One piece of blog-related news that slipped our radars a few days ago, the Qualifying Rounds for the rhythm game tourney we briefly talked about a few months back is about to begin! Grouping up all the partial reveals shared on Twitter thus far (as well as a short cameo by the Taiko Team's Etou), this blog post has everything the contestands will need in order to get prepped for the incoming competitive foray.
Taito's Toushinsai arcade tourney line (website here) is opening its doors to both puzzle and music gaming for the first time with their 2020 edition, and it just so appears that Taiko action is on the menu! Just like the Taiko World Championships line, there will be two tournament categories to sort out players according to their age: Elementary-and-Lower (born up until April 2nd, 2008) and Junior-High-and-Upper (born after April 2nd, 2008). Each have their pool of qualifying songs, but the official matches for both groups will take place in the same locations (further details here).
Etou from the Taiko Team has stepped in for this blog entry to explain with which criteria the qualifying songs have been picked, as well as the ones for the later matches. While the younger category's picks are chosen in order to make the participation to the event as fun and memorable as possible with popular and tricky licensed songs, the Junior High+ contestants' picks have been balanced for each phase in order to equally juggle four performance-related aspects within each round in an escalation-inspired manner: technical ability, stamina, sense of rhythm and reading-comprehension ability. There also are some hidden themes for both pools' song selection criteria that intertwine within the single tourney locations themselves, but Etou hopes that these pointers are more than enough to get people eager to compete and have fun in advance.
There's something for everyone to do, even for those who won't attend the competitive fun! A Twitter campaign has been issued by the Toushinsai Twitter handle (link) in order to scout 10 lucky winners of the AI Performance Battle keychain from the past live events with the Taiko Team, as well as an introductiory video to the tourney's Taiko branch for everyone to gawk at.
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