WotC announced a major change to the Arena Championship Qualifier (ACQ) structure today, reducing the number of wins needed to qualify for the Arena Championship from 6 wins on Day Two to 4 wins.
When WotC changed the structure of the Arena Premier Play system last year, they anticipated an increase in the Arena Championship fields that never quite hit the mark they were shooting at. Kyle Knudson stated that he expected the Arena Championship field to expand to between 100 and 120 players, but AC7 and 8 only had 48 and 50, respectively. I’ve seen speculation that the field only marginally expanding is the reason the Limited portion of the event was removed from the tournament, but that has not been officially confirmed as far as I’m aware.
This change will go into effect for the Alchemy ACQ that’s happening this weekend. Players who earn 5 or 6 wins on Day Two of the ACQ will still earn a greater gem reward than players who earn 4 wins, but anyone who reaches the 4 win threshold will now earn a qualification.
