The 2020 Pandemonium Championship
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Starting January 1st, 2020 players will begin accumulating points toward the Pandemonium Championship 2020 Leaderboard. The Top 28 players as of October 1st, 2020 will qualify for an invite only event that will take place on undisclosed date(s) in November of 2020. This invite only event will be known as the Pandemonium Championship of 2020.
Leaderboard Points (LBPs) are accumulated by earning Tournament Points while playing Magic in non-Premier Pandemonium tournaments. A full list of Premier events is available in Section 1.4 of the Magic Tournament Rules (MTR). Each match loss will award 0 LBPs, a match draw will award 1 LBP, and a match win will award 3 LBPs. Each player will also earn 3 LBPs per event they play in. This is similar to the Planewalker Point system, but there are no event multipliers. Players are not permitted to register for a tournament solely to collect participation LBPs.
The following Pandemonium tournaments will award LBPs: Monday Sealed Deck League, Tuesday Drafts, Tuesday Pioneer, Wednesday Modern, Thursday Standard, Thursday Legacy, Friday Standard, Friday Modern, Friday Draft, Saturday Pioneer, Prerelease, Release Day Sealed, “Draft Weekend” Drafts, “Magic Weekend” Events, and Seasonal Win-a-Box. However, more can be added as the season progresses.
On October 1st, 2020 we will announce the Top 32 Leaderboard players. A player having participated in less events overall will outrank any other player having the same LBPs. In the event players are tied in LBPs and events played, their true final standings will be determined with a short Magic trivia quiz. Players may choose to permanently withdraw from the Leaderboard competition, but must do so in writing no later than August 1st, 2020. Players are responsible for tracking their LBPs and reporting in writing any discrepancies with the Official Pandemonium Championship 2020 Leaderboard within one month of the event containing the error.
The Pandemonium Championship of 2020 will have a $5000.00 cash prize pool. The Top 28 Leaderboard players and the Top 4 players of our Last Chance Championship Qualifier will compete in a multi-bracketed double elimination event, known as the Pandemonium Championship of 2020, to determine the Pandemonium Champion of 2020.
Our 2020 Last Chance Championship Qualifier (2020 LCCQ) will take place on an undisclosed date in October of 2020. Players ranked 29th, 30th, 31st, and 32nd on the Pandemonium Championship 2020 Leaderboard will receive free entry to the 2020 LCCQ. The format for the 2020 LCCQ will be Pioneer. The Swiss rounds of the 2020 LCCQ will be the traditional Best of Three (first to two wins) 50 minute rounds. The Top 8 of the 2020 LCCQ will be Best of Five (first to three wins) with known decklists. Sideboarding during the 2020 LCCQ Top 8 will not take place until the conclusion of the second game of the match. The Top 4 of the 2020 LCCQ will earn an invite to the Pandemonium Championship of 2020.
The Pandemonium Championship of 2020 will feature four separate Upper Brackets, each with a unique format. The bracket formats for the Pandemonium Championship of 2020 will be Draft, Standard, Pioneer, and Modern. Losing a match for the first time during the first four rounds of the event will cause players to be placed in the Lower Bracket of their corresponding format. Positioning for the Lower Brackets will depend on in which match the player received their first loss (this is outlined in the image below). Losing a second match will result in elimination from the event. The four winners of the Upper Brackets and the four winners of the Lower Brackets will advance to the Top 8 of the Pandemonium Championship of 2020.
Rounds one through five of the Pandemonium Championship of 2020 will be Best of Three (first to two wins), 60 minutes in length, and may not end in a draw. If each player in a match has one game win at the end of additional turns, the player with the highest life total wins the current game. In the event both players have equal life totals (or are between games and the game wins are tied), the game/match continues with an additional state-based action: if a player does not have the highest life total, they lose the game.
The Pandemonium Championship of 2020 Top 8 format will be Pioneer. The round structure will be Best of Five (first to three wins) with known decklists. Sideboarding during the Pandemonium Championship of 2020 Top 8 will not take place until the conclusion of the second game of the match.
Each bracket format will fall into one of four Quadrants. The Quadrants will be laid out as such:
Winners of the Upper Brackets (UBs) and Lower Brackets (LBs) will be positioned in the Top 8 Bracket as such:
The Prize Breakdown for the Pandemonium Championship of 2020 is outlined in the image below.
A dinner party for the 32 invited players will be held in October. This dinner party will serve to both reaffirm the tournament's structure with the players and determine each player's opening position in the multi-bracketed tournament. One by one starting with the 1st place Leaderboard finisher, players will select one of the four Format Brackets (Draft, Standard, Pioneer, or Modern). Once a Format Bracket has been selected by eight players, it will no longer be an available selection option for the remaining players. This process will continue until each player has made a valid selection. The selection order for the Top 4 LCCQ players will be determined based on their final standings in the Pandemonium Championship 2020 Leaderboard. In the event multiple Top 4 LCCQ players are tied in Leaderboard final standings, their true final standings will be determined with a short Magic trivia quiz.
Once each of the 32 invited players has made a valid Format Bracket selection, players will draw lots to determine their opening position in their corresponding Format Bracket. Drawing lots will go in the same order as the Format Bracket selection process. The Top 4 Leaderboard finishers cannot face one another in round 1 of the Pandemonium Championship of 2020. Likewise, the Top 4 LCCQ players cannot face one another in round 1 of the Pandemonium Championship of 2020.
In addition to the above prizes, the winner of the Pandemonium Championship of 2020 will be awarded with the lifetime title of Pandemonium Champion. They will also earn an invite to the 2021 Championship.
The Pandemonium Championship of 2020 will use a unique Play/Draw Rule: For the first game of every match, the player ranked higher on the Pandemonium Championship 2020 Leaderboard chooses either to play first or to play second. They must state this choice before looking at their hand. If no choice is stated, it is assumed that they are playing first. The player who plays first skips the draw step of their first turn. After each game in a match, the loser of that game chooses either to play first or to play second in the next game. They may wait until after sideboarding to make their decision. If the previous game ended in a draw, the player who decided to play/draw at the beginning of the drawn game again chooses either to play first or to play second in the next game.
Due to the unique structure and rules of these events, the LCCQ and Pandemonium Championship of 2020 will be sanctioned as Magic Casual events. Therefore, in addition to the unique structure and rules for these two events players will earn a single Planeswalker Point per event they participate in. The LCCQ will be ran with the Competitive Rules Enforcement Level (Comp REL) outlined in the MTR and Magic Infraction Procedure Guide (IPG). The Pandemonium Championship of 2020 will be ran with the Professional Rules Enforcement Level (Pro REL) outlined in the MTR and IPG.
As a fun bonus, players not participating in the Pandemonium Championship of 2020 will be able to submit an Upper Brackets Prediction Sheet. Players may submit an additional Upper Brackets Prediction Sheet for every 50th LBP they earned during the 2020 season. Each player that submits a Perfect Upper Brackets Prediction Sheet will earn an equal share of a Case of the current Standard set containing six Draft Booster Boxes. A Perfect Upper Brackets Prediction Sheet outlines the winners of each Upper Bracket match. A Perfect Upper Brackets Prediction Sheet does not have to include the match result (2-0, 2-1, 1-2, 0-2, etc) for each match. Only the correct match winners are necessary.
Pandemonium reserves the right to make changes regarding the structure of the above events and their qualifying processes at any time. Any and all changes will be made publicly available and announced well in advance of their corresponding event.