Tournament policy
How FACTION Play pairs, ranks and scores every event. Short version: show up, play, everything counts.
Swiss pairings
Everyone plays every round - nobody is eliminated in Swiss. Round 1 pairs the field in sign-up order; from round 2 you face someone on the same score wherever possible, and the system avoids rematches. In a small or tightly-scored field a rematch can occasionally be the only legal pairing - the system allows it rather than leaving players unpaired. With an odd player count the lowest-ranked player without a bye gets the bye (a free 1-0 win). A win is 3 match points, a draw 1, a loss 0.
Standings and tiebreakers
Players on equal match points are split, in order, by:
- Opponents' match-win % - how strong your opposition was. Each opponent counts at least 33%, so an opponent having a bad day never craters your score.
- Game-win % - your own games won. Best-of-3 matches use the recorded game score (report it from your phone or at the desk); single-game matches count 1-0, and a drawn match counts as one drawn game.
- Opponents' opponents' match-win % - the deep splitter when everything above is level.
- If still tied, names break the tie alphabetically so standings are always deterministic and checkable.
Byes count as a won match but are excluded from your opponents' strength calculations.
Top cut
Events may cut to a top 4 or top 8 single-elimination bracket after Swiss, seeded 1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5 (1v4, 2v3 for top 4).
Fixing mistakes
Organisers can correct any result, even from earlier rounds - standings fully recompute from the corrected match record. Wrong pairings can be repaired at the table, and players can be added or dropped mid-event. The record of what actually happened always wins.
Championship points
Every completed event records full results against your player identity. Points are computed from those results - never hand-entered - so they are always auditable. Everything you play in 2026 counts toward Season 1 in 2027. Your running total lives in your player profile; the public Season 1 ladder opens with the full set in 2027.
| Event tier | Playing | Winner | 2nd | Top 4 | Top 8 | Best results counted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Store Night | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | - | 8 |
| Store Championship | 2 | 15 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
| Road to PAX | 2 | 20 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| PAX Launch | 3 | 40 | 25 | 15 | 8 | 2 |
| HQ Event | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | - | 8 |
Placing points require a big enough field (2nd place needs 4+ players, top 4 needs 8+, top 8 needs 16+). Only your best results per tier count each season - playing more never hurts, grinding never dominates. Schema s1-2027.draft-1: values are draft until Season 1 locks and may be tuned - retroactively and transparently, since points are always recomputed from results.
2026: the runway
Until the full set launches, events run Starter Pack and Build & Battle formats. There is no points race in 2026 - store champions earn winner flags (and the PAX Aus stage looks kindly on them) while every result banks toward Season 1.
Looking for what we hold about you, and what we do with it? That is the privacy notice.