Dear KARDS players, friends, and WW2 enthusiasts,
We’re excited to share our plans for KARDS Esports in 2026, setting the stage for another year of high-level competitive play, featuring a 24,000 USD total prize pool across the 2026 esports season.
KARDS Esports is where legends are forged - where innovative deckbuilders, elite pilots, and master tacticians clash in evolving metas shaped by expansions, balance changes, and battlefield ingenuity.
The Competitive Structure for 2026
Following a transition in 2025, KARDS Esports will continue with the Expansion Tournament format in 2026, refined for clarity and pacing.
This year will feature four seasonal tournaments - Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall - culminating in the KARDS 2026 World Championship in October.
While tournaments are now seasonally themed rather than tied to a named expansion, each event will still be preceded by a meaningful meta shake-up, delivered through an expansion, content release, or balance patch that keeps competitive play fresh and dynamic.
Tournament Schedule & Qualification
In 2026, two months will separate each seasonal tournament, with those two months acting as qualification periods. The exception is the Winter Tournament in February, which uses the three preceding months for qualification as part of the transition from the 2025 Expansion Tournament system to the 2026 seasonal structure.
Players qualify for seasonal tournaments through a combination of:
- Top placements on the in-game seasonal ladder during the relevant qualification months
- Strong performance on the in-game tournament trophy leaderboard in the month immediately leading up to the event
Due to tournament spacing, August, September, October and November will not qualify ladder placements for a seasonal tournament.
Qualifications for the KARDS 2026 World Championship will be earned by the most successful players from the year’s seasonal tournaments and the top 4 from the 2025 World Championship.
The World Championship will feature a 12,000 USD prize pool, with the top players from the seasonal tournaments competing for ultimate glory. We’ll be sharing full details on the World Championship format, prize distribution, and broadcast plans later in the year.
Swiss Qualifiers: The Road to the Finals
Each seasonal tournament begins with Swiss qualifiers featuring 32 qualified players.
Players bring 3 decks from 3 different main nations and compete in conquest mode. All Swiss matches are played as best-of-five, with no deck bans, putting versatility and preparation to the test.
Players battle through the Swiss rounds to determine the Top 8, who advance to the Finals Weekend.
Any player who qualifies for a seasonal tournament and participates in the Swiss qualifiers receives 100 Diamonds in-game.
Finals Weekend: Live Esports Action
The Top 8 players advance to the Finals Weekend, where they compete over two days of live-streamed matches to crown the tournament champion.
The Finals Weekend is played as a single-elimination bracket, including a third-place match. Players bring four decks from four different main nations and may change their lineup between the Swiss qualifiers and the Finals Weekend.
All matches are played as best-of-five in conquest mode, with one deck ban, rewarding strategic depth and adaptation under pressure.
Prize Pool & Rewards
Each seasonal tournament features a 3,000 USD prize pool, distributed as follows:
- 1st place: 1,500 USD and the exclusive KARDS Champion Card Back
- 2nd place: 1,000 USD
- 3rd place: 500 USD
- 4th - 8th place: 500 Diamonds each
A Thrilling Year Ahead
Beyond esports, 2026 will be packed with action across KARDS:
- Major expansions in summer and winter
- Content releases in spring and fall
- Balance patches that keep the meta evolving
Together, these updates ensure that KARDS remains a deeply strategic and competitive WW2 card game throughout the year.
On World Championship Qualification
We’d like to take a moment to address the absence of open in-game qualifiers for the KARDS World Championship in 2026, and previously in 2025.
In past years, open in-game qualifiers were a fun and exciting way for players to compete for a spot at the World Championship. However, over time we found that this format had significant limitations as a tool for identifying the very best competitive players. Variance in matchmaking, uneven commitment levels, and the scale of participation sometimes resulted in qualification paths that were less representative of consistent top-level performance.
Our current system - qualifying players through the in-game competitive ladders, followed by performance in seasonal tournaments, and advancing top performers to the World Championship - allows us to more reliably identify players who have proven themselves over time and across multiple competitive environments.
We also recognize the downside of this approach. Reaching the top of competitive ladders requires a significant time investment, and we understand that this can be a barrier for some highly skilled players. Unfortunately, the options for fairly offering World Championship qualification opportunities without that level of commitment are currently limited.
Implementing open in-game qualifiers also requires a substantial amount of development time, and for 2026 we’ve chosen to prioritize bringing more new cards, features, and content to KARDS rather than allocating that time to World Championship qualifiers.
Finally, we want to acknowledge that our communication around World Championship qualification in 2025 could have been better. We apologize for the confusion and are committed to clearer communication going forward.
We appreciate the passion and dedication of our competitive community, and we hope this provides clarity on our approach for the 2026 esports season.
Looking Ahead
For a complete overview of the competitive season, be sure to check out the full KARDS Esports Roadmap below.
Whether you’re grinding the ladder to earn your place among the best or tuning in to watch elite commanders battle live on stream, we’re excited to welcome you to KARDS Esports 2026.
Prepare your decks - the battlefield awaits!