Hélène Bergeot started her career with Wizards of the Coast in France in December, 1995; afterwards, she spent a few years in the European headquarters based in Belgium and eventually relocated to the Renton office. She is currently the director of organized play and trade marketing.

With the 2014–2015 Premier Play season in mid-swing, it's time to announce some important information regarding the 2015 World Championship, World Magic Cup Qualifiers, and the World Magic Cup.

2015 World Championship

We have made adjustments to the distribution of World Championship invitations.

For georegion invitations, Japan is now considered part of the Asia-Pacific georegion, and their slots have been aggregated.

The 2015 World Championship invitation slots are listed below:

2014 World Champion

2014–2015 Player of the Year

Captain of the 2014 World Magic Cup winning team*

Magic Online Champion

Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir Champion

Pro Tour Fate Reforged Champion

Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir Champion

Pro Tour in Vancouver 2015 Champion

Top Pro Points—North America (Four Slots)

Top Pro Points—Europe (Three Slots)

Top Pro Points—Asia-Pacific (Three Slots)

Top Pro Points—Latin America (Two Slots)

Top Pro Points in 2014–2015 Premier Play Season Grand Prix (Uncapped)

Top Pro Points—At-Large (Any remaining slots in the 24-person World Championship will be awarded to the top Pro Point finishers of that season who don't already have an invitation to the event. In the event a player qualifies for the World Championship through multiple slots listed above, those additional invitations will instead become additional at-large slots. Invitations to the World Championship do not pass down.)

What Is Changed

*The 2015 World Championship will be the last year that the World Magic Cup team-winning captain is awarded an invitation to the World Championship

North America now invites its top four Pro Point earners (it was previously two)

Europe now invites its top three Pro Point earners (it was previously two)

Asia-Pacific now invites its top three Pro Point earners (it was previously two for Asia-Pacific and two for Japan, the latter of which was folded into the Asia-Pacific georegion for this event)

A new slot was added for the player who earns the most Pro Points at Grand Prix in the 2014–2015 Premier Play season (the number of GPs that count for this slot is uncapped)

The invitation for Rookie of the Year has been removed

Why are we making these changes?

Inviting only the captain of the winning team goes against the spirit of teams competing for a prize; we therefore decided that after this year, the captain of the World Magic Cup winning team will no longer be given an invitation to the World Championship. As this was decided after the 2014 World Magic Cup, where it had been announced that Martin Müller of Team Denmark would be invited to this year's World Championship, we are not implementing this change until next year.

The shift in georegion invitations are being implemented to ensure not only that the 2015 World Championship represents the various levels of Premier Play, but also offers a fair representation of each georegion. Since North America encompasses over half the player population in Magic Premier Play, it was awarded four slots. Europe, which encompasses a little more than a quarter of the player population, was allotted three.

As the Magic community and Premier Play participation continues to grow all over Asia, it was time to roll Japan in with the Asia-Pacific georegion.

The Top Pro Points earner in Grand Prix during the 2014–2015 is a new slot that awards the player who earns the most Pro Points at GPs during the season if Pro Point awards were uncapped. It offers players who have already reached the cap on the number of Pro Point finishes they can get at a Grand Prix an incentive to continue competing at GPs if they wish. We will be tracking this stat and updating it on the Statistics page so that players are able to track their progress toward this invitation.

The Top Pro Points earner in Grand Prix during 2014–2015 replaces the Rookie of the Year slot. Instead, the Rookie of the Year will be granted Gold-level status in the Pro Players Club for the 2015–2016 Premier Play season, which we felt was a better way to award the Rookie of the Year so he or she can continue to compete on the Pro Tour without concern of possibly not being qualified. We have granted this status to Raymond Perez, Jr., the 2014–2015 Rookie of the Year.

New Location

In addition to all of this, the 2015 World Championship is going to take place at a different location and on a different weekend from the World Magic Cup. By offering our complete attention to these events exclusively on their respective weekends, we can provide better focus on what makes these two tournaments so special.

The new date for the 2015 World Championship will be August 27–30, 2015, and will now take place in Seattle, Washington, during PAX Prime, one of the largest gaming events in North America.

A major moment for the global Magic community is going to take place at PAX Prime, and moving the 2015 World Championship to PAX Prime is just one part of this global experience.

2015 World Magic Cup Qualifiers

The dates for the 2015 World Magic Cup Qualifiers (WMCQs) are set. The three weekends for WMCQs will be:

August 22–23, 2015

September 5–6, 2015

September 19–20, 2015

There will be no Grand Prix held during these weekends, so everyone has an opportunity to compete.

Formats and Length

After receiving feedback from players, we have decided to add differing formats for WMCQs. Two WMCQ weekends will be Standard Constructed, and one of the weekends will be Modern Constructed.

In addition, and as we adapt to the popularity of WMCQs, all World Magic Cup Qualifiers that are estimated to have more than nine rounds of Swiss—WMCQs which encompass 227 or more players—will be run as two-day events.

The format for each WMCQ weekend, as well as a list of which countries are to host two-day WMCQs, will be posted when the event information is published in March.

2015 World Magic Cup

The 2015 World Magic Cup, which takes place in Barcelona, Spain, on December 11–13, is undergoing some updates to which countries are eligible to compete and who is eligible to represent a country.

Malta

The Magic community in Malta has seen growth in recent years, and will be added to the list of eligible countries for the 2015 World Magic Cup. We're excited to see what Malta can do in this year's tournament!

Eligibility

We have looked closely at the national eligibility requirements for the World Magic Cup, and in order to ensure that the spirit of representing your country in a competition is preserved, we have made some adjustments.

In order to play in a WMCQ in a country—and in order to represent a country as its national champion—you must either have citizenship in that country OR you must have been a permanent resident in that country since January 1, 2014.

In addition, if you decide to change your nationality to another country, that change will be permanent.

The full details on eligible countries, the Planeswalker Points threshold per country to determine if you can compete in a WMCQ, and more are available in the current version of the Premier Event Invitation Policy.

Magic is in store for a very exciting year, and we look forward to welcoming competitors around the world as they compete for the right to represent themselves and their countries at the top level of Magic Premier Play.