Wizards of the Coast is entering the first year of the return of the Pro Tour with a slightly different seeding system to compensate for the lack of previous events to look back upon.
The Pro Tour system centers around tabletop play, with the Regional Championships and Pro Tour events being played on tabletop featuring Booster Draft, Standard, Pioneer, and Modern.
This would mark the first time Pioneer gets a chance to shine on a large tabletop scale. The format was first implemented toward the end of 2019, mere months before global COVID lockdowns.
In the first year, invitations can be earned by some of the few remaining Magic esports events for the 2021 year. This will roll into the first Pro Tour event scheduled for the beginning of 2023.
But how does seeding work for the first Pro Tour season?
Wizards of the Coast is targeting having around 300 players being invited to each Pro Tour. The devs said the first year won’t include each way to earn invitations until the end of the 2022-23 season. Wizards did not announce what these pathways were that are still coming down the pipeline in the future.
There are three ways that Wizards is giving out invites outside of the Regional Championship system to flesh out the Pro Tour attendance.
All 32 players in World Championship XXVIII in 2022 will earn invitations to the first Pro Tour. The top four players at Worlds will be invited to all three Pro Tours in 2023.
Each player who finishes 9-6 or better at the New Capenna Championships will earn an invite to the first Pro Tour. There will also be bonus invites given out at Regional Championships, but details of how these will be acquired are not known. Each Pro Tour cycle will include a Regional Championship in the 11 regions.
After the 2022-23 season concludes, the Pro Tour invitation system will change with the phasing out of the current Magic esports system with the Magic Pro League, Rivals League, and Set Championships.
