[OCG] Surrendering now possible in Area Championships

Certain strings attached.

The rules for the Area Championships, a tournament similar to WCQ Regional Qualifiers in the TCG, have added a new rule that allows players to surrender/concede during a Match. Notably, this rule had not been formally introduced in sanctioned tournaments until this point. However, in practice, it was not uncommon for players to concede unofficially, but only if their opponent agreed to their surrender, otherwise, as this was not a valid tournament rule, they would have to continue playing the Duel.

From section “D” of the Tournament Rules:
“If during the course of the Duel a player determines that their defeat is certain, they can declare their surrender (Duel Loss) to their opponent during the Duel, then by quickly notifying a judge, said judge will enforce the Duel Loss. Only a Duel Loss can be declared, and it is not possible to declare a loss for the Match. It is not possible to declare your surrender if the result will determine the outcome of the Match, during Extra Turns, or during the Extra Duel.

For Swiss Rounds:
You can surrender with: 0W 0L, 1D, 1W 0L
You cannot surrender with: 0W 1L, 1L 1D, 2D, 1 W 1 L, 1 W 1 D”

(W = Win, L = Loss, D = Draw)

Source.

In other words, the surrender cannot determine the outcome of the last Duel of the Match.

As a side note, this rule was introduced during the 2023 Japan Representative Tournament (equivalent to the National WCQ) held on July 15th, as a unique exception that did not apply to other tournaments.