The Arena Open should be one of the most exciting events of the monthly Magic Arena rotation, but unfortunately things did not fire off as planned for the big event last weekend. Throughout the weekend many players were plagued by server issues that caused login delays, matchmaking issues, and more problems and some members of the community were pretty unhappy with how things went down. Wizards of the Coast is definitely hear the feedback and is attempting to make it up to the player base.
To start, WotC pretty quickly announced that players who purchased an Arena Open entry fee and were unable to play are going to be receiving a refund. That's definitely a good start and has helped make some of the upset players feel at least a bit better about how things went down. In a second olive branch offering meant to help out everyone (whether they bought any entry fee or not), Magic Arena is now also offering another free promo code to cash in on some XP for players who were unable to continue their usual Mastery Pass grind over the weekend.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Magic Arena grind, the game features a Mastery Pass similar to many other games with both free and paid tracks. Players can earn XP on a daily pass to progress up the Mastery Pass and cash in on cosmetics, packs, pets, and other in-game rewards. The Mastery Passes are limited time only and progress on a specific pass cannot be carried over once a new set releases. That means every day's worth of XP matters, so it's understandable why some players were angry that their daily grind was disturbed by the weekend server issues.
Players can now use the code "ExperimentalOverload" to receive 2000 XP and hopefully make up for some of the weekend issues:
For those who missed the earlier announcement about the Arena Open entry free refunds, here are the details on that...
Players have been reporting on Twitter and Reddit that they've already received their refunds, so players should be sure to contact the Support Team if they believe they deserve a refund and have not yet taken the steps to claim one for their account.
Hopefully whatever issues caused the server problems have been fully resolved and the remaining May 2021 events can fire off without any issues. There will be future opportunities for Arena Opens throughout the rest of the year and the rewards are definitely enticing for many players, so hopefully the next one runs smoothly and isn't plagued by any of the same issues that ruined a lot of the fun last weekend.
Magic: The Gathering is available now and the Strixhaven: School of Mages set releases on April 15 for MTGO and Arena and in paper on April 23, 2021.