After 15 rounds of Swiss competition across two days, the top eight of the Magic: The Gathering Zendikar Rising Championship has been finalized.
In the final Magic esports tournament of the year, over 180 players battled in the split-format tournament. Jan-Moritz Merkel became the first player to qualify for the top eight by hitting the target 12 wins with a round to spare. He was quickly followed by Autumn Burchett who qualified with the Gruul Adventures list they pioneered during the 2020 Grand Finals.
Here are all of the players that qualified for the top eight and their Historic decks.
- Autumn Burchett: Mono-Red Goblins
- Jan-Moritz Merkel: Sultai Midrange
- Brad Barclay: Azorius Control
- Gabriel Nassif: Sultai Midrange
- Tomas Pokorny: Four-Color Midrange
- Luca Magni: Four-Color Midrange
- Brad Nelson: Four-Color Midrange
- Andrea Mengucci: Four-Color Midrange
The top eight is a double-elimination bracket featuring Historic constructed. All matches will be one best-of-three match with the finals being a best-of-three match series. The winner will earn the Zendikar Rising Split Championship and $15,000. For MPL and Rivals League players, each victory contributes to their league standings.
Burchett was the star of day one as the only undefeated player after seven rounds. Burchett played Mono-Red Goblins to great effect, taking down a variety of strategies from Azorius Auras to Four-Color Midrange.
You can watch the entire top eight bracket tomorrow on the Magic Twitch channel starting at 10am CT.
