Magic: the Gathering in the UK
Nats and Nats Qualifiers - explanation, dates... and organisation? (!)
I sort-of explained (not very well i might add!) what the deal is with Nationals and Nationals qualifiers to a couple of people (Louis, Alex), and said i would do a better job of it here on DT. Well, here's to trying...
What is "Nats"?
Nats = Great British National Championship, an annual event in which 200-odd of the country's best players are invited to battle it out over 12-14 rounds of standard constructed and draft Magic, in order to determine a champion for that year, and the 4-player team which will go on to represent our fine country at Worlds. It also is a breeding ground for many shenanigans and fun times, such as sleeping on a beach and losing all your belongings in the sea...
This year Nationals will be held here in London, at the Royal National Hotel, August 19 to 22. I believe the format this year will be 4 rounds standard, 3 rounds draft on day 1, same again day 2, then cut to a top 8 single-elim on day 3.
An important thing to note is that Nats is not just for players who have qualified! There are a billion (possible overestimate...) side-events, which i am sure Jason will announce shortly, which likely include GPTs, PTQs, old set draft/sealed, discount drafts, etc...
So how to i get to play at Nats?
To earn an invite/qualify for Nats, you need to either be in one of the country's top 75 based on your rating (very unlikely to most reading this, you need to be around 1900 to autoqualify), or, win a place via one of many National Qualifiers...
And what exactly are those?
Each Nats Qualifier is a standard constructed tournament, at which there is 1 place at Nationals for every 8 players who participate.So if 72 players turn up, the top 9 qualify, etc. These are held all over the country on weekends between March and April. Plus, there are likely to be last chance qualifiers (LCQs) on the night before Nationals, which may include limited formats as well as standard.
So when are these?
The following list is taken from the Wizards UK group, and may be likely to change - contact individual TO's for details. In bold are the ones within an hour and a half travel time, and thus most likely to be attended by London players.
13/03/2010 Southampton
14/03/2010 Newcastle
21/03/2010 Glasgow
21/03/2010 Reading
28/03/2010 Plymouth
03/04/2010 Manchester
04/04/2010 Bury St Edmunds
04/04/2010 Dundee
10/04/2010 Nottingham
11/04/2010 Oxford
02/05/2010 Gravesend
08/05/2010 London
09/05/2010 Downend
15/05/2010 Birmingham
16/05/2010 Portsmouth
16/05/2010 Altrincham
15/05/2010 Cambridge
23/05/2010 Milton Keynes
23/05/2010 Cardiff
29/05/2010 Sheffield
29/05/2010 Coventry
30/05/2010 Brighton
Will post some more on testing, and organisation, in a bit...
What is "Nats"?
Nats = Great British National Championship, an annual event in which 200-odd of the country's best players are invited to battle it out over 12-14 rounds of standard constructed and draft Magic, in order to determine a champion for that year, and the 4-player team which will go on to represent our fine country at Worlds. It also is a breeding ground for many shenanigans and fun times, such as sleeping on a beach and losing all your belongings in the sea...
This year Nationals will be held here in London, at the Royal National Hotel, August 19 to 22. I believe the format this year will be 4 rounds standard, 3 rounds draft on day 1, same again day 2, then cut to a top 8 single-elim on day 3.
An important thing to note is that Nats is not just for players who have qualified! There are a billion (possible overestimate...) side-events, which i am sure Jason will announce shortly, which likely include GPTs, PTQs, old set draft/sealed, discount drafts, etc...
So how to i get to play at Nats?
To earn an invite/qualify for Nats, you need to either be in one of the country's top 75 based on your rating (very unlikely to most reading this, you need to be around 1900 to autoqualify), or, win a place via one of many National Qualifiers...
And what exactly are those?
Each Nats Qualifier is a standard constructed tournament, at which there is 1 place at Nationals for every 8 players who participate.So if 72 players turn up, the top 9 qualify, etc. These are held all over the country on weekends between March and April. Plus, there are likely to be last chance qualifiers (LCQs) on the night before Nationals, which may include limited formats as well as standard.
So when are these?
The following list is taken from the Wizards UK group, and may be likely to change - contact individual TO's for details. In bold are the ones within an hour and a half travel time, and thus most likely to be attended by London players.
13/03/2010 Southampton
14/03/2010 Newcastle
21/03/2010 Glasgow
21/03/2010 Reading
28/03/2010 Plymouth
03/04/2010 Manchester
04/04/2010 Bury St Edmunds
04/04/2010 Dundee
10/04/2010 Nottingham
11/04/2010 Oxford
02/05/2010 Gravesend
08/05/2010 London
09/05/2010 Downend
15/05/2010 Birmingham
16/05/2010 Portsmouth
16/05/2010 Altrincham
15/05/2010 Cambridge
23/05/2010 Milton Keynes
23/05/2010 Cardiff
29/05/2010 Sheffield
29/05/2010 Coventry
30/05/2010 Brighton
Will post some more on testing, and organisation, in a bit...
Views: 95
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Thomas David Baker on
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In this article:
http://strategy.channelfireball.com/featured-articles/breaking-thro...
... he talks about Necrotic Sliver + Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Also Kitchen Finks. And he has Thoughtseize, Ghost-Lit Stalker and Proclamation of Rebirth in his sideboard for control.
It's not a great matchup though, I'm sure.
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Permalink Reply by Gary Lynch on
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yeah i read that. i think faries may be better though, just looking for tech for the mirror. also considering a faries/teachings hybrid.
Thomas David Baker said:In this article:
http://strategy.channelfireball.com/featured-articles/breaking-thro...
... he talks about Necrotic Sliver + Emeria, the Sky Ruin. Also Kitchen Finks. And he has Thoughtseize, Ghost-Lit Stalker and Proclamation of Rebirth in his sideboard for control.
It's not a great matchup though, I'm sure.
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Tech for the mirror is Bitterblossom on Turn 2. Or Spell Snare if you are on the draw :)
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Permalink Reply by Charlie Grover on
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Thoughtseize is tech for the mirror lol...
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Permalink Reply by Mark Walker on
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Will be there early Monday/Tuesday/Friday with full strength Vamps if anyone interested in testing....
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Apparently the tech is Elves. Or possibly Living End. Faeries is not the tech. Just got back from Grand Prix Oakland and I watched about 5 matches of the guy that won it as he was on table 1 all day. Cedric Phillips came 9th by some ridiculously small fraction with Dredge and Saito top 8-ed with Hypergenesis. Basically you should play the combo deck that no one is packing hate for, whatever it is this week ...
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Permalink Reply by Dan Barrett on
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Southampton and Reading are in the books!
So far from London, Gary Lynch and James Mills have qualified.
Plus, my good friend from MK, Arun "Jungle Lion" Banghar.
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Is there anyone interested in to make some testing this friday at The Games Club? Ans so if we are enough people try to do a Standard Tournament maybe ( obviusly for testing) ?
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Gravesend was kind to some of us, not so great to others.
A few of us, myself included, dropped at x-2, and Louis unfortunately lost in the final round when he was 4-1.
However Tom Reeve, Stuart Wright, and i think someone else from London got there, and add to that Rebecca and i'm not sure who else from a couple other recent qualifiers, and there's already a reasonable London showing.
Now just gotta get the rest of the good guys on the invite list - see you in London this Saturday!
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London Q'd a couple more Londoners, myself and Nick Lovett this time.
However, don't think that means i won't continue to update this topic/lend cards etc, and if i'm around at the club, i'll happily test with you - we want as big a London contingent as possible so we can improve upon our 1 top 8er last year!
In particular i'm looking at Ben, Amar, Nathan, but there are many more of you who could definitely make it (i mean, me and gary are, come on...)
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Permalink Reply by Thom Richardson on
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jason said yesterday that he is running LCQs and the format is Draft!
don't know the details but late night drafting to try to Q? hells yes!
ps can anyone lend me 4x drangonlord and 3x earthquake?
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Permalink Reply by Amar Dattani on
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I know I seems to scrubbing hard when it comes to this years Nats Q's. Missed out on tiebreakers 3 times. Maybe it's just not meant to be...
or
Not sure if I can really be bothered with Cambs this weekend although I did enjoy playing with UWr (aka British Superfriends!, lol that section in Chapins article made me giggle about deck naming)
Dan Barrett said:London Q'd a couple more Londoners, myself and Nick Lovett this time.
However, don't think that means i won't continue to update this topic/lend cards etc, and if i'm around at the club, i'll happily test with you - we want as big a London contingent as possible so we can improve upon our 1 top 8er last year!
In particular i'm looking at Ben, Amar, Nathan, but there are many more of you who could definitely make it (i mean, me and gary are, come on...)
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