ELEAGUE and Wizards of the Coast hinted at a partnership on Twitter and the Esports Observer confirmed that the companies are partnering for an Magic: the Gathering Arena series that will pit high-level players against influencers.
The ELEAGUE Showdown: MTG Arena will begin on September 4, 2019 at 8 PM Easter and run weekly until December 18. The participants will be chosen through both invitations and applications, though how many will compete and what kind of prizes they will compete for is unknown at this time.
ELEAGUE says that “players will compete in one single-elimination match at a time, with the winner advancing and the loser being eliminated. The last winner remaining at the end of each week will earn prize money and become the incumbent ‘player to defeat’ during the next week’s competition.”
Highlights of some of ELEAGUE’s previous events have been shown on TBS at a later date, but the Esports Observer says that this will not be the case for the MTG Arena series.
ELEAGUE is the esports brand of Turner and WME | IMG. Turner, the owner of the TV networks TBS, TNT and truTV, is a part of WarnerMedia, while WME | IMG is a talent representation and management company that also does media production, sales and distribution, and event management. The ELEAGUE Showdown: MTG Arena is sponsored by Intel Gamer Days, which is an ecommerce promotional event for Intel products.
UPDATE: Added ELEAGUE’s official announcement an explanation of the series’s structure.