We are approximately at the midway point between the summer solstice and October. While that means Summer is starting to wind down, it also means Worlds is drawing near! Below are the prizes and formats for the event. 

The precise schedule will be posted in the coming weeks. We expect it to be approximately the same as last year’s schedule. Things might get shifted somewhat but we don’t expect significant changes apart from the lack of a Tripp Mirror concert and trivia night. That said, if you are interested in organizing a trivia night, we encourage you to do so as a side event – see information later in the article.

If you missed any of our previous posts about this year’s World Championship, all of it can be found under this tag. Don’t forget that you can join the Worlds 2026 Discord server, where event-specific announcements get posted. The server also has resources for the event, travel, side events and more.

If you still haven’t bought your tickets, some still remain. Tickets can be purchased using the link below:

Netrunner World Championship Main Event

Players will be competing in 14 single-sided Swiss rounds followed by a double elimination top cut of 16 players. 

The first 11 rounds will be played on Saturday, after which all card prizes will be awarded based on those standings. Only players who have the potential to make the top cut will continue to play in the final 3 rounds of Swiss on Sunday, which will be followed by the top 16 cut. The requirements to qualify for Sunday will be communicated in-person and on Discord on the day of the event.

Main event prizes: 

• 1st Place: Title of ‘2026 World Champion’. Opportunity to work with Design and Development on a Champion Card. One-of-a-kind Magistrate Revontulet playmat (Illustrated by Grace Zhu ).
• Top 8: “Battle of the Bands” Bumi 1.0 & Audrey v2 45×32 cm Displate (Illustrated by Marlon Ruiz)
• Top 16: Elevation Avatar ID drawstring bag (Illustrated byJorge Zapata and Ferenc Patkós ), 2 additional side event prize tickets 
• Top 32: Synchrocyclotron Playmat (Illustrated by Anna Butova )
• All day 2 players: 2 additional side event prize tickets
• 15 points: Public Trail alternate art card (Illustrated by Benjamin Giletti ),
  Elevation Avatar IDs – Magdalene Keino-Chemutai (Illustrated by Jorge Zapata), Ryō “Phoenix” Ōno and MuslihaT (Illustrated by Ferenc Patkós)
• 9 points: Mindscaping alternate art card (Mia Siergiejew)
• 3 points: DZMZ Optimizer alternate art card (Illustrated by Martin de Diego Sádaba)
• Participation: Maintenance Access alternate art card (Illustrated by Kira L. Nguyen )

Side Events & Prize Tickets

Outside of the main event, almost anything and everything going on-site is considered a side event. We want you to have a good time without the stress of the main event. All side events award one prize ticket for participating until the end. Events that require time commitments of at least 3 hours, including those run officially by Null Signal Games, will award a total of two tickets for participating. 

A prize ticket can be brought to tournament staff at HQ and exchanged for a full playset (3 copies) of any given side event card.

You can find what side events there are or organize your own in the side event planning discord channel. If you are organizing a side event, talk to tournament staff before it starts and we’ll provide you with prize tickets to award your players! 

Here are the cards you can get in exchange for prize tickets:

Side event prizes: 

• Jailbreak alternate art card (ft. 2025 cosplay champions allieflx and SlightlyOdd, Illustrated by Mauricio Herrera)
• Audrey v2 (Illustrated by Marlon Ruiz)
• Bumi 1.0 (Illustrated by Marlon Ruiz)
• Valentão (Illustrated by BalanceSheet)

NSG-Run Side Events

Every year, NSG runs four side events: Eternal, Startup, Crown of Servers, and a Cosplay Contest. For details on each of these events, please see the side event planning discord channel.

Friday

Crown of Servers

The classic team event! Teams of 3 compete with no repeating factions amongst teammates. Table talk is strongly encouraged.

• Winning team: Elevation Avatar ID drawstring bag (Illustrated byJorge Zapata and Ferenc Patkós ), 1 bag per team member
• Participation: 2 side event prize tickets

Cosplay Contest

Come out and cosplay as your favourite Netrunner or Netrunner-related character, programs, ICE, executives or Poétrï Luxury Brand. Costumes can be anywhere from minimal effort to high effort. Given the potentially high material and time cost to make a costume, we are giving some extra prizing to reward folks for their hard work and creativity.

• Best cosplayer: Work with Organised Play to have your likeness featured in an official alt-art which will be released by Q3 2028.
• Best 3 cosplayers: Elevation Avatar ID drawstring bag (Illustrated byJorge Zapata and Ferenc Patkós )
• Participation: 2 side event prize tickets

Sunday

These side events will be organized by members of their respective curation teams, so come out and show some love for your favourite non-standard formats!

Startup

Looking to unwind after the Standard main event with a lower-power format, or prefer a limited cardpool? The Startup format aims to bring together players of all experience levels, offering a space for the newest set to take the spotlight. Bring your Méliès U selector coins from the H2 CTK and some Vantage Point cards which have yet to make a splash in Standard to the Startup Side Event.

• Winner: Elevation Avatar ID drawstring bag (Illustrated byJorge Zapata and Ferenc Patkós )
• Participation: 2 side event prize tickets

Eternal

Don’t miss out on the chance to enjoy the most powerful format the game has to offer and play with cards from Netrunner’s past. 

Eternal has something for everyone: from the people thirsty for powerful cards, to the creative deck builders finding gems in the wider card pool, and from the veterans interested in a trip down memory lane, to the new players eager to experience the game’s history first hand. 

• Winner: Elevation Avatar ID drawstring bag (Illustrated byJorge Zapata and Ferenc Patkós )
• Participation: 2 side event prize tickets

Early Birds

Thank you to everyone who bought their tickets early. As a result of your initiative, we sold out the event a few weeks after early bird sales ended, giving us enough time to expand the event space for more players to attend. Buying tickets early helps us so much with organizing and ordering prizes, lanyards, and organizing volunteers. 

As thanks, all early bird ticket holders will be receiving a full art Kompromat playset (Illustrated by Scott Uminga), and Worlds 2026 pin.

Volunteers

We want to say thank you to all of the wonderful people who are traveling and helping make worlds the event that it is. As thanks, all volunteers will be receiving: 

• The early bird loot (Worlds 2026 enamel pin and Kompromat foil full art)
• A playset of See How They Run alternate art cards (Illustrated by Dimik)
• Cards and side event prize tickets that they might have missed out on during their time volunteering
• Volunteer-branded Synchrocyclotron playmat (Illustrated by Anna Butova)