Magic's live event coverage went through a revolution in 2012 when we expanded Pro Tour video coverage to all three days of competition. A big part of that transition was working with a relatively new video streaming platform called Twitch. Not even a year old at the time, Twitch held amazing promise as a gateway to bring Magic to a much wider audience.

Fast forward to 2017 and it's safe to say that Twitch has become one of the most influential brands in all of gaming. Last November, Wizards announced a partnership with Twitch that makes it the exclusive video content broadcast, streaming, and distribution partner for Magic premier play events. I'm excited to delve deeper into what this partnership means for 2017 and beyond.

Expanded Schedule

Plain and simple, this partnership means more video coverage. This year will have at least 40 Magic events streamed on twitch.tv/magic, up from 22 in 2016. Here's how that breaks down by event type:

• 4 Pro Tours
• Magic World Championship
• World Magic Cup
• 32 Grand Prix
• Magic Online Championship
• Super Sunday Series Championship

All told, that's a premier play event streamed on 35 different weekends. This schedule reflects an increase of nearly 400 hours of video content, bringing the total to roughly 1,000 hours of live-streamed Magic events. If you want to watch every minute, that's an average of 2 hours and 45 minutes every day.

This is an incredibly robust schedule, featuring coverage of every major format from every region. I'm particularly excited to announce that we will be streaming English-language coverage from a Grand Prix in Brazil for the first time. We will also be streaming from a Japanese Grand Prix, along with a deep slate of North American and European events. The majority of weekends will feature one streamed event, but we're doubling up the stream on four Standard Grand Prix weekends to delve deeper into the format across multiple regions.

You can see the full schedule of streamed events at the bottom of this article. But that may not be all; as the year goes on, we'll be looking for additional opportunities to bring you streaming video from events far and wide.

Subscriptions

We're also excited to announce that effective this week, we are launching subscriptions for the twitch.tv/magic channel. When you subscribe, you'll get immediate access to our six launch emoticons and the subscriber badge.

Our community team spent countless hours over the holiday break testing these six emoticons across all our internal messaging tools. Higher levels of consciousness were reached as complicated strands of thought were encapsulated within 28-pixel-by-28-pixel images. (Frankly, I'm surprised that group still communicates with words at all anymore.)

Along with those sweet icons, subscribers will get special access to members of Magic R&D in the form of subscriber-mode Q&As in Twitch chat. We're still in the process of developing cool ways to give subscribers more benefits, but look for them to debut during Amonkhet preview season in a few months. We're also exploring ways to increase engagement during Pro Tour coverage, such as Q&As with pro players and casters and other interactive features during the stream.

And that's just the start. We have more to roll out already in the queue, but we'd also love to hear what you think about these. So hit us up on Twitter @wizards_magic with feedback.

Subscribers will also get a badge showing the Planeswalker symbol next to their name in chat. One-month subscribers will receive the common badge, three-month subscribers an uncommon badge, six-month a rare badge, and 12-month subscribers will receive the mythic badge, as below.

Next Steps

Magic video streaming has come a long way from the tiny 240 pixel–wide video window we embedded in Pro Tour coverage more than a decade ago. We couldn't have taken that journey without our many, many fans, and we thank you for your immeasurable investment of time and passion in this game. As we take these big new steps forward, we want to hear from you about your likes and dislikes with Magic coverage and how you think we can make it better. Our community team's ears are up, so reach out to us on Twitter (@magicprotour and @wizards_magic), Facebook, and Tumblr with your thoughts.

So tune in to twitch.tv/magic this weekend for the new Standard format at Pro Tour Aether Revolt on Feb. 3–5 from Dublin, Ireland!

Complete Streaming Schedule

*Video coverage of Grand Prix Las Vegas will focus on the Legacy and Modern events, but will also include some coverage of the Limited Grand Prix running on June 16–17.

Editor's Note: Grand Prix Metz was originally announced as receiving live video coverage. As announced on March 16, Grand Prix Indianapolis will be receiving video coverage instead for that weekend.