If you’re playing FNM (or any Swiss-pairing tournament) and there is an odd number of players for any round, you may receive what’s called a “Bye.” This means you don’t have to play against anybody in that round. Lucky for you, it also means you automatically win that round! It counts the same as any other win, giving you 3 match points and 3 Planeswalker Points (before the multiplier at certain events). The only difference from a regular match win is that since no games were played against an opponent, this round will not have any direct effect on your tiebreakers.

In the first round of a tournament, a Bye is usually assigned randomly. For subsequent rounds, the player with the lowest ranking will usually get the bye, but that can be modified to avoid giving the same player a bye more than once in a tournament.

At Grand Prix events, some players earn Byes before the tournament, either by accumulating enough Planeswalker Points to be awarded 1, 2 or 3 byes, or by winning a Grand Prix Trial to earn 3 byes. These byes are granted at the beginning of the tournament, so that player gets free wins for the appropriate number of rounds. This can actually improve tiebreakers, because there are no opponents who lost those rounds and who might potentially have low performance in the event, which would lower the player’s tiebreakers.

Today’s Tournament Tip written by
Josh Stansfield, Level 2 judge from Orange, CA