Happy New Year, Runners!

A new year brings many things: incorrectly dated documents, alleged doom at the hands of Kaiju, and a new stream of NISEI events, starting in March with the Store Championship season, and leading to Worlds in October.

As was the case last year, anyone will be able to purchase a Store Championship kit. Technically, a Store Championship doesn’t even have to be run at a store. Although we expect that, like last year, many of these events will happen in game shops, any accessible, appropriate space that will accommodate the expected number of players will do.

Each kit, purchased from and shipped by NISEI, will include:

51x alt-art House of Knives cards (art by Zoe Cohen)

27x alt-art Project Beale cards (art by Zoe Cohen)

4x Tollbooth playmats (art by N. Hopkins)

1x Regional Championship Bye

Store Championships provide an exciting opportunity for local communities to come together in friendly competition - they are Casual-tier events, but offer more prize support than a Game Night Kit to accommodate a larger number of players. Plus, if you have at least 8 players, a NISEI Regional Championship Bye will be awarded to the winner (or highest-placed player who has not yet received a bye).

Unlike a GNK, however, the acceptable usage for a Store Championship kit is more rigid - by purchasing one, you’re committing to running a Store Championship. Here’s how it works:

Place an order for your kit by Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 11:59 PM GMT, when sales end.

Schedule your Store Championship between March 7 and May 24, 2020.

Publicize your Store Championship on alwaysberunning.net and anywhere else you see fit. People can’t attend your event if they don’t know it’s happening!

Run your event! You are encouraged to collect entry fees to cover the cost of the kit (but are not required to do so). 10 USD or equivalent is suggested. Make sure to also familiarize yourself with the Organized Play Policies (Store Championships are Casual-tier events, but must be run using the Standard Format), which can be found here alongside other tools to help you run a successful event.

To reiterate, if you purchase a kit, you are obliged to run a Store Championship. Buying one to keep some/all prizes for yourself and sell any spares without organizing an event, or intending to resell the entire kit, undermines the spirit of these competitions and the legitimacy of others’ prizes. Excepting extenuating circumstances, if you do not run a Store Championship with your kit, you may find yourself unable to purchase future Store Championship kits, Regionals kits, and other non-GNK kits.

Sales will be limited to a single kit per store/person; if for whatever reason you require more than one kit, please email the Organized Play team via op@nisei.net and we’ll work something out. We recommend working with other local TOs and game stores or other venues to coordinate an event for your area. Not only to collaborate towards a great event, but also to ensure that if several events are happening in the same area, they are not scheduled on the same weekend.

You can purchase the Store Championship Kit from this link with secure checkout through PayPal! These are initially priced at $80 US and ship for free worldwide. Once you click “continue” on PayPal’s site, your order will be placed, so please make sure your shipping address is correct. Please note that if you are outside of Australia, the European Union, or the United States, your shipment may be subject to customs fees or import duties - we have strived to eliminate most of these via our own shipping hubs around the world, but we must accurately fill out the customs paperwork; please do not ask us to lie about the contents or price paid for them.

Reminder: NISEI is a not-for-profit endeavour and no one on our team sees any money from sales of these kits. We have no shortage of bills to pay, including web hosting, artwork, merchant fees, and much more, to say nothing of the costs associated with actually producing these kits! If you wish to donate to NISEI, paying a little more is the best way to do so. Every little bit counts!

ORDER YOUR KITS HERE!