Wizards of the Coast announced today that they will be changing the rating system used with Magic the Gathering. In the old system, players would gain or lose points depending on their wins or losses in sanctioned events. The better your opponent, the more points you would gain by beating them. If you lost, however, your rating would go down. If you lost to a better player, you would only lose a few points, but losing to a player with a lower rating than you would lose you a lot of points.
While this system has worked, there are problems with it. First, casual play has no effect on rating. You could play Magic all day every day and get no notice from Wizards. Another problem is “sitting on ratings”. When a player works his way up to a high rating, the temptation is to simply stop playing. Why risk losing hard-earned points? Especially when a large tournament is coming up, and a high rating could get you a bye.
So, Wizards has announced a new plan called, Planeswalker Points.
From Wizards:
At its most basic, Planeswalker Points rewards players for playing in sanctioned events (with larger and/or more competitive events awarding more points) and for winning matches (with 3 points for each win, 1 for each draw, and zero for each loss). You can’t lose points for losing matches and you don’t have to “spend” them to get the perks of a high rating, so your lifetime total never goes down*.
Planeswalker Points tracks your points in various ways, including a Lifetime total that allows you to level up and gain ranks in an advancement system. There are also different totals, like the Competitive total and Friday Night Magic total, which are used to invite players to exclusive events and offer other rewards.
Finally, Planeswalker Points is retroactive. If you already have a DCI number and have participated in OP events, you already have lifetime points since we have applied the Planeswalker Points system to all the matches in which you have already played. In addition, you already have a level in the advancement system!
Here’s a short summary of how the new point system will work:
Your Planeswalker Points are tracked in several different ways. Your Lifetime total records all the points you’ve ever earned, and is used to calculate your Planeswalker Points level. Your Competitive total counts points from competitive events in the current competitive season. Your Friday Night Magic Total counts points from Friday Night Magic Events. Lastly, your Professional total adds together the points you’ve earned at major events. These totals will be used to award invitations and byes to different kinds of events.
Casual Events
Casual events award players only for participation, not for match results. You are awarded a fixed number of points, at least 1 point for each event. Attending sanctioned casual events—or asking your store to sanction the casual games you’re already playing—is a great way to build up your Lifetime total. There’s no reason not to get your event sanctioned, even if it’s just you and your buddies hanging around your local store playing Commander.
Points from casual events count toward your Lifetime total exclusively.
Competitive Events
In competitive events (all events that are not casual), the number of Planeswalker Points you earn depends on the number of people in the event, your match record, and type of event (FNM, Pro Tour Qualifier, World Championship, etc).
Points from competitive events count toward your Lifetime total and toward your Competitive total for the current Competitive Season. Depending on the type of event, points from competitive events may also count toward your Friday Night Magic total or your Professional total.
Participation points: Competitive events award participation points based on the total number of players. The more players facing off—or, to look at it a different way, the more friends you bring—the more points everyone gets for playing. You get participation points even if you don’t win a single match. All you have to do is play!
Match record: In competitive events, you earn 3 points for each match win, 1 point for each draw, and zero points for each loss.
Event multiplier: Your participation points and match record points for each competitive event are added together, and then multiplied by an event multiplier determined by the type of event. For example, Friday Night Magic has a multiplier of 3x, while a Grand Prix has a multiplier of 8x.
For more details, see this posting.
You can check your existing Planeswalker Points here.
