World Magic Cup

The World Magic Cup (WMC) is a yearly three-day tournament, usually held in the fall or early winter. It is a National Team competition, featuring more than 70 countries, and serves as the successor to the Team World Championship held every year at the World Championships from 1995 to 2011.

Description

The World Magic Cup was announced in December 2011 as the successor to the recently abolished Team World Championship. Initially, there was to be no replacement, but this was changed after the negative community response to the initial announcement. The WMC is an invitation-only tournament consisting of National teams with four members each: three winners of World Magic Cup Qualifier tournaments, and the National Champion. The National Champion is the country's player with the most Pro Points during the previous Pro Tour season.

On day one of competition, there are three rounds of Team Sealed followed by four rounds of Team Unified Modern. The top 48 teams advance to day two. The second day of competition is divided into two phases, and the format for both is Team Unified Modern. For Phase 1, teams are divided, according to their standing within the event (seeding), into eight groups of six teams each. The top two teams in each group receive a bye in the first round, while the other teams play one round of singe elimination; the sixteen losing teams in this round are eliminated from the tournament. The remaining four teams in each group play up to three rounds of double elimination, the top two teams advancing to Phase 2. Teams are divided into four groups of four teams each, according to their standing within the event. The teams then once again play up to three rounds of double elimination, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the third day of competition. There, the top eight teams compete in a seeded (based on total number of points from day one and day two), single-elimination bracket; the format is Team Unified Modern.

Teams cannot change their decks during the competition; however, they can be played by different team members. Matches are played three-on-three, with one player on each team serving as the "Coach"; the Coach doesn't play, but may help the other members of their team during the match.

Past formats

At the 2012 World Magic Cup, the first day of competition was individual play with three rounds of Magic 2013 Booster draft followed by four rounds of Standard. Each win counted towards that player's team score, and the top 32 teams after seven rounds of Swiss advanced to the second day, where national teams played each other as three-player teams. The teams consisted of the three players with the best individual record on day one, with the fourth player acting as the "Coach", being able to advise the other players during the match. Teams were divided, according to their standing within the event (seeding), into eight groups of four teams each, where each team played every other team in the group once, the format being Magic 2013 Team Sealed. The top two teams in each group advanced; if two or more teams were tied, the team(s) with the highest seed advanced. The teams were then divided again, according to their standing within the event, into four groups of four teams each, where each team played every other team in the group once, the format being Team Constructed, with one team member playing Standard, another playing Modern, and the third playing Block Constructed. The top two teams in each group advanced to Day 3 of competition; if two or more teams are tied, the team(s) with the highest seed advanced. On the third day of competition, the top eight teams then competed in a seeded (based on total number of points from Day 1 and Day 2), single-elimination bracket.

From 2013 to 2015, on day one, there were three rounds of Team Sealed followed by four rounds of Team Unified Standard. The top 32 teams advanced to day two, where teams were divided, according to their standing within the event (seeding), into eight groups of four teams each, where each team played every other team in the group once, the format being Team Sealed. The top two teams in each group advanced; if two or more teams were tied, the team(s) with the highest seed advanced. The teams were then divided again, according to their standing within the event, into four groups of four teams each, where each team played every other team in the group once, the format being Team Unified Standard. The top two teams in each group advanced to day three of competition; if two or more teams were tied, the team(s) with the highest seed advanced. On the third day of competition, the top eight teams then competed in a seeded (based on total number of points from day one and day two), single-elimination bracket; the format being Team Unified Standard.

Starting in 2016, Modern will be used instead of Standard in the Team Constructed portion of the event. Unlike previous Team Constructed formats, no cards other than basic land may be used by more than one deck (and respective sideboard) within a team. The structure was also changed to a stepladder format in favor of higher seeded teams.

Prizes

The World Magic cup awards players both money and Pro Points, and for the top eight teams, invitations to the next Pro Tour, including airfare.

Place	Payout (per player)	Pro Points
1	$12,000	8
2	$6,500	7
3–4	$4,000	6
5–8	$2,000	5
9–16	$1,500	4
17–32	$1,000	3
33+	-	2
Total	$250,000	-

Past winners

Year	Country	Players
2012 World Magic Cup	Template:Flagicon TWN Taiwan	Tzu Ching Kuo
		Tung-Yi Cheng
		Yu Min Yang
		Paul Renie
2013 World Magic Cup	Template:Flagicon FRA France	Raphaël Lévy
		Timothée Simonot
		Yann Guthmann
		Stephane Soubrier
2014 World Magic Cup	Template:Flagicon DNK Denmark	Martin Müller
		Simon Nielsen
		Thomas Enevoldsen
		Lars Birch
2015 World Magic Cup	Template:Flagicon ITA Italy	Marco Cammilluzzi
		William Pizzi
		Francesco Bifero
		Andrea Mengucci
2016 World Magic Cup	Template:Flagicon GRC Greece	Bill Chronopoulos
		Panagiotis Papadopoulos
		Nikolaos Kaponis
		Tziotis Petros

External links

• 2012 World Magic Cup Coverage
• 2013 World Magic Cup Coverage
• 2014 World Magic Cup Coverage
• 2015 World Magic Cup Event Information