History of Magic

Wizards of the Coast

Richard Garfield - the creator of Magic: The Gathering

Magic the Gathering is a collectible card game created in 1993 by Richard Garfield released by Wizards of the Coast. Magic was the first modern collectible card game and is still active today. There are an estimated six million players in over 65 countries.

Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes.

Originally a basement-run role-playing game publisher, the company popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s.

Today the company publishes role-playing games, board games, and collectible card games. Wizards has been a subsidiary of Hasbro since 1999.

Peter Adkison, the CEO of Wizards of the Coast in 1993, met with Richard Garfield and discussed a game Garfield had been developing called Mana Clash. Adkison agreed to produce the game which was renamed Magic: The Gathering and released August 5, 1993.

The Magic Pro Tour

The first major Magic: The Gathering tournament was the 1994 World Championship held at GenCon ’94. It was a single-elimination 512-person Constructed event run over three days of competition. The winner, Zak Dolan, received a trophy but no money. Another World Championship was organized in 1995, but only in 1996 was the first true Pro Tour held. The idea was to run several tournaments each year that would gather the best players in the world and reward them with cash for their dedication to the game.

Wizards of the Coast developed a Professional Tour in 1996. The Pro Tour players from all over the world competed for a total purse of $240,245 and a grand prize for first place of $40,000.

The Pro Tour is the highest form of competitive play for the Magic: The Gathering. It consists of a series of payout tournaments held throughout the world, each requiring an invitation to participate. Every PT awards a total of $230,000 in cash prizes, with $40,000 going to the winner alone. Pro Tour competitors also receive Pro Points, the amount depending on their results. Pro Points award the special benefits to players, including automatic qualification and travel awards for subsequent Pro Tours.

Ranking within the Top 8 of a Pro Tour is considered to be the ideal accomplishment of most competitive Magic players. Professional players are often compared by the number of Top 8 tournaments they have participated in throughout their career.

Watch the video below to learn more about the Magic Pro Tour.

An Award-Winning Game

Magic was awarded as one of Mensa’s top five Mind games in 1994, as well as winning the Origins award for Best Fantasy or Science Board game of 1993 and Best Graphic Presentation of a Board game in 1994. In 1999 Magic was inducted alongside Richard Garfield into the Origins Hall of Fame.

Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizards_of_the_Coast
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Tour_(Magic:_The_Gathering)
Garfield photo – wizards.com