By Bill Stark, EventLink Product Manager

Last weekend's Core Set 2021 Prerelease was the first opportunity for WPN members to test the new EventLink tool and Magic: The Gathering Companion app at events held simultaneously around the world.

Today I’m going to talk about what we learned, what’s up next, and how you can shape the future direction of EventLink and Companion—including two new features you've been asking for!

Let's dive in.

1,500 Events With No Service Crashes

The biggest concern going into the first major test of our systems for EventLink was making sure they remained stable and didn’t crash. We had an on-call team monitoring performance around the clock ready to spin up a triage unit to roll out fixes quickly if anything went awry.

How did it go? Well after over 1,500 events throughout the weekend I’m incredibly pleased we had no issues managing the stresses to the system. Everything stayed stable and we achieved 100% uptime.

The biggest performance lapse in the weekend was reported to us through the “Submit Feedback” button found in EventLink: some retailers reported stalled events. We quickly discovered the cause and corrected it. All told just thirty-seven events globally were affected and the issue is now fixed.

As we transition to a world where more events are being run in EventLink entirely these types of issues will be a thing of the past entirely.

Coming Very Soon: Late Registration and Result Corrections

With the biggest weekend for the tools so far, we expected to get lots of valuable feedback from retailers and you didn’t disappoint! We heard directly from approximately 100 retailers, and your feedback is incredibly influential in shaping the direction we take for the next round of features we roll out.

Speaking of which, by far the top feedback we got was asking for two features in particular: late registering players and being able to fix errors in match reports.

These features are absolutely on our radar—we are going to be delivering them soon. They're in development but were not adequately vetted at the time of the Prerelease for us to feel safe putting them out in their current state. (Sharp-eyed readers will remember I talked about them here).

An upgraded navigation design will allow you to go back in time to register players if they show up late. For any matches they’ve missed they’ll receive a loss and be free to start playing during the next round. Late registration will be available for Sealed and Constructed events first with Booster Draft to follow.

The ability to fix mistakes made in match reporting is also coming very soon and has been under development as well. That functionality will let you fix an error in match results should one sneak through by rolling back up to one round, making changes, and moving the event forward again.

You can also work with your players to use the Magic: The Gathering Companion app which allows them to not only take control of reporting their match results but to check and verify those results are correctly reported throughout the event.

Other features you told us you’re excited to see that are also on our agenda:

• Viewing past events after they have ended


• A refactored timer that allows for customization


• Scrolling pairings to display on screens in your store


• Match results refreshing automatically


• Event templates that allow you to schedule identical events with a simple button click

All those features and many more are rolling out soon, plus a handful of bug fixes. Stay tuned!

Help Shape the Future of EventLink

We want to hear from you! What was your experience with EventLink like during the Prerelease or other events you’ve used it for? You can provide feedback directly in EventLink using the “Submit Feedback” link.

Due to the volume of contacts we get, it may not be possible to respond to every single message personally. But we read every single one and they truly are key in helping us shape the direction we move in.

I consider the first Prerelease a solid success as we head into the Open Beta test of EventLink and Companion. But we have many features we’re not done delivering yet to ensure these new tools are providing WPN members with the functionality they need to exceed their players’ expectations.

I’m excited about our upcoming releases and delivering some of these highly anticipated features to you!