Today, Wizards of the Coast revealed upcoming changes to the Magic Pro League and how players can qualify for its next season through the Magic Rivals League and the Magic Pro League Gauntlet. This new system will create a promotion and relegation structure for the Magic Pro League, similar to what international professional sports leagues use.
Don’t miss our coverage of today’s other announcement of the new Players Tour.
Qualification paths for the Magic Pro League
Updates to the Magic Pro League for its 2020 Season
The Magic Pro League itself will undergo a few changes in order to to accommodate the new Magic Rivals League and Magic Pro League Gauntlet.
First, its 2020 season will be a partial seven-month season from January through July 2020, after which it will transition to year-long seasons again.
Second, the size of the Magic Pro League will be reduced to 24 players from its original makeup of 32.
Third, Magic Pro League contracts will change to award up to $50,000 in appearance fees with no streaming incentives. This is a large change from the original Magic Pro League contracts, which were reportedly two separate contracts (one for being a member of the Magic Pro League and one for streaming) that totaled $75,000.
Fourth, the Top 4 ranked Challengers (as determined by Mythic Points) will be promoted to the Magic Pro League for its 2020 season. Currently, those players are Raphael Levy, Luis Scott-Vargas, Matt Sperling, and a three-way tie for fourth between Eli Loveman, Matias Leveratto, and Thoralf Severin. The last chance to earn Mythic Points will be at Mythic Championship VII in December.
The Top 4 challengers as of August 14, 2019.
The Magic Rivals League
The Magic Rivals League
The Magic Rivals League will function as kind of a minor league for the Magic Pro League. It will be made up of 46 players: the Top 12 digital players (measured with Mythic Points) and Top 12 tabletop players (measured with Player Points) who are not already in the Magic Pro League, the bottom 12 players from the Magic Pro League Gauntlet (see below), the bottom four players from the previous Magic Pro League Season, and six additional discretionary invites.
Yes, you read that right—the bottom four of the previous Magic Pro League season will automatically be demoted to the Magic Rivals League.
Players in the Magic Rivals League will have two ways to be promoted to the Magic Pro League. First, the top two Mythic and Player Points earners (so four players total) at the end of the Magic Rivals League season will automatically be promoted to the Magic Pro League. Second, the third through eighth ranked players in Mythic and Player Points at the end of the Magic Rivals League season will be invited to the Magic Pro League Gauntlet, where they will compete for the chance to be promoted to the Magic Pro League.
All Magic Rivals League players will be invited to events like the Players Tour and Rivals Mythic Qualifiers (which will qualify players for one of the three Mythic Invitationals per season), where they can earn Player and Mythic Points, respectively. They will also be able to earn up to $20,000 in appearance fees at those tournaments in addition to prizes earned.
The first Magic Rivals League will start in January along with the shortened 2020 Magic Pro League season. It will be made up of the bottom 12 Magic Pro League players from the previous season, the Top 8 MTG Arena and tabletop players (16 total) as determined by Mythic Points earned at each kind of event, as well as four discretionary invites.
The Magic Pro League Gauntlet
The second way for players to earn a spot in the Magic Pro League will be the Magic Pro League Gauntlet, a tournament held at the end of each Magic Pro League season.
The Magic Pro League Gauntlet will be made up of 16 players: the Magic Pro League members who finished in places 17-20 (those who finished in places 21-24 are automatically demoted to the Magic Rivals League), and the players who finished in ranks 3-8 of Mythic and Player Points (so 12 total) in the Magic Rivals League.
The Top 4 players at the end of the Magic Pro League Gauntlet will be promoted to the Magic Pro League, while the remaining 12 players will return (or be demoted to in the case of the four Magic Pro League members) the Magic Rivals League for the next season.
A New Vision of What it Means to be a Professional Magic Player
The announcement of the Magic Pro League at the end of 2018 was Wizards’ first step towards redefining what it meant to be a professional Magic: the Gathering player. By providing up to $75,000 of guaranteed money, Wizards began moving towards a more stable and secure way for professional Magic players to earn money by reducing their reliance on tournament winnings to make a living—at least for the 32 players in the original Magic Pro League, that is.
The creation of the Magic Rivals League and the Magic Pro League Gauntlet represent Wizards’ second step towards changing the world of professional Magic. It expands the number of paid positions from 32 to 60 (24 in the Magic Pro League and 46 in the Magic Rivals League, though it does so by taking around the same amount of money and spreading it around to more people. ($75,000 for 32 Magic Pro League players in 2019 is $2.4 million, while $50,000 for 24 Magic Pro League Players and $20,000 for 64 Magic Rivals League players is $2.48 million.)
This won’t be Wizards last change to its vision of what it means to be a professional Magic player. As MTG Arena grows, it is likely that digital magic will become an increasingly important part Organized Play—and thus professional Magic.