The 2025 CATAN Official Tournament Kit (CNOP25) contains the following prizes for your Semi-Finalists and Finalists: 

• 1 Sheep Sprite™ Catanimal enamel pin
• 4 Sets of unique game pieces
• 4 Winter CATAN Hexes™ tile sets
• 16 CATAN – Energy Crisis scenarios for use with CATAN – New Energies
• 32 CATAN Shop discount cards

For Event Host:

• 1 CATAN Championship Event Poster

The 2026 CATAN Official Tournament Kit (CTNOPPM0105) will be available in August 2025.

All players (up to 32) receive a CATAN Shop discount card.

Top 16 players (Semi-Finalists) each additionally receive a promotional scenario.

Top 4 players (Finalists) will each additionally receive 1 promotional tile set and a set of game pieces. 

The Winner will receive all the previous items, plus 1 enamel pin, and advancement to the next phase of the CATAN Championship. Exactly what that means varies by country, so please check your country page by clicking on the appropriate flag for more information!

1) Select Date

Look at our calendar, either on Facebook or catanevents.com. Choose a date, keeping in mind other events happening in your area. Don’t choose a date with an existing event close by, as that will split your available player pool.

2) Submit Event Request Form

Official tournaments must be approved by the CATAN Organized Play team. 

Requesting an event is a simple process! Start by visiting our event submission form.

• Email entered should be the same as your login to the Best Coast Pairings website.
• Please fill out the form with as much detail as possible. Required information is marked with an asterisk (*).
• Submit the form. You should receive an email confirmation from op@catanstudio.com.
• A follow-up email will come (generally within five business days) with specific instructions for creating your event on Best Coast Pairings.

Once you receive that email…

3) Use Best Coast Pairings to create your event

Our partner, Best Coast Pairings, has created an easy-to-use system to help with seatings, scoring, and submitting your results. Log in here with the email address you used when submitting the Event Request. The follow-up email you will receive from op@catanstudio.com will walk you through the process.

4) Verify / Edit Event Details

Click on your event and read it for accuracy. Check start and end time as well as date and location. Decide if you want to use online registration and/or payment and toggle those settings on/off. Enter any additional event details. You may add images, links, and other information to make your event more appealing to your potential attendees. See the Software Instructions for assistance in editing these details.

5) Verify Official Listings 

Once your event is approved, we list your event on our website. Important: We are no longer creating Facebook events. If you wish to create your own (we encourage this!), there will be an appropriate graphic included with your approval email.

6) Know the Rules

Be sure that both you and your judges are familiar with the rules, as they may have changed for the new season. If anything is unclear, please reach out to op@catanstudio.com prior to your tournament so we can send you clarifications. The current rules are available here.

7) Promote Event

Your event must have a minimum of 12 players in order to qualify your winner for the National Championship event. Engage your community! The tournament kit includes a poster to help get the word out.

We will list your event on your country’s event calendar. Events are promoted via our newsletter and by posts made by our Marketing team. We also have a selection of marketing assets you can use to promote your event.

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Players may only take a seat at an official CATAN Local Qualifier if they have met these guidelines:

• Players must be 18+ years of age by the date of the National Championship and a resident of the country hosting the Qualifier. If asked, this should be provable with a valid piece of identification showing a home address or a piece of mail.
• If a player has already won a Qualifier for this season (US only: in the same region), they must wait until next season before participating in another Qualifier. 

To be an officially recognized Qualifier event, you must submit your winner information, full player list, emails, and photos to op@catanstudio.com or report through Best Coast Pairings.

• Submit results here or via Best Coast Pairings. Instructions may be found here for using the tournament software.

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The following are things you should be sure to mention to your players! They address some common questions and issues.

Before the Event Starts

• Remind everyone of the event schedule and if breaks are planned. 
• All players must be 18 years or older by the date of the upcoming Nationals.
• Explain the tournament structure: 3 preliminary round games, and a top cut to either 16 (28+ players) or 4 (less than 28 players), for 4-5 total games.
• If using the tournament software, post a link so players can look up seats/tables as well as standings.
• Read names in selection order. The first person at each table chooses placement order, piece color, and where to sit. Then, in order, everyone else chooses piece color and placement order and sits down accordingly.
• Remind them to count and shuffle Development cards (25), Resource cards (19 of each), and game pieces (15 roads, 5 settlements, 4 cities). Alert a judge immediately if anything is missing.
• Be sure to call a judge immediately if there is any question during the game. 
• Game results are final once results are submitted to the host and (aside from correcting entry errors) cannot be changed.
• Code of Conduct reminder: Full Code of Conduct is detailed on this site. All players should read and be familiar with it.

Frequent Questions and New/Updated Rules

• Use of electronic devices is not allowed except as stated in the Photography and Video policy and Code of Conduct. Players should store phones and other devices.
• Once the dice are rolled, the dice roll must be resolved before any other actions may be taken. Robber bargaining must be limited to non-resource-specific negotiation. (Rule 3.0.2)
• “Longest Road” and “Largest Army” tiles automatically transfer to a player as soon as they meet the conditions to earn that tile. It is not necessary for the new owner to physically take the tile. (Rule 3.0.4)
• Once cards are in the tray, they are spent. You can change what you buy, but you can’t take them back. (Rule 3.0.10)
• It is not legal for a player to give or receive a resource card for “free,” either in one trade or in a series of trades. (Rule 3.0.14)
• If either of the dice are ever completely obscured by rolling off the table or landing in a cup/pocket/etc., reroll both dice. If a die is cocked, balance the other die on top, if it slides off, reroll both dice. If players are not comfortable performing the test for cocked dice, they may ask a judge to do so. (Rule 3.0.20)

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