Happy Holidays!

Piotr Głogowski took Mythic Championship VII in style. Congratulations—we'll see him and the other fifteen competitors at Magic World Championship XVII in Honolulu, Hawaii this February.

Let's dig into some competitive updates for MTG Arena next year.

MTG Arena

Mythic Invitationals

Mythic Invitationals will be 128-person events held over 4 days for a $750,000 prize pool. Mythic Invitationals will take place on:

• May 14-17, 2020: Mythic Invitational – Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
• July 23-26, 2020: Mythic Invitational – Core 2021
• October 22-25, 2020: Mythic Invitational – Zendikar Rising

Additional details, including formats, prizes, locations, and tournament structure, will be part of a larger update in the new year.

Let's look at the schedule of upcoming Mythic Qualifiers, Mythic Point Challenges, and the Mythic Ranked Play seasons to qualify for them.

Players qualify for both the Mythic Point Challenges and Mythic Qualifiers by being Top 1200 in Mythic Ranking during the prior month's ranked season.

(Note: The May Mythic Qualifier date has shifted to May 30 following the initial announcement of when these events are taking place.)

There's more to compete for on MTG Arena than ever before.

2020 Partial Season Mythic Qualifiers

First up, Mythic Qualifiers for the first two Mythic Invitationals will take place on the following days:

• January 11, 2020: Ikoria Mythic Qualifier #1
• March 14, 2020: Ikoria Mythic Qualifier #2
• May 30, 2020: Core 2021 Mythic Qualifier #1
• June 20, 2020: Core 2021 Mythic Qualifier #2

All Mythic Qualifiers above are Standard Constructed format best-of-three.

2020's Mythic Qualifiers will also come with some changes.

One-Day Qualifiers

We kicked off the 2019 Season with weekend-long qualifier events that took place over two days. We dug into play rates, player behavior, and competitor feedback. We identified two things:

• A two-day qualifier is a huge time commitment and friction point for players, and there was a considerable drop-off rate in participation over the year
• Day Two of the qualifiers were a confusing experience for competitors who were unfamiliar with MTG Arena's Direct Challenge feature and working through third party tools.

Qualifier events should be a good landing pad for players looking to take their competitive interests to a new level, and these events were asking a lot from those who have never traditionally played in competitive tournaments

To ensure these qualifiers are an opportunity for more Mythic-ranked players to take their shot at qualifying for a Mythic Invitational, we're shifting these events to take place over a single day. We understand this adds an element of "spikiness" to the qualifiers, but we believe the value of the accessibility and the goal of increasing participation rates will outweigh the negatives. We'll look at how the qualifiers perform during the 2020 Partial Season and adjust for future qualifiers.

Mythic Qualifiers in Q1 of 2020 will be one-day events that match how Saturday's Mythic Championship Qualifier Weekends were run. Players will have a two-hour window to join the event and can play in best-of-three Standard with a deck they select for the event until they either achieve 10 wins or 2 losses, whichever comes first. All players who reach 10 wins will qualify for Mythic Invitational—Ikoria.

Gems will be awarded to players once their event ends based on the number of match wins they achieved, with players receiving 200 gems for each match win. The event will be active for 10 hours in total, starting from the time players may first enter the event, in order to finish all their matches.

Additionally, Mythic Qualifiers will award Mythic Points—important for Rivals League entry in the 2020-21 season—based on match wins a player earns in these events starting with their fifth win. More on that in a moment.

Q1 and Q2 2020 Mythic Point Challenges

The first two Mythic Point Challenges will take place on:

• February 29, 2020: Mythic Point Challenge – Ikoria
• April 4, 2020: Mythic Point Challenge – Core 2021

All Mythic Qualifiers above are Standard Constructed format best-of-three.

Players qualify based on being in the Top 1200 in Mythic Ranking at the conclusion of the prior month's ranked season. Mythic Point Challenges will mirror the structure of Mythic Qualifiers, except players compete until they achieve 10 wins or 3 losses.

Just like a Mythic Qualifier, Mythic Point Challenges will provide Mythic Points to players based on their match wins, with points being awarded starting at their fifth win.

These are new events and their specifics may change—such as how many players are qualified to compete, or how many wins or losses a player needs before their event ends. We'll be keeping a close eye on how this fits into our competitive system and make any changes we need to.

Mythic Points

One recurring piece of feedback we received in 2019 is a use for Mythic Points. In 2020, we'll be using Mythic Points beyond just Rivals League for the following:

• We want to reward consistent performers who just didn't quite make it. The top eight Mythic Point earners from Q1's 2020 Mythic Qualifiers and Mythic Point Challenge not otherwise qualified will receive an invitation to compete in the first Mythic Invitational of 2020. We may also provide invitations to additional top Mythic Point earners as we see how the season develops.
• We want to reduce the friction that comes with consistently grinding to Mythic Rank. Players who are among the Top 200 Mythic Point earners in Q1 2020 will automatically be granted the ability to compete in all Mythic Qualifiers and Mythic Point Challenges in Q2 of 2020 regardless of ranking from those prior months' ranked seasons.

Tabletop Magic

2019 Mythic Championship Team Series Final

Magic World Championship XXVI isn’t the only high-stakes event from last season: Team Finals for the Mythic Championship Team Series will be broadcast live from MagicFest Austin this January.

Two teams earned the right to battle for $150,000 in prizes—$100,000 for the winning team, and $50,000 for the finalist team—in three versus three Team Draft with Theros Beyond Death. With just two days to prepare for the early access faceoff, the best Magic teams of 2019 will show off the power of the newest Draft format on Sunday and close out a weekend of Theros Beyond Death Limited that kicks off with Friday's Loading Ready Run's Pre-Prerelease stream.