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What Competitive Magic Means To Me

Shaheen Soorani has spent more than fifteen years playing Magic for fun and profit. As he assesses the state of Pro Play, he has one clear message for Wizards of the Coast: “Renton, we have a problem.”

After a lucky Mid-Atlantic Regionals Top 8 back in 2003, I was fortunate enough to enjoy professional play at the highest level. It started with U.S. Nationals that year, moved to a quick Saturday morning exit from a triple elimination Pro Tour in Philadelphia, and continued as the grind ever since. Once you get a taste of victory, and once you hit certain self-set goals, the drive to return to that stage can be maddening. It prompts us to drive halfway across the country, hitting various qualifying tournaments in order to have a chance at competitive glory.

I took a brief break from the Pro Tour from 2013-2015, focusing solely on the SCG Tour. This was one of the smartest decisions I made, allowing me to ride the best branding wave and earn a handsome side living while teaching the youth of Norfolk. I think back to those days of nonstop Invitational success and constantly look forward to making a push to return to the top of the circuit once again. As far as promotion, branding, compensation, and convenience, the SCG Tour dusts the competition. There’s less prize money overall, but the difficulty to profit is much easier than in the typical 1500+-person Grand Prix. Even with all my professional success from the Wizards of the Coast tournaments, the lion’s share of my control household brand comes from SCG. The spotlight achieved through various deck techs, interviews, commentator knowledge, and media branding has put me, as well as dozens of others, on the map. I could go on about how excited I am that there’s an alternative to professional Magic, but that is not what this article is about.

The End of the Pro Players Club

Even though the Americans on the East Coast and Midwest are fortunate enough to have a strong alternative, the rest of the world isn’t. Competitive Magic has been the glue of the game for the better part of two decades. Hundreds of thousands of players have pursued the professional dream. Some of these players never made it past a PTQ, where others have their face plastered on a Platinum Player Card from a year of greatness. Those players, and everyone in-between, have poured their heart and soul into Magic, making it much more than a game to the masses. The reason players have been able to pursue these dreams is because a system has existed since I started playing back in 2003 that provides clear metrics for professional success.

The Pro Players Club hasn’t always been perfect. Even with its flaws over the years, most players gave appropriate feedback and then continued the grind for points. When WotC switched to a rotating quarterly system, many of us thought it couldn’t get worse. I personally achieved Gold last year, and my heart sank when I realized that it wouldn’t last for more than a few months. Eventually I, and the rest of the community, shook off the self-pity and made it work. I hit Gold at every point after, two of my teammates hit Platinum, and the other three easily stayed Gold as well. This is with a broken system, higher point thresholds with every announcement, and a confusing apparatus that many employees back at HQ had a hard time explaining. The point is that any Pro Players Club system that they craft is workable, even this one, but somehow the unthinkable has happened.

Drastic changes began to pour in from Renton. The Magic Pro League (MPL) was announced, and a freeze on Pro Points was set. The initial panic was subdued by a promise of “future announcements,” but I wasn’t fooled. It was quite clear that WotC was throwing in the towel on the Pro Players Club, putting all their eggs in the MPL basket, and essentially eliminating the 33rd-1,000,000th best players from competitive Magic. Even as I am typing this now, it’s hard to contain the deep sadness this decree has created for me. Outside of my family, my passion lies in this card game. The endless hours I have put into improving my game is a common cost that thousands of other players have also paid. We continue to buy cards, drive/fly to tournaments, create content, and promote the game because we know there is always going to be a tomorrow for Magic: The Gathering. This truth is still holding strong, but for far fewer players.

Those who enjoy the game casually will not feel a thing. It’s likely that those players will end up with a net positive experience, with additional streaming options, as well as a better digital experience. We have come a long way from Magic Online, and I have been one of the biggest cheerleaders for MTG Arena. There have been so many positive moves from WotC from digital to physical card development. The sets have been flavorful, the cards have been balanced, and the Standard format has been healthy for quite some time. With the constant improvement of the game itself, the moves in the promotional department have caused the opposite intended effect.

The Magic Pro League

The announcement of the MPL was powerful. Every Magic personality on Twitter excitedly searched for the qualification process to get into this exclusive club, only to find that no such information existed. Not only was there no information then, but somehow six months later, we still have nothing. We are witnessing the end of competitive Magic for 99.99% of players; however, if there is that sliver of hope, a portion of diehards will lunge for it. It simply makes no sense why there haven’t been Mythic Point thresholds posted with the inception of the MPL, to make players aware of how little chance they have to breach the elite of elites. Just as they have done in the past, thresholds can be changed on a whim and that would cause less backlash than not having anything to go by entirely.

The MPL should never have been the only road to consistent Mythic Championship participation. Expecting players to individually qualify for each Mythic Championship, online and live, in order to gain an unknown amount of Mythic Points to possibly bump one of the 32 players off the hill is shortsighted. Due to the automatic qualifications of the MPL, this task is close to impossible after the Pro Players Club ends this year. This is the year that players desperately need that information, to know how many points they must earn to have a shot at keeping their competitive dream alive.

I have no horse in this race. I, along with many of my colleagues, will not actively pursue individual qualifications next year to get to each Mythic Championship. We may play an MCQ here and there, but the mid-level professional player has been removed by these sporadic changes. This all changes if WotC hears the concerns of their competitive player base and provides an avenue like the likes of a Gold- or Silver-level pro, outside of the MPL.

There can be a coexistence between the MPL and a version of the Pro Players Club. I feel like I am breaking the cardinal rule of negotiating by starting this low, but there does not have to be any financial reimbursement to achieving a certain pro level. Travel vouchers should absolutely exist to help those that struggle to cover their travel costs; however, the appearance stipends that Platinum level players receive are an obvious cut. That type of reimbursement should go to the showcased players of the MPL, in the form of a salary. The other cut that will sting some is a Pro Players Club based on Mythic Points. It has been made clear that WotC wants to remove all types of point gain from a Grand Prix, so the only option is to give them out only at Mythic Championships. The numbers would have to be shifted, providing an attainable threshold for Gold or Silver status. This could mean individually qualifying for two separate Mythic Championships, doing moderately well at both, and having enough Mythic Points to use a Silver qualification for the next tournament. This isn’t groundbreaking thought, just an adaptation on the various systems that have existed since I started playing when flip phones were popular.

If a system exists for us mid-level pros to thrive in, and for aspiring players to strive for, competitive Magic will get through this. My heart goes out to the members of the MPL during this time of strife and division. There are members that are treated poorly on social media and are unable to enjoy the fruits of their skilled labor. These players have made a positive impact on the game and deserve the spot they have, and I can’t emphasize that enough. I know multiple members that don’t speak out, even with agreement, because they do not want to be perceived as insensitive.

Many players can’t help but feel some amount of jealousy, which breeds paranoia. They feel that the MPL members got their success, so they couldn’t care less about the rest of us. That is simply not the case. Many of these players have fought on the side of the grinders even after they had ascended to the top, and Gerry Thompson even resigned in protest due to some of the decisions made that I’ve discussed in this article. The MPL members are on our side for the most part but are unable to articulate it for the reasons above, as well as obvious sponsorship rules.

In this sea of poor Organized Play decisions, electing Jessica Estephan and Savjz was not one of them. I knew famous streamers were on their way to the game after the Silver Showcase fiasco. Big shots from outside the game were given special invites to the Pro Tours of old and giving them a spot in the MPL makes sense from a marketing perspective. The anger that has arisen from the Savjz invite is not directed toward him, but at the lack of opportunity for the thousands of grinders out there that feel rightfully slighted. Without an alternative, lesser group in conjunction with the MPL, every decision that follows will reignite the anger and sadness we all feel, but I implore you all not to direct any at our MPL family.

The game is better with Autumn and Jess representing us at the highest level, as well as having Savjz bring his massive audience to the game that would have otherwise ignored it. Representation is important in competitive Magic and it’s something we have lacked for too long. The sixteen discretionary slots that were recently added to Arena-based Mythic Championships also help promote the game, but still shine a light on how tone-deaf management has been for the last six months. The following steps must happen to restore confidence in competitive play:

  • Keep the MPL with a clear Mythic Point threshold for entering.
  • Extend the MPL with players that represent marginalized groups.
  • Give special invites to Mythic Championships to streamers. Possibly use an MTG Arena tournament to give additional invites to these players.
  • Create a Pro Players Club, Silver and Gold levels, that is rooted in the Mythic Championships with clear point thresholds that are achievable with above-average performance.
  • Continue to give airfare to Gold-level players and MCQ winners. It must be embarrassing at headquarters to see a GoFundMe for a Mythic Championship plane ticket.

I have never gathered the townsfolk, armed them with pitchforks, and marched against WotC. The opposite has been true, where some accused me of being a bought-and-paid-for spokesperson. My motives have always been the same – I want what is best for the company that makes the greatest game of all time, because I want to continue to play it until I am old(er) and gray(er). When profits are soaring and the game is booming, I have sung the WotC praises proudly. When the community reacts negatively to every little thing over the years, I have often rebuked it.

I will not rebuke it now.

Make the changes, save the competitive scene, and show your customers the respect they deserve after years of loyalty.