Vortex Wars

I was looking at my race(Pirates) and I switched from pirates to snow giants, but I couldn't go back to pirates, and found that I had to buy the Pirates race again in the Store. Is it a bug, or is it meant to be that way?

EDIT: I played another game, and my race in-game showed up as pirates, but it still showed up as snow giants in the lobby.

Meant to be that way. I guess through game play you can earn credits ("Shards") to buy those other races. Just figured that out.