Announcement: Worlds 2012 Change and New Format for Event

Hello all and welcome to this special edition of the emporium, today is a grim day for all us hopefuls whom wanted to go to worlds, because today they killed any hopes of those dreams in my eyes at least, would you like to know more about this, of course you would that is the direct point of this article, let us get down to business.


So earlier today in a special article written by the folks at wizards, they announced a few changes to the 2012 World Championships as well as how it would work, let's take a look at that article in question which will be linked here ---> World Championship Changes


For the first time since the creation of the Pro Tour, Magic: The Gathering will have a single tournament to determine the best player in the world: the 2012 World Championship.


This sounds all well and good, however wait till you see the rest of the article.

To accomplish this goal, the World Championship is changing from a Pro Tour-sized event to an exclusive sixteen-person tournament. These sixteen titans of Magic will battle for a $100,000 prize purse at Gen Con 2012 in Indianapolis (August 16-19). The field will be made up of the following players:

• 2011 World Champion
• 2011 Magic Online Champion (determined at the 2011 Magic Online Championship held at Magic Weekend San Francisco)
• Winners of the previous three Pro Tours (Philadelphia, Dark Ascension in Honolulu, and the second Pro Tour in 2012). Pro Tour Philadelphia champion Samuele Estratti is the first invitee to the 2012 World Championship.
• The top-ranked player from each geo-region (Asia Pacific, Europe, Japan, Latin America, and North America) in the Planeswalker Points 2012 Professional Total who are not yet invited based on the above criteria.
• The top-ranked players in the worldwide Planeswalker Points 2012 Professional Total who are not yet invited based on the above criteria sufficient to bring the total number of invited players to the 2012 World Championship to sixteen.

EXCUSE ME, your basically saying Nationals don't mean crap anymore, not for worlds then what is the point of nationals anymore, this basically says we are privatizing magic and making it exclusive for the big boys only folks like Patrick Chapin and of course channel fireball's Luis Scott Vargas whom both provide in depth coverage of decks/events and much much more, so your making it exclusive for 16 players, 3 of those slots go to pro tour winners, top ranked players in the planeswalker point system get invites, top ranked players from each geo region, ok, so i'd have to be the best in north america, ain't gonna happen, the defending champion gets a invite, as well as the magic online champ ok really, is this necessary wizards, but wait there's more.

In 2012, a player's Professional Points total consists of the Planeswalker Points earned at Pro Tours, Grand Prix, and the 2011 World Championships for a twelve-month period (see Premier Event Invite Policy for specific dates), so this will select the players who have done the best against the highest level of competition for an entire year.
"Think of the best Pro Tour Top 8 ever and then double it," said Aaron Forsythe, Senior Director ofMagic R&D. "The live coverage will be awesome as we showcase these players as the masters of the game. The 2010 Player of the Year playoff showed how Magic fans around the world got behind seeing the best play against the best."
With live video match coverage each round, in-depth player interviews and deck techs, analysis from experts in R&D and the world of Magic, and more opportunities for fans to follow and support their favorite players through social media, the 2012 World Championship promises to be unlike any other Magic tournament ever.
"Under the current system, you can make an argument for several different players being the best in the world," said Scott Larabee, Magic Organized Play Program Manager. "Is it the Player of the Year, who had the most top finishes but may not have won a major tournament? The World Champion, because that's what the title suggests? A Pro Tour winner, because Pro Tours probably have the toughest field of players? We wanted a clear answer, and the new World Championship provides that."

So basically we're being told that the only real way to qualify is by going to every GP, every pro tour and worlds 2011, um why didn't you tell us three weeks before now, dammit wizards you douchebags.

I cannot begin to express my disgust towards this, but wait there is even more.

National Championships will no longer be feeding a larger global event. With the World Championship moving to its new model, as well as a growing need for individual regions to tailor their organized play offerings, it was necessary to separate Nationals from a larger organized play path. This change helps individual regions develop the right tournaments and events—from Wizards Play Network events up to National Championships—to meet the needs of their region's player base.
"As the Magic brand grows across the world, Wizards has faced challenges in attempting to apply a one-size-fits-all approach to certain programs, and Nationals was one of those," said Helene Bergeot, Director of Organized Play Programs and Operations. "It is up to the regional offices to decide on the size and scope of their countries' National Championships, and we've seen that in many of those countries, the pride of being your country's champion is a primary motivation for players."
National Championships will be run at a Planeswalker Points multiplier of 8x, the same as Grand Prix. Along with the expanded Grand Prix schedule, Nationals provide a good opportunity for many players around the world to experience a large-scale Magic tournament and earn high amounts of Planeswalker Points in a single event.
Expect to see the complete National Championship schedule by April 2012.

So basically nationals gets the big boot from being the feeding point to worlds, now it's just a glorified GP, no thanks again wizards you've killed my pro interest in the game thanks.

The rest of the article goes on to talk about how the pro tour points are affected and stuff like that, basically it says, No thank you you are not welcome at worlds unless your the best truly, plain and simple, way to kill the player base wizards i cannot begin to describe my disgust towards this decision, effectively magic is dying because of decisions like this, which basically drive the casual gamers/grinders away and make it for the truly hardcore, then what is the point of nationals nothing anymore, nationals as i said is now a glorified GP, pathetic, well that's all for this edition of the emporium today, sorry folks but this has to end sorry, i am just pissed at this decision this is vergil signing off.