2020 Rivals League

2020 Rivals League
Date	2020
Location	MTG Arena
Prize pool	$15,000
Winner	Matt Nass
Previous Rivals League: N.A. Next Rivals League: 2020-21 Rivals League

The 2020 Rivals League is the Rivals League played in the shortened 2020 Players Tour Season. It was the first season to feature a Rivals League.

History

Starting in August 2020, Magic: the Gathering’s Organized Play calendar moved away from seasons that follow the calendar year (the 2019 season) back to seasons that are split over multiple calendar years (the 2020–2021 season). But the 2019 season ended in December 2019, so in order to fill the gap between then and the beginning of the 2020–2021 season, the Magic Pro League held a shortened seven-month season. The MPL was reduced to a 24-player league with players able to earn up to $50,000 in appearance fees in addition to prizes earned at tournaments.

At the same time, the Rivals League was introduced, which essentially is a second division for the Esports. The Rivals League is a talent-development league that feeds the MPL. Rivals will make it into the MPL either through sustained success over the course of a season or through a new tournament called the MPL Gauntlet.

Because the 2020 partial season had fewer events, both MPL and Rivals players would make less than a full season. Rivals players could earn up to $15,000 in appearance fees, in addition to any prize money earned. Unlike the 2019 season, the 2020 Magic Pro League didn't have any kind of league play structure. Instead, members of both the Magic Pro and Rivals Leagues would compete for their places in the 2020–21 season by earning Player Points at Players Tours and Mythic Points at Mythic Invitationals, Mythic Qualifier Weekends, and Mythic Point Challenges.

The COVID-19 outbreak in January resulted in preventative measures taken in March. A large swath of the Grand Prix event schedule was canceled, and the Players Tour Finals Houston and the May Invitational were also canceled. By April, it was clear that further events were not safely feasible to hold, and Wizards wrote off the entire season as not salvageable. While some large events later in the year would be prospectively held, the events would not pay out points for League positions. Current Rivals and MPL players would hold their positions, with Tabletop players addedn from the top 4 players of the three Players Tour Series 1. The Arena ranked players with Mythic points would be decided after the season's Arena challenges.

As 2020 Partial Season Rivals maintained their league status for next season, those players were no longer be eligible to play in the three remaining Mythic Point awarding events (the April 4 Mythic Point Challenge, May 16 Mythic Qualifier Core Set 2021, and June 20 Mythic Qualifier Core Set 2021). All Rivals were to be invited to the October 22-25 Mythic Invitational – Zendikar Rising, which was the event these outstanding qualifiers would feed. This was later replaced by the Mythic Invitational 2020 (August 28–30, 2020). Other events, including the Players Tour Finals Minneapolis (July 10-12) and Mythic Invitational – Core 2021 (July 23-26), were cancelled.

Roster

For the shortened 2020 season, the Rivals League roster features 32 players. Participants were 2019's bottom twelve MPL players based on Mythic Points. The eight 2019 MTG Arena and eight tabletop highest ranked Challengers who were not invited to the MPL were also eligible. Their rankings were based on Mythic Points earned in the appropriate types of events. Four participants to the Rivals League were invited at Wizards of the Coast's discretion. This became six invites when two qualified people declined to participate.

Nationality	Name	MTG Arena handle	Qualification	Players Points	Mythic Points	Points Total	Final Ranking
	Lucas Esper Berthoud	BERTU	Bottom 12 MPL 2019				26
	Kai Budde	KAI	Top 8 Arena Challenger	5		5	17
	Stanislav Cifka	STANCIFKA	Top 8 Arena Challenger		6	6	15
	Louis Deltour	LWIDELTOUW	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger	8		8	11
	Kenji Egashira	NUMMY	Top 8 Arena Challenger	3		3	21
	Jessica Estephan	JESSICA	Bottom 12 MPL 2019		8	8	11
	Eric Froehlich	EFRO	Bottom 12 MPL 2019	5	3	8	11
	Simon Görtzen	SIMONGOERTZEN	Top 8 Arena Challenger				26
	Christian Hauck	CHRHAUCK	Bottom 12 MPL 2019	3		3	21
	Alexander Hayne	HAYNE	Bottom 12 MPL 2019	8	3	11	09
	Eli Kassis	GENERALMYTHIC	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger	5	4	9	10
	Grzegorz Kowalski	URLICH	Bottom 12 MPL 2019	15	2	17	05
	Matias Leveratto	LEVUNGA	Top 8 Arena Challenger				26
	No Ah Ma	MODIFIED USERNAME	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger	8	4	12	06
	Janne Mikkonen	SAVJZ	Bottom 12 MPL 2019 (declined)	-	-	-	-
	Théo Moutier	SWIFTH	Top 8 Arena Challenger				26
	Matt Nass	MATTHEWLNASS	Bottom 12 MPL 2019	12	12	24	01
	Gregory Orange	CITR	Top 8 Arena Challenger		12	12	06
	Sebastian Pozzo	SEBASTIANPOZZO	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger	12		12	06
	John Rolf	JROLFMTG	Bottom 12 MPL 2019				26
	Luis Salvatto	LUISSALVATTO	Bottom 12 MPL 2019		2	2	23
	Thoralf Severin	TOFFEL	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger	15	4	19	03
	Mike Sigrist	SIGGY	Bottom 12 MPL 2019	15	8	23	02
	Miguel da Cruz Simões	EDMVYRUS	Top 8 Arena Challenger	5		5	17
	Matt Sperling	SPERLING	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger		2	2	23
	Ben Stark	BENS_MTG	Bottom 12 MPL 2019	8		8	11
	Luis Scott-Vargas	LSV	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger	12	6	18	04
	Peter Yeh	CHIH-CHEH	Top 8 Tabletop Challenger (declined)	-	-	-	-
	Yoshihiko Ikawa	WANDERINGONES	Discretionary Invitation 13th in challengers race		2	2	23
	Bernardo Santos	BERNARDOCSSA	Discretionary Invitation 14th in challengers race				26
	Beatriz Grancha	ALIADESCHAIN	Discretionary Invitation 20th at Mythic Championship VII		6	6	15
	Allison Warfield	MEEBO	Discretionary Invitation 14th at Mythic Championship VII				26
	Eli Loveman	NEWPLAYER1	Discretionary Invitation Mythic Championship II Winner		4	4	20
	Emma Handy	EM_TEEGEE	Discretionary Invitation 70th at Mythic Championship VI SCG Commentator		5	5	17