A brand-new trading card game does not usually get a full competitive circuit before it has even finished its first retail season, but Cyberpunk TCG is doing exactly that.
The game's first Edgerunner Open Regionals are already scheduled for Chicago and Warsaw, feeding directly into a championship-level Black Sapphire Invitational.
That is an aggressive organized-play timeline for a game that only reaches full retail shelves on November 6, 2026.
Here is what the first competitive season actually looks like, and what it means for players deciding whether to build toward it.
The inaugural Edgerunner Open Regional runs December 11 through 13, 2026 at McCormick Place in Chicago, with a second regional following January 30 and 31, 2027 at Warsaw EXPO XXI in Poland.
Chicago's Main Event is built around a 2,048-player bracket with a reserved Friday play-in round for late entrants, an unusually large field for a game barely two months past its retail launch.
Both regionals run an eight-round Swiss format followed by playoffs, with a ten-tier prize ladder rewarding strong finishes well beyond just the top table.
Tickets for the Major Leagues competitive badge run $75, putting Cyberpunk TCG's regional entry fee roughly in line with established mid-size TCG tournament circuits rather than pricing out casual competitive players.
Beyond standings, top performers at each regional earn serialized Encrypted Legend cards, a prize structure built specifically to give the earliest competitive events their own permanent collector's history.
Strong regional finishes also feed qualification slots toward the Black Sapphire Invitational, the game's first championship-tier event, giving regionals real stakes beyond bragging rights.
Most new TCGs wait a full year or more to build toward a true championship event, giving the format time to settle and giving stores time to build a stable local player base first.
Cyberpunk TCG's $28.3 million Kickstarter already proved it had tens of thousands of highly engaged backers before retail even launched, which likely gave organizers enough confidence in turnout to move straight to large-scale regionals.
With no existing meta history to study, early regional competitors are working from starter deck archetypes and whatever early tournament reports surface from local game stores in the weeks after November 6.
A tournament-legal 40-card constructed deck, a backup sideboard of extra copies, and a dedicated deck box to keep everything organized between rounds are the baseline most competitive TCG events expect on arrival.
Travel and a $75 badge is a real commitment for a game that is, realistically, still finding its competitive legs two months after launch, so weighing local store-level events first is a reasonable way to gauge genuine interest before booking a regional.
Watching how the Chicago field actually plays out in December will tell early adopters a lot about whether Warsaw, and the eventual Black Sapphire Invitational, are worth planning a season around.
Not every competitive player can justify flying to a regional two months after a game's retail launch, and that's a completely reasonable call to make.
Local game store weekly events are the more realistic starting point for most new players, offering a lower-stakes way to test a deck and read the early meta before ever considering a $75 badge and travel costs for a regional.
A serialized card tied to a single regional's Main Event carries a built-in, permanent scarcity that no future reprint or booster box can ever replicate, since the print run is locked to however many copies were awarded that specific weekend.
That permanence is part of why competitive players take these early regionals seriously beyond just the standings, an Encrypted Legend pulled from Chicago in December will always be traceable back to that exact event.
December 11 through 13, 2026 at McCormick Place in Chicago.
Warsaw EXPO XXI in Poland, on January 30 and 31, 2027.
Qualification toward the Black Sapphire Invitational, the game's first championship-tier event.
The Major Leagues badge is priced at $75.
A packed 2,048-player Chicago field means every advantage matters, starting with keeping your deck and sideboard properly organized round to round. Carry your constructed deck in an EVORETRO plastic deck box built to survive a full tournament day.
Local store weeklies in the weeks after November 6 are the cheapest, lowest-stakes way to find out whether your deck is actually ready for a field this size before committing to travel costs.
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