The Magic Pro Tour is back after four years with some controversial changes

polygon.com:

When Gabby Squailia started playing Magic: The Gathering in 2017 after taking two decades off, she was hooked. The game became an obsession. And, as a competitive person, she soon wanted to see if she could handle the big leagues. That meant Magic’s Pro Tour, the premiere public event for high-level Magic play.

“It did seem vaguely reasonable for a decent player who put the time in to make it to the Pro Tour once or twice,” Squailia says. “The reason this mattered to me wasn’t that I ever thought I could be a professional — I just wanted to compete against the best, and to learn from getting trounced.”

But Wizards of the Coast abruptly stopped the event in 2018, moving instead to Mythic Tournaments, a hybridization of the physical and online play that added layers of bureaucracy to the game. Then the COVID-19 pandemic forced other changes as players found their ability to play paper Magic — offline and in person — curtailed by the health crisis.

Now that the world is reopening, Magic parent company Wizards of the Coast is reestablishing the Pro Tour, yet it’s coming with some changes.

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The new system aims to integrate the former pro structure with the game’s growing amateur play groups (which make up the vast majority of Magic players). There are regional championships set up around the world with invitations varying per event. Players can also get in the door through Magic Online and the Arena app; pros from the hall of fame are allowed one free entry per year. Players and others in the Magic community are divided on what this all means.

As Magic communications director Blake Rasmussen tells it, the Pro Tour never really shut down. He