Worlds 2002

The 2002 World Champion Mathieu Brochu, also pictured with girlfriend and new car.

Worlds 2002 was the first World Championship for the Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (and the first Worlds ran by the newly-minted DGMA). It was ran by Decipher at DecipherCon 2002, from Thursday, October 31 2002 to Saturday, November 2 2002. The Championship itself was a 3-day gauntlet of all-day gameplay, with a prize pool totaling $15,000 USD not including a car on the line.

Format

All decks used the Fellowship Block deck format.

• Day 1
  • 4 independent events: 2 constructed, 1 sealed, 1 multiplayer
  • Swiss tournaments
  • Best-of-1
  • Top 10% (4 at minimum) move on
• Day 2
  • Competition split into 2 separate heats
  • Each heat does an 8-round Swiss tournament
  • Best-of-1 constructed matches
  • Top 8 of each heat moves on
• Day 3
  • Top 16 compete in a single-elimination tournament
  • 3-round matches, win 2 out of 3 to move on
  • 4 matches total to complete (8-12 games total)

Prizes

The total cash prize pool was $15,000, split between the top 16 players as follows:

• 1st - $7,000
• 2nd - $3,000
• 3rd - $1,500
• 4th - $1,000
• 5th - $500
• 6th - $400
• 7th-8th - $300
• 9th-16th- $125

In addition, the top 8 each received a One Ring replica. On top of that, the World Champion received a custom-painted Chrysler PT Cruiser as well as a guaranteed plane ticket to the next year's Worlds.

The Top 16 (and winners of other events at DecipherCon) were also invited to participate in private alpha testing for the Lord of the Rings Online TCG platform.

Qualifiers

Throughout the 2002 tournament season, players could qualify for Worlds by competing in Territorial, Continental, and Premiere Events. Placing highly in those events would earn players a bye, permitting them to skip Day 1 of Worlds itself. 115 players ultimately earned a bye in this manner.

Territorial Open Championships

For the 2002 circuit, 120 Territorial championships were allocated, of which 103 were scheduled for the LOTR-TCG: 48 in the United States, 41 across Europe, 7 in Canada, 3 in Australia, and 4 elsewhere. Events ran between 1 May 2002 and 30 June 2002 and ran for 1 day. Due to the timing, only the latest of events could have included any cards from Realms of the Elf-lords; all others would have been restricted to sets 1 and 2. All events were 1v1 Swiss events with a minimum of 6 rounds.

The winner of each Territorial earned a bye straight to Day 2 of Worlds. In addition, the winner and runner up each earned a bye to their local Continental Championship (as well as a Trophy Binder to hold all their card prizes). Ultimately 230 Continental byes were awarded in this manner, meaning about 115 events must have been ran.

Continental Championships

Each continent (except Antarctica, Africa, and Australia (which had an event planned but apparently fell through)) was host to a 2-day Continental Championship. Day 1 was an open tournament available only to players that lived within the associated continent (which must be skipped by players who placed 1st or 2nd in the earlier Territorial events). This first Swiss event winnowed down the Day 1 players to the top 10% (minimum 16). Day 2 opened with a Swiss tournament for those top 10% plus any Territorial players who joined. The top 8 of that Swiss then went head-to-head in a single-elimination tournament, the winner of whom won not only a bye into Worlds itself, but earned a plane ticket to attend Worlds paid by Decipher (among a small heap of other prizes).

The winners of each of the Continental Championships were as follows:

• North America: Hayes Hunter; decklist
• Europe: Marcin Solonczak; decklist.
• South America: Daniel Ramos; decklist
• Asia: Leonard Chee (no decklist found)

DGMA Premier Series

Top 16 from day 1 of the Origins Premier Series. Left to right: Peter Leiher, Clint Hays, Matthew Yakobina, Sam Fog, Fred Foure, Chrs Schaut, John Lolli, Mikael Lane, Dominic Gaudreault, Clay Wilburn, Kyle Craft, Ty Hansen, Doug Faust, Jonathan Marchi, Ben Lacey, Brad Eier

Four high-profile events were ran through 2002 which would be hosted at popular conventions and award cash prizes. Three were initially announced in June 2002: Origins, Comic-con, and SPIEL, with Dragon*Con being added after the success of the Premier Series at Origins. Like other events, the winner would also be awarded a bye to Day 2 of Worlds itself.

Each event had a $5,000 prize purse which was awarded as follows:

• 1st place: $2,500
• 2nd place: $1,000
• 3rd place: $600
• 4th place: $400
• 5th-8th place: $125

The Premier Series Ohio was held at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio on July 4-7, 2002. John Lolli was the winner (decklist).

The Premier Series San Diego was held at Comic-con in Aug-Sept 2002. Nian Perion swept through the PS with only one loss (top 16 decklists)

Unlike the other three Premier Series, the Premier Series Atlanta was announced after the success of the Origins PS, and was held at Dragon*Con. Matthew Yakobina prevailed as the champion (top 8 decklists).

Spiel was the host of not only the Premier Series Essen, but also the World Cup (which winners did not win a bye for Worlds, but instead won a trip to New Zealand). 135 players eventually whittled down to Patrick Malboeuf(top 16 decklists).

The World Championship

The Top 16 players at Worlds 2002

The actual event itself was a 3-day series of back-to-back scheduled matches. Players who found themselves eliminated could also join the dozens of other LOTR-TCG events going on at DecipherCon in the meantime.

Day 1

The events on Day 1 were a last-chance qualifier for any players except the 115 who had already qualified. 4 events were ran, each of which awarded the top 10% (minimum 4 players) the chance to return for Day 2:

• 10AM 1v1 Constructed (20 players qualified, meaning 200 participated)
• 10AM 1v1 Sealed (6 players qualified, meaning 60 participated)
• 5PM 1v1 Constructed (15 players qualified, meaning 150 participated)
• 5PM Multiplayer Constructed (4 players qualified, which was the minimum, meaning less than 40 participated)

In total, 45 players qualified for Day 2.

• Featured Match #1
• Featured Match #2

Day 2

The 45 players who qualified from Day 1 joined the 115 players who qualified earlier in the year, making the player pool a total of 160. To make this easier to manage, players were split into two heats, the top 8 of which would move on to day 3.

• Round by round standings updates.
• Featured Match 1, 2, and 3.
• Top 16 players.
• Quick interviews with 3 of the top 16.
• Top 16 qualifying decklists.

Day 3

Day 3 was a single-elimination knockout tournament for the top 16, with each matchup being played as a best-of-3, and no time limit. Mathieu Brochu swept the tournament with an 8-0 record, becoming the first LOTR-TCG World Champion.

• Starting Top 16 matchups.
• Featured matches 1 and 2.
• Mike Long's match report vs Mathieu Brochu in Round 2.
• Final Match Play by Play - Mathieu Brochu vs Alex Tennet.
• Day 3 Decks - Including World Champion Mathieu Brochu

References

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The Lord of the Rings TCG World Championship
Decipher	2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007
SWCCG Players Committee	2010
LOTR-TCG Player's Council	2023 • 2024