2019 SCG Tour Updates

We had originally planned on making many of today’s 2019 SCG Tour
update announcements during December 7-9’s SCG CON Winter broadcast;
however, the majority of these announcements ended up having to be
delayed after Wizards of the Coast revealed plans to make some major
Organized Play announcements of their own on Thursday, December 6th.

Once SCG CON Winter was behind us, we then had to reevaluate the
entirety of our 2019 SCG Tour plans to try and ensure that they
accounted for Wizards of the Coast’s December 6th announcements as much
as possible. Although we thankfully ended up not having to modify the
majority of our 2019 SCG Tour plans, some of the most significant
changes made as a direct result of Wizards of the Coast’s December 6th
announcements were to things that we had previously announced.

Fortunately, the return of our year-end Star City Games Players’
Championship wasn’t one of them, and the road to one of Magic: The
Gathering’s most exclusive events begins at your local game store!

Invitational Qualifiers (IQs)

In the first half of 2019, many game store owners throughout the world
will host Invitational Qualifiers (IQs) that offer their local
communities a chance to directly qualify for the 2019 Season One
Invitational at June 7-9’s SCG CON Summer. Fans attending IQs in
January will also have a chance to get their hands on an all-new
IQ-exclusive playmat, our eagerly anticipated SCG Personality Tokens,
and more!

Want to see more IQs in your area? Ask your local game store owner to
contact us at [email protected], and
we will work with them to make it happen!

Opens and Classics

An updated version of our SCG Tour 2019 Season One schedule appears
below, with the formats of each weekend’s Classics added, and three
previously announced Open formats changed from Team Constructed to
Standard–the latter of which was the direct result of Wizards of the
Coast’s December 6th announcements. I apologize for any inconvenience
the Open format changes may have caused, but our previously announced
Open formats were decided based on our belief that enough information
was available to make such decisions at the time, and did not account
for Wizards of the Coast making an announcement likely to quickly and
significantly increase interest in a particular format–in this case,
Standard–less than one month before the New Year begins. Between their
willingness to do so and their no longer announcing main event formats
for events such as Mythic Championships and MagicFests as far in
advance as they had previously, we will likely need to delay announcing
future Open and Classic formats as well in order to ensure that we can
continue to make decisions that are as informed as possible while
lowering the chances we will need to change event formats that have
already been announced.

Although the total amount of Prize Wall tickets awarded in Classics
will not be changing in 2019, we will be modifying the amounts awarded
for specific finishes as follows:

Classic Prize Wall Tickets
	Awarded in 2018	Awarded in 2019
Winner	3,600	2,500
Finalist	2,400	2,000
Top 4	1,800	1,500
Top 8	1,200	1,000
Top 16	600	800
Top 32	300	400

Registration is already open for SCG Columbus (

register here

) and SCG Worcester (

register here

). We look forward to seeing you there!

New Registration Rewards

As a reminder, January’s Columbus Open Weekend will be among the first
opportunities to get your hands on some brand new Registration Reward
items!

Every two months, we’ll be releasing a set of five tokens featuring new
or reprinted illustrations of some of your favorite Star City Games and
SCG Tour personalities–and all participants in an Open or Classic will
receive the newest set!

Everyone who participates in a 2019 Season One Open or Classic will
also receive one of three SCG Tour commemorative playmats featuring
original illustrations by fan-favorite Magic: The Gathering artists
Adam Paquette, Victor Adame Minguez, and Greg Staples!

All participants in an SCG Tour 2019 Season One Standard Open or
Classic will receive this exclusive playmat illustrated by Victor Adame
Minguez!

Botanic Growth

All participants in an SCG Tour 2019 Season One Modern Open or Classic
will receive this exclusive playmat illustrated by Greg Staples!

Star-Crowned Angel

All participants in an SCG Tour 2019 Season One Legacy Open or Classic
will receive this exclusive playmat illustrated by Adam Paquette!

Loftstone Citadel

Teams participating in a Team Constructed or Team Modern Open will
receive one of each playmat and three sets of Star City Games
Personality Tokens per team.

Expanded Coverage

We have already announced several significant coverage improvements
that fans can soon expect to see when watching our 2019 SCG Tour
broadcasts, including the addition of time-shifted match coverage,
incorporation of several technology-based solutions specifically
designed to improve the viewing experience (such as the Cardboard LIVE!
software you may have seen us testing recently), and an expanded
commentator roster that now includes fan favorite Magic: The Gathering
personalities Gerry Thompson, Bryan Gottlieb, and Emma Handy! Today,
I’m excited to reveal the broadcast teams that will be joining Nick
Miller to bring fans more coverage of every SCG Tour event!

Event and Location	Date	Format	Play-By-Play (1)	Color Commentary (1)	Play-By-Play (2)	Color Commentary (2)
SCG Columbus	1/5 – 1/6	Team Modern	Matthias Hunt	Emma Handy	Ryan Overturf	Todd Anderson
SCG Worcester	1/12 – 1/13	Modern	Matthias Hunt	Emma Handy	Ryan Overturf	Todd Anderson
SCG Indianapolis	1/26 – 1/27	Standard	Cedric Phillips	Patrick Sullivan	Bryan Gottlieb	Gerry Thompson
SCG Baltimore	2/2 – 2/3	Team Constructed	Matthias Hunt	Emma Handy	Bryan Gottlieb	Gerry Thompson
SCG Dallas	2/9 – 2/10	Standard	Cedric Phillips	Patrick Sullivan	Ryan Overturf	Todd Anderson
SCG Syracuse	3/2 – 3/3	Legacy	Matthias Hunt	Emma Handy	Ryan Overturf	Todd Anderson
SCG Philadelphia	3/16 – 3/17	Modern	Cedric Phillips	Patrick Sullivan	Ryan Overturf	Todd Anderson
SCG Cincinnati	3/23 – 3/24	Team Constructed	Matthias Hunt	Emma Handy	Bryan Gottlieb	Gerry Thompson
SCG Cleveland	4/6 – 4/7	Modern	Cedric Phillips	Patrick Sullivan	Bryan Gottlieb	Gerry Thompson
SCG Richmond	5/4 – 5/5	Standard	Cedric Phillips	Patrick Sullivan	Bryan Gottlieb	Gerry Thompson
SCG Syracuse	5/18 – 5/19	Standard	Matthias Hunt	Emma Handy	Ryan Overturf	Todd Anderson
SCG Louisville	5/25 – 5/26	Modern	Cedric Phillips	Patrick Sullivan	Bryan Gottlieb	Gerry Thompson

Starting in January, Twitch chat will return to subscriber-only mode
during SCG Tour broadcasts. Experimenting with every available option
in recent years has unfortunately shown that the benefits gained from
offering an open Twitch chat are consistently and overwhelmingly
outweighed by the issues and problems that come with doing so. Rather
than discontinue any option to chat during SCG Tour broadcasts
altogether, we have decided to simply re-implement the same solution
that worked for us previously and return our Twitch chat to
subscriber-only mode during those times.

Congratulations to 2018 Season Two SCG Point Leader Austin Collins!

Please join me in congratulating our 2018 Season Two SCG Point Leader:
Austin Collins! Check out what each of the top 32 will be receiving here!
Great job to all these players!

1. Austin Collins

2. Evan Whitehouse

3. Zan Syed

4. Aaron Barich

5. Ross Merriam

6. Paul Muller

7. Drake Sasser

8. Jonathan Rosum

9. Tannon Grace

10. Will Pulliam

11. Caleb W Scherer

12. Gerard Fabiano

13. Joseph R Stempo

14. John Whetstone

15. Benjamin Nikolich

16. Julian John

17. Collins Mullen

18. Chad Harney

19. Andrew Jessup

20. Hunter Krot

21. Ryan Ferries

22. Dylan Hand

23. Jim I Davis

24. Zack Kiihne

25. Ben Ragan

26. Aiden Brier

27. Joel Sadowsky

28. Jody M Keith

29. Abraham M Stein

30. Jonathan M Job

31. Justin Gebing

32. Zac L Elsik

Starting in 2019, many of the prizes previously awarded to our Seasonal
Point Leaders will instead be awarded to the sixteen skilled magicians
who qualify to battle in our year-end Players’ Championship. These will
likely be many of the same players, but more on that below. 😉

SCG Points, Seasonal Standings, Yearly Player Rankings and Byes

Heading into 2019, we have updated our SCG Point system in order to
make it more intuitive and enable us to utilize a single two-in-one
leaderboard for tracking seasonal standings and yearly rankings. The
new leaderboard should launch sometime within the next week.

Each SCG Tour season continues to begin with events starting on the
Saturday of SCG CON and conclude with events beginning on the Friday at
the following SCG CON. 2019 Season One began with events that started
on Saturday, December 8, 2018 and will conclude with events that begin
on Friday, June 7, 2019. 2019 Season Two begins with events that start
on Saturday, June 8, 2019 and concludes with events that begin on the
Friday of 2019’s SCG CON Winter.

Since Invitationals begin on the Friday of each SCG CON, SCG Points
earned in those events are awarded in, and conclude, the current
season. The number of SCG Points awarded in all other events awarding
them remain the same, except for IQs, which have been slightly
increased for 2019 as follows:

Finish	SCG Points Awarded in IQs (Previously)	SCG Points Awarded in IQs (2019)
Winner	3	3
Finalist	2	3
Top 4	1	2
Top 8	0	1

Each SCG Tour season’s standings will reset upon the conclusion of that
season, then updates will begin after the first Open of the following
season. Because of this, SCG Points earned via IQs in a new season
prior to the first Open of that season will not appear on the
leaderboard or count towards byes until after the first Open of that
season, at which time they will be fully accounted for and updated
accordingly.

During each season:

• The 32 players who currently have the most SCG Points in that season
  receive byes in individual format Opens as follows:
  • 1st – 16th: Two byes
  • 17th – 32nd One bye

At the end of each season:

• The 32 players who have earned the most SCG Points in that season
  receive byes in all the next season’s individual format Opens as
  follows:
  • 1st – 16th: Two byes
  • 17th – 32nd: One bye
• The four players who have earned the most SCG Points in that season
  are awarded invitations to compete in that year’s Star City Games
  Players’ Championship.

Upon the conclusion of the Season Two Invitational at SCG CON Winter:

• The player who has earned the most SCG Points in that year’s SCG Tour
  Seasons One and Two (combined, designated as “Player Ranking” on
  leaderboard) is our SCG Tour Player of the Year. The 64 players who
  have earned the most SCG Points in that year’s SCG Tour Seasons One and
  Two (combined, designated as “Player Ranking” on leaderboard) receive
  byes in all individual format Opens that take place during the entire
  following year as follows:
  • 1st: Three byes (solely awarded to our SCG Tour Player of
    the Year)
  • 2nd-32nd: Two byes
  • 33rd-64th: One bye
• The seven players who have earned the most SCG Points in that year’s
  Seasons One and Two (combined, designated as “Player Ranking” on
  leaderboard), and are not already qualified to compete in that year’s
  Star City Games Players’ Championship, will be awarded invitations to
  compete in the event.

2019 Star City Games Players’ Championship Qualification Criteria

Since we previously announced that the 2019 SCG Tour will once again
culminate with a year-end Star City Games Players’
Championship – and that the first of sixteen seats had already been
awarded to the reigning 2016 Star City Games Players’
Champion Joe Lossett – fans have eagerly awaited details on how they
can earn a spot in one of Magic: The Gathering’s most exclusive
championship events!

Here is the complete list of ways YOU can qualify for the 2019 Star
City Games^® Players’ Championship!

• 2016 Reigning Players’ Champion (Joe Lossett)
• 2019 Season One Invitational Winner
• 2019 Season One SCG Points Leader #1
• 2019 Season One SCG Points Leader #2
• 2019 Season One SCG Points Leader #3
• 2019 Season Two Invitational Winner
• 2019 Season Two SCG Points Leader #1
• 2019 Season Two SCG Points Leader #2
• 2019 Season Two SCG Points Leader #3
• 2019 SCG Tour Player Ranking #1
• 2019 SCG Tour Player Ranking #2
• 2019 SCG Tour Player Ranking #3
• 2019 SCG Tour Player Ranking #4
• 2019 SCG Tour Player Ranking #5
• 2019 SCG Tour Player Ranking #6
• 2019 SCG Tour Player Ranking #7

Good luck, Joe!

More details about the 2019 Star City Games Players’ Championship will be
announced as they are confirmed.

Thank You!

As always, I welcome all constructive feedback. Today’s 2019 SCG Tour
announcements are no different, and I will be responding to as much of your
feedback as I can throughout the weekend in the comments section below this
article, in the Reddit thread that we create for feedback purposes, and on
Twitter @SCGTour.

Thank you for your continued support of both Star City Games and the SCG
Tour, and we look forward to seeing everyone in Columbus!

Please note that some SCG Tour and Star City Games In-Store Program web
pages and policy documents may have not yet been updated to reflect the
changes contained within this announcement.