Opinion: What LigaFest tells about the Brazilian Card Game Audience

In February 2024, Wizards of the Coast announced that it would be discontinuing the localization of the card game Magic: The Gathering and the Dungeons & Dragons books into Brazilian Portuguese, with the release of Modern Horizons 3 being the last expansion for the card game in that language.

We can't say for sure that the Brazilian public took this news well at the time—and still doesn't. Paraphrasing the article I wrote about the subject at the time, living in Latin America has always been an act of perseverance and resistance when it comes to card games, as there has always been a greater barrier for us—whether financial, related to accessibility to events, or visibility—and, even in the face of these obstacles, we managed to make our mark on the history of games like Magic, with two world champions: Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa and Carlos Romão.

Since the end of the Portuguese (Brazil) localization, a bittersweet, sometimes bitter, feeling lingers in the Brazilian community: a mix of persistence and abandonment, a desolate sensation when we hear from representatives of other TCGs that the example of Wizards of the Coast left a mark on the international perception of the niche market in Brazil—that it's not worth investing in translation and localization of the product for the region—combined with that constant grit and willpower that the Brazilian public, competitive by nature, has to say "we can do this, even without the proper support".

Sometimes, especially in Cards Realm videos, I express very fatalistic views about the future of Magic: The Gathering in Brazil regarding its potential for a competitive, inclusive, and accessible game. Of all the TCGs available in the country today, it's perhaps the one I feel most pessimistic about: official Wizards of the Coast tournaments seem further away, we can't even dream of a Spotlight Series, and all the benefits—because they were, in the end, benefits—that we had in the pre-pandemic years have simply ceased to exist. It's us for us; we are the ones who keep the act of playing alive.

My fatalism, however, tends to disregard something we've already highlighted here: the Brazilian public's capacity to mobilize to play card games. It matters little if Magic has removed localization and events from the country, if other card games are hesitant to invest more heavily in the national scene, or if the costs to play and compete in various TCGs have been gradually increasing—we succeed and we move forward, we do what it takes to keep the scene alive, to present numbers, to give answers, and to create our own manifesto for all companies responsible for any card game that has at least one eye on Brazil.

This manifesto, today, is called LigaFest. And we can learn a lot from it.

Last weekend, between December 13th and 14th, I represented Cards Realm at the third edition of the event organized by LigaMagic — the largest card game marketplace in Latin America, originally conceived in the mid-2000s as a forum where Magic players discussed strategies and traded cards and products — which took place at the Frei Caneca Convention Center in São Paulo.

According to data from LigaMagic, the event had 9,100 visitors over the two days, and among the finals of the competitive circuits, there were 653 Magic: The Gathering players divided among the Standard, Modern, Pioneer, Pauper, Premodern, Duel Commander, and Legacy formats, in addition to 113 participants in the Pokémon tournaments in the Junior, Senior, and Master categories, 74 competitors in the One Piece TCG finals, 16 in the Flesh and Blood event, and 14 who played Dragon Ball TCG, totaling 870 competitors divided among 13 different game modalities if we consider all categories and formats of each TCG.

Both visitors and competitors saw an increase in total attendance compared to the second edition, held mid-year, demonstrating some important things about Brazil's relationship with card games in general. These can be evaluated by both the companies responsible for the games and the community itself.

Let's start with the niche audience. Of the more than 800 participants in the finals of the Circuits organized during the semester for the event, the majority were present in Magic: The Gathering, from which the foundations for the LigaFest event originated. This shows that, despite the shift away from localization and support, it remains the preferred card game for those already more loyal to the TCG universe. Despite having so many options available on the market today,

The Pauper format was the most played format of the entire event, with 243 players. Pauper has always been very popular in the country due to a mix of card accessibility compared to other formats, coupled with an almost cultural predisposition for new players to enter the world of competitive Magic through it, given that the investment cost in a deck is notoriously lower than in other environments.

Modern, the second most played format, with 93 players, differs from Pauper in the compass that attracts its audience: price is not the "attraction," but "loyalty" is. Its players are extremely dedicated to the format, and its long history has established sufficient roots for them to remain faithful even in the face of waves of power creep with the Modern Horizons expansions and even during the pandemic—in practical numbers, Modern is possibly the most popular competitive Magic format in the world, and the preferred one among content creators and more experienced players.

Next, the Magic: The Gathering Duel Commander 500 — a variation of Duel Commander where decks are restricted to a specific price tag — with 86 players, was the third environment with the most participants, almost tied with the 85 competitors in the Pokémon Master division. Both are also known for their affordability, and together, these four scenarios and the Standard, with 81 competitors, create a panorama to better understand the mindset of the Brazilian TCG player.

From a more abstract perspective, there seem to be two points of consensus regarding the priorities of the Brazilian public when it comes to what to play in a TCG: the first, possibly more popular, concerns the average price of a deck to play and its popularity when converted into a large-scale event: Commander 500 restricts the value of its deck to R$ 500 (around US$ 90-100), which is also the common average price of a Pauper deck today, while a competitive Pokémon list tends to reach this average value, or even lower in some cases.

While the Brazilian card game consumer audience is willing to play and compete, they require good entry points to consider participating in tournaments, which can be provided through building accessible decks — Brazilians are willing to invest in their hobbies*, but not so much if they don't have a natural propensity to do so because they already have a sufficiently comfortable financial background to invest more than a minimum wage (which, as of today, is R$ 1,621, or US$ 293) in cards or are already loyal to a specific game or format.

In this sense, two common demands from the local community are emerging: the establishment of alternative formats that make the game more accessible to the majority of the public — Pauper and Commander 500 in Magic, RiftPobre for Riftbound, and Silver Age in Flesh and Blood, among others — and also national production, where today Copag, which was present promoting Lorcana at LigaFest, is primarily responsible for keeping Pokémon prices accessible by producing and distributing the material directly in Brazil.

On the other side of the spectrum, exemplified both by Modern players and, to some extent, by participants in the One Piece TCG circuit and, on a smaller scale, in Legacy and Flesh and Blood events, is loyalty.

The type of movement we see from the Modern community doesn't differ from other communities: these are people attached to their competitive scene or favorite game, who dedicate a lot of time and resources to staying up-to-date and actively competing for prizes and glory — this is only possible because there is a segment of the audience that is more financially comfortable investing more resources in this game and sees benefits and/or has enough passion to want to be good at it.

Of these, One Piece would stand out if it weren't already a card game with a Brazilian audience deeply rooted in competitive culture and using one of the most famous anime franchises in history as its backdrop — in certain aspects, it's likely that we'll see Riftbound, the League of Legends card game, follow the same path, which considerably combines the hype surrounding the world's most famous eSports brand with the already well-established desire for the competitive nature of the game.

We can therefore divide the Brazilian audience that participates in card game tournaments into two segments: those who want to compete but do not wish to invest heavily in their hobbies and therefore prefer alternative and accessible formats, and those who are rooted in competitive scenarios and have the willingness and financial resources to play at the highest levels of tournaments, if provided the opportunity. But there is another important audience in this equation: the Standard players.

Despite being noticeably lower than Pauper's numbers and smaller than Modern's, Standard doesn't operate on "loyalty" to the format and/or the game but on the urge to grow in the competitive universe. The format is still one of the mainstays of professional Magic, featuring RCQs, RCs, Pro Tours, and even the World Championship at various times throughout the year.

Due to the rotating nature of Standard, it doesn't offer investment security, a term commonly used by competitive Modern players or those playing similarly expensive card games to justify their costs. However, it combines the dynamism and tradition of Magic: The Gathering and often offers the best and most flexible entry point into high-level Magic, being nurtured in Brazil mainly by those who dream of participating in a Pro Tour.

Due to this pattern, 81 participants are very relevant to Standard. It may seem like a small number, but this willingness to play and invest in a more volatile and unstable environment than Modern or other games shows that the competitive dream remains very much alive in Brazilian Magic, even though the support and backing that Wizards of the Coast has provided in recent years has decreased.

But what does this mean for distributors and companies?

The best term for the card game trends in Brazil is: Brazilians are creative and always find a way.

In ideal worlds, perhaps a stronger currency or cheaper products would help the country consume more than it does today, but in the absence of these, social division plays its role in separating, within an environment already considered a luxury hobby, those who can invest R$ 500 and want to compete or have fun from those who can pay R$ 5,000 for pieces of cardboard, and understanding that these two categories exist is essential for any game or event in the field that wants to succeed with the local consumer and meet their demands and needs.

LigaFest itself set a good example by making room for Duel Commander 500, which is not an official Magic: The Gathering format but aims to respect the specific needs imposed on the Brazilian economy by the public — investing more time and space, whether as an organizer or producer, in giving due prominence to more accessible formats is an excellent way to make Latin American consumers more interested in card games.

Another example in this regard is the recent moves by Legend Story Studios, responsible for Flesh and Blood, which other companies should be watching closely to observe the medium-term outcome: the TCG announced, in the middle of the year, a format of commons and uncommons that would become known as Silver Age, and now offers it competitive support to be part of the game's professional play ecosystem while promoting the format through pick-and-play products that, in addition to serving as the ideal entry point, lower the barrier and effort for those who previously turned their noses up at the game due to the prices of investing in a Classic Constructed deck.

And this leads us to need to discuss the case of Flesh and Blood. The Brazilian FaB audience is extremely dedicated to the game, to the point that it's an unpleasant surprise that only 16 competitors attended the finals — it may have been poor publicity or simply a preference for prioritizing other event categories, but would the same result be achieved if the Circuit included the Silver Age format as part of its competitive agenda in a future edition?

There's a curious detail in the times we live in today: while we are still a globalized society, it appears that the specificities of each region have become more evident lately, often driven by increased social inequality and reduced purchasing power of the middle classes around the world.

In the case of Latin America, regarding card games, this refers to the need to adapt products and/or formats to deal with economies that, even in some cases being emerging, still experience financial crises that devalue their currencies against the dollar and, consequently, hinder access to the product for a portion of the population, leading to the loss of potential consumers and players who, while not of paramount importance in making spreadsheet numbers grow, are essential for establishing the culture of the game you are trying to promote and for fueling the competitive ecosystem that motivates stores and companies to operate.

What really matters are the over nine thousand

Those who participated in the LigaFest Circuit finals are already deeply rooted in the card game environment, and most of the audience who were also present as visitors likely have some experience with TCGs or are consumers of some product or niche, but it is these women who deserve more attention.

In a recent post on his personal blog, Magic: The Gathering's head designer, Mark Rosewater, mentioned that 80% of Magic players play the "cards I own" format, meaning without a specific format. This is the casual audience, those who won't necessarily be willing to pay a lot for a deck and/or play in a tournament but will want to buy a booster pack or a nice card for their collection or deck.

It's the person who picks up a Pikachu from a store stand because they thought it was cool, opens a Magic x Final Fantasy pack for the pleasure of owning a product from their favorite franchise, or picks up a Jinx card from a binder simply because she's their favorite League of Legends character… These are the individuals who make up the most important part of the TCG universe: the Gathering.

While much is debated about market value, collecting, and investment, the true gold of card games today lies in their role as a social tool—something capable of uniting people around a shared passion, even if they have very different realities and experiences. TCGs are a link to bring us closer to others in a world increasingly distanced by the conveniences of apps and social media and a way to disconnect for a while and enjoy the now with other human beings, and this value is what we call Gathering.

Over the two days, the variety of distinct audiences was noticeable: from loyal fans of a card game franchise to groups of young people from more alternative cultures, families walking together and/or parents cheering for their children in Pokémon tournaments, cosplayers, and other categories that, a decade ago, we might not have imagined attending a card game event — a sign that, at least in this edition, LigaFest broke through its audience bubble and became, in part, a "weekend cultural outing," with many curious people who, perhaps, if they have a positive relationship with the medium on their first time encountering card games, would also be part of the statistics showing the niche's growth in the country.

There were over 9,000 visitors. If each of them has a good experience, they will return with friends, and if those friends have a good experience, they will return the following year with other people, and so the universe expands, more people learn about TCGs, and, who knows, at least a third of them may become active players and/or consumers of the medium.

Providing these good experiences is a joint effort on two fronts: the event organization, whose role is to offer more game tables for learning, more booths with attractive products, and perhaps even more parallel events that capture other audience segments, and also the community—whose fundamental role is to welcome visitors and newcomers with open arms.

The point is that we cannot and should not let this opportunity pass. Card games have never been as popular as they are today, and if Brazil can bring 9,000 people to the biggest event in Latin America in this field, then it can also, with the right support from within and outside, expand to 10,000 in the next edition and, who knows, even 15,000 by the end of 2026?

For practical purposes, the third edition of LigaFest has an essential symbolic value for the Brazilian TCG community: it has become our portfolio, the numbers we can present when we demand a Portuguese localization or the arrival of a new card game in the country, or even greater allocation of product availability for the Latin American region.

This type of conversation is never easy, and it's naive to think that just one event will be enough to say that we deserve the respect that is taken from us when games remove localization or don't make their products available in Latin America.

However, the fourth edition of the event is already scheduled for July 11th and 12th, 2026, and if we manage to make the event grow again and repeat the feat a third time by the end of next year and follow this pattern, at some point our voice will be too loud to be ignored.

It is in this growth potential that we must bet, nurture, and cultivate as a community. And we, with our Latin way of working with creative solutions to make the games more affordable without sacrificing what is expected in terms of responsibility and competitiveness. Be it out of the desire to compete, or out of passion for card games.