2018 World Championship

The 2018 World Championship, the 25th Magic World Championship, was held on 21–23 September 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
The event also featured the 2017–18 Magic Pro Tour Team Series final between Hareruya Latin and Ultimate Guard.
==Invitations==
The seats for the 2018 World Championship were given out based on the following rankings:The $1 Million Weekend, Pro Club Updates, and More
Player 	Method(s) of qualification
Seth Manfield 	Pro Tour Ixalan winner 2017–18 North American Champion
Luis Salvatto 	Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan winner 2017–18 Latin American Champion
Wyatt Darby 	Pro Tour Dominaria winner
Allen Wu 	Pro Tour 25th Anniversary winners
Ben Hull 	Pro Tour 25th Anniversary winners
Gregory Orange 	Pro Tour 25th Anniversary winners
Matt Severa 	Constructed Master
Elias Watsfeldt 	Draft Master
Marcio Carvalho 	2017–18 European Champion
Ken Yukuhiro 	2017–18 Asia-Pacific Champion
Reid Duke 	Most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Owen Turtenwald 	2nd-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Ben Stark 	3rd-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
John Rolf 	4th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Martin Jůza 	5th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Grzegorz Kowalski	6th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Javier Dominguez 	7th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Andrea Mengucci 	8th most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Gerry Thompson 	9th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Brad Nelson 	10th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Shahar Shenhar 	11th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Brian Braun-Duin 	12th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Mike Sigrist 	13th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Matt Nass 	14th-most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
Players qualifying via multiple methods pass down extra invitations to the players with the most Pro Points among otherwise unqualified players.
==Schedule==
Friday, 21 September
* 3 rounds of Dominaria Booster draft
* 4 rounds of Standard
Saturday, 22 September
* 3 rounds of Dominaria Booster draft
* 4 rounds of Standard
Sunday, 23 September
* The 2017–18 Magic Pro Tour Team Series final, featuring Guilds of Ravnica Team Sealed.TEAM SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP FORMAT''
* 2018 World Championship semifinals and final, featuring Standard.2018 WORLDS DETAILS, PLUS JUNE COVERAGE
==Main event==
===Day one===
The 2018 World Championship started with a Dominaria Booster draft, where Seth Manfield and Javier Dominguez were the featured players. Manfield has a tough draft, ultimately settling in Red-Green, and went 1–2 in the draft. Dominguez' Blue-Black-Red deck was not considered great by the commentators either, who after Dominguez finished 2–1 in the draft, noted that the player likely was quite happy with that result. Three players went 3–0: Mike Sigrist, Ben Stark, and Grzegorz Kowalski.
In the Standard portion, fully 61% of the players elected to play a <c>Goblin Chainwhirler</c> deck, with 57% (13 players) running Black-Red aggro. Blue-Black Midrange and Blue-White <c>God-Pharaoh's Gift</c> were the second-most popular decks, at 9% (2 players); and Mono-Red Aggro, Mono-Blue <c>Tempest Djinn</c>, Reservoir Combo, Turbo Fog, Blue-Black Control, and White-Blue Control were played by one player each.
At the end of the first day, Javier Dominguez unseated the leading Grzegorz Kowalski, leaving both at 6–1. Both players were on the prevalent Black-Red aggro deck; they were trailed at 5-2 by Marcio Carvalho, Ben Stark and Ken Yukuhiro. At the end of the first day, Simon Goerzten commented on the attempt on the nine Blue players who attempted to metagame against the Red decks, ultimately poorly For example - Brad Nelson and Owen Turtenwald, named two of the strongest players in the field, attempted to go outside the field with Reservoir Combo and Blue-White <c>God-Pharaoh's Gift</c>, but they picked up only one of four and two of five wins respectively against Black-Red decks. 
===Day two===
The second day's draft followed Grzegorz Kowalski and Ken Yukuhiro; Kowalski's Green-Black deck posted 2-1 and Yukukhiro's Red-White deck resulted in a 1–2. Due to the small field, more than the standard three players made a 3-0 result - Dominguez, Nass, Wu, Shenhar, and Manfield all went 3–0, which resulted in a field where after Kowalski at 8-2 and Dominguez at 9–1, the player at third place was Ben Stark at 6–4. Dominguez and Kowalski locked up their Top 4 in the next two rounds, followed by Ben Stark in round 13. The last round paired the three locked players against three 8-5 players, and the outside shot of Shahar Shenhar at 8–5 against Ken Yukuhiro at 7–6. What might have been a rather messy tiebreaker scramble was not to be, as all three leaders won their match, leaving the last spot to be taken by either Shenhar's 9-5 or Yukuhiro's 2% tiebreaker favorite at 8–6. 
Unfortunately, Ken Yukuhiro was disqualified due to failure to declare a failure to desideboard, resulting in Shenhar's victory and third World Championship Top 4.
===Final standings===
==Gerry Thompson protest==
Less than an hour prior to the start of the event, Gerry Thompson posted on Reddit that he would refuse to participate in the tournament in protest against the state of professional Magic. Thompson cited WotC's failure to promote the event and its players, poor communication leading to among other things Worlds competitors' significant others being denied entry to the tournament hall (though this was ultimately fixed), poor coverage, lack of reward for professional players and aspiring professional players, and failure to adequately punish cheating. An hour later, Rich Hagon on behalf of Wizards of the Coast gave a statement on stream addressing the protest, respecting his decision, but that improvements to professional Magic would come in 2019 and beyond.
Thompson's move was met with support from the wider Magic community. Matt Sperling commented: "I’m writing within the hour of Gerry’s announcement, and already it has gone at least as viral as anything I’ve seen in this community. We may not remember much else about this Worlds five years from now, but we’ll always remember this". In an interview with Kotaku, Thompson explained that he had made up his mind about the tournament a month and a half prior, and deliberately waited until right before the tournament to announce it so that the tournament would only have 23 players.
==References==
Category:2018