The Magic Online Community Cup is a yearly invitation-only tournament, first held in 2009, in which a group of Wizards of the Coast compete against a group of eight or twelve Magic players selected via a voting system in Magic Online. The tournament is held at the WOTC offices in Renton, Washington, but played by using the Magic Online software. The participants of the Community team are flown in. The tournament is held using a variety of differing and often strange formats such as Cube draft or Unified Ravnica Constructed (allowing all cards from both Ravnica block and Return to Ravnica block).
In lieu of physical prices, each user account on Magic Online which was active during the Community Cup will be gifted a special promo card after the tournament concludes. Should the Community team win, the card will be a very sought after and powerful card. Should the Wizards team win, each active account will still be gifted a card but it will be a very low quality card such as Sorrow's Path or Darksteel Relic.
Community teams often consist of Pro players as well as content creators for Magic websites such as video streamers, podcast hosts and authors of strategy articles. The Community Cup is often considered to be the spiritual successor of the Magic Invitational.
In 2014, the Community Cup was extended to a third day in which the Community team was allowed to play a sealed deck tournament with Khans of Tarkir, a full week ahead of the prerelease for the set.
Ironroot Chef
Ironroot Chef is a competition during the Community Cup, similar to popular television cooking shows.[1] The members of both teams have to design a standard legal deck based around one or more of five cards named by the flavor judges. The players then play three rounds with those decks and to gain points. However, the flavor judges will also give out additional points if the deck follows a certain theme or incorporates additional elements which work well with the chosen master "ingredient".
The flavor judges often are Graham Stark and James Turner of LoadingReadyRun and the Wizard from Walking the Planes.
Community Cup results
| Year | Community team | Result | Prize awarded |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Thomas Baird, Alex Ullman, Mike Linton, Walter Kolczynski, Pete Jahn, Sam McCarl, John Baichtal, Erik Friborg | 398-341 for the Community Team | |
| 2010 | Brad Nelson, Gavin Verhey, Victor Bloodgood, Joseph Hill, Marin Baraba, Callum Milne, Evan Erwin, Ed Grabianowski, Bill Stark Joshua Claytor was unable to attend. |
398-341 for the Community Team | One Mirrodin block draft set |
| 2011 | Chris Kuehl, Joe Dillard, Michelle Roberson, George Efelis, Luis Scott-Vargas, Josef Kronbichler, Bing Luke, Marshall Sutcliffe, Graham Stark | 243-147 for the Community Team | Invitation to a special four round tournament with additional prizes (at least one Magic 2011 booster for participation) |
| 2012 | Jonathan Loucks, Jackie Lee, Neale Talbot, Jessie Smith, Conley Woods, Heath Newton, Walter Kolczynski, James Turner | 268-228 for the Wizards Team | Sorrow's Path |
| 2013 | Melissa DeTora, Reid Duke, Kenji Egashira, Matthew Watkins, Tom Delia, Jan van der Vegt, Michael Jacob, Keya Saleh | 233-201 for the Community Team | Sliver Queen and Rakdos Cackler |
| 2014 | Sean Plott, Tom Ross, Scott MacCallum, Björn Andreasson, Erin Campbell, Mariah Pagliocco, Frank Lepore, Paul Cheon. Dalibor Trnka was nominated but could not attend. | 220-207 for the Community Team | Survival of the Fittest |
| 2015 | Kenji Egashira, Joel Larsson, Meghan Wolff, Maria Bartholdi, Gabe Reale, Jimmy Wong, Adam Styborski and Anthony "Wedge" D'Aconto [2] | 153-137 for the Community Team [3] | One-each, premium and non-premium, of the John Avon Unhinged basic lands, plus a premium and non-premium version of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben [4] |
References
- ↑ Michael Yichao (September 14, 2015). "Community Cup Approacheth!". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (August 12, 2015). "2015 Community Cup". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ 2015 Magic Community Cup
- ↑ David Whitfield (September 8, 2015) Community Cup Stakes, mMagicthegathering.com, Wizards of the Coast