By Niels Viaene

If by some mean you have found a way not to know that the world has changed, please tell me where you found the rock you climbed under that apparently filters internet so you are reading this article. For all others, you know things need to change in how we are finishing this season of Gentry, and this article will explain to you how we did it.

The Gentry Open goes to Magic Arena

That is the title of this post, so yeah… The event on facebook has been updated with the relevant information and will get updated further. The TLDR (too long, didn’t read) is that the event will take place in the exact same time slot as before, becomes free, and is on Magic Arena now. That also means the goodie bag is gone, but we are giving away the title, trophy, GP Golden Ticket (free entry for a Magic Grand Prix), a €25 Cardmarket coupon and a €15 Cardmarket coupon.

We will most likely run the event through a separate website, we are currently investigating MTGMelee and discord bot systems as an option.

You can still get byes

Every leaderboard will still give a bye to their top players (1 bye for a leaderboard with 1-32 names, 2 for 33+). The Bredene and Ghent Leaderboard will get 1 final event on Arena to close off their leaderboard. For Bredene that will be on April 4th at 19:00 CET. For Ghent that will be on April 9th at 19:00 CET.
Additionally, there will be a trial on Sunday, April 5th at 14:00 CET. Swiss rounds plus play-off. For every 16 players, rounded down, there will be a bye given away.

All these events are free. They will be announced on facebook on the Gentry fan page, and the League group. Go there for their details soon.

We are also opening the possibility for people to host their own Trial. These need to be publicly accessible events with at least 9 players. The winner (choose your own tournament structure) will get 1 bye. Contact me on facebook to set this up and get them approved. approved events will be shared through the Gentry fan page.

We understand these changes will affect people in different ways, in particular those people that had secured byes but are not active on Magic Arena. We hope that with the 2 weeks time, you will manage to grind up enough cards on a fresh account. The alternative, which I hope no one wants, is not having a Gentry Open this season.

Want to support?

There are two ways to support Gentry and the events we are hosting. First is if you have a digital product you want to donate to make finishing high in the event more attractive. You will be added as a sponsor.

The second way you can support is more directly through the stream that will showcase the events as much as possible. A lot is possible there:
– Make a free account on twitch.tv to chat and follow
– Get a free amazon prime trial in order to unlock a free twitch subscription and use in on the channel (this is a free way to give actual financial support, just remember to cancel your trial if you do not want to keep paying for amazon prime. But if you do, you get to support 1 streamer per month for free on top of all the services you get for your €5 amazon prime subscription.
– Make a donation through Paypal with this link. Hint: if you do it during the stream you get it highlighted and pronounced by a robotic voice.

May your days be healthy and your isolation as entertaining as possible,
Niels

Niels Viaene came into contact with Magic first through the Kazz & Zakk starter set in 1996, but it wouldn’t be until 2000, around the time Prophecy came out that he actually started playing magic thanks to his nephew. Niels’ Magic career has been a roller coaster up to now, including Grand Prix Paris 2009 top 8, Pro Tour San Diego 2010 top 8, becoming a L3 Magic Judge in 2015 and managing the community effort that is the League of New and Beginning Magic: the Gathering Players, the birthing ground for Gentry since 2012. All this comes from a deep love for the game that is far from diminishing.

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