The following articles take a deep dive into how to use the Melee platform.
Organizers have had the ability to create Tournament Hubs for select tournaments or conventions they are running for some time now. Things are now getting a whole lot easier for those uninterested in defining the lists and just want all of their tournaments stored in one area.
Now, each Organization has their own page that hosts a Tournament Hub with every published and ended tournament stored within it. A link to this page can be found in each Organization's Dashboard as well as if any user clicks on the Organization's name on a public page.
The link to these automatic Organization Hubs is https://melee.gg/Hub/Organization/#### with the #'s replaced with the Organization ID Number.
On this page there's also the option to download a QR code to display for players so they can always know which events an Organizer has available. Players enrolled in any of those tournaments will see that in the "Your Tournaments" section of the hub.
Melee welcomes all of the new Tournament Organizers that are a part of the Disney Lorcana Hobby Store Program. We are eager to assist you on your journey with Melee, and have created this section of the documentation to best serve your specific needs on the platform. If your questions are not answered in this section, you may find it's answered in the "Guides and Tutorials for Organizers" or "Additional Organizer Resources" sections.
If you are in need of direct support with customer service, please join the Melee Discord server.
Event reporting is automatic, meaning there is no manual process you will need to do after completing your events. The only required action you must take is attaching your retail store's "Tournament Location" when you are creating your events in Melee.
Note: Do not worry if you have not previously done this for completed events, just make it a part of your process in the future.
At Melee, we pride ourselves on delivering a consistent, secure, and high-quality experience for our users. There are several reasons behind our decision to not implement "guest players" or "Import Lists" like other software:
By requiring all players to have Melee accounts, we ensure that every user on our platform is authenticated and traceable. This minimizes risks associated with anonymous interactions and maintains the integrity of our platform.
Ensuring all players have a Melee account guarantees that every user receives the same high standard of experience, including notifications, communications, and feature availability.
By having all players register and use a Melee account, our support team can more effectively address user concerns, trace issues, and offer timely solutions. Guest accounts could complicate the troubleshooting process and extend resolution times.
Our focus is on enhancing and expanding features that benefit registered users. By diverting resources to develop and maintain a guest or import list system, we would potentially be sidelining more valuable enhancements for our core user base.
A registered community allows for fostering relationships, reputation-building, and creates a sense of belonging. Guest players wouldn't have the same level of commitment or connection to our community.
We understand the appeal of such features in some platforms, but we firmly believe that our current approach best serves the long-term interests of our users and our platform's overarching goals.
Melee has a built-in entry fee system which allows players to register early for tournaments that allow it. Organizers on the platform need to follow Melee's Entry Fee and Payment Policies to not break the Terms of Service.
Disney Lorcana Hobby Store locations have the following exception to Melee's normal Entry Fee and Payment Policies:
In partnership with Ravensburger, Disney Lorcana Hobby Store Locations that are given the green light for organized play have the choice not to use Melee's entry fee system for their Lorcana tournaments. However, if these Locations decide to go with Melee for collecting entry fees, players participating in their tournaments will have the usual application fees applied when they pay entry fees via Melee.
This exception allows Disney Lorcana Hobby Store locations the option to not use Melee's entry fee system as one of their entry fee methods if they so choose.
Some language on the site may say otherwise, and we are working hard to make all the changes to avoid confusion.
Soon we will have the ability for Disney Lorcana Hobby Store locations to set an entry fee on their events without it being associated with our existing entry fee system. We apologize if the lack of this feature has caused any issues.
Melee uses FushionAuth to help parents or legal guardians to create and manage accounts for users who are under the age of 13. These accounts must belong to a parent or legal guardian as no accounts can belong to or contain personally identifiable information for users less than 13 years of age.
These accounts must belong to a parent or legal guardian as no accounts can belong to or contain personally identifiable information for users less than 13 years of age.
Many parents and legal guardians may not want to create additional email addresses for the accounts, though most won’t have to. Many email service providers offer a feature called “Subaddressing”. This feature is the ability to append a plus ("+") sign and any combination of words or numbers after an email address. It's also sometimes known as "plus addressing."
Practical use of this would be that there’s already a Melee account associated with the email TestEmail@Melee.gg. You could create another account using TestEmail+2ndaccount@Melee.gg. All emails for both accounts will be directed to TestEmail@Melee.gg but two unique accounts will exist.
Melee offers Organizers the ability to set a code that is then required to be entered when players register for a tournament. We believe the optimal way to utilize this feature is to have it on display in the store along with a QR code to the tournament or Organization Hub.
Players interested in playing in the tournament can come into the store, locate the information, register themselves into the tournament, then come to the front of the store to pay the entry fee. Now it will be necessary to track who has and hasn't paid, which is possible in the "Players" tab in the Tournament Controller. By clicking on the blue "Columns" button you will see a drop down. At the WAY bottom is "Acknowledged". If you click on that it will unhide this column on the table.
This will add a checkbox for each player to be used as a reference for who has and hasn't paid for the tournament. Once all players have registered and paid, you can begin the tournament!
Click Here to create an account. You will receive a verification email once you’ve finished filling out the necessary information.
Once your user account is created, you are able to join tournaments or create organizations.
Below you will find resources for players, judges, and organizers. Be sure to check them out if you want to utilize Melee to its fullest potential.
There is no application process for becoming an Organizer to run tournaments on Melee.gg. Any user can create an organization and start running tournaments by clicking here. Once a new organization is created, you’ll be able to access its Organization Dashboard and start running tournaments under the organization.
Before you start running tournaments, be sure to read and follow our Terms of Service and Entry Fee and Payment Policies.
On Melee there are three unique ways to register or be registered for tournaments. These pathways are decided by the Tournament Organizer when they set up the tournaments.
This is when a player registers themselves into a tournament. If that tournament has an entry fee, players will be directed to a payment processing portal to complete the transaction.
Players will then have the option to unenroll from the tournament prior to its start. If they choose to do this, Melee will automatically trigger a refund with the third party processor which can take 3-5 business days to process.
Tournament Organizers have the ability to enroll players themselves, most commonly used at local game stores or registration lines at conventions. Players will need to provide the Tournament Organizer with their Melee Account Email so they can find the correct account and register it into the tournament.
If a player does not have a Melee account, the Tournament Organizer can create one for the player during this process, though it is recommended that players create Melee accounts prior to going to tournaments.
The preregistration system on Melee has many options available to Organizers, but typically it is used for "Invite Only" tournaments (Regional Championships, Pro Tours, ect) or those that the Tournament Organizer uses their own payment systems. For the second example, the Organizer will "preregister" a list of information most commonly email addresses. Then, only user accounts that match this set of information are allowed to register for the tournament through Melee.
Players will then gain access to their Player Controller and Player Portal. These tools are used for player operations such as receiving pairings, submitting results, and dropping.
For players who paid their entry fee through the Melee system, they will automatically trigger a refund when they unenroll from a tournament that has not started yet. Players will need to speak to the Tournament Organizer if they need a refund once a tournament has started.
For Organizers, a refund can be made from the Tournament Controller via The Player Card.
Melee offer's two ways for players to receive pairings and record match results. The Player Controller is home to a more robust suite of tools and features while the Player Portal is more mobile-friendly with only the necessities in mind. Links to these tools will appear on the same page as any tournament you've registered for and both can be used for receiving pairings and submitting results.
Actions both tools can do:
Things you can do on the Player Controller:
The Player Controller is one of the two tools players have available for tournament play. The Player Controller is Melee's choice for pre-tournament operations such as decklist submission for supported games and digital tournaments. Features of the Player Controller include:
With its mobile first design, the Player Portal is Melee's choice for in-person tournaments. The Player Portal only has features necessary for tournament opperations which include:
The Player Portal does not update automaticaly meaning the player must refresh the page to get up-to-date information on their tournament.
Melee currently only supports decklist registration and validation for Magic: The Gathering. We offer four ways to submit decklists, and suggest paste as our prefered option.
For Uploads and Pasting of decklists, we support the formating of exports from many-to-all of the most popular decklist sites, tools, and gaming platforms.
Melee stores a history of tournament and user-created decklists for each player. On this page a player can use the green tool cog and select "Use for Future Tournament". Once they select the tournament they will be sent to their Player Controller for that tournament and see that decklist ready to be submitted.
Once your decklist is ready, you can submit it by clicking on the submit button in the top left corner.
Melee will check to see if the decklist is valid for the format of your tournament and you will receive an email verifying your deck is submitted.
Editing Your Decklist: You may also edit your decklist before the tournament starts. Just be sure to click the submit button again to allow Melee to make sure your decklist is still legal for the format.
If you forgot to click submit: Melee tracks every card change you make to a decklist which Organizers have access to. While it's suggested to click submit, it's techncially not necessary as your decklist will automatically be submitted when the tournament starts.
Melee is an online platform for event registration and tournament operations. It provides matchmaking, results reporting, customer service ticketing and other various characteristics helpful for hosting events. Some of the most commonly used advanced features are the possibility to create manual pairings, edit pairings, easily add and drop players as required, and a vast flexibility regarding formats and pairing algorithms. Melee has been used to run high profile tournaments such as the Red Bull Untapped series, the Magic World Championship, Regional Championships and SCGCON.
Players can register in any of the events listed on Melee and get access to comprehensive tournament tools called the Player Controller and the Player Portal. Once playing in an event, both of these tools give players access to decklist submission*, pairings, their opponent’s information and decklist, ability to chat with their opponent, results submission, and the ability to drop from the tournament.
*Currently Melee only supports decklist submission for Magic: The Gathering with support for other games on the horizon.
Melee organizes its tools and features using a series of pages defined as “Dashboards” and “Controllers”.
Dashboards, like the Organization Dashboard, is an individualized page filled with management tools. You can locate your Organizer's Organization Dashboard by clicking on Default Organization in the profile drop down.
Controllers are used for management of specific tournaments. Tournament Organizers have access to a "Tournament Controller" while players have access to a "Player Controller" (As well as the Player Portal). These tools are both used for the operations of tournaments. Organizers use the Tournament Controller to manage the tournament, and players use their tools to receive pairings, enter results, and have the option to drop.
There are many ways to start the tournament creation process such as under the "Organizers" dropdown above, but the easiest is by clicking here.
The first page allows you to select the tournament's location and game. You can also select for the tournament to be a test tournament which allows you to practice with all of the tools available to you before running a live tournament for your players.
Note: Test tournaments ARE NOT public so your players will not be able to see any tournament in testing mode.
The Tournament Edit Page form for creating a new tournament has a myriad of options though the only information necessary is the tournament name, tournament type, and start time.
Tournament Types*:
*Some tournament types won't be options depending on the game you've selected
Player Registraion Types:
Entry Types:
Once you’ve created the tournament on the Edit page you’ll be navigated to the View page. This is where players will sign up for your tournament once it has been published. To publish your tournament you will need to navigate to the “Tournament Controller”.
The Tournament Controller is your home for all actions before and during the tournament including publishing the tournament for players to start registering. You will first need to visit the “Phases” tab to create phases, select the format, choose the matching method and number of rounds for your tournament.
Once a phase is created you can publish the tournament and start allowing players to register.
Phases define the structure your tournament will adhere to. Some tournaments will only need one phase to run optimally while others could require upwards of five.
Pairing Methods are the first step in defining how the rounds will be paired.
Swiss: Players will be randomly paired against players with the same number of "Swiss Points". No players are paired against the same opponent twice in the same swiss phase or in subsequent swiss phases that share the same format. If a swiss phase is followed by a "Playoff" phase, the last round of swiss will be "Power Paired" meaning pairings will be based off standings instead of points.
Single Elimination: This is a "bracketed" pairing method though keep in mind the user interface for single and double elimination brackets is still being developed. Worth noting, players will NOT receive table assignments for rounds 2+ using this pairing method. We suggest you use "Play until X Loses" as the pairing method if your intentions are to produce table assignments for all rounds.
Playoffs: Playoffs is the most commonly used pairing method for "Top 8s". Playoffs will pair players in the Quarterfinals according to final standings resulting in 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, and 4v5.
Play Until X Wins/Loses These options are used for unique tournament structures such as unbracketed single elimination, double elimination swiss, or structures where you want players who win X rounds to qualify.
This will be the number of rounds the phase will run for. Often it won't be known how many rounds a tournament will need to operate for as that is commonly based on attendance. We advise you use your best judgement when selecting this number, and know you can always return to the phase and edit it to the appropriate number of rounds even if the phase has already started!
A Play Format is which format your players will be using. For games where decklist support exists, this also tells Melee which format decklists need to be validated for when players submit decklists. Note, for tournaments with multiple phases with the same Play Format, players will only be able to submit one deck for them all.
How many games players will play for each round in a phase.
This is an optional setting to be used for limited draft pods, and not a setting for things such as "Commander Pods". Commander support is still on its way!
If a starting or ending table number isn't selected, Melee will start pairings at table 1 and progress upwards based on need. When starting/ending tables are selected, Melee will pair players at tables based on those settings.
Any phase that begins with a cut will drop players that don't meet that criteria. This is often used for multi-day tournaments with end of day cuts, or for the more simple "Swiss + Top 8" structure.
Standalone phases should only be used in unique situations where you don't want the phases to see each other. This is an advanced option for very unique tournament structures.
Once you have at least one phase created, you can publish the tournament. This action can be found in the top right corner of the Tournament Controller. Once a tournament is published, players can begin registering for it.
Once a player registers for a tournament, they will gain access to their player tools and the organizer will see them enrolled in the Tournament Controller under the Players tab.
In most instances, it is correct to have your tournament's registration type set to "Open Registration". If for any reason you set your tournament to "Invite Only", there are two options you will have to getting players registered for the tournament.
Under the Preregistration tab you will find an option to import a list of information which allows Melee user accounts that match that information to enroll into the tournament. So for example, if you submitted a username, only the account with that username would be able to enroll on the Tournament View Page.
Found on the Players tab is a Manual Enroll button. This pulls up a table which on the left side allows you to enroll existing accounts or on the right side create new ones for players who don't have a Melee account yet. This process will email the players with instructions on finalizing their account and help them prepare them for Round 1.
This is a smooth process for when you're needing to enroll new-to-Melee players at your store, though it is suggested that you let your players know beforehand to create a Melee account to avoid pre-tournament confusion and onboarding.
Preregistrations is a great tool when you are taking entry fee registrations outside of Melee and need to get players into the tournament on Melee. Here are the suggested steps you should take when planning out this process.
There are a few ways you may want to set up your tournament, but typically you’ll want to set the tournament as “Invite Only” if your players are purchasing early tickets outside of Melee.
To successfully preregister a player, you will need to receive a piece of information from them which is typically an email address. That is why it’s vital to make sure your players know when they are purchasing their ticket that their information will be used as the preregistration information on Melee. This not only informs them of how you intend to use their personally identifiable information, but it can also inform them that they should provide to you the email address of their already existing Melee account.
It’s also best if you have already published the tournament on Melee so you can provide them with a link to the tournament page as well as information on when they can expect to register. Keep in mind the process of importing this information into Melee’s preregistration form is manual so players will not be able to sign up through your system then automatically register on Melee.
Import a list of Melee Usernames or Melee Account Emails and select an Import Type. Once this has been done, any account that matches this information will now be able to register for the tournament.
Before we get to starting a tournament, it's important to go over The Player Card as it's an important tool for manageing tournaments.
You might have noticed that in all of these tabs, the name of each player shows up as a link. If you hover on it, you will see a brief information pop up with the most important tournament information for that player, including a link to their decklist, their result from each round and current status.
Clicking on their name will take you to their individual Player Card, which gives you access to more information, such as support tickets opened by the player, any penalties they have received, or their payments. The Player Card also allows you to change the player’s status, from Active to Dropped, Disqualified, Unrolled, etc., and to bring them back into the event if needed. For example, if a player was late to the round and was dropped, but they show up before the next round is paired, you can put them back in the event by setting their status to Active.
A few other useful tools in the player card is the fixed table option, which is used at tabletop events, being able to issue refunds from the payments dropdown, and entering new penalties in the penalties dropdown.
Now that your tournament is full, you can click on the “Start” button. Once a tournament has started, you’ll be able to pair round 1. Head over to the “Pairings” tab, select the Round you wish to pair (Round 1), then click on “Pair Round”. When you pair the round you will see the table fill up with matches. Players will also receive this information in their Player Controller and Player Portal.
If for some reason you need to edit a pairing, you can do so by clicking on the “Edit Pairings” button. This will bring up a popup window with tools to break up matches, give players losses, wins, ect.
Once players start submitting match results, those will be updated in the Tournament Controller within the next minute when it auto refreshes. In the Pairings tab you can also submit/edit results by clicking on the green tool cog icon next to each pairing.
Once all results are submitted, you can click on the next round in the Pairings tab and pair that round.
Sometimes a player will show up after a tournament has started, and those players no longer have the option to enroll themselevs into the tournament. Here are steps to resolve any late enrollment situations:
The Edit Pairings button can be found in the Pairings tab of the Tournament Controller. Editing pairings is often needed when running a tournament. Listed below are the most common issues that require editing pairings and how to resolve the issues.
Your players will be able to submit results themselves using their Player Controller or Player Portal. Organizers can also submit or edit results for their players as well.
Click on the green tool cog associated with any pairing found on the "Pairings" tab and click on "Edit Pairings". On this field you will be able to submit game wins for your players.
If the result ends in a draw, you can just submit the wins and Melee will fill in the rest. For example, this is how you would submit the result of a match that ended in a draw during game 3.
Sometimes a match result will be entered incorrectly and players won’t notice until the next round is paired. To correct this follow these steps listed below.
Setting up a draft on Melee requires a few additional steps than normal tournaments. Here are the additional steps you will need to accomplish for draft setup.
You will need to select a Pod Size of 8. You can select 4, but this is mostly used for Two-Headed Giant Draft.
Once all your players are registered, go to the "Pods" tab and click the "Generate Pods" button to generate the pods.
Next you will generate seatings then publish them to your players. Once you generate and publish seatings, your players will be able to see them in their Tournament Controller under the "Seatings" drop down or in their Player Portal.
This will be the same as any other tournament, though the players will only play against those that are in their pods. Due to each pod being a "small tournament", sometimes the pairings will need adjustments. You can do this by editing the pairings in the "Pairings" tab.
As an organizer, you will be able to give other user accounts permissions to view, edit, and manage tournaments. An organization can add staff to an individual tournament through the Tournament Controller, or add staff for all tournaments through the Organization Dashboard. There are four different staffing roles that each have a variety of unique permissions. These permissions can be viewed under the “Staff Permissions” tab in the Organization Dashboard.
Dear Disney Lorcana Hobby Stores,
We know many of you are using Melee for the first time for your events and might not be sure how to set up your league event. While Melee is very open ended with a ton of options to choose from, we believe many of you would like a suggestive pathway to follow. So here is how we suggest you set up your first league event in Melee!
Start the tournament creation process here.
On this first page you will select a location and below that you will find Disney Lorcana as a game option in the drop down menu. Click continue.
Next you will find yourself on the “Tournament Edit Page”. This page has a ton of options you’ll use in the future, but for now we will only focus on the necessities.
Tournament Name: We suggest adding “Week 1” to the end of your tournament name.
If you just want to use Melee for registration and not pairings.
If you are using Melee to pair rounds, please review our Tournament Registration and Starting a Tournament sections.
Start Time: Pick the time players should expect the begin.
Registration Type: Invite Only
As players will be registering in person, and supplies are limited, you don’t want people joining on Melee and assuming they are guaranteed a spot.
The exception to this is if you actually want to allow people to register early on Melee to lock-in a spot.
Entry Type: Free
By August 25th we will have an update that will allow you to edit your tournament and display an entry fee without it needing to be associated with taking entry fees through Melee.
If you'd like to enable entry fees on Melee, you can do so by going to your Organization's Dashboard and adding one by clicking on "Edit Organization". This will allow you to set an entry fee.
In partnership with Ravensburger, Disney Lorcana Hobby Store Locations that are given the green light for organized play have the choice not to use Melee's entry fee system. However, if these Locations decide to go with Melee for collecting entry fees, players participating in their tournaments will have the usual application fees applied when they pay entry fees via Melee.
Here you can add a image which will be displayed on your leagues view page.
You can provide more information about your league to your players here. This will get them excited and cut down on all the questions everyone's probably asking you about your Disney Lorcana events!
Player Cap: If your league has select seating, you can display this information by changing this number.
Create Tournament then go to the Tournament Controller and create a phase.
You can learn more about phases here.
Once you are finished creating a phase you can click "Publish" in the top right corner which will make your league public to the masses.
For registration, you can use our Manual Enrollment process as a way to sign players into Melee. You can read more on this process in our Tournament Registration section.
Once registration is finished, if you are using melee for "Registration Only", make sure you click the "End" button on the Tournament Controller. This will end the event.
If you are wanting to use Melee for pairing the matches, please review the Starting a Tournament section of the documentation.
Next week (August 22nd-27th) we will be moving to FushionAuth which will allow parents to authenitcate and manage accounts for children Players 12 and under. Until then, do not enroll any of your players into Melee that are 12 and under.
As for league structure and play, use the content provided to you in the Disney Lorcana Organized Play Kit. If you have any questions, please reach out to us on Discord
Organizers are not given the option to take Entry Fees until they have linked a PayPal account. You will find this option available in the “Edit Organization” page found in your Organization’s Dashboard. You can find your Organization's Dashboard by going to your Organizations Page. Once a PayPal account has been linked, you will have the option to take entry fees on the Tournament Edit page.
Be sure to read our Entry Fee and Payment Policies before running tournaments with entry fees that are being taken on or off the Melee platform.
The Organization Dashboard is a centralized home for all the tools and resources available for each Organization. Organization Dashboards can be found under the “Organizations” tab in your profile settings by clicking on the dashboard button associated with the Organization. Organization Dashboards is where you can:
The Organization Edit page is where you’ll be able to change your organization’s name, contact email, support ticketing email, and add any social media links associated with your organization. It’s also where you’ll be able to enable entry fees.
Found on the Organization Dashboard is an “Organization Staff” tab. Here you will be able to staff your organization. Once an account has been added to your staff, they will gain access to all of your tournament’s Tournament Controllers. Each tournament can also be staffed individually which can be managed from the “Staff” tab on that tournament’s Tournament Controller.
You can learn more about which permissions are granted to each role in the “Staff Permissions” tab in the Organization Dashboard.
There are many ways for players to register themselves into tournaments or be registered by the organizer. For starters, there are two forms of “Registration Types”; Invite Only and Open Registration.
The most commonly used is Open Registration. Once a tournament is published, players will be able to register themselves on the tournament’s view page.
Invite Only will not allow the public to register for the tournament. There’s two ways to allow invited players to register themselves. Under “Entry Type” you can select “Code Only” and fill in a code for players to use to register. The other process is by using the “Preregistration” tab found on the Tournament Controller.
The Preregistration tab features an 'Import Players' button. This allows you to paste a list of player PII, enabling users to register for the tournament if their account information matches the selected Data Type. Importing players neither enrolls them into the tournament nor sends them an email. It only grants access to register for "Invite Only" tournaments.
Note: Melee detects duplicates automatically, allowing you to import the entire list of registrations for the tournament without issues.
You may enroll players into tournaments even if they don’t already have a Melee account. To do so, go to the Players tab and under the “Actions” dropdown you will find “Enroll a player”. This will open up a table to enroll players. On the left you can search for existing player accounts and on the right you can fill in the information for a player to enroll them and create a new account for them.
When you enroll a new-to-Melee user, they will receive an email allowing them to finalize account setup as well as access to their Player Portal. Players don’t need to be logged in to access their Player Portal so new users can immediately gain access to receiving pairings and submitting results!
Test tournaments are a great way to learn how to use Melee without the pressure of doing so in a live tournament. By checking the “This tournament is for testing” checkbox:
Found on the Organization Dashboard is the option to create Tournament Hubs, an organizer defined list of tournaments. Tournament Hubs are a great way to house all of your tournaments for a given weekend or series under one weblink.
Note: Tournaments added to a Tournament Hub will not be visible on the hub’s view page until they are published.
Found in the Organization Dashboard are the “Payouts” tab and the “Tournament Entries” tab. The Payouts tab will document every tournament entry reimbursement Melee has sent your organization. The Tournament Entries tab is a detailed list of every registration made into tournaments with entry fees. You may also generate CSV reports from the Tournament Entries tabs to monitor your accounting on a granular level.
Melee currently does not technically support* team tournaments such as 2HG (Two-headed Giant) or Team Trios, but that has not stopped organizers from working around certain limitations. Here is a step-by-step guide for how organizers use Melee to run team tournaments:
*Team support is on the roadmap.
Each player or team has a status field that shows what their current status is in the tournament.
The Preregistered status is used for enrollment. A team can be preregistered into the tournament by an organizer. This means that they are able to enroll into the tournament, if the tournament is an invite only tournament, but aren't considered active. Teams who are preregistered must enroll themselves before they are considered enrolled in the tournament. This status essentially saves a place for the team/player.
Teams with the enrolled status have registered in the tournament and will be converted to active whenever the tournament starts.
The team is active in the tournament and will be paired.
The team didn't make a cut requirement. Cuts happen at the beginning of phases, such as a cut to day two or a cut for Top 8.
A team will be eliminated from a tournament whenever they lose in a single elimination or double elimination round.
Teams have the Dropped status if the team dropped themselves from the tournament.
Teams will have the Deleted status if they unenrolled themselves from the tournament. This is different from dropping from a tournament and signifies that the team did not play in the tournament.
Teams with the Disqualified status were disqualified from the tournament.
Teams gain the Qualified status whenever they mean the 'Play Until X Wins' threshold. I.e.; If the tournament is set to 'Play Until 2 Wins', when a team hits 2 wins they will gain the Qualified status. This makes it so they are not paired for the subsequent rounds.
Magic: The Gathering formats are various ways in which the game can be played. Each format provides rules for deck construction and gameplay, with many confining the pool of permitted cards to those released in a specified group of Magic card sets.
Cards from core set Eighth edition and Mirrodin through today are legal. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules.
Standard is a dynamic format where you build decks and play using cards in your collection from recently released Magic sets. Evolving gameplay and fresh strategies make it one of the most fun and popular ways to play Magic.
Pioneer is a new nonrotating format featuring cards from Return to Ravnica and forward. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules.
Each player chooses a legendary creature as their "Commander" of their deck. It is played with a 99-card deck that contains only cards of their commander's colors. Other than basic lands, each deck can only use one copy of any card.
Historic is MTG Arena’s largest Constructed format, filled with both old and new Magic cards. Digital-only cards are legal in this format, including rebalanced versions of existing cards. Play unique strategies, wild synergies, and construct unique decks! Historic never rotates and is curated as a digital-first format.
Decks may consist of cards from all Magic card sets. Even cards from expansions and special sets are legal in the Legacy format. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules.
Players play with decks constructed at the tournament from a limited and usually randomized pool of cards, rather than constructing decks ahead of time
Restricts decks to only cards with the common rarity. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules. Vintage- The most powerful of constructed formats is Vintage as decks may consist of cards from all Magic card sets. It is a constructed format and therefore it adheres to the constructed rules.
Alchemy is a digital-only rotating format and play mode for Magic: The Gathering Arena that was introduced in December, 2021 as a fast and ever-evolving experience. It intentionally diverges from the metagame of Standard and other formats to provide an alternative experience to play.
Explorer is a new digital experience on MTG Arena – a true-to-paper, non-rotating format featuring all cards legal in the Pioneer format that appear on Arena.
It is a little like Standard, a little like Commander, and a uniquely exciting deck-brewing challenge. Build a deck around a specific legendary creature or planeswalker from the Standard card pool. Choose Your Champion!
Historic Brawl is a variant of Brawl format that is played with a deck of 60 cards. Basically, Historic Brawl is just what you would expect; the Brawl format (which otherwise uses only Standard-legal sets) with the added Historic card pool. It was introduced to MTG Arena in December 2020.
Gladiator is a 100 card singleton format, intended to be played primarily on MTG Arena. Many of the rules of the format are shared among other singleton variants, while also providing a unique experience.
Is a very casual Magic format rather relaxed. Play with any set or card, no cards are banned, build your deck with as many copies as you’d like and msure you have at least 40 cards.
A casual constructed format using an older or limited card pool, or older rule sets. There are many different variations, often with different rules set regionally by a play group or a local tournament organizer.
Please note these are generalized overviews and not full descriptions or rules. For questions about the rules please contact your tournament organizer for your tournaments specific rules or For a complete list of formats, visit Wizards of the Coast's website.