July is the final month of the AZMagicPlayers.com 2016 Legacy Series – not a whole lot of time for players to earn their Legacy Points! Only five players have formally locked in their spots, so there are still eleven spots that are up for grabs. With a handful of Trials and the final Legacy Series City Championship happening at the end of July, these eleven slots can shift wildly! That means attending these events will be crucial for these players, especially those on the bubble. And if attending Trials are difficult, then at performing well at the City Championships at Tempe Comics will be almost required.
Here is the leaderboard.
Let’s take a quick look at the sixteen different slots:
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2014 Legacy Series Championship – 1st Place
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2015 Legacy Series Masters – 1st Place
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2016 Legacy Series Gilbert City Championship – 1st Place
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2016 Legacy Series Avondale City Championship – 1st Place
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2016 Legacy Series Tucson City Championship – 1st Place
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2016 Legacy Series Tempe City Championship – 1st Place
- The Top 2 Players via 2016 Legacy Series Points earned only at City Championships
- The Top 8 Players via 2016 Legacy Series Points earned at ALL Legacy Series events
These are the slots that are taken:
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2014 Legacy Series Championship – 1st Place: Tony Murata
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2015 Legacy Series Masters – 1st Place: Kyle Henriksen
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2016 Legacy Series Gilbert City Championship – 1st Place: Leon Kornacki
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2016 Legacy Series Avondale City Championship – 1st Place: Bryan Rockenbach
- The AZMagicPlayers.com 2016 Legacy Series Tucson City Championship – 1st Place: Riley Kimminau (passed down from Bryan Rockenbach)
That’s right, with Bryan Rockenbach winning back-to-back City Championships, the Tucson City Championships invite passed down to the 2nd Place finisher – Riley Kimminau. If you’re curious about how the finer aspects of the qualifications work out, I recommend checking out the Qualification Policy.
That leaves three qualification methods left available for Legacy Series Masters. The Tempe City Championships invite is still completely up for grabs for any player. That’s right – you can play in exactly one tournament in the 2016 Legacy Series and still qualify, provided you win the whole thing. That has happened before (with Kyle Fader winning the Spring Championships last year), so don’t think it’s completely out of reach!
The next qualification method is the Top 2 Players via 2016 Legacy Series Points earned only at City Championships. We initially conceived this method because we realize that not all players will be able to compete at the frequent Legacy Series Trials, and wanted to reward repeat finishes at the less frequent, but bigger City Championships.
Here are the two players that would be qualified today via this method:
| Player | Points |
| Riad Mourssali | 25 |
| Mike Hadley | 22 |
If you take a look at the leaderboard, you may see that there are other players that have the same number of points as Mike Hadley. Mike Hadley would qualify via this method over the other players due to the tiebreakers used – in this case, he has the higher finish at a City Championships, and thus earns the qualification.
Now the final qualification method has the most volatility – with many points available at Legacy Series Trials, we can see the list of those qualified shift after the result of even just one Legacy Series Trial. So let’s take a look at the players who would be qualified today:
| Player | Points |
| Mike Griffin | 28 |
| Bryan Kinsman | 27 |
| Zach Zent | 26 |
| Allen Hobson | 25 |
| David Roqueni | 21 |
| Mike Evans | 21 |
| Jake Wachtler | 19 |
| Shane Flannery | 18 |
Here are the next five players on the bubble:
| Player | Points |
| Paul Kinsman | 18 |
| Jake Welp | 17 |
| Nick Gil | 17 |
| Donald Kastner | 15 |
| Jeff Everett | 14 |
With Legacy Series Trials awarding 3 to 5 Legacy Series Points, getting that 3-1 finish at a weekly Legacy event could be way more important than just the typical store credit awarded! In fact, the players who are at the top of the standings should not feel all that safe either. Remember that a 2nd Place finish at a City Championship awards 20 points, meaning if a player who had only a 2-3 points before the Tempe City Championships manages to find his or her way to the finals, then some of these players in the high teens or low 20s could in fact be on the outside looking in rather unexpectedly.
What that means is, don’t sleep if it looks like you’re qualified. We have plenty of Legacy Series Trials this month for players to hopefully secure their spot in the exclusive Legacy Series Masters (which by the way, if you want to see how the tournament will work, check out our post here), and don’t forget about the most important City Championships to date – the Tempe City Championships at Tempe Comics on July 30th!
See you all there!
Jason