Hello, creators!

It's been quite a journey, right? We began with Magic Online Streamer Showdowns, then moved to MTG Arena with the Closed Beta. Next came Early Access events (the first had just 24 streamers—now we regularly have over 800 participants!), weekly Featured Creators, preview cards from new sets, features on twitch.tv/magic, and special events both in-game and IRL.

Behind the scenes, we've been increasing our marketing support, building a bigger team, and laying the foundation for something incredible. (But don't worry—the Featured Creator program isn't going anywhere, and will still be our premier way to highlight new and growing streamers.)

We've come a very long way, and now we're excited to announce something even bigger:

The Magic: The Gathering Creator Program, in partnership with StreamElements!

The Magic Creator Program is a first-of-its-kind platform giving streamers directed Challenges to help them create engaging content with and for their communities—and reward them in the process!

StreamElements is one of the leading platforms for video content support, and their tools are used by hundreds of thousands of the world's best streamers. We worked very closely with StreamElements to design this program from the ground up, and we're more than a little proud to be pioneering this level of integration for Magic creators. It's awesome!

This is a permanent, ongoing program—once you're in, you're in with no need to reapply or wonder when new events begin. We'll have new Challenges available from week to week and month to month, rotating at a regular cadence so there's always something new and interesting to do with your community.

"What are these Challenges," you ask. Well, they can be anything! One might ask you to stream for 4 hours straight. Another might ask you to destroy a specific creature in a specific way, or stream yourself playing in a particular event or getting wins with a deck built in a certain way. There are two different types of Challenges, and the difference comes down to how we log completion. Automated Challenges can be anything that StreamElements can track through the Twitch API: things like streaming time, raids, and total viewership. Manual Challenges are everything else. For manual Challenges, you'll need to submit a clip of yourself completing the requirements in your stream, and you'll be able to claim your reward once we've verified that the Challenge has been met.

Challenges are meant to reward you for creating fun and engaging content with and for your community—and the rewards you can get are pretty neat, too! We're starting off simple with gem codes for you (to help make it easier for you to produce content!) and ICR codes for your community (to share the love!), but we're working on some very special and unique rewards to unveil in the future. You'll be able to find out more about the Creator Program rewards on our promotions page once they're available.

If this sounds like something you want to be a part of, apply now via StreamElements! The program will be entering closed beta soon, and we hope to open it up to everyone in the not-too-distant future.

We're super excited about the Magic Creator Program, but it's not all we've been cooking up. We also have one more amazing thing to announce today: The Greenlight Fund!

The Greenlight Fund represents a phenomenal opportunity for our highest-quality producers and ultimate networkers to bring brand-new shows to life. We have set aside $1 million to seed new Magic series in 2020. Whether you want to showcase tabletop or digital Magic—or a combination of both—the Greenlight Fund can help make your vision a reality.

Over the years, Wizards has supported Magic series like Game Knights, Friday Nights, and What the Deck. The Greenlight Fund lets us invest in the next big wave of community content. We're looking for Magic content creators who want to push their communities to new heights and realize their full potential. To be considered, applicants must submit a detailed pitch through a Challenge that will go live within the Magic Creator Program in the near future. (This means you'll have to be in the Creator Program to pitch your ideas to the Greenlight Fund.) Pitches should include goals, a business plan, promotion plan, and budget breakdown.

We won't be making any decisions during the closed beta, so you'll have plenty of time to plan your pitch between now and the Creator Program opening up to everyone. Everything from smaller $5,000 ideas to massive $250,000 efforts will be evaluated and potentially funded via the Greenlight Fund.

Between the Magic Creator Program and Greenlight Fund, we're starting 2020 off with a bang. We're so proud of what each of you talented creators has done so far with your communities, and we can't wait to see what you'll create next!