Magic Online Vintage Cube LIVE – August 5th Update

Posted on Aug 05, 2024

Hello Magic Online community!

We know you have been patiently waiting for the Vintage Cube LIVE series to resume in earnest after our larger-than-expected turnout in Week 1’s Feeder League.

In order to maximize accessibility, maintain our balance between price and prize, and respond to demand as easily as possible, we are implementing the following changes starting with Week 3:

• Feeder Leagues
  • Require 4 Match Wins without a loss in a course instead of 3
  • Provide Play Point prizes for those who finish 2 or 3 wins in a course
  • Start on Saturdays at 9 a.m. PT instead of Fridays
  • Expected to last 24 hours, but fully based on demand (can close with 1-hour notice, and can go longer)
  • Week 8’s Feeder League will likely be canceled – final decision after Week 6
• 64-Player Drafts
  • Start times on Wednesdays move to 12:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m. PT – posted Monday at 5 p.m. PT (with a couple exceptions due to a downtime and a holiday)
  • Alternates (2^nd-place finishers) eligible for 1,000 Play Point award
• Vegas Qualifiers
  • Avatars will be given out later this year.

Let’s break down these changes:

Feeder Leagues

4 Match Wins for an Entry Token
Play Point Prizes for 2-3 Match Wins

These changes are tied together. Because we are leaving the price point alone, we want to ensure some prize support is introduced in the series’ early stages. The new prize table looks like this:

• 4 Match Wins: Limited Championship Entry Token
• 3 Match Wins: 80 Play Points
• 2 Match Wins: 40 Play Points

League Start Time & Duration

Our math says that if we applied the 4-win model to what happened in Week 1 (and the demand remained constant), then the Feeder League would have taken 24 hours to yield a Week’s worth of Entry Tokens. Now that we have a buffer in place, we will shoot for a number that is just lower than that to have as few Entry Tokens left over at season’s end as possible.

We are also moving Feeder Leagues to Saturday instead of Friday. A window starting on the weekend and lasting for 18+ hours will allow players in as many time zones as possible to find a time to participate.

As the Feeder League approaches our Entry Token cap, we will announce a 1-hour warning before closing that week’s Feeder League to new entries. This announcement will appear in the MTGO game client and on our primary social media channels.

As in Week 1, anyone who has completed their draft when the League closes will have 24 hours to complete their course. Anyone with unfinished courses when the League completes will be refunded their entry.

If demand is lower for some reason, the League can stay open as late as Monday 10 a.m. PT (17:00 UTC) as announced before.

Week 8 Feeder League Status TBD

Depending on demand over the next four weeks, we will make a decision on whether Week 8 will offer a Feeder League on or around September 9. We intend to limit Entry Tokens earned in Weeks leading up to that to ensure it is only Week 8 (and not also Week 7) that’s affected.

64-Player Drafts

Schedule Change on Wednesdays

One of the most common pieces of feedback we’ve received has to do with when 64-Player Drafts are scheduled. Because we have already had to adjust a couple of Wednesdays due to downtimes during the series, we are turning the exception into the rule.

For Weeks 3-8, 64-Player Drafts on Wednesdays only will start at 12:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. PT (19:30 Wed & 01:30 Thu UTC). We will also post those events in the client separately from the other days – at 5 p.m. PT on Mondays (midnight Tues UTC). This allows those players in time zones that were adversely affected to have a proper chance to join.

So, to summarize:

• For Week 6, all 64-Player Drafts will post at 10 a.m. on Monday, September 2
• For Week 7, 64-Player Drafts on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday post at 12 noon PDT (19:00) or after downtime, whichever is later (Tuesday is on normal schedule)

Alternates Can Receive 1,000 Play Points

When we set up the ability for 2^nd-place finishers to be on standby in case an invited player did not show up for a Vegas Qualifier, we wanted to make sure their time was properly valued. It also allows us to add value to the entire event.

A player who finishes in 2^nd place in a 64-Player Draft becomes an Alternate for that Week’s Qualifier. If they follow instructions to be in the client and in a private Discord channel at the proper time, and they don’t get invited to the Vegas Qualifier, they will receive 1,000 Play Points.

In essence, finishing 2^nd in a 64 gets you 1,000 Play Points – so long as you can make time to standby on Saturday.

Avatars for Vegas Qualifier Event Participants

With how fast everything came together to create Vintage Cube LIVE, we had already passed our deadline to get new objects into the system, such as the avatars for those who make it to a Saturday event. We need more time to design a truly special avatar to commemorate running the Vintage Cube gauntlet to get to that stage of the series.

We’re taking everything we’ve learned about premium effects on cards and applying them to this  avatar. It should be ready in either September or October.

A New Course ... With a New Cube

We hope that these are the last tweaks we need to make to the structure for this first attempt at a large series. As stated in our announcement article, there are additional knobs we can turn if needed to ensure as many players as possible can take their shot at reaching Vegas.

As a reminder, we are switching to the Bloomburrow update of the Cube to use for the remaining six weeks of the Vintage Cube LIVE Series. The changelist and full decklist will be available this Wednesday, August 7 in an article on MTGO.com. Single-elimination Vintage Cube queues will switch to that Cube sometime after 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday so you can practice for Saturday’s Feeder Leagues and next week’s 64s.

Thank you for your continued support of Magic Online – we'll see you on the battlefield!

MTGO Community Links: Forums  Discord  Twitter/X  Facebook  Instagram 

MTGO Official Channels: Youtube Twitch NEW! MTGO University