Wizards of the Coast launched a new The Magic Spotlight Series, new open events for Magic: The Gathering.
These events are essentially the most recent iterations of the Grand Prix and MagicFest events from the days before the pandemic, and are clearly a response to the success of the more recent open events held at MagicCons (see “$100,000 Open ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Tournament“). The Magic Spotlight Series events are two-day open events that offer up a $50,000 prize pool, a new promo card, and invitations to an upcoming Magic Pro Tour event for the Top 8 finishers. These events differ from Grand Prix events and MagicFests because each event will “spotlight” a theme, and players who get at least 18 match points in 9 rounds of play on day one of play will make day two (roughly translating to having 6 wins throughout the day).
Star City Games has been tapped to host the first five U.S. events. Fanfinity will handle the two events on the European tour, and Big Magic will host one in Japan. The first event in the U.S. will put a spotlight on the Foundations set (see “‘Magic: The Gathering – Foundations’“) and occur January 3-5, 2025 in Atlanta, GA as part of SCG Con Atlanta. This event offers up a Richard Kane Ferguson art Terror of the Peaks promo card to the top 128 finishers.
The second event, a Modern-themed event, will happen in Utrecht, Netherlands on March 15-16, 2025, and sees players competing for a Kaldra Compleat promo card as well as a “special winner prize.” Each of these events will also feature vendors, artists, and more.
Source: ICV2
