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Magic: The Gathering has thrived as a physical collectible card game for more than 25 years, but the game’s status as an esport is still rather new. This year marks the start of the Magic Pro League, with 32 top players given a play and streaming contract to compete in weekly Magic: The Gathering Arena matches, plus the entire Magic competitive ecosystem (paper and digital combined) has $10M USD up for grabs in 2019.

It’s early days still for Magic esports, however, and Wizards of the Coast (which is owned by Hasbro) still sees opportunity to adjust not only the format, but also the game’s competitive ethos. We’re seeing that with today’s announcement of two new players added to the MPL, both of whom vary from the typical background of many other pro players, as well as a broader approach to choosing players for the Mythic Championship major tournaments.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“We’re doing this very purposefully. It’s because we know that there’s an issue with barriers for women and other marginalized groups in esports overall, and in Magic competitive gaming.”[/perfectpullquote]

Following the start of weekly MPL play this weekend, Wizards of the Coast today filled a pair of recently-vacated league spots with the addition of Jessica Estephan and Janne “Savjz” Mikkonen. Estephan is the first woman to compete in the MPL, and was the highest-ranked woman in the pro points system from the previous competitive Magic season. She also made the Top 16 of the last Mythic Invitational tournament and is the only woman ever to win a Magic Grand Prix.

Mikkonen, meanwhile, plays for Team Liquid and has a long competitive history with other digital card games, including Hearthstone and Artifact. He doesn’t have as much experience in Magic‘s pro structures as other MPL players, but has a large following as a streamer and via social media, and recently hit the #1 Mythic ranking within Arena.

In both cases, these are players who might not have made it into the MPL via a strict meritocracy using the traditional system. With Estephan, in particular, this is a deliberate move to begin introducing more diversity to the highest ranks of professional Magic, and create opportunities for players who might have been overlooked by the previous approach.

“We’re doing this very purposefully. It’s because we know that there’s an issue with barriers for women and other marginalized groups in esports overall, and in Magic competitive gaming,” said Wizards of the Coast vice president of esports Elaine Chase, in an interview with The Esports Observer. “We want to take a first step and take a stand, and say that we’re going to remove those barriers and make a space and make an opportunity for women. Jess is our first step in doing that.”

Credit: Wizards of the Coast

Last month, Wizards added its first non-binary MPL member in Autumn Burchett, who won the season’s first Mythic Championship in late February.

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Additionally, all future Mythic Championship events during the 2019 season will have 16 discretionary invitational slots added beyond the existing qualifying routes. Players can still qualify in-game via Arena, plus MPL players will compete and some of the top-performing players from the previous Mythic Championship will be invited. However, the new discretionary slots allow Wizards of the Coast to broaden the player pool, which Chase said is done in an effort to better reflect the breadth of the wider Magic player community.

“We’re going to use those to invite a broader and diverse representation of Magic competitive play—in a way that more accurately represents who’s playing Magic, where their skill comes from, and who our fans want to root for,” said Chase. “We’re going to be looking for people who bring a mixture of skill and community representation, and diversity, but they won’t all go to women. You’ll see an increased number of women, and an increased number of personalities that represent the broader Magic community in a way that a strict meritocracy hasn’t been able to do.”

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“This is our attempt to say that Magic skill is broader and deeper than what our traditional system has been able to let rise to the top.”[/perfectpullquote]

According to Chase, the existing competitive system tended to favor certain types of players with certain types of access, or who hailed from particular regions. Simply shifting the next-highest-ranked players up to fill empty spots in the MPL failed to recognize the diversity of the Magic player community, which is why Chase said that Wizards of the Coast felt a need to act. It’s not a matter of discounting the competitive integrity of events, she said, but rather recognizing that the previous structures kept some deserving players out.

“This is our attempt to say that Magic skill is broader and deeper than what our traditional system has been able to let rise to the top,” said Chase. “We don’t want to dismiss the system that we have in place in any way, shape, or form, and we’re still going to have ways for people to earn their way strictly through competitive structures. But this is our effort to say that there are lots of people who find barriers in those competitive structures, and the way that they’re built effectively makes it much harder for different people in a broad, diverse representation to rise to the top. This is us taking action to remove those barriers.”

The company has taken inspiration from third-party partners who have held events with a much broader range of participants than just MPL players. With Team Liquid now having a player in the MPL, Chase expects to see additional organizations come into Magic: The Gathering Arena, and Wizards of the Coast plans to interact more deeply with teams as the season continues on, with deeper collaboration planned for the 2020 season.

The Magic Pro League was designed as the testing ground for the best-of-the-best in the competitive Magic scene. With today’s changes, the mantra has changed slightly: “We see the MPL as the best face for competitive Magic,” Chase said. “What we’re learning this year is that the best face of Magic should be representing the full Magic community.”

This interview was conducted by Trent Murray.

Editor’s note: a previous version of this article referred to a “Mythic Championship” as the “Mythic Invitational”