MVP098: Wizards Announces the End of Professional Level Play

The Manaverse Podcast: Magic: the Gathering Business / Game Store Entrepreneurship / LGS Professionals

On May 13th, 2021, Wizards of the Coast announced plans to move away from it's current iteration of Organized Play and phase out the MPL and Rivals leagues. The 2021-2022 season will be the final season of Wizard's foray into e-sports in it's current form, and it looks like they will be refocusing on in-person and local level play more closely in the future.

Wizards Announces Major Changes To Professional Organized Play

The new Organized Play vision is to balance the five categories of play away from the heavy focus on professional or “elite” play. The five categories include:

• Friendly play (local game store level)
• Aspirational play (drive to play at a higher level in stuff like States)
• Elite play (higher level events similar to Grand Prix or Pro Tour)
• Festivals (things like CommandFests)
• Digital (playing on MTG Arena and Magic Online as an on-ramp for players anywhere to have access to varying levels of play).

Key Points

• Magic is a poor e-sport and is not compelling to watch from a spectators perspective. This was a major hurdle that Wizards had to overcome to make Magic successful as an e-sport and this announcement indicates that it didn't achieve what they were hoping.
• Players shouldn't expect to make professional Magic into a career. Organized Play always has been a marketing strategy and always will be. It's not a way to employ people.
• The older paths towards high level play were simpler and easier to follow for the average Magic player, making them more aspirational and interesting, which drove sales. The current version is convoluted and messy, and reducing the complexity will certainly help.

What does this mean for the local game stores?

Overall, it's probably a positive change. With a renewed focus on local and regional events, the focus will be more on the average major player and using organized play as a way to support their enjoyment of the hobby, and the local game stores that support the community.

Future versions of the program will probably be simplified and recapture the original sense of excitement and achievability for average players.

Links

https://magic.gg/news/esports-transitions-and-getting-back-to-gathering

https://articles.starcitygames.com/news/2021-2022-will-be-last-season-for-pro-magic-play/

https://articles.starcitygames.com/news/weekly-mtg-answers-questions-regarding-op-announcement/