Magic’s Esports Plans for 2020
Wizards of the Coast, developer and publisher for Magic: The Gathering Arena has announced the plans for the next season of Magic esports. In addition, the tabletop game will also see a timeline laid out for players who wish to compete competitively too.
In a post on the blog site, they talk about how big a year it has been for Magic esports. And that’s actually true. There have been a number of esports events such as the Mythic Championship series that has been running since February, including a bunch of other, smaller tournaments such as Fandom Legends.
The Magic Pro League will have the Rivals League added to it, with the Players Tour getting added to the tabletop version of the game. The Players Tour is boasting more than $2.5M in prizes. The Mythic Invitationals offer $750k prize pool, having three competitions per season, with the Magic World Championships still being the top competition for the game with a $1M prize pool.
The new direction in esports will give both players of the tabletop game, and the digital game in MTG: Arena twice as many qualification slots to players from all over the world. This will increase opportunities for players everywhere, no matter what platform they play on. The Premier Series events such as the SCG Tour and the LATAM Magic Series will also offer qualification aths to the Players Tour, meaning that players from all around the world can compete locally too, making it truly accessible no matter where you are in the world.
There’s a total prize purse of over $10m for the next season running 2020-2021, which will include prizes and player support, combined across MTG: Arena and the tabletop version.
Elaine Chase, Wizards of the Coast Vice President of Esports spoke about the upcoming year in esports: “We’re excited about Magic’s competitive future, with more opportunities for more players to reach the highest levels of competition in both tabletop Magic and MTG Arena, and creating awesome viewing experiences for fans to watch the best minds in Magic battle for glory.”
There is still another four months of 2019 to go and a few more events coming up, notably in October, November and December, all of which will be held in the US. But each one of the Mythic Championships have been more popular than the last, so it’s no surprise that Wizards is laying out a fantastic plan for the esports future of the game.
MTG: Arena is a free-to-play digital collectible card game from Wizards of the Coast and is a digital adaptation of the Magic: The Gathering card game. Much like the tabletop game, players who play the online version of the game get cards in a similar fashion by buying booster packs, completing daily achievements or earning them in-game.
