2016 Magic Online Championship Updates

My article last Friday announced updates to the Magic Online Championship Series. Because there was so much information to digest, we didn’t fully explain the philosophy of why the changes were being made. In this article, I’ll talk about that more as well as some changes we plan to make. The changes will be summarized at the end for those who prefer the TL;DR version.

Why are there no limited MOCS Monthly events?

Getting rid of seasonal Qualifier Points was identified early as a change we wanted to make. This allowed people could save up Qualifier Points and use them at any time in a MOCS Monthly event. However, it also meant these Monthly events could get HUGE according to our projections. Constructed mitigates this because only players who have a Standard or Modern deck will join, but because no deck is required for limited, far more players join limited events. As a result, to keep the events at reasonable size and not turn players away, we focused on constructed.

However, the outpouring of feedback on the series has let us know that players really want some of the MOCS Monthly events to be limited. Therefore we are going to make four of the MOCS Monthly events to be sealed (with a top 8 draft). The three MOCS Monthly events that feed a given MOCS Playoff event will be one Modern, one Standard, and one sealed with top 8 draft. See the full revised schedule for the details.

But what about the event size concerns I mentioned above? To make these work, the events will be capped at 1,024 players. No more players will be allowed to enter once the cap has been reached. You can sign up as soon as the downtime prior to the event. Additionally, in order to make sure those who sign up for the event are doing so because they want to compete in the event, the limited MOCS Monthly events will be phantom. We don’t love capping events and potentially turning players away, but given the number of contacts we have received about wanting limited, we felt this making this change would be the best possibility overall.

Because these events can be huge, we decided to increase the number of guaranteed MOCS Playoff invites available in each MOCS Monthly event as well. The top 8, rather than the previously announced top 4, of each MOCS Monthly event (regardless of format) will be invited to the next MOCS Playoff event.

Why are Platinum members of the Pro Player Club invited to every MOCS Playoff event?

We view premier play as part of a whole, whether it’s happening with paper cards or on Magic Online. We’ve used our premier Magic Online play to help qualify for paper Pro Tours and the Magic World Championship. These are awesome, but there has been less focus on players who perform well in paper events being invited to Magic Online events. We want the system to work both ways.

Toward this, we are now offering Regional PTQs on Magic Online where players can play online who have won Preliminary PTQs through in-store play. The changes to the MOCS now invite the Magic World Champion to the Magic Online Championship, and, yes, invites Platinum players (who have demonstrated excellence through paper play) to compete in MOCS Playoff events. We believe that this system helps both premier play in paper and Magic Online do better as a collective whole.

Player Advisory Board

In 2016, we plan to create a Player Advisory Board. This will be a small group of players that play a lot of Magic Online. Members of the Player Advisory Board will sign non-disclosure agreements with Wizards of the Coast, which will allow us to have confidential conversations with them about event planning on Magic Online and allow us to consider their feedback and potentially make adjustments before finalizing event structures. More details on this in 2016.

Summary of MOCS Changes

Four MOCS Monthly events have been changed to phantom sealed with top 8 draft, each one feeding a different MOCS Playoff event.



MOCS Monthly events are capped at 1024 players.



Each MOCS Monthly event (of all formats) qualifies the top 8 players in it to the next MOCS Playoff event.



See the revised full schedule of MOCS events for details.

Feedback

As always, you can direct feedback to the official Magic Online Twitter account, my personal Twitter account, the Magic Online Tumblr, or through email at magiconlinefeedback@wizards.com.

- Lee