After a year of hard fought Circuit Openers and AMTs we are happy to announce details for the 2025 Circuit Breaker Invitational (CBI)!
The 2025 CBI swiss rounds will take place on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th January, across three different timezones, and the top cut will take place on Sunday 26th January. Keep reading for more details on timings and the new split structure of the event.
Eligibility
To participate in the Invitational you must have qualified for an invitation during the 2024 season. Events such as Circuit Openers, AMTs, Nationals and Continentals were able to give out a number of invitations relative to their turnout to their highest placing players.
Events with at least 8 players award an invitation, plus an additional invitation for every 20 total players. For example, a tournament with 40 players would qualify for three (1 base + 2 additional) total invitations. Invitations may have been passed down if top placing players already had an invite. You should have been informed at the event if an invitation was passed down to you.
Claiming your invitation
Players who qualify must have claimed their placement at the qualifying event on AlwaysBeRunning. They must then fill out the 2024 Season Circuit Opener Claims Form by 23:59 UTC-8 on January 5, 2025. If you’re looking for an opportunity to grab a last minute invitation, you can try your luck at ManintheMoon’s New Year Showdown!
Confirmation emails will be sent out on January 6th providing a link to obtain a ticket for the CBI. Please make sure you look out for and respond to this email, as that is how you will choose which timezone’s swiss pod you would like to participate in (see below). Entry is free of charge, but we do suggest a donation of $10 USD to help cover the shipping costs for prizes.
New structure
This year we are making a couple of changes to the structure of the CBI, which we hope will make it a more accessible tournament overall.
We will be splitting the swiss rounds into three pods, one suitable for each continental area. Each of the regional time zones – PST (UTC-8), GMT (UTC+0), and AWST (UTC+8) – will have a swiss pod beginning at 09:00 in that timezone on either the 18th or 19th of January. The Top 5 players from each of these pods, as well as the reigning Circuit Breaker, will progress to a 16 player Top Cut which will be held on the following weekend.
Single-Sided Swiss rounds will be held over the weekend of January 18-19, 2025 with the following start times for the three pods.
- APAC – 09:00 AWST (UTC+8) Saturday 18th January
- Americas – 09:00 PST (UTC-8) Saturday 18th January
- EMEA – 09:00 GMT (UTC+0) Sunday 19th January
Players are limited to participating in just one of these Swiss pods. Anyone found to be attempting to circumvent this restriction will be disqualified immediately, ineligible for prizing, and banned from all NSG sanctioned events for a period of one year.
Players should note that decklists for all three pods must be submitted by Friday January 17th, 7:59am PST (UTC-8) / 3:59pm GMT (UTC+0) / 11:59pm AWST (UTC+8), to ensure that all pods are on even footing for deck building. This event will be held in the Standard Format.
The 16 player Top Cut will be held the following weekend at 07:30 GMT on Sunday 26th January (UTC+0) – that’s 23:30 PST Saturday (UTC-8) and 14:30 AWST Sunday (UTC+8).
This timing is in line with our commitment to alternate the Circuit Breaker Invitational between the Americas and Europe each year.
Prizing
We have some really exciting prizes for the CBI this year, and while our Circuit Breaker’s likeness card isn’t quite ready to be shown off just yet, we’re excited to give you an idea of what’s in store:
Every qualified player who signs up will receive a playset of full-art The Holo Man in foil. Players who place in the top half of their selected Swiss group will receive a set of foil Gachapons featuring our reigning Circuit Breaker (not pictured). The top 8 players after the Top Cut will receive a playmat featuring art by Júlio Rocha, which you may recognise from our Worlds 2024 Stavka alt arts. Finally, our Champion will receive the Title of ‘Circuit Breaker’ and have their likeness featured on their own Reigning Champion card at the next Circuit Breaker Invitational.
Make sure you fill out the 2024 Season Circuit Opener Claims Form by January 5th if you are eligible. We look forward to bringing 2024’s best players together to start off 2025 with a bang!
