Greetings, Organized Play fans!

With the release of Twilight of the Republic, we are rapidly approaching the onset of the next two levels of Competitive-tier events: Sector Qualifiers and Regional Qualifiers. Today, we’d like to provide a brief overview of what you can expect at these two types of events, including a sneak peek at the kinds of prizes you can earn! So, without further ado, let’s start with a look at Sector Qualifiers.

Sector Qualifiers

As a quick refresher, Sector Qualifiers are large-scale, two-day events that take place only a handful of times throughout a given Organized Play season. These events seat over a thousand people, and that’s just for the main tournament! There will also be a plethora of side events to partake in, which we’ll go over in a moment. 

The main event is the Sector Qualifier tournament itself, which takes place over both days. The first day is entirely Swiss rounds, with the exact number of rounds depending on the number of participants. Each player who manages to achieve a win-loss record of X-2 (X wins, 2 losses) or better on this first day advances to Day 2, where another batch of Swiss rounds take place. After enough Swiss rounds have occurred, there is a cut to the Top 8 elimination bracket, which also takes place on Day 2. Whoever wins the elimination bracket is the champion of the whole tournament!

The main prize of a Sector Qualifier is a guaranteed spot in Day 2 of the upcoming Galactic Championship, which you can earn by making it to the Top 8 elimination bracket. Naturally, that isn’t the only prize on offer here, and the goodies you can get for playing in a Sector Qualifier are quite special. Just by participating in the main tournament, you’ll head home with an alternate-art Obi-Wan Kenobi promo card, a custom canvas tote bag, a participation game mat, and a Sector Qualifier metal initiative counter. 

That’s already a decent number of goodies, but if you make it to Day 2, you’ll also earn yourself an alternate-art Kylo Ren promo card to add to your collection. Make it to the Top 64, and you’ll add some extra booster packs from the latest set to your prize pile. If you make it to Top 8 or above, you’ll earn yourself another Kylo Ren promo for each placement threshold you reach (Top 8, Top 4, etc.), as well as a game mat for your final placement. Top that off with a special medal for both the champion and the finalist, and you’ve got a whole pile of swag to bring home from the main event!

Of course, if you aren’t attending the Sector Qualifier for the main tournament (or if you drop out of it early), then you’re more than welcome to partake in the plethora of side events. As long as the venue doors are open, the side events are running, from the start of the Sector Qualifier right up until the end. As for what the side events themselves are, you can look forward to Premier pods, draft and sealed pods, Twin Suns pods, miniature 8-player tournaments, a larger Premier tournament for folks who didn’t make it to Day 2 of the main event, and more. Each side event awards prize tickets for participation, which you can exchange at the event’s prize wall for some exclusive goodies. Naturally, you can earn prize tickets from the main tournament as well. We’ll have more information about what sort of promos you can find on the prize wall in the coming weeks. 

The Sector Qualifiers for Season 0 begin in April, and there will be 4 of them that take place before the Galactic Championship. Later seasons of Organized Play will have more Sectors that take place, so you could think of this as an appetizer for what’s to come. We’ll reveal the exact dates and locations for each even closer to the spring, so stay tuned!

Regional Qualifiers

For Season 0, the Regional Qualifiers will operate fairly similar to Sectors, albeit on an even larger scale. These events can host over two thousand players, making them the biggest tournaments for the game! Like Sectors, Regionals are two-day events with lots of side events taking place alongside the main tournament. For Season 0, their structure will be more or less identical to that of Sector Qualifiers (including side events), so for now, let’s focus on the prizes!

Like with Sector Qualifiers, anyone who makes it to the Top 8 of a Regional Qualifier will receive a guaranteed spot in Day 2 of the upcoming Galactic Championship. Simply participating in a Regional will earn you an alternate-art Emperor Palpatine promo card, a participation game mat, a custom tote bag, a custom lanyard, a Regional Qualifier metal initiative counter, a Regional Qualifier soft crate deck box themed after the Executor and Admiral Piett, and a pack of Regional Qualifier card sleeves also themed after Admiral Piett.

That’s already a ton of prizes, but if you make it to Day 2 (by achieving a record X-2 or better in the first day), you can earn even more. Simply playing in Day 2 earns you an alternate-art Rey promo card, while placing in the Top 128 gets you some extra booster packs. Make it to the Top 8 elimination bracket, and you’ll earn placement copies of the Rey promo card and a game mat based on your final placement. Make it to the semifinals or above, and you’ll earn yourself a special plaque commemorating your status as a Regional Qualifier top player!

Regional Qualifiers for Season 0 will begin in May, and there will only be 2 of them before the Galactic Championship. Just like with Sector Qualifiers, we’ll provide more information on these events in the future!

A Season of Competitive Fun

We’ve mentioned this in past communication, but Season 0 can be thought of as the “trial run” for the Competitive tier of Organized Play. This is the time for everyone to have fun while we’re testing the waters, and we plan to adjust the program for future seasons based on the needs of players and the feedback we receive during this initial run. Both of these event types will expand and evolve in Season 1 and beyond, and the hype will only continue to escalate as Organized Play gets bigger and better!

Written by Peter Schumacher