Things are finally starting to look brighter for the Magic Pro League Core Set 2020 split. Wizards of the Coast is beginning to implement key changes that are making a difference already for the esports league that centers around Magic: The Gathering, both in tabletop form and digitally via MTG Arena.

The MPL Weekly split is something that started this year and features weekly matches between pro players. However, in the case of the Magic Pro League Core Set 2020 split, players are competing to get a bypass of the first day of competition in one of the upcoming Mythic Championships that will feature MTG Arena.

Why Viewership Decreased in the Past

These weekly competitions are where fans can check out their favorite players battling it out each week if they want. Despite featuring fan favorite pro players, viewership in the past hasn’t been great. In terms of the last split, which featured War of the Spark, viewers decreased significantly.

This was a number of reasons as the format that Wizards of the Coast used for the Split wasn’t the best. Matches would be pre-recorded and not live like fans are used to in competitions like these, and to make things worse, they wouldn’t be showing the entire matches like the community is used to.

As a surprise to no one, the community surrounding the league wasn’t happy and showed by choosing not to watch alongside making vocal complaints to Wizards of the Coast directly. To combat this and fix the issues from before, the company changed their format up a lot for this current split.

Major Changes Made to Viewing Format for Magic Pro League Core Set 2020 Split

Under the new Magic Pro League Core Set 2020 split, there is one division in the league that is shown off each week to keep things more manageable. There are round robin-style matches that are held earlier in the week on Monday and Tuesday where the top four players are determined for that week.

Then there is a double-elimination bracket format used for those top four players who compete live on Twitch each Saturday at around 12 pm PT (3 pm ET). Once those matches in the tournament format featuring the top four players are over, they are released on various sites like YouTube and Twitch for watching at anytime.

One of the key differences now is that the round robin matches earlier in the week that determine the top four players are no longer being streamed to fans. After all, this being a weekly affair, fans have shown in their viewership that the stakes (and perhaps timing) of these matches aren’t important enough.

The first week of the Magic Pro League Core Set 2020 split proved that the top four double-elimination matches are much more important to players than the other ones. Week one featured the Pearl Division of players and the views accumulated an estimated 40,000 views across Twitch and YouTube.

To be clear, 40,000 views isn’t a whole lot when compared to streamers and YouTubers who get similar numbers in just a couple of days on a normal week. However, that is a significant increase in total viewers that the MPL Weekly hasn’t been seeing in the previous split format.

Other Changes Coming in Season 2 of MPL

And what’s great is that Wizards of the Coast is committed to ensuring that these aren’t the only changes that will be happening in the future for the pro league. Season two of the normal esports league will be seeing some major changes to address issues that were present in its inaugural season.

The first of these has to do with the streaming contracts that players in the league had to sign. Every single one of the pro players in the league is required during season one to stream them playing the game in addition to actually participating in the league.

While that move is somewhat understandable from a business perspective, not every pro player is comfortable or even cut out for being a successful streamer. Though some streamers like Brad Nelson have found success, there are still others who haven’t.

Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast is paying attention to issues like these and will be removing the streaming requirement from the contracts for season two. This will ensure that only those players who like to stream and want to do it will continue to do it while the other players can focus on perfecting their craft.