2020 Season Grand Finals Information for Competitors

Locations and Times

The 2020 Season Grand Finals will take place on Magic: The Gathering Arena:

• Day 1: October 9, 2020 – 9:00 a.m. PDT (09:00)
• Day 2: October 10, 2020 – 9:00 a.m. PDT (09:00)
• Top 8: October 11, 2020 – 9:00 a.m. PDT (09:00)
  • Only players remaining in the Top 8 need to check in on October 11 for competition.

All times are listed in Seattle local time (PDT).

Format

The 2020 Season Grand Finals will use both Standard and Historic Constructed formats on MTG Arena.

Deck Submission

Players must submit Standard-legal and Historic-legal decks via the MTG Melee tournament page (available at a later date) no later than Tuesday, October 6 at 8:00 a.m. Seattle time (PDT). (Deadline updated September 24.)

Players with late decklist submission will be unable to submit to MTG Melee, and instead must submit their decklist to esports@wizards.com. Players who are late with their decklist submission are subject to tournament error penalties, which will upgrade for every 4 hours they are late on their submission.

Players who fail to submit a decklist within 24 hours of the deadline will be automatically dropped from the tournament.

Invitees

The following players may compete in the 2020 Season Grand Finals:

• Top 16 players from the Players Tour Finals
• Top 16 players from the 2020 Mythic Invitational
  • Top 16 players from the Players Tour Finals who then made Top 16 of the 2020 Mythic Invitational pass down invitations to the next placing competitor by final standings in the 2020 Mythic Invitational

Tournament Structure

12 modified Swiss rounds, alternating formats as follows:

• Rounds 1-3: Historic Constructed
• Round 4-9: Standard Constructed
• Rounds 10-12: Historic Constructed
• Top 8: Standard Constructed

All rounds of competition use Tournament Match Direct Challenge settings via Direct Challenge in MTG Arena, which means:

• 30-minute time banks for player priority are enforced in-client.
• Timers are on.
• Matches are best two-out-of-three games.
• Players should double-check to ensure they have not selected "Tournament Match – Limited", or "Challenge Match" in Direct Challenge settings.
• Players should double-check to ensure they have selected the correct format for each round ("Tournament Match – Standard" or "Tournament Match – Historic").

Day One: 6 Swiss rounds

• Rounds 1-3: Historic Constructed
• Rounds 4-6: Standard Constructed
• All players return for Day Two.
  • Records and tiebreakers earned on Day One carry over to Day Two.

Day Two: 6 Swiss rounds

• Round 7-9: Standard Constructed
• Rounds 10-12: Historic Constructed
• Players for Top 8 are determined and seeded by earning eight (8) match wins or standings at the end of Round 12.

Whenever a player reaches eight (8) match wins they advance to the Top 8.

• Top 8 is seeded in order by players reaching eight match wins, beginning with 1st seeding and continuing down through 8th.
  • Players who are seeded into Top 8 do not continue playing in Swiss rounds. (These players receive byes for the remainder of Swiss rounds.)
• After Round 12, players with fewer than eight match wins are seeded into Top 8 based on standings until there are eight players in total seeded.
  • Tiebreakers for seeding are determined by Swiss standings.

Each Swiss round will be timed by tournament officials at 60 minutes:

• Players must challenge their opponent by the time the round has officially started based on the time provided by the tournament organizer.
• Players who have not been able to begin their match and who have received communication from their opponent should contact a tournament admin once the round has begun.
• At the end of 60 minutes, tournament admins will message players who have not yet reported their match and players still in a match are expected to respond to the admin's message to confirm they are still playing.

Top 8: Double-elimination Top 8 bracket playoff.

• Matches are best two-out-of-three games Standard Constructed.
• The higher seed for all matches, except the matchup in which the last remaining players in the upper and lower bracket compete, may choose to play or draw in Game 1 of their matches.
• The matchup which is the sole players remaining in the upper and lower brackets will be best two-out-of-three matches to determine the winner of the tournament rather than traditional best two-out-of-three games.
  • The upper bracket player may choose play/draw order for the first game of the each match.

Prizes

There is a $250,000 prize pool which will be awarded to competitors based on their final standing in the tournament.

MTG Arena Accounts

Each qualified player will be provided access to an account on MTG Arena stocked with four (4) copies of each Standard-legal card as well as enough wild cards and gems to craft necessary Historic-legal cards. This account may be used by the player to prepare for, and is required to be used to participate in, the 2020 Season Grand Finals.

Additional rules that apply to MTG Arena play using this account will be provided to players with account information.

Tournament Policies

Wizards will use Digital MTR and IPG documents to govern the 2020 Season Grand Finals:

• Digital Magic Tournament Rules
• Digital Magic Infraction Guide

Additional player requirements, including streaming and other policy changes that supersede the Digital MTR, will be communicated to players prior to the start of the tournament.

MTG Arena Known Issues and Disconnects

Players should review the known issues in MTG Arena prior to participation in sanctioned digital events. Wizards of the Coast is not responsible for impact on game and match results as a result of players experiencing known issues.

Wizards of the Coast is not responsible for the results of any disconnection or network problems experienced by players.

Outside Assistance

During matches, players may not seek play advice from spectators and spectators may not give play advice to players. Reports of players receiving outside assistance will be investigated and penalties (up to and including disqualification) will be assigned. Players who receive unsolicited outside assistance from another player or spectator are expected to report the incident to tournament officials and submit any supporting evidence of attempt to provide outside assistance.

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to suspend, modify, and change this document or the program it supports at any time and for any reason without notice.