{"id":903,"date":"2020-03-31T03:41:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T03:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.usmtgproxy.com\/?page_id=903"},"modified":"2020-03-31T03:41:28","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T03:41:28","slug":"magic-the-gatherings-new-pro-players-prove-to-be-controversial-picks","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.usmtgproxy.com\/magic-the-gatherings-new-pro-players-prove-to-be-controversial-picks\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic: The Gathering’s New Pro Players Prove To Be Controversial Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today,\u00a0Magic: The Gathering\u00a0<\/em>publisher Wizards of the Coast announced that it had signed two new players to its fledgling Pro League, including the league\u2019s first woman. While it has been a galvanizing decision for many players, especially female ones, some fans worry that the process for joining the professionalized ranks of\u00a0Magic\u00a0<\/em>has become too subjective, or didn\u2019t make sense in the first place.<\/p>\n

When it established the\u00a0Magic\u00a0<\/em>Pro League in late 2018, Wizards of the Coast initially selected the players with what seemed to be a simple process: It chose the top 32 players on its official rankings, paying each a $75,000 contract to compete at tournaments and stream the game for fans. Those players had earned the most \u201cPro Points<\/a>,\u201d Wizards of the Coast\u2019s system for awarding points to players who do well at certain tournaments, during the 2017-2018 season. Two of the players in the top 32 did not join the league, and were replaced with other players from the top 40.<\/p>\n

At the time, Wizards was not specific about its selection criteria, just noting that the league \u201cfeatures 32 of the top players in the world showcasing\u00a0Magic<\/em>\u00a0at the highest level.\u201d This, plus the structure for top competitive\u00a0Magic\u00a0<\/em>prior to the league, led players to believe that Pro Point ranking would be the single factor that determined which players would be added.<\/p>\n

But this was apparently not always going to be the case. Earlier this year, Wizards of the Coast vice president of esports Elaine Chase\u00a0told\u00a0Kotaku<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that while the company \u201chad a lot of different approaches how to build that roster,\u201d it eventually decided to \u201ctake the top-ranked players from last year\u201d even though it made them \u201cvery sad\u201d that that methodology would mean that no women made it onto the list. \u201cI very much want there to be women in next year\u2019s MPL,\u201d Chase said at that time.<\/p>\n

After players Owen Turtenwald, Yuuya Watanabe, and Gerry Thompson exited the league this year, Wizards\u2019 replacement picks made it clear that it was not simply going to continue to elevate the top point earners to pro status.<\/p>\n

The league\u2019s new players are\u00a0Autumn Burchett<\/a>, Janne \u201cSavjz\u201d Mikkonen, and Jessica Estephan, the first woman to join the league after its initial roster of 32 men. All three have distinguished themselves in one way or another. Burchett, who is gender nonbinary, won February\u2019s Mythic Championship. Mikkonen is a well-loved Twitch streamer\u2014often of\u00a0Hearthstone\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0Dota Auto Chess<\/em>\u2014who performed well at the Mythic Invitational. Estephan won 2018\u2019s\u00a0Magic<\/em>\u00a0Grand Prix. In the 2017-2018 season, Burchett was ranked 134, Estephan was 520 (the highest of any woman), and Mikkonen did not have a ranking. Burchett has the top standing in the league currently.<\/p>\n

In an interview with\u00a0The Esports Observer<\/em><\/a>, Chase explained the league\u2019s reasoning for signing Estephan. \u201cWe\u2019re doing this very purposefully. It\u2019s because we know that there\u2019s an issue with barriers for women and other marginalized groups in esports overall, and in\u00a0Magic<\/em>\u00a0competitive gaming,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to take a first step and take a stand, and say that we\u2019re going to remove those barriers and make a space and make an opportunity for women. Jess is our first step in doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase reiterated that stance in a blog\u00a0post today<\/a>, in which she made it clear that a major priority of Wizards\u2019 is representation. \u201cWe want to state in no uncertain terms that we know the pool of talent is broad, and that we think it should be represented in a concrete way to the viewers and fans of competitive\u00a0Magic<\/em>,\u201d she wrote. (Wizards did not immediately respond to\u00a0Kotaku<\/em>\u2019s request for comment for this story.)<\/p>\n

After Wizards announced the addition of Mikkonen and Estephan today, there was an overwhelming negative reaction from players on Reddit, Twitter, and elsewhere concerning what they felt were the League\u2019s uneven standards for players\u2019 inclusion. Players were upset that Wizards was promoting diversity or Twitch fame over pure numerical standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo disrespect to @Savjz or @jesstephan, but in particular using results from the Invitational as a basis for MPL promotion here seems suspect considering it was explicitly said to be independent from other organized play systems,\u201d said\u00a0Magic<\/em>\u00a0commentator Brian Kibler on Twitter. \u201cI feel like my perception would be different if the system were set up this way in the first place, in the vein of the old World Championship (Top x per region or whatever other category you choose). I feel @jesstephan is a great inclusion by that metric.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former\u00a0Magic<\/em>\u00a0Pro League players that Estephan, Burchett, and Mikkonen are replacing left the League for different reasons. Two were removed for alleged misconduct. Owen Turtenwald, a well-established pro player,\u00a0was removed<\/a>\u00a0from the league last month after allegations of sexual misconduct. Last week, Wizards\u00a0removed pro Yuuya Watanabe<\/a>\u00a0after allegations of cheating.<\/p>\n

Today,\u00a0pro Gerry Thompson<\/a>\u00a0announced his exit from the league, citing concerns about contract negotiation and communication from Wizards. Last year, Thompson had\u00a0boycotted the World Championships<\/a>\u00a0in protest of Wizards\u2019 treatment of pro players, citing concerns about payment and transparency. In\u00a0an article<\/a>\u00a0explaining why he left the league today, Thompson gave six reasons, one of which appeared to refer to the controversial pros who were removed and the league\u2019s new inclusions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, it should be very clear that the players selected to represent\u00a0Magic<\/em>\u00a0at its highest level were not thoroughly vetted,\u201d he wrote. \u201cNow, you could argue that I\u2019m in that camp. However, I\u2019d like to think that if things were progressing rather than regressing, I would have held onto my position. Following my Worlds protest, I\u2019ve tried to go through the \u2018proper channels,\u2019 but all that got me was a string of unanswered messages. I don\u2019t think my decision to leave is unjustified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wizards\u2019 lack of transparency in its decisions to add (or remove) players has proven immensely frustrating to other players, too. Much of the backlash against the new Pro League members cites how confusing the ladder to pro now appears. That ladder, to many current players grinding out tournaments, previously seemed comprehensible and maybe even climbable. But, goes the line of thinking, if these new inclusions are being judged by different standards, how could that be fair?<\/p>\n

Perhaps esports should be a meritocracy, but in reality, it is not. It is more difficult for some players to scale the rungs of the\u00a0Magic\u00a0<\/em>ladder than others. After her success at the Grand Prix, Estephan wrote an article describing the barriers she\u2019d faced to going pro in the first place\u2014from comments at hobby shops to being told she couldn\u2019t ever succeed because of her gender. She wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter we won, I was not happy. I spent days having panic attacks and feeling terrified whenever a notification popped up on my phone. I turned my phone off to try and concentrate on work. I begged friends to stop showing me the hateful comments. I closed my DMs on Twitter and unfollowed people to revoke messaging privileges. We received some mainstream media, but the comments attached were not worth it. I was called fat and ugly, with many iterations of both. I was told I didn\u2019t deserve the attention and the win because I wasn\u2019t a photogenic physical ideal. In other words, screw the hard work I\u2019d put in\u2014I wasn\u2019t pretty enough to be good at a game I loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esports pros are both top players and role models. Wizards\u2019 move to proactively insert a top female player into the League may have the effect of inspiring other women to give\u00a0Magic\u00a0<\/em>their all.<\/p>\n

Yet if\u00a0Magic<\/em>\u2019s pro league\u00a0<\/em>isn\u2019t the \u201cmeritocracy\u201d players initially believed it would be, some players say that could harm its credibility. Whether these new additions harm its credibility more than top-ranked pros accused of harassing women or cheating is apparently an open question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today,\u00a0Magic: The Gathering\u00a0publisher Wizards of the Coast announced that it had signed two new players to its fledgling Pro League, including the league\u2019s first woman. While it has been a galvanizing decision for many players, especially female ones, some fans worry that the process for joining the professionalized ranks of\u00a0Magic\u00a0has become too subjective, or didn\u2019t … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usmtgproxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usmtgproxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usmtgproxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usmtgproxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.usmtgproxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.usmtgproxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.usmtgproxy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}