+ Magic: The Gathering World Championships Year Winner Held in 1994 Zak Dolan Milwaukee, WI, United States 1995 Alexander Blumke Seattle, WA, United States 1996 Tom Chanpheng Seattle, WA, United States 1997 Jakub Slemr Seattle, WA, United States 1998 Brian Selden Seattle, WA, United States 1999 Kai Budde Yokohama, Japan 2000 Jon Finkel Brussels, Belgium 2001 Tom van de Logt Toronto, ON, Canada 2002 Carlos Romão Sydney, Australia 2003 Daniel Zink Berlin, Germany 2004 Julien Nuijten San Francisco, CA, United States 2005 Katsuhiro Mori Yokohama, Japan 2006 Makihito Mihara Paris, France 2007 Uri Peleg New York City, NY, United States 2008 Antti Malin Memphis, TN, United States 2009 André Coimbra Rome, Italy 2010 Guillaume Matignon Chiba, Japan 2011 Jun'ya Iyanaga San Francisco, CA, United States 2012 Yuuya Watanabe* Seattle, WA, United States 2013 Shahar Shenhar (1) Amsterdam, Netherlands 2014 Shahar Shenhar (2) Nice, France 2015 Seth Manfield (1) Seattle, WA, United States 2016 Brian Braun-Duin Seattle, WA, United States 2017 William Jensen Boston, MA, United States 2018 Javier Dominguez (1) Las Vegas, NV, United States 2019 Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa Honolulu, HI, United States 2021 Yuta Takahashi MTG Arena 2022 Nathan Steuer Las Vegas, NV, United States (on MTG Arena) 2023 Jean-Emmanuel Depraz Las Vegas, NV, United States 2024 Javier Dominguez (2) Las Vegas, NV, United States2025Seth Manfield (2)Seattle, WA, United States * Watanabe won the Players Championship
The Magic: The Gathering World Championships (Worlds) have been held annually since 1994. It is the most important tournament in the game of Magic: The Gathering, offering cash prizes of up to $100,000 to the winners. With the exception of the first edition, Worlds is an invitation-only event, and from 1996 to 2011 World was the last event of each Pro Tour season. The invitees were mostly top finishers from the National championships, the top-ranked players of the DCI and high-level pro players. Since 2012 the World Championships are held after the season and the most successful 16 or 24 players have been invited to the tournament.
After the first five World Championships were all held in the United States, Worlds have since been held in Japan, Australia and various countries in Europe. Besides the main event Worlds were always a huge gathering of Magic players, who came to watch the pros and compete in side events.
After the 2011 season, the World Championship was briefly replaced by the Magic Players Championship. The top 16 pro players selected due to various criteria were invited to the Players Championship. In 2013 the tournament was renamed to 'World Championship' once again. From 2014 to 2018 the tournament was expanded to 24 competitors, but is going back to 16 players for the 2019 Worlds.
The large World Championships, held until 2011, also included a national team portion where the top players from each National Championship engaged in a separate competition. The decision to abandon large World Championships would have left the community without such an event. In part due to heavy demand by the players, Wizards of the Coast decided to create a replacement after initially abandoning the national team competition. A new team competition, the World Magic Cup was held annually from 2012 to 2017.
The most successful contestants are Shahar Shenhar, Javier Dominguez, and Seth Manfield all of whom have won the Worlds twice. In the team portion the United States are by far the most successful country.
History
The first World Championship was held in 1994 at the Gen Con fair in Milwaukee. The tournament was open to all competitors, and its mode was single-elimination.
After 15 years in which the Worlds underwent only minor changes, major changes were announced in 2011. For 2012, the World Championships would be replaced by a 16-player invitational event named the Magic: The Gathering Players Championship. The Pro Player of the Year title was discontinued in favor of the Players Championship, thus attempting to merge the major individual titles, the World Champion and the Pro Player of the Year. However, for the next season, the Players Championship was renamed to World Championship and Pro Player of the Year was made a separate title once again. Originally the team portion of Worlds was planned to be discontinued, but after public outcry from the players Wizards decided to create a replacement, the World Magic Cup.
Mode
For 2015, it was initially announced that the World Championship and the World Magic Cup would be held on separate weeks, sharing the same venue. However, it was later announced that these events would be held at different locations and at different times.
Participants World Championship Prior to 2012, the following players were eligible to play in the World Championship:
Current World Champion 2nd to 8th-place finishers from the previous World Championship. Current Pro Player of the Year. For countries that hold an invitation-only National Championship, the three members of each national team and that team's designated alternate. For countries that hold an open National Championship, the winner of that National Championship. Players with Pro Tour Players Club level 4 or higher. (This includes all members of the Hall of Fame.) Players with Pro Tour Players Club level 3 that have not yet used their Players Club invitation Top 25 DCI Total-ranked players from the APAC region. Top 25 DCI Total-ranked players from Japan. Top 50 DCI Total-ranked players from the Europe region. Top 50 DCI Total-ranked players from the Latin America region. Top 50 DCI Total-ranked players from the North America region. Players invited to the Magic Online Championship held the same week (New in 2009). (Compare Magic Premier Event Invitation Policy).
On 2 November 2011, Wizards of the Coast announced a major change to the structure of the World Championship. It was announced that as of 2012, the individual World Championship would be renamed the Magic Players Championship, though the tournament would later revert to its original title, and move from being a Pro Tour-sized event to an exclusive sixteen-person tournament. These sixteen players will be the: Previous World Champion/Magic Players Champion Previous Magic Online Champion Series Champion Winners of the previous three Pro Tours The top-ranked player from each geo-region (Asia Pacific, Europe, Japan, Latin America, and North America) in the Planeswalker Points Yearly Professional Total in previous' season who are not yet invited based on the above criteria The top-ranked players in previous' season worldwide Planeswalker Points Yearly Professional Total who are not yet invited based on the above criteria sufficient to bring the total number of invited players to the World Championship to sixteen. Should multiple players finished in the same position, the player with a better standing in his/her best Pro Tour in that season will have an advantage.
In 2012, it was also decided to invite the 2011 Pro Player of the Year, Owen Turtenwald, though it was intended that the title be retired in that year.
In 2014, the tournament was expanded to 24 players. Additional invites were granted to the players ranked 2nd place from each geo-region, the fourth Pro-Tour winner, the Rookie of the Year, and the top-ranked player from the World Magic Cup winning country in the previous season, will be also invited.
In a 2015 revision, the Rookie of the Year invitation was replaced by the top-ranked player in terms of Pro Points earned in Grand Prix events (to which the point cap does not apply). Further revisions include a change in geo-region invitations, which have been increased to Top 3 for Europe and Asia-Pacific (which now includes Japan) and Top 4 for North America, at the expense of at-large slots. Effective after the 2015 World Championship, the captain of the previous season's World Magic Cup winning team would also no longer receive an invite.
Team World Championship The Team World Championship consists of three-player teams, with each team representing one country. Players that are eligible to play in the Team World Championship are the first, second and third place players at a country's National Championship.
World Magic Cup In 2012, the Team World Championship became a single separate event called the 'World Magic Cup'. This national team event consists of four-player teams representing selected countries. The four players eligible to play in each national team will be the three winners of World Magic Cup qualifiers and the National Champion (the player finished with most Pro Points in previous season) of the country.Magic: The Gathering Premier Event Invitation Policy The National Champion is the highest ranked player from that country in that year's rankings.
Until 2013, all players in top 4 will be invited into the following Pro Tour with airfare expense paid. It was expanded to top 8 teams since 2014. In 2013 and 2014 running, the National Champion of the winning team was also invited to the following year's World Championship.
1994 World championship + Zak Dolan – 1994 World ChampionshipAngel Stasis Main Deck Sideboard
The first Magic World Championship was held at the Gen Con in Milwaukee, USA on 19–21 August 1994. It is the only Worlds tournament which was held in the Vintage format, though it wasn't known as such at the time because there was only one sanctioned format. The 1994 Worlds is also the only Worlds which was not an invite-only tournament. Instead, everybody could register, but the tournament was capped at 512 participants. After two days of single elimination play the final four players featured Bertrand Lestrée, who defeated Cyrille DeFoucaud 2–0 in his semi-final, and Zak Dolan, who defeated Dominic Symens 2–0 in the other semi-final. In the final Dolan defeated Lestrée 2–1.
Final standings Zak Dolan Bertrand Lestrée Dominic Symens Cyrille de Foucaud
1995 World championship + Alexander Blumke – 1995 World ChampionshipRack Control Main Deck Sideboard
The second Magic World Championship was held on 4–6 August at the Red Lion Inn in Seattle, USA. 71 players from 19 countries participated. The tournament featured five rounds of Sealed Deck on the first day and five rounds of Standard, then known as Type II, on the second day. In each round three games were played and three points were awarded for each individual game won instead of completed matches as today. After 30 games five players were tied at 19 wins. Blumke and Redi advanced to the top eight after a playoff. The top 8 on Sunday were played with the Standard decks from the day before. In the final Alexander Blumke defeated Marc Hernandez 3–2.
Final standings
Team champion United States – Mark Justice, Henry Stern, Peter Leiher, Michael Long Finland – Rosendahl, Henri Schildt, Kimmo Hovi, Punakallio Australia – Glenn Shanley, Christopher Hudson, Russell, Liew France – Marc Hernandez, Moulin, Woirgard, Lebas
1996 World championship + Tom Chanpheng – 1996 World ChampionshipWhite Weenie Main Deck Sideboard
The third Magic World Championship was held at the Wizards headquarters in Seattle, USA. It was the first Worlds also to be a Pro Tour. 125 players competed in the event. The tournament featured six rounds each of Booster Draft, Standard (Type II), and Legacy (Type 1.5). For each match two points were awarded to the winner. In case of a draw both players received one point. For the first time the World Championship also included an official team portion.
Final standings
Note that Chanpheng's winning deck included a , but no sources of blue mana. This stemmed from an error in his submitted decklist, which was supposed to include some number of Adarkar Wastes in place of Plains.
Tom's victory was commemorated with a unique card, named 1996 World Champion.
Team final United States – Dennis Bentley, George Baxter, Mike Long, Matt Place