This past weekend, YouTuber Ruxin34 had some paid advertisements among his content. According to the Youtuber, he doesn’t do this all that often but occasionally features some that he thinks would be fun for his viewers. This Yu-Gi-Oh! YouTuber released an apology video after one of these advertisements for a “different TCG” that was “not well received at all.” While Ruxin34 himself did not mention the particular product or TCG in name in this video, he got the attention of a big Youtuber in the MTG community, who helped fill in the blanks. This all culminates into a gigantic internet news show featuring MTG as its primary topic, growing the audience for MTG’s controversy into something we’ve never seen before.
A Heartfelt Apology
“Because of contracts and stuff, I’m not gonna name any names,” states Youtuber Ruxin34 in correlation with the video sponsored by a “different TCG” that was “not received well at all.” While this isn’t the only sponsor that is being covered in this apology video, Ruxin34’s apology has been capturing the attention of Youtuber personalities much larger than himself. He has since taken down the video that was alluded to in this apology, but others were sure to note by name what this product was.
Coverage Begin to Spread
Fortunately, internet personality Moistcr1tikal covered what that controversial promotion was. To any who has been following Magic news in the past while the 30th Anniversary Edition has been an incredibly hot topic. The product even went on sale yesterday and was ‘out of stock’ only 35-40 minutes into the sale.
In Moistcr1tikal’s words, “so, the community was very upset.” “It’s a $1000 for these four packs of cards that are randomized proxies. They’re not real cards. They’re not usable cards, and it’s just such a scam.”
“So, what Wizards of the Coast did, they went around the actual community and started paying Yu-Gi-Oh! content creators to open their packs, in order to promote it.” Other Youtubers from other TCG communities have popped in the comment sections to various videos covering this phenomenon, stating that they also got an offer from Wizards of the Coast. You can find an example from Pokémon Youtuber Leonheart in the comment section of this video from a popular MTG personality that covered the events.
Even though Ruxin34 ended up releasing what was an incredibly controversial promotion, as Moistcr1tikal points out, they weren’t really mad at Ruxin himself: “From what I saw, the MTG community wasn’t really mad at the Youtubers, because they’re in a totally different genre. They weren’t so much upset with them for not knowing why it was so much of a scam, they were more mad at Wizards of the Coast for doing that.” Various MTG personalities have commended Ruxin for his apology, with Alpha Investment’s followers applauding his efforts to try and make things right in the comment section.
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How Widespread is This?
According to YouTuber Jake and Joel are Magic, this has been happening since the Wednesday prior to the 30th Anniversary Edition’s live sale. They reacted to the initial sponsored stream the day after it’s been posted and about five hours before the apology video was created. Looking back on those events now, Jake and Joel are Magic take the same stance as Moistcr1tikal when observing the situation:
“He sais in his video: he wishes that he had done better due diligence and that’s pretty much the only thing that anyone can fault him for. He wishes that he had just researched the product a little bit more. It’s really not a big deal, he’s a Yu-Gi-Oh content creator, so we really can’t expect him to know that much about the newest, hottest, upcoming MTG product.”
The Most Recent Step
In Jake and Joel’s video posted above, he mentions that in response to Leonhart‘s Twitter comment to MTG personality Saffron Olive‘s mention of this controversy that another Yu-Gi-Oh! YouTuber by the name of TeamAPS also received an offer to promote something from Wizards of the Coast that was rejected. You can find out more about this in their video linked above.
As this drama slowly expanded past the MTG community into the larger TCG community, the YouTube personalities covering this story gradually became larger and larger. The latest development in this sequence of events comes from a massive Youtuber named Philip DeFranco, who has over six million subscribers. For reference, DeFranco’s content covers a variety of news happening across the internet.
Only three hours ago, as of the writing of this article, DeFranco released the video posted above. While a variety of topics are covered, the most time-consuming topic near the end of his video outlines a fantastic culmination of all the MTG drama that has happened over time. Since DeFranco isn’t super familiar with the inner workings of the card game, he invited the MTG personality Brian Lewis, better known as The Professor from Tolarian Community College, to talk about the issue on a much larger stage. A lot is covered very quickly through this video, but it all, once again, comes back to the 30th Anniversary Edition.
Well, MTG’s most expensive product to date is now ‘out of stock,’ and no one really knows exactly how well the 30th Anniversary Edition actually did. As the drama occurring in the MTG community expands more and more, it seems like the internet itself is slowly starting to wait in anticipation of the end of this story. Hopefully, it won’t turn out to be a tragedy.
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