The fine folks at Wizards of the Coast have recently made some massive improvements to the competitive scene for the highly popular Magic the Gathering. For all my fellow aspiring pro-Magic players out there, whether you play tabletop or Magic the Gathering Arena, now is the perfect time to put all your effort and hard work in and rise to the top.

Wizards of the Coast has streamlined the process and have created more opportunities for non-professionals to make into the MPL (Magic Pro League) with the addition of the Rival league. In the press release it is mentioned that “The Rivals League is a talent-development league that will feed the MPL. Rivals will make it into the MPL either through sustained success over the course of a season or through an exciting new tournament called the MPL Gauntlet.” This means that you won’t have to win an overall tournament, you will just have to do well enough to earn a spot in the MPL or by competing in the MPL gauntlet and taking down the bottom 4 players in the pro league.

Player rankings have also had a few changes has Arena will keep the use of “Mythic Points”  tabletop will now be earning “Player Points”. Player Points will be earned in Players Tour in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific and the Players Tour Finals. Players Tours will be (As mentioned above) region-specific and there will be 3 per year, per region, so that is 9 total chances for you to enter the pro scene, as you don’t have to live in any specific region to be eligible to compete.

Though you will have to qualify for the Player Tour and to do that you will have to win or place highly in the  Players Tour Qualifiers, WPN Qualifiers, Grand Prix, Players Tour Premier Series, and Magic Online events. Though these are the most direct ways to qualify you can also do the following:

• All MPL players
• All Rivals players
• Players who finish in the Top 8 or with at least 39 match points at individual Grand Prix
• Top 4 teams and all other teams with at least 36 match points at team Grand Prix
• Last Chance Qualifier winners held the day before Players Tour events
• WPN Qualifiers
• Players Tour Qualifiers
• Premier Series events
• MTGO Qualifiers
• Hall of Fame status
• Discretionary invitations

These are just some of many changes to the Pro scene that I will be implanted in the 2020-2021 season for Magic the Gathering and Magic the Gathering Arena. I am extremely excited to get myself more into the meta of Magic and even compete at a higher level and all these changes just make everything easier to jump into!

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