Preparations for World Domination 1999 Qualifiers Continuing Apace

by Lukas Kautzsch, An der Rossweid 18a, 76229 Karlsruhe, Germany

This is the World Domination Committee speaking (Josh Berling, Chicago, USA; Paulo de Tarso, Floripa, Brazil; Lukas Kautzsch, Karlsruhe, Germany (chair)). After a lively discussion on the Netrunner-L mailing list, we are happy to announce some details of this year's Netrunner World Championship, World Domination 1999 (WD) including the World Domination Qualifiers (WDQ).

WDQ will consist of many meatspace tournaments all over the world, between March 12 and April 11, 1999. Everyone who would like to organize such an event is encouraged to do so (please contact the WD Committee as soon as possible). For players who cannot attend a meatspace WDQ event there might be the option of a WDQ event on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) - please contact the WD Committee if you are interested in playing WDQ that way.

The top quarter of players from each WDQ tournament will qualify for Round One of WD, as well as the top three finishers from last year's WD and the top three players each from the 1998 UK, French and German Nationals, the 1998 Northwest US Regionals - and the 1999 Brazil Nationals. (These prequalified players may not play in WDQ.)

There will be a total of eight tournaments in WD Round One (probably six to seven in meatspace, one or two on IRC) with times and places to be determined after the WDQ attendance numbers are known. (Time frame: June or early in July; tentative geographical distribution of meatspace events: three each in North America and Europe.) Only the winner (or runner-up, if necessary) from each WD Round One tournament will advance to the WD Finals. The WD '99 Finals will take place on IRC, in late July or August.

The basic format for all WDQ/WD events will be Sealed Deck: one starter, one regular and one Proteus booster. The Finals will include an additional Unlimited Constructed tournament. It's still an open question whether WD Round One will be featuring one as well. All tournaments will use scoring by GMP and Swiss pairing.

The official rules for WD '99 as well as a list of all registered tournaments and results can be found at the WD '99 homepage.