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Worlds 2026

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The WC logo designed by the Player's Council.

Worlds 2026 is the fourth World Championship for the Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game ran by the Player's Council. As in Worlds 2025, most invitations come from the World Championship Circuit, a series of tournaments on GEMP from May to September; a few seats are reserved for the winners of in-person events. The main event is scheduled for Saturday, December 5, 2026 at 1500 UTC[1].

Format[edit]

The main event is a 16-player double-elimination tournament with no Swiss group stage[1]:

  • Winners' bracket games (between players without a loss) use the PC-Movie deck.
  • Losers' bracket games (between players with one loss) use the PC-Fellowship deck.
  • The final table, between the last undefeated player and the last player with one loss, plays until one of them has two losses in the tournament. The player with one loss picks the format of the first game; if there is a second game, the loser of the first picks its format.

Players are seeded by Invitation Score, the top seed playing the lowest-seeded invitee. Invitees from live events are seeded as if they had an Invitation Score between 8 and 15, based on their placing in their event and its size[2].

Prizes[edit]

The winner chooses a card to receive a special Full Art or Masterwork version, and gets a playset of a "2026 World Champion" branded version of it on Gemp. Every other player gets a "2026 World Championship" branded version of that card, which no non-participant can get until fall 2027. Physical prizes were still to be decided when the event was announced[1].

World Championship Circuit[edit]

The Circuit was announced on March 27, 2026[2]. It was six Swiss tournaments, three each of PC-Fellowship and PC-Movie, held on Saturdays every three weeks from May to September: the first three at 1300 UTC and the last three at 1700 UTC, to suit the two main time zones.

Each Circuit tournament awarded Championship Points:

  • 5 points for winning
  • 4 points for 2nd place
  • 3 points for 3rd place
  • 2 points for the top half below 3rd
  • 1 point for taking part

A player's four best scores make up their Invitation Score; players could enter more events to replace their lowest scores. Every player in Worlds 2025 started with one score already in hand, as if they had played a Circuit event: 6 points for basmelis, dstaley, Chadwick537 and Sithdorra; 5 for stephan77, talial, m_scarpato and Rutil; 4 for Wingfoot81, scyld, enolen, rbranco, tOmas, Modrzew, balrog69 and BetoSb[2].

Date Format Players Winner
May 30, 2026 PC-Fellowship 4 Wingfoot81[3]
June 20, 2026 PC-Movie 9 basmelis[4]
July 11, 2026[note 1] PC-Fellowship 9 basmelis[5]
August 1, 2026 PC-Movie 9 billbiscos[6]
August 22, 2026 PC-Fellowship[note 2] 12 dstaley[7]
September 12, 2026 PC-Movie 15 enolen[8]
  1. ↑ The schedule gives July 11; the results thread says the event was held on 20 July.
  2. ↑ The results thread is titled PC-Movie, but its text and the Circuit schedule both say PC-Fellowship.

Invitations[edit]

16 invitations are issued: up to 6 to winners of selected in-person events and the rest to the top Circuit players by Invitation Score[2]. When the main event was announced, 12 Circuit players were confirmed and up to 4 seats were held for live events, 2 of them confirmed[1]. (The Circuit announcement allowed up to 6 live-event seats; the main event announcement holds 4.)

Confirmed invitees, in seed order[1]:

  1. basmelis
  2. dstaley
  3. Wingfoot81
  4. enolen
  5. Aragolas
  6. billbiscos
  7. Solaufein
  8. scyld
  9. stephan77
  10. balrog69
  11. Modrzew
  12. rbranco

Ties in Invitation Score were broken by best tournament placings (basmelis and dstaley both had 18 points; basmelis seeded first for winning two Circuit events to dstaley's one). If not all live-event seats are filled, they go in order to: Chadwick537, Sithdorra, talial, m_scarpato, Rutil, Bird231132[1].

The Circuit announcement planned the main event for October or November[2]; it was later set for December 5.

Championship Prep Month[edit]

In November 2026 the PC ran two practice leagues in the World Championship formats, open to everyone and separate from the World Championship: a PC-Fellowship league from November 1 to 14 and a PC-Movie league from November 15 to 28, each ending in a tournament on its last day at 1500 UTC. Any player who beat the reigning champion basmelis in league play was promised a special prize[9].

Results[edit]

The main event has not been played yet.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 World Championship Main Event (PC Forums, 7 Oct 2026)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2026 World Championship Circuit (PC Forums, 27 Mar 2026)
  3. ↑ May 2026 WC Circuit Results - PC-Fellowship (PC Forums)
  4. ↑ June 2026 WC Circuit Results - PC-Movie (PC Forums)
  5. ↑ July 2026 WC Circuit Results - PC-Fellowship (PC Forums)
  6. ↑ August 1 2026 WC Circuit Results - PC-Movie (PC Forums)
  7. ↑ August 22 2026 WC Circuit Results (PC Forums)
  8. ↑ September 2026 WC Circuit Results - PC-Movie (PC Forums)
  9. ↑ CHAMPIONSHIP PREP Month (PC Forums, 30 Oct 2026)
The Lord of the Rings TCG World Championship
Decipher 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007
LOTR Online TCG 2006 (planned)
SWCCG Players Committee 2010
LOTR-TCG Player's Council 2023 • 2024 • 2025 • 2026
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