Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour 2022 brings some controversial changes

Gabby began playing when Gabby was seven years old The Gathering is MagicAfter two decades of being away, her addiction to the game was rekindled in 2017. It became a passion. She became competitive and wanted to find out if she could play in the major leagues. This meant Magic’s Pro Tour, the premiere public event for high-level Magic play.

“It did seem vaguely reasonable for a decent player who put the time in to make it to the Pro Tour once or twice,” Squailia says. “The reason this mattered to me wasn’t that I ever thought I could be a professional — I just wanted to compete against the best, and to learn from getting trounced.”

In 2018, Wizards of the Coast stopped the event and moved to Mythic Tournaments. This hybridization of online and physical play added bureaucratic layers to the game. As players realized their paper-based play, the COVID-19 outbreak forced them to make other adjustments. Magic — offline and in person — curtailed by the health crisis.

The world is now reopening. Magic parent company Wizards of the Coast is reestablishing the Pro Tour, yet it’s coming with some changes.

The new system aims to integrate the former pro structure with the game’s growing amateur play groups (which make up the vast majority of Magic players). You can find regional championships around the globe with different invitations for each event. You can also apply to get into the doors through Magic OnlineThe ArenaApp; Pros from the hall of Fame are permitted one entry per year. Other players and members of the MagicThe community is divided over what all this means.

As MagicBlake Rasmussen, communications director of the Pro Tour says that it never ended. He says that in Wizards’ view, the Pro Tour as previously structured had outlived its usefulness and it was time to pivot to meet the players where they were. This allowed for a wider field of play where both high-level and middle-tier players could play together, although it also meant changing how Wizards treats its most elite players who were part of the circuit known as the Pro League.

“We saw the end of the Magic Pro League and the beginning of a sort of broader play structure that is as inclusive as possible, that gives people all around the world as many opportunities as possible to come in and play Magic at whatever level they want,” Rasmussen says.

But for some players, from amateurs like Squailia to pros like Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, the changes over the past four years haven’t been quite as positive. Jim Davis, an ex-pro player and content creator whose YouTube channel is focused on Magic, says that in his view the tournament’s mutation has taken away elements of the circuit that made it worth playing, and paying attention to, for years. By reducing the level of competition, he says, Wizards has somewhat “killed a lot of what made the old Pro Tour so exciting, which was that it was an aspirational system.”

Davis also feels that the company’s decisions on how to market the competition have been perplexing. It’s good to have an event like the Pro Tour for people to follow along, he says, but in order to cultivate an audience, there has to be something that grabs their attention.

“People want to play Magic more than they want to watch it,” Davis says.

Clarence Williams/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images

The landscape has changed further, making it prohibitive for professionals. A lack of investment in pro-level players — no more free rides to all of the events, replete with plane tickets and hotel rooms — and a flattening of the competitive atmosphere is supposed to make the event more friendly to players of all skill levels.

“I live in Brazil. Everything is very expensive — it takes me 20, 24 hours for a flight to travel,” da Rosa says. “For me to go to a tournament, I feel like I have to dedicate a lot.”

Da Rosa is one of the most renowned players in history. However, he will have difficulty getting to Brazil events. While he could play online, in order to play in the real-life circuit he’s going to have to play in real-life events. Without support from Wizards, one of the game’s active playing legends is going to run into difficulty. “If you do the math, like how much it costs to get there, how much time you have to prepare, what the price for it compared to the number of entrants, it’s usually not worth it,” da Rosa says.

Rasmussen stated that Wizards, which had previously focused on professional play and professionals, will now be more open to all levels of players. “Our vision has shifted in that our philosophy now is to serve as many people as possible,” Rasmussen says. “That’s not to say that we don’t value those pro players. That’s absolutely not true.”

Rasmussen says that the response has been positive to the tournament’s new structure. Many players in the new tour are playing in their first event, and while there’s no comparison to the pre-pandemic crowds — that’s still a ways off — Wizards says it has been pleased with the enthusiasm it’s seen thus far.

“We are seeing a ton of people who are ready to get back in,” Rasmussen says. “There’s still going to be, and rightfully so, some hesitancy on some people to be in crowds of people, and that’s going to push numbers down. But even despite that, we’re seeing a lot of people champing at the bit to return.”

DeQuan Watson, a content creator, focuses his work on Magic. He’s a longstanding player and personality in the community, having worked for Wizards and Card Kingdom and at one time owned a game store. That background behind the curtain of the business side could explain Watson’s more measured response to the changes that Wizards has made — he sees it as a continuation of the company trying to adjust to meet its audience’s expectations.

“They have an insane amount of data,” Watson says. “So when people think they know what they’re talking about or wonder why they would make this decision — having been there, I can look at stuff from a distance.”

Watson said that the new system is similar to how the Pro Tour started. Online and local players can win events online and move up through the ranks to reach regionals. “I think that’s easier for people to understand and it’s accessible to a lot of people and it supports your local retailers,” he says. “So I think everybody’s winning in this scenario.”

But it’s clear not everyone feels they’re winning. Between top pros like da Rosa and amateur players expressing disinterest in the new format because it’s not providing enough to strive for, the message hasn’t landed smoothly. We will see if these changes lead to a better community.