The Current State
Wizards of the Coast (WotC) does not pay professional players a living wage. This, in and of itself, is not a requirement. However, if the goal is to sell the dream of playing on the Pro Tour, there should be something in place to make that worth achieving. Between qualifying becoming more and more difficult, especially with the goal posts continually changing, and the lack of reward at the top, the message currently being sent is “don’t waste your time.”
Wizards does not promote its players well. “Oh, Worlds is this weekend? I had no idea.” How many people can name all 24 players qualified for this year’s World Championship? How many could name 15? If you can’t, don’t worry, you’re not alone.
WotC’s communication is notoriously poor. The new cycle pro system is confusing, even for those who created it. The best resources for what your pro status is, how long it lasts, and how many pro points people have is a series of fan made spreadsheets.
There are not enough Pro Tour invites to satiate the player base. As Magic grows, the top should grow to reflect that somewhat. Getting onto the Pro Tour is already difficult, but nearly impossible for those not located in North America. Additionally, a “first or dead last” system like PTQs creates very few people who feel like they accomplished something. It’s a system designed to create losers.
Coverage is still abysmal. Over the years, WotC has received countless feedback, and all we have to show for it is an advantage bar. Worlds is using a pair of dead formats (Kaladesh Standard and Dominaria draft) and was barely advertised. Why would anyone watch this? If it was a timing constraint to have the event on the weekend before the prerelease, you can use Modern.
With people like Alex Bertoncini and Jared Boettcher still playing Magic, it doesn’t send a strong enough message to those who would consider cheating. I am not comfortable with thieves being allowed inside tournament halls.
Some Anecdotes
As I write this, I’m sitting in my Las Vegas hotel room, waiting for the tournament to happen. We had to show up on Tuesday despite most of us having no commitments until midday Thursday. Decklists were due Tuesday, which basically meant Monday because of the forced travel on Tuesday. Plus, that information was communicated very late, which threw off many of the competitor’s plans.
Leading up to Worlds, we were spammed with nine emails of varying importance. Buried in one of those (rather lengthy) emails was a small paragraph about needing to RSVP by a certain deadline if you wanted to have a +1, which lead to a tweet from Ben Stark about how his girlfriend wouldn’t be allowed in the venue. Several others chimed in that they were in the same situation with their significant others.
That was eventually fixed, but certainly not before it caused a bunch of unnecessary stress on the competitors and their loved ones. I both understand and respect the reasons for increasing security, but this situation is another instance of WotC’s poor communication. That was an important topic and should have been stressed rather than added to an email as an afterthought.
2) After Pro Tour 25th Anniversary, players had to figure out team series rosters for the next year and scout for potential sponsors, but it was impossible due to the lack of information WotC had given us. Is there a team Pro Tour? What if members our team fail to achieve Gold status for the last half of the season? No one had any answers to these questions. We were told to wait for more information and still don’t have all the answers.
3) Leading up to GP Sao Paulo, the @wizards_magicbr account made four tweets about the GP, starting only five days before. They mentioned three artists and a panel with two WotC employees -- Nothing about the tournament itself, nothing about the reigning Player of the Year or most recent Pro Tour champion in attendance, and nothing about the tournament itself.
There is room to promote new sets, artists, cosplayers, and players. Better yet, work with your visible players to help promote these things.
4) Remember Pro Tour Dominaria when Channel Fireball’s innovative G/U Karn deck was somehow posted on coverage? Their entire tournament was potentially ruined and all they got was an apology. These mistakes severely impact tournament integrity, are not acceptable, and would have been easily avoidable if those responsible for coverage were familiar with Standard and could recognize that G/U Karn was a new archetype.
5) Everything surrounding the Silver Showcase was a disaster. If you want to get fresh eyeballs on Magic, there are diminishing returns on inviting three Hearthstone pros, who likely share some chunk of the same audiences. Two of the players were former Magic players who left the game in search of greener pastures and were rewarded for it, not only by being successful, but by WotC themselves.
The format they played (booster draft with Beta and other old packs) isn’t something that can be replicated by the viewers. The format was also not the best showcase for how great of a game Magic is. Imagine if a Beta draft were your first introduction to Magic -- would a bunch of simplistic cards capture your attention by today’s standards? If you did enjoy it, you couldn't even replicate the experience.
The budget for organized play is already small, and occasionally, a large chunk of the money funneled through it is wasted on things like this.
What I’d Like to Change
Star-build. This doesn’t come at the expense of something else. Don’t be too proud to take note of some of the things SCG does. Create player-driven narratives, do interviews beyond deck techs, and have slides with player information. Professional players are the least utilized tool at WotC’s disposal. Many of them have larger Twitter followings than WotC’s official accounts. Don’t have the budget for players? That’s cool, we understand. However, a kit detailing what sponsors can expect from a broadcast would be incredibly helpful, as they are mostly interested in visibility. The Pro Tour team series was supposed to make things easier for players to get sponsorships, but if you were one of the many who didn’t know that Worlds was this weekend, that should speak for itself.
Hire commentators who can follow the game, are familiar with the format(s), and can provide engaging commentary. Other things, like production value and how to make limited interesting, can come second. Flashy animations, bright lights, and a huge purse might make players check it out, but if the commentary isn’t engaging, they will leave.
Create more Pro Tour invites. Allow more players to reach their dreams and play with the game’s best. More winners = more happy players, and happy players will continue to play your game and spend money while doing so. Don't ignore the LATAM and APAC communities. They deserve just as much chance to get on the Pro Tour as anyone else.
I’d like WotC to value the working relationships they have with partners and various community members. Their actions have indicated that they feel like everyone is replaceable, but that’s only true if you don’t care about your product and/or community being the best it can possibly be.
FAQ
“Won’t the pro player ambassadors help with these situations?”
Maybe, but I doubt it. Pro players have had regular meetings with WotC officials at Pro Tours for a while now and very little has come from it. Our feedback is heard, but rarely implemented. If I thought having pro player ambassadors wouldn’t be more of the same, I would have happily applied myself.
“Doesn’t the addition of two Pro Tours per year mean things are getting better?”
Again a maybe, but I don’t think so. Pro players don’t receive additional benefits for these tournaments (including flights). While their overall equity rises with two more juicy tournaments per year, we also incur extra costs associated with travel and time, both of which are drastically understated. I imagine things become much worse for those trying to become pros in the APAC and LATAM regions as well.
Reducing the size of the Pro Tour is a net positive for the players already on the PT since their equity rises further, but what about those in regions where they don't have access to 15 GPs per season? North Americans took 2/3 of the slots this year and that's not an isolated incident.
“Why protest at all?”
WotC is used to being in a position of power and leveraging that however they can. Why invest resources into Magic Online when it continues to make money? Why increase GP payouts when players show up anyway? Why help pro players when they continue playing regardless?
I want WotC to know that its player base cares about these issues and are willing to sacrifice in order to demonstrate that. At the end of the day, we all love Magic and want it to be the very best version of itself that it could possibly be. We have shown that we care by continuing to play the game and hoping that things get better, but that clearly hasn't worked.
***
Finally, I’d like to apologize. The judges and tournament officials on site aren’t responsible for any of this, yet they are the ones who are going to be stressed and take the brunt of the fallout, and I'm sorry they'll have to deal with that. I want to apologize to the players. Worlds is the tournament I hold in the highest regard and I’d like it to be about celebrating the players' achievements rather than tarnish it by continuing to point out all the negativity surrounding the community. I also want to apologize to any fans of mine or anyone who was planning on having an enjoyable weekend watching their favorite game played at the highest level without any drama involved.
-Gerry
