2022 World Championship

The *Magic: the Gathering* **2022 World Championship**, or **Magic World Championship XXVIII**, was the 28th *Magic* World Championship and was held October 28-30, 2022 in Las Vegas, USA to conclude the 2021–22 Players Tour Season. It featured a prize pool of $250,000.

## Description

The 2022 World Championship was part of Magic 30, a convention celebrating three decades of *Magic: The Gathering*.

It was a 32-player event, up from 16 players in previous years, and was played digitally on MTG Arena. Format are *Dominaria United* draft, Standard Constructed and Explorer Constructed.

The Top 4 finishers received invites to all three Pro Tours in the 2022–23 Pro Tour Season.

### Qualification

* The 2021 Magic: The Gathering World Champion
* Finishing in the Top 6 of any 2021-22 Championship event—the Innistrad Championship, Neon Dynasty Championship, or New Capenna Championship.
* Becoming one of five (5) MPL or Rivals players with the most World Championship Qualifying Points during the 2021-22 Season.
* Becoming one of eight (8) non-MPL and non-Rivals players (Challengers) with the most World Championship Qualifying Points during the 2021-22 Season.
* Receiving an at-large invitation, eligible to all players within and outside of the leagues, through earning the most World Championship Qualifying Points during the 2021-22 Season to ensure a total of thirty-two (32) competitors for *Magic* World Championship XXVIII.

Players that earned invitations through a Top 6 finish in a Championship did not create pass-down invitations by finishing in the Top 6 in multiple events and did not factor into at-large invitations based on WQCPs. Any player with multiple qualifications for the World Championship would create an at-large invitation.

## Schedule

The structure featured Swiss pairings since the 2019 World Championships.

**Friday, October 28**

* 3 rounds of *Dominaria United* Booster draft
* 5 rounds of Standard Constructed

**Saturday, October 29**

* 6 rounds of Explorer Constructed

After Day Two, four winning players advanced to the Sunday playoffs.

**Sunday, October 30**

* Top 4 playoff
	+ Upper Finals
	+ Lower Finals
	+ Grand Finals

## Proceedings

### Day 1

The 2022 World Championship was one with quite a few novelties - the first with 32 players, the first back in person since 2019, the first mixed tournament with online and in-person competitors, the debut of Explorer making for the first three-format Worlds since 2016, and the second high-level competitive draft for three years in a deep, multicolored format. Standard was considered acceptably tilted towards various Black midrange decks before the banning of The Meathook Massacre, but afterward, the Worlds metagame coalesced to a striking 70% metagame share of Esper Legends decks. In contrast, Explorer's big archetype of Rakdos Midrange was down to one and a half pilots (the half being Shota Yasooka's green splash Jund deck), with the alternative Rakdos Sacrifice build getting a 22% metagame share. It was the second most popular archetype, one pilot behind the Greasefang, Okiba Boss-Parhelion II combo deck.

At the end of Day 1, the American Challengers Julian Wellman and Nathan Steuer were leading the pack with 7-1, both with 4-1 in Standard with non-Esper decks, the best record for Standard.

### Day 2

In Explorer on Day 2, the second-level deck of Mono-Blue Tempo ran over the anti-midrange Combo decks of Greasefang and the Titan of Industry-Transmogrify match. Eli Kassis had the first 10-win record in round 13 and went 6-0 for Explorer. In the final round, Jakub Tóth defeated Jim Davis and Karl Sarap defeated reigning World Champion Yuta Takahashi, and Steuer's tiebreakers held up despite his defeat to Kassis, with David Inglis, Takahashi and Davis making up the other 9-5s.

### Day 3

While the story of Explorer and the cut to Top 4 was the story of Mono-Blue, returning to Standard put at the forefront Steuer's Grixis deck against three Esper decks. Each of the players were of the newer generation of success: despite each player having at least a decade-long record, all of their Pro Tour claims to fame prior to this tournament were from the last three years for a top of 5 Top Finishes amongst them.

Eli Kassis served as Steuer's nemesis for the tournament, having defeated him in Round 14 and the Top 4 opening match; despite this, Steuer knocked out the other two Esper players and made a comeback against a first match deficit to triumph.

## References

1. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (May 13, 2021). "Esports: Transitions And Getting Back To The Gathering". Magic.gg.
2. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (June 14, 2022). "Save the Date: Magic 30 is a Party Three Decades in the Making". Magic.gg.
3. ↑ Wizards Presents 2022 (Video). *Magic: The Gathering*. YouTube (August 18, 2022).
4. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (March 31, 2022). "Return of the Pro Tour: Details". Magic.gg.
5. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (November 15, 2021). "World Championship XXVIII And The 2021-22 Season Leagues". Magic.gg.
6. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (November 15, 2021). "Magic World Championship XXVIII Invitation Policy". Magic.gg.
7. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (June 14, 2020). "World Championship XXVIII Information for Invitees". Magic.gg.
8. ↑ Corbin Hosler (October 29, 2022). "Magic World Championship XXVIII, Day 1 Highlights". Magic.gg.
9. ↑ Corbin Hosler (October 30, 2022). "Magic World Championship XXVIII, Day 2 Highlights". Magic.gg.
10. ↑ Corbin Hosler (October 30, 2022). "Magic World Championship XXVIII Top 4 Highlights". Magic.gg.
11. ↑ Corbin Hosler (October 30, 2022). "Title Match of Magic World Championship XXVIII". Magic.gg.
12. ↑ Wizards of the Coast (October 31, 2022). "Magic World Championship XXVIII Final Standings". Magic.gg.