Hi friends,
Thanks to the overwhelming support from all tiers of the Magic: The Gathering community, 2014 has been another amazing year for StarCityGames.com Organized
Play programs. Today, I’m excited to announce our 2015 plans for the Open Series, all of which will go into effect with the first event of the 2015 season
(the StarCityGames.com Open Series on December 13th-14th in Seattle) unless otherwise stated.
1. Structure
As the Open Series continues to grow, Saturdays have become increasingly longer and more taxing on both staff and players. In order to address this issue
and create a more enjoyable experience, Open Series weekends will begin using a new event structure for 2015. The new structure will feature a single main
event with nine (9) Swiss rounds played on Day One (Saturday) and an end-of-day cut. The top 64 players, as well as all players with 21 or more match
points and any players with the same match point total as 64th place, will return on Sunday to continue playing 6 more Swiss rounds on Day Two, before
cutting to a single-elimination Top 8. If this structure looks familiar, that may be because it’s identical to the structure currently being used for Grand
Prix, where it has proven successful at addressing the exact same issues.
2. Prize and Open Point Payouts
With this change in event structure, we will also be doubling the main event prize payout to $20,000! This will be awarded as follows:
1st: $5000 (plus 25 Open Points)
2nd: $2000 (plus 20 Open Points)
3rd/4th: $1000 (plus 15 Open Points)
5th-8th: $500 (plus 10 Open Points) each
9th-16th: $325 (plus 8 Open Points) each
17th-32nd: $200 (plus 6 Open Points) each
33rd-64th: $100 (plus 4 Open Points) each
All Day Two competitors who don’t finish in the Top 64: 3 Open Points
All players who don’t make Day Two: 1 Open Point
3. Formats
The format for each $20,000, two-day Open Series main event will be either Standard, Legacy, or Modern. The two formats not played in Saturday’s main event
will be represented on Sunday in the form of two $5,000 Premier Invitational Qualifiers.
4. 2015 1Q/2Q Schedule
Here is the complete Open Series schedule starting with the event these changes go into effect at (Seattle) through mid-2015. Mark your calendars and make plans to join us!
|
DATE |
CITY |
$20,000 OPEN (SATURDAY) |
$5,000 PREMIER IQ #1 (SUNDAY) |
$5,000 PREMIER IQ #2 (SUNDAY) |
|
DEC. 12-14* |
Seattle, WA |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
JAN. 3-4 |
Columbus, OH |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
JAN. 10-11 |
Philadelphia, PA |
Legacy |
Standard |
Modern |
|
JAN. 24-25 |
Washington, DC |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
JAN. 31-FEB. 1 |
Indianapolis, IN |
Legacy |
Standard |
Modern |
|
FEB. 14-15 |
Houston, TX |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
FEB. 21-22 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
FEB. 28-MAR. 1 |
Baltimore, MD |
Modern |
Standard |
Legacy |
|
MAR. 14-15 |
Dallas, TX |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
MAR. 27-29* |
Richmond, VA |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
APR. 4-5 |
Syracuse, NY |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
APR. 18-19 |
Providence, RI |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
APR. 25-26 |
Cleveland, OH |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
MAY 2-3 |
Seattle, WA |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
MAY 16-17 |
Dallas, TX |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
MAY 23-24 |
Worcester, MA |
Legacy |
Standard |
Modern |
|
JUN. 5-7* |
Columbus, OH |
Modern |
Standard |
Legacy |
|
JUN. 20-21 |
Indianapolis, IN |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
|
JUN. 27-28 |
Baltimore, MD |
Standard |
Legacy |
Modern |
* StarCityGames.com Open Series featuring the Invitational
5. Entry Fees
Due to the ever-increasing costs associated with organizing a tournament series of this size, and the additional cost of doubling main event prizes, the
cost to participate in a $20,000 Open Series event will be $50. The cost to participate in either of Sunday’s $5,000 Premier Invitational Qualifiers will
remain $30.
6. Open Series Side Event Schedule
In addition to the usual booster drafts, 8-player Win-A-Box events, 4-player Commander events, etc., each Open Series weekend will also offer the following
4 -round scheduled side events. For more information on any of these events, please see each event’s individual fact sheet.
SATURDAY
2:00 pm – 2HG Challenge
3:00 pm – Modern Challenge
4:00 pm – Legacy Challenge
5:00 pm – Standard Challenge
SUNDAY:
12:00 pm – 2HG Challenge
1:00 pm – Modern Challenge
2:00 pm – Legacy Challenge
3:00 pm – Standard Challenge
7. The Return of Byes
Seattle will be the last Invitational in which Invitational competitors are able to receive byes. Now that the Open Series will be feature a two-day main
event, the ability to earn byes will be shifting from the Invitational to the Open Series. Open Series byes will be earned as follows:
- Two (2) Open Series byes will be awarded to each of the Top 16 players on our leaderboard.
- One (1) Open Series bye will be awarded to each of the 17th-32nd players on our leaderboard.
- One (1) Open Series bye will be awarded at each Open Trial starting in 2015. Byes earned through Open Trials will be reported to StarCityGames.com and are not transferable.
Players can earn multiple byes from additional Open Trial events, but a maximum of two byes can be redeemed in a single Open Series event. For a complete
list of Open Trials, please click here. - A player can have no more than two (2) byes at an Open Series event, regardless of the method used to achieve these byes.
For Open Series events held on Invitational weekends, we will use the Invitational season’s standings to determine byes. All other weekends will use the
Open season’s standings to determine byes.
8. Invitationals
In addition to the removal of byes from Invitationals, we will also be restructuring Invitational prize and point payouts. While the total amount of prize
money will remain the same ($50,000), the distribution structure will be modified to allow all Top 64 finishers to receive prizes as follows:
1st Place: $10,000 – 35 Open Points, name and likeness on a future StarCityGames.com token, SCG Players’ Championship Invitation
2nd Place: $4,000 – 30 Open Points
3rd-4th Place: $3,000 – 25 Open Points
5th-8th Place: $2,000 – 20 Open Points
9th-16th Place: $750 – 15 Open Points
17th-32nd Place: $500 – 10 Open Points
33rd-64th Place: $250 – 6 Open Points
Day 2 Competitor: 4 Open Points
Participation: 2 Open Points
All of these Invitational changes will go into effect with March 27th-29th’s Richmond Invitational.
With Modern being an Open Series main event format in 2015, Invitational formats will be either Standard/Legacy or Standard/Modern.
March 27th-29th – Richmond, VA – Standard/Legacy (Standard Top 8)
June 5th-7th – Columbus, OH at Origins – Standard/Modern (Modern Top 8)
August 28th-30th – New Jersey – Standard/Legacy (Legacy Top 8)
December 11th-13th – Seattle, WA – Standard/Modern (Standard Top 8)
9. Additional Vendors
We have already begun accepting additional vendors at select Open Series weekends, and we will continue to expand upon this in 2015.
Please contact john.taylor@starcitygames.com if you’re interested in vending at an upcoming StarCityGames.com Open Series event.
10. SCGLive
In 2014, we consolidated our SCGLive commentator roster down to a core team of five. In 2015, we’ll be further consolidating that roster down to an even
smaller core team of three. Cedric Phillips and Patrick Sullivan will be covering the majority of 2015’s Open Series/Invitationals and SCG-run Grand Prix,
while fans of Matthias Hunt can also expect to see him return to the booth in an expanded role. SCGLive will be broadcasting each $20,000 Open Series event
in its entirety, and this consolidated SCGLive roster will enable us to offer greater broadcast consistency and present more compelling storylines from
week-to-week, which we believe will result in an overall higher quality broadcast for our fans.
Thank you for your continued support of StarCityGames.com and our Organized Play programs. It’s going to be an exciting year!
Best wishes,
Pete Hoefling
President, StarCityGames.com