MAGIC ONLINE CHAMPIONS SHOWCASE CHANGES—MARCH 2024

Posted on Mar 19, 2024

Over the last four years, Magic: The Gathering Online has employed a three-seasons-per-year system for the game’s highest-level play, the Magic Online Champions Showcase (MOCS). Reaching this exclusive eight-player event has represented the pinnacle of achievement for dozens of MTGO players—from longtime grinders to a few who spike a qualifying event after just competing on the platform for a year or two.

Dating back over a decade, the MOCS has launched the career of Hall of Famers and World Champions—either directly through invitations to in-person events, or indirectly by being the proving ground for later tabletop success.

Evolving the MOCS

When the Regional Championship Qualifier system was established in 2022, many predicted a drop in participation in MTGO’s Premier events because most no longer directly qualified for the Pro Tour. Instead, the count of unique tournament players grew by over 30% in that first year!

However, in the past twelve months, the number of unique Premier tournament players has plateaued. We’re attracting more new and returning players to the system, but they’re being offset by those who drop out. This may not be evident by the growing sizes of individual Premier tournaments (from an average of 220 in 2021 to 340 last year), but it is the trend.

Our New Approach—The Creator Program

In our estimation, the best way to attract a new audience is to partner with our highest-impact creators. If you stream MTGO or create MTGO content, or perhaps you’re thinking about diving into it, stay tuned for more information on how to apply.

Our goal with the Creator Program is to better show the story of how to get into Magic Online and enjoy all aspects of it. Whether it’s the tabletop Commander player looking to learn MTGO’s interface, the person returning after ten years to make sense of them new-fangled Sagas, or the aspiring tournament grinder looking to hone their Modern skills.

Of the many great things coming with the Creator Program, the crown jewel is the Creator Showdown: a 64-player, invitation-only tournament series with $5,000 in cash prizes for the Top 8 monthly. All participants will simultaneously stream their matches, and our Twitch channel will host a telecast to follow the Top 16 as well!

Full details of MTGO’s Creator Program will be announced in the next few weeks.

How Does the Creator Program Affect MOCS?

Ultimately, MOCS and the Creator Program are part of the same effort—raising awareness and growing the Magic Online community. Starting with MOCS Season 2 (for which QP gathering starts tomorrow and the Showcase is in the fall), the prize pool for the eight-player Showcase will be $50,000.

There are no changes to Season 1 (for which the Postseason starts this weekend). MOCS tournaments will continue to provide one of few direct paths to the Magic: The Gathering World Championship, with each tournament granting two players an invitation.

MOCS SEASONS TABLE

Beginning with Season 2, future Showcases will have a skins-style format that awards prizes based on each match win rather than the final standings.

SHOWCASE PRIZE DISTRIBUTION

As usual, the players who go 3-0 in each pod both earn invites to the World Championship. Then they’ll square off in the Final Match to determine the Showcase Champion.

• If one player sweeps both pods, they become the Showcase Champion and pocket that $4,000 from the Finals automatically. Then normal procedures are applied (usually a playoff between 2^nd & 3^rd place) to award the second invitation to the World Championship.

The upshot of this is—the minimum Showcase prize will be $1,000, non-pod winners need a 3-3 record to earn $5,000, a pod win is worth $7,500 (plus the Worlds invite), and the maximum prize—someone going 6-0—is $19,000 ($7,500 per pod + $4,000 for the Finals).

How Does the Creator Program Not Affect MOCS?

We believe in the meritocracy of our Premier Play system! Although Creators will be allowed to participate in Qualifiers, Super Qualifiers, and MOCS events, they will get no in-tournament advantage to do so.

That is, neither Leaderboard Points and Qualifier Points will be available as prizes in Creator Showdowns, nor will creators be able to earn byes or automatic invites to MOCS events.

Similarly, we are making no changes to the event types or qualification paths in the MOCS system. The Creator Program is essentially being overlaid on top of what currently exists. We believe that the overall MOCS structure is still sound for providing ample play opportunities, and that the path from Leagues to Challenges to Qualifiers to the MOCS is still the right choice for our audience.

Extra Regional Championship Slots

Additionally, based on the increase in event size for MTGO’s Premier events we mentioned above, the Premier Play team at Wizards of the Coast has increased our allocation of invitations to Regional Championships! 

Starting with the upcoming qualifying season in April, we’ll have 64 RC invites per season – up from the current 50. Most of these extra slots will be devoted to turning more Qualifiers into Super Qualifiers (2 invites per event to 4 invites per event).

The Future Is Bright!

If there’s one idea the MTGO Game Team has proven over the last couple of years, it’s that when it comes to our game, we will experiment. The Creator Program is one of our big swings, so it requires a big adjustment—but not so much to be unrecognizable. Our grinders have been the heart of our game for decades, and we’re continually thankful for that. To ensure the long-term success of Magic Online, our tent must grow. If that growth comes to fruition, we’ll re-evaluate the MOCS prize structure for the 2025 season.

Thank you for your continued support of our highest-level events, and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

By MTGO Game Team