Team Aether Weekly Tourneys

As many of you may or may not know, Aetherhub runs a Magic Arena tourney every single week. This week will mark our 18th tourney and we couldn't be happier with the results of the previous tournaments. In those 18 weeks we've had quite a few changes in the reward structure and for most weeks it's 10 packs split as 5,3, and 2 respectively. This week will mark the end of the WAR packs and only have 5 to hand out, however on the 31st we will be holding our 3rd ever 10k gem tourney.

We've learned quite a bit from the last two 10k gem tourneys and have updated the sites tournament features to accomidate the problems that occured in the past. Some of these problems that have been solved since then are as followed:

• Website crashed when the first round began - This problem was caused due to 230 players all having to refresh the page at once and this issue has been worked around and resolved.
• Players not linking their MTGA nickname to their Aetherhub profile - This problem was resolved by adding in an option to require the MTGA nickname to sign up for the tourney.
• Some players after getting a few losses, they would just leave - This problem was resolved by adding in a self drop feature for these players as well as a no show option for the player that ends up matching up with someone who decided to leave. These options will remove the player from further matchmaking.

 My Experience So Far

I've played in all 17 tournaments so far and I have seen and learned quite a lot from the viewers and competitors. Many new players join the tourneys every week and absolutely fall in love with them. Sometimes people find it difficult to fit a 4-7 hour tournament into their schedule, but the ones who do week after week truely love it. Playing MTGA in ranked against a faceless, nameless opponent all day is fine and all. But when you enter an environment such as a Swiss format, things are always kept interesting. After just a round or two the system evens itself out, if you're playing somethign relatively jank and know you can't beat the tier 1 meta, but want to have fun. Then the system will match you with other people with the same wins and losses record as you, and then you get to have some solid fun, and after sideboarding is when the real fun happens with these brews. Only the best decks play against each other at the top and after each round you continute to play against decks that are more on your level. Some players are in it for the rewards at the top each week, and that's to be expected, but many stay for the pleasure of playing Magic.

Burnout Advice

Generally when I stream Magic, I don't like sticking to one single deck day after day and grinding it to the top. I did that months ago and made mythic a few times, it was boring and honestly made me contemplate quitting. However I changed the way I stream and play Magic. I play a different deck every single week in the tournament. Sure I don't know all the sideboard plays, and I don't know every single combo and make play mistakes here and there that seem obvious to the average viewer. But the cool thing is that I can shrug it off and try something new the next week and this has rejuvenated my love for Magic. I'd recommend this to others if you find your interest in the game waning, winning isn't everything and sometimes you forget the game is about the experience you receive playing the game. When you play the same deck over and over and win a lot more, the bordom starts to kick in. So this is my recommendation for anyone who plays tons of Magic.

Below is The Team Aether League 18 Tourney Description

The Team Aether Leauge is held Every Saturday. Each Tourney has Free Entry w/ Prize Support! (Prizes Must be Claimed via Streamers Discord, https://discord.gg/R46E9qm)

Prior to the Tourneys Start you must have the Aetherhub Tourney Page open to be seen by the Streamer as Online (and see pairings). You must also have the Streamers Twitch Channel open to know when a Round Starts and Ends (You may mute during the games of course)

Hosts Stream: twitch.tv/mtg_arena_meta

Format Rules:

• Swiss Best of 3 with No Maximum Rounds (Rounds based on players count, 5 minimum) 
• 50 Minutes Per Round, Tournament Drop After 10 Minutes (Round ends based on aetherhub timer, not the in-game timer)
• A Tie will be Issued if Round Exceeds 50 Minutes, The Next Round will Begin Early if Everyone Finishes Before 50 Minutes
  Tournament Match Must be Set on Arena (Includes timers)
• Nexus of Fate is Banned (Games take too long with a 50 minute round)

Tourney Rules:

• Tourney Starts Promptly at 1:30pm EST (No late participants)
• Everyone Deemed Offline will be Kicked 10 Minutes Prior to the Start (Shown up red on admin panel) Apply Back as Soon as Possible if You are Present

Prize for every Week (Booster Prizes are Sponsored by Wizards of the Coast!)

• 1st place - 3 WAR MTG Arena Boosters
• 2nd place - 1 WAR MTG Arena Boosters
• 3rd place - 1 WAR MTG Arena Boosters

Booster Prizes are Restricted to 10 WAR MTG Boosters per account. (Lifetime)

Tournament Process:

• The streamer will start the stream at ~1:00pm EST (30 minutes early) and will take questions and concerns prior to the start.
• 10 minutes prior to the start, the streamer will kick anyone that is deemed offline via the admin panel, all those kicked will still have the opportunity to join back within those 10 minutes (keep in mind that if you had Aetherhub open and you were kicked, you may need to try a different browser in the following weeks or it may happen again).
• Once the first pairings have been determined you will then have to find your opponent and click the game-pad icon to the left of their name. This icon will automatically copy their ID for you to Ctrl+V into MTGA. You will not have to interact with the opponent prior to the start of the round. However if you need to voice a complaint, please prioritize the stream chat over the Aetherhub Chat or Discord Chat.
• After the winner has been determined, please locate the Results Tab at the top of the pairings and submit how many wins you and your opponent received and click save. If your opponent didn't show up after the 10 minute period, please give yourself 2 wins and checkmark the box that says no show.
• If you have determined that you've played enough and want to drop out of the tournament, please make sure to go back to the results page and checkmark the box that is labelled self drop. This will help the person who you will get matched up against next round get to play against someone that is there and willing to play magic instead of being matchupup with you, who has already logged off. You can also ask the streamer to drop your from the tourney as well, just tell me your username if it's different than your Twitch Name.
   

Team Aether Discord Community: discord.aetherhub.com