The third ETS season of 2018 is coming to a close, and a couple of points are close to being general knowledge but not explicitly down in print anywhere. Well, no longer!

Final Week of the ETS

This is the final week of the regular season for Season Three, and that makes this final tournament a big one. The August 25th tournament is the last opportunity to earn IP, which is important for Invitational Qualification, End of Season SP, and Team Series Playoff Qualification. It will also be the last regular weekly event for two weeks, until Season 4 begins on September 15th.

Qualifying for the Invitational

Six players have already qualified for the Season Three Invitational by winning a weekly event, including Mouche who won twice. The next twenty one (21) spots will be awarded to players with the highest Invitational Points that have not already qualified. In the event of a tie, all tied players will be invited. The final four (4) invites will go to players who Top 4 the Last Chance Qualifier (details below).

Invites will be sent out immediately after point calculations are completed on August 25th. Players who are tied for an invite are notified of this and are allowed to participate in the Last Chance Qualifier. Players will have until Tuesday, August 28th to accept their invites, upon which time additional invites will be sent out if necessary to bring the total number of participants up to 32. If players remain tied, they will play tiebreaker matches on Friday night using their submitted Invitational decklists.

The Last Chance Qualifier

The Last Chance Qualifier is the final open event of the season. It operates similar to a regular weekly event, with a similar start time and ruleset, however there are four major changes.

It takes place on a Sunday (August 26th in this case).

It does not award points of any kind.

Play stops once we reach Top 4. All players who reach Top 4 receive Invitational Invites

Players who are already qualified for the Invitational may not play in the Last Chance Qualifier (because tied players are not guaranteed an invite, they are allowed to play in the Last Chance Qualifier)

The Season Three Invitational

Ruleset

Deck Submission: Players submit three decks for this tournament. Usual rules apply – minumum size is 75 cards, with an optional 5 card unique market. However, the decks must additionally be non-power Unified. No more than four copies of a non power card can be present across all three decks. Both Seek Power and Petition are considered power cards and exempt from the Unified rules.

Matches: Matches are played in the “Invitational Conquest” format. The first player to win 3 games will win the match (so its best of five). First, each player chooses one of their three decks blind, then they play the first game. The player that wins that first game has their deck eliminated, and then both players choose their next deck, once again blind. The winning player always switches, since winning decks are eliminated for the match, but the losing player may keep their previous deck or switch.

Note about blind picking decks: The suggested way to do this is to choose the deck you wish to play during the challenge screen, then inform the opponent which deck it is once you are in game. Games are not intended to be played blind, just deck selection, so you must make your opponent aware of which of your decks you’re playing.

Force Play/Draw: From the Invitational, the player who lost the previous game in a match will start first in the next game. Not may start first, will start first – the player does not get a choice of play/draw. In order to facilitate this, it will sometimes be necessary to concede and rechallenge until the correct configuration is reached. This should occur before redrawing, but after informing your opponent what deck you’re playing. As this is the first time implementing this rule, please be patient with both your opponent and the Tournament Organizers.

Format

Day One: Day One will be a five round “Invitational Swiss”. Players who win 3 matches will advance to Day 2, while players who lose 3 matches will be eliminated.

Day Two: Day Two will be a sixteen person single elimination tournament. No ruleset changes will occur between day one and day two.

Invitational Prizing – $500 Prize Pool plus special prizes provided by Inked Gaming

What are Series Points?

1st Place: The winner will receive the title of Invitational Champion, a custom 2018 Invitational Winner hoodie, 12 Series Points, a cash prize of $200 USD, and an Invitational Mousepad.

2nd Place: The runner up receives 10 Series Points, a cash prize of $100 USD, and an Invitational Mousepad.

3rd/4th Place: Receive 8 Series Points, a cash prize of $50 USD, and an Invitational Mousepad.

5th through 8th Place: Receive 6 Series Points, a cash prize of $25 USD, and an Invitational Mousepad.

9th through 16th Place: Receive 4 Series Points.

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