Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast revealed the first details of the upcoming 2020-21 Magic Pro League season.
TL;DR
- The Magic Pro League (MPL) and Rivals League (Rivals) will have in-league play to determine seasonal standings.
- No more than eight members (one-third) of the 2021-22 MPL will be returning members from this season’s league.
- At least eight members (one-third) of the 2021-22 MPL, and as many as 16 (two-thirds) will be promoted from this season’s Rivals League.
- At least four members (one-sixth) of the 2021-22 MPL will come from the Challengers pool of amateur players that aren’t in either the MPL or Rivals.
The 2020-21 Season Will See the Return of League Play
After a 10-month hiatus, league play will return to the Magic Pro League (and debut for the Magic Rivals League) with this Fall’s Zendikar Rising split.
Each league will play in seven “League Weekends” over the course of the 2020-21 season: two during the Zendikar Rising split, three during the Winter set split, and two during the Spring set split. A League Weekend will be made up of two separate six-round Swiss tournaments per league, one on each day of the weekend—so the 24 members of the MPL will play in two six-round tournaments against each other and the 48 Rivals will play in two six-round tournaments against each other.
There will be 84 total matches played by each player during the season and each match win will earn players one point. Those points will go towards their league rank and determine whether they maintain their roster spot for next season or will be forced to fight for it in one of the MPL or Rivals Gauntlets at the end of the season. (Read more about the gauntlets below.)
The Magic Pro League’s inaugural season in 2019 was built around the idea of league play. The 32 members of the league were split into four divisions which played an intra-division round robin tournament each split, which awarded Mythic Points towards each player’s league rank and byes in tournaments.
However, while the first split’s league play was initially met with excitement, interest quickly fell off a cliff. Wizards changed the divisional structure for the following Core Split by adding a Top 4 bracket and adjusting the coverage to focus on one division at a time, but engagement continued to be low and they eventually cancelled league play for the 2020 partial season.
Qualifying for the 2021-22 Season
The Magic Pro and Rivals Leagues will stay the same size for the 2021-22 season with 24 and 48 players apiece but will see significant turnover.
The 2021-22 Magic Pro League
The Top 4 finishers in the 2020-21 Magic Pro League (based on the points accrued in league play over the course of the season) will remain in the MPL for the 2021-22 season, while the bottom 12 players (the entire bottom half of the league) will be relegated directly the the Magic Rivals League. The eight players that finish in fifth through 12th place will play in the MPL Gauntlet, along with 18 Rivals, for four additional spots in the MPL. (More details about the Gauntlets below.)
The Top 4 players in the Magic Rival League will be automatically promoted to the Magic Pro League. Likewise, the top four finishing Rivals in the MPL Gauntlet (that aren’t in the actual Top 4) and the top four finishing Challengers in the Rivals Gauntlet (that aren’t in the actual Top 4) will also be promoted directly the the Magic Pro League. That means that only four members of the 2020-21 Magic Pro League are guaranteed to return for the 2021-22 season, while eight Rivals and four Challengers are guaranteed roster spots.
Of the remaining eight spots in 2021-22 Magic Pro League, current members of the MPL only have access to the four provided to the MPL Gauntlet Top 4. The other four are reserved for the Top 4 of the Rivals Gauntlet, which they do not have a way to play in.
How players will qualify for the 2021-22 Magic Pro League
The 2021-22 Magic Rivals League
The bottom 12 players in the Magic Pro League will be joined in the 2021-22 Magic Rivals League by the bottom 16 players from both the MPL and Rivals Gauntlets, along with the 33rd-36th ranked Rivals.
How players will qualify for the 2021-22 Magic Rivals League
Wizards has yet to provide any information about how the 2021-22 season will work other than how players will qualify for it.
The 2020-21 Postseason Gauntlets
Players that do not place in the Top 4 of their respective leagues (which automatically earn a spot in the Magic Pro League), the bottom 12 of the MPL (relegated straight to Rivals), or the bottom 12 of the Magic Rivals League (relegated to Challenger/amateur status), will have to compete in one of the postseason gauntlets to determine which league they will play in for the 2021-22 season.
Similar to the original gauntlet planned for the end of the 2020 partial season, the MPL Gauntlet will feature the fifth through 12th ranked members of the Magic Pro League and the fifth through 20th ranked Rivals. The Top 4 will earn a roster spot in the Magic Pro League for the next season, while the top four finishing Rivals not in the actual Top 4 of the event will also be promoted to the MPL. The remaining 16 players will join the Magic Rivals League for the next season.
The 2021 MPL Gauntlet
In a new twist, Wizards is adding a Rivals Gauntlet to the end of the 2020-21 season that will provide eight players direct promotion to the Magic Pro League for the 2021-22 season. The 21st-32nd ranked Rivals, which miss the cut for the MPL Gauntlet, will face the Top 4 Challengers from each of the three split championships (Zendikar Rising and the Winter and Spring set splits) for a total of 12 Challengers. The Top 4 of the Rivals Gauntlet will be promoted directly to the Magic Pro League for the next season, along with the top four finishing Challengers that aren’t in the actual Top 4 of the event.
The 2021 Rivals Gauntlet
Structural Imbalances Lead to Differing Reactions
The Magic community’s reaction to the qualification paths for the 2021-22 Magic Pro League season were mixed and often differed depending on a player’s current league status.
The 24 current members of the Magic Pro League were almost uniformly disappointed by yesterday’s announcement due to the imbalance in roster slots created by the new system. Given that 16 of the 24 roster slots for the 2021-22 season will be awarded via the MPL and Rivals Gauntlets, of which the MPL only has access to one, it is guaranteed that the Magic Pro League will see significant turnover next year.
Not only that, but members of the 2020-21 Magic Pro League only have access to a maximum of eight slots in the 2021-22 Magic Pro League. Four players are guaranteed their position—the Top 4 will remain in the league—while the other players only have access to the slots given to the Top 4 of the MPL Gauntlet. However, it is entirely possible that the Top 4 will be filled entirely by Rivals that compete in the MPL Gauntlet. That would lead to only four members of the 2020-21 Magic Pro Returning for the 2021-22 season and 20 of the 24—83%—being relegated to the Magic Rivals League.
On the other hand, the qualification picture looks much brighter for the 48 members of the 2020-21 Magic Rivals League. The Top 4 Rivals will be automatically promoted to the Magic Pro League for the 2021-22 season, while the top four finishing Rivals (not in the actual Top 4) of the MPL Gauntlet will also be promoted, guaranteeing at least eight rivals will enter the MPL next season. But the Rivals also have access to the Top 4 of the MPL Gauntlet as well as Rivals Gauntlet, from which the Top 4 will also be promoted to the Magic Pro League, giving them access to a maximum of 16 roster slots.
The Top 4 Challengers—players who don’t belong to either the Magic Pro or Rivals Leagues—from each Split Championship will be invited to the Rivals Gauntlet. The Top 4 of the Rivals Gauntlet will be promoted to the Magic Pro League, while the top four finishing Challengers (not in the actual Top 4) will also be promoted, giving these Challengers access to up to eight spots in the 2021-22 Magic Pro League.
This system will create extremely high turnover in the Magic Pro League next season, since half of the 2021-22 roster is guaranteed to be new—eight Rivals and four Challengers—with an upper bound of 20 of 24 of the players being new. The current MPL has a range of four to eight slots in next season’s Magic Pro League, meaning that at most a third of the league will be able to maintain their position. The Challengers—players who aren’t even in one of Magic’s professional leagues—have the exact same range of possibilities, meaning that a third of the Magic Pro League could be made up of players who skipped Rivals altogether. But the 2020-21 Rivals will almost certainly dominate the 2021-22 Magic Pro League roster, since they have a range of eight to 16 slots, making it slightly easier to qualify for the 2021-22 Magic Pro League season as a Rival than as a current member of the league.