Mike Rosenberg is a writer and gamer and has been part of the Magic text coverage team since 2011. He joined Wizards as organized play’s content specialist in June 2014.

Pro Tour 25th Anniversary Coverage Begins Today! Tune in to twitch.tv/magic for Pro Tour 25th Anniversary action beginning at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET/9 p.m. UTC today (Thursday, August 2)! Coverage will continue through the weekend beginning at 7 a.m. PT Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

One million dollars.

That's how much prize money we will be awarding during the biggest Pro Tour weekend in Magic history. Pro Tour 25th Anniversary's $850,000 prize pool and the Silver Showcase's $150,000 in prize money makes this Magic's big million-dollar weekend, and I've got all the details that you need to know so you can tune in, sit back, relax, and enjoy the dozens of hours of live coverage we've got lined up for you.

PRO TOUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY BASICS

Here are the key details to know about Pro Tour 25th Anniversary, and whether you're a Pro Tour coverage veteran or a newcomer to competitive Magic, you should review all the details because this tournament differs significantly from the events you may be accustomed to!

The Pro Tour is a three-day invitation-only event featuring some of greatest Magic pros as well as top-finishing Grand Prix competitors, Hall of Famers, and players who found success in Regional Pro Tour Qualifiers that took place a few weeks ago.

Pro Tour 25th Anniversary is a team event—the Pro Tour's first since Charleston in 2006! Those players will be competing for a share of an $850,000 prize pool, with $150,000 going to the winning team along with invitations to the 2018 Magic: The Gathering World Championship.

prize pool, with $150,000 going to the winning team along with invitations to the 2018 Magic: The Gathering World Championship. Pro Tour 25th Anniversary is the last Pro Tour of the 2017–18 season, and the last event for this season's Pro Tour Team Series, meaning we will know our final two teams that will be competing at the 2018 World Championship on Sunday, September 23. For a look at where the teams stand headed into this event, check out the 2017–18 Team Series leaderboard.

The format for all three days of this Pro Tour is Team Trios Constructed. In this format, teams of three bring one Standard, one Modern, and one Legacy deck. One player on each team is assigned to play each format for the entirety of the tournament.

Unlike most Pro Tours, Pro Tour 25th Anniversary has no cut for Day Two and has seven rounds of Swiss on Friday and Saturday rather than eight, meaning a team can compete in all fourteen rounds of Swiss on both days of Swiss before the cut.

The Top 4 teams at the end of Day Two will advance to Sunday's playoff, featuring a traditional single-elimination bracket.

All matches played on Sunday are best three out of five in individual matches, with the first two games featuring pre-sideboard action. The team that secures two individual match wins will advance to the next round.

Also happening during Pro Tour 25th Anniversary's big weekend is the Silver Showcase, a $150,000 Year-1 Magic Rochester Draft event featuring eight famous faces from Magic and gaming in general. What's Year 1 Rochester Draft? It's a unique Draft format featuring Limited Edition (Beta), Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and Legends, and Thursday, August 1 will be the day these packs get opened and competitors build decks using cards from Magic's very first year of existence.

Pro Tour 25th Anniversary is definitely not your average Pro Tour; it's the first team Pro Tour in over a decade, and there's significantly more money on the line than usual. I recommend checking out Rich Hagon's Pro Tour preview for a deeper dive into the whole weekend.

Key Stories for this Pro Tour

Outside of crowning Pro Tour Champions—three to be exact—a few big stories will emerge from this event.

The 2018 World Championship field of 24 players will be decided by the end of this Pro Tour. Tune in to see who will qualify to compete for their share of $300,000 in Las Vegas, Nevada, September 21–23!

The 2017–18 Pro Tour Team Series will have its top two teams locked, and they'll be going to the 2018 World Championship to compete in a Team Sealed finals that features Guilds of Ravnica before its official release on Sunday, September 23.

WHEN DOES COVERAGE START?

Don't miss a minute of Pro Tour 25th Anniversary on twitch.tv/magic as we bring you a very special preview and the Rochester Draft of the Silver Showcase—featuring three packs of Beta and one pack each of Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and Legends—on Thursday at 4 p.m. local time. That's 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET/9 p.m. UTC.

Then you'll be able to catch coverage of Pro Tour 25th Anniversary on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET/2 p.m. UTC. Sunday, we will be bringing you the best-of-five finals of the Silver Showcase to start off the day, and then we'll transition into the Top 4 matches to see who will win the largest share of the $850,000 prize pool.

If you can't watch the broadcast live, we got you! We'll be replaying the broadcast once each day concludes. In addition to that, VODs (videos on demand) of each round and segment will be available on our Twitch page, so if you can't catch it all live, see it all on your own time.

THE COVERAGE TEAM

Here's who you will see on Twitch this weekend bringing you live coverage.

Play-by-Play Commentators: Marshall Sutcliffe, Riley Knight, and Tim Willoughby

Color Commentators: Simon Görtzen and Paul Cheon

News Desk: Rich Hagon, Brian David-Marshall, and Maria Bartholdi

Feature Match Spotters: Rashad Miller, Neil Rigby, and BJ Ogden

Text Coverage: Corbin Hosler and Ray Walkinshaw

Content Managers/Editors: Blake Rasmussen and Mike Rosenberg

Social Media: Meghan Wolff

Executive Producer: Greg Collins

WHERE ELSE CAN I EXPERIENCE THE COVERAGE?

Round-by-round content, decklists, articles, pairings, results, and standings, and more can be found on the Pro Tour 25th Anniversary coverage page, so save that link for the weekend to find the latest news.

The Pro Tour will also be broadcast in Japanese on Nico Nico and on Twitch, with Pro Tour Champion Tomohiro Kaji and many other Japanese coverage mainstays bringing you all you need to know if you're following along from Japan.

WHEN WILL DECKLISTS BE PUBLISHED?

For such a special Pro Tour, we have a very special batch of decks for you: all of them! We'll be publishing each and every decklist registered for Pro Tour 25th Anniversary on Sunday, August 5. That's a whole lot of Standard, Modern, and Legacy for you to dive in to see!

WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE?

If you can't watch the live broadcast but still want to keep up on the latest, follow @magicprotour on Twitter. Join in on the conversation using the hashtag #PT25A.

This Pro Tour will make history, and we'd be delighted to have you be part of it. So, tune in TODAY—yes, later today—for the Silver Showcase Rochester Draft and a preview of Pro Tour 25th Anniversary on twitch.tv/magic starting at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET/9 p.m. UTC.