The 2015 Players' Championship will feature sixteen competitors, three formats, and two days of Magic.
Saturday will consist of two sets of Group Play: Legacy, followed by Modern. The Top 8 players from the Legacy portion will play Modern for a bye on Sunday, while the remaining players will play Modern to advance. Sunday will consist of a twelve-player Standard-format single-elimination bracket leading to an epic final featuring best-two-of-three matches.
To be clear - the finals are best-two-of-three matches, featuring Standard, Modern, and Legacy, something that is completely unique to this event.
Who's In?
Day 1: Group Stage
Legacy Group Play
Just like last year, players will be randomly placed into four pods of four for round-robin Legacy group play. This begins with the Invitational champions, followed by the Season Point winners, then the at-large placements (including the previous year's Players' Championship winner).
After three rounds of play, the Top 8 go to the "Battle for Byes" group, while the Bottom 8 go to the "Play to Stay" group for the Modern rounds:
"Battle for Byes" Group
The top four players in these pods earn a bye for the first round of the Sunday Standard playoffs. All are guaranteed to make the Sunday single-elimination rounds.
"Play to Stay" Group
The top four players in these pods advance to the Sunday Standard playoffs. The bottom four are out of the event.
Day 2: Knockout Stage
If you're familiar with the NFL playoffs, you will be very familiar with our Sunday setup. Just replace your favorite teams with some of Magic's biggest stars and voila:
The four players with byes will be seeded 1-4 with the remaining players seeded 5-12. From there the single-elimination bracket will play out to its epic conclusion.
The Finals
We want the finals of this event to be as memorable as possible. How do we do this? By featuring best of three match wins (with each match being best of 3 games). Each format (Standard, Modern, Legacy) can only be chosen once.
Instead of just choosing "play or draw"-usually a simple choice in Constructed-the higher-ranked player will have to choose to play first or to select the format of the first match! Want to play Modern? Great, but you're on the draw! Want to go first? Sure, but your opponent may begin with that Legacy matchup you're dreading!
After the first match, the player who lost can choose to be on the play or to select the next format. If the finals go to a third match, the last remaining format will be played automatically with the player who didn't win the second match choosing to play or draw.
Conclusion
Our goal for the Players' Championship from the beginning was to create a truly unique structure with thrilling match-ups, high drama, and every win mattering. We know that there is always room for improvement, and we feel that these changes move us closer to that goal.
We are excited to hear what you think about the event and welcome any feedback you have. Make plans to join us on December 19th-20th when we crown our new 2015 StarCityGames.com®® Players' Champion!
