This week, MTG officially announced a new tournament circuit dubbed the Magic: The Gathering Spotlight Series. The Spotlight Series will consist of eight open tournaments in 2025.
The prize support for the new Spotlight Series is substantial, with $400K announced in total for 2025. The prize pool is broken down to $50K per event throughout the year.
Read the Spotlight Series announcement from MTG below:
What Is the Magic Spotlight Series?
The Magic Spotlight Series is a large, multi-day celebration that will spotlight a specific theme at each event, and elements of that theme will influence the weekend’s events. Just as exciting as the events themselves, each Magic Spotlight Series stop will feature a flagship main tournament—a two-day open event that features a $50,000 prize pool, a sweet promo card, and invitations to an upcoming Magic Pro Tour event for the Top 8 finishers.
Next year, 2025, will feature eight Magic Spotlight Series events in total:
- Five in the United States, hosted by StarCityGames.com
- Two in Europe, hosted by Fanfinity
- One in Japan, hosted by BIG MAGIC
Magic Spotlight Series stops will also feature side events, vendors, special guests, and more at the discretion of the hosting organizer. As more information for each Magic Spotlight event becomes public, please refer to the organizer’s event information page for all the details on this front.
via magic.gg
Details for the Spotlight Series main event are as follows:
The Magic Spotlight main event will feature one format over the course of two days of competition, with the action starting on Saturday. Everyone who signs up may compete in as many of the nine rounds on Saturday as they wish, but only players who have 18 match points or better (typically awarded via six or more match wins) may compete on the second day of competition on Sunday.
After six rounds on Sunday, the Top 8 advance to a single-elimination playoff, which will play to a winner on Sunday. These Top 8 players will secure invitations to an upcoming Magic Pro Tour event and will play for the title of Magic Spotlight Champion, the lion’s share of the $50,000 prize pool, and an extra-special prize for the winner of each Spotlight main event (more on that in the Spotlight themes section, later in this article).
via magic.gg
Unlike the Pro Tour, the Spotlight Series main event is open to everyone; however, available seating is limited, so those interested are encouraged to register early.
Spotlight Series promo card rewards will also be available to attendees. Every participant will receive a non-foil promo card, which will be different for each venue. The top 128 finishers in each event will be rewarded with a traditional foil version of the participation card.
For those not attending the Spotlight Series in person, there will be live video coverage of feature matches, just like any other major MTG event.
The dates, locations, and formats for the first two Spotlight Series tournaments are as follows:
- Magic Spotlight: Foundations (Standard): January 3–5, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Promo card = Terror of the Peaks with new artwork by Richard Kane Ferguson
- Magic Spotlight: Modern: March 15–16, 2025, in Utrecht, Netherlands. Promo Card = Kaldra Compleat with new artwork by Monztre
Stay tuned to MTG Insider for additional details on the remaining 6 Spotlight Series tournaments. Details and formats for these have not yet been announced.
