2021–22 Players Tour Season
| 2021–22 Players Tour Season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Champion | TBA | |||
| Hall of Fame inductions | TBA | |||
| PTs | 3 Set Championships | |||
| Grand Prix | None | |||
| ||||
The 2021–22 Players Tour season is the twenty-seventh Players Tour season (formerly known as the Pro Tour). It is yet another bridge season and started in December 2021.
Description
The 2021–2022 season's primary goals are to sunset the previous system of play and allow Wizards of the Coast the freedom and flexibility to create a new play system for the future.[1]
This Organized Play season is not expected to feature any tabletop events.[2]
Esports
In May 2021, Magic Esports announced a return to in-person play post COVID-19 for the 2022–23 Players Tour Season.[2] Although digital play was considered to be an ongoing feature, it is supposed to be only part of the equation going forward.
As a result, the 2021–22 Players Tour Season is the last season featuring the MPL and the Rivals League. Along the way, the season will also see a reduced total number of events for the Rivals and Magic Pro Leagues. League Weekends and the Gauntlets are not run in 2021–2022.[2] Players are not competing for another League season. Instead, they are competing for a place in the World Championship. This actually means that the players will be paid what they are due, but that the required playing is vastly reduced.[3]
The existing Set Championship structure remained in place, but Wizards of the Coast increased the prize pool and updated the prize structure compared to the Strixhaven Championship. The three Set Championships are the only major events of this season. The season will culminate in post-season play and the 2022 World Championship. This structure is not meant to be a template for the future.
The 2021-2022 Esports season begins with the same size leagues as the beginning of 2020–2021 with 24 players in the MPL and 48 players in the Rivals League.[4]
The World Championship will feature a prize pool of $250,000.[2]
Leagues
Splits
The 2021-2022 Magic Esports season doesn't feature splits, which used to be several months of competitive play tied to an upcoming set release.
Set Championships
Three Set Championships each will feature prize pools of $450,000 per event.[2] Players earn invites to the 2022 World Championship through success in these Championships: those who make Top 6 (win one game in the playoff bracket) attain automatic invites, while the rest will contend on the wins leaderboard.
The format structure is dependent on the chosen format for the Top 8. If the Top 8 is Historic, then Historic takes up seven rounds and Standard or Alchemy takes up eight, and vice versa. Friday starts with with three rounds of the Top 8 format, followed by four rounds of the other format. Any kind of positive record (4-3 or better) is enough to advance players to Day Two. On Saturday, eight more rounds await the survivors, with the Top 8 format first followed by the secondary format in the afternoon. On Day Two, 12 match wins guarantee a seat on Sunday for the Top 8. The winners of the four matches at the start of Sunday are going to the World Championship. In addition, the winners of the first round of Lower Bracket play also earn a place at Worlds.
World Championship Qualifying Points (WCQPs) are earned directly from performance in Championship events.[5] Each match point earned in Championship event is a WCQP, with four (4) additional points awarded to the two Top 8 players that lose out in the playoff and finish outside of the Top 6 in each Championship.
Players that earn invitation through a Top 6 finish in a Championship do not create pass-down invitations by finishing in the Top 6 in multiple events, and do not factor into at-large invitations based on WQCPs. Any player with multiple qualifications for the World Championship creates an at-large invitation—and if no player secures multiple qualifications, then there will be no at-large invitations.
The field for each of the the championship events come from one of five broad groups:
- The Leagues (MPL and Rivals League).
- Past Performance (renowned high level players, including a fair share of Pro Tour and Mythic Champions).
- Magic Online — Showcase Open, Showcase Leaderboard, Championship Qualifier, Championship Super Qualifier
- Premier Series — From the SCG Tour to the Czech-Slovak Series and the Venus and Mercury League (VML)
- MTG Arena — Qualifier Weekend.
Schedule
Innistrad Championship
The Innistrad Championship was tied to both Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow. With the main gauntlets of the previous season taking place on September 2, 2021 there wasn't room for a separate championship for each of these sets apart. 252 players — the MPL and Rivals League, top-finishing players from the 2021 Gauntlets and Strixhaven Championship, plus qualifying players across MTG Arena, Magic Online and the Premier Series — competed for six Magic World Championship slots and qualifying points for their journey to the final event of the 2021-22 season.
With no major events since Worlds, Standard was not expected to have evolved much. With Crimson Vow giving cards to all archetypes, on balance this meant the headliners from Worlds stayed on top, with Izzet and Izzet-adjacent decks taking up 50% of the field, followed by Mono-White at 20% and Mono-Green at 10%. In contrast, Historic Horizons was finally available for tournament play, and with an influx of a thousand new cards made for a broader metagame for once; the Other category had a 7% lead on the top deck otherwise in Selesnya Humans. That said, most of the top decks were improved versions of prior Historic decks, with Izzet Phoenix, Jeskai Control, BGx Food and Rakdos Arcanist making up the top tier. Wx Auras fell in popularity, while the top decks that did not exist without Historic Horizons were Mono-Red Madness (Blazing Rootwalla, Dragon's Rage Channeler) and Azorius Affinity (Nettlecyst, Thought Courier) at five pilots each. At the end of Day 1, Rival Christian Hauck and Challenger Tim MacSaveny went 7-0, with 14 players following at 6-1, including World Champions Takahashi, Jensen, Budde and Shenhar.[8]
Both Hauck and MacSaveny kept up their record through the Historic rounds, putting them at 9-2 and fourth and second respectively after the Historic rounds, but Yuuki Ichikawa took top place at 10-1. Hauck was the first to lock the 12th win in Round 14, with the rest coming in in the final round; a pairings oddity (3rd place Ichikawa played 19th place Reid Duke) and high relative breakers meant there were seven win and ins. A Japanese team headlined by Kumagai and Takahashi made up half the Top 8. Other notable players at 11 points were Sam Rolph, Shahar Shenhar, Shota Yasooka, and Logan Nettles.[9]
The Golgari Food deck was the deck of the Top 8, held back only by being all on the same side of the bracket. Görtzen narrowly escaped into the championship match against Kumagai, but Food knocked out the other archetypes in the lower bracket, with the deck making up the rest of the Top 4. Ichikawa was the last player standing from his team, and despite Görtzen stealing the first match and the third match's first game, the Food deck stood victorious.[10][11]
| Place | Player | Prize | PWQ Points | Standard Deck | Historic Deck | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Yuuki Ichikawa
|
$20,000 | 36† | Izzet Epiphany | Golgari Food | Third PT Top 8 |
| 2 |  Simon Görtzen
|
$15,000 | 36† | Mono-Black Zombies | Izzet Phoenix | Rivals. Third PT Top 8 |
| 3 | Riku Kumagai
|
$11,000 | 33† | Izzet Epiphany | Golgari Food | MPL. Third PT Top 8 |
| 4 | Toru Saito
|
$9,000 | 36† | Izzet Epiphany | Golgari Food | |
| 5 |  Zachary Kiihne
|
$6,500 | 36† | Izzet Epiphany | Izzet Phoenix | Rivals, Second PT Top 8 |
| 6 | Akaike Yo
|
$6,5000 | 33† | Izzet Epiphany | Jeskai Creativity | |
| 7 | Christian Hauck
|
$5,000 | 43 | Mono Green Aggro | Selesnya Humans | Rivals League, Second PT Top 8 |
| 8 | Yuta Takahashi
|
$5,000 | 37† | Izzet Epiphany | Izzet Phoenix | MPL. Fifth PT Top 8. Reigning World Champion |
Notes
- ^† Removed from the leaderboard because of their qualification for Worlds.
Neon Dynasty Championship
233 players compete in the first ever Alchemy tournament.[13] The introduction of this digital-only format distances Magic E-sports away from the traditional paper play.
The rebalancing of Alrund's Epiphany pushed it far enough down that Blue was relegated to being a support color, starting with Azorius control. White gained the most from the new Alchemy cards, making up the top 65% of decks and some number in the "others" column, with Mono-White being the top represented at 23%. Metagame favorite Naya Runes came in second at 18%, behind the "others" selection at 19.7%. Historic had deposed its Green creature decks from the last Championship, with Blue Jeskai decks taking up 57% of the top archetypes, Izzet Phoenix again at the top at 25% and previous dominator Golgari Food hanging in at 8.7% as the only green representative. The "others" category brought up second at 23.6% of the metagame. MPL mainstay Jean-Emmanuel Depraz and long-time streamer Jim Davis were the 7-0 players, while current League leader Christian Hauck fell behind in the race with a 2-5 record.
New Capenna Championship
- May 20-22, 2022.
2022 World Championship
As the 2021-22 season progresses, the 32 names to participate in the World Championship will be revealed
References
- ↑ MagicEsports (November 16, 2021). "World Championship XXVIII and your 2021-22 Magic Pro League and Rivals League members!". Reddit.
- ↑ a b c d e Wizards of the Coast (May 13, 2021). "Esports: Transistions And Getting Back To The Gathering". Magic.gg.
- ↑ The new ORGANIZED PLAY announcement and how it affects competitive players (Video). Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa. YouTube (May 14, 2021).
- ↑ Ben Drago and Bear Watson (August 27, 2020). "Esports Update: Changes to 2020-2021 Magic Pro League Play". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (November 15, 2021). "World Championship XXVIII And The 2021-22 Sesson Leagues". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (July 22, 2020). "World Championship XXVII Formats and the Innistrad Championship". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (November 22, 2021). "THe World Championship Journey Begins At the Innistrad Championship". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Corbin Hosler (December 4, 2021). "Innistrad Championship Day One Highlights". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Corbin Hosler (December 5, 2021). "Innistrad Championship Day Two Highlights". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Corbin Hosler (December 6, 2021). "Innistrad Championship Top 8 Highlights". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Corbin Hosler (December 6, 2021). "Title Match of the Innistrad Championship". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (January 17, 2022). "Neon Dynasty Championship". Magic.gg.
- ↑ Mani Davoudi (March 8, 2022). "The Neon Dynasty Championship Alchemy Primer". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.