Source

Earn an invitation to the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour!

Compete in the San Diego Superdraft!

Play the Game, See the World!

For over 15 years, Magic players have participated in Pro Tour Qualifier tournaments with a single dream—play the best card game in the world on the world's largest stage. Now, that dream lives online: Magic Online Pro Tour Qualifier tournaments are here!

Magic Online Pro Tour Qualifier (Pro Tour–San Diego)

TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE: At the designated start time (see above chart), the first of a minimum of 2 "PTQ Shootout" tournaments will begin. Subsequent Shootout tournaments will start several minutes afterward (usually around 20 minutes, but may vary). Each Shootout tournament will be 33 players minimum, 512 players maximum. Players may NOT enter more than one Shootout tournament for any one Pro Tour Qualifier, but are free to enter whichever Shootout tournament they prefer.

In the following situations, all involved accounts will be disqualified and no entry fees will be refunded:
1. A single account is entered into more than one Shootout tournament for a single Pro Tour Qualifier.
2. Multiple accounts owned by the same person are entered in a single Shootout tournament.

Each Shootout tournament will be 6 rounds. All players with 5 or more wins will qualify for the PTQ Finals event, starting approximately 1 hour after the completion of the last Shootout event (exact start time of the PTQ Finals event will be announced upon that event's creation). Players will be responsible for entering the PTQ Finals event if qualified. No compensation will be offered to players who fail to enter the PTQ Finals event after qualifying.

For Limited PTQs, players will build a new sealed deck for the PTQ Finals tournament. For Constructed PTQs, players MAY, but do not have to, play a different deck in the Shootout and PTQ Finals tournaments.

The number of rounds in the PTQ Finals tournament will be based on the number of entrants (which may be less than the number of qualified players). After the last Swiss round, the top 8 players will advance to a single elimination playoff to determine a winner.

TIME: Deckbuilding for the Shootout tournament and the sealed deck portion of the PTQ finals tournament will be 30 minutes. Deckbuilding for the PTQ Finals top 8 booster draft will be 10 minutes. All rounds will be 50 minutes.

LOCATION: Premier Events room.

ADMISSION: 30 Event Tickets (all product will be supplied)

PRODUCT PROVIDED: 6 Magic 2010 boosters or 6 Zendikar boosters (see schedule). The Top 8 booster draft format will be 3 Magic 2010 or 3 Zendikar boosters (see schedule).

PRIZE SUPPORT:

Prizes are awarded for the PTQ Finals tournament only.

For Magic Online Player Rewards purposes, each Shootout tournament and the PTQ Finals tournament will count as separate events.

Pro Tour Qualifier Eligibility
Invitations to the Pro Tour (including those awarded on Magic Online) are governed by the Magic: The Gathering Premier Event Invitation Policy. The latest version can be viewed here.

Players who already hold invitations to Pro Tour–San Diego may not compete in individual-format Qualifier tournaments (including Magic Online Qualifiers for Pro Tour–San Diego) that feed into Pro Tour–San Diego.

For a list of players invited to Pro Tour–San Diego, click here.

Players that compete in Qualifier tournaments (including Magic Online Qualifier tournaments) for which they already hold an invitation will be subject to appropriate DCI penalties, up to and including suspension.

Important information regarding event crashes for the PTQs
If, in the sole judgment of Wizards of the Coast and its representatives, a system error, tournament or rules bug, or other issue has significantly compromised the integrity of the event, Wizards of the Coast retains the right to modify the tournament structure as needed to maintain as fair and competitive an experience as possible for all players.

If a Shootout tournament fails to continue past a certain round, and at least 4 rounds have been completed, Wizards may elect to end the Shooutout tournament early and invite all players with no more than 1 loss to the PTQ Finals event. No player with 2 or more losses shall receive any compensation in this case.

Superdraft (Pro Tour–San Diego)

START TIME: TBA. This event will be scheduled around the San Diego Pro Tour events so that registered players will be able to compete in both events.

LOCATION: Live event at Pro Tour–San Diego

FORMAT: TBA

ADMISSION: FREE (admission limited to Pro Tour–San Diego online qualifier winners; all product will be supplied)

PRIZE SUPPORT: Prizes paid as follows:

Players must have a signed waiver and consent form to compete in the Pro Tour–San Diego Superdraft. Forms can be downloaded here and will be available onsite.
Minors must have a parent or guardian's signature on these forms. Minors will not be able to register or play unless we receive a waiver signed by a parent or guardian. No exceptions!
Bring these forms with you to registration. We will make forms available for competitors at registration, if necessary.
To register, all participants must present one of the following forms of identification:

• a driver's license, or
• a passport, or
• a copy of a birth certificate and photo IDs (school IDs are acceptable).

OTHER RULES, TERMS, AND CONDITIONS
During the tournaments, Wizards of the Coast staff (marked with the Wizards logo beside their online name) may ask players for their name and/or contact information. Do not give out your information to anyone who is not Wizards of the Coast Staff (marked with the Wizards logo beside their online name). Wizards of the Coast staff members will never ask for your password.

Failure to provide accurate information may result in significant penalties, including suspension from Magic Online tournaments up to and including termination of your Magic Online account.

Playing on another person's account, selling your account, etc. are all violations of the Terms of Service. If you play in these, win, and expect to get your prize, be very, very sure you are on your own account. We do not recognize "I and a friend jointly own the account," "It's my brother's account but he gave it to me," or similar. The only exception is an adult may authorize a single dependent child age 13-18 to play on an account that adult has purchased.

If a player wins that is ineligible to play in DCI™-sanctioned tournaments (i.e. DCI suspended and/or a paid contractor), then the Magic Online Pro Tour invitation will pass down to the player with the next best finish. The final Swiss standings of the PTQ Finals tournament will determine the difference between third and fourth place and the difference between fifth through eighth place, should that be necessary.

In either of the above cases, the booster pack prizes will not pass down to the next player.

Determination of the eligibility of a person under age 18 to participate in a Magic Online PTQ is based on the permission granted to said person by his/her parent or legal guardian. All prizes are awarded "AS IS" and WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, express or implied, (including, without limitation, any implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose). This is a contest of skill and, therefore, there are no odds of winning as is the case with a game of chance. All applicable taxes, fees, duties, tariffs, passport or visa costs, and any license, destination, entry, exit and/or delivery charges are the sole responsibility of each player.

All taxes are the responsibility of the members, and members acknowledge Wizards' recommendation that they consult a tax advisor in their jurisdiction for questions regarding their tax liabilities.

Release: By entering (or consenting to the entry of a person under 18) a Magic Online PTQ , each participant (or the participant's parent or legal guardian, if the participant is under 18) and the winner (or the winner's parent or legal guardian, if winner is under 18) thereby releases Wizards of the Coast LLC, Hasbro, and their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees and agencies from any liability whatsoever, and waive any and all causes of action, related to any claims, costs, injuries, losses, or damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with a Magic Online PTQ or delivery, misdelivery, acceptance, possession, use of or inability to use any prize (including, without limitation, claims, costs, injuries, losses and damages related to personal injuries, death, damage to or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation or portrayal in a false light, whether intentional or unintentional), whether under a theory of contract, tort (including negligence), warranty or other theory. Except where prohibited, you agree that any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this contest or any prize awarded shall be resolved under the laws of the State of Washington, without respect to any conflict of law issues, and participants agree that such shall be resolved properly, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by the U.S. Federal and State Courts of King County, Washington, U.S.A. All of Sponsor's decisions regarding the application and interpretation of the Rules are final.

Disclaimer of Liability; Certain Risks
Sponsors, and any of their respective parent companies, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, professional advisors, employees and agencies will not be responsible for: (a) any late, lost, misrouted, garbled, distorted, or damaged transmissions or entries; (b) telephone, electronic, hardware, software, network, Internet, or other computer- or communications-related malfunctions or failures; (c) any event disruptions, losses or damages caused by events beyond the control of Sponsors; or (d) any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with Magic Online PTQ.

Participation in a Magic Online PTQ is void where restricted, taxed or prohibited by law.

The winners of this Tournament will be posted on www.wizards.com.

I still don't think MTGO is ready for the PTQ - but oh well...

Sep 17, 2009 -- 7:07PM, Emoticon wrote:

Sep 17, 2009 -- 6:36PM, hamtastic wrote:

Sep 17, 2009 -- 3:41PM, Emoticon wrote:

Well, I'm excited.  The "everyone with 5/6 wins" is awesome, as it keeps the tournaments to a reasonable length even if they hit an unreasonable size.

Edit:  Also, I'm a ****ing lucksack - I get Fridays off and work early morning Thursdays and late Mondays, so I may well be able to enter every single round.  (I'm assuming this is allowed, just not allowed to enter more than one for any given round).

 

Better stockpile 480 tickets :/

 

Double edit:  Shorter rounds, too (25 minute clocks)!

Evidently the only way to play in more than one is to have more than one account and join with a different account each time:

"In the following situations, all involved accounts will be disqualified and no entry fees will be refunded:
1. A single account is entered into more than one Shootout tournament for a single Pro Tour Qualifier.
2. Multiple accounts owned by the same person are entered in a single Shootout tournament."

Sounds like you can hit them up with a different account each time., as WoodSage mentioned.

I think there are 16 different Pro Tour Qualifiers, each with at least two Shootout tournaments (which run concurrently).  Or at least that's how I read it.

Yeah.  Basically, at the start time there will be two or more satellite qualifiers for the qualifier.  Everyone with 5-1 or better will get an invite to the PTQ, which will start one hour after all the satellites are over (7-8 hrs after the start time listed).  Given that the PTQ will then probably be in the 10-hr range, it will be a long day indeed.

Yep!  I did indeed misunderstand.  Shoot out's feed one event, then you can again try for the next event's shoot outs.  Thanks for pointing that out. 

Oddly enough, I don't worry at all about the server handling this.  I do worry about some client bug or something silly like that... but the server itself hasn't been the culprit for a long while now.

So about 1/10th of the total entrants will go 5-1 or better.   I'm really wondering how many people will join these things.  Just for reference, if enough people join to make the actual PTQ go to 7 rounds (~650 people), Wizards will pull in around $20,000 in entry fees.

If that happens, do you think we'll get more qualifiers for the next pro tour?