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People complain about best-of-1 a lot, and we hear that. We also see that people play best-of-1 a lot. More than the corresponding best-of-3 formats, every time. Even among our highly invested players, who have all the game modes turned on and spend money and participate in multiple formats, the data shows the same trend.
Our goal with the Arena Open is to make meaningful tournament play available to the greater Arena population - not just players who are already deeply invested in competitive Magic and familiar with all of its trappings. In order to reach that audience, we wanted it to be more approachable. By making Day 1 best-of-1, players can (initially) play the event the same way they play Arena every day.
Once a player has qualified to Day 2 and established that they have something serious to gain, we're more comfortable asking them to commit additional time, energy, and resources to playing best-of-3. Because we agree with the premise behind this post - that best-of-3 is a more rigorous competitive format. It's the gold standard for high-level competition, and it's important for players to still prove themselves in that venue.
All of that said, we are looking at ways to offer multiple Day 1 paths in the future (best-of-1/best-of-3 being an obvious pairing). There are a handful of issues that will need to be addressed (balanced time commitments, competitively fair structures, some tech stuff), but we're working on it.
People play BO1 a lot, but not competitively. Any competitive player would prefer BO3 over BO1, BO1 is played more, simply because casual players prefer it, but casual players wouldn't want to participate in tournaments, since it's just a waste of money for them.
Those excuses don't make any sense, it's pretty obvious that it's all about money, to drain people of their resources and to lure them into spending more than they could afford.
If someone only plays BO1, it doesn't make sense for them to participate in this tournament, since they won't have any hope in BO3 part anyway, where all the prizes are.
BO1 games are especially vulnerable to being on the play vs on the draw.
I played 140 BO1 matches during last 2 days, and my winrate on the play was 81%, while on the draw 59%. That's insane discrepancy, and it's somewhat alleviated in BO3, but in BO1 it turns the whole tournament into series coinflips.
If you slightly fallen behind, you are pretty much doomed in BO1 game, while in BO3 you always have a chance to revert the tide of battle with proper sideboarding. BO1 really shouldn't be a part of competitive scene.
I'm not sure what you mean by saying that people don't play Bo1 competitively. The vast majority of Mythic play (or play on the way to Mythic) is Bo1, for example. The majority of players qualify for tournaments by getting Mythic through Bo1 play. The Open works in a similar way (qualify via Bo1, prove yourself via Bo3).
The data we see shows that players that predominantly play Bo1 very much do want to compete in these tournaments. And they have the skills to win them.
The play/draw percentages you cite are quite exceptional. The normal spread is much closer than that.
Taking a step back, one of the first principles we live by on Arena is (shockingly) the first principle of Magic R&D: "We are stewards of Magic. We want Magic to last forever and to be better tomorrow than it is today".
That means we need to appeal to a broad audience, so Magic keeps growing. That also means we need to maintain competitive integrity, so Magic doesn't become degenerate. Right now, Bo1 Day 1 and Bo3 Day 2 is the best approach we've found to meet both aspects of this goal. As Cromulous says, we're continuing to work on ways to find a better balance here.
Divide BO1 metrics by 10 to account for the new player wall blocking the BO3 option. Then Divide by an extra 2.5 to account for the extra BO3 time commitment
We're accounting for all of that in the numbers we're citing here. Players with the toggle flipped still play the vast majority of their games (games, not matches) in Bo1.
So basically competitive players who enjoy the BO3 tournament style either have to hope for good dice rolls for Day 2 or pay for a tonne of entry fees for repeated attempts.
You’re basically putting the real tournament behind a pay wall.
Edit: I want to add that if you do want to make Day 1 more accessible keep it BO1 that’s fine, but it shouldn’t be a qualifier then. Make it a seeding setup. Day 1 is BO1 for seeding, Day 2 is BO3 but you could end up with tougher matchups if you don’t do well on Day 1.
We really do want there to be a strong competitive path for players that prefer only playing Bo3. That's a small minority of the playerbase, but something we take very seriously. Currently we aim to support that via the Traditional Ladder and working your way to top Mythic and organized play tournaments from there. If that's not an appealing path for you/players like you, then we're very interested to learn more about how and why you feel that way. Honestly, we will try to fix that.
The Arena Opens are not designed to be that path. These are built for wide appeal to the whole audience of Magic players, rather than the Bo3-only hardcore.
Taking (another) step back, I have very vivid memories of way back in the mid-90's when my LGS ran its first "Type II" tournament. (In the olden days, Magic didn't have multiple formats. The first change here was between "Type I" (effectively Vintage) and "Type II" (effectively Standard now).) Some of the players I saw back then were very upset when this happened. I recall deckboxes being thrown across the store. Players felt like "If I can't play Black Lotus, Moxen, Ancestral Recall, and similar cards it's Not Real Magic." The change was controversial. But in the end it was good for the game.
Magic is continually growing, changing, and expanding. That's good. That's essential for hitting that goal I mentioned above ("stronger tomorrow than it is today"). But this can make long-time players feel left out. We don't want this. Please always let us know when you're feeling this way (like many are in this thread).
We get it. We understand that there are a number of players right now that feel like Magic is best played Bo3, and anything else is a flaw. We really do hear and respect that. We also see that there are a lot of players (both new and old) that strongly prefer Bo1. Our goal is to provide the right options to ensure that Magic can be "stronger tomorrow than it is today".
Right now, we feel like the structure for the Arena Open does a good job there. We feel like it strikes a good balance between allowing all players to engage with the event and ensuring that only the most-skilled (at Bo3) earn the top prizes. We definitely hear that there are players that feel like they need a Bo3-only path here. We are actively working on options there.