Magic Organized Play

Hello Everyone!

I love playing magic, and like most things that I love doing I want to share it with all of my friends. However, Magic can be perceived as a nerdy, useless game from an outside perspective. How come its socially acceptable to run as fast as you can at your friends who just push you in the dirt? How can making pig piles like 3 year olds on a giant field be considered the most popular sport in america while critical thinking and situational analysis is laughable?

It comes down to perception. It comes down to the media.

Professional sports are overwhelmingly dominant in this category. Players like Kobe Bryant and Alex Rodriguez are household names even for people who haven't watched the sport in years. The celebrity and power of these sports figures transcends their line of work and they are bigger than themselves.

Physical sports are very easy to consume by the average user, it's clear to see that the guy ahead of everyone else in a running race is winning. So does this mean that mental sports are not consumable by the public? Of course not! Chess and Poker come to mind as two mental sports which are incredibly popular. Here are the current standings for chess internationally. It's easy to see why Chess may not be too popular in the USA right now, we don't have any celebrities! Only 4 players from the USA make the top 100 at positions 8, 18, 68, and 83. Compare this to Russia who has 25 players on that list including positions 2, 5, 10, 12, 14, 20, and 22, and you can see why chess is significantly more popular over there! Former Chess World Champion of over a decade Gary Kasparov was so popular in Russia that he even ran for President and had a significant following! Poker too has an incredible following. This is ESPN's recent power rankings for best poker players in the world. Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth each have over 150,000 followers on twitter, which is a good measuring stick for assessing popularity and relevance.

So why has Chess lost so much relevance in the USA where Poker is so popular? People love rivalries, I know I do! We love having our hero emerge victorious! All the greatest stories have protagonists and antagonists, both of whom receive deep character development and in doing so draw you closer to both sides and invests you in the conflict. Bobby Fischer is considered to be the greatest player of all time and his opponent, who made the cover of Life Magazine and Sports Illustrated, and was a national phenomenon. Since then though, we have not had a true American hero Chess player, and the game has suffered appropriately.

In poker though, we don't just have player who is taking on the unknown enemy from afar, but instead we have a group of people playing each other. We can learn about each player at the table, and become invested in each of their stories. As such, poker is incredibly popular and frequently gets spots on ESPN.

So how come if it is so possible for mental sports and cards to become so popular, Magic is left out of the loop?

This is a matter of approach-ability. It comes down to perception. It comes down to the media.

Celebrity in Magic

MTG certainly has some celebrities. Players like Luis Scott-Vargas, Paulo Vitor Dama Da Rosa, Patrick Chapin, Brian Kibler, Shuhei Nakamura, and Yuuya Wantanabe all perk any magic player's ear because the names are so recognizable. Magic even has it's own living legends of history: Kai Budde and Jon Finkel. I know this is the case for even casual players who have no aspirations for the Pro Tour by observing the room when Brian Kibler played FNM at my local store a little over a year ago.

Last year just before Christmas Brian sent out a tweet saying that he was going to be in my neck of the woods, and was looking for a place to play FNM, so I enthusiastically tweeted him the address for Toys. I didn't hear back, but when I got to FNM a little early with my not so trusty Burning Vengeance deck in hand, I found Brian at a table jamming a game with some of the other people who were also early. I instantly went into fan boy mode and tried talking about anything magic with him. Soon more and more people came and it seemed like I was watching the same 30 second YouTube clip over and over again where a random person walks into a room, looks around before exclaiming something to the degree of, "Holy shit! Is that Brian Kibler?!" Some people went as far to immediately pull out their phone and call their friends. This was the case for 98% of the crowd with the only ones confused at the commotion were all in middle school.

But even then, they figured it out soon! Round 1, Kibler was paired against Casey who was in 7th grade. Like clockwork, as soon as everyone finished their matches, they immediately packed up and tried to get the best seat possible to watch Brian play. Casey asked, "Why is everyone watching me play?" to which I responded by asking if he knew who his opponent was. It only took one small sentence to grab Casey's full attention after I said, "This is Brian Kibler, he was just voted into the Pro Tour Hall of Fame last year." Immediately his eyes went wide, and he sat straight up in his seat with perfect posture, clearly hoping to take down the best in the world.

If I had any doubts to a celebrity player's effect on the game, that day renounced it. No one in that room left without knowing exactly who was in our presence, and I could tell the fire was turned up a little inside everyone, we all aspired a little more to be like that.

Over a year later, Brian writes this article.

Woo boy.... Imagine how exciting it would be if there were no more named pros on the professional circuit? It would become the SCG Open series. Not saying the SCG Open series is bad, but when I watch the live streaming I care more about the commentary from recognizable named pros more than I do about the actual people playing. Of course the decks are cool, but if we have a Standard GP and an SCG Open streaming at the same time, would you rather watch PV play UWr Flash or John Doe? Obviously you would rather see PV, a master of the game! You know what's even more exciting? When PV is playing against someone whose name you also recognize. Let's say it's someone like Alex Hayne, winner of PT Avacyn Restored. Even if you don't care too much about him you know that he too is an incredibly good player and is absolutely worth your time to watch. This doubles the excitement because you know that it just won't be a one sided beating on some n00b, but instead a very well thought out, crafted, challenging game. As Brian said in his article though, the incentive to play is not there any more and he may not go to any GPs next year, along with LSV.

I hope we see the severe disaster on the horizon

The Issues with Current System

So clearly we need to develop a new system that caters to our top players. But we also want to allow for new pros to emerge. This creates a serious conundrum, and there is no easy answer. Staying on the Pro Tour is important because players like PV can be incredibly good, but this year he is in a slump. Should one of the best players of all time get thrown back to the ranks of PTQ grinding because of a 3 month slump? Clearly this is a net negative. However the way the current system is designed is by accumulating Pro Points. Here's the point value of various finishes. When you acquire Pro Points you can move up the 3 ranks for players: Silver (15 points), Gold (30 points) and Platinum (45 points). Here's the full article on PPC, including benefits. Basically Silver gets you less byes for a GP than you would get for winning a GPT, Gold means you don't have to PTQ any more, and Platinum gives you the kingdom. Put another way, you get nothing until Platinum.

As a college student who is incredibly busy (This is my 5th session working on this post to get this far), it is nearly impossible to go to a lot of events, even FNMs. If I were aspiring to be a professional Magic player, I have two choices - win a PTQ or accumulate 30 pro points to get a qualification. Winning a PTQ is an insane task in and of itself - requiring the perfect deck, perfect play, and a lot of luck to go your way. Coming in second place in the PTQ only gets you pity points from your friends, so at least going the Pro Points route we get something that accumulates.

The problem is though that if you look at the values of Pro Points awarded to different finishes in GPs and Pro Tours, you realize that GPs provide nearly nothing in value, however Pro Tours don't provide enough on their own. This means the only way to get up to Platinum, the only level with reasonable value, we need to go to an ungodly amount of Grand Prix and come in the top 64 of all of them!

Top 8ing 5 GPs and attending all 3 Pro Tours won't even get you gold...

Carrie Oliver wrote a sobering article on ChannelFireball last year that basically analyzed the $ per Planeswalker Point she earned over a GP weekend. Since that article and many others like it went up, the system was changed to what we have today. While this is certainly a better system because it isn't completely arbitrary, it also isn't completely reasonable to achieve. When doing a cost-benefit analysis and a risk-reward analysis of the current Pro Point system we have to acknowledge it's not worth our time to try and make it to platinum. If we do make it to platinum, we have our costs softened, but if we get even 44 points, we're SOL and get nothing. Is that worth the risk?

People respond to benefits, but the benefits aren't there. In the old Pro Points structure, there were 8 levels that you could rise to. Level 8 is the equivalent of today's Platinum where only the best of the best would go. What we have as Gold was what level 4 was back then with an invitation to every Pro Tour in the year. Our current Silver was equivalent to level 3, which qualified you for one Pro Tour. Just based off those numbers and comparisons we can already see a problem - there's a huge gap missing between Gold and Platinum! Players like Conley Woods and Craig Wescoe fell in this middle range because they are very good players, but not the top 5 in the world. In the old system there were simple benefits at level 6 and money at level 7, so those aformentioned players could still play a ton and not go completely broke. Their not level 8 and therefor can't consider it a full second source of income, but it's enough to allow you to play a lot competitively. Here it's be the best in the world or get absolutely nothing!

Imbalance in Grand Prix

There are so many iterations where someone who is very very good but can't play a lot and slips up once gets absolutely nothing, adding insult to injury. The United States got 18 Grand Prix this year (2013 GP Schedule) vs the rest of the world which got 27. Seperated by continent we have:

Asia - 7

Europe - 11

Oceana - 3

North America - 4

South America - 2

Considering the USA is a part of North America, USA players have local access to 22 Grand Prix, which is as much as the rest of the world combined. If it's so hard for me to get to Grand Prix when I have local access to half the annual offerings and nearly endless options, how can we reasonably expect anyone from outside North America to do the same? I understand it's a USA-made game, but still, this blanket policy is excluding the entire international community!

Seeing as it is so essential to go to a lot of Grand Prix to accumulate enough points to make Gold, or more importantly Platinum, we are clearly creating significant barriers to international players. International players are so essential to the game! Before the rise of ChannelFireball, Japan was the overwhelmingly dominant country in the world of MTG (and they are moving back to that position now). Without the international scene we wouldn't have Kai Budde, Martin Juza, Shuuhei Nakamura, Paulo Vitor Dama Da Rosa, Yuuya Wantanabe, Gabriel Nassif, Samuele Estratti, and so many more. All of these players are either in the Hall of Fame or are Platinum players, so it's much easier to maintain that status than someone trying to break in. However, as Kibler mentioned, just because it's easier doesn't mean it's rationally feasible.

Of those 7 players I mentioned, 4 are from Europe, which has the second highest number of Grand Prix this year. Yuuya and Shuuhei are from Japan, and in Asia there are only 7 Grand Prix. Lastly Paulo is from South America which gets a grand total of 2! Even if he wins both GPs and attends all 3 Pro Tours because of the insane costs to fly cross continent, he wouldn't even make Gold.

So What Can We Do Instead?

So clearly there are significant issues with the current system, and we need to find a way to cater to all players - a very daunting task. In order to provide a good system we need to evaluate who we want to cater to, and look at other successful systems for inspiration. Let's look at the many things this system has to allow for:

• Make it reasonable to qualify for the Pro Tour
• Make it possible to reach highest level in rewards
• Don't make the rewards all or nothing
• Allow for international players to have a chance
• Don't require grinding as the only means to succeed
• Maintain exclusivity
• Better represent the top tier players

If anyone suggested it would be easy, then I have some sobering news for you! Creating a perfect system is incredibly difficult, and the fact that organized professional play has existed for about 19 years is a testament to the dedication of players, and their willingness to make magic the best it can possibly be. Also, considering all the changes that have happened over the past 4 years, it shows that WotC also cares a lot about their competitive scene and willing to try new things to make it work.

One thing that I do feel does not need to be changed is getting onto the Pro Tour. Winning a PTQ makes sense. Sure it sucks that 2nd place gets nothing, but that's on the Tournament Organizer to provide appropriate prize, not on WotC. Coming in top 4 of a small GP or top 8 of a large GP (>1200 people) is also a fine passage for entry. Recently, WotC has also been giving out sponsor's exemptions which has been under fire by many people, however I think in time that will also be a good thing to make sure less people fall through the cracks. Obviously it's impossible to catch everyone who "deserves" a spot, but I don't have any significant issues with the way it is now.

What I do have an issue with is staying on the Pro Tour. Right now you have to make the top 25 to qualify for the next one. Only top 25?!?! Yes, less than 12% will be able to qualify for the next event, and of those, probably half or more already had an invitation to the next one anyways from PPC. With that system, you cannot expect to last longer than one Pro Tour. Tyler Lytle, the last man to win the Cup GP Trophy, and who then top 8d the first event with the sickle GP Trophy said on twitter last week he was playing in a GP. I asked why if we was already on the Pro Tour, and he responded that he knew he probably wasn't going to finish top 25, so he wanted to start grinding towards PT Dragon's Maze. That's depressing... Win a GP, top 8 the very next one, and then go right back to PTQ grinding because you didn't earn much....

So now we reach a tricky balancing act between making it more possible to chain Pro Tours and maintaining exclusivity of the events. If the Pro Tour is open to anyone, then it’s no more special than a Grand Prix. If it’s too difficult though, you will lose a lot of potential players that would otherwise have had significant positive impacts on the game and the event.

Let’s take a look at professional sports and see what they do that works so well.

NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL

All of these sports have the exact same system: franchise teams from the respective associations that have a pre-planned schedule before a playoffs cutoff. This is a very efficient structured system that makes complete sense to an outsider. To work your way up to a professional sport is also simple to understand. In High School you play and do very well, so you’re recruited by colleges. Then in college you continue to excel and draw the attention of a professional team who will then have you sign a contract. There is a clear path that everyone takes, and once you’re contracted it’s your guaranteed career until the contract expires.

League of Legends/DotA

League of Legends is a video game that has exploded in popularity recently with a professional scene that is now starting their third season. Similar to NFL, there are teams who work together and have a ranking. There are 4 Divisions you have to work your way up through – Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. To move up a division you have to “win” that division through consistent high quality play. Upon winning Platinum, you are entered into the competitive brackets and the Pro Circuit.

DotA is very similar to League in the style of game itself, but also in Pro structure. In DotA you have teams and play in tournaments of increasing difficulty until you qualify for the Professional Circuit.

If this is how magic would run, this would be very easy, and actually pretty cool as well. Professional teams of 8 could be made up of all the major websites and stores like Channel Fireball, Star City Games, TCG Player, Blackborder, MTGO Academy, Legit MTG, and so forth (team RLack MTG!). However this would completely gut the system and would cause a lot of confusion.

I do think it would be a net positive for the game long term though. Channel Fireball has been the best team over the past four years, and as a response Star City Games has been trying to put together different teams as well. SCGBlue and SCGBlack was designed to be mini-rivals of each other, with SCGBlue playing the role of David and SCGBlack being Goliath. For PTGTC Channel Fireball put together team Panik, and SCG redesigned their team. I feel this trend will continue until it becomes the norm as opposed to something unique.

However, this will take a long time to come out, and it still doesn’t answer the major question on hand – Grand Prix and Pro Points.

PGA

Golf is an individual sport with 4 major events a year, a striking resemblance to MTG. Players may be sponsored, but there’s no team franchising. They also have a sport that can be played for many decades, even as you turn to your 50s, just like Magic (I look forward to seeing LSV win the Pro Tour at 50 years old), so longevity is something to keep in mind. They have developed celebrities like Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer, and has established itself as piece of household conversation. Their making it onto the Pro Tour is very similar to ours with qualifying tournaments and whatnot, but their retention of players is significantly more results quality oriented, not quantity oriented.

Their tournaments are called the PGA Tour, and depending on how well you do on the masters series, the longer you are invited back for. Winning a tour would invite you to all tours for 10 years, Top 5 would be invited for five years, top 15 for 2 years, and top 30 for one year. This is brilliant! When someone wins the biggest tournament of the year and establishes themselves as the best player in the world, we want to leverage their fame for our benefit and make them into a celebrity. After all, why do we care about LSV, PV, Kibler, and other professional players? Because they have done well many times and have received media attention.

Remember that the Pro Tour is a marketing tool for WotC. Their #1 source of income in Magic is through booster pack sales. However, watching players do so well promotes the game and encourages more pack sales.

I think this is the best individual sport structure that I have seen and is portable to magic. I feel the best way to balance players who can't go to a lot of events, whether for being international or a student, is to make individual performances worth more than grinding.

With every good solution, there's a reason it's not actually a solution. This time, we acknowledge that if a player wins a Pro Tour, then they no longer have to go to any GPs, and can attend Pro Tours in a similar manner to being on the Hall of Fame. Therefore, these benefits for doing well need to have a short lifetime.

Potential Solution?

I think looking forward on the short term, having a system similar to Golf where a player who wins a Pro Tour stays on for 3 years, and cascades down from there may be a great system to develop fantastic players. In dealing with the issue of Pro Player's Club, reverting back to the 8 tier system will allow players to not feel pressured to go to everything or feel gruesomely punished for going to just one fewer than necessary. Maintaining the same methods to qualify the Pro Tour, including the Sponsor's Exemptions and Special Invitations, will make it just as clear on how to make it onto the train.

This will allow people who just want to play on the Pro Tour and do well play on the Pro Tours without benefits. However, those who want to make Magic a real career can go to the GPs and work their way up the Pro Player's club to receive benefits. This is better than top 25 makes it into the next Pro Tour because spiking a top 16 can earn you 3 Pro Tours, and a top 8 can earn you 6. Players like Josh Cho wouldn't get dumped back into the ranks of PTQ grinders after the Cinderella story top 8.

This feels like a very simple solution, but simplicity is the best answer. If the system is too complicated, it will turn players away because we can't figure out how to crack it. Good play is rewarded, lots of play is rewarded. Magic will benefit.

I am very interested in hearing everyone's opinion on this issue. I acknowledge this article is a little slow to the heat of the moment, but even if it's not the most exciting thing to talk about in the moment, it's still a legitimate issue that has to be resolved.

That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie

Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com

@ThingsILack