I signed up on the Bushi Navi app for the challenger’s cup for the Palworld TCG at Northern Realms Trading Cards a month in advance. My spot was confirmed for the challenger's cup event that was scheduled for 2pm PST on the 16th of October. I am writing to express my concerns regarding the handling of this event and to see if anyone else has shared this experience at this shop.
I arrived at the store at 12:50pm, they began the event 15 minutes later at 1:05pm, almost a full hour before the listed time. Upon arrival the store staff said the challenger’s cup event didn’t have the correct promos for prizing (Lovander’s top 4 card and serialized jormuntide ignis winner card). They stated they ran the grand challenger cup event "accidentally" a week before the scheduled date and gave out the cards then, even though no such update, date change, or event cancellation was done through the app we use for the tournaments. Additionally, one of the other competitors said he was at the event the week before at that location and no such event with prizing happened.
The store owner then ran the event as the "challenger’s cup" with the winner getting a booster box which totals up to 100$ of prizing vs the 3000$ card for 1st place and the 200$ cards for top 4 which is a total of 3800$ worth of prizing that just dissappeard.
All of the players and I have reported this store to the company that sponsors the tournament (BushiRoad) so I hope something gets done about it because this is a very suspicious situation and I hope all local players be wary of participating in tournaments at this shop.