Just as advertised last month, last Saturday was also the time for another short official Taiko no Tatsujin livestream, bearing the title of Taiko no Tatsujin Donder! World Championship 2021 Special Information Update Announcement!! (太鼓の達人ドンだー！世界一決定戦2021 情報大発表スペシャル!!). Livestream hosts Etou and Kimizu from the Taiko Team were here to spill the beans on the tourney's proceedings, alongside some fruity extra down the lane.
One of these extra topics is a brief callback to last mini livestream's main subject matter! If you were unlucky in securing one of the latest tourney-approved MyBachi models, let it be known that a second round of ordering has started at Namco Parks locations with delivery date around mid-September this year.
At last, the next arcade tourney's proceedings are revealed! Much like the past few ones and the past Tenkaichi Otogesai competitions, these will run all throughout the Fall season, from October's start down to February next year with the Grand Final occurring on February 20th next year.
Much like with the past edition of the Taiko World Championship, there's more than one way to earn a ticket with your Taiko skills as one of the finalist. The largest pool of finalists is sourced from the worldwide General Division with 29 seats. There are also two extra seats in the Elementary or Under Division (Japan only) for the best young Donder in East and West Japan respectively. The 32nd spot is for the winner of the console-gaming-grounded Taiko no Tatsujin Shogakusei Donkatsu-Ou Kettei-sen! 2021 contest, revolving around the ongoing Nintendo Taiko game. Click here for a quick reminder about it but please, do not pay attention to one funny typo with the leftmost picture above these lines...
The rundown of the event is similar to previous tournament circuits, but yet different in points. The General Division, for instance, runs in two (and a half) phases:
- Shop Preliminary events will gradually happen in all areas starting from October 29 onwards. Playing two out of the three designated tracks for the round (more below), the top two from each event moves on to the Area Tournament.
- Area Tournament events will happen in December 2021, each splitting into two rounds. In the Area Preliminary round, each contestant will play two out of another three designated tracks to sort out the top four. Those four will compete in the Area Finals with, again, two out of yet another three designated tracks.
- But wait, that's not all! The Finalist Challenge has the champion of the Area Tournament play the third track they did not play in the Area Finals on the spot. Their scores on the three tracks will then be compared against all other area champions to decide which 29 gets to enter the Grand Finals. With only 26 regions in Japan, there is a chance to see at least 3 overseas competitors.
The Grand Finals on February 20 2022 will be hosted in Tokyo. In view of recent global healthcare crisis, overseas contestants will not be expected to be flown to Japan; their tournament proceedings will be streamed over the internet instead.
For those who don't want to play with the "office drumsticks" at everyone's disposal in public cabs, every participant is able to join the competition with any of the officially-released MyBachi models, not just the 2020 trio! We invite you to catch up with the livestream in of itself and the soon-opening tournament website for extra disclosure on how each tourney phase will be played out, including the terms of disqualification that are also listed in the rightmost picture above.
Now here's an announcement that even commoner arcade goers can rejoice with: new public arcade inclusions! Three of the latest Faith Creation contest winners will be released as the General Qualification tracks on Nijiiro arcades on August 23rd, available for everyone to enjoy.
The last announcement for the day is also one for every game center fan, concerning the much-ancitipated Ranking Dojo conclusion for Nijiiro Version's second year! The final main coursed from Kurouto to Tatsujin are approaching fast, and each of them will bear brand new Oni nightmares from many a familiar name!
Four of their creators' identities have also been revealed in advance, including one HARDCORE TANO*C meteor that will move his very first Taiko steps for this very instance...
From left to right, top to bottom: Azu♪, t+pazolite, Yuuma Mizonokuchi, Laur
That's a wrap for this run! No advance livestream date reveal at the end for this one, but hopefully this won't be the last we're hearing from the Taiko Team live online...
