# What Is the Grand Championship in Honkai: Nexus Anima? > The Grand Championship in Honkai: Nexus Anima explained: Sir Champion's four-yearly tournament, the Iia Qualifiers at Romanesque Hall and the Amphitheater. Source: https://theanimadex.com/guides/honkai-nexus-anima-grand-championship/ Published: 2026-10-25 Updated: 2026-10-25 The Grand Championship is the Nexus Battle tournament that Sir Champion, the 34th Novarch, hosts every four years in the Amphitheater. Legend says its winner can challenge him and take his throne. In Honkai: Nexus Anima, the road there starts at the Iia Qualifiers in Romanesque Hall. That road is the spine of the opening story. You arrive in Iia with no memory, learn the Qualifiers are about to start, and spend the first chapters earning a place in them. This guide covers the tournament itself, every route in, how the Iia Qualifiers run, the history of the hall that hosts them, and what the game says about the Amphitheater at the end. > Everything here comes from the closed-beta build. Names, rules and details can change before release. The Grand Championship itself is not playable yet, and late-story twists are left out. ## Key takeaways * **It is held every four years** and run by the Plane of Competition. Contestants come from all 81 Planes. * **Sir Champion organizes it.** He is the Novarch of Competition, undefeated for two centuries by local account, and he decides who gets a seeded place. * **You need a recommendation to qualify.** Open selection is closed, so the story sends you after a wildcard from the Nexus Association or the True Nexus Syndicate. * **The Iia Qualifiers run at Romanesque Hall**, a restored Old World palace, and end with Arena Master [Jalily Belau](/eidos/jalily-belau/). * **The prize is a ticket to the Amphitheater**, through a portal in the hall’s courtyard pond. * **The tournament proper is not in the beta.** Your journal marks it “Content not yet available”. ## What the Grand Championship is The game describes it plainly: “a large-scale, cross-plane tournament hosted by the Plane of Competition, where contestants will battle for victory in the Amphitheater.” Characters in Iia call it the biggest tournament across the Planes, where “powerhouses from all eighty-one planes gather” with the Anima they have trained. The stakes are what set it apart. Legend says the victor “can claim the throne of Novarch”. One contestant spells out the only route she knows: win the Grand Championship, challenge Sir Champion, beat him, and become the next Novarch of Competition. ### Sir Champion and the people who run it [Sir Champion](/eidos/sir-champion/) is the 34th Novarch, formerly the Sovereign of Competition and Cooperation. He rules the Amphitheater, and nobody has seen the face beneath his armor. Contestants in Iia say he has not lost in two centuries, and that he seems eager to pass his seat on. Below him, the Competition Council nominates a supervisor to referee each tournament. In Iia that is [Hyperius](/eidos/hyperius/), appointed by Sir Champion, who knows every contestant who reaches the Arena’s second floor. The Council also invites Novarchs from other Planes to watch. As one character puts it, most of them will not show up. ## Why the story sends you to the Amphitheater You do not enter for glory. After escaping the Lotus Realm of Illusion, the only lead you have is a name: the Amphitheater. Darsea and Breadhead both point you there, and Nanafey and Otto, the two friends who take you in, mention that the upcoming Qualifiers happen to lead to it. Your journal sets the goal in one line: “Defeat Sir Champion, become a Novarch, and seek out the past.” Sir Champion is one of the Novarchs who knew you before, and the tournament is the only reliable way into his Plane. The [lore primer](/guides/lore-primer/) explains why so many Novarchs remember you. The Novarchs hunting you complicate things. Iia gets visitors it did not plan for during Qualifier season, and one of them, [Amorphiron](/eidos/amorphiron/), turns up inside Romanesque Hall. ## How to qualify for the Grand Championship There is more than one way in, and the story walks you through the most common one. In order: 1. **Get recommended for the Iia Qualifiers.** Open selection has ended by the time you arrive. 2. **Win through the Qualifier rounds** at Romanesque Hall, collecting the badges that prove you are still in. 3. **Pass the badge check** to reach the second floor and the second round. 4. **Beat Arena Master Jalily Belau** or otherwise earn her approval. 5. **Find the portal and its key**, which take you to the Amphitheater. ### Wildcard entries from Iia’s factions Your journal notes that the open selection process “has already ended”, but that “the Nexus Association and the True Nexus mafia both hold wildcard spots to recommend contestants.” The Committee for a Joyful Iia points you toward both. You can chase either recommendation, or both as a backup. The quest log frames it as a test of which faction you find common ground with. The [world guide](/guides/honkai-nexus-anima-world-guide/)covers what each faction wants from you in return. ### The Apex Forum route The Apex Forum is a membership forum for Animasters in Iia, and it “holds recommendation rights for the Championship Qualifiers.” You raise your reputation by challenging stronger Animasters, move up from Intermediate to Advanced member, and can become a seeded contestant of the Forum. You sign up alongside Hua, who wants to win the Qualifiers too. ### Seeded contestants skip the Qualifiers If Sir Champion favors you, you can enter the Grand Championship as a seeded contestant and bypass the Qualifiers entirely. Jalily Belau already holds that privilege. Not everyone thinks it is fair: one contestant grumbles that seeding means Sir Champion “doesn’t respect the principles of Competition.” ## Inside the Iia Qualifiers at Romanesque Hall Iia is one of only two Grand Championship arenas on the continent of Lusciell, and in 214 NE it hosts the last of the Qualifiers. The venue closes to sightseers for the duration. A Joyful Iia Bulletin report says Novarch Bai Mei plans to attend the closing ceremony and present the awards. The welcome letter in the official handbook is signed by Jalily Belau herself. It says the hall has seen “over three thousand Nexus Battles” since the Iia Qualifiers began in 70 NE, and warns that “the great majority who have set foot in this hall have gone no further.” ![A Nexus Battle on an urban arena board with traffic cones and a scoreboard in Honkai: Nexus Anima](/images/honkai-nexus-anima-grand-championship-street-arena-board.webp) _Qualifier rounds are ordinary Nexus Battles. This board is from official closed-beta gameplay footage._ ### Badges and the second-floor check Your badge is “the sole proof of your qualification to compete,” according to the handbook’s competition guidelines. It also warns that badges can change hands, and that the Committee takes no responsibility if you trade yours away. That matters at the second floor. The receptionist explains that two matching badges get you past the Badge Checker, “regardless of who they originally belonged to.” Much of the Qualifier chapter is spent winning, trading and tracking down badges from contestants such as Oscaa Guinea, Mr. No and Unconstantine. ### Arena Master Jalily Belau and her deputies Jalily Belau is the final hurdle. Sir Champion acknowledged her before she became Arena Master, and she sits on the Committee for a Joyful Iia’s senior council. Her two Deputy Arena Masters, [Cassio Rollex](/eidos/cassio-rollex/) and [Maple Manybell](/eidos/maple-manybell/), exist to filter out challengers who are not worth her time. Beating her in a duel is the obvious route, but not the only one. A character tells you that “as long as you gain her approval, you’re qualified to enter the Amphitheater. A Nexus Battle is just one way of doing that.” Either way, she then tells you in her office how to actually get there. ### The portal in the courtyard pond The portal to the Amphitheater hovers above the pond in Romanesque Hall’s courtyard. Like every planar portal, it needs the right key, and the Novarch of each Plane sets the portals and keys. Sir Champion changes his often. One key you can track down turns out to be one he “discarded and replaced.” There is one more catch. A notice on the portal reads that it “will not connect to the Amphitheater until the Grand Championship begins.” ## Romanesque Hall: from royal palace to Competition Arena Romanesque Hall stands at the foot of Iia’s northern mountains. Before the Sundering it was Romanesque Palace, a royal summer retreat where nobles escaped the capital’s heat. The participant registration desk now sits in what was its marble reception hall. The tourism brochure tells a tidy revival story. Iia’s residents built an arena of their own before the Qualifiers even reached Lusciell, and in 70 NE the palace was renamed the Competition Arena and opened to all. The hall’s crisscross floor pattern is described as a homage to ancient motifs. A rival illustrated book, introduced by a Professor L.D. Albert, is far less kind. It claims a plebiscite opened the hall in 28 NE as a political stunt, that visitors had dwindled to a handful by the fifties, and that a second plebiscite in 61 NE nearly had the palace demolished for a resort hotel. A lady from the Plane of Competition saved it. The building is still showing its age. A cleaner’s note complains about a crumbling wall that nobody will take responsibility for, and a newspaper reports that the new facade coating seems to make visitors want to punch it. ## Past Arena Masters and Iia’s Championship record Portraits in Romanesque Hall record the people who held the Arena before Jalily Belau, and how far they got in the Grand Championship. None of them won it. | Arena Master | Number | Grand Championship record | | ------------------------ | ------ | -------------------------------------------------- | | Gimli Festo | 1st | Champion of the 74 NE Qualifiers | | Lestra | 4th | Quarterfinals three times in a row, 82 to 90 NE | | Eviya | 5th | Said to have won the Qualifiers without one battle | | Dr. White | 8th | Round of 16, competed in 98 and 102 NE | | AJ | 12th | Quarterfinals, competed in 114 and 118 NE | | Jacquelede Faye Skylight | 27th | Semifinals in 178 NE | | Ollie Greene | 31st | Quarterfinals, competed in 194, 202 and 206 NE | Other portraits cover contestants who never held the post. Shi Tingwan finished second in the Grand Championship, competing in 166 and 170 NE, the best result among the portraits. Lohart Lohart reached the semifinals in 146 NE. His quote under the portrait calls the sun “nothing more than a little lantern for Sir Champion.” The Eviya entry is legend rather than record. The most popular theory is that her records burned in a fire, when a wing of the hall served as City Hall’s temporary archive. The [world guide’s timeline](/guides/honkai-nexus-anima-world-guide/)puts these dates alongside the rest of Iia’s history. ## The Amphitheater, as the game describes it You cannot visit the Amphitheater yet, but an in-game memoir describes walking into it. It stands at the heart of the Competition Plane: a stone colossus with four-story curved walls on towering columns, lit through a vast dome by “numerous planes converging overhead.” The arena floor is gilded and ringed with marble railings set with agate, amber, turquoise and rubies. The stands rise like cliffs. Velvet seats are kept for past champions, with Sir Champion’s golden throne at the center. The writer’s verdict: the Amphitheater “does not remember gladiators,” it “only forges legends.” ![A Nexus Battle on a lotus pond arena board with a winged white Anima in Honkai: Nexus Anima](/images/honkai-nexus-anima-grand-championship-lotus-pond-arena.webp) _Every Nexus Battle creates its own small temporary Plane. Frame from the official Evolution Test gameplay showcase._ Matches there are broadcast, with “cameras from all Planes” trained on the floor. Even the wildlife notices: the Avian Anima Encyclopedia says solitary [Marshalbirds](/anima/marshalbird/) gather in flocks to watch the venue during the Grand Championship. ## Rumors, scandals and shortcuts Qualifier season brings out Iia’s gossip, and the game is full of it. None of these are confirmed in the story, but they color the tournament: * **A corruption scandal.** A finalist tells the Iia Daily Times that only contestants “without the right connections” have to fight through the elimination rounds. * **The special access theory.** Some believe there is always a way into the Amphitheater without challenging Jalily, and spend a ridiculous amount of time looking for it. * **The Squazard enigma.** A trapdoor in the Arena floor feeds a local legend that the Squazard live underground, and one paper links it to a passage to the Dark Plane. * **Modified Anima for sale.** A black-market inventory log notes that a weakened Squarel should be dumped “during the Championship to those players looking for shortcuts.” * **The Grotesque Circus.** A veteran who lost to Sir Champion three times recalls demon jesters from the Grotesque Circus trying to destroy the Amphitheater mid-tournament. ## Is the Grand Championship playable in the beta? Not yet. You can play the Iia Qualifiers through the story, up to the awards ceremony at Romanesque Hall. The journal entry for the next step reads: “I’ve earned the right to participate in the Grand Championship. (Content not yet available).” Do not confuse it with the Nexus Arena. That is the ranked, seasonal PvP mode, with ranks from Retainer to King, covered in our guide to whether [the game is PvP or PvE](/guides/is-honkai-nexus-anima-pvp-or-pve/). The Grand Championship is a story tournament, not a matchmaking mode. ## What the tournament means for your team Qualifier matches are standard Nexus Battles, so everything in the [formation guide](/guides/formation-guide/) applies. Jalily’s handbook advice is the closest thing the game gives to a strategy note: prepare thoroughly, “seek every conceivable advantage,” and fight for each round one at a time. In practice that means a full roster rather than one strong Anima. Teams grow to eight Anima at higher player levels, and the [tier list](/tier-list/) and [team builder](/team-builder/) help you fill the gaps. The Eidos you meet around the Arena, such as [Hua](/eidos/hua/) and [Hyperius](/eidos/hyperius/), are worth reading up on in the [Eidos database](/eidos/). ## Bottom line The Grand Championship is the reason the opening story exists. It is held every four years by Sir Champion in the Amphitheater, and the Iia Qualifiers at Romanesque Hall are your way in: a wildcard recommendation, a pair of badges, a win over Jalily Belau and a portal key. If you are playing the beta, work on the faction quests early, since a wildcard is what opens the Qualifiers. Then read up on [Sir Champion](/eidos/sir-champion/) and the [characters guide](/guides/honkai-nexus-anima-characters/) before the tournament proper arrives in a later build. ## Frequently asked questions What is the Grand Championship in Honkai: Nexus Anima? A cross-Plane Nexus Battle tournament hosted by the Plane of Competition and organized by Sir Champion, the 34th Novarch. It is fought in the Amphitheater, and legend says the winner can challenge Sir Champion and claim the throne of Novarch. Reaching it is the main story's first big goal. How often is the Grand Championship held? Every four years. The game calls the Qualifiers quadrennial, and a contestant who loses is told to "wait another four years". Every dated Championship year in Romanesque Hall sits on the same four-year cycle, starting with the first Iia Qualifiers in 70 NE. How do you enter the Championship Qualifiers? Open selection had already closed when you arrive in Iia, so you need a wildcard recommendation. The Nexus Association and the True Nexus Syndicate both hold wildcard spots, and the Apex Forum holds recommendation rights too. Contestants Sir Champion favors are seeded and skip the Qualifiers entirely. Who is the Arena Master in Iia? Jalily Belau. She runs the Iia Competition Arena at Romanesque Hall and is the final opponent of the Qualifiers. Beat her, or win her approval some other way, and she tells you how to reach the Amphitheater. Cassio Rollex and Maple Manybell are her Deputy Arena Masters. Where is the portal to the Amphitheater? Above the pond in Romanesque Hall's courtyard. It opens only with the right key, which Sir Champion sets and replaces, so an old key will not work. The portal also stays disconnected until the Grand Championship itself begins. Can you play the Grand Championship in the closed beta? Not yet. You can play through the Iia Qualifiers in the story, but the journal entry for the Grand Championship itself is marked "Content not yet available" in the current test build. The ranked Nexus Arena is a separate PvP mode.