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May Strixhaven League Weekend Viewers Guide

May 12, 2021
Wizards of the Coast

The race for Magic World Championship XXVII and the 2020-21 postseason continues for league competitors at the May Strixhaven League Weekend. Both the Magic Pro League and Magic Rivals League face off in intraleague competition in the penultimate League Weekend of the year.



60 competitors across the MPL and Rivals League continue streaming live and playing online through MTG Arena, everyone can follow their favorites battling for $400,000 in season prizes and postseason playoff spots.

How Can I Follow the Event?

The May Strixhaven League Weekend will be streamed live May 15 and 16 on twitch.tv/magic, beginning at 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. ET/3 p.m. UTC) each day. With Swiss pools and each match determining which players will stay safe—or fall to relegation—every feature match will follow the biggest players and moments to watch.

Players will switch between Standard and Historic decks each day, when Swiss Pools are generated after every third round. Only the best showdowns and biggest victories await viewers all weekend long.

Be sure to check out our overview of the Strixhaven League Weekends for the details on Swiss pools and how players can lock in a Magic World Championship XXVII invitation—or end with relegation—each weekend.

Swiss pools are based on standings, which means we know the pools starting on Saturday morning—including those in prime position to earn an invite to Magic World Championship XXVII.

MPL Swiss Pool 1
Pod A Pod B
Standings Player Standings Player
2 Gabriel Nassif 12 Ken Yukuhiro
3 Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa 13 Jean-Emmanuel Depraz
4 Reid Duke 14 Lee Shi Tian
5 Seth Manfield 15 William Jensen
6 Márcio Carvalho 16 Shahar Shenhar
7 Rei Sato 17 Shota Yasooka
8 Martin Jůza 18 Carlos Romão
9 Javier Dominguez 19 Brian Braun-Duin
10 Andrea Mengucci 20 Autumn Burchett
11 Brad Nelson 21 Andrew Cuneo

Now that Ondřej Stráský clinched his MPL and World Championship XXVII invitations in the April League Weekend, the next two leading the race are superstars Gabriel Nassif and Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa—neck and neck leading Reid Duke, Seth Manfield, and the rest of their initial pool by just a handful of points.

While anything can happen through 12 rounds of play as six players at 33 points—including the indomitable Márcio Carvalho and the resurgent Martin Jůza—continue their march toward the top, all eyes will be on both Hall of Famers in the lead to see if one will claim the invitation up for grabs at the end of the weekend.

Rivals Pool 1
Pod A Pod B
Standings Player Standings Player
2 Matt Sperling 12 Christian Hauck
3 Stanislav Cifka 13 Yuta Takahashi
4 Luis Scott-Vargas 14 Riku Kumagai
5 Corey Burkhart 15 Mike Sigrist
6 Austin Bursavich 16 Chris Botelho
7 Luca Magni 17 Luis Salvatto
8 Zachary Kiihne 18 Jakub Tóth
9 Bernardo Santos 19 Ivan Floch
10 Thoralf Severin 20 Shintaro Ishimura
11 Grzegorz Kowalski 21 Frederico Bastos

Rivals Pool 1
Pod C Pod D
Standings Player Standings Player
22 Simon Görtzen 32 Yoshihiko Ikawa
23 Kenji Egashira 33 Louis-Samuel Deltour
24 Jacob Wilson 34 Lucas Esper
25 Théo Moutier 35 Matias Leveratto
26 Kenta Harane 36 Greg Orange
27 Alexander Hayne 37 Brent Vos
28 Matthieu Avignon 38 Ma Noah
29 Kai Budde 39 Ryuzo Fujie
30 Miguel Da Cruz Simões 40 Matt Nass
31 Eli Loveman 41 Sebastián Pozzo

Eli Kassis claimed the top spot in the Rivals League during the April League Weekend, and the battles keep getting tougher for Rivals from here. Matt Sperling's solid run throughout the season has him just 6 points ahead of Grzegorz Kowalski, the bottom player in the first Swiss Pool of the weekend, and just 2 points in front of frequent co-leader Stanislav Cifka.

With Hall of Famer Luis Scott-Vargas, MTG Arena all-star Luca Magni, and champions such as Austin Bursavich and Thoralf Severin all in that top Swiss Pool it’s anyone’s guess who will secure the next set of MPL and World Championship XXVII invitations this season.

In addition to feature matches at twitch.tv/magic, competitors will be sharing each of their matches on their personal streams throughout Saturday and Sunday. (Note: Some competitors in the lowest Swiss Pool may be unavailable for live broadcast. Please see the League Hub for available streams during each round.)

With 60 competitors and Swiss pools setting up new battles every three rounds, you can follow the excitement will be nonstop all weekend. You'll also find exclusive content by following @MagicEsports on Twitter and the hashtag #MTGLeagueWeekend.

Standings will be provided throughout the broadcast and shared by @MagicEsports on Twitter at the end of the League Weekend. Official standings and League Weekend match results will be updated Monday, May 17 on Magic.gg. A recap of the top players and performances will be published on Tuesday, May 18.

When Will League Weekend Decklists Be Published?

Decklists are available now! Check out the League Weekend hub for all the details.





Will There Be Open Decklists Between Players?

Decklists are open, and players will be able to review their opponent's Constructed decklists anytime throughout the League Weekend.

Who Are the Casters?



Who Is Playing?

60 players are competing in the May Strixhaven League Weekend, featuring 20 players of the Magic Pro League and 40 players of the Magic Rivals League. With the Strixhaven Split, everyone plays in head-to-head Swiss pools within their league based on standings.

Learn more about Strixhaven League Weekends and the final stretch to the postseason.

How Much Money Is on The Line?

There's a $400,000 prize pool divided across three splits—Zendikar Rising Split, Kaldheim Split, and Strixhaven Split—with $50,000 each for the MPL and Rivals League, as well as an end-of-season bonus $50,000 for each league. Competitor league standings at the end of each split determine prizes.

Here's how it breaks down by league:

MPL Standing Prize
1-4 $3,500
5-12 $2,500
13-20 $1,500
21-24 $1,000
Total $50,000

Rivals Standing Prize
1-4 $2,250
5-12 $1,500
13-24 $1,250
25-36 $750
37-44 $500
45-46 $250
Total $49,500

The May Strixhaven League Weekend is the second of three League Weekends in the Strixhaven Split, which includes the Strixhaven Championship taking place June 4–6.

Dates Event Format
April 10–11, 2021 April Strixhaven League Weekend Standard and Historic
May 15–16, 2021 May Strixhaven League Weekend Standard and Historic
June 4–6, 2021 Strixhaven Championship Standard and Historic
July 3–4, 2021 July Strixhaven League Weekend Standard and Historic

What Is the Format?

The May Strixhaven League Weekend will feature both Standard and Historic Constructed formats.

  • Matches are Traditional Standard or Historic Constructed—best of three games—including sideboards.
  • Players will have 30-minute timers in MTG Arena to complete up to three games in each match.
  • Each round has 60 minutes in total to finish.

Each player will play 3 matches of Swiss pairings within their pod for each of four sets of Swiss pools. Swiss pools group ten players based on standings—beginning with the top ten players by standings, then the next ten and so on—and be placed into new pools after rounds 3, 6, and 9.

  • Saturday: Rounds 1 through 6
  • Sunday: Rounds 7 through 12

Each match victory is worth 1 point toward a player's league standings. The player who finishes at the top of standings at the end of Sunday in both the MPL and Rivals League earns an invitation to Magic World Championship XXVII—and an invitation to the MPL for the 2021-22 season.

Check out our Strixhaven League Weekends explainer for even more details.

Broadcast Schedule

Saturday, May 15: 8 a.m. PDT (08:00) / 3 p.m. UTC (15:00) / Midnight JST May 16 (00:00)

  • Six feature matches from across the top pods of both MPL and Rivals League Swiss pools.

Sunday, May 16: 8 a.m. PDT (08:00) / 3 p.m. UTC (15:00) / Midnight JST May 17 (00:00)

  • Six feature matches from across the top-performing players and top pods of both MPL and Rivals League Swiss pools, followed by tiebreaker matches (if necessary).

You can watch every feature match for the May Strixhaven League Weekend live on twitch.tv/magic.

Looking to follow your favorite player? The League hub's Player Streams have you covered with links that show you when they're streaming live.

Can I Co-Stream the Event?

Following Twitch's Content Sharing Guidelines, you can co-stream the League Weekend broadcast from twitch.tv/magic using OBS or XSplit. This allows anyone on Twitch to cover the event in their voice and with their community. To be clear, co-streamed content is not endorsed by Wizards, and we expect anyone who participates in co-streaming to follow Wizards' Fan Content Policy.

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