Release Notes: June 2, 2021

The Wizards EventLink and Magic: The Gathering Companion teams have been busy since our last update as we prepare for in-store play to gradually return to more regions globally. Here are the latest features and fixes!

Expanding Event Allowances

While we were building EventLink and testing the amount of user load it could manage, we capped the total number of events a store could add to their calendars in each month at 500. As COVID-19 started to rage, we kept the cap in place even though testing showed the system could handle more. As vaccination rates improve globally and some regions start to see a return to in-store play, we're now adjusting the cap to 1,000 events per month. This is far more than the vast majority of WPN stores schedule, but for a few will ensure they can run all of their events each month.

Looping Login Issues

One cause for concern the development team has been investigating is a recurring issue that loops users to the login screen repeatedly. This is understandably disruptive and has even impacted the EventLink team directly. We've done a significant amount of investigation into the issue and believe we have a solution we can roll out in a few weeks to permanently fix things. In the process of investigating, we've found several solutions that can help you mitigate the issue if you discover it impacting you right now:

• The issue seems to mostly impact Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge users, so if you find it happening, switch to Mozilla Firefox or Apple's Safari browser
• Try using "incognito" mode or private browsing
• Clear your cookies (Read how to do that here)
• Clear your browser cache (Read how to do that here)
• Pause any plugins running on EventLink
• Update to the latest version of your browser

To help make sure these steps are highly visible, we've added them to an expandable help screen on the Login page. Here's what they look like fully expanded:

Faster Companion Entry

Your players using Companion to register for your events can now be added faster than ever! To select multiple players in your "Companion App Lobby," hold "control" and click each player's name. Then click "Enter" and you'll add all the highlighted players at once. To add a range of players, click the first player in the range from the "Companion App Lobby," click and hold the "Shift" key, then select the last player in the range from the "Companion App Lobby." Then click "Enter" and voila! All the players in the selected range will be added at the same time.

Looping Pairings

EventLink Mirror allows you to quickly broadcast important event information, like the entry code and player pairings, to a new browser tab with the click of a button. Here's the button you can use to activate it:

With our latest update your event's pairings in EventLink Mirror now scroll on a loop instead of back and forth.

Player Identity

The first phase of improvements to how your players choose to identify themselves within Companion and EventLink has delivered, with more improvements on the way. Now your players will no longer have their digital display name appear on the registration screen for in-person events in EventLink, and vice versa for digital events. Soon all spaces that display player information will display only the player names associated with the play medium: either a first and last name for in-person events or a screen name for digital events.

Event Template UX Improvements

We're closer than ever to our new and improved multi-event sanctioning features! You'll be able to schedule all play in EventLink at once, setting events to recur regularly or duplicating an event through the simple click of a button. We're very excited to deliver this feature which is both a big time-saver for retailers and our number one feature request. The first half of the feature is now available and significantly improves how you view event templates which are used to schedule official in-store play programs. In regions of the world which are not currently under pandemic play restrictions you'll see this look when you click "Create New Event:"

By default, you can see all the different event templates available for you to schedule along with some new design elements that make it easier to find what you're looking for:

• Templates that are newly available appear at the top of the options with a "New" icon. No need to guess what events have been added; we'll show you at a glance.
• Events display in calendar order with those nearest their "expiration" date at the top.
• Each event has a handy icon that visually displays how many days are left in order to sanction it.
• Not sure what an event program is or is about? Click the "Read more" link to go to the WPN article with all the details you need about the event.
• "Evergreen" events that are always available for scheduling appear with the "infinity" symbol and can be found at the bottom of the list.

To help you find events more quickly we've also expanded the "Search" options to quickly zero in on the program you're looking for. Here's what the "Advanced Search" features look like when expanded:

You can type a search term like "Friday" to quickly isolate templates for Friday Night Magic or select the Format or Set from the dropdowns to catch all the events you're eligible to schedule for the next big Magic set. Just looking for our evergreen programs, or programs that offer promotional materials? Check one or both boxes for those options and filter your results further. This will ensure you can quickly find the events you're looking for in order to get them sanctioned properly.

In regions that are not under pandemic related play restrictions you can also create your own custom event using the "Custom" tab:

Click that option to quickly create an event that is not in an official in-store play program like Friday Night Magic or Prereleases. Don't forget, you can already schedule those events to repeat regularly using this field:

Select whether you want your event to repeat daily, weekly, or monthly and EventLink will schedule all of them for you all at once.

Up Next

The team will be completing the second half of the recurring events feature in our next release, which is still on track to deliver by the end of June. At that time, I'll be back with a sneak peek at the feature will be working on afterwards: faster player entry for events. See you then!