Lotus Open Season 2

How to Sign Up

The captain does every step, using DraftBot commands in the Lotus Lounge Discord.

1. Link your MTGO account: /link_mtgo. You only need to do this once.
2. Register your team: /tournament register
3. Pay the 150 tix entry fee: /wallet deposit 150. The bot sends you an MTGO trade, and your spot is confirmed when the tix arrive.
   Turn on MTGO two-factor authentication first

   Without it, MTGO blocks the trade.

4. Add your teammates: /tournament add_teammate. A team needs at least three players.

Clarifications from Season 1

Same format as Season 1. A few questions came up again and again last season, so here's where things landed.

• Matches start soon after the draft. You have 20 minutes from the last pick to build and sit down. If you're not ready at 30, you take a game loss.
• Running late? Say so early. With 24 hours' notice, the other team has to work with you on a new time.
• Agreed times go in as Discord timestamps, so everyone sees them in their own time zone. Both teams confirm.
• Subs from other teams are fine until the last Swiss round. From then on, including the Top 8, subs need to come from outside the tournament.
• You can play on two teams, with a mod's approval. Message a mod before you join your second team. This is so you don't have to choose between friend groups, not a way to buy a second entry, so your second team has to be a genuinely different team, not your first one twice. Please don't try to exploit it.
• No voice calls during the draft. This wasn't allowed in Season 1 either, and it's disqualifying.
• One Swiss round a week. The Top 8 is scheduled match by match, and the higher seed picks the cube.
• Tiebreakers use opponents' match-win percentage, with a 33% floor. Two teams tied for the last Top 8 spot play it off.
• Drops, no-shows and unplayed matches now have clear written rules.

🏆 Prize Payouts

100% of entry fees go to the prize pool, paid to the Top 8 with the same split as Season 1. The pool grows with the number of teams.

• Prizes are paid to the team captain by final standings, after the finals. The team decides how to divide them.
• Prize splits between the teams in a match are allowed, but the match is still played to a winner. Teams settle any split between themselves.
• If the tournament is cancelled, entry fees are refunded to the captains who paid them.

Ultimate Guard is back for Season 2

Ultimate Guard returns as the league’s sponsor. Their prizes for this season will be announced soon.

In Season 1, the top 4 teams each received a Mox Sidewinder deck case and sleeves.

Format

Swiss rounds, one per week, then a single-elimination Top 8 playoff. The number of Swiss rounds depends on how many teams sign up and is announced when sign-ups close. Season 1 had 6 rounds with 40 teams.

• Team matches: in a 3v3, each drafter plays a best-of-three against each of the three opposing drafters, nine individual matches in all. The first team to five wins takes the team match, and the remaining matches don't need to be played.
• Larger teams: teams may agree to a larger, equal team size. Each drafter still plays three matches. If an even-sized team match ends level (6–6 in a 4v4), each team picks a representative, and those two play a best-of-three to decide it.
• No draws. Standings count team-match wins and losses only.
• Pairings: teams with the same record are paired at random, with no rematches. The last Swiss round is paired by standings (1st vs 2nd, 3rd vs 4th, and so on) as closely as possible without a rematch.
• Byes: with an odd number of teams, one team gets a bye, which counts as a win. It goes to a team that hasn't had one, lowest record first.

Tiebreakers

1. Opponents' match-win percentage (OMW%): the average team-match win rate of the teams you've played, with each opponent counted as at least 33%. One winless opponent can't sink your tiebreaker.
2. Two teams still tied for the last Top 8 spot play a play-in team match for it. If three or more teams are tied, the spot is decided at random.
3. Any other tie is broken at random.

Cube: PowerLSV or LSVCube, nothing else. Play the current list on CubeCobra; updates are announced in Discord.

• Swiss rounds: one team, chosen at random, picks the cube.
• Top 8: the higher seed picks the cube. Play and draw are decided at random.

Rosters and Subs

• Rosters: add players with /tournament add_teammate.
• Subs are approved automatically. For a sub who drafts, tell your opponents in your match thread before the draft starts. To bring in a sub after the draft ends, run /add_sub in the draft's channel, which gives them access to the draft and team chats. Every sub must be a member of the Lotus Lounge server.
• Through the second-to-last Swiss round, any server member may sub, including players on other teams.
• From the last Swiss round on, including the Top 8, subs must come from outside the tournament.
• A player registered on both teams in a match must pick one side before the draft starts.

Scheduling

Default: Friday, 1 PM ET  ·  Recommended alternate: Saturday, 10 PM ET

• Other times: teams may agree to any other time in their match thread by Thursday, 1 PM ET. Otherwise the Friday default applies.
• Use a Discord timestamp, such as <t:1793988000:F>, so the time shows in everyone's own time zone. Both teams must confirm it in the thread; an unconfirmed time doesn't count. Nothing else needs to be reported.
• Deadlines: drafts may not start after Sunday, 5 PM ET, and every match must be finished by midnight PT on Sunday (3 AM ET Monday).
• Drafting and playing at different times needs both teams' agreement before the draft. Otherwise, matches start right after the draft.

Lateness

If someone isn't ready at start time, ping a @Mod.

Late for the draft

Late after the draft

You have 20 minutes from the last pick to build your deck and join your first match. If you're running behind, tell your opponents in the thread.

Late for a separately scheduled match

The Draft

• Starting: each Swiss round, DraftBot opens a match thread for every pairing. When both teams are ready, start the draft with the button in that thread. Results are recorded automatically.
• No communication between drafters, directly or indirectly, teammates included, until every pack is done. Nobody may pass information between drafters. Coaches and spectators are otherwise welcome.
• No voice or video calls during the draft. Breaking this rule is disqualifying. From the first pick until every pack is done, don't be in a call with anyone, on Discord or anywhere else, including your team's voice channel. Team voice is fine before the draft and during matches.
• Pools are open; decklists are not. When the draft ends, the bot posts every player's drafted pool, with pick order, in a thread in the main channel. Anyone may read them, including your opponents while they build.

Matches

• Create a Freeform best-of-three on MTGO with a 35-minute timer. Allow spectators, and name your league match in the description.
• Your deck locks at your first match. Until then, rebuild as much as you like. After that, it's your deck for the rest of the round.
• No sideboarding between matches. Every match starts with the deck you locked in. Sideboarding between games within a match is fine.
• Teammates may watch and discuss plays, but keep a normal pace. The timer assumes you aren't conferring every turn.
• No intentional draws or coin flips. A team may concede, as long as nothing is offered for it.

MTGO Rules Apply

We play by MTGO rules. What happens in the client stands.

• Misclicks are final. If you keep playing after something goes wrong, you accept the game state.
• The one exception: if someone joins with the wrong deck, remake the match.
• If something goes wrong during the draft, or MTGO crashes a match, ping a @Mod and stop taking game actions until they arrive.

Infinite Combos

For loops such as Auriok Salvagers + Lion's Eye Diamond or Gadgeteer + Monolith:

• Loops that win: if you can demonstrate the loop from the current game state, and the cards available to you this game turn it into a win (Walking Ballista, for example), you win. Your opponent can respond before you shortcut. A loop that draws your deck, such as Auriok Salvagers with Chromatic Star, counts if the win condition is in the deck you're playing, not just your drafted pool.
• Loops that don't win by themselves: announce the loop and choose a large number; it counts as arbitrarily large. Anything that changes the board in a way that's hard to track, such as destroying lands, you must actually do.
• Loops that aren't guaranteed (they depend on shuffles or other random results): play them out until you win.
• It's on the combo player to know how their combo works and to execute it.

Dropping, Forfeits and Unplayed Matches

• To drop, tell a mod after your round and before the next pairings go up. Your remaining opponents get the win.
• If the other team doesn't show at the agreed or default time, ping a @Mod in your match thread. The mod applies the lateness rules and records the forfeit.
• A team match not finished by the deadline is a loss for both teams, unless a mod finds that only one team showed up at the agreed time. That team gets the win.

Mods and Rulings

• Ping a @Mod in your match thread. One mod handles each call.

Play in Good Faith

The rules exist to keep matches fair, not to win on technicalities. The stakes are real, and keeping the league friendly takes everyone 🤝

• Be reasonable about scheduling. Offer times that actually work, accept reasonable requests, and answer in your match thread promptly.
• Don't use the rules as a weapon. Don't stall, run out the clock, or set up a forfeit on purpose.
• Be respectful in Discord and in MTGO chat, win or lose.
• Mods can act on bad faith. Depending on how serious it is, that can mean a warning, a game or match loss, or removal from the league.

Common Questions