When you chart the journey from when a player picks up their first Magic deck, there are as many unique paths to the Pro Tour as there are competitors at the event. Since the start of the year, at least three players have launched themselves into their first Pro Tour via a Top 8 in the brand-new Magic Spotlight Series. Lee Webb and Josh Morton both made the Top 8 at Magic Spotlight: Dragons in Denver, while Arthur Brocsko finished in the Top 8 at Magic Spotlight: Modern in Utrecht. All three will be making their first Pro Tour appearance in Las Vegas.
Lee Webb
As is the case for many players, Lee Webb's Magic journey began when a family member, in this case his cousin, taught him to play during the time of Magic 2014. He briefly played casually before getting as competitive as he could in Modern as a kid.
These days, he's still playing competitively while trying to maintain a relationship with the game that keeps it fun.
"I've been really enjoying playing every format, and while I don't want to imply I'm not practicing, I kind of love the idea of just showing up to a tournament–this is so bad for the article, this is going to make me look terrible–and just picking up a deck and figuring it out the night before. I feel like that's how I'm liking engaging with the game, as opposed to feeling like it's a grind."
While that's his mindset now, he admits that it's one that would be anathema to his former self.
"I just think that I would hate reading that back when I was grinding the game. I would hate to read somebody who was successful at one tournament and they said, 'You know what? I just love not practicing. That's my favorite.'"
In recent months, however, Webb has reframed his perspective on life, Magic, and traveling for Magic tournaments.
"I recently was diagnosed with a pretty complicated disease. It ranges between debilitating and painful, and it's unclear what the prognosis is. I made a commitment to myself that if I was feeling physically up to doing something, I would never procrastinate on it. I knew that Magic Spotlight: Dragons was going to be a game-time decision because I had had to cancel something I was going to do literally the week before. I booked my flight on Thursday and thought, 'This is great. This is a Sealed tournament, I don't have to have had practice, I'm not going to feel like I'm down all these reps, and the new set kind of rocks.' I played in a Tarkir: Dragonstorm Prerelease that I liked, so that was that. I just knew that everybody had told me that lodging was available and that I should make the decision if it's the right decision."
Webb made the Top 8 of the only Limited Spotlight Series event so far in Denver. His Day One pool included a copy of
"I felt like I navigated my card choices really well. There were a couple cards that people were really low on at the time–like Kin-Tree Nurturer–that I rated highly for Sealed. For most people, it was always in their sideboard even when they were in black, and [
Webb has worked toward qualify for the Pro Tour with a variety of approaches, each with varying degrees of optimism and fervor. He'd had two other close calls that ultimately didn't pan out, and they'd left him wondering if the Pro Tour was in his future.
"Over a year ago, I grinded for the MOCS and was in 2nd place all season. I played every event, I totally restructured my weekends trying to grind for the MOCS. At the last second, I got bumped to 4th place, and I think that that disillusioned me a little bit because it was very hard to see a path to the Pro Tour. Not that it broke my dream of going to the PT that I had as a kid, but it was like, this is probably not a super attainable dream to have as an adult if you're not really going to just do Magic.
"I've been to a lot of RCs, always trying to qualify for the Pro Tour. Honestly, I think the path to the Pro Tour is so hard, and I wasn't qualified for any RCs at the time, and I wasn't grinding RCQs, so I figured the Pro Tour qualification was not in my future, even if I wanted it. Once Day One was over and my record was really good, it felt a little surreal."
Those past near misses and the impact they had on his attitude to the game are in Webb's thoughts as the Pro Tour draws closer.
"I feel very excited about the Pro Tour. I feel nervous, too, and I'm super aware of how hard it is to requalify for the Pro Tour. I've been thinking about what my goal for my first Pro Tour will be. I have suffered before by putting too much pressure on myself, so even if I was to set the goal to requalify for the Pro Tour, that's actually quite a bold goal. At the Pro Tour, an even record is great."
Last month, Webb had another close call, finishing in 13th place at Spotlight Series: Secret Lair in Indianapolis after losing several rounds that could have gotten him a Top 8 spot.
"This was a lesson I think I really learned last night, that the Pro Tour's going to be different because you're going to lose a lot. In a regular Magic tournament, your first and second losses are really brutal and can be genuinely game ending for the tournament, but for the Pro Tour, it's different. You're going to need to lose a game of Magic and then go play another one and like, maybe you lose the next two in a row and then you're still not out of it. So rallying from a string of losses is a very real thing.
"I got this feeling last night after taking my worst loss yet in Magic and thought, 'This was probably good practice, because I imagine I'll have a worse loss during the Pro Tour.'"
Josh Morton
Josh Morton also qualified for his first Pro Tour in Denver. Like Webb, he began playing the game when he was young, and these days, he also prioritizes enjoying the game over a strict schedule of play that maximizes a potential to qualify. But these loose similarities are where their parallels fade away. Morton's Magic journey began during a different kind of voyage, this one at sea.
"When I was nine, my mom taught on a cruise ship through a program called Semester at Sea. She was teaching on a ship that went around the world, and so my family got to go along for very, very cheap compared to what it would cost for a commercial cruise liner. On that ship, there were a bunch of college students, and they found out somehow that my uncle was Mark Rosewater, so they wanted to teach me how to play the game, even though at the time I was into another TCG. So, they taught me how to play the game and I fell in love with it."
If it seems strange that the head designer's nephew learned from college students on a ship at sea, Morton said it's because "he is foremost my uncle, so for most of my life before then, it was just my mom's brother. He's lovely. He's encouraging and, when I first got it started, I toured Wizards, he gave me like a little kit that kind of kickstarted me."
These days, Morton mostly plays Commander, inviting his friends over to play with the seven decks he has built. The ease of traveling to Magic Spotlight: Dragons and nostalgia for Tarkir drew him to enter a competitive sphere he hadn't been enmeshed in since he was a teen.
"I had gone to a Grand Prix in Denver in 2015 or 2016, and I thought it'd be kind of a fun thing to revisit the competitive Magic scene. Because it was a Limited event, I knew I wouldn't need to do much preparation. Also, I was drawn to the return of Tarkir, which I last played in Denver with Khans of Tarkir, so this was loaded with nostalgia for me."
For Morton, qualifying for the Pro Tour was the surprising culmination of a dream he set aside a long time ago.
"It was a childhood dream of mine to be the youngest player to qualify for the Pro Tour. That ultimately did not come to fruition, and I eventually gave up the dream of being a competitive Magic player. So the fact that I even made the Top 8 was kind of crazy. My flight had to be rescheduled because I did not plan on making the Top 8.
"It's kind of surreal. Had I told my 12-year-old self that I'd qualify for the Pro Tour one day, I'm sure he'd be ecstatic. Magic is still a big part of my life, but just in a very different way. It's not just a dream of mine to play at the Pro Tour, but I have a very different relationship with the game. I mostly play casually now. So I think it's really cool and I'm really excited to even play in one. My goal going into the Spotlight Series was just to make the second day. I couldn't ask for anything else. Even just getting to play eight rounds [at the Pro Tour], go 0-8, I really don't care. I'm just happy to be there."
This connection between his past dreams and present self is part of what Morton is most looking forward to at the upcoming Pro Tour.
"I played a bit when I was younger, and some of the competitors at the time were very nice to let me hang out with them. I'm sure they understood that this little kid was super excited to see the top players, and I was able to reconnect with some of them in Denver. I'm really excited to see Marshall Sutcliffe just to say hello. Whenever I was at an event, during the first three rounds when all the competitors had their byes at Grand Prix events, they would put me on camera. It's just a sort of beautiful, full-circle moment, to reintroduce myself will be really nice."
Arthur Brocsko
Thousands of miles and in another format change away, Arthur Brocsko qualified for his first Pro Tour through Magic Spotlight: Modern in Utrecht. Like Lee, it was family that initially introduced Brocsko to the game, and he moved quickly from there to competitive events at his local game store.
"I started in 2012 by playing with my cousin at a family reunion. I saw there was a store next to where I live, and so I joined a Magic 2013 Prerelease event. That's why I played my first Magic tournament."
Playing at local stores is still a defining feature of Brocsko's Magic experience over a decade later. While he plays bigger tournaments like the Spotlight Series and the Regional Qualifiers, he often plays at FNMs, in RCQs, drafts cubes with his friends, and plays in Limited events at his local game store. This focus on local play means that the French-speaking community of Belgium, where Brocsko is from, is the strongest influence on his Magic life.
"We're a group of about ten players who are playing in a lot of tournaments, so we influence each other a lot. We push each other to play as well as we can and play as often as we can. It's a really good system."
It was those friends who spurred Arthur to make his way to the Spotlight Series event in Utrecht.
"It was some friends from my group who told me they were going there, and I saw the event was Modern. I hadn't played Modern for maybe a month or two before the event. So, I said, 'Yeah, why not? Let's go try to play a bit of Modern and playtest for two or three weeks before the event.' And that's why I chose to go with them and just have a fun weekend, all friends together.
"I played Amulet Titan. I thought it was well positioned. I didn't have a lot of experience with it, but a friend of mine did, so I asked him to borrow the deck for a small tournament. I learned some tips and some things about the deck, and also I read a lot of articles about it and started playing it, and it went well, I would say."
Like Webb and Morton, Brocsko felt that his most active days of trying to qualify for the Pro Tour were behind him when the Spotlight Series suddenly opened up a new path.
"Before COVID, I was a bit more active. In 2018 and 2019, I really wanted to qualify, but after COVID, I would say that wasn't my goal. Going into the Spotlight Series, I didn't expect to qualify for the Pro Tour."
Now that his first Pro Tour is coming up, Brocsko's anticipation is resolving into both excitement and nerves.
"I'm feeling great because I'm going to play my first Pro Tour, but I'm also a bit nervous. Not too much, because it's just playing Magic and that's what I like to do, but it'll be a new experience, so I will discover something and that's always interesting.
"I like to go step by step, so I think the first thing will be to enjoy it, but I'm pretty sure it'll be the case, so that's not so difficult. And then if I can manage to make Day Two, that will be even better. Then anything can happen. The best thing that could happen would be to qualify for the next one. But we'll see how it goes, step by step."