TPCi Now Says All Staff Promos Temporarily Suspended, Unclear About Prereleases

Last week, TPCi sent out an e-mail to European store owners stating that prerelease staff promos would be discontinued after Vivid Voltage. This was in an e-mail regarding prereleases:

Please note that STAFF promo cards have been discontinued, and you will not receive any STAFF promo cards starting after the upcoming Pokemon TCG expansion.

This morning, they sent out a new e-mail to both European and Latin American store owners stating that all staff promos have now been “temporarily paused.” This e-mail was in regards to the entire Play! Pokemon program:

Due the current situation surrounding the suspension of Play! Pokemon events, we are temporarily pausing the distribution of STAFF Promos. We are constantly working to improve the Play! Pokemon Program for our Retail Locations, Organizers, Players, and the Pokemon Community; and many factors go into these decisions. However, we are excited to be developing new promotional materials for the Play! Pokemon Retail Program.

On its own, this latest e-mail would simply be taken as an announcement that all Play! Pokemon staff promos are suspended due to the pandemic. This would naturally include prerelease promos. But since their previous e-mail said prerelease staff promos would be “discontinued” after Vivid Voltage, it’s unclear if this latest statement overwrites their previous statement. Furthermore, Latin American stores only received the second e-mail, meaning they can only interpret the news as all staff promos suspended, including prereleases. So we’re not sure if they’re discontinued or paused.