Today we took our new tournament tool, Wizards Eventlink*, into alpha testing ahead of schedule, to help facilitate digital play. While the basics of running events will be pretty familiar to Wizards Event Reporter users, let's take a look at big differences to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.

Here's everything you need to get up and running.

1. Store Set Up

Right out of the gate, you’ll need to use a Wizards Account to log in. To be clear, this is a different account than you use to log into Wizards Event Reporter. (It’s the same one you might have for Magic Arena or Magic: The Gathering Companion. You can make one here.)

Once you have a Wizards Account, you’ll need to let us know it belongs to you as a WPN member by filling out our form here. Log in with your WER login information (the old account—not the Wizards Account you just made) and tell us the email address for your Wizards Account.

Once you connect those, it may take up to a few days before you can log in. (It may take a little while for our teams to connect them for all stores.)

2. Logging in

That’s some work up front, but it’s all worth it.

The biggest difference with Eventlink that it’s web based. That means it can be run on any device that can access a browser—including Apple products. Using a device with web access, head over to EventLink.Wizards.com**. Sign in with your Wizards Account and select your store from the dropdown.

You’ll be greeted with an updated version of the calendar you’re familiar with from WER. View your upcoming events by changing the view to the Agenda View.

Today's events are available for quick access on the right side. Additionally, the arrow along the top will let you see all events that are currently active—as in, currently in progress. This should make running multiple events at the same time much easier.

3. Staff Set Up

You’ll need to add staff and organizers (if you have them) to your Organization in the tool—which you can now manage on your own, without help from Wizards Retail Support.

Go to Store Settings (upper right corner). Then, under Staff Permissions, enter your staff’s Wizards Account email in the "Name" Field (it's in alpha folks, cut us some slack) and set their role to either Admin (if you want them to be able to add other staff) or Scorekeeper (if you just want them to schedule and run events).

4. Creating an Event

You have a lot more options now for creating new events.

You can name your event, so players will know exactly which event they’re signing up for. There’s also a description field to give players even more specifics about the event. You’ll be able to choose a format for your event. (Most of the classics are there, but for anything else you can choose "Other.")

If you’re drafting, you’ll have the option to show what set is being drafted as well. You’ll select the pairing method (or to have player list only if it’s a free form event) and if you want to cut to top 8.

If you're ready to fire the event right now, just hit "Save" and you're ready to go.

If you want to schedule an event for the future, check the “Schedule This Event” box to select a date and start time that will show in Store and Event Locator. You can also add an optional estimated end time to help your players try to schedule around your event. Capacity and entry fee are other optional fields.

5. Enrolling Players

Much like with Wizards Event Reporter, Eventlink will have you enter your players into the event.

Here, you’ll enter players by their Wizards Account email address rather than a DCI number. You can also provide them the code listed at the top of the screen to “Join an Event” in Magic: The Gathering Companion. (Find Companion for iOS here, and Android here.)

Once they enter the code, they’ll appear under Expedited Players. (You might need to refresh your browser. No need to worry about losing data though— you could even switch devices if needed.) Then, simply click on their name to enroll them in the event.

This will let your players with Android devices use the Companion app to receive pairings and report the results of the match directly on their phones.

If you have a player in your store that doesn’t have a Wizards Account and is unable to create one, you can add them as a guest for the event. A guest account is a throw-away account, and can only be used the one time.

6. Starting the Event

Once you have your players, you can start the event. While it looks a little different than in Wizards Event Reporter, the functionality remains the same (including numpad hotkeys and printing match slips and results. They're "Event Options" after you start the first round).

Players with Andriod devices and Magic: The Gathering Companion can enter results with the app, or you can enter results yourself (you can overwrite their results if a mistake was made). There’s a built-in round timer, and Eventlink will recommend an ideal number of rounds based on the number of players, but you can end the event earlier.

Once the event has ended and all rounds are recorded, it’s reported to us automatically. No more upload errors!

Wizards Eventlink* is a big change, but with features that are worth making the change. And if you run into something not covered here, the Retail Support team is ready to answer your questions (and don’t forget to send screenshots).

Please remember that Eventlink is still in the alpha testing phase. If you encounter a bug, please let us know at Feedback@Wizards.com.

*Name subject to change

**URL subject to change