Magic: The Gathering World Championships

Posted by Magic Madhouse on 27th Jun 2023

I learned to play Magic in 2000 and, ready to dive in and purchase my first cards, I stumbled across the now-discontinued Magic the Gathering World Championship decks. I bought Mark Le Pine’s sweet ‘Sped Red’ land destroy deck from Worlds ’99, filled with powerhouses like Jackal Pups, Stone Rains and Cursed Scrolls, and so began not only my love of the game, but my love of the MTG World Championship.

Those eponymous decks, printed with a gold border to signify they weren’t tournament legal, sadly only lasted until 2004, but the tournament itself is still going strong. Magic’s popularity has exploded since those early years and today it’s one of the world's most popular card games. With the rise of casually focused Commander format and entertainment-leaning YouTube content like Game Knights, it can be easy to forget that Magic also has a highly competitive scene, and while it’s been turbulent in recent years with the rise and fall of the Magic Pro League (MPL), the return of Pro Tours this year demonstrates it’s still very much thriving. And the pinnacle? The Magic the Gathering World Championship.

What is the Magic: The Gathering World Championship?

The MTG World Championship, also known simply as ‘Worlds’, is an annual tournament where the best players in the world are invited to compete for a cash prize and the prestige of being crowned World champion. The first was held in 1994, not long after the game’s release, and it continues to this day. While the precise details change each year, it’s typically an invite-only, multi-format tournament with Swiss pairings, cutting to a top 8 or top 4, with either single or double elimination leading to an eventual champion. The main focus is the individual event, however many MTG World Championships have also featured a team tournament, with a team of players representing a single country, rebranding in 2012 from the Team World Championship to the World Magic Cup, which itself ended in 2018.

The History

The first Magic the Gathering World Championship was held at Gen Con, Milwaukee, in 1994. Open to all, it was a single-elimination tournament featuring just one format: Vintage (then known as ‘Type I’). Zak Dolan’s winning ‘Angel Stasis’ deck featured the full power nine (played without sleeves!), as well as many other overpowered cards even by today’s power-crept standards, including Mana Drain, Library of Alexandria, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, and Strip Mine.

The second iteration in 1995 was much closer to today’s MTG World Championship, becoming invitation-only with a multi-format structure, typically focused on Standard (‘Type II’ back then). While the team portion wasn’t yet official, team scores were also counted for the first time. My favourite part of the tournament? The winning deck, Rack Control, had a Royal Assassin in it!

With the Pro Tour introduced in 1996, Worlds became the final showcase event of the professional season, with coverage ramping up in 1997 as both ESPN and Sports Illustrated covered the event. And I’d be remiss to not also include the fastest finals of all time, coming in 1999 – taking just 20 minutes – as the German Juggernaut Kai Budde’s Covetous Dragons defeated Mark Le Pine’s Sped Red (the aforementioned first Magic product I bought!).

As you travel through the years, the decks are filled with some of the most powerful and iconic cards of all time. From Jon Finkel’s Tinkers in 2000 to Carlos Romão’s Psychatogs in 2002, the scourge of Arcbound Ravagers in 2004 to the much-feared Bitterblossoms of 2008. Jace Mind Scultpted his way to dominance in 2010, Siege Rhinos crashed the party in 2015, and Teferi’s time came in 2019. Most recently it was the Phyrexian menace, Sheoldred the Apocalypse alongside the cross-format all-star Fable of the Mirror-Breaker that helped Nathan Steuer scoop the top prize in 2022 as part of his Grixis Midrange deck.

Mode

The format has changed over the years since the first Magic the Gathering World Championship, shrinking down from a mammoth five-day event in the early years (when it also included the team event), to now typically being played over three days, aligning it with the Pro Tour format. Typically, participants play in two or three formats, usually featuring Draft of the most recent set, Standard, and one other, such as Explorer or Modern. The first two days are often Swiss pairings, cutting to a Top 8 or Top 4 for day three. In recent times, played on MTG Arena, the Top 4 have gone onto into a double elimination structure, although it’s often been single elimination.

Worlds usually features fewer players than a Pro Tour (the 2022 tournament featured just 32 invitees), however this is set to change in 2023 with the field extended to 128 players. Aside from the open entry in 1994, now is one of the best opportunities to qualify for Worlds.

The Team World Championship

The Team World Championship was a team event that ran alongside the individual tournament from 1995 until 2011. Each team consisted of three players, representing one country. The team comprised those who finished first, second and third at a country’s national championship. The United States dominated the competition, with eight wins, followed by Japan and Germany, both with two.

The World Magic Cup

In 2012, the Team World Championship was replaced by the World Magic Cup. Initially there was to be no replacement when the Team World Championship was abandoned, but this was changed following a negative reaction from the community. Until 2017, it was a four-person team tournament (three winners of qualifier events and the National Champion), from which point it reverted to a three person per team structure (national point leader plus two finalists of the country’s Nationals). While the formats changed according to the tournament, it typically included limited (e.g. draft) and constructed (e.g. unified Standard). It was terminated in 2019 as professional Magic play adopted an e-sports focus with the launch of the Magic Pro League and Mythic Championships, utilising the newly launched MTG Arena. France is the only country to have won the tournament more than once with two wins, while Italy, Denmark, Greece, Japan and Taiwan are the other previous victors.

What can you win?

The MTG World Championship Prize has been a little different per tournament. In 2022, the prize pool for Magic World Championship XXVIII, was $500,000, with the champion, Nathan Steuer scooping $100,000 of it. Second place took home $50,000, 3-4 $25,000, 5-8 $20,000, and from there, 9-12 received $15,000, 13-16 $10,000 and 17-32 $7,500.

While full details of the tournament are yet to be announced, the 2023 iteration looks to be even bigger, with Wizards announcing a prize pool of $1,000,000, double that of 2022.

In recent tournaments, the MTG World Championship prize has also included a return to ‘invitational’ style cards. 2019 World Championship victor, Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, and the 2021 winner, Yuta Takahashi, both won the chance to design a card featuring their likeness (Elite Spellbinder and Faerie Mastermind (coming in March of the Machine), respectively).

There are also sweet promo cards available once you’re on your way to qualification. Top finishes at Regional Championships qualify you for Pro Tours, as well as Worlds (if you’re victorious at Regionals), which not only let you compete for money but just registering gets you a Jace, the Mind Sculptor Secret Lair promo in non-foil, with Top 16 competitors also get a traditional foil copy.

Results

MTG World Champions:

1994 Zak Dolan (USA)
1995 Alexander Blumke (CHE)
1996 Tom Chanpheng (AUS)
1997 Jakub Slemr (CZE)
1998 Brian Selden (USA)
1999 Kai Budde (DEU)
2000 Jon Finkel (USA)
2001 Tom van de Logt (NLD)
2002 Carlos Romão (BRA)
2003 Daniel Zink (DEU)
2004 Julien Nuijten (NLD)
2005 Katsuhiro Mori (JPN)
2006 Makihito Mihara (JPN)
2007 Uri Peleg (ISR)
2008 Antti Malin (FIN)
2009 André Coimbra (PRT)
2010 Guillaume Matignon (FRA)
2011 Jun'ya Iyanaga (JPN)
2012 Yuuya Watanabe (JPN)
2013 Shahar Shenhar (ISR)
2014 Shahar Shenhar (ISR)
2015 Seth Manfield (USA)
2016 Brian Braun-Duin (USA)
2017 William Jensen (USA)
2018 Javier Dominguez (ESP)
2019 Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (BRA)
2020 N/A
2021 Yuta Takahashi (JPN)
2022 Nathan Steuer (USA)

Team World Championship winners:

1995 United States (Mark Justice, Henry Stern, Peter Leiher, Mike Long)
1996 United States (Dennis Bentley, George Baxter, Mike Long, Matt Place)
1997 Canada (Gary Krakower, Michael Donais, Ed Ito, Gabriel Tsang)
1998 United States (Matt Linde, Mike Long, Bryce Currence, Jon Finkel)
1999 United States (Kyle Rose, John Hunka, Zvi Mowshowitz, Charles Kornblith)
2000 United States (Jon Finkel, Chris Benafel, Frank Hernandez, Aaron Forsythe)
2001 United States (Trevor Blackwell, Brian Hegstad, Eugene Harvey)
2002 Germany (Mark Ziegner, Kai Budde, Felix Schneiders)
2003 United States (Justin Gary, Gabe Walls, Joshua Wagner)
2004 Germany (Sebastian Zink, Torben Twiefel, Roland Bode)
2005 Japan (Ichiro Shimura, Takuma Morofuji, Masashi Oiso)
2006 Netherlands (Julien Nuijten, Kamiel Cornelissen, Robert van Medevoort)
2007 Switzerland (Nico Bohny, Manuel Bucher, Raphael Genari, Christoph Huber)
2008 United States (Michael Jacob, Paul Cheon, Sam Black)
2009 China (Wu Tong, Bo Li, Zhiyang Zhang)
2010 Slovakia (Ivan Floch, Robert Jurkovic, Patrik Surab)
2011 Japan (Ryuuichirou Ishida, Tomoya Fujimoto, Makihito Mihara)

World Magic Cup winners:

2012 Taiwan (Tzu Ching Kuo, Tung-Yi Cheng, Yu Min Yang, Paul Renie)
2013 France (Raphaël Lévy, Timothée Simonot, Yann Guthmann, Stephane Soubrier)
2014 Denmark (Martin Müller, Simon Nielsen, Thomas Enevoldsen, Lars Birch)
2015 Italy (Marco Cammilluzzi, William Pizzi, Francesco Bifero, Andrea Mengucci)
2016 Greece (Bill Chronopoulos, Panagiotis Papadopoulos, Nikolaos Kaponis, Tziotis Petros)
2017 Japan (Yuuya Watanabe, Kenta Harane, Shōta Yasooka)
2018 France (Jean-Emmanuel Depraz, Arnaud Hocquemiller, Timothée Jammot)