Monday, January 1, 2018

Magi-Nation League and Events for Fans

In a continued effort to catalogue events and promoted things from Magi-Nation Duel, this post is going to cover other materials from the Magi-Nation League, and Tavel's Travels, two larger scale events for Fans of the game to enjoy!  Images below are from all 7 Season Posters.

Tavel's Travels (2001)


Phil Tavel was one of the original creators of the Magi-Nation Duel, and for an official Interactive Imagination promotion, Phil traveled across continental North America to meet fans, do some gun-slinging (games against players for prizes), and sign cards.  Phil visited 30 stores in around 2 months, meeting fans, and challenging players to win a Powers of the Creators promo. 


This is one of the only images remaining of Tavel's Travels throughout game stores, showing Tavel (second from the right) signing a card for fans.  

For one store, Tavel scheduled specific gunslinging battles that would be recorded as a story for fans to read against two of the highest online ranked players in the country, and the story was published on the main Magi-Nation page, alongside which his travel schedule, and winner's list is published.  Read that article for more details on the history!

The Magi-Nation League (2002-2003)

The Magi-Nation League was Interactive Imagination's (2i) project to keep people playing the game in stores while introducing them to the game and not just to the tournament/competitive side of things of Magi-Nation Duel. 

The test League was run to see if there was interest in a Magi-Nation League structure, which there was.  Some specific materials were made for this season, such as sew-on patches and paper activities. 







Image restoration by Foghammer!

If you completed each path on the league trackers (see the "Fans and the Future" article for those), you earned stickers!  You could put them on your folder too for that.

The second year of leagues was in the making, with cards designed for Kybar's Teeth already, but then the company failed.  So 5 regions still away their rings, gifts, and special limited, creatures, perhaps to be released someday....







Much like other TCGs' leagues, the Magi-Nation League had seasons (7 of them) where players had a track to earn stamps and points on by the games they played in store, following seasons based on the first six regions released in the game, as well as a test league season before that (for Underneath).  Below are the images of the League seasons.   

The Test League season was held to let 2i try and see if there was interest in running leagues, and what supplies were worthwhile.

Naroom Season.  Each season had three paths to promos- Elder, Tracker, and Ringsmith.

Underneath Season.  Each mat had original art from the Magi Nation artists.

The Cald Season.  Each path would get you different promos.  The Elder path earned Magi, the Ringsmith path earned 'Ring' relics, and the Tracker path earned a 'gift' spell.

The Orothe Season.  The best season.  This author is biased towards mer-people.

Arderial Season.  This season was mid to late 2002 at this point, and 2i was beginning to show signs of struggling to continue.

The Core Season. The last season for the first year of the Magi Nation league, there were plans for the second year having the other six regions, and promos were made for Kybar's Teeth, which were released as tournament promos instead once 2i found it unfeasible to release a second set of seasons.