Sega's been conspicuously quiet on the fate of their official Puyo Puyo tournament circuits, the Puyo Puyo Championship pro league and the Puyo Puyo Cup open league—they've been actively involved with leagues and events in collaboration with other orgs, so they clearly haven't lost their appetite for competitive events in general, but they haven't said a peep since the Puyo Puyo Championship Season 5 finals in February, and over the last couple months in particular, hardcore JP players have started to really worry that the official Sega-sponsored leagues might be gone for good.
Thanks to a callout post on the official community site by one of the scene's more prominent members, we've finally received an official status report from Sega: they'll be making an announcement on the 2023/24 pro season at the end of this month, with an update on ranking points/standings in February of next year and the pro selection tournament (used to determine recipients of the JeSU pro licenses necessary to play big-money events without falling afoul of JP gambling laws) scheduled for March.
As for why they've not said or done anything until now... my presumption for the last while is that there's a new game scheduled for February 4, 2024 and that they've basically been laying low in order to maximise the marketing budget for the launch of the new game, and that "late November" indicates they'll be announcing it soon, but I've wrongly predicted the announce a couple times now so what the hell do I know.
...and here's the first announcement: Puyo Puyo Cup's returning as an offline event on January 24, held at Tokyo Big Sight as part of Tokyo eSports Festa; entries open December 1. The reaction hasn't been all positive (more notice would've been nice, basically) but people seem happy enough, especially as it's been a minute since the last official offline event.
The latest Puyo Puyo pro circuit announcement: Puyo Puyo Championship's being replaced by Puyo Puyo Grand Prix, a 32-player tournament between licensed players—it'll start with 4-player round-robins and end with the winners of each block facing off in a double-elim tournament, with ¥1M/300k/100k prizes for #1/2/3. Sega's hosting Grand Prix 2024 1st at their HQ on December 17, and they've opened applications for live audience members.
I don't know how they decided which players got an invite, but they've known this was coming for a minute, so any complaints about the format or selection process have are strictly behind-closed-doors, it seems.
