[Undertaker]

There are regional and events tournament all year long which anyone can enter and earning ranks (dan) and prizes etc. The National Prelim Tournament is the one that decides the East and West representative, the winner of that gets to challenge Meijin and Queen. Those don't really have much requirement other than Ranking Class (A only).

The National Tournament Chihaya and co are in right now in anime and manga is the High School Tournement and have nothing to to with the Titles and is mix gender tourney. Shinobu doesn't really have to enter, in fact the manga pointed that out with some high school players even committee members wonder why she enters such tournament that has few real high-level players.

Spoiler for Shinobu:

From all the hints in manga, it can be safely assumed that the only reason she enters these tournament was hoping that she can match up with Arata and get her revenge for all the time she lost to Arata during elementary school. Inter-school National is the surest way for them to meet because of it mixed-gender nature and lack of high level players.

My question about the timeline is that we know Arata hadn't entered any tournement for roughly 2 years (9th and 10th grade) but what about 7th and 8th? We know that that Arata was still playing at time and entering tournement but then why hadn't Shinobu able to paly against him in those years? (based on her quote that she hadn't lost for 4 years (since 6th grade) and was just waiting to play him)

Originally Posted by Johnny

Not really shipping anyone because I think for the time being romance will be slow n' go. I just like to see more of Arata and after glancing at vol 15, the ending was pretty good...

I am curious though for the pairings...

Spoiler:

If bringing Shinobu into the mix is so everyone can have a fluffy ending and nobody will be left with a bleeding heart. Hell, it could flip-flop for all I knows, but all I get is a god vibe for what Chihaya feels about Arata and nothing more. I can understand Taichi's tension, but I think Chihaya being dense is a plus for him...

Personally I think that it was more of set up on title matches

considering that,

Spoiler for style analysis:

Arata and Shinobu's playing style are similar, both emphasize in skill and precision of their technique. On the other hand, Chihaya and Suo are both gifted in having extraordinary hearing and based more on their pure talent and instinct.