Oct 6, 2020
The latest EventLink build brings new features that make sharing information with players and reporting Arena events even easier.
Oct 6, 2020
The latest EventLink build brings new features that make sharing information with players and reporting Arena events even easier.
By Bill Stark, EventLink Product Manager
With the release of the new set, it’s time for an update from Wizards EventLink and Magic: The Gathering Companion, too. Let’s get exploring!
One of the primary goals of an Open Beta playtest is testing the system under real-world load conditions. I’m happy to say our test for Zendikar Rising performed admirably.
Early on Friday, we had one disruption, but we quickly scrambled our strike team and fixed the issue. The rest of the weekend ran smoothly!
Our next test for a Prerelease weekend with EventLink will be for Commander Legends. I’m confident we’ll have a smooth event thanks to the hard work from our team and the learnings we’ve garnered during our Open Beta.
I’ve heard from many retailers who want to see customizable timers from previous event management tools come to EventLink. I’m excited to announce that they’re finally here! When starting your event, you’ll now see this option on your timer:
Clicking the timer will give you this set of options:
You can set the timer in one of two ways:
You can also pause the timer! Just click the time again and you’ll see this menu:
You can click to pause the timer should a problem arise. When pressed again, the timer will pick up counting down from where you paused it.
I’ve heard from lots of retailers who want to display other important event information to players during an event, like the format or entry code. EventLink Mirror lets you do this with ease.
You may have noticed this new icon while looking at the brand-new timer features:
Clicking that icon opens EventLink Mirror, allowing you to display important information in a separate browser tab wherever you’d like it to go. Here’s what it looks like:
For our first implementation, the information displayed for your players includes:
I’m looking forward to delivering another big part of this software soon: the ability to display pairings and standings.
This sprint’s Companion release features a significant set of improvements on our Android version to reduce the likelihood of some common complaints. These include:
If you or your players still experience these issues on an Android device, please upgrade to the latest version of Companion. If you still see issues, contact us through the EventLink or Companion direct feedback channels.
We tackle bugs in every sprint! Some of the big ones we squashed over the last two weeks are:
Two big improvements will be available in about two weeks. Those improvements are:
We are also working on new functionality for running Arena At-Home events. These features, code named "ArenaLink," automatically score results in EventLink based on matches that happen on Arena without work from you or your players.
Our first internal test of the service happened last week and worked perfectly. We’ve got some more testing to do, but the team is excited to roll this new solution out to our retailer community soon!
Thanks to those of you who have taken the time to reach out with suggestions, bugs, and issues you’ve come across in EventLink. Keep that feedback coming! It’s invaluable for helping us to refine the tools to make sure they’re meeting the needs of our WPN retailer community.