Planeswalker Points
Planeswalker Points is a worldwide system introduced in 2012 designed to reward you for playing Magic: The Gathering in DCI-sanctioned events (where an organizer schedules and reports the event to Wizards of the Coast). All sanctioned events, from casual-format sanctioned events to Worlds will carry points.
Unlike previous systems that rewarded only winning, Planeswalker Points is based on playing.[1] Players earn points for every sanctioned event they join, and they earn even more for each victory.[2] The larger the tournament, the more participation points players receive, no matter where they finish. Special events carry a point multiplier.
Categories
There are three major categories:
- Lifetime: The total points obtained over all time.
- Competitive: The total points obtained during the span of a Pro Tour season, excluding casual, Pro Tour, Worlds, and World Magic Cup events. It used to determine the number of byes granted to a player in Grand Prix and eligibility of invitation to Nationals and, formerly, World Magic Cup Qualifiers.
- Until November 2014, there was also a Seasonal Award subcategory, which almost exclusively determined Grand Prix byes only.
- Professional: The Pro Points obtained over the span of a Pro Tour season.
- At the start of the 2018–19 season, a subcategory, where inclusion is determined by calculating the Pro Points of the top 12 finishing players of the previous four Pro Tour cycles, was introduced accompanying the new Pro Players Club system.
Website
Players can keep track of their Planeswalker Points progress on the Wizards of the Coast website planeswalkerpoints.com. At certain point totals, players level up in the program and improve their rank. The ranks go from Prodigy (levels 1–5) all the way up to Archmage (levels 46–50).
The points needed to advance to the next level are as follows:[3]
| Rank | Level | Points needed |
|---|---|---|
| Prodigy | 1–5 | 5 points |
| Apprentice | 6–10 | 5 points |
| Task Mage | 11–15 | 10 points |
| Adept | 16–20 | 30 points |
| Spellshaper | 21–25 | 50 points |
| Guildmage | 26–30 | 100 points |
| Invoker | 31–35 | 400 points |
| Sorcerer | 36–40 | 1,400 points |
| Battlemage | 41–45 | 3,000 points |
| Archmage | 46–49 | 6,000 points |
Level 50 is currently the highest-possible level players can reach, sitting at 50,000 points total. Advancing to level 50 requires 7,000 additional points past level 49. Although there is a maximum level, there is no upper limit for obtainable points; for example, all-time leader Shuhei Nakamura has obtained more than 100,000 points in his lifetime.
Phasing out?
As of 2020, the site still works and you can still win rewards and use it to see your match history, but logging in is a challenge sometimes. It hasn't been updated since about 2014, including the software used to hook into it and handle matchups. It is possible that when the when that software gets deprecated and things move to the companion app (which seems to be the intention), planeswalker points will break and either be replaced by something new or scrapped entirely.
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 05, 2013). "Twenty Things That Were Going To Kill Magic". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Monty Ashley (January 25, 2012). "Your Scorecard". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mike Turian (September 06, 2011). "Introducing Planeswalker Points: What Level Are You?". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
External links
- Planeswalker Points information page
- Dave Guskin (August 02, 2012). "Planeswalker Points Achievements and Badges Beta Launches!". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- Trick Jarrett (April 10, 2013). "Planeswalker Points Dragon's Maze Achievements and Updates". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.