Wizards of the Coast (WotC) published a Magic Esports post-season events update that announced the prize pool for Magic World Championship XXVII will be $250,000 — a quarter of what was awarded at the previous World Championship.
The prize pool for Magic World Championship XXVII, which is scheduled for Oct. 8-10, had not been mentioned following the cancelation of last year’s World Championship due to COVID-19 and the restructuring of Magic Esports with the previous partial season. The 2019 World Championship that Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa won in Honolulu, HI on Feb. 16, 2020, had a prize pool of $1 million, with Damo da Rosa himself taking home more than this year’s entire prize pool with his first-place prize of $300,000.
An article titled “The Future of Magic Esports” published on Aug. 14, 2019 by Elaine Chase did state that the 2020-2021 World Championship had a prize pool of $1 million, though all future articles didn’t mention the prize pool of Magic World Championship XXVII.
Many professional players had mentioned on Twitter that they were waiting for the prize pool announcement for Magic World Championship XXVII and were expecting it be slashed from the previous event. MPL member, Ondrej Strasky, who is one of the first four players qualified for the event so far, said the cut was expected but sad.
Rivals member Austin Bursavich, who hasn’t been shy about pointing out flaws in the current pro system, also pointed out the only new information in the update article from today was the Worlds prize pool, though it was buried at the end.
The update to the prize pool was announced on the same day seven new Secret Lair drops were announced as part of a Superdrop selling foil and non-foil versions of the products.
The rest of the events update article recapped how the MPL, Rivals, and Challenger Gauntlets will play out following the final League Weekend of the season on July 3-4.
Read the 2020-2021 postseason events update article from WotC.