Casey Laughman: Announcing Changes to the Nerd Rage Championship Series

Since its inception in 2016, the Nerd Rage Gaming Championship Series has been a popular event for Midwestern Magic players looking for the opportunity to regularly play at the Competitive REL level.

With monthly trials in all three major Constructed formats, the series has offered players the chance to not only play their favorite format at a high level, but also qualify for a 16-person championship. With a successful first year under our belts, we set about looking for ways to make the series better, and now we’re delivering on that goal.

UPDATE: Planeswalker Points!

This wasn’t finalized when the article was originally posted, but we can now announce that the Nerd Rage Championship Series is a WPN Premier Event. That means that all CTs and select CTQs will be offering a 2x planeswalker points multiplier, and the year-end championship will offer a 4x multiplier.

Increased Prize Support

The first major change to this year’s series was doubling the prize pool for the year-end championship. Instead of $2,500, it’s now $5,000 for the 16-player championship. That’s not the only change in prize support. For the next two monthly Championship Trials — March (Legacy) and April (Modern) — we will be adding a full case of Modern Masters 2017 to the prize pool. These tournaments are known as CT+ events, and still retain the $1,000 cash payout that all of the monthly tournaments have.

If that’s not enough, we’ll be running a Super CT this summer. What’s a Super CT? Simple: A Championship Trial with a $5,000 prize pool. Stay tuned for more information.

MVP Award

We also looked at ways to reward players who are fixtures at Championship Trial events. While there are five at-large spots available for players who did not automatically qualify by winning a Championship Trial, we wanted to give players another reason to attend as many events as possible, even if they’ve already qualified.

To do so, we’ve launched the NRG Championship Series MVP award. This award will be given to the player who compiles the most points throughout the year (see the current leaderboard here). To ensure that winners of monthly events are properly rewarded, they will now receive 10 points in addition to their automatic qualification for the championship.

What does the MVP get? How does free entry to every Championship Trial next year sound?

Championship Trial Qualifiers

While we love to have players come to our Buffalo Grove location for the trials, we also understand that it’s not always feasible for players who aren’t local to attend monthly events. But, we want to give players the opportunity to still be a part of the Championship Series, which is where our last announcement comes in.

We are proud to announce the launch of Nerd Rage Gaming Championship Trial Qualifiers, which are events that other game stores can run to offer a chance to qualify for the NRG Championship.

The first thing to know about the CTQs is that the winner of each will receive a custom playmat and free entry to any one Championship Trial within six months of winning the CTQ. So, if someone wins a CTQ in March, they earn free entry for any one CT through September. CTQs will not offer an automatic bid for the Championship Trial, but they will offer points for a possible at-large bid.

Game stores who are interested have two prize options for running CTQs. The first, which carries a $20 entry fee, is $500 cash; the second, with a $15 entry fee, is four packs per player of the most recent set. For a further breakdown of championship points, prize options and payouts, visit here.

CTQs will be held at Competitive REL, and, as previously mentioned, prizes and entry fees are standardized. One of the biggest complaints players have about the PPTQ system is that entry fees and prize payouts can vary depending on who is holding the event, and we wanted to be sure to avoid that issue with CTQs.

The first CTQ will be held March 25 at Collectible Corner in Normal, Illinois. The format is Team Constructed, which means each team will have one player playing Standard, one playing Modern, and one playing Legacy. For more information, click here.

The Championship Series is off to a roaring start, and we are always looking for ways to make it a better experience for players. If you have questions or feedback on the Series itself or these changes, please comment below or email info@nerdragegaming.com.

 

Casey Laughman is editor of Nerd Rage Gaming. Contact him via Twitter @caseylaughman or via email at casey@caseylaughman.com.

 

 

 

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