Mike Rosenberg is a writer and gamer and has been part of the Magic text coverage team since 2011. He joined Wizards as organized play’s content specialist in June 2014.

Pro Tour 25th Anniversary in Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 3–5 is more than an $850,000 team event. It's also the tournament that will decide two big things:

The field of 24 players for the 2018 Magic: The Gathering World Championship, which takes place September 21–23 in Las Vegas, Nevada

The two teams that will be part of the Team Series Championship, which will take place on Sunday, September 23 at the World Championship

Back in May, we revealed the format for the 2018 World Championship. Today, we're revealing the format for the Team Series Championship: Team Sealed . . . with a twist.

Guilds of Ravnica Team Sealed at the Team Series Championship

The final two teams in the 2017–18 Pro Tour Team Series as of the conclusion of Pro Tour 25th Anniversary will be among the first in the world to open up some packs of Guilds of Ravnica, as Team Sealed using the not-yet-released new set will be the spotlight format to determine the 2017–18 Team Series Champions.

How This Will Work

The release of Guilds of Ravnica is October 5, 2018, and the 2018 World Championship takes place two weeks before release and one week before the set's official Prerelease. This makes the Team Series Championship one of your first looks at the brand-new set before Prerelease time.

As such, a few things during the Guilds of Ravnica preview season are going to look a little different:

The full Card Image Gallery for Guilds of Ravnica will be posted on DailyMTG on Wednesday, September 19, rather than the traditional Friday before Prerelease weekend when the full CIG has typically gone live.

The LoadingReadyRun Pre-Prerelease will be taking place on Wednesday, September 19, rather than on the weekend.

On-Hand Preparation

Team Series competitors will be given at least a full day's worth of time in a private room with a case of Guilds of Ravnica to be able to build, test, and discuss all things Guilds of Ravnica in preparation for the Team Series Championship. They'll also have access to print-outs of the full card image gallery during the day of preparation.

Note that competitors will not be allowed to take the product with them when they leave the room, and that all product will stay with tournament officials if team members need to leave or have concluded for the day.

The Build and the Championship Series

Both the deck building and the matches for the Team Series Championship will take place on Sunday, September 23.

The play format for the Team Series Championship this year will match 2017's format. Both teams will split into two groups of three, building Team Sealed decks, with each of the two groups building three decks for the players in their group from twelve packs of Guilds of Ravnica boosters.

The two teams will then face off against each other on Sunday of the 2018 World Championship in best-two-of-three team matches. The two teams will select one of their groups to compete first, and the other groups will compete in the second match. Should the series be tied 1-1 after two team matches, a third tiebreaker match will be played between the two winning groups from the previous two matches.

August 3–5 Determines All

The Team Series Championship competitors—as well as the 24 players who will compete at the World Championship—will all be decided during Pro Tour 25th Anniversary. Tune in to twitch.tv/magic starting Thursday, August 2, to see who will emerge triumphant from the million-dollar weekend!