Chris4Life and other NA DDR players disqualified from KAC due to a literal Catch-22 in the rules

https://nitter.net/CHRS4LFE/status/1722356595370471920

The rules, put together, say:
• In order to qualify for KAC, you must play the KAC qualifier songs.
• To unlock the KAC qualifier songs, your account must have access to Paseli.
• To have access to Paseli on your account, your account's residence must be in Japan.
• Your account's residence must match your real residence.
• You cannot have multiple accounts or transfer your account data between accounts.

Therefore, you cannot qualify for KAC unless your real residence is in Japan.

Chris and other NA players were disqualified for making two accounts, one with a residence in Japan and one in North America. Another NA player, NAT8 (Nathan), was instead disqualified for having one account whose residence (Japan) did not match his real residence.

Oh, and there's one final rule:
• If you are disqualified from one KAC, you may automatically be disqualified from all future KACs.

Small correction: AFAIK there is no mention of Paseli being an entry requirement at all, and the inability to transfer e-amuse data between Konami IDs seems to be only a recent change, which is why this issue hasn't been a problem in the past. So technically, they would still be eligible if they registered to KAC with just a single, NA-based Konami ID. The only downside then would be that the KAC songs won't available on their other account(s). Personally, if I were in their shoes, I would bite the bullet and wait for the KAC songs to be available by default to replay them on my main account, but I'm not skilled enough to compete at that level so IDK.

Also, FEFEMZ would now be eligible to qualify for the finals after these DQs (again, no Japanese residence needed), but I don't know if it's confirmed yet that he'll be participating.

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He's not. It sounds like he got an invite and turned it down.

What the fuck??????????

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That's probably the end of KAC's relevance as far as DDR goes.

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https://nitter.net/wldyd1423/status/1722463209985347590

FEFEMZ agrees that Konami's response to Chris and co. was insincere.

https://nitter.net/HO4_KETI/status/1722376387997385041#m

Hoshiketi says that KAC is better with both Japanese and overseas players in it.

https://old.reddit.com/r/DanceDanceRevolution/comments/17r1122/all_nonjapanese_kac_finalists_have_been/

I can't find a stronger source, but this Reddit thread says that FEFEMZ turned down the KAC invite because they weren't going to cover the cost of the flight from Korea to Japan and they refused to have an interpreter.

I hope the Japanese competitive playerbase takes some kind of solidarity with the American players (and FEFEMZ, who is being screwed over for different reasons) that Konami can't ignore. I don't follow the competitive scene super closely but I imagine everyone are friends to some extent.

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And here I thought that KAC was gonna start letting overseas players participate in IIDX and SDVX tourneys
(There's a video that DARQs did with PH!NIX a few years ago and the latter mentioned that, before the pandemic, there were talks of letting Americans join the IIDX tournament, but it got canceled for obvious reasons. )




Anyways, unless Konami changes their minds, I'm hoping someone will make an alternative equivalent. NA eAmuse accounts are pretty much useless, so there's literally no way of being able to legally qualify even if everyone "followed the rules".

I've seen a few people promote WARS as an alternative to KAC. It's a DDR tournament that's been going on longer than KAC, organized by the guy who runs Diverse System (though it took a 3-year COVID hiatus):
https://twitter.com/edmparipi/status/1723169286993420385

Is that the same PHN!X who was in the draft for BPL IIDX S3? Granted, he didn't end up making the cut, but the possibility for his inclusion was there nevertheless. It still looks like being a Japanese resident in general is the best option for playing and competing, though.

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Could always also turn Extra Exclusive into an annual thing since it was mainly made to be an *actual* tournament around the same time in KAC. We've had Extra Exclusive, Super Extra Exclusive, maybe something like Encore Extra Exclusive could happen.

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