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 is a new Last Chance Qualifier event for the main event. Throughout the course of the 2025 Nationals events, 16 players will be invited to Worlds, and 32 will be invited to The Gauntlet. World Championships will only be a 32 player event, so those Gauntlet players will have to duke it out and end up in the top half in order to play at Worlds!

This year, we have changed a few things about how Nationals works, so allow us to go over all things Nationals for this year.

We’re happy to formally announce all four Nationals dates alongside their locations! You can click on each Nationals image to preregister for that event.

How to qualify for Grand Archive Nationals

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:

North America: 12 NQP
Southeast Asia: 10 NQP
Oceania: 10 NQP
Europe: 8 NQP

The following cards are valid to redeem for NQP at this year’s Nationals:

It should be noted that while P23 Tide Diviner was an Ascent Top 32 card, it will not be redeemable as a National’s Qualifier card.

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 Alchemical Revolution, Mercurial Heart, and Mortal Ambition seasons will each award you with one NQP. Abyssal Heaven 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.

Upon redeeming your Qualifier card(s) at Nationals this year, you will receive a Collector Promotional Rare (CPR) version of the same card, as well as your original qualifier card back. For this year’s invite redemption, you’ll be able to turn in as many invite cards as you own, but only one of each unique copy will count toward your NQP total. This means that if you’ve collected a playset of a specific Nationals Qualifier Card, you’ll be able to get a whole playset of that card’s CPR - but you will only get points for the first copy that you redeem. Here’s a first look at these cards in their fully upgraded form!

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.

Each event will give players a chance to qualify for the World Championships, but the number of invites depends on the region the Nationals event is taking place. The qualification numbers are:

North America: 6 Worlds 2025 Invites, 12 Gauntlet 2025 Invites
Southeast Asia: 4 Worlds 2025 Invites, 8 Gauntlet 2025 Invites
Oceania: 4 Worlds 2025 Invites, 8 Gauntlet 2025 Invites
Europe: 2 Worlds 2025 Invites, 4 Gauntlet 2025 Invites

Some events have a cut off at the top 6 players. In this case, 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 Sword of Seeking and Eternal Magistrate cards available as prizing. As noted above, all players who qualify for day 2 will recieve a Sword of Seeking, and all players who qualify for either the Gauntlet or Worlds will receive some amount of Eternal Magistrate cards, depending on their final standing.

All players who preregister for Nationals will also receive this exclusive 2025 Nationals backpack:


Best of luck to all players attending a 2025 Nationals event!