Ever notice odd decks taking top spots in Japanese events? Maybe you’ve noticed that some great decks aren’t converting as well as expected. There’s a strange reason for this.

It came to my attention recently that what I thought was common knowledge is actually somewhat obscure.

Basically during the WGP 2017 (the Japanese equivalent of BCS) a strange rule was put in place. In this article I’m going to give a quick explanation and then my thoughts on the top-cut system that has been in place for WGP 2017.

The System

Top 16 consists of 2 types of player

Winners

Clan representatives

Winners are defined as players who have gone undefeated.

Clan representatives are defined as players who have gone X-1 using a clan different from the winners.

That means that more of the top 16 can be compiled of clan representatives than winners (for example 5 winners = 11 clan reps). No tie breakers no scores just deck choices.

My Thoughts

Anyway if you were only here for the facts you can click away now.

Now what kind of implications does this system have? Most importantly is that this severely effects the reliability of WGP results when looking at the meta-game. It also creates false diversity and spreads misinformation.

So when you’re looking at WGP results please keep this in mind. It is always recommended that you take any top with a grain of salt and healthy cynicism is always a good thing.

Well that’s it for today, nothing fancy just a quick PSA type post since I never see this system mentioned. I hope this helps and as always…

~ Thanks for reading

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