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The Gundam franchise transcended its anime roots to become a multimedia juggernaut that cannot be stopped. From live-action films to video games to the countless model kits for collectors to put together. Bandai, the company behind all things Gundam, recently announced that the new trading card game will also be getting its own tournament series less than one month after the game launches in July 2025.

Dubbed “First Combat,” the first event in Bandai’s upcoming tournament series for the Gundam TCG will take place at Gen Con 2025. This puts it during the first weekend in August – just one week after the game’s July 25, 2025 release date. That is a pretty sharp turnaround for players to learn the system and put together a decent deck. 

The Gundam TCG First Combat events will follow three format types:

• 1v1 Constructed Decks
• 1v1 Sealed Decks
• 2v2 Constructed Decks

The Constructed Deck events will see players facing off with a deck of their own making, with the 2v2 format making the game a team sport. The Sealed Deck events will give players a starter deck and four booster packs, effectively making them come up with a coherent deck and strategy on the fly.

It isn’t surprising that Bandai is looking to promote the Gundam card game with a series of tournaments, though the fact they are launching them at Gen Con 2025 – which has at least one publisher not attending due to the political climate in the US – so soon after the game’s launch shows how powerful the Gundam brand really is.

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