Hello everyone! With only one month left in the Season, it’s time for an update on what you’re actually fighting to qualify for. Neither the Invitational nor the Last Chance Qualifier have received major changes this season, but Invitational Points got a few tweaks. So please read on, and read carefully!

The Last Chance Qualifier

The Last Chance Qualifier will now be held on Sunday, March 26th, beginning at 12pm EST. The rules for the tournament are exactly the same as a regular ETS Weekly (Swiss Tournament, cut to Top 8) with three exceptions. Firstly, the Last Chance Qualifier does NOT award Invitational Points – Points totals are locked before the Invitational. Secondly, the Last Chance Qualifier will be inviting FOUR players to the Invitational, so once you reach Top 8, win once and you’re in. Finally, players who have received an Invitational invite are not eligible to play in the Last Chance Qualifier, and will be disqualified from the LCQ if they register.

Registration for the Last Chance Qualifier opens on March 20th.

The Season Three Invitational

The Season Three Invitational will be held over two days, beginning at 12pm EST on Saturday, April 1st and continuing at 12pm EST on Sunday, April 2nd.

The Season Three Invitational uses the same format and a similar timing structure to the Season Two Invitational. Play will stop on day one after Winner’s Bracket Round 3 and after Loser’s Bracket Round 4, at which time there should be only 8 players left in the tournament. Play will begin again on Sunday with Winner’s Bracket Round 4 and Loser’s Bracket Round 5, however the matches will not occur simultaneously. Every match from this point forward will be played live on stream – all day two matches will be played live on stream. The stream for both days will be live on the aReNGeeEternal twitch stream and should begin an hour before the tournament starts.

Qualifying for the Invitational

Thirty-Two (32) players will be playing in the Season Three Invitational, and they will be invited from the following sources:

Seven (7) players earn their invites by winning a weekly tournament

Seven (7) players earn their invites by finishing second in a weekly tournament

The top Four (4) players of the Last Chance Qualifier will be invited

Fourteen (14) players will be invited based on Invitational Points

Invitational Points will lock after the final Season Three ETS Weekly on Saturday, 25th, and all invitations will be sent out by Sunday, March 26th. Invitational Points are not just a full total this Season – only your best four results, plus bonus points, will be counted. These point totals are publicly displayed on the ETS Invitational Points tracking page. Players will be invited based on Invitational Points by starting with the highest non-qualified point total, then inviting players in descending order. In the event of a points totals tie, all tied players will be invited. If we end up with more than 32 players using this method, then and only then will we determine a tiebreak method. At the time of this writing, the fourteenth highest non-qualified Point total was Ten (10) Points with 3 weeks to go, so you’re going to need at least that many points if you want to qualify!

The 14 highest non-qualified Invitational Points holders will be indicated on the Invitational Points page starting on March 12th, as will the approximate cutoff line.

Players will be formally invited on Sunday, March 26th, and have until 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, March 28th, to confirm their attendance. At this time, all players who have declined their invitation or failed to confirm their attendance will be considered not to be attending, and replacements will be invited from the remaining Invitational Points players, in descending order beginning with the highest non-qualified point total. In this way, it’s possible to qualify for the Invitational even if you’re not already invited, but I don’t recommend that you rely on this method of qualification. Replacement Players will be contacted on Wednesday, March 29th, and have Twenty-Four (24) hours to confirm their attendance.

Decklists for all Invitational Players are due at Noon EST on Friday, March 31st. No Exceptions.

Format and Seeding

The Invitational is a Thirty-Two (32) player Double Elimination tournament. Matches are played best of three even in Loser’s Bracket, with the exception of the Winner’s Finals, Loser’s Finals, and Grand Finals, which are played best of five. The player who reaches the Grand Finals through the Winner’s Bracket has Winner’s Advantage and must be defeated twice for the Loser’s Bracket player to win the tournament.

Players are seeded based on how they qualified:

Weekly Winners Weekly Finalists Last Chance Qualifier Players Invited based on Invitational Points

Players will be seeded within their qualifier ranking based on highest Invitational Points, then highest Series Points. Further ties will be broken by determining the higher seeded player randomly. A viewer’s guide will be available once all the players have confirmed their attendance.

Season Three Invitational Prizing ($250 prize pool)

First Place: The title of Season Three Invitational Champion (which auto-qualifies this player for the Midseason Major and World Championships), the Champion Discord badge, a cash prize of $80, and 12 Series Points.

Second Place: A cash prize of $60 and 9 Series Points.

Third Place: A cash prize of $40 and 7 Series Points.

Fourth Place: A cash prize of $20 and 5 Series Points.

Fifth and Sixth Place: A cash prize of $15 and 4 Series Points.

Seventh and Eighth Place: A cash prize of $10 and 3 Series Points.

Ninth through Twelfth Place: 1 Series Point.

What are Series Points?

Full Rules

The full rules for these events can be found on the ETS Rules page. We have made a few changes since the last Invitational, summarized here.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

