Planeswalker Points and the Death of the DCI

Our poor, poor DCI ratings.

The numbers we have grown up with, cherished and nurtured. The numbers we've used to identify ourselves with amongst our magic playing peers. Our bragging rights, our status updates and our performance reviews... gone. All gone.

And who / what is this rival upstart seeking to take its place? What shrewd pretender seeks to claim the throne in an act of regicide?

None other than the pale and shadowy usurper: PLANESWALKER POINTS.

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"The king is dead... Long live the king!"

My Twitter feed was ablaze with comments from pros and casuals alike last night commenting on Planeswalker Points and their merits / failures.

You can read about the new system here AND see how many points you have:

www.wizards.com/magic/planeswalkerpoints

REAL quickly, Planeswalker Points will be a magic only points system designed to make PLAYING magic the primary focus of points, instead of actually winning. Winning will award MORE points, but even just for participating you are compensated.

Typically every “win” will net you 3 points, every “draw” 1 point and a loss still counts as nothing. Depending on how many players there are, you will also receive “participation points” for attending. You then multiply your “total points” (wins + draws + participation points) for the event by the “event multiplier” to get your final point total for the event.

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I’m not going to draw you an intricate chart with all of the multipliers and bonuses (as the site above does a great job explaining everything in detail), but will give an example based on a standard night of FNM which is what I’m sure many of you reading this are most interested in.

We’ll assume that there are 16 participants, so 4 rounds of swiss.

16 players = 2 participation points.

FNM event multiplier = 3.

Let’s say I do OK and win 2 games, tie 1, and lose 1.

Win = 2 (x3 = 6)

Tie = 1 (x1 = 1)

Lose = 0 (x0 = 0)

TOTAL = 6 + 1 + 0 = 7

The calculation = (7 (results) + 2 (participation points)) * 3 (event multiplier) = 27!

I would earn 27 Planeswalker Points for this event! :)

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I think this system has a LOT of both PRO’s and CON’s. Let’s take a look at those that I’ve been seeing on other websites / twitter and my own observations to make a list!

PROS	CONS
Allows those with high point ratings to still play and not fear losing points when they lose.	High level players destroy the regular FNM crowd. FNM environments become more hostile.
You can’t just sit on your rating and stay qualified as every season “competitive points” reset.	The volume of games that you play and not the win % of those games are now more relevant. Rating is no longer indicative of skill.
There is now an FNM championship for those players who don’t make it large tourneys often.	No automatic invites based on one tournament. You need to increase your rating to qualify, and play in events to raise your rating.
More people playing at every event = more participation points for everyone!	Tournaments will go longer, as less people will drop since no points lost, and every win nets you points.
No more whining when you “lose points” in a match.	People with more time to play have an advantage over those who don’t. Players are “punished” for having other commitments.
You are rewarded for playing MORE magic.	It doesn’t matter WHO you win against, you get the same amount of points.
Bringing friends with you to the tournament will increase players which will increase the Participation Points earned.	Smaller magic playing regions are at a disadvantage as smaller tournaments = less participation points.
You are now rewarded for “grinding”, regardless of how you actually place.	Our levels of geekyness have incresed 1000% fold!

Personally, I DON’T like the changes, simply because now the player that you face off against doesn’t matter. I could deal with ALL of the other changes, but I really feel as though WHO you play should have a direct impact on how many points you get. I don’t want to beat Nassim Ketita or Will Bax and get 3 crummy planeswalker points… I want to rape, pillage and assassinate their points and score the max, baby! I want them to go home crying to their mamas about how big bad mean old Carl stomped their pride and ego and forcibly removed the points from their cold lifeless fingers!

… Or maybe that’s precisely the reason why they changed it? :P Haha.

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So I KNOW that you’re all dying to know what MY Planeswalker Level is, right?

My DCI # = 32743831 and I have 5822 Planeswalker Points. According to THIS chart, that would make me a LEVEL 38 SORCERER. Sweet! I love how the sun is shining off my balding head!

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So how do YOU feel about the new “Planeswalker Points” system? Do you like it more or less than the old ELO / DCI ratings system? Can you think of any problems that would / will arise?

Best of all: What is YOUR Planeswalker Level and how long until you level up? Lol

Feel free to leave comments! I haven’t been able to reply to them yet because I’m having a problem w / my Google account user ID and it will only let me post as “anonymous”. It’s being looked into! :)

Until next time, keep grinding!

Cheers,

Carl Szalich