Credit: Wizards of the Coast/Red Bull
Mentioned in this article
- Wizards of the Coast has partnered with Red Bull Esports for a Magic: The Gathering tournament series offering a $200K USD prize pool.
- Red Bull Untapped will host Magic: The Gathering Arena online qualifiers June 29-30, offline qualifiers July 6-7, and the finals on August 4.
- The winner of the Red Bull Untapped Finals will become the first featured Red Bull player to move on to the Mythic Championship VI from Nov. 8-10.
Red Bull 
Esports and Wizards of the Coast announced a new Magic: The Gathering Arena tournament series called Red Bull Untapped. Participation is free and players will compete for a $200K prize pool.
Online qualifiers will be hosted on FACEIT from June 29-30, with a prize pool of $10K divided among the top four players. Offline qualifiers will be held July 6 in Florence, Italy, and July 7 in Brussels, Belgium, where the top 64 players will split a prize pool of $60K.
“We want a wide variety of players that represent a cross-section of the esports and Magic: The Gathering community,” said Red Bull on the tournament’s FAQ page. “We also want this to be an entertaining event for players across the globe to enjoy.”
That being said, players selected to participate in the online qualifiers will include up to 16 Magic Pro League (MPL) players per event, up to 34 Twitch
streamers with at least 10K followers, up to 40 Mythic ranked players in Magic: The Gathering Arena, and a minimum of 100 players from Europe. Remaining slots will be randomly allocated.
Offline qualifiers will include up to 16 MPL Players per event, up to 50 Twitch streamers with 10K+ followers, a minimum of 100 players from the host regions (Italy for Florence; Belgium-The Netherlands-France-Germany for Brussels). In addition, up to 10 slots are for winners of in-store qualifier events taking place in Florence or Brussels, while up to 10 slots will be reserved for winners of in-store qualifier events taking place in WPN Premium stores across Europe. Other slots will be randomly allocated.
Players who are not chosen for their respective category will be added to the remaining slots, giving them two chances to get a seat at their chosen tournament.
Related Article: Wizards of the Coast Continues Magic: The Gathering Push With Netflix Show
The top eight qualifiers will move on to the August 4 Finals event, hosted at the Gaming Square in London and broadcast live on Red Bull’s Twitch channel. The Finals offer another prize pool of $60K which is to be split among the top eight players.
The winner of Red Bull Untapped will become the first featured Red Bull player to compete in the Mythic Championship VI. The event will take place in Richmond, Virginia, on Nov. 8-10 and offer a $500K prize pool.
Magic: The Gathering Arena is a digital version of the 25-year-old collectible card game. It entered beta in September and is “performing well,” according to parent company Hasbro. In its Q1 2019 call to investors, Brian Goldner, Hasbro’s chairman and CEO, said that over 700M games had been played in the open beta.
“We’ll be further supporting the game with additional tournaments and marketing support as the year progresses,” said Goldner on the earnings call.
Wizards of the Coast kicked off digital esports initiatives in March with the Magic: The Gathering Mythic Invitational. The event was held at PAX East in Boston and offered a $1M USD prize pool.
