2024 NRG Series Championship Structure

The 2024 NRG Series has reached new heights this year, culminating in our largest Championship to date. Twenty-four players will compete for an impressive $35,000 in cash prizes at NRG HQ in Buffalo Grove, IL, on December 14-15, 2024.

As always, the top players in the NRG Series will face off to showcase their skills across three Constructed formats, utilizing a new and streamlined tournament format.

Prize Pool

Stage One:

TL;DR: The concept is straightforward: 12 rounds of Magic, featuring four rounds each of Standard, Pioneer, and Modern. 8 wins, and you automatically qualify for the Top 8 playoff. Once you reach your 6th loss, you’re out.

For those who enjoy the details…

Stage One consists of 12 rounds: 8 rounds on Day 1 and the remaining 4 on Day 2. Players will continue to be paired as long as they have fewer than 8 wins and fewer than 6 losses. Upon reaching 8 match wins, you qualify for the Top 8 and will no longer be paired. Conversely, if you accumulate 6 losses within the first 12 rounds, you’ll be eliminated from the tournament, earning prizes based on your match wins before the sixth loss.

These 12 best-of-three game matches will be split evenly across Standard, Pioneer, and Modern, and we will split the formats as evenly as we can across both days — but the exact order of the formats will be randomly determined. For those of you watching at home, we’ll make sure you get to see action from your favorite format during each day of competition.

For instance, Stage One may look something like this:

Each day, players will randomly get paired across opponents regardless of record, keeping in mind that players with particularly strong tournaments (or weak ones) are removed from the pairings once they reach 8 wins (mathematically locking them into Top 8) or 6 losses (eliminating them from the tournament). This pairing restriction resets overnight, so players may face opponents they played on Day 1 again on Day 2.

If there’s an odd number of players in any round, the lowest-ranked player based on tournament tiebreakers will receive a bye, which counts toward their goal of 8 match wins. Players who have already received a bye will not be considered for future byes.

As players reach 8 match wins, they will be seeded into the Top 8 accordingly. The first player to 8 wins will be the #1 seed, the second will be #2, and so on. If multiple players reach 8 wins in the same round, the tie-breaking procedure below will determine their seeds.

Once the 12th round has concluded, if there are fewer than 8 players that have reached the 8-match win threshold, players with fewer than 8 wins will be considered based on the tournament tie-breaking procedure.

MVP Benefit

It wouldn’t be an NRG Series Championship event without a cool perk for the player who finishes atop our annual leaderboard, and we’ve got a great one in store for this year.

The 2024 NRG Series MVP will get to pick a player to dodge throughout the first 8 rounds in Stage One. That’s right – whether they pick their feared rival, a testing teammate, or a player known to play decks that match up strongly against their own, the MVP will not be paired against the player of their choice during Stage One.

When pairings are reset for Day 2, the MVP may choose a different player to dodge for the 4 remaining rounds of Stage One*.

The MVP will make their Day 1 decision before the publication of the metagame breakdown and each player’s decklists.

The MVP race is approaching its conclusion as we wrap up the 2024 NRG Series, and the winner will have the advantage of this power pairing at their disposal.

* unless necessary for tournament pairings

Top 8 Playoff

If you’ve followed the NRG Series in previous years, the elimination rounds of this year’s Championship will be fairly similar in structure: using a veto system, each player will eliminate one of the three formats and the third format will be contested for the match.

The weaker seed will have the first format veto, and the stronger seed will have the second format veto (thus locking in the format) and the choice to play/draw. (For example, Natalie, the #8 seed, vetoes Modern. Then Andy, the #1 seed, chooses to veto Standard. So, the match between Andy and Natalie is Pioneer, with Andy having the play/draw option.)

This means that any of the three formats could be contested across the four quarterfinal matches, requiring players to demonstrate mastery and matchup knowledge across multiple formats to advance.

The Top 4 matches will follow the same veto procedure as the Top 8 round. Unlike previous years of the NRG Series Championship, players will be allowed to veto the same format in multiple rounds if they so choose.

The Championship finals is a classic – instead of best-of-three games to determine a winner, we’re playing best-of-three matches. Here’s how the final will look:

• Match 1: Stronger seed picks any format and gets their choice of play/draw in Game 1
• Match 2: Weaker seed picks either of the remaining formats and gets their choice of play/draw in Game 1
• Match 3 (if necessary): The remaining format will be played, and the stronger seed gets choice of play/draw in Game 1

This year’s NRG Series Championship is a gauntlet, requiring expertise in multiple formats to earn the trophy, and we’re looking forward to seeing who comes out on top and earns the top prize of $10,000, an invitation to defend their title at the 2025 NRG Series Championship, and an invite to the first Pro Tour of 2025!

More Tournament Logistics

Players will not be allowed to draw during the tournament. Round timers will be extended to 60 minutes to allow matches to come to their natural conclusion. Should time expire, players will have a normal 5-turn extension before entering Sudden Death. If the match score is tied after the fifth turn of extension, and the match score is tied, the player with the highest life total wins the game, and therefore the match. If players are tied for the highest life total, the next change in life total determines the result of the match. These procedures are detailed in the Magic Tournament Rules, section 2.4. Additionally, since players are competing to win 8 matches across the first 12 rounds, intentionally drawing a match has no benefit.

Due to the nature of live event coverage, decklists will be open for the event. Players may review their opponents’ decklists before their match, during sideboarding, and when making format decisions during the elimination rounds.

Due to the unique tournament structure, modified tiebreakers will be in use for this event as follows:

1. Total match wins
2. Head-to-head result vs. other player(s) involved in the tie*
3. Game win %
4. NRG Series leaderboard ranking

* In the case of a three (or more) way tie, head-to-head will only be applied if a player has won against all the other players within the tie. If needed, the head-to-head and game win % may be applied iteratively to determine placement within a multi-way tie.

Coverage

We’re excited to provide the Magic community with two full days of video and social media coverage from #NRGCHAMP live from the floor. Tune in to our video coverage on twitch.tv/NRGSeries for all the early-round action on Saturday, and come back Sunday to help us crown our Champion. Don’t forget to follow us on social media @NRGSeries for updates leading up to the event, and stay in the loop with #NRGCHAMP!

Wrapping Up

The 2024 NRG Series Championship is our eighth iteration of this event, and we continue to strive towards a structure that accomplishes the following goals:

• Familiarity for regular tournament players and viewers
• Rewards for outstanding performances with seeding advantages in elimination rounds
• Fair chances for players with early losses to redeem themselves.
• Recognition of expertise across multiple tournament formats

We look forward to your thoughts or questions on this year’s Championship structure on Facebook and X. We hope you’ll join us on December 14-15 as we crown our 2024 NRG Series Champion. Until then!

Max Kahn is the former NRG Series Event Manager and currently serves in an advisory role. When he’s not answering your judge calls or working behind the scenes at your event, he splits his time between Chicago, San Francisco, and Twitter.

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Max Kahn

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