I am pretty sure they only brought them back for promotion of the game which in a sense helps the competitive aspect of the game because now there are more tournaments in one year than b4, even though to most of us it seems like a lot less, because we tend to think of sjc's as the only competitive tournaments.

I'd say the average player goes to 2 SJCs a year (when SJCs were common)... very rarely did we say players going to 3 or more. It has been confirmed that SJCs have "more than double" (Andy's exact quote) the prizing of prior SJCs; so with that being said, going to one SJC alone and doing well could make up for the "lack" of prizing in Jonins and could also cut back on travel costs for people who [would] travel to many SJCs.

Plus, people are strongly underestimating the value of the promos that will be given out at these events. Kevin's card is a money card, as will be the Hinata / Sakura promo. Plus they're giving out the NEW game which looks far superior than last season's junk game. Going to one or two jonins and then at least 1 SJC is more than enough for a player to get their competitive fix (and to make $$$). It isn't perfect, but it's good for what it is. I personally think the prizing THIS season is superior to last year (I'd rather have many of those promos than the junk game; because I know I can make money off those promos).

tl;dr -- Competitive scene is no where near dead in this game - especially since it's on the cusp of the biggest fanboy set of all time. Game is still great (albeit we need a rogue list by hopefully set 28's release) and I can't see it dying for a while.

They cut SJCs, now there are only 4 including Gencon(1 per quarter). They replaced SJC under prized Jonin events. I don't understand how there is more prizing then before when clearly they reduced the amount of SJCs along with the prizing.

What exactly does "double prizing" mean. As much as I would like to believe that, it sounds like a lie. Even in such event, why would anyone want to play a game that is alive 4 times a year? A competitive environment is fueled by activity.

Did you read what I wrote? Andy said (confirmed on multiple accounts) that SJC prizing is MORE THAN doubled. This means we could just go to Gencon alone, do well, and if we do - we receive more prizing than if we topped at two SJCs from (let's say) last season. That sounds worth it to me.

Naruto sucks.

I don't see it as a prize cut at all.

IMO having less SJC's is better for the competitive side of things than more. I gives the title of shonen jump champion more merit and players will want to earn it more. More prizing less events I feel is a much better formula for success.

a big fueling drive is the online ranking system. Bandai not resetting/using that is REALLY hurting them BIG. too many upsides to having a global ranking system not to do it. I'm really dissappointed in their lack of effort or even response on this matter.

as Genre said most player are only willing to travel to 2 or 3 jumps a year anyways. so reducing them and focusing on them is much better for the game and the players. since we should be getting larger turnouts because of more planning time, and for the events we will be getting what it seems like double prizing.

end of competitive play? absolutely not. It's the opposite it's the Resurrection of competitive play minus the rank system.

prizing i doubled electronically not only cards (i feel like thats what ur thinking)

I dont think you understand the fact that Alex doesn't know how to program.

why or how is that the players problem? bottom line is that what needs to be done regarding the ranking system is not being done. It's hurting the game, and they need to fix it.