With Nationals season right around the corner, let’s break down these events, how you can qualify, and what you can expect from each one!
March 3rd, 2026
As the Nationals season rapidly approaches, let’s take a look at these events, how to qualify and what to expect from them!
Grand Archive Nationals are invitational events that happen once a year, leading up to the World Championships. These events are highly competitive as players hash it out for a potential spot in the even more exclusive World Championships main event, boasting a robust prize pool of $68,000!
Players that just miss the automatic World’s invites will be invited to The Gauntlet which serves as a Last Chance Qualifier for the main event. Throughout the course of 2026, 16 players will be invited directly to Worlds, and 36 will be invited to The Gauntlet via Nationals. Since the World Championships will only be a 32 player event, those Gauntlet players will have to duke it out against each other for their chance to play at Worlds!
Getting invited to Nationals is the culmination of competitive play from the previous year of Grand Archive. Store Championships, Regionals, and Ascents have been awarding Nationals Qualifier cards which are each worth some amount of Nationals Qualifier Points, or NQP.
Each Qualifier card shows which Nationals event it is eligible to be redeemed at, except for Wildcard cards which can be used at any Nationals event, but only once. Each event has a different number of points required to gain entry, the thresholds are as follows:
Each player may redeem one copy of each card to put NPQ towards their entry. The following cards are valid to redeem for NQP at this year’s Nationals:
Cards worth 2 NQP
Cards worth 3 NQP
Cards worth 4 NQP
Other Ways to Get NQP
Qualifier Cards are not the only way to earn a spot at Nationals. You also earn NQP based on your Omnidex rank for each season that passed during the year. For this year’s Nationals, finishing Gold rank or higher during the Abyssal Heaven, Distorted Reflections, and Phantom Monarchs seasons will each award you with one NQP. Radiant Origins will be ongoing at the time of Nationals, so the amount of points you earn are dynamic, based on your current rank at the time of the Nationals event you are attending. Bronze is worth 2 NQP, Silver is 3, Gold is 4, and Platinum or higher is 5 NQP.
Nationals Format
Grand Archive Nationals will be played as a 2-day Swiss style tournament, with a top 8 single elimination cut after both phases of Swiss play.
The number of rounds played and points required to qualify for the second day will depend on how many players are at the event. If there are less than 256 players, day 1 will be 8 rounds and players will need 16 match points to qualify for the second day. If there are 257 or more players, the first day will be 9 rounds, and 18 points will be needed to qualify for day 2.
During the second day there will be 4 additional swiss rounds before a final cut to the top 8 players, who will play out a single elimination bracket to determine final standings.
Due to North American Nationals and Southeast Asia Nationals having only 6 direct invites to worlds, after the first round of top 8 has concluded, the four players that were eliminated will play in a playoff round to determine who places in the 5th and 6th slots, as opposed to leaving it up to tiebreakers.
Additional Prizing
Beyond World’s invites, players can also earn additional prizing at each Nationals event, as shown below.
Here’s a closer look at the Necklace of Foresight and Three of Hearts cards available as prizing. As noted above, all players who qualify for day 2 will receive a Foil Necklace of Foresight Promo.
All players who preregister for Nationals will also receive this exclusive 2026 Water Bottle:
Best of luck to all players attending a 2026 Nationals event!
