Magic Pro League

The Magic Pro League (or MPL) is an ongoing Magic Esports competition that was introduced in 2019.

The Magic Pro League consists of 32 pro players from around the world who are offered contracts by Wizards of the Coast. They are competing in seasonal weekly competitive match-ups on MTG Arena, and in Mythic-level tournaments in both MTG Arena and paper Magic. These players are automatically qualified for each Mythic Championship, where they will compete against other top players, the challengers.

2019 roster

Invites were extended to the top 32 players in terms of Pro Points after the 2018–19 Pro Tour Season. However, two players declined to participate due to work conflict: Kelvin Chew (ranked 18th) and Andrew Baeckstrom (ranked 23rd). These invites were passed down to 33rd-ranked Rei Sato and 40th-ranked Lee Shi Tian, with Shi Tian taking Chew's slot to maintain representation in the region.

Controversy

• Rei Sato was disqualified from Grand Prix Prague 2019. In a statement the following week, Wizards explained that due to MPL members being held to a higher standard, Sato's invitation to the Mythic Invitational event at PAX East was revoked.
• The introduction of the MPL was accompanied with cuts elsewhere. Criticism arose when Wizards during Grand Prix New Jersey (26-27 January 2019) stated that they would no longer provide round-by-round updates on Grand Prix events; in a later response to Hipsters of the Coast, Wizards clarified that this only applied to round-by-round text coverage, and that plans for video coverage was yet to be announced. Additional controversy sparked when it became known that Craig Gibson, Pro Tour photographer for 21 years, had been told that he was no longer needed at events.
• On March 27, 2019 Magic Esports Twitter suddenly announced that Owen Turtenwald wouldn't be participating in the Mythic Invitational. No reason was given. Three days later unconfirmed rumors surfaced that Turtlewald had been behaving in an inappropriate manner towards female players. On April 25, 2019, it became clear that Turtenwald was removed from the Magic Pro League altogether. Without explanation, he was replaced by Autumn Burchett.
• On May 9, 2019 it was announced that Yuuya Watanabe would be removed from the league as well as the Hall of Fame, due to his previous disqualification from Mythic Championship II in London for marked cards.
• On May 13, 2019 Gerry Thompson announced his resignation from the MPL because of the lack of transparency in the organisation and the unwillingness of Wizards of the Coast to listen to feedback.
• Also on May 13, WotC announced that the replacements for Thompson and Watanabe were to be Jessica Estephan and Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen, both T16 competitors from the Mythic Invitational. The response was met poorly amongst several established pros, not helped by Janne's personal admission that he would likely not compete in any paper Mythic Championships. The largest criticism was that there was no longer any guarantee upon the future of any professional player, as neither new addition had significant pedigree on the Pro Tour circuit, so the rewards and incentives for achieving anything but the top 30 in the world were unclear.