Grands Prix are back! Well, sort of. It was announced on the Weekly MTG stream, hosted by Blake Rasmussen and Huey Jensen, that eight Grand Prix-style events will be held across the world in 2025, each with eight Pro Tour invites attached to them. There's a lot of info to break down here, so let's dive into exactly what the Magic Spotlight series is and how it affects you as a competitive player of the game.

What are Magic Spotlight Events?

Magic Spotlight events are two-day weekend tournaments that will take place across 2025. Each will have a specific theme, and will vary in format, like Standard, Modern, etc. Each event features nine rounds of swiss on Saturday, with a cutoff to day two. Players with six wins (18 match points or higher) will advance to day two. On Sunday, players will play an additional six rounds of swiss before cutting to single-elimination Top 8. All players who make Top 8 are awarded invitations to the next Pro Tour, and there will not be invites passed down to players with the same record as players who made Top 8.

Who is hosting Magic Spotlight events?

Magic Spotlight events are being held in three regions: the United States, Japan, and Europe. Star City Games is the organizer for the US, Big Magic for Japan, and Fanfinity for Europe. For US tournaments, Magic Spotlight events will be held at Star City Games' premier convention events, SCG Con, with the first being in Atlanta, January 3-5 2025.

The second Magic Spotlight event is being held in Utrecht, Netherlands, March 15-16, and will feature Modern as its format.

Overall there will be eight Magic Spotlight events held across 2025, five in the US, two in Europe, and one in Japan.

What is the prize breakdown for a Magic Spotlight event?

Looking at Star City Games and Fanfinity's Magic Spotlight events website, we can get an idea of what the prize breakdown will be for these events. Here is the announced prize structure for the Standard Magic Spotlight event at SCG Con Atlanta:

• 1st: $10,000.00, Pro Tour Invitation, Standard for a year! (One Play Booster Case of every Standard-legal Magic release in 2025)
• 2nd: $5,000.00, Pro Tour Invitation
• Top 4: $2,500.00, Pro Tour Invitation
• Top 8: $1,000.00, Pro Tour Invitation
• Top 16: $750.00
• Top 32: $550.00
• Top 64: $350.00

Additionally, as shown in the first-place prize for this event, winners of each Magic Spotlight event will receive an additional prize that will change to fit the theme of each event.

How can I best prepare for a Magic Spotlight event?

Magic Spotlight events will directly mirror the Grand Prix structure of competitive Magic's past - fifteen round swiss tournaments with a cut to Top 8. These events are honestly pretty physically and mentally demanding, combined with the headache of travel if you're from out of state. If you're a seasoned veteran you'll know just how important it is to have snacks and water on you at all times, as well as ample prep for these events.

If Atlanta is your first Magic Spotlight event I'd highly recommend testing with your friends both in person and on MTG Arena. MTG Arena is a fantastic resource since you can play a lot of games of Standard in a short time frame, plus learn how cards interact and play with each other.

However, it's important to have an understanding of how competitive Magic events operate. Not only will you need to understand the rules enforcement level for an event this massive, but you'll have to have a grasp on the technicalities of playing competitive Magic. Aspects of competitive play, such as managing the clock, shuffling fast, shortcutting, and knowing when to call a judge are paramount to placing well at one of these events.

While many experienced competitive players understand these intricacies of high-level play, it can be daunting for a new player to attend an event of this scale. Fret not, I'll have an article coming soon with the best ways you can prepare for your first Magic Spotlight event, so keep an eye out!

Are there any promos for attending or placing well at a Magic Spotlight event?

There will be a unique promo card for participants of each Magic Spotlight event, the first being Terror of the Peaks, with new art from Richard Kane Ferguson.

Kaldra Compleat will be the promo for the Utrecht Modern event.

Additionally, the top 128 placing players from each event will be awarded a foil version of that promo. With cash prizes being paid out to top 64 (at least for the SCG Con event) this is a nice prize boost for those who day two, but miss the cash prize cutoff.

What is the cost of entry for Magic Spotlight events?

While the event entry for Magic Spotlight events will vary based on format and tournament organizer, it is worth noting that there's a high possibility these larger events hosting said Spotlight events will have no venue fee. While at Magic Con you have to pay for a weekend or daily pass to get into the venue, SCG Con has not charged an entry fee. With that being the case, I'd be shocked if SCG would charge venue entry fee, which hopefully leads me to believe the other tournament organizers won't.

Will there be coverage of Magic Spotlight events?

As Huey mentioned on stream, there in fact will be coverage for each Magic Spotlight event! Coverage will be managed by each Spotlight event's tournament organizer, meaning it's likely SCG will have the same coverage layout/staff as for their upcoming Regional Championship events.

Why do Magic Spotlight Events matter?

Ultimately, Magic Spotlight events are a huge positive change for competitive Magic. In one of my most recent articles, I was critical of the current organized play program for its lack of ways players could directly qualify for Pro Tours. One of my favorite aspects of pre-pandemic MTG was the fact that you could show up to a random Pro Tour Qualifier or Grand Prix, spike the event, and catapult yourself onto the Pro Tour train. I never really enjoyed playing in the RCQ system, as I disliked the amount of time between winning a RCQ and then playing the corresponding RC event. With recent RC's hitting up to 1300 players, these events felt like Grands Prix with an extra step than previous past iterations, like RPTQs.

Grands Prix, in my opinion, were some of the best ways to experience Magic. With past SCG Cons being completely free to enter, I'm excited to return to competitive play weekends where there isn't a high price just to enter the venue (I'm looking at you, MagicCon). While MagicCons are great events for the player base at all, they don't service competitive players well with only two in the continental US per year, and high cost of entry.

Magic Spotlights will be a fantastic return to a previously great system, not only to hand out more direct Pro Tour invites, but as an avenue for more competitive players to experience the game. Who can forget their first Grand Prix? Their first day two? First time playing (or beating) a pro? The experience is invaluable in itself, and I applaud Huey Jensen's dedication to supporting a system that will give competitive players another avenue to play. While eight events isn't a lot, I'm confident the popularity of these events will lead to more Magic Spotlight events in 2026.

To close this article, I leave you with a blurry flip phone photo from one of my first SCG events: my brother and I posing with our favorite Magic Pro, Reid Duke. The photographer? None other than Huey Jensen himself. Funny how life works.

See you in Atlanta.

-Roman Fusco