Wizards of the Coast has announced a new structure for the 2019 Magic: The Gathering season. The season takes inspiration from esports. With this, WotC will be able to make use of its tabletop system while at the same time integrating its MTG Arena digital platform.
Up for grabs in the 2019 season is a total prize pool of a whopping $10 million. The higher prize pool is to make sure that every player who joins the tournament will receive a prize payout. The season will be spread out with four tournaments for the tabletop format and three tournaments for MTG Arena. It will then culminate in the Magic World Championship this December.
Are you ready to be the next Magic: The Gathering Champion? Learn how you can qualify for Mythic Championships across tabletop play, @MTG_Arena, or @MagicOnline
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) February 20, 2019
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The Pro Tours for the tabletop format will be held in Cleveland this February, in London this April, Barcelona in July, and finally Richmond this November. Each of these tournaments will have a $500,000 prize pool. WotC will also be putting tabletop prizes amounting to $2.5 million for the Gran Prix circuit.
MTG Arena tournaments offer a prize pool amounting to $750,000 for each tournament and will be held June/July, August/September, and November/December.
The 2019 season ends in December with the Magic World Championship. A total of 16 players will battle it out to be crowned world champion and get a large share of the $1 million prize pool. The participants in the grand tournament will be the four tabletop Mythic Champions and the three MTG Arena Mythic Champions. Joining in will be the top four MPL having the most Mythic Points and the top four Challengers, also with Mythic Points. The final contender will be Javier Dominguez, the 2018 Magic World Champion.
With the new structure, WotC announced the end of a number of its legacy programs, including Nationals and World Magic, and Team Series. There will also be no more Pro Club considering MPL player have since shifted to the new model. WotC also revealed that 2019 will be the last year for both qualification and voting for the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame. A new structure will be announced at a later date.
For those who want to know how to participate in the 2019 season, you can read more here. Complete schedule of the 2019 season is also available.
