Qualification is an additional stage; it is held when necessary.
The tournament is held on a pre-announced schedule, with its start date set for February 1st, and the number of participants is not limited by the rules.
Qualification is held only if it is necessary to equalize the number of participants in the group tournament for its proper conduct.

For example, in the past, there were 27 participants in the novice tournament, so a qualification round was held for 3 pairs of participants to ensure that there were 24 people in the groups (4 groups of 6 people).
(Subsequently, the players who lost in the qualification round were placed on standby in the groups).