The path to greatness starts in your store, with the 2024 Road to Nationals!
Road to Nationals provides players with a direct qualification into National Championships and the chance to win elite prizes in all our supported territories.
What are Road to Nationals events?
One-off tournaments that provide players with the chance to qualify for Nationals events. Each event offers four qualification spots and a range of Cold Foil and Rainbow Foil prizes. Road to Nationals events are assigned to selected stores. Over 400 stores have been invited to take part in 2024.
What format is Road to Nationals?
Road to Nationals events will use either Classic Constructed format or Heavy Hitters Booster Draft.
Entry Fee?
Classic Constructed
Stores can charge up to USD35 / EUR35 / GBP35 / CAD50 / AUD50 / NZD50 entry or local currency equivalent.*
Limited Events - Booster Draft
Stores can charge up to USD50 / EUR50 / GBP50 / CAD65 / AUD65 / NZD65 or local currency equivalent.*
* If it's normal in the territory for sales tax to be applied to the marketed price at the point of purchase, sales tax may be charged in addition to the prices stated here. For events in Japan please refer to the Japanese FAQ linked below.
Can I add prizes to the prize pool?
Stores are welcome to add additional participation or performance based prizes to their Road to Nationals events.
Season Dates
What are the season dates and when can I sanction the event?
Road to Nationals 2024 will run from Saturday 17th February - Sunday 10th of March 2024. Events can be sanctioned now!
Is there any flexibility on the event dates?
Events must be run in this window. If stores cannot run the event during this time the event MUST be cancelled and the Prize Kit MUST be returned to your distributor.
How will I know if my store is selected for Road to Nationals?
Stores will receive an email invitation to notify that the option for Road to Nationals 2024 will appear in GEM when creating a new event. Stores will be invited to host either a Classic Constructed or Booster Draft event. If you would like to discuss which format you have been selected for please contact op@fabtcg.com.
Event Structure
Is there a minimum number of players to run this event
Road to Nationals events need a minimum of 8 players to run. If an event runs with less than eight players it will not provide any invites and the store will lose the right to host an event of this level in the future.
Is there a maximum number of players?
Road to Nationals events are very popular event series and frequently attract a high number of players. Stores may set an attendance cap for their Road to Nationals events in line with their store's capacity and staffing capabilities, however, you may wish to consider an external venue if your store has the capacity for less than 32 players.
If your event does have an attendance cap then we encourage you to have a clearly communicated pre-registration process to reduce the risk of player disappointment.
Classic Constructed Event Structure
| Players | Swiss Rounds | Top Cut |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | 3 | None |
| 9-16 | 4 | Top 8 |
| 17-32 | 5 | Top 8 |
| 33-64 | 6 | Top 8 |
| 65-128 | 7 | Top 8 |
How long should I budget for a Classic Constructed Road to Nationals?
For Classic Constructed Road to Nationals events, we recommend 55-minute rounds. This allows players up to 5 minutes to present their decks and at least 50 minutes to play their match.
Heavy Hitters Draft Event Structure
| Players | Drafts | Swiss Rounds | Top Cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 1 | 3 | None |
| 9 -16 | 1 | 3 | Top 8 Draft |
| 17-32 | 2 | 6 | Top 8 Draft |
| 33 - 64 | 2 | 6 | Top 8 Draft |
| 65 + | 2 | 6 | Top 8 Draft |
How long should I budget for a Booster Draft Road to Nationals?
For Booster Draft events we recommend you allow 60 minutes for to complete each booster draft, including 15 minutes for draft deck registration and 15 minutes for draft deck construction.
Booster Draft Swiss rounds should be 35 minutes each.
How will I get stock for the draft?
Stores hosting Booster Draft Road to Nationals events will need to order Heavy Hitters stock from their distributors for use in their event. As an example, 4 Heavy Hitters booster cases would provide sufficient product for 60 players drafting twice and a top 8 draft.
See our running a draft event guide for more information.
Road to Nationals Prizes and Distribution
How is the prize kit going to be distributed?
The Prize kit will be supplied by your distributor. Distributors will be notified of participating stores once the event sanctioning window has closed.
What are the prizes?
The prizes for this event are as follows:
| Prize | Distribution |
|---|---|
| Top 4 players receive Nationals 2024 Entry Qualification | |
| 1x Random Drop Gold Cold Foil Card (Common or Rare or Majestic) |
Stores can NOT open the Random Drop Gold Cold Foil. 1st place winner to be awarded sealed black envelope at the conclusion of top 8. Winner may choose to open it or keep sealed. The envelope contains a random PCG 9 or better Common, Rare, or Majestic Gold Cold Foil Prize Card. |
| 8x Rainbow Foil Hero Promo Cards: 2x Rhinar, Reckless Rampage; 3x Victor Goldmane, High and Mighty; 3x Olympia, Prized Fighter | To be given out randomly to the top 8 players at the conclusion of swiss rounds |
| 2x Heavy Hitters Box Art Playmats | To be awarded to the 1st and 2nd placed players. |
| 1x Judge Pack | Handed out to the head judge once the event has concluded. |
| 1x Judge Playmat (either Volcor Landscape or Proclamation of Requisition) | Handed out to the floor judge once the event has concluded. |
Judge Support
The following is provided to reward your Head Judge:
- 1x Judge Pack of the current season.
The following is provided to up to one Floor Judge, if any, otherwise to the Head Judge:
- 1x Judge Playmat (either Volcor Landscape or Proclamation of Requisition)
The judge support must be provided to your judge team only. It is not allowed to be used as door or spot prizes for the players or given to non-Judge staff members. Judge Support is not allowed to be used as compensation.
LSS provides this Judge Support to reward judges for their skills and dedication shown towards the game and is not allowed be used to replace any compensation they would otherwise receive for working a Road to Nationals event.
Rules Enforcement, Judges and Decklists
Are decklists required?
Yes ! Decklists are mandatory for these events, you can find the Deck Registration Sheets here.
Booster Draft events will require card pool registration. Please refer to our Booster Draft Guide on Judge Hub for further details.
What level of rules enforcement is Road to Nationals run at?
This event is run at a Competitive rules enforcement level.
Will I need a Judge for this event?
Road to Nationals events MUST have a Level 1 or higher judge as head judge. The judge program has qualified over 1500+ Level 1+ judges up to date.
How do find a judge for my event?
If you are not already in touch with a judge in your community, you have the following options available after signing up on JudgeHub.
You can search for Judge near you via the search function or via the map function, and a direct message function is available to message them.Additionally, the Judge community is organized in regions.
Each region has a Judge Community Representative who is a contact point for the Judges in each region and can also be contacted by organizers to find local judges for their events.
One more option is to make an event on JudgeHub to have Judges apply, a guide to this and more functions can be found here.
To make scheduling with a judge easier you may already reach out to a potential judge before selecting your event date.
Digital Assets and Marketing
Where do I find digital assets for social media?
There is a page of digital assets for social media and printable posters can be found here.
Other Questions
Can I run this event at a location that is not my store?
Road to Nationals events can be run at alternate locations. However, location information needs to be entered in the event description in GEM when you create the event.
Can store staff play in these events?
The TO and judges for the event cannot play. Store staff that are not involved in the administration of the event are allowed.
Additionally, the TO is not allowed to be a judge in the event.
I’ve chosen to run an Heavy Hitters Draft event. How will I get stock for the Draft?
Stores will need to order stock from their distributor or have stock already on hand for the event.
Players from outside my country want to join the event. Do I let them?
Yes, players from outside your country can play in your event. If they win a qualification they can only attend the Nationals of the country they are resident in, this does not take away a Nationals spot from your country.
Coverage
Events such as Road to Nationals also give you the opportunity to share your store and local community with our team and the wider Flesh and Blood community. We invite all stores hosting Road to Nationals events to fill out the Road to Nationals 2024 Coverage Form to provide us with coverage information for your event. This is in addition to the hero data and results which are collected via collected via GEM and the Hero Assignment feature.
We're primarily looking for:
Top 8 decklists - photo of the winner & Top 8 - General event photos - Hero breakdowns - Stories of players, matches, or the day
Please note we cannot feature every store that provides coverage information, but we greatly appreciate any and all information stores can provide for our coverage pieces. We look forward to hearing your stories! If you have any questions about the form or want to submit additional information, please email the team at coverage@fabtcg.com.
I still need help! Who can I reach out to?
Email the team at op@fabtcg.com, and an account manager will be in contact with you.