To: Organized Play, Wizards of the Coast

My name is Chris Lansdell. Chances are you’ve never heard of me, unless you’re a fan of Magic podcasts. I’m a level 1 judge from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. I’ve been playing Magic on and off for the last 15 years, never really doing anything significant or noteworthy until the last 6 months when I became a judge and started contributing as much as I could to the community. As a level 1 judge, I am expected to be tied to a store. That’s not really an option around here, but the community in my area is so tight that I call the players here “my players.” They are a committed, talented and passionate group who want what I want: to play Magic, to improve and to be recognized.

I love this game. I play every FNM I can manage, every prerelease, launch party, and Game Day that’s available. I’m a Magic junkie. Last year, I had a shot at grinding enough ratings points to make it to Nationals this year. Really, that was my only realistic goal. The Pro Tour is out of my reach, both in terms of skill and convenience. If a Grand Prix comes up nearby, I will go to it for sure but with the understanding that I am there to learn, improve and have fun.

I’m far from alone in this. In fact I’d venture that more Magic is played at FNM level than at the GP/PT level. Very few people ever cared about their rating, Elo or otherwise. However, those of us who do are not all Pro Tour luminaries and our voice is much quieter with a far lower profile. I hope this reaches the eyes and ears of SOMEBODY at Wizards of the Coast; somebody with the ability and inclination to listen to a point of view without a Pro Point to its name.

Elo sucked. You will find very few people who disagree with that. Any system that encourages people to play LESS Magic is just all-around wrong. Who wants that? I wouldn’t be writing this letter if I didn’t love and adore Magic the Gathering with every fibre of my being. I want to play it and I want to see that my play is improving. I also want to be rewarded for playing it. Planeswalker Points do a great job of that. With them came the innovation of the FNM Championship, which gives players like me something else to which we can aspire, another potential pinnacle of achievement for the semi-casual grinder. In fact it might even surpass “Qualify for Nationals” as my major aim.

Unfortunately, that’s not because I think it’s a better goal or a better way to improve my play skill. It’s because qualifying for Nationals is now completely and utterly out of my reach. As I said earlier, my players want nothing more than to play Magic, get better at Magic and be recgonized for that improvement. To enable them to reach that goal I want them to have as many chances as possible to play at higher levels and improve their skills but also (now) to gain Planeswalker points. If we want a Grand Prix Trial here, I cannot play in it since I have to judge it. That’s fine and was the case under Elo as well. The thing is that if we can ever get one of these events to go ahead, there’s a very good chance that the winner will not be using his or her byes.  Nobody here has any realistic expectation of getting on the Pro Tour “gravy train” and again, I posit that this goes for most people. It may be the highest level of the game but it’s not the highest level we can reach. With that said, one of our best chances to succeed has now been taken away completely.

It would be foolhardy to expect that the as-yet-unknown qualification standards for Nationals will be changed much as a result of Planeswalker Points. Let us then work on the assumption that Regional qualifiers will provide 8 spots, store qualifiers one spot and then 100 more spots will come from competitive point totals of the previous season. What we will now have is a rush to compete in all the Grands Prix in the season before invites are determined, inflated FNM numbers and more players travelling to PTQs despite having little or no intention of going to the Pro Tour. And all of this to the detriment of anyone outside a major population centre.

Recently an open letter was written to you by five of the best minds to ever turn a basic land sideways. Unfortunately, that open letter does not represent me. I don’t say that lightly as I have nothing but respect and admiration for the people who signed it, but nonetheless it was not written with the best interests of anyone but current professionals in mind.

In that letter the example of Brad Nelson, reigning Player of the Year, was used to show how a person from a rural area would likely never have got to where he is today had this system been in place. Well I’ll go one better. He probably wouldn’t even have got to Nationals! Winning a one-slot qualifier over a hundred other players is a very high-variance proposition and as we all know, Magic is already a game of relatively high variance. The best player wins far less than one would expect. In a rural area with a level 1 judge and an Advanced-level WPN store, the best you can hope for is a few GPTs, a year’s worth of FNMs and a bunch of 1x tournaments on other days. Winning all of these would be a titanic accomplishment…and it would be undone by one person taking a step outside their comfort zone and flying to a Grand Prix. While nobody is saying that larger, higher-level events should not be rewarded more than local ones, they should also not effectively invalidate the achievements of players who perhaps don’t have the option of travelling to them.

I am not writing this letter to engage in an internet battle of “Whose life sucks the most” but I can only use my own situation to illustrate how badly the current scheme lets down loyal, committed players who are cursed by geography and economics. Players who pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into your (Cabal?) coffers each year with a smile on their faces and who will no doubt continue to do so. In the Mount Pearl-St. John’s metropolitan area, there is ONE WPN organizer. He runs three tournaments a week: a “competitive night” on Wednesday (1x of course), FNM, and a draft on Saturday (also 1x). We get over 40 players at each FNM but most weeks it gets capped at 4 rounds. There are two judges in town, an L2 and myself. The L2 and the owner of the WPN location do not see eye-to-eye which limits us further. He has not scheduled any GPTs and due to space limitations they likely would not go over very well. We will not get a PTQ this side of Armageddon (being reprinted in a Core set). The closest PTQ is a 2.5 hour flight away, which costs $500 if you’re lucky. For the same cost you can get to a GP. Being on an island, we cannot drive to any of these events. We had 62 players at our Nationals qualifier, in a store that holds 40 if you’re all REALLY good friends. In spite of all this we qualified a player on rating for Nationals last year, another got in from the Qualifier and two more were able to grind in the day before the event. This year, we’d be lucky to get one person in period. Our store qualifier may or may not happen due to politics, my players are not able to play enough Magic to match the Ontario and Quebec players, and as a result they are so disillusioned with the whole thing that I doubt very much that any of them will splash the hundreds of dollars it will cost to make the trip to Nationals and try to grind in. Right now there is no Newfoundlander in the top 125 in Canada, yet they have all played more Magic this year than they had at this point last year. The players, MY players, are doing all they can…and it’s not enough. You asked them to play more, win more and get recognised more. They complied, they continue to comply, but because we don’t live where you want us to live, my players suffer.

I think Gavin Verhey summed it up best: the Elo system was a poor one with some good points, while the Planeswalker Points plan is a good system with some yawning chasms in it. Change was required, but what we got was wholesale change with what appears to be little forethought as to how all groups would be affected by it. I firmly believe that the new program can be better than the old, but I also strongly believe that there are things that need to be fixed. Like the four Hall-of-Famers and one sure-fire first-ballot future Hall-of-Famer from whom you have already heard, I have some suggestions. Unlike those esteemed gentlemen, mine are not limited to fixing the system so it works for me and my players. I have nothing but respect for Jon, Kai, Bob, Zvi and Luis, but some of their solutions are tailored to keep the current professionals where they are without considering the people who have aimed a little lower.

Fix the points multipliers

* – Players who top 32 will have ALL Swiss-round match points for the event multiplied by 18 instead of 12.

This is the biggest problem with the current system. Prereleases, Launch Parties and Game Days all serve a market that will eventually (hopefully) graduate to FNM level. There’s no reason they should be at the same level as a random 8-man draft on a Thursday evening. Increasing these to a 2x event makes them feel a bit more special and gives the grinders a reason to play in them without making them more competitive than FNM.

Having said that, there is also no earthly reason that a Grand Prix Trial should afford the winner the same point multiplier as FNM does. If the idea is to make people play more Magic and gradually advance through the system, then a GPT is the next logical step up. It speaks to a higher level of competitive play and interest, and is also available to almost any area that runs regular FNMs and has a decent-sized community. You want these players to keep playing and to think that maybe they SHOULD try and make it to a Grand Prix. Even if they can’t, they are rewarded for trying.

As we get higher up the competitive ladder the multipliers start to pull away from each other. I think 5x for a PTQ and Nationals (which are really PTQs anyway) is correct, and just playing in a GP (which anyone can do if they can get to one) is fine at 8x. It’s when players start to succeed that the rewards should grow. If I make day 2, reward me. If I top 8, reward me even more. If I make it to the top 32 of a Pro Tour, reward me even more than before. If top 50 PT and top 16 GP finishes are no longer automatic qualifiers for the next PT, then this goes some way towards helping these players qualify anyway.

I also think that adding in a 4x multiplier for things like SCG Opens, States/Provincials and other Premier events makes them more attractive to grinders and more representative of the level of competition one finds at these events.

One thing this scheme does is reward anyone who cares about their rating. It’s all very well to say that pros are the face of the game and that the system should be designed to help the Pro Tour be as rich and story-filled as it can be, but that’s a very narrow and selfish view. Other players need to get something out of this system, and not all of them are dreaming of being the next Jon Finkel.

Keep the Pro Player’s Club relevant

I love the idea that players who do well on the Pro Tour can stay on the Pro Tour. It’s like sports leagues with multiple divisions, with the losers in the upper leagues being relegated and the winners from the lower leagues moving up. However, care needs to be taken here. It’s clearly best for the Pro Tour if the best players are on it, but you cannot make it inaccessible for those who are a tier below. Make the PPC too robust and nobody but the highest-level players will ever be able to stay on the tour. Depending on how big you want your Pro Tours to be, thought needs to be given to the point thresholds for various levels in the club AND where points can be obtained.

Right now you need a top 64 GP finish or a top 16 Nationals finish to get a Pro Point outside of the Pro Tour. Competing at a Pro Tour gets you a minimum of 2 points. Level 4, which is where you get auto-invites to all Pro Tours for the next year, is 20 points. Level 5, when the real fun of getting paid to appear at a Pro Tour begins, is 25 points. That’s a lot of work, but fair. Winning one Pro Tour will get you instant level 5, which might be about right. I don’t doubt that this system is in for some changes but it’s essential that the PPC still rewards consistent high-level play.

Reward winning more than you reward just showing up

The previous open letter did a fantastic job of showing how someone who has a mediocre season in terms of performance but a stellar one in terms of attendance can outstrip a player who succeeds but does not always attend. Some degree of this is correct and needs to be encouraged, but the current level is not just. If I go to a Grand Prix and do well, it should not be surpassed by someone playing 4 events a week and winning half their matches.

The way things are set up right now, you are giving a bigger benefit to players who are willing to sacrifice a personal life for playing Magic. The problem that most people have with this is that there is not a viable living to be made from playing Magic. If you want the pros to be at more events and if you want people to play more Magic, then the financial rewards need to be bigger. It’s unlikely the game will ever be as big prize-wise as poker is, but more can and should be done to entice people to play at Grands Prix. Rewards mean more than just points. Make the term “professional Magic player” actually mean something.

Make the suggested round structure mandatory

FNM remains the most accessible method for most people to get Planeswalker Points. As such they are ripe for manipulation by tournament organizers who have more time and inclination to help their players. I have heard of 24-player 8-round FNMs with a top 8 cut. Other players, whose TOs are sticking to the structure suggested in the Tournament Rules, are being penalized for something beyond their control. Nobody has done anything illegal and yet one group of players will come out ahead.

The number of rounds is already enforced for Grand Prix Trials, Pro Tour Qualifiers and Premier Events. Extending that to the store level makes sense and ensures that everyone is on as level a playing field as can be. Players in areas with larger FNMs will still be at an advantage, but under this system that would appear to be unavoidable.

Tell us everything, and tell us soon

Whatever you’re going to do with whatever is left to announce, hurry up and let us know. We don’t know yet how Professional points will work, how Nationals invites will be handed out, what the promised changes to round structure will involve or why on earth you printed [card]Dismember[/card].

I’m sure some of you are familiar with the business practices of Blizzard. They are notorious for delaying their games, but in doing so they make sure that the game is ready for release. Well, mostly ready. You have a good system here but it seems clear it was not ready for release. Why else would you be holding this information back? This isn’t something trivial like the names of the various levels, this is affecting how people will prepare for the coming year of Magic. You’ve shown in the past that you are willing to take feedback and act on it, and we don’t even know yet if that can or will happen. Please…talk to us.

Make us proud

One thing that has always made me glad that I play Magic has been the willingness of Wizards of the Coast to listen to the players. If there was ever a time to prove that you still do, this is that time. You’ve hit on something sensitive here, something that impacts all tournament players and something that could outright stop certain high-profile players from playing at the top levels. You’re being flooded with suggestions and advice, I’m sure. Some of it will be coming from people with names that are known in the community, and some of that will be done in public. This letter to you is not going to be signed by any Hall of Famers, any future first-balloters or even anyone who’s ever done anything in the Magic world. It’s signed by me, just a normal player and judge who spends a portion of his hard-earned salary to keep playing this game int the hope that one day, I might to compete for my country’s National title.

Please don’t take that away from me.

Sincerely,

Chris Lansdell

Chris Lansdell

Chris is a deck brewer, podcaster and lover of bacon. He’s recently realised he isn’t completely terrible at this game.