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Digital competition on Arena will play an undisclosed but minimized role

A complete overhaul of the premier play system will bring competitive Magic: The Gathering back to table tops around the world.

Competitive Magic: The Gathering will return to the table top, as Wizards of the Coast announce details for their new premier play system.

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General editor and ASU Cronkite (e)sports journalism master’s degree holder. More than anything, Jason wants you to watch Pokémon VGC.

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The Overwatch League's 2022 season now has an official start date, according to a new update video that revealed a slew of other news.

Overwatch League 2022 season begins May 5 with familiar format

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Through trial, error and lessons learned, the TFT team solves a new puzzle each set

According to product lead TJ Bourus, TFT: Reckoning is one of the most cohesive sets overall

<h2>Back to the drawing board</h2>
Despite how it may sound, Mort insisted the paper draft was the easy part of designing a TFT set. The hard part is implementing champions into the actual game, making sure everything works the way it’s supposed to and then identifying problems with playtests. Delivering that bad news, Mort said, is his least favorite part of development.
“That’s where the exhaustion comes in,” Mort said. “That’s where the hard work comes in, because ideas are cheap. Ideas are easy.”
Mort said the team has had to do major reworks after the first week and a half of playtesting twice now, which can be painful for everyone involved. They call the identification of these fundamental issues and the attempt to fix them “the big rework.” For Reckoning, the iteration process meant swapping out 15-18 champions and three or four origins.
“That’s where creative problem solving kicks in, where it’s like &#8216;what’s the best version that doesn’t literally go ‘start over’?&#8217;” Mort said.
<figure id="attachment_14239" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14239" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-14239" src="https://www.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/TFT-set-5-arena.jpg" alt="An arena for TFT Set 5" width="1920" height="1080" srcset="https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/TFT-set-5-arena.jpg 1920w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/TFT-set-5-arena.jpg?resize=150,84 150w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/TFT-set-5-arena.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/TFT-set-5-arena.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/TFT-set-5-arena.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/TFT-set-5-arena.jpg?resize=1536,864 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14239" class="wp-caption-text">A new arena designed specifically for TFT: Reckoning. | Provided by Riot Games</figcaption></figure>
At the same time, a different portion of the development team is supposed to work on a set mechanic that changes the core gameplay beyond new champions. This has included Elemental Hexes, Galaxies and the Chosen system, though Mort acknowledged that the team isn’t happy with every effort.
“Frankly, on our set mechanic side, we’re not batting a great batting average,” Mort said. “A lot of our set mechanics have been started and then scrapped and then curveballed.”
For TFT’s third set, Galaxies were a last minute change from a failed day and night cycle. Even TFT Set 5’s Shadow Items were a late addition, as Wittrock took on the responsibility alongside creating the paper draft due to staffing issues. They ended up with three or four options, but the only one the team really liked fit much better with the upcoming Set 6 theme.
“We kind of had to last minute scramble on this one, again, kind of like Galaxies,” Mort said. “We came up with the idea for the Shadow Items, and that was definitely one of those times where it looked good and we’re out of time, so if it doesn’t work we’re in trouble.”
The closest any mechanic ever cut it to the release of a set were Lucky Lanterns for the TFT: Fates’ mid-set expansion, which they started working on three weeks before it hit the Public Beta Environment. Shadow Items were next, with five weeks from Mort’s first draft to going live.
Much like the Chosen, Mort said the team was nervous about the community’s reception of Shadow Items. There was talk of delaying both mechanics until they had more time to test them. However, they ultimately trusted their guts and the live team’s ability to problem solve as needed.

<h2>Adapting communications</h2>
The entire development process for TFT Set 5 was made even harder by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced all Riot Games employees to work from home during the development of Reckoning. To make matters worse, Bourus said the TFT team in particular worked around impromptu conversations based on their relative proximity to each other in the office prior to the pandemic. Out of any other team at Riot, they relied on Slack and internal messaging tools the least.
With everyone separated, Bourus had to help clear a new communication hurdle. He said the solution included introducing formalized processes, like the kick-off meeting that starts the brainstorming for each set.
“It was probably one of the most stressful and hardest times to communicate during this period,” Bourus said. “But we did it, and we learned a lot about how to do it right that we’ve incorporated into future sets from home, which is really exciting.”
<figure id="attachment_14230" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-14230" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-14230" src="https://www.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Nimblefoot.jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" srcset="https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Nimblefoot.jpg 1920w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Nimblefoot.jpg?resize=150,84 150w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Nimblefoot.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Nimblefoot.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Nimblefoot.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Nimblefoot.jpg?resize=1536,864 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-14230" class="wp-caption-text">Nimblefoot, one of the Little Legends designed for TFT Set 5. | Provided by Riot Games</figcaption></figure>
As a result, not only did the TFT team deliver on Reckoning, but they worked in harmony as a whole. Bourus said the entire organization, from marketing to Little Legend designers, came together as a whole.
“That unification of the team is what led this to feel like one of the most cohesive sets yet,” Bourus said. “I definitely want to shout out the entire TFT team, but also want to call it out for folks that this is a change we actually did differently.”
<h2>Innovation never ends</h2>
Not only did the TFT design team change the way they worked together, but they continue to change the game itself in novel ways. TFT Set 5 saw the introduction of labs, new ways to experience TFT that meet the needs of different players. The first lab is called Hyper Roll, and it condenses the normal game experience into a shorter time frame, so players can get in and out much easier.
This falls in line with what Bourus said is the TFT team’s ultimate vision: to create the strategy game of all strategy games. But to do that, they need to serve other motivations. Hyper Roll serves those on the go, but Bourus hinted at other considerations — like those that want to play the game as a group. Regardless of who they’re trying to serve, exploring those possibilities was an early goal for the design team.
“We’ve known we wanted to do modes for TFT for a long time,” Bourus said. “It was just figuring out which one was our first one, which one was worth the initial investment to get us a good taste of whether players are interested in alternate experiences.”
According to Bourus, he knew Hyper Roll would be a hit the first time they showed it to Riot employees outside the TFT team. He said “early risers” expressed how it was the perfect way for them to experience the game.
At the same time, Mort stressed that labs are often misunderstood by the community at large. He has seen players talk about them like rotating game modes with fanciful concepts like starting with 50 gold or starting at level nine. In truth, Mort said any lab they spend time developing is something the team thinks has the potential to become a part of TFT forever. That’s why, at the least, Hyper Roll is sticking around through all of Reckoning.
TFT has evolved in other ways, too. Mort said the team has gotten close to optimizing the way they design sets, from the number of units per cost to the ideal shop percentages at every level. But in a more big picture sense, the design team has also realized some truths about TFT that now guide their decision making.
“We’ve realized that the core of TFT is already deep and engaging and complex and interesting, and that Fates, Rise of the Elements and Galaxies were all basically like, ‘here’s a curveball on top of it,’” Mort said. “It kind of took away from the core. So right now, we’re not looking to keep throwing layers on layers on top.”
Mort described this change in philosophy as a willingness to challenge the design team’s core assumptions about TFT itself. He added how important that is as the game gets older and change aversion starts to creep in on everyone involved. After all, it’s riskier to introduce radical changes to the game now than it was a year and a half ago.
“That’s the kind of space we’re getting dangerously close to,” Mort said. “You see this with League of Legends, for example, every time they try to do something big… players have this really gross change aversion. That’s going to be our big challenge.”
Aversion aside, Mort said he doesn’t think TFT can survive for 10 years on just a steady flow of new sets. While he doesn’t know what might be necessary to ensure TFT’s longevity, he can turn to other examples of innovative success.
“I think in today’s industry, novelty has to start to play a factor as well,” Mort said. “Even with something like Magic: the Gathering, you’re seeing this with the Commander style and how that’s been dominating.”
While many more years lie ahead before anyone on the development team has to worry about crossing that bridge, Bourus said he isn’t worried about the game’s future. After seeing the reception for Galaxies and Fates, he trusts Mort and the rest of the team to develop a great game.
“I just have so much faith now in what TFT can and has become,” Bourus said. “Although there’s pressure… I have a lot of confidence. I don’t feel the pressure is on the team to crush it. I think we’ve proven to Riot, we’ve proven to players that we can make awesomeness.”

A behind the scenes look at how the Teamfight Tactics team designs each set, featuring insights from TFT Set 5, Reckoning.

Behind the Convergence: Bringing Teamfight Tactics to life

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How the 27 year old game has changed by entering the world of esports

While Magic: the Gathering built its legacy as a paper game, its new, digital client has breathed new life into the scene.

<h2>Swinging the ban hammer</h2>
There is a cost to reaching more players. According to content creator and Magic competitor Crim “TheAsianAvenger” Nguyen, the amount of games played can make it feel like the meta is locked in before a new set of cards is officially released. As a result, players encounter the best cards far more often, and they can get tired of seeing them far sooner than they might have in the past.
When that happens, many players start calling for bans.
“Because bans have just become part of the culture of the game now, and people are asking for bans so often, I think that cards nowadays aren’t necessarily banned just on power level anymore,” TheAsianAvenger said.
<a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/august-8-2020-banned-and-restricted-announcement">Cauldron Familiar’s</a> ban is a good example of this. While the uncommon creature is part of a potentially powerful synergy, it never reached the <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/november-18-2019-banned-and-restricted-announcement">oppressive usage of Oko, Thief of Crowns</a> or <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/november-18-2019-banned-and-restricted-announcement">Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath</a>. Instead, TheAsianAvenger said playing against Cauldron Familiar was simply a miserable experience on Arena, as winning with or losing against it took a lot of time and constant clicks.
<figure id="attachment_3079" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3079" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3079 size-full" src="https://www.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Uro.jpg" alt="Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath" width="1920" height="1397" srcset="https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Uro.jpg 1920w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Uro.jpg?resize=150,109 150w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Uro.jpg?resize=300,218 300w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Uro.jpg?resize=768,559 768w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Uro.jpg?resize=1024,745 1024w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Uro.jpg?resize=1536,1118 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3079" class="wp-caption-text">Despite overwhelming usage, Uro, Titan of Nature&#8217;s Wrath wasn&#8217;t banned until eight months after its release. | Art provided by Wizards of the Coast.</figcaption></figure>
At the same time, plenty of cards have been banned for being too dominant since Arena’s release, which partially coincides with Wizards of the Coast’s <a href="https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-preview/fire-it-2019-06-21">latest design philosophy</a>. Since the publisher shifted their focus to creating fun, inviting, replayable and exciting (FIRE) cards in 2019, there has been a surge in bans, with 23 in Standard since 2017. Before that point, two cards were banned in 2011 and eight cards were banned in 2005.
In order to entice and satisfy players across competitive and casual formats, Forsythe said the design team walks a tightrope when creating cards.
“There have been some growing pains there, but we’ve learned from our mistakes,” Forsythe said. “Our designers get better with each set they touch.”
Players have had to carry the weight of the company’s learning process to get to that point, however. When players open packs with banned cards, or invest heavily into decks that are unplayable post-ban, there’s no way to get their money back. And even though Arena can give players wildcards in exchange for banned cards, PVDDR said that isn’t a perfect fix.
“Sometimes I build my whole deck, and one card was banned, so now I have all these cards I don&#8217;t want to use anymore because I wanted to use them with that card,” PVDDR said. “It’s not a sustainable model.”
Banning cards is better than perpetuating a frustrating Standard environment, PVDDR said, which puts Wizards of the Coast in a tough spot. The publisher is forced to pick between keeping a bad format that no one wants to play or banning some cards and hurting the people who had them.
<blockquote>“You have to decide what is the bigger poison, so to speak,” PVDDR said.</blockquote>
In some ways, TheAsianAvenger agreed that more bans would help keep Standard more interesting. For him, though, it’s less about volume and more about speed.
“With the increase of power level in Magic cards,” TheAsianAvenger said, “I think the biggest thing is you also have to be increasing how much you’re monitoring things.”
Wizards of the Coast regularly monitors the health of Magic’s meta from both a mathematical and emotional perspective, according to Forsythe, which means bans happen at an increased pace when compared to their once-quarterly announcements. At the same time, bans don’t save players from balanced cards they’ve simply seen too much. That’s why TheAsianAvenger said the solution is a faster rotation.
In the current Standard format, players can use cards from up to the eight most recent sets at a given time. When a ninth set would be introduced, roughly around each Autumn expansion’s release, the number of usable sets collapses back down to five. This rotation system has changed throughout the years, but its goal is to keep the format fresh — and drive the sale of more cards.
However, this current iteration began in April of 2017, before Arena’s closed beta even began. If TheAsianAvenger had his way, he’d speed up this process so that cards didn’t have as much time to wear out their welcome.
<h2>(Planes)walking two paths</h2>
Even though Wizards of the Coast has adjusted their banning practices to the digital era of Magic, the designers don’t have access to one of the most powerful tools available in competitive gaming: patches.
Card games like Hearthstone or Legends of Runeterra, which are fully digital, can be changed often and with relatively few consequences. If Magic could somehow do the same, PVDDR said Wizards of the Coast could not only make overpowered cards more fair, but also improve underused cards.
Unfortunately, the physical element of Magic makes doing so without creating confusion between the game’s tangible and digital cards impossible.
“If a card changes its function in an online game, it will be obvious when played that its function has changed,” PVDDR said. “In Magic, that&#8217;s not the case. You have to have everyone on the same page as to what the rules are.”
<figure id="attachment_3080" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3080" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3080 size-full" src="https://www.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-Arena.jpg" alt="Someone playing Magic: the Gathering Arena" width="1920" height="1280" srcset="https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-Arena.jpg 1920w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-Arena.jpg?resize=150,100 150w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-Arena.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-Arena.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-Arena.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Magic-Arena.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3080" class="wp-caption-text">| Photo provided by Wizards of the Coast.</figcaption></figure>
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PVDDR said he would never trade the physical side of Magic for the ability to tweak cards digitally, and Forsythe and Parker stressed that neither would ever want to abandon physical Magic under any circumstances. Instead, their goals involve expanding digital experiences that don’t compromise the tabletop experience.
“Magic scratches so many itches, from social interaction to collecting to experimentation, self-expression and strategic gameplay,” Forsythe said. “The different ways and places you can play the game each let you go deeper on the different aspects in different ways.”
<h2>What’s missing from Magic: the Gathering</h2>
At the moment, it’s unclear when in-person events will return, too. But there have been some benefits to bringing Magic to the digital realm.
The change meant players like TheAsianAvenger could roll out of bed the day before an event and compete from the comfort of their home. It also meant that living in testing houses in the weeks leading up to a tournament isn’t necessary anymore. Now, serious players can assemble the deck they want to try out, send a direct challenge to friends and have their peers sitting over their shoulder in a Discord call during the match.
For players like PVDDR, who is from Brazil, the benefits are even more pronounced. In the past, players in his region had a single easy event to travel to a year, which forced almost everyone to play their best Magic or sit out of competing for the rest of the season. At the same time, PVDDR said he used to struggle preparing for the Draft portion of tournaments, since he couldn’t find enough other players nearby to practice with.
Today, players outside the U.S. and Western Europe can enter every tournament they want to compete in without worrying whether it will be the last time they play serious Magic again until next year. According to PVDDR, these opportunities are why there are more people from across the world getting into the scene.
<figure id="attachment_3081" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3081" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3081 size-full" src="https://www.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Crim-Mythic-invitational.jpg" alt="Top 16 of the 2019 Mythic Invitational" width="1920" height="1080" srcset="https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Crim-Mythic-invitational.jpg 1920w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Crim-Mythic-invitational.jpg?resize=150,84 150w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Crim-Mythic-invitational.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Crim-Mythic-invitational.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Crim-Mythic-invitational.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w, https://cms.upcomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Crim-Mythic-invitational.jpg?resize=1536,864 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3081" class="wp-caption-text">Crim &#8220;TheAsianAvenger&#8221; Nguyen (left) competes in the Top 16 at the 2019 Mythic Invitational | Photo provided by Wizards of the Coast.</figcaption></figure>
But despite the ease of access, TheAsianAvenger did admit to missing some of the game’s older trappings. The digital Magic experience lacks a significant part of what makes this card game unique.
Until Wizards of the Coast announces the return of in-person events, Magic: the Gathering will be locked into this fully digital era, unable to take full advantage of its dual nature.
“The thing I miss the most is a little bit of the gathering,” TheAsianAvenger said. “It&#8217;s a little bit different when you sit here and you&#8217;re staring at your screen.”
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A game can't reach 27 years-old without major changes, but Magic: the Gathering Arena has brought the card game into a new era.

The impact of Magic: The Gathering's new, digital era

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The impact of Magic: The Gathering&#8217;s new, digital era

Despite being one of the most popular game franchises in history, competitive Pokémon has never gone mainstream. Photo by Doug Morisoli.

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Despite being the largest video game franchise, the competitive side remains niche

Players face off during the Swiss rounds of a Pokémon regional championships.

With tens of billions of dollars in revenue, the Pokémon Company’s ability to find widespread appeal has only one exception: Pokémon VGC.

Why isn't Pokémon VGC more popular?

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Why isn't Pokémon VGC more popular? - Upcomer

Why isn&#8217;t Pokémon VGC more popular?

Autimatic dreamhack - Upcomer

CS:GO

CS:GO Archives

CS:GO Archives - Upcomer

VALORANT

VALORANT Archives

VALORANT Archives - Upcomer

autimatic

autimatic Archives

autimatic Archives - Upcomer

T1 Archives

T1 Archives - Upcomer

Valorant

Valorant Archives

Valorant Archives - Upcomer

T1 has added Timothy “autimatic” Ta to their Valorant roster, marking a shift from his career in Counter Strike: Global Offensive.

Autimatic leaves CS:GO to join T1 Valorant roster

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