The Magic: The Gathering World Championship is all set with the top 16 players in the world fighting it out from February 14-16. Serving as the culmination of the 2019 season, it's going to take place in Honolulu, Hawaii. The World Championship is also going to offer the largest cash prize for a Magic event, with a prize pool of $1 million.
If that wasn't enough, the players are going to be duking it out through Magic: The Gathering Arena. They're only going to be playing the online version, but the players are going to have their faces visible during the event. This should be really interesting to watch.
So what can we expect in this tournament? Let's start with the players. Those who managed to be part of the tournament got their slots through different means like winning a 2018 Mythic Championship or ranking in the top four with Mythic Points after the 2019 season. The players are:
- Javier Dominguez
- 2018 defending Magic Worlds champion
- Autumn Burchett
- Mythic Championship I champion (tabletop)
- Eli Loveman
- Mythic Championship II champion (tabletop)
- Matias Leveratto
- Mythic Championship III champion (Arena)
- Thoralf Severin
- Mythic Championship IV champion (tabletop)
- Jean-Emmanuel Depraz
- Mythic Championship V champion (Arena)
- Ondřej Stráský
- Mythic Championship VI champion (tabletop)
- Piotr “Kanister” Głogowski
- Mythic Championship VII champion (Arena)
- Chris Kvartek
- Top-ranked Challenger
- Raphaël Lévy
- Second-ranked Challenger
- Gabriel “Yellowhat” Nassif
- Third-ranked Challenger
- Sebastián Pozzo
- Fourth-ranked Challenger
- Andrea Mengucci
- Top-ranked MPL player
- Seth Manfield
- Second-ranked MPL player
- Márcio Carvalho
- Third-ranked MPL player
- Paulo Vitor Damo “PVDDR” da Rosa
- Fourth-ranked MPL player
As mentioned, this is the largest cash prize to be offered for a Magic: The Gathering tournament and the breakdown is:
- 1st: $300,000
- 2nd: $150,000
- 3rd: $100,000
- 4th: $75,000
- 5th-6th: $62,500
- 7th-8th: $50,000
- 9th-12th: $25,000
- 13th-16th: $12,500
Being the most prestigious tournament, the World Championship makes sure that every win matters. Players are divided into two groups of eight in order to determine who moves to the next phase of the competition. Players that win early and often get to advance faster and can even earn a seeding advantage in the Top 8. It's okay to lose, but the value of winning gets higher as the tournament progresses.
Making the tournament even more exciting are the different talents that will serve as casters. These are:
- Host
- Sean "Day9" Plott
- Desk Host
- Maria Bartholdi
- Reporter
- Becca Scott
- Play-By-Play
- Marshall Sutcliffe
- AliasV
- Expert
- Cedric Phillips
- Brian Kibler
- Paul Cheon
For those unable to watch live, they can view the official stream of the tournament here from February 14-16. It's not just live streaming, but also offers players videos and, of course, match-by-match updates.
You can read more about Magic: The Gathering's biggest event here.
