Undefeated and eliminated: the 36 Forever Open qualifiers, class by class

Six duels, six wins, and no spot in the finals. That is what happened to Zetox, Sylak, Oopsyy and about ten other players on Saturday night. In the Warlock and Paladin races, a perfect record was so common that extra duels were needed to pick the final four. At the other end, no Warrior finished undefeated, and the four best Warriors got their ticket with five wins out of six.

The Forever Open qualifiers, the $100,000 duel tournament of WoW Forever, are over. All 48 pods played their six rounds, and 1,714 players appear in the final standings. Here are the Forever Open qualifiers, class by class, and how each last spot was decided.

How to earn a spot at the Forever Open

The rules, summarized on the standings board of woah.market (a site that mirrors Raider.IO data live), fit in four lines. A win is worth 3 points, a tie 1, a loss 0, and a bye counts as a win. The top four of each class go through.

When players are level on points, Buchholz decides (the total points scored by every opponent you faced). The higher it is, the harder your run, and the better your rank. One exception changes everything: when more than four players of the same class share the best record, Buchholz does not split them. They stay tied and play extra duels for the spots.

That creates three situations, and the nine classes are spread almost evenly across them. The full format, with times and broadcast channels, is in our tournament guide published on Saturday.

The 36 Forever Open qualifiers, class by class

The number of ranked players does not tell you how hard a class was. Hunter, the most played class with 300 ranked players, needed no extra duel, while Warrior, the least played with 95, needed one. What matters is how many players are stuck on the same record right at fourth place.

Warlock and Paladin: undefeated, yet eliminated

These two races were the harshest of the Forever Open qualifiers. The Warlock tiebreak lists eleven players tied at the top. Korleone goes through with a bye, then a win over Saraa. Neepzen beats Nazgul then Carry, Jázggz knocks out Tevildo then Zetox, and Warlockguy removes Sylak then Muffinrat.

Zetox and Sylak finish fifth and sixth, with six wins in six rounds and 72 Buchholz each, more than Warlockguy (48), who qualified. The rules own it: beyond four players on the same record, only the duel counts.

The Paladin race was even tighter. Fourteen names show up in the tiebreak duels. Gomzy goes through with a bye and a win over Malanka, Lamelol beats Vitochie then Kallemera, Reed removes Maester then Rodriguezgd, and Azzu knocks out Oopsyy then Sipster. Oopsyy is left at the door with 75 Buchholz, one of the two best totals in the race.

For a Warlock or a Paladin, going undefeated in your pod guaranteed nothing. You still had to win two more elimination duels after six rounds.

Warrior, Shaman, Mage, Druid: one duel for fourth place

In these four classes, fourth place came down to a single duel between players on 15 points (five wins, one loss) with identical Buchholz. Bcw beats Mes among Warriors, both on 54 Buchholz. Teleporter beats Schmexy among Mages (67 each), and Snupy beats Sot among Druids (63 each).

Shaman had the most crowded finish. Three players ended perfectly tied, 15 points and 66 Buchholz: Oddwaffletv, Xonez and Shrm. Oddwaffletv beats Shrm and takes the spot, and Xonez is out in the tiebreak.

Warrior is the only class without a single undefeated player, and its four qualifiers are all 5-1. In an open duel with no pillar to break line of sight, a Warrior relies on items to close the gap, as creator HelloJTello predicted before the tournament in our article on the consumables race. The Forever Open standings prove him right on that point. They prove him wrong on Rogues, who have two players at 6-0.

Hunter, Rogue, Priest: Buchholz was enough

Among Hunters, Fvp and Hardfight finish undefeated, then a long line of 5-1 players fights for the last two spots. Danmark (72 Buchholz) and Ryhaz (71) edge out Onioutlawtv and Tusk, stuck at 69. Two points of Buchholz, meaning one slightly weaker opponent met during the evening, made the difference.

Rogue follows the same pattern. Pshero and Justwoo are 6-0, while Chopmaster (72) and Kyroo (69) qualify at 5-1 ahead of Maxverstapen (66).

Priest is the only case where everything lined up. Exactly four players finish 6-0, Psychapeute, Dakkroth, Nieze and Lash, and nobody else. The fifth, Jayti, ends on 16 points with five wins and one tie.

The Forever Open final bracket

The 36 qualifiers meet in a single double-elimination bracket (you are out after two losses), shown on the Raider.IO finals page. The eight lowest seeds open the day with a first round: Disruptive vs Snupy, Kyroo vs Bcw, Mag vs Teleporter and Oddwaffletv vs Fracc. All four Warriors are in it.

The other 28 wait in the second round. The matchups already set are Justwoo vs Reed, Fvp vs Minpojke, Yonezka vs Luuxiå, Jázggz vs Danmark, Venruk vs Dakkroth, Skeelz vs Warlockguy, Chopmaster vs Nieze, Ryhaz vs Sodapoppin, Neepzen vs Allyana, Desmondhume vs Hardfight, Lash vs Cdewx and Pshero vs Azzu. Korleone, Lamelol, Gomzy and Psychapeute will face the first-round winners.

Some duels already look promising. Two undefeated Warlocks, Neepzen and Warlockguy, meet a Mage and a Shaman, and Pshero vs Azzu pits a Rogue against a Paladin, both 6-0. Winners bracket matches are best of three, losers bracket matches are single duels, and the grand final is best of five. The winner takes $50,000 and the best player of each class $5,555.