Table of Contents
Most recent weekend we’ve had the chance to follow as the 2020-2021 Magic Pro League season took off, presenting a brand new format of ‘League Weekends’. MPL players and Rivals League competitors battled within their leagues, each scheduled to play 12 Standard best-of-three matches over the course of Saturday and Sunday. The selected matches were live-streamed at twitch.tv/magic.
MPL/Rivals 2020-21 Format Refresher
This year, MPL and Rivals League play is divided into 3 splits, each related to the latest Magic set. The current one – Zendikar Rising split – consists of two League Weekends (in October and November) and a League Championship (in December). By winning matches at League Weekends and scoring high finishes in League Championships players earn points that contribute to their final league standings. At the end of the season, 8 of the worst-performed MPL players are relegated to the Rivals League, and 12 worst-performed Rivals are knocked out of the Rivals League.
There’s also an end-of-the-season Gauntlet system planned, through which some additional promotion/relegation slots in MPL and Rivals League will be determined. There will be an MPL Gauntlet, Rivals Gauntlet, and a Challenger Gauntlet in 2021 to conclude the 2020-21 season. To learn more about the 2020-21 Magic Pro League Season, check out this official explainer piece.
October Zendikar Rising League Weekend
For the first League Weekend, each one of the MPL and Rival League players registered a Standard deck (inspect the decklists and metagame). Many thanks go to the Twitter user Ball Lightning, Ph.D., who tracked and recorded all of the weekend’s matches results.
MPL Standings
Standings | Name | Deck | Record | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Rei Sato | Gruul Adventures | 11-1 | 11 |
2 | Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa | Rakdos Midrange | 9-3 | 9 |
3 | Carlos Romao | Dimir Rogues | 8-4 | 8 |
4 | Gabriel Nassif | Dimir Rogues | 8-4 | 8 |
5 | Marcio Carvalho | Dimir Rogues | 8-4 | 8 |
6 | Reid Duke | Dimir Rogues | 8-4 | 8 |
7 | Autumn Burchett | Temur Ramp | 7-5 | 7 |
8 | Brad Nelson | Gruul Adventures | 7-5 | 7 |
9 | Javier Dominguez | Azorius Blink | 7-5 | 7 |
10 | Ondrej Strasky | Gruul Adventures | 7-5 | 7 |
11 | Raphael Levy | Jeskai Blink | 7-5 | 7 |
12 | Andrea Mengucci | Esper Doom Foretold | 6-6 | 6 |
13 | Jean-Emmanuel Depraz | Azorius Blink | 6-6 | 6 |
14 | Martin Juza | Gruul Adventures | 6-6 | 6 |
15 | Seth Manfield | Dimir Rogues | 6-6 | 6 |
16 | Lee Shi Tian | Dimir Rogues | 5-7 | 5 |
17 | William Jensen | Dimir Rogues | 5-7 | 5 |
18 | Shota Yasooka | Dimir Control | 4-8 | 4 |
19 | Ken Yukuhiro | Temur Ramp | 4-8 | 4 |
20 | Shahar Shenhar | Dimir Rogues | 4-8 | 4 |
21 | Andrew Cuneo | Azorius Blink | 3-9 | 3 |
22 | Brian Braun-Duin | Azorius Blink | 3-9 | 3 |
23 | Chris Kvartek | Azorius Blink | 3-9 | 3 |
24 | Piotr Glogowski | Azorius Blink | 2-10 | 2 |
Based on end-of-season results: places 1-4 – MPL 2021/22 and World Championship qualification; 5-12 – MPL Gauntlet 2021; 13-16 – Rivals Gauntlet 2021; 17-24 – relegated to Rivals League 2021/22.
Rivals Standings
Standings | Name | Deck | Record | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Bernardo Santos | Dimir Rogues | 9-3 | 9 |
2 | Luis Scott-Vargas | Dimir Rogues | 9-3 | 9 |
3 | Stanislav Cifka | Dimir Rogues | 9-3 | 9 |
4 | Jacob Wilson | Selesnya Blink | 8-3 | 8 |
5 | Kenji Egashira | Selesnya Adventures | 8-3 | 8 |
6 | Eli Kassis | Dimir Rogues | 8-4 | 8 |
7 | Kenta Harane | Gruul Adventures | 8-4 | 8 |
8 | Matthew Nass | Selesnya Blink | 8-4 | 8 |
9 | Matthew Sperling | Dimir Rogues | 8-4 | 8 |
10 | Mike Sigrist | Rakdos Midrange | 8-4 | 8 |
11 | Riku Kumagai | Gruul Adventures | 8-4 | 8 |
12 | Chris Botelho | Mardu Doom Foretold | 7-4 | 7 |
13 | Christian Hauck | Dimir Rogues | 7-4 | 7 |
14 | Miguel Simoes | Dimir Rogues | 7-4 | 7 |
15 | Simon Goertzen | Four-Color Cycling | 7-4 | 7 |
16 | Thoralf Severin | Dimir Rogues | 7-4 | 7 |
17 | Frederico Bastos | Dimir Rogues | 7-5 | 7 |
18 | Ivan Floch | Dimir Rogues | 7-5 | 7 |
19 | Yoshihiko Ikawa | Gruul Adventures | 7-5 | 7 |
20 | Brent Vos | Esper Blink | 6-6 | 6 |
21 | Corey Burkhart | Dimir Rogues | 6-5 | 6 |
22 | Greg Orange | Abzan Doom Foretold | 6-5 | 6 |
23 | Jessica Estephan | Temur Ramp | 6-5 | 6 |
24 | Emma Handy | Temur Ramp | 6-6 | 6 |
25 | Shintaro Ishimura | Rakdos Control | 6-6 | 6 |
26 | Theo Moutier | Azorius Blink | 6-6 | 6 |
27 | Yuta Takahashi | Dimir Rogues | 6-6 | 6 |
28 | Zachary Khiine | Rakdos Midrange | 6-6 | 6 |
29 | Alexander Hayne | Dimir Rogues | 5-7 | 5 |
30 | Luca Magni | Dimir Control | 5-7 | 5 |
31 | Lucas Esper Berthoud | Dimir Rogues | 5-7 | 5 |
32 | Ma Noah | Azorius Blink | 5-7 | 5 |
33 | Ben Stark | Abzan Doom Foretold | 4-7 | 4 |
34 | Jacub Toth | Dimir Rogues | 4-7 | 4 |
35 | Joel Larsson | Bant Blink | 4-7 | 4 |
36 | Louis-Samuel Deltour | Azorius Blink | 4-7 | 4 |
37 | Matias Leveratto | Azorius Blink | 4-7 | 4 |
38 | Matthieu Avignon | Mono Green Aggro | 4-7 | 4 |
39 | Eli Loveman | Azorius Blink | 4-8 | 4 |
40 | Grzegorz Kowalski | Azorius Blink | 4-8 | 4 |
41 | Kai Budde | Dimir Rogues | 4-8 | 4 |
42 | Sebastian Pozzo | Azorius Blink | 4-8 | 4 |
43 | John Rolf | Jeskai Control | 3-8 | 3 |
44 | Luis Salvatto | Azorius Blink | 2-9 | 2 |
45 | Beatriz Grancha | Azorius Blink | 2-10 | 2 |
46 | Ally Warfield* | Jeskai Control | 1-5 | 1 |
47 | Ryuzo Fujie | Azorius Blink | 1-11 | 1 |
48 | Austin Bursavich* | – | – | – |
Based on end-of-season results: places 1-4 – MPL 2021/22 and World Championship qualification; 5-20 – MPL Gauntlet 2021; 21-32 – Rivals Gauntlet 2021; 33-36 – Rivals League 2021/22; 37-48 – relegated to Challenger 2021/2022.
*Remaining matches of Ally Warfield and Austin Bursavich will be re-scheduled to be played at a later date.
Archetypes Performance*
Archetype | MPL Decks | Rivals Decks | MPL Record | Rivals Record | Total Record | Winrate % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dimir Rogues | 8 | 16 | 52-44 | 108-79 | 160-123 | 56,5 |
Azorius Blink | 6 | 10 | 24-48 | 36-81 | 60-129 | 31,7 |
Gruul Adventures | 4 | 3 | 31-17 | 23-13 | 54-30 | 64,3 |
Temur Ramp | 2 | 2 | 11-13 | 12-11 | 23-24 | 48,9 |
Rakdos Midrange | 1 | 3 | 9-3 | 14-10 | 23-13 | 63,9 |
*Stats provided for the archetypes with at least 4 decks registered across MPL and Rivals League.