New and upcoming professional Magic: The Gathering players are having to resort to using fundraising sites like GoFundMe to raise adequate funds to pay for their flights to reach the Mythic Championship IV along with hotels and other expenses.

Though the players are qualified for the championship event, Wizards of the Coast made the decision to no longer cover the expenses of flight and accommodations as it had in the past. This is unfortunate news for players who made it through the Mythic Championship Qualifiers but may not have the money to attend the championship.

Because of this poor decision on Wizards of the Coast’s part, there are several players with GoFundMe pages right now like Larry Coleman and many others. Thankfully, the community, including other professional players like Brian Kibler are stepping in to share and contribute to their pages.

Kibler posted on Twitter how he had heard about the changes that Wizards of the Coast had made and was asking his followers to share with him any GoFundMe pages they could find so he could donate to them.

I’ve heard a lot of rumbling around the Magic community about the removal of flights for MCQ winners and people posting GoFundMe’s to raise funds for their event expenses. Regardless of how I feel about the shift away from WotC paying for flights, I empathize with chasing dreams.

— Brian Kibler (@bmkibler) June 5, 2019

Brian Kibler noted that he first qualified for the pro tour when he was 15 years old and his mother paid for all of his travel expenses at the time. Unfortunately, not all players have the financial means that Kibler did at the time but deserve to be there just as much.

Kibler noted that he empathizes with those players who are chasing their dreams, which is why he decided to donate to them. Thus far, we have discovered five different GoFundMe pages of Magic players who participated and won their respective Mythic Championship Qualifiers.

How to Donate to Qualified Players

These five players are able to participate in the Mythic Championship IV in Barcelona, Spain, but will need some help getting there since Wizards of the Coast is no longer footing the bill. Those five players are Jody Keith, Pedro Oriani, Mimi Arthur, Larry Coleman, and Mike Inman.

If you are interested in checking out of those players’ GoFundMe page to donate or simply read up on their specific story, be sure to head to the link on each of their names. These five players range in age; some are adults while others like Pedro Oriani are 16 years old.

It is a shame that these players qualified for Mythic Championship IV but aren’t able to make it there on their own for whichever reason. For some players, their age alone makes it difficult to find a job and save up the money to make it to Barcelona, Spain.

Other players like Larry Coleman are mainly looking for funds to cover the expensive plane ticket from the United States to Spain while he will cover the other associated fees, such as his passport and so on. The first day of the event is his birthday, too, making this situation all the more unfortunate.

What’s great, though, is that the Magic community has come together to support these five players who are in need of assistance even if Wizards of the Coast won’t. Every single one of the qualified players have reached at least half of their goals at this point, if not more.

Mythic Championship IV Details

Mythic Championship IV takes place in Barcelona and will last for three days in total. It will run from July 26 through July 28 so, thankfully, the affected players have time to raise the funds to make it to the event this summer.

There is a grand total of $500,000 in prize money that will be offered across the event. Players will not only need to purchase the potentially expensive plane ticket depending on their location around the world, but pay for a place to stay during that time, too.

The opportunity to participate in the championship could be a life-changing event for these players and kickstart their professional career in the game, but it’s more than a little disappointing that Wizards of the Coast have decided not to take care of expenses.

While it’s understandable for the company considering the sheer number of participants in the competition, the payout for the championship wasn’t enough in the past to cover these types of expenses anyway. Most players are only guaranteed around $500 for participating since the vast majority of the prize pool typically goes to the top 16 players in the tournament.