Only now is Standard taking a turn at the next Regional Championship in San Diego. There have been no incentives or requirements for Standard play all the recent gameplay have been either Pioneer or Modern. Most RCQs are either Modern or Pioneer, and the most recent Regional Championship was also Pioneer. At least it’s a start to reviving that “Pro Tour Dream” that incentivized so many players.īut these new tournaments and overall structure do little to help Standard as a format. Regional Champions and the suite of RCQs, alongside the return of the Pro Tour, were something that completely changed the trajectory of competitive Magic play in 2022. What About Regional Champions and Qualifiers? Pro Tours, Worlds, and various tournaments by organizations like Star City Games or Channel Fireball were broadcast to tens of thousands of people just about every weekend. People were also watching players face off in Standard all the time. While the Pro Tour is back, there is a lot of structural inertia involved with rebuilding after the previous system, plus different player behavior and habits due to the pandemic. It was another thing to do with your Standard deck. Players could try to win the event for a large prize and Pro Tour invitation, or play a few one-day tournaments or events. While the new RCQ and Regional Championships do their best to fill these shoes, they aren’t a perfect fit (more on this later). There were championships at every level, but Standard was also a common format for a Grand Prix, a regional convention/tournament (perhaps with sub-tournaments), side events, and other fun venues in a large city. Standard was played competitively everywhere on paper, and it had a lot of events. Players “had” to play certain formats before because they were the ones played at Pro Tours, GPs, and PTQs. As pro player Andrea Mengucci mentioned, players no longer have a reason to play. On top of using their Standard cards in other formats (which helps to keep their value after rotation), players had a huge incentive to get into Standard beyond having some of the cards from Limited play. With that gone, players discovered better formats.- Andrea Mengucci November 9, 2022 Formats didn’t matter, we were playing Standard because we had to in order to live the dream. GPs were appealing events people wanted to go.
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