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Savjz Declines Invitation To Magic: The Gathering Rivals League


Janne "Savjz" Mikkonen, best known for streaming online strategy games like Hearthstone and Legends of Runeterra, has declined an invitation to compete in this year's Magic: The Gathering esports Rivals League.

Savjz joined last year's Magic Pro League (MPL) in May 2019 after Yuuya Watanabe was removed for cheating at Mythic Championship II. At the end of the 2019 season, the bottom 12 ranked MPL players were sent invitations to compete in the Rivals League for the upcoming 2020 partial season, and Savjz was one of the players who receive an invite. However, Savjz is declining so he can focus on his streaming.

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Credit: Wizards of the Coast

"As last year's MPL player, I was invited to play in the Magic Rivals league this year. If I competed, I would want to give it my 100 percent," Savjz said on Twitter. "However, you guys know how incredibly much my stream means to me, and in order to fully focus on content creation, I have decided to decline."

Savjz was ranked last upon the end of Magic's 2019 Pro season with a record of 3-18. Christina Mikkonen, Savjz's wife, also defended Savjz after the streamer received harassment over a lack of consistent MTG Arena streams and refusal to compete at Magic tabletop tournaments.

If Savjz accepted the invitation to join the Rivals League, he would've been eligible to earn $15,000 in appearance fees at Mythic and Players Tour tournaments, excluding prize money earnings.

Since Savjz declined the invitation, there's now an open slot for the Rivals League but Wizards of the Coast hasn't announced who will fill the slot yet. We'll update you here on Epicstream once we find out.

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