Games Workshop announced a Warhammer 40k World Championship on the Warhammer Community blog on Friday, along with Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Kill Team, and Warhammer Underworlds. According to the article, qualifiers from tournaments from around the world will compete in a three-day show-down at the ‘World Championship of Warhammer’ event in Atlanta, Georgia, in the USA, from November 16th to November 19th.
The World Championships are a collaboration between the Warhammer Events Team and a “worldwide community of independent organisers”, according to the WarCom article. This gives players the opportunity to qualify for the finals at “official Warhammer events, like the US Open series and Warhammer Fest, as well as independent events like the Las Vegas Open, AdeptiCon, the London GT, NOVA Open, and other major events.” The finals will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta.
The article states that “at the time of writing, we have more than 170 qualifier slots from 18 countries across 3 continents”, including Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US.
You don’t have to be a three star general for one of the Warhammer 40k factions or Warhammer Age of Sigmar Armies to earn a place at the finals. The article states that at official GW events, you’ll be able to qualify for achieving the ‘Best Generalship award’, or the more rounded ‘Best Overall’ award, if your real talent is the Warhammer hobby and painting miniatures. Independent events can set their own qualifying criteria, according to the article.
GW states it’s still possible to register a local event as a qualifier, and its team “will read and carefully consider every application, wherever you hail from or however soon your event is”, though it adds it won’t be possible to include every event that expresses an interest in the first year of the championships.
Tournaments in the first half of the year will use the Arks of Omen balance dataslate, munitorum field manual, and Grand Tournament mission pack. Make sure you have your Warhammer 40k codex, all your errata printed, some high-energy sports drinks, and plenty of practise, before you embark on this year’s tournament season – and may the dice be with you!