Organized Play 2024 Season 2 Updates

Hello Universus Players!

Most of you don’t know me yet, but I’m excited to “meet” you all and introduce myself a bit. My name is Josh Massey and I am the new Sr. Manager of the UVS Organized Play team. I have been working professionally with other Organized Play programs for about 10 years and ran local level Organized Play for about 5 years prior to that, so to say that I am a fan of running and organizing events would be an understatement. I can’t even tell you how excited I am to be a part of UVS Games and the opportunity I have to work with all of you!

Part of my role has been looking to the future of the UVS Organized Play program and how best to grow it along with our game. I can’t wait to tell you about all of the exciting plans we have coming for you in the future, but that is not why we are here today. Today we get to talk about some of the adjustments coming for the current Organized Play cycle. 

First and foremost on the docket will be in regards to Major Regionals. We tried something new this year by having players earn their invitation to these events, making them feel more exclusive and exciting to attend. After seeing this in play for Season One, we have decided that this was not the right path to take and will be removing the Seasonal Point (SP) requirement for Major Regionals for the remainder of the 2024 cycle. Taking this step will open the doors to players coming into the game and wanting to test their mettle in a more competitive setting, without the need to jump through additional hoops. This change will not affect any earned SP or any of your locals that award SP. SP will also still convert to Champion Points (CP) at the end of each season, so no change there either. 

The second change is that we will be removing the Webcam Regionals for the remainder of the 2024 cycle. There are a few reasons that we decided to do away with these events, but the two main reasons are as follows. Firstly, we are no longer in a world where in-person events are not possible. Being on the other side of the pandemic, we have the ability to attend events and sit directly across the table from our opponents. This removes the need to host events at a distance. Second, these events were designed to give a single SP to players with no local events, getting them one step closer to a Major Regional invitation. However, you can now attend a Major Regional as you desire without needing to attend a Webcam Regional (and still find another local event for that final SP). As these events only awarded players with SP, it really felt unnecessary to continue to host them. 

Finally, we have adjusted the dates and locations of a few events for the reminder of the 2024 cycle. You can find these changes below and in the updated version of our Organized Play 2024 Overview. We would like to note that these changes came from necessity and that we will be making adjustments for future cycles in an attempt to reach a wider swath of our players. Our goal is to give you all opportunities to play at whatever level you want and we will strive to provide that kind of access. 

• Season 2

  • European Major Regional moved from Valencia, Spain to Nottingham, UK.

• Season 3

  • US Major Regional moved from Charlotte, NC to Atlanta, GA and the date changed to October 5-6. 

  • EU Major Regional date changed to October 26-27.

These are just the most immediate changes you will see from the program, but know that we are listening and will continue to improve our OP program at all levels. I look forward to working with all of you and our internal team to give you the best Organized Play experience you could ask for and thank you all for being a part of this journey with us. Can’t wait to see you at an event!

- Your UVS Organized Play Team