2020–21 Players Tour Season

The 2020–21 Players Tour season is the twenty-sixth Players Tour season (formerly known as the Pro Tour).

Description
This season was to be the first regular season of the revamped Players Tour after the 2020 partial season. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused cancellations and rescheduling. The season was supposed to start on August 7–9, 2020 with MagicFest Colombus, USA and to culminate in the 2021 World Championship. Due to the Coronovirus induced rescheduling, the start of the season was postponed to the fall of 2020 (October 24). It was also announced that Wizards of the Coast would shift its focus to shorter length seasons with a structure that provides more flexibility so that they can quickly pivot and adapt in the current global landscape.

While the global pandemic at the start of the season closed off traditional pathways for competitive tabletop Magic, Wizards of the Coast structured it to allow the flexibility to add tabletop opportunities. Only as it becomes safe to do so, they will begin to add qualification paths starting with local game stores and building over time to larger regional events.

=Esports= This season is focused on Esports. As all tabletop events are suspended, the play would be done through MTG Arena and the lack of tabletop qualifiers meant severely reduced invitees. Subsequently, the experimental regional Players Tours from the previous season were dropped, and all players around the world competed in the same tournament from their homes. Coverage was developed through both players streaming their gameplay through to a broadcasting host. Due to Arena's inability to support a secured tournament environment for drafting, Limited was removed as a format and replaced with Historic.

Leagues
In this season, MPL and Rivals League players will play against other players within their leagues in recurring tournaments — League Weekends — where each match wins awards one point toward their league standings. While all players were required to learn streaming software to share their screens, they were also encouraged to stream their play while not featured, giving viewers unprecedented access to nearly 300 matches of high-level gameplay per weekend. Final league standings at the end of the season, after seven total League Weekends, will place players into postseason tournaments — the MPL Gauntlet and Rivals Gauntlet — to determine the new invitees to the following season's MPL and Rivals League. The four highest-finishing Challengers — non-league players — of each split's Championship will qualify for the postseason Rivals Gauntlet for the opportunity to join the MPL or Rivals League. All competitors — MPL, Rivals League, and Challengers — who continue to succeed in their events across the entire 2020–2021 season will receive the best opportunities for league promotion and invitations to the next World Championship.

Qualification
Ranked Seasons are monthly periods for Ranked Play on MTG Arena. You can choose from several competitive Ranked Play formats to advance in rank, and finishing in the top 1,200 Mythic ranked players — the highest-ranked players — for a Ranked Season unlocks an invitation to a future qualifying event. Challengers are non-league players rising through the pathways of Magic Esports. Challengers earn qualification to rising levels of competition, beginning with Ranked Seasons on MTG Arena and leading all the way to an invitation the MPL or Rivals League.

In addition to monthly Ranked Play on MTG Arena, qualification opportunities are offered through previous competitive success, Magic Online Qualifiers, and sponsored events (e.g. the Premier Series, Red Bull Untapped). Qualification is also possible via the Arena Open or through Players Tour Online events.

Qualifier Weekend
Monthly Ranked Play on MTG Arena earns invitations to monthly Qualifier Weekends. Each monthly Qualifier Weekend is a two-day event in MTG Arena, using a best-of-three Constructed format for both days. Top-finishing players from each Qualifier Weekend are invited to the relevant Split Championship.

Splits
The 2020-2021 Magic Esports season is composed of three splits, which are several months of competitive play tied to an upcoming set release. Each split is a three-step qualification progression leading all the way to that split's Championship.

In total for all League Weekends, MPL and Rivals League players will compete in 84 matches — a maximum total of 84 points — across seven weekends.

There's a $400,000 prize pool divided across the three splits with $50,000 each for the MPL and Rivals League, as well as an end-of-season bonus of $50,000 for each league.

Split Championships
Three Split Championships each form the culmination of a Split, featuring a $250,000 prize pool with the remote play on MTG Arena. Invited are the top players from Qualifier Weekends, partner events, 2020 Partial Season events, and all members of the MPL and Rivals League. The Split Championships are premier events, in stature which is comparable to the Players Tour Finals or the former Pro Tour tournaments.

On top of League Weekends, MPL and Rivals players will earn points toward their league standings from each split's Championship:
 * 9 wins earn 1 point toward league standings (the same as winning one match during a League Weekend).
 * 10 wins earn 2 points toward league standings.
 * 11 wins earn 3 points toward league standings.
 * Making Top 8 of a split's Championship earns 4 points toward league standings.

Additionally, the eight best-finishing Challengers (or those that finish with a record of 11-4 or better, whichever is greater) in each split's Championship are invited to the postseason Challenger Gauntlet for the opportunity to compete for MPL or Rivals League invitation and qualification to Magic World Championship XXVII.

Zendikar Rising Split

 * Zendikar Rising Split featured two League Weekends of Swiss-style, best-of-three, competitive play.
 * October 24-25 (Standard)
 * November 7-8 (Standard)

Zendikar Rising Championship

 * December 4–6, 2020 (Standard and Historic).

184 players, from the MPL and Rivals League to top qualifying competitors through Qualifier Weekends, Magic Online Qualifiers and beyond, were competing. The Championship featured a $250,000 prize pool. Friday and Saturday each featured four rounds of Standard. Friday and Saturday each also featured a combined seven rounds of Historic, and Sunday's Top 8 double-elimination playoff was exclusively Historic. On the weekend, however, Mike Sigrist withdrew from the competition to better support his family during COVID exposure.

The Standard was effectively solved, as it was two months since the Omnath banning. The field boiled down to Green Lovestruck Beast decks in Gruul/Temur Adventures and Mono-Green Food, against Dimir Control and Rogues. The significant power disparity Throne of Eldraine had over the other sets was on full display, as the most popular 70% of decks were powered by build-arounds in that set. Historic, too, had little change from the previous metagame, with Mayhem Devil, Uro and Muxus decks making up the top 70%. At the end of Day One, it was Autumn Burchett leading the way with Gruul Adventures that smashed their way to a perfect 7-0 record. Eleven players including Hall of Famers Martin Jůza and Gabriel Nassif, along with Pro Tour champions Jan-Moritz Merkel and Ivan Floch, lurked just behind at 6-1.

On Day 2 Burchett and Merkel both took early losses in Historic, with veteran Scottish player Bradley Barclay taking the lead at 10-1 at the end of Round 11; however, the former two were the first to lock in their places in Round 14. With no permitted intentional draws, the 11-3 players were forced to play, with Nassif and Barclay winning, and debutant Tomáš Pokorný holding with strong breakers and Ondrej Strasky pushed out. The final three spaces were taken by Brad Nelson over Tim Wan, Andrea Mengucci over Luis Salvatto and Luca Magni over Matt Sperling. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa and Jean-Emmanuel Depraz made up the remaining 11-4 players with Strasky.

On Sunday, Brad Barclay won the Championship with Azorius Control, defeating Autumn Burchett on Mono-Red Goblins two matches to zero in the Grand Finals. Barclay had entered the Top 8’s Historic double elimination bracket as the third seed, while Burchett had entered as the first seed. Both players made their way through the upper bracket and met in the upper finals, where Barclay won two games to one, knocking Burchett down to the lower bracket finals. Andrea Mengucci, whom Burchett had defeated in the first round of the Top 8, worked his way through the lower bracket with Four-Color Midrange to meet Burchett in the lower finals for a rematch and a spot in the Grand Finals. But history repeated itself and Burchett triumphed once again to advance to the Grand Finals. But in the Grand Finals, they were defeated again by Barclay.

Kaldheim Split

 * Kaldheim Split featured two League Weekends.
 * January, 16-17 (Historic)
 * February, 27-28 (Standard)

Kaldheim Championship

 * March 26-28, 2021 (Standard and Historic)

211 players joined in competition for the Kaldheim championship weekend. In Standard, the addition of Faceless Haven reshaped the aggro side of the format, giving Red and White a metagame share, which loosened Rogues' grip on the metagame and consequently opened Yorion, Sky Nomad big mana decks - among them, the frontrunner Sultai Emergent Ultimatum. Alrund's Epiphany was one of the Ultimatum targets, and it also helped the classic Temur Adventures shell that persisted from rotation. Finally, Cycling made a resurgence with the full Pathway manabase and a field less dedicated to Embercleave. For Historic, the Jund Sacrifice variants retained a leading position at 31%, kept at bay from dominance by Yasharn, Implacable Earth splashes. Orhzov Auras took second place, with every other deck less than 10% in share. Despite struggling in league weekends, Andrew Cuneo took the overnight 7-0 spot, joined by Arne Huschenbeth.

After the second Standard run on Day 2, Cuneo and Huschenbeth posted mediocre 2-2 records, with Shahar Shenhar running up from 6-1 to take the lead. Eight players were at 1 loss or less, with League members Chris Botelho, Javier Dominguez and Shota Yasooka among them. Shenhar kept his lead and made 12 wins on round 13, followed by Yasooka in round 14. For the final round, the three previous 11-3 players Huschenbeth, Dominguez, and Riku Kumagai advanced despite two losses between them, with Cuneo clawing back up by defeating Kumagai. The final two spots were taken by Noriyuki Mori over Botelho and Grzegorz Kowalski over Keisuke Sato. Márcio Carvalho, Austin Bursavich, Evan Kaplan, Joao Moreira made up the remaining 11-4 players.

On Sunday, two decks stood out from the other six, with Riku Kumagai's Mono-Red and Arne Huschenbeth's Rogues being the most proactive against the six Green-based midrange decks. Cuneo and Yasooka's Sultai Ultimatum decks fell quickly, while Huschenbeth's worst matchup in Kumagai was removed after facing the Lovestruck Beast decks of Dominguez and Mori. Huschenbeth's Rogues subsequently took the first final spot over Dominguez. The match between Shenhar and Kowalski hit technical problems when Shenhar's system crashed on an extremely crucial turn, forcing two restarts before Kowalski ultimately won. In the grand final, Sultai Ultimatum's significant disadvantage against Rogues made for a crisp ending with Huschenbeth taking a straight 4-0 victory against Kowalski.

Strixhaven Split
Strixhaven Split features three League Weekends, one of these taking place after the Strixhaven Championship. While the previous two splits had been designed for full round-robin play, the Strixhaven split is seeded into Swiss pairing pods, and every three rounds the pods are repaired. Each weekend the best and worst players lock in their spots for the next season.
 * April 10–11, 2021 (Standard/Historic)
 * The MPL was split into three pods of eight, and the Rivals League had five pods of eight and one pod of six. This weekend, Ondřej Stráský overtook Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa for the first Worlds place with a near-perfect 11-1 record. Chris Kvartek, Piotr Głogowski and Raphaël Lévy were the first relegated to Rivals. On the Rivals side, Eli Kassis took out the narrow race over Matt Sperling, with Joel Larsson, Allison Warfield, Beatriz Grancha, John Rolf and Ben Stark were relegated to Challengers.


 * May 15–16, 2021 (Standard/Historic).
 * A bug leading to an incorrect interaction between transforming double-faced cards led to all colored DFCs from Ixalan block, plus Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, to be suspended for this event only.
 * With the winners and relegated players out of competition, the MPL was split into two groups of ten and the Rivals League in four groups of ten, cut by standings, with reseeding every three rounds. This weekend, leader Gabriel Nassif stumbled, enough not only for Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa to run away with the first place and the second Worlds invite, but also for Seth Manfield to overtake Nassif. In the Rivals League, Matt Sperling and Stanislav Cifka battled in a tiebreaker match, with Cifka winning the Worlds slot. Relegated this week were Brian Braun-Duin, Autumn Burchett, and Shahar Shenhar from the MPL, and Ryuzo Fujie, Matt Nass, Greg Orange, Matias Leveratto, and Lucas Esper Berthoud from the Rivals League. Brent Vos and Eli Loveman were also removed from the final Split weekend, being locked for Rivals League 2021.

Strixhaven Championship
The Strixhaven Championship took place prior to the third Strixhaven Split League Weekend, ensuring league play determines final league standings and placement in postseason playoff events. With John Rolf not present, 250 players came together for the last chance to qualify for the last League in Organised Play. For Standard, Strixhaven was unimpactful, with most decks getting fewer than 10 cards over their full list, and not even the lands being played. Emergent Ultimatum</c> decks, Mono-Red, Rogues and Gruul Adventures got little to no changes, though Gruul evolved away from a Landfall-The Great Henge</c> list to a Magda, Brazen Outlaw</c>-Treasure focus. White decks made good use of Elite Spellbinder</c>, while what could be considered the most influenced by Strixhaven was an Izzet Dragons list with Expressive Iteration</c> and Galazeth Prismari</c>. Historic was a significantly different story, though again it was less to do with actual Strixhaven cards than the Mystical Archive. The Thassa's Oracle</c> ban allowed for the metagame to be less solved, though the second and third-placed decks simply took over. These were Arclight Phoenix</c> and Jeskai Control, with the Jeskai Time Warp</c> decks emerging as a new contender. All of these were powered by Brainstorm</c>. Previous top decks fell sharply, with Jund Food holding on with only 7% share and Orzhov Auras shrinking to one player; other successful decks in Selesnya Collected Company</c> and Gruul Aggro now live in the 5% share range; Growth Spiral</c> decks summed to fewer than five players; and the major aggro archetype is now mono-black. At the end of Day 1, two players came through undefeated, Logan Nettles and Seth Manfield.
 * June 4-6, 2021 (Standard and Historic)

Manfield and Nettles took the first two slots in the Top 8 in round 14, both going 4-2 before their final win. With nearest competitors Reid Duke and Gabriel Nassif missing out on Day 2, Manfield led the MPL by six points, nearly guaranteeing a Worlds spot. Matt Sperling, top competitor of the Rivals league, also made Top 8 after round 14 with strong breakers at 11-3. Raphael Levy and challengers John Girardot and Matti Kuisma were in the same position. In Round 15, David Inglis beat Kuisma, and Sam Pardee defeated Matt Nass, overtaking the 11-3 Brent Vos, who lost to Girardot. The other 11-4 players were No Ah Ma, Martin Juza, Rei Sato, Yuta Takahashi, Luis Salvatto, and Lars Luckhaupt.

On the final day, the Top 8 played out in Historic, a format shaken up repeatedly in this month with the release of the Mystical Archive. The top decks of Historic were entirely Blue-Red based, with only Manfield having more than a splash of white. His Jeskai Control deck took a quick exit, while the Izzet Phoenix decks only made one win to four losses against Turns - the last four matches were all mirrors. Sam Pardee fended off John Girardot three times over the Top 8 for the championship trophy.

Strixhaven Split (final League Weekend)

 * Final League Weekend of the 2020–21 Players Tour Season
 * July 3–4, 2021 (Standard/Historic)

2020–21 Challenger Gauntlet

 * August 6-8, 2021 (Standard and Historic)

The 24 competitors of the 2021 Challenger Gauntlet are invited from each 2020-2021 season Split Championship based on final standings:
 * The eight (8) highest finishing Challengers in the event; or
 * The Challengers who finished the event with a record of 11-4 or better (whichever of the two is the greater number of Challengers).
 * Top 4 receive an invitation to Magic World Championship XXVII and the MPL for the following season.
 * Players that finish 5th through 12th receive invitations to the Rivals Gauntlet.
 * All other Challengers will receive an invitation to a future event in the 2021–22 Players Tour Season.

2020–21 Rivals Gauntlet

 * September 2-5, 2021 (Standard and Historic)

The 24 participants for the 2020-21 Rivals League Gauntlet were defined as follows:
 * Participants
 * 13th through 16th in MPL standings from the end of the season.
 * 21st through 32nd in Rivals League standings from the end of the season.
 * 5th through 12th places from the Challenger Gauntlet.


 * Results
 * The winner qualifies for Magic World Championship XXVII.
 * Top 4 receive an invitation to the 2021–22 Magic Pro League.
 * All other players will be invited to the 2021–22 Rivals League.

2020–21 MPL Gauntlet

 * September 2-5, 2021 (Standard and Historic)

The 24 participants for the 2020-21 Magic Pro League Gauntlet were defined as follows:
 * Participants
 * 5th through 12th in MPL standings from the end of the season.
 * 5th through 20th in Rivals League standings from the end of the season.


 * Results
 * The winner and two runner-ups of the MPL Gauntlet will qualify for the 2021 World Championship.
 * Top 8 receive an invitation to the 2021–22 Magic Pro League.
 * All other players will be invited to the 2021–22 Rivals League.

Mythic Invitationals
The October 22–25, 2020 Mythic Invitational – Zendikar Rising was canceled, and no other Invitationals were scheduled. The Split Championships of this season took a similar spot in the schedule.

=Tabletop= Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all tabletop events for this season were canceled.

Grand Prix
As a consequence of the Coronavirus pandemic all Grand Prix of the 2020 Players Tour Season were canceled and MagicFest Online was created. It is unclear if and how tabletop Grand Prix will return.

Feeding in the Players Tour Finals (Series 4)

 * July 31 -August 2, 2020: MagicFest Strasbourg, France (Pioneer) (canceled)
 * August 7–9, 2020: MagicFest Columbus, USA (Modern) (canceled)
 * August 14–16, 2020: MagicFest Kobe, Japan (canceled)
 * August 21–23, 2020: MagicFest Bologna, Italy (canceled)
 * August 27–30, 2020: MagicFest Las Vegas, USA (canceled)
 * September 11–13, 2020: MagicFest Montreal, Canada (canceled)
 * October 8-11, 2020: MagicFest Washington DC, USA (canceled)
 * October 15–18, 2020: MagicFest Barcelona, Spain (canceled)
 * October 16–18, 2020: MagicFest Sydney, Australia (canceled)
 * October 23–25, 2020: MagicFest Milwaukee, USA (canceled)
 * October 30-Nov. 1, 2020: MagicFest Budapest, Hungary (canceled)
 * November 6–8, 2020: MagicFest Anaheim, USA (canceled)
 * November 13–15, 2020:	MagicFest Utrecht, Netherlands (canceled)
 * November 20–22, 2020: MagicFest Memphis, USA (canceled)

Feeding in the Players Tour Finals (Series 5)

 * November 27–29, 2020: MagicFest Nagoya, Japan (canceled)
 * December 4–6, 2020: MagicFest Hartford, USA (canceled)
 * December 11–13, 2020: MagicFest London, UK (canceled)
 * December 18–20, 2020: MagicFest Portland, USA (canceled)

Series 3

 * October 9-11, 2020: Players Tour Americas - Washington DC, USA (canceled )
 * October 16–18, 2020: Players Tour Europe - Barcelona, Spain (canceled)
 * October 17–18, 2020: Players Tour Asia-Pacific: Sydney, Australia (canceled)
 * Players Tour Finals (Series 3) (canceled)

Series 4
Canceled

Series 5
Canceled