The developers of GWENT: The Witcher Card Game organize from September 2017 with the GWENT Masters Series, a series of seasons and tournaments that lead up to the world championship. Every ambitious GWENT player can make his way to the world championship either via the crown points, which are awarded for reaching the top positions in the ranking list and tournaments, or via a direct placement in the qualifying tournaments.
In this article you will learn everything you need to know about participation and the opportunities to qualify each individual season Stages, Open Tournaments, up to the 4 big ones Challenger tournaments.
Pro ladder and MMR
The first step to participate is your placement on the leaderboard. Upon reaching rank 21, the highest rank, the option to participate in the Pro ladder unlocked. If a player reaches 21st place within the current season, he has the opportunity to participate at the start of the next Pro Ladder season.
In the Pro Ladder ranking list, he determines MMR - Matchmaking Rating, about your placement. This MMR value is calculated from the matches played, the ratio of wins & losses, and the strength of the opponent. Victories against stronger opponents give you more points and defeats against weaker opponents cost you more points. Such systems have been used for decades in other sports such as: Chess.
The special faction matchmaking rating system in GWENT
The MMR system for GWENT is changed by a few game-specific factors. So that players don't just play one deck and one faction, the MMR value is calculated from the values of all Five factions. Each match with a fraction 1 % of the fMMR unlocks (fMMR = Faction-MMR). So 100 games are needed to unlock 100% this fMMR. The following graphic shows an example for better visualization:
With the fMMR system, it normally makes more sense to achieve good values in several fractions than to focus on one fraction and get a single peak value there. Thus, the developers provide variety in the matches.
Each pro ladder season will last 2 months. At the end of the day, the 200 players with the highest MMR values will receive crown points. The highest MMR value achieved during the season counts and not just the value on the last day of the season.
At the end of the season, all MMR values are reset. All players who have not played at least 10 games in the season or are among the 10% with the lowest MMR will lose the option to play in the Pro Ladder. Those who “relegate” in this way must first re-qualify by reaching 21st place in the normal ranking list.
The players can check their current pro ladder rank as well as an overview of their MMR value at any time on the ranking page.
Crown points
The Crown points serve as a reward for doing well in the ladder and tournaments. These include:
- The top 200 pro ladder.
- Placement in GWENT tournaments organized by CD Projekt Red.
- Placements in licensed GWENT tournaments that were not organized by CD Projekt Red.
Here is an overview of the distribution of points at the end of each Pro Ladder season:
The qualification for the 8 Open, the 4 Challenger, as well as the World Championship is decided via the crown points.
Just like the pro ladder information, players can find out their current crown points at any time on the rankings page.
Tournaments
There are different types of tournaments in the GWENT Masters Series. First there are the 3 tournaments organized by CD Projekt Red itself: Open, Challenger, World Championship.
Open tournaments
These form the entry level of the official tournaments, in each open tournament the 8 players with the most crown points compete at the end of the pro ladder season (2 month interval). A total of 8 open tournaments take place. Each with a prize pool of 25,000 US dollars, as well as a guaranteed place in the next GWENT Challenger Event for the two finalists.
All participants receive additional crown points for their placement in the tournament.
Challenger tournaments
The second tier of the official tournaments are the Challenger tournaments. These will take place in an interval of 4 months, i.e. after every 2 pro ladder seasons. As a result, four Challenger tournaments await us, each with a prize pool of 100,000 US dollars and the Challenger winner ring for the 8 participants offers.
The 8 players are composed as follows:
- The winner of the previous Challenger tournament.
- 2 wild card players invited by CD Projekt Red.
- Up to 4 finalists of the 2 GWENT Open tournaments.
- Up to 3 players who have earned the most Crown Points in the last 2 Pro Ladder Seasons.
World Masters - The World Championship
The GWENT Masters Series culminates in the World Masters, the third and final tournament stage. Again 8 players compete against each other and fight for the prize pool of 250,000 US dollars and the unique chance to get the title of the first GWENT world champion to secure.
To ensure that the best players in the world are represented here, the 8 participants are composed of up to 5 Challenger winners and up to 7 players with the most crown points from the Pro Ladder seasons that led to the World Cup.
Other types of tournaments
Licensed tournaments
Independent tournament organizers can apply for a license to make their event official. To do this, they must follow the official rules and regulations and offer a prize pool of at least US $ 10,000. Licensed tournaments also give players crown points based on placement.
The exact number of crown points will be negotiated between the organizers and CD Projekt Red. Tournaments of this type should have an open qualifying round through which players can qualify.
In order to register for a tournament license, interested parties could do that Form on the official site use.
Community tournaments
These tournaments are run by the fans and the prize pool is usually under $ 10,000. This also eliminates the need to apply for a license, unfortunately there are no crown points, but you fight just for the honor and the prize money. The rules and requirements for community tournaments are there here.
Tournament formats and decks
Official GWENT Masters tournaments follow the same Single-Elimination, Best of 5 Format. That means every match consists of 5 games of which a player has to win 3. The loser is eliminated. This format is also used in the main events of Licensed Tournaments.
For the preliminary rounds of licensed tournaments that are not hosted by CD Projekt Red, there must be an open qualification round before the main event. It finds that Swiss system with a Best of 3 Format application. A player is eliminated as soon as he has lost 3 matches until there are only 8 players left.
Decks:
Before a tournament, each participant must build 4 decks from 4 different factions. The opponents can secretly ban a deck before each match. For example, if you know that the opponent's monster deck is particularly strong, you can ban it for the match.
After both players have banned a deck, they choose the deck from the 3 remaining that they want to use for the first game. A winning deck cannot be played again, while the loser can either swap or use his deck again.
Full details on the distribution of prize money and any additional information for participants or organizers can be found in the official rules. Below are the relevant links, as well as the e-mail addresses for any inquiries at CD Projekt Red:
Official GWENT Masers rules and regulations
Registration form for licensed tournaments
Email contact addresses:
- Tournament related questions: tournaments@cdprojektred.com
- General GWENT Masters or eSports questions: esports@cdprojektred.com
- Legal inquiries: legal@cdprojektred.com
- Business inquiries: biz@cdprojektred.com
- Contact for streamers / YouTubers: youtube@cdprojektred.com
You can find the overview video of the developers with German subtitles at the beginning of the article. The schedule for the first Masters Series is available on the Homepage of GWENT.
If you have more information about GWENT: The Witcher Card Game looking, look in ours Starter Guide. There all the basics as well as the maps and the Free2Play system are explained by us.
