Howdy folks! It’s Joe and I wanted to share a little community news that has broke literally within the past few hours.
Gerry Thompson, well known Pro MTG player and all around awesome guy, is protesting the current state of Professional Magic by actively refusing to participate in the World Championship in Las Vegas, NV. Which uh, just so happens to be this weekend.
Oh wait, you didn’t know that? Gerry addresses that in his Reddit post, which you can read right here.
Specifically, Number 2 of Gerry’s point:
“Wizards does not promote its players well. “Oh, Worlds is this weekend? I had no idea.” How many people can name all 24 players qualified for this year’s World Championship? How many could name 15? If you can’t, don’t worry, you’re not alone.”
Gerry goes on to talk about the state of coverage (hint: it’s awful), the number of Pro Tour invites actually available measured against the current state of the player base (hint: there’s not enough), and also the fact that people like Alex Bertoncini and Jared Boettcher are still allowed to play Magic at high level events despite being known cheaters. He describes the entire system as “a system designed to create losers.”
Gerry mentions a slew of issues in regards to Wizards of the Coast and their relationship with the Pro community, and even mentions the disasterpiece that was the Silver Showcase, where Wizards had invited players that had left the game for Hearthstone for a very specific type of draft (i.e. Beta) that can’t even be easily replicated by all those new faces on the game.
Gerry points to the SCG Tour and how building player-driven narratives and greater visibility will help people connect with Pros, and also how there should be more Pro Tour invites available. He also mentions how commentary and coverage should be better and to hire better people for the job, more training, etc.
At the end, Gerry mentions that he would like to apologize to the Judges and Officials involved on site at the event, since they are in no way shape or form responsible for any of this situation.
In short, this is an interesting situation to follow all around. Gerry T is a highly respectable player and as it stands right now Twitter is blowing up about this. It will be curious to see if anyone else follows in his footsteps before Worlds this weekend, and I applaud Gerry for sticking to his convictions on this.
I’ll be keeping an eye on this myself via the Twitter. What do you think of all this? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter!
Update:
Wizards’ Official Twitter Account has made a statement on the situation along with the same statement read by Rich Hagon at Worlds. You can check it out here.
It’s also worth noting that many have come forth on Twitter, from Patrick Sullivan to Gabriel Nassif expressing their support of Gerry’s message and even going so far to state that they won’t even watch coverage of Worlds (which is pre-rotation STANDARD) in support of Gerry.
Monday Update: LSV did an interview with Gerry T on Channel Fireball! Read it here.
Joseph is an avid player of eternal Magic formats, including Vintage and Legacy. As a Nic Fit player who will tell anyone who will listen about his deck, Joe spends his time analyzing and playing on Magic Online and various online platforms, while prepping for competitive events. To follow more Joe, check out his Twitter!