Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast have announced that Magic: The Gathering professional player Autumn Burchett is joining the Magic Pro League for the 2019 season, replacing Hall of Famer Owen Turtenwald, who was disqualified from PAX East's $1 million Mythic Invitational last month.
The announcement was made on Twitter. Burchett is now one of the 32 players of the Magic Pro League, a group of professional players with offered player and streamer contracts by Wizards of the Coast, where they reportedly receive $75,000 per year. It makes sense why Burchett was chosen to replace Turtenwald in the Magic Pro League. Burchett is the 2019 Mythic Championship I winner, the current Mythic points leader, and a 2-time English National Champion.
It's great that Burchett has joined the MPL but the Magic fans are still wondering why Turtenwald was removed from the Mythic Invitational and the Magic Pro League. The Magic Pro League website no longer lists Turtenwald as an MPL member and Wizards of the Coast still haven't provided an explanation for his removal.
The only bit of evidence that the Magic community had to go on for a reason behind Turtenwald's removal from the Mythic Invitational and the Magic Pro League was a tweet from a Magic player named Mary Louke. "Very pleased with this news," she wrote. "If you don't know why… then you don't know the best secret kept in Magic."
According to Kotaku, Louke is one of the three people who told the outlet that Turtenwald has exhibited a pattern of predatory behavior toward female MTG players that spans several years. "A lot of women in the community have warned other women about Owen," Louke told Kotaku.
Kotaku reported that they received screenshots that Turtenwald continued pursuing these women sexually and romantically even after they stopped replying or turned him down. However, it's unclear whether these allegations influenced Wizards of the Coast's decision to remove Turtenwald from the Mythic Invitational or the Magic Pro League. Fans on Twitter are still demanding an explanation from Wizards of the Coast even though they're happy for Burchett's addition to the Magic Pro League.
Congrats to Autumn Burchett for making it to the Magic Pro League for this year's season!
You can watch Autumn Burchett Mythic Championship I finals match below:
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