The Ark Nova Championship Test Event #2 Begins on Thursday!

September 12, 2026

The second Test Event for the Ark Nova Digital Championship will soon be underway! We’ve collected a lot of valuable data and feedback from the first Test Event, and we will be implementing various changes to the next one for a smoother experience. If you’re unfamiliar with the Ark Nova Digital Championship and the previous Test Event, be sure to check out our original announcement here!

Test Event #2 – Summary

Test Event #2 will begin on Thursday, September 17th at 9am PT, and it will run in two stages. Stage 1 will be the qualifying period, and it will last for roughly two and a half days. The Top 16 scoring players from this period will then advance to Stage 2 into a semi-finals round, and the winners from each of those games will advance to the Finals.

Timing

Test Event #2 Appears In-Game: Tue, Sep 15 (10am PT)
Stage 1 Starts: Thu, Sep 17 (9am PT)
Stage 1 Queue Closes: Sat, Sep 19 (5pm PT)
Stage 1 Results Finalized, Winners Contacted: Sat, Sep 19 (8pm PT)
Stage 2 Semifinal Round Starts: Sun, Sep 20 (10am PT)
Stage 2 Final Round Starts: Sun, Sep 20 (1pm PT)
Event is Removed: Mon, Sep 21 (10pm PT)

Changes from Last Test Event

Stage 1 now runs for roughly two and a half days instead of 12 hours
Stage 1 now consists of five games instead of four
Queue now fires every 15 minutes instead of 10
Stage 2 qualification email will be automatically sent to Top 16 players the night before Stage 2 begins.
Stage 2 final round will now start at a specified time rather than being tied to the previous round finish.

Joining the Test Event

Stage 1 of the Test Event will be open from Thursday to Saturday (see exact dates and times above), and during that period, you can join the event by clicking into the “Events” tab. You will be queued into a match, and you can play up to five matches during the Stage 1 qualifying period.

Qualifying for Stage 2

The top 16 scoring players from Stage 1 will advance to the semifinals in Stage 2. Scores are determined as follows:

4-Player Game

1st: 5 points
2nd: 3 points
3rd: 1 point
4th: 0 points

3-Player Game

1st: 4 points
2nd: 2 points
3rd: 0 points

Your leaderboard score will be the cumulative total of all the games you’ve played, up to five total. Tiebreakers are determined by strength of schedule — in other words, the total number of points earned by your opponents in your qualifier matches.