Magic: The Gathering publishers Wizards of the Coast (WotC) recently released a huge announcement. Due to COVID-19, they decided to move all of 2020’s biggest tournaments from paper and in-person events to Magic: The Gathering Arena competitions played at home. And now, we’ve got everything you need to know about these replacement tournaments right here in one convenient report.
Most of WotC’s biggest competitive events for the year were rescheduled due to COVID-19, and the paper tournaments and their previous schedules are as follows:
- Regional Players Tour Americas, October 9-11 in Washington, D.C.;
- Regional Players Tour Europe, October 16-18 in Barcelona;
- Regional Players Tour Asia-Pacific, October 17-18 in Sydney;
- Players Tour Finals of the previous season, July 10-12 in Minneapolis
Wizards also rescheduled the next two Magic: The Gathering Arena Mythic Invitationals. These tournaments, which players qualify for exclusively through Arena, were previously scheduled to take place in a single venue. Players will now compete from their homes and the affected Invitationals are as so:
- Mythic Invitational for Core Set 2021, July 23-26;
- Mythic Invitational for Zendikar Rising, October 22-25
The rescheduled Players Tour Series 2 events on Arena are coming up first. Instead of being divided regionally, they’ll comprise four separate tournaments held over two weekends, July 13th-14th and July 19th-20th. Players who have qualified for Players Tour events can join one of these tournaments. Here’s the full list of invited players.
Each event will consist of 15 rounds played out over two days. Day 1 features 9 rounds of Standard, with the Day 2 cut set at 15 match points. The second day comprises 6 rounds of Standard and the Top 8 bracket. The prize pool for each of these four events is $150,000. The winner will receive $8,000, while the minimum payout for players ranking 225th and below is $250.
Wizards announced that all competitors will also receive fully stocked accounts during the Players Tour events, as seen below:
We will be providing fully stocked accounts for Players Tour events taking place in June.
While this will not be our policy for online events going forward, we heard your very reasonable thoughts and are working to make things easier for players.
We'll share more details soon.
— PlayMTG (@PlayMTG) May 21, 2020
Players that finish with 33 match points will receive invites to the new 2020 Players Tour Final. This event will take place from July 25th-26th with the Top 8 bracket happening on August 1st. Aside from players who made it through the Arena Players Tour events, members of the Magic Pro League will receive invites to the Finals. Similarly, players qualified for the canceled Players Tour events and winners of each MagicFest Online Season Finals event will be invited.
The Players Tour Finals features $250,000 in prize money, with the minimum prize set at $1,000 and the winner receiving $10,000. WotC will announce more details about the event in the coming weeks.
The Mythic Invitational, meanwhile, is now one event scheduled from August 28th-30th. Players invited to this include members of the Magic Pro League, players who earned invitations to the now cancelled Mythic Invitational events in May and October, players who earned 10 wins in the May and June Mythic Qualifiers, and recipients of discretionary invites from WotC.
This event comprises 14 Swiss Historic rounds split over two days. Players with 12 or more match points will qualify for the second day. This tournament also boasts a $250,000 prize pool, with $10,000 going to the winner.
Magic: The Gathering Arena will also be home to a brand new tournament called the 2020 Season Grand Finals. The date for this tournament will be announced later in the year and you can qualify for this special tournament by finishing in either the top 16 of the Players Tour Finals or the top 16 of the Mythic Invitational.
Magic: The Gathering Arena is now at the center of the game’s top level play in 2020, but are you qualified for any of these tournaments? Let us know down below.