Cygames and Arc System Works' new fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising appears to be drawing a lot of attention among the fighting game community.
As a result, the organizers of the prestigious Frosty Faustings tournament happening at the end of January are having to impose a hard cap of 640 participants to the game's tournament.
Apparently, many players suddenly decided to participate following the game's release, risking to overwhelm the organizers' resources and space dedicated to the game.
The announcement made on X (formerly Twitter) explains that not enforcing the cap would likely lead to the quality of the tournament being lowered.
The organizers also ask those who have signed up who aren't serious about participating to contact them so that they can be refunded the tournament fee, making room for more serious competitors.
A waiting list has been opened to try and squeeze in as many competitors as possible.
Founder and tournament director ElvenShadow also explained the situation in greater detail, offering insight into the numbers and decision-making.
Last year, GBVS had 166 total players. After we opened registration on 10/11, we had to raise the cap 3 whole times. Since then, especially over the holidays, registration surged. 12 days ago, we were only at 360 players registered and now we are Just shy of our hard cap of 640.
It wasn't Just new players registering, but a very large amount of existing attendees added it to their registration. It happened no quickly, and so late Into the planning process, that we were left without a way to further expand the cap without compromising the quality of the event.
With Strive, SF6 and UNI2 all also being huge games this year, we are just maxed out on resources. Currently we have 32 pools planned. To raise the cap, we have to go to 64 pools. We Just don't have space for more setups In the ballrooms nor time in our light 2-day schedule. One big complaint from last year was heat and congestion in the Grand Ballroom.
We planned our whole event around ways to eliminate those problems this time (and we belleve we have). We don't was everyone to suffer through that. I don't want to take away anyone's chances of trying for a spot In the Arc World Tour but we decided this was the responsible course of action. Over the years, I've always built our estimated caps based on real data from past tournaments without Issues but this time proved to be much more challenging.
I'm happy to issue refunds to anyone who wants to drop the game and can set up a wait list for those who don't make it in. I'm sorry for letting those of you down who waited longer to plan your trip and didn't know. I will keep you updated on any new Information. We are not In danger of reaching cap soon for other main games but I will let you know with more advanced notice If that situation does arise. I deeply apologize and hope you all can still enjoy the event. This experience will serve as a lesson to better plan future events.
It's worth mentioning that, as hinted at above, Frosty Faustings' Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising tournament also grants access to the Arc World Tour tournament organized by Arc System Works itself.
The original Granblue Fantasy Versus launched in early 2020.
The timing of the release at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic caused Cygames' eSport ambitions for the game to be completely crushed, drastically reducing the overall success of the game as a consequence.
It's certainly nice to see Rising providing the game with another chance at success, which seems to be working out just fine right now.
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising is currently available for PS5, PS4, and PC. It comes with a number of new characters, including Grimnir, Nier, Siegfried, and Anila.
We already know that the first four characters of the first character pass are Lucilius, 2B from NieR: Automata, Vane, and Beatrix. Two more haven't been revealed just yet.
If you're interested in the Granblue Fantasy franchise in general, recently Cygames revealed plenty of details about the upcoming JRPG Granblue Fantasy: Relink, including a demo and more playable characters.
