The Invitational Tournament is the capstone tournament of each ETS Season, each one of only five premiere tournaments per year. Unlikely weekly tournaments, you must be invited to attend, and such invitations are hotly contested throughout the season. Additionally, they feature major prize pools for the players to fight for – $500 for this Invitational alone! Each Invitational features thirty two of the best tournament players from the current season and two days of high stakes Eternal Card Game action!

More general information on Invitational Tournaments

ETS 2018 – Season One Invitational

The Season One Invitational will be held over two days, beginning at 11am EDT on Saturday, March 17th and continuing at 11am EDT on Sunday, March 18th.

Tournament Format

Invitational Tournaments are two day events that feature two tournament formats. On the first day, a modified Swiss tournament takes place with 32 players. On the second day, a single elimination tournament takes place with 16 players to determine the winner.

Tournaments use the same basic ruleset as all other ETS tournaments.

Day 1 – Modified Swiss

Day 1 is a 32 person, 7 round Swiss tournament with a modified rulest. In a regular Swiss tournament, players will play all 7 rounds. However, in this format, players are removed from the Swiss event once they reach either 4 wins or 4 losses (ties are not possible). If a player reaches 4 wins first, they qualify for Day 2. If a player reaches 4 losses first, they are eliminated from the tournament. Otherwise, the rules (including pairings) are the same as any other Swiss event – play is best of three games with sideboarding after game 1.

Day 2 – Top 16 Single Elimination

On the second day, its down to the wire – players play in a single elimination tournament to determine the winner. Seeding is randomized and has no basis in Day 1 results. Once a player loses, they are eliminated. In Top 16, games shift to best of five with sideboarding after the second game. Only one match in the round of 16 will be broadcast, but all matches from Top 8 and beyond will be played live on stream.

Prizing – $500 Prize Pool

What are Series Points?

1st Place: The winner will receive the title of Invitational Champion, an invitation to the 2018 All Star Event, 12 Series Points, and a cash prize of $200 USD.

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

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

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

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

Who’s Playing?

Childroland joins World Champion Camat0 and Player of the Year Unearthly as the three returning World Championship players at this Invitational. SP Point Leader and 2018 All Star Candidate SecondBlue headlines an array of talented rookies who have broken into the scene with a huge splash, including Farodsbro and NiamsteR who have three top 8s each this season. Popular streamers like ManuS and TinMan mix with Team League regulars like BruisedByGod, Missingtoez, TonyGeeee, and Kangbreath. All the big names in the ETS scene right now will be playing, or wish they were!

Country Codes

Team Legend ET - Eternal Titans SPG - Seek Power Gaming OND - Owls and Dragons TGP - The Great Parliament EWC - EternalWarcry TRS - Team RankStar

Top 8 Predictions

For this invitational, two RNGEternal members wanted to share their predictions for the players they think will make day two and Top 8. As always, these predictions are just for fun! There are 32 players at the Invitational, and 16 make day two, but we’ve chosen to pick Top 8 players rather than Top 16 to make it less of a coin flip. Players are listed in alphabetical order.

aReNGee’s Top 8 Predictions

BruisedByGod – BBG has been putting up some numbers unheard of since Camat0’s prime – with a 70% winrate in the regular season and four sweeps in Team League. He has shown dominance with a variety of midrange decks and has a new metagame to pick apart – if he can assemble the right list he’ll be unstoppable. camat0 – While not the force of nature he was last year, Camat0’s “weak” season is still a few steps above average. Finding his comfort zone again with a return to removal pile, will camat0 be able to adjust to yet another meta shift? I think so. He’s not our defending World Champion by accident. Farodsbro – Fans who follow these predictions will know I’m a sucker for consistency, and Farodsbro has three Top 8s in six attempts. Our second ranked rookie is well positioned for this tournament and I think he’ll go far. herad – It turns out I’m also a sucker for the underdog. herad played in his first tournament last weekend, but he Top 8’d the ETS and then turned around and won his berth at the LCQ. Winning out on back to back days is exactly what you want to do at the Invitational – let’s see if herad can put it together again! Kangbreath – Kangbreath has only played four weeks, but has two Top 8s to show for it. He made larger waves in Team League – this is a player who hasn’t show us his true depth yet. Missingtoez – Missingtoez went from nobody to potential Worlds player at a single Invitational with a very deep run last year. Only a countrywide power outage could keep him away then – assuming he can stay connected to the game, Missingtoez is a player to watch out for. SecondBlue – SecondBlue smashed numerous single season records, played in three finals, which is unheard of since the days of twelve person tournaments, and happens to also be our Season One All Star. That’s a pretty good resume, and I anticipate a big Invitational finish being added to that list. Unearthly – Our Player of the Year has an “off season,” with no wins and only three Top 8s. There may not be anyone in the ETS better when it comes to mastery of a single deck – if Argenport holds up he’ll make Top 8 easily. It’s what comes afterwards that has always been the problem…



rekenner’s Top 8 Predictions BruisedByGod – So, BBG’s performance in Year 1 was good, but it wasn’t until Team League and Season 1 of 2018 that we really had to wonder – Is BruisedByGod a description of himself or a description of what he’s doing to his opponents? He’s proven to be a great deckbuilder and has one of the highest winrates of any of our players this season. I think he’s a shoe-in. camat0 – This isn’t quite Worlds, but camat0 still has a title to defend. He’s had a medium season, overall, though he did clench a win, bumping him up to his fourth tournament win and the sole record holder for most weekly wins at 3. Still, while this might be a “slump” season for him, it’s still been a good season, and if AP or FJS are back in the meta, camat0 will know how to win with them – or beat them. childroland – Another returning Worlds player, roland’s been known as an aggro player, though he’s sometimes dipped his toes into another deck here or there, I expect him to return to his roots – and either come up with a way to get around the Hailstorm menace, or just to take advantage of a meta that might become too inbred with things like Rain of Frogs and 4 cost removal running rampant. Danibor – Another player from Year 1 that hasn’t broken out until 2018, Danibor proved himself this season on a deck that many players have dismissed out of hand – Icaria Blue, as his answer to the Argenport Mid “menace”. With the meta possibly slowing down, and AP Mid returning, will Danibor’s Control mastery bring him to a Top 8 Finish? Lv13David – Another vet of Closed Beta, David’s been around ETS in a bit of a scattershot way. However, he’s made his name over the years as We’ve had 1.5 weeks of Dead Reckoning and only 1 full ETS event, and I think David can take advantage of this unrefined meta. Muxosk – Another rookie, but one that’s made his way to a safeish but maybe unimpressive 20 points. However, he did it mostly on the back of fairly unique creations. I’m favoring brewers for this list, and he’s another one that’s impressed me. SecondBlue – Our Rookie of the Season… and also the new holder of 4 Single Season records in the ETS Hall of Fame. SecondBlue is in competition for most impressive single season of any player of any season, and he’s done it in the season with the toughest competition. There’s a capstone he’s missing, and that’s a win – or will his name herald another not-quite-there placement? Unearthly – The curse is broken… kinda. Unearthly has tasted being in the finals of a Premiere Tournament once. He’s still hunting down that elusive win, and he’s hungry. While this season has been lackluster by Unearthly’s standards – only 3 Top 8s – anyone that thinks Unearthly isn’t in contention for being the best player in the game is crazy. I imagine he intends to prove it.

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