KARDS 2023 World Championship
8 months ago
Attention, soldiers!
We are thrilled to announce the KARDS 2023 World Championship!
The KARDS World Championship is the biggest esports event of the year in KARDS. It’s open for anyone to join - read on for all the details!
Tournament Stages and Formats
The KARDS World Championship is split into three main stages, conducted from September to December. To become the World Champion, you must be successful in each of these stages, starting with the open in-game qualifiers and ending with the final 4 participants, played out over two days in a LAN environment in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland and home of KARDS developers 1939 Games.
Winners of in-game seasons, KARDS Open tournaments and all Officer Club Championship (OCC) tournaments from September 2022 and throughout August 2023 are all pre-qualified to participate in Stage 2 (the top 128 player Knockout stage) of the World Championship. Also pre-qualified are the top 4 players from last year’s World Championship.
Stage 1: Open Qualifiers
The open in-game qualifiers are held in two sections (A and B) in September and October and are open for anyone to enter. Join one (or both!) of the open qualifiers available through the KARDS client during weekends between September 2nd and October 8th to qualify for the second stage of the tournament. The top 55 players from each of the two qualifiers will advance to the Knockout Stage. The top 500 players in each of the open qualifiers also earn the exclusive KARDS 2023 World Championship cardback.
Each qualifier is held on Saturday and Sunday over the course of three consecutive weekends (i.e. 6 sessions in each). Each player needs to successfully complete a minimum of 3 out of the 6 sessions to post a legal qualifier score. Each session lasts for 4 hours, during which participating players have to complete at least 9 games to successfully complete the qualification session. Note that only the first 9 games are counted towards your score - any additional games after the required games can be important for tiebreakers, so we do recommend playing a few extra games during the sessions to improve your chances in tiebreakers.
For each win a player receives 5 points for the qualification ladder, for each loss a player receives 1 point. A player’s final score is the combined total score from their best 3 sessions out of 6 in the qualifier in question.
Stage 2: Top 128 player Knockout Stage
Players qualified through the in-game open qualifiers and pre-qualified players are randomly drawn into 16 groups of 8 players and will play a Round Robin group stage on Saturday, October 21st. The top 2 players in each group will progress into a 32 person Double Elimination bracket played on October 22nd. The top 6 players in that Double Elimination bracket play to find out who will become the 4 World Championship grand finalists during a live broadcast on October 29th. Both Round Robin and Double Elimination sections feature best-of-five series with one ban in conquest format (meaning that any deck that wins cannot be selected again for the remainder of that series).
Stage 3: The Grand Finals
On December 2nd and 3rd, the four finalists will battle for the title of KARDS 2023 World Champion! The Grand Finals take place in Iceland, with both players and casters in a live studio setting. Players play a best-of-seven series in conquest format with one ban and a 3rd place matchup. This two-day event will be live streamed on the KARDS Twitch, YouTube and Huya channels, as well as Bilibili.
The full list of rules for the event is here: KARDS 2023 World Championship Rules.
World Championship Calendar
For a comprehensive overview of the dates and details outlined above, check out the calendar below.
Prizes
Participating in the World Championship at any stage is a fun and exciting experience - but of course, we also want to provide our brave participants with some extra goodies!
The rewards for the KARDS 2023 World Championship are:
The top 500 players in each qualifying section (A and B) in the Open Qualifier for the World Championship will receive the exclusive KARDS 2023 World Championship cardback!
Every player that participates in the top 128 player Knockout Stage will receive 300 diamonds to spend on anything they desire in the in-game shop!
The four finalists get an all expenses paid trip to Iceland to play the Grand Finals in the bunker where they compete for a 12,000 USD prize pool!
Prepare Your Forces!
With the first set of qualifiers right around the corner in September, now is the time to start preparing your forces for battle. Start thinking about what types of decks you want to bring and what cards you need to get to be in fighting shape come September to take on the world's best players!
We will continue to publish more details on the KARDS 2023 World Championship in the coming weeks and months. Make sure to check back regularly for updates - join us on Discord and follow us on Twitch, Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter/X to make sure you don’t miss any of the action!
