World Championship XXVI kicks off this Friday in Honolulu, Hawaii. Here’s everything you need to know about the Magic’s new World Championship structure.
This is an excerpt from this week’s Hipsters Weekly MTG Newsletter. Every Monday, we tell you know what you need to know about the week’s most important Magic news. Subscribe here! And don’t forget to join our World Championship XXVI fantasy leagues over on Thousand Leagues!
The Event
The Magic World Championship has undergone significant changes since its last event in 2018:
First, The 2019 World Championship was delayed from December 2019 to February 2020 and renamed to World Championship XXVI.
Second, this field at weekend’s iteration has been reduced from 24 players to 16 while the prize pool has increased from $300,000 to $1 million.
Third, the tournament’s structure has changed from two days of swiss and a Top 4 single elimination bracket to three sets of eight-player pods played over two days, then Top 8 double elimination bracket whose semifinals feed into a Top 4 double-elimination bracket.
All of these changes will come to a head when World Championship XXVI starts on Friday, February 14 at 2 PM Easter/9 AM Hawaiian. The tournament will take place at the Hawaii Convention Center and will be streamed live on twitch.tv/magic.
The winner of the Worlds will take home $300,000—as much as the entire prize pool of the previous Worlds tournament—while second place will be awarded $150,000, third place $100,000, and fourth place $75,000. Players outside of the Top 4 will receive $62,500 (fifth and six places), $50,000 (seventh and eighth), $25,000 (ninth through 12th), and $12,500 for 13th-16th.
The Players
The field at World Championship XXVI
16 players are invited to World Championship XXVI: the reigning World Champion, Javier Dominguez, the seven winners of 2019’s Mythic Championships (since Dominguez won Mythic Championship V and was already invited, runner-up Jean Emmanuel-Depraz was also invited), plus the Top 4 Rivals and Top 4 members of the Magic Pro League not already invited.
As one wold expect, the field at Worlds is absolutely stacked—every single competitor is either a member of the Magic Pro League or the Magic Rivals League.
The Format
Rather than use a traditional swiss structure before cutting to a Top 4, World Championship XXVI will be structured into a series of three eight-player pods over two days with a cut to a Top 8 double-elimination bracket whose semifinals feed into a Top 4 double-elimination bracket. Oh, and every match will be played on MTG Arena—even the draft rounds.
The pods will generally work like this:
Day 1, Pod 1 (Draft)
- The two players that go 2-0 over the first two rounds will automatically advance to the next “winners” pod.
- The 0-2 players will be relegated to the next “losers” pod.
- The 1-1 players will play a third round—the winners will advance to the next “winners pod” while the losers will drop to the next “losers” pod.
Day 1, Pod 2 (Standard)
“Winners” Pod:
- The two players that go 2-0 over the first two rounds will automatically advance to the Top 8 bracket at the end of Day 2.
- The 0-2 players will be relegated to the third “play-in” pod at the beginning of Day 2.
- The 1-1 players will play a third round—the winners will advance to the Top 8 bracket while the losers will drop to the third “play-in” pod at the beginning of Day 2.
“Losers” Pod:
- The two players that go 2-0 over the first two rounds will automatically advance to the third “play-in” pod at the beginning of Day 2.
- The two players that go 0-2 will be eliminated.
- The 1-1 players will play a third round—the winners will advance to the third “play-in” pod and the losers will be eliminated.
Day 2, “Play-In” Pod (Standard)
- The two players that go 2-0 over the first two rounds will automatically advance to the Top 8 bracket at the end of Day 2.
- The two players that go 0-2 will be eliminated.
- The 1-1 players will play a third round—the winners advance to the Top 8 bracket and the losers will be eliminated.
The Top 8 double elimination bracket. The semifinals advance to the Top 4.
Day 2, Top 8 Double-Elimination Bracket (Standard)
This is a standard double-elimination bracket except that the players that advanced to the Top 8 directly from Day 1 start in the winners bracket while those that advanced from the “play-in” pod start in the losers bracket as if they had already lost a match. The players that make the winners bracket semifinals and the losers bracket semifinals will advance to the Top 4.
Day 3, Top 4 Double-Elimination Bracket (Standard)
The Top 4 double-elimination bracket will work similarly to the Top 8 bracket. The players that advance from the winner’s bracket semifinals of the Top 8 will start in the winners bracket for the Top 4, while the players that advanced from the losers bracket semifinals in the Top 8 will start in the losers bracket of the Top 4 as if they had already lost a match.
The Fantasy Leagues
As usual, we’re running plenty of World Championship fantasy leagues over on Thousand Leagues! You can enter one of our public leagues for the chance to win various Secret Lair drops or some sweet Hipsters gear—or you can start your own league and invite your friends!