2020 Rivals League

The 2020 Rivals League is the Rivals League played in the shortened 2020 Players Tour Season. It was the first season to feature a Rivals League.
==History==
Starting in August 2020, Magic: the Gathering’s Organized Play calendar moved away from seasons that follow the calendar year (the 2019 season) back to seasons that are split over multiple calendar years (the 2020–2021 season). But the 2019 season ended in December 2019, so in order to fill the gap between then and the beginning of the 2020–2021 season, the Magic Pro League held a shortened seven-month season. The MPL was reduced to a 24-player league with players able to earn up to $50,000 in appearance fees in addition to prizes earned at tournaments. 
At the same time, the Rivals League was introduced, which essentially is a second division for the Esports. The Rivals League is a talent-development league that feeds the MPL. Rivals will make it into the MPL either through sustained success over the course of a season or through a new tournament called the MPL Gauntlet.
Because the 2020 partial season had fewer events, both MPL and Rivals players would make less than a full season. Rivals players could earn up to $15,000 in appearance fees, in addition to any prize money earned. Unlike the 2019 season, the 2020 Magic Pro League didn't have any kind of league play structure. Instead, members of both the Magic Pro and Rivals Leagues would compete for their places in the 2020–21 season by earning Player Points at Players Tours and Mythic Points at Mythic Invitationals, Mythic Qualifier Weekends, and Mythic Point Challenges.
The COVID-19 outbreak in January resulted in preventative measures taken in March. A large swath of the Grand Prix event schedule was canceled, and the Players Tour Finals Houston and the May Invitational were also canceled. By April, it was clear that further events were not safely feasible to hold, and Wizards wrote off the entire season as not salvageable. While some large events later in the year would be prospectively held, the events would not pay out points for League positions. Current Rivals and MPL players would hold their positions, with Tabletop players addedn from the top 4 players of the three Players Tour Series 1. The Arena ranked players with Mythic points would be decided after the season's Arena challenges.
As 2020 Partial Season Rivals maintained their league status for next season, those players were no longer be eligible to play in the three remaining Mythic Point awarding events (the April 4 Mythic Point Challenge, May 16 Mythic Qualifier Core Set 2021, and June 20 Mythic Qualifier Core Set 2021). All Rivals were to be invited to the October 22-25 Mythic Invitational – Zendikar Rising, which was the event these outstanding qualifiers would feed. This was later replaced by the Mythic Invitational 2020 (August 28–30, 2020). Other events, including the Players Tour Finals Minneapolis (July 10-12) and Mythic Invitational – Core 2021 (July 23-26), were cancelled.
==Roster==
For the shortened 2020 season, the Rivals League roster features 32 players. Participants were 2019's bottom twelve MPL players based on Mythic Points. The eight 2019 MTG Arena and eight tabletop highest ranked Challengers who were not invited to the MPL were also eligible. Their rankings were based on Mythic Points earned in the appropriate types of events. Four participants to the Rivals League were invited at Wizards of the Coast's discretion. This became six invites when two qualified people declined to participate.
Nationality	Name 	MTG Arena handle 	Qualification 	PlayersPoints	MythicPoints	PointsTotal	FinalRanking
 	Lucas Esper Berthoud 	BERTU 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	 	 	 	26
 	Kai Budde 	KAI 	Top 8 Arena Challenger 	5 	 	5 	17
 	Stanislav Cifka 	STANCIFKA 	Top 8 Arena Challenger 	 	6 	6 	15
 	Louis Deltour 	LWIDELTOUW 	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger 	8 	 	8 	11
 	Kenji Egashira 	NUMMY 	Top 8 Arena Challenger 	3 	 	3 	21
 	Jessica Estephan 	JESSICA 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	 	8 	8 	11
 	Eric Froehlich 	EFRO 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	5 	3 	8 	11
 	Simon Görtzen 	SIMONGOERTZEN 	Top 8 Arena Challenger 	 	 	 	26
 	Christian Hauck 	CHRHAUCK 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	3 	 	3 	21
 	Alexander Hayne 	HAYNE 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	8 	3 	11 	09
 	Eli Kassis 	GENERALMYTHIC 	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger 	5 	4 	9 	10
 	Grzegorz Kowalski 	URLICH 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	15 	2 	17 	05
 	Matias Leveratto 	LEVUNGA 	Top 8 Arena Challenger 	 	 	 	26
 	No Ah Ma 	MODIFIED USERNAME	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger 	8 	4 	12 	06
 	Janne Mikkonen 	SAVJZ 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 (declined) 	- 	- 	- 	-
 	Théo Moutier 	SWIFTH 	Top 8 Arena Challenger 	 	 	 	26
 	Matt Nass 	MATTHEWLNASS 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	12 	12 	24 	01
 	Gregory Orange 	CITR 	Top 8 Arena Challenger 	 	12 	12 	06
 	Sebastian Pozzo 	SEBASTIANPOZZO 	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger 	12 	 	12 	06
 	John Rolf 	JROLFMTG 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	 	 	 	26
 	Luis Salvatto 	LUISSALVATTO 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	 	2 	2 	23
 	Thoralf Severin 	TOFFEL 	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger 	15 	4 	19 	03
 	Mike Sigrist 	SIGGY 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	15 	8 	23 	02
 	Miguel da Cruz Simões	EDMVYRUS 	Top 8 Arena Challenger 	5 	 	5 	17
 	Matt Sperling 	SPERLING 	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger 	 	2 	2 	23
 	Ben Stark 	BENS_MTG 	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 	8 	 	8 	11
 	Luis Scott-Vargas 	LSV 	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger 	12 	6 	18 	04
 	Peter Yeh 	CHIH-CHEH 	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger (declined)	- 	- 	- 	-
 	Yoshihiko Ikawa 	WANDERINGONES 	Discretionary Invitation
13th in challengers race	 	2 	2 	23
 	Bernardo Santos 	BERNARDOCSSA 	Discretionary Invitation
14th in challengers race	 	 	 	26
 	Beatriz Grancha 	ALIADESCHAIN 	Discretionary Invitation
20th at Mythic Championship VII	 	6 	6 	15
 	Allison Warfield 	MEEBO 	Discretionary Invitation
14th at Mythic Championship VII	 	 	 	26
 	Eli Loveman 	NEWPLAYER1 	Discretionary Invitation
Mythic Championship II Winner	 	4 	4 	20
 	Emma Handy 	EM_TEEGEE 	Discretionary Invitation
70th at Mythic Championship VI
SCG Commentator	 	5 	5 	17
==References==
Category:Rivals LeagueCategory:2020