Could you even make a living out of MTGO tournaments? Always thought that even if you went infinite, your actual profit would be enough to buy cards you needed for future games but too small to actually live on.
One big name grinder said he averaged about 1500 tix a month. More than enough to live on in many countries.
This is quite funny in a zynical way coming from a person that lives in a country where you are essentially screwed if you are unfortunate enough to have serious medical issues ...
The world extends beyond the borders of the united states. I know this is hard to imagine but you should try it when juding others and their life choices.
(and i'm not saying that its smart to go all in on mtgo)
Wtf dude theres nothing funny at all recovering from a life threatening illness....
And im not judging anyone for playing mtgo for money but just saying that grinding for a living isnt fulfilling and it has lots of cons. Grinding on mtgo is almost like a dead end job but with a little bit more freedom due to the flexibility in it. Its better than working at McDonalds in some sense but there is still a ton of stress to grinding and puts you in a very uncomfortable lifestyle. Yes its better than $1 per hour if your not in the USA, but its still not a great way to make money. Your going from being poor to being glued to a PC 24-7 for not a lot of money, which means your going to living a very low quality lifestyle either way.
Theres tons of opportunity costs of sitting in a chair all day, the eye strain, lack of physical activity, its not the most ideal way to make a living. If you have the energy to endure this day in and out, you probably could be doing something better with your time thats less tedious and more rewarding.
Regardless of whether living off of MTGO grinding is a good idea or not, I think it's pretty disrespectful of Wizards to just shut dailies off like that with no forewarning. They know that people grind, and that grinders have a significant impact in the game economy and metagame. If they can shut off grinders overnight, what makes you believe they just won't shut MTGO down overnight aswell if they feel like doing it?
Regardless of whether living off of MTGO grinding is a good idea or not, I think it's pretty disrespectful of Wizards to just shut dailies off like that with no forewarning. They know that people grind, and that grinders have a significant impact in the game economy and metagame. If they can shut off grinders overnight, what makes you believe they just won't shut MTGO down overnight aswell if they feel like doing it?
IF they can make 20,000+ dollars in one event, why would they shut it down?
Sell your stuff. I've sold all my standard/modern stuff the moment I found out. I'll keep my pauper junk though.
I have zero faith these daily events will return anytime soon. Looking at their past history dailies wont be along for a very very long time. If ever.
All that being said, my hope is that this is a reset for everyone involved. Card prices should plummet. Hopefully enabling newer players to get invested in the 'fixed' client.
Kibler is to blame for this. Why? Last week, they posted the schedule for next year's MOCS with all the info on dates and FAQs. So there was never any intention for a shutdown in the near future if you have plans to run the MOCS Series. Then poor Kibler writes his article. I commented on his article that there would be backlash from it saying as a figure head for MTG, SCG & CFB, and Solforge you are threat that must be answered. He can gain easily gain a following, which will hurt business and maybe have people transition to his game or Hearthstone. He even posts that MTGO is simply a means to play and practice. For some of us, this is our only time to play competitive MTG. He does not care about the tix, the promos, the packs etc. This is something a MTGO player cares about. His article caused a decision by WOTC that affects me the MTGO player, not Kibler. But conveniently, Mr Kibler deletes my post an hour after posting. Do we need a better more stable program? Most definitely. However, I rather have a shoddy program that I can grind with not too many issues than no events to play at all. I do love draft, but I also know draft is a one way trip to MTGO broke. I don't play IRL, nor ever plan to play IRL because quite frankly I am a competitor. I don't play MTG for fun, I play for the challenge. An FNM is not place and as a former YGO player I simply don't really like MTG players. I have more important things in life for me to travel the world for MTG. MTGO was my way to enjoy this game outside from work, school, working out, and living life. I can wake up, make breakfast, take a shower, and play a daily all at the same time. I can draft 20 straight times then win a PE and get my tix right back. I just sold all my Standard cards, stocked up on tix, and Booster packs, since that will be the only thing maintaining value. Tix will be worth less in real life, but I don't plan on selling them. I will simply start speculating on cards once I feel MTGO is almost finished the lock down.
So from all of the MTGO Grinders or MTGO Professionals, thank you Kibler for taking away our MTG. I really hope you go 0-2 drop this weekend, and that is me being nice about him receiving bad luck (FYI I'm a Yugioh player and you know the horror stories that happen @ all YGO tournaments.). I never hated you man hell you are one of the few MTG players I would want to chill with, but when you post something that will clearly draw WOTC's attentions, because obviously you have never done that before, and don't even consider for once the possible ramifications, you can go eat my *insert whatever you please*
Kibler is to blame for this. Why? Last week, they posted the schedule for next year's MOCS with all the info on dates and FAQs. So there was never any intention for a shutdown in the near future if you have plans to run the MOCS Series. Then poor Kibler writes his article. I commented on his article that there would be backlash from it saying as a figure head for MTG, SCG & CFB, and Solforge you are threat that must be answered. He can gain easily gain a following, which will hurt business and maybe have people transition to his game or Hearthstone. He even posts that MTGO is simply a means to play and practice. For some of us, this is our only time to play competitive MTG. He does not care about the tix, the promos, the packs etc. This is something a MTGO player cares about. His article caused a decision by WOTC that affects me the MTGO player, not Kibler. But conveniently, Mr Kibler deletes my post an hour after posting. Do we need a better more stable program? Most definitely. However, I rather have a shoddy program that I can grind with not too many issues than no events to play at all. I do love draft, but I also know draft is a one way trip to MTGO broke. I don't play IRL, nor ever plan to play IRL because quite frankly I am a competitor. I don't play MTG for fun, I play for the challenge. An FNM is not place and as a former YGO player I simply don't really like MTG players. I have more important things in life for me to travel the world for MTG. MTGO was my way to enjoy this game outside from work, school, working out, and living life. I can wake up, make breakfast, take a shower, and play a daily all at the same time. I can draft 20 straight times then win a PE and get my tix right back. I just sold all my Standard cards, stocked up on tix, and Booster packs, since that will be the only thing maintaining value. Tix will be worth less in real life, but I don't plan on selling them. I will simply start speculating on cards once I feel MTGO is almost finished the lock down.
So from all of the MTGO Grinders or MTGO Professionals, thank you Kibler for taking away our MTG. I really hope you go 0-2 drop this weekend, and that is me being nice about him receiving bad luck (FYI I'm a Yugioh player and you know the horror stories that happen @ all YGO tournaments.). I never hated you man hell you are one of the few MTG players I would want to chill with, but when you post something that will clearly draw WOTC's attentions, because obviously you have never done that before, and don't even consider for once the possible ramifications, you can go eat my *insert whatever you please*
Haha very funny. You play MTG but don't like the players? There are hundreds of games you can play in your free time other than magic online. You don't like it? Send an email to WotC see if they care. They have to start giving a damn about mtgo now due to this. This is a long time coming because both v3 and the beta are both jokes in terms software you can't get much worse. They both look like archaic programs from the 90's. Guess what we aren't living in the 90's anymore in fact I don't know anyone using windows 95 or windows 98 most people use XP or windows 7 (vista is aids and I feel sorry for anyone using it.) WotC should pull a giant overhaul across the board when it comes to mtgo as right now the programs available are a colossal joke. The only reason people put money into mtgo is because of how addicting magic is as a game. If magic wasn't that good of a game hypothetically speaking magic online would be completely dead.
WotC decides where they go in regards to magic online and paper magic. Shutting of dailies and such is their move and guess what? There's virtually nothing we can do about it. As for grinders not being able to sustain an income? Well tough **** find a real job. People making a living off of just magic are fools and I'm sorry to say had it coming. You aren't helping anyone but yourself when you make a living off of magic whereas if you have some job in any company in the world at least you're helping other people as well as yourself. Supporting a wife and 2 kids off of just magic? That's unbelievable in terms of how stupid it sounds and how little job security that offers. I guess the grinders have to face the fact that they were just fired from their job and have to go job hunting. Maybe you should have thought about the potential for this to happen, just saying.
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Kibler is to blame for this.
<SNIP>
His article caused a decision by WOTC
The only reason why WOtC would shut down their most likely biggest source of online income at a moment's notice is that there is a BIG hardware problem they can't fix in a timely fashion. As of now, they are losing money in thousands of dollars every hour. This decision to shutdown these events is because they know they will crash again and mass reinbursement will occur. Why they can't just replace the servers quickly is the mystery to me. Most likely because big changes are coming with the new client and they don't want to put big bucks in machines that won't be needed a year from now.
Nothing any pro player says has anything to do with what is happening right now.
The idea that grinders leaving would make the MTGO economy crumble is quite far-fetched, isn't it? If the top grinders make 1500 tix of profit per month, that is *tiny* compared to the volume of sales on MTGO. Just figure out how many draft and sealed queue fire every day, multiple by bossters and tix and you'll see how small that figure really is. Plus, the biggest burden / cash flow on MTGO is, I believe, bot chain owners redeeming sets. Grinders are a blimp compared to them.
As others have said, Poker is probably the best backup plan if you're trying to make a living in an online card game.
The idea that grinders leaving would make the MTGO economy crumble is quite far-fetched, isn't it? If the top grinders make 1500 tix of profit per month, that is *tiny* compared to the volume of sales on MTGO. Just figure out how many draft and sealed queue fire every day, multiple by bossters and tix and you'll see how small that figure really is. Plus, the biggest burden / cash flow on MTGO is, I believe, bot chain owners redeeming sets. Grinders are a blimp compared to them.
As others have said, Poker is probably the best backup plan if you're trying to make a living in an online card game.
The exit of grinders should have virtually no effect on the overall MTGO economy. Grinders simply win at very high rates and then sell their packs and tickets. The packs and tickets eventually get back into the market.
The removal of the Constructed DE's will have an effect on the MTGO economy though. You can expect a number of people to sell their decks and for fewer people to purchase constructed cards for the considerable future. For this reason, the price of singles should fall considerably.
The price of THS booster packs should also rise quite a bit since fewer packs will be paid out from constructed events now.
The only reason why WOtC would shut down their most likely biggest source of online income at a moment's notice is that there is a BIG hardware problem they can't fix in a timely fashion. As of now, they are losing money in thousands of dollars every hour. This decision to shutdown these events is because they know they will crash again and mass reinbursement will occur. Why they can't just replace the servers quickly is the mystery to me. Most likely because big changes are coming with the new client and they don't want to put big bucks in machines that won't be needed a year from now.
Nothing any pro player says has anything to do with what is happening right now.
This.
Kibler's QQ was just that. It had zero weight in the decition to close these dailies down. I'm sure his QQ was seen in the office however, I'm also sure that there was a discussion about his fit and there might have even been an attempt to reach out to him, by someone.
However the 'breaking point' for this type of decision would have been the Mox failure then the additional dailies crashing in subsequent days. There obviously is a big problem on the back end that simple maintenance couldn't fix. Its going to be a software and hardware fix. Based on the way they move through builds on the Software end, this could be a very very long process.
Grinders 'leaving' wont have an effect on the overall market. However Grinders 'leaving' along with everyone else that decides to sell off might.
The thing that I'd be worried about is the amount of money Wizards is going to lose from this change. If the amount of cash they were making before allowed them to keep pushing beta month after month, cutting previous dailies whats going to happen to MTGO now. They've taken arguably the biggest source of income and decided to move ahead with out it.
There must have been a ton of ppl involved in this type of decision. It certainly wasn't the Live/Production team reading a few QQ's and making a snap decision. This went well above their pay grade.
I hope they use this time to really get MTGO in a better place. As they stated in the announcement they have known of problems for awhile. This has been a long time coming. They may have delayed changes because of the grinders. Kibler's bad PR drop just provided the impetus.
lol @ people blaming Kibler for this. And it's unbelievable that those people in charge of MTGO get to keep their jobs apparently. But the worst thing about this misery is that I still have no Hearthstone Key
I don't think people are blaming Kibler exactly. I think people who say that are expressing their frustration that this issue, which has clearly been a MAJOR problem for months to years and has not been addressed, suddenly gets pushed to a top priority simply because Kibler spoke up. They are frustrated because this illustrates how little WotC cares about everyone BUT Kibler.
For example, MTGO has consistently been reducing the value of playing by increasing the cost of redemption absurdly and trimming their best EV events for years. Many people have complained, nothing has been done and those people have largely been ignored. Now if someone like Kibler or LSV made a huge post clearly articulating all of these changes and saying he is done playing MTGO and recommends everyone else quits too, you can bet something major would be done about it. WotC simply does not care about screwing over the common MTGO player unless someone with enough visibility really holds them over the fire.
lol @ people blaming Kibler for this. And it's unbelievable that those people in charge of MTGO get to keep their jobs apparently. But the worst thing about this misery is that I still have no Hearthstone Key
Good thing for you, Hearthstone is going into open beta soon(tm) as announced at Blizzcon last week. I understand it's coming in December.
People saying Kibler isn't to blame obviously didn't see where he was telling everyone to quit MTGO, while also berating it and flipping his lid. While understandable, he's technically the front runner of why 75% of MTGO got shut down; Wizards obviously had to do SOMETHING after a HOFer basically called a riot to boycott one of their biggest revenue intakes.
In the same way you can tell someone is from the XVIII century because he is arroused by ankles, you can tell someone is from USA because he feels nipples disturbing.
Heartstone is a lot of fun, have been able to hold a key for months now, however it's not even compareable to MTG sadly. It's fast paced and relies way less on synergy, it's way simpler etc.
Don't expect HS to be your "new" MTG, if you just want to have fun it's awesome though.
Hopefully this fix will bring about some changes other than worse EV... though the constructed Swiss events are neat if you want to play for fun AND a bit of thrill.
I've had a key for 4-5 months now I think? I enjoy it, but you're right... Hearthstone is no MTG. I do find it interesting that the skills I take from MTG translate fairly well into HS. The arena/draft portion in particular.
People saying Kibler isn't to blame obviously didn't see where he was telling everyone to quit MTGO, while also berating it and flipping his lid. While understandable, he's technically the front runner of why 75% of MTGO got shut down; Wizards obviously had to do SOMETHING after a HOFer basically called a riot to boycott one of their biggest revenue intakes.
So he broke their servers then told them to get rid of the dailies? The only thing he did was call them out what was broken and that they need to fix it.
Hmmm? A post that garners 1000s of likes, an outcry of people threatening to uninstall MTGO, and leads a week of complete discussion from facebook, to website articles, to tweets, etc. Where was all of this in the previous PTQ & MOCs Crashes, which have occurred all in the past 4 months? Look at the response made by Turian, they apologized immensely and said it is not tolerable, so each time it crashed prior it was tolerable? You keep believing Kibler's post had no effect on the immediate shut down of Scheduled Events.
You want to take away PTQs fine. You want to take off the MOCs, fine. But you took away everything. Kibler was the catalyst to all of this. November 4, 2013 an article was posted on the upcoming MOCs Year. Would they make such an announcement, if they had plans for shutdown? I understand Kibler is a good looking guy, but good god I didn't know he was so delicious, because you guys are riding him like it is nobodies business.
Kibler makes a post about GPs being a waste of money, WOTC changes GP structure promptly. He makes a post about MTGO being a complete waste and should be uninstalled. He clearly believed WOTC would not respond to such a bold remark. So tnx again buddy.
Anyone relying on a digital version of a fantasy card game to support a family needs to get the crap slapped out of them, and actually go out and do tangible work in the world.
Any woman that decides to marry and have kids with a guy whose main source of income comes from digital verision of a fantasy card game should have her head checked out.
Maybe he should get an actual job and stop trying to take care of 2 kids by playing an online card game
You are speaking from a point of American privilege that does not understand that people outside of this country have few opportunities to make good money, and, if you're good at MTG, MTGO is one of the ways they can. You have access to "actual jobs" because you are privileged, and your standard of living being built from this guy and his two kids being poor, so how about instead of rolling your eyes with a digital smiley face you open up some dissertations on global inequality?
1. For everyone saying "it's stupid to make a living off a game", I'd like to quote a tweet from PVDDR earlier today: go tell that to professional LoL players. Or professional sports players for that matter. The whole game benefits from having a pro scene, and MTGO is what truly makes it internationally viable. Are you going to say the same things about big bot chain owners? They too build their whole lives around a 'digital version of a fantasy trading card game' and depend on a healthy MTGO market to survive.
2. WotC knows that grinders exist. They're aware that people can make a living off of MTGO. Therefore it's pretty rude, not to say cruel, to make such drastic changes without some previous warnings. There's a reason companies are obligated to warn people in advance before they decide to fire them.
3. I'm from Brazil aswell, so let me do some explaining. Batutinha has stated that he makes around ~100tix a day on his twitter. Let's assume he profits an average 80 tix a day in a given month, then sells the tix for .95 dollars each. That's 80 x 30 x .95 = over 2k USD/month, and over 5k BRL/month. If he does indeed gain 5k BRL a month, that means he's in the top 10% of brazilian society. That's probably more than I'm going to get after I graduate from architecture school. It's a legitimate way of getting money if he's good at it.
So please at least try to show some sympathy for a man who's been majorly ****ed up overnight.
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One big name grinder said he averaged about 1500 tix a month. More than enough to live on in many countries.
Wtf dude theres nothing funny at all recovering from a life threatening illness....
And im not judging anyone for playing mtgo for money but just saying that grinding for a living isnt fulfilling and it has lots of cons. Grinding on mtgo is almost like a dead end job but with a little bit more freedom due to the flexibility in it. Its better than working at McDonalds in some sense but there is still a ton of stress to grinding and puts you in a very uncomfortable lifestyle. Yes its better than $1 per hour if your not in the USA, but its still not a great way to make money. Your going from being poor to being glued to a PC 24-7 for not a lot of money, which means your going to living a very low quality lifestyle either way.
Theres tons of opportunity costs of sitting in a chair all day, the eye strain, lack of physical activity, its not the most ideal way to make a living. If you have the energy to endure this day in and out, you probably could be doing something better with your time thats less tedious and more rewarding.
IF they can make 20,000+ dollars in one event, why would they shut it down?
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I have zero faith these daily events will return anytime soon. Looking at their past history dailies wont be along for a very very long time. If ever.
All that being said, my hope is that this is a reset for everyone involved. Card prices should plummet. Hopefully enabling newer players to get invested in the 'fixed' client.
So from all of the MTGO Grinders or MTGO Professionals, thank you Kibler for taking away our MTG. I really hope you go 0-2 drop this weekend, and that is me being nice about him receiving bad luck (FYI I'm a Yugioh player and you know the horror stories that happen @ all YGO tournaments.). I never hated you man hell you are one of the few MTG players I would want to chill with, but when you post something that will clearly draw WOTC's attentions, because obviously you have never done that before, and don't even consider for once the possible ramifications, you can go eat my *insert whatever you please*
Haha very funny. You play MTG but don't like the players? There are hundreds of games you can play in your free time other than magic online. You don't like it? Send an email to WotC see if they care. They have to start giving a damn about mtgo now due to this. This is a long time coming because both v3 and the beta are both jokes in terms software you can't get much worse. They both look like archaic programs from the 90's. Guess what we aren't living in the 90's anymore in fact I don't know anyone using windows 95 or windows 98 most people use XP or windows 7 (vista is aids and I feel sorry for anyone using it.) WotC should pull a giant overhaul across the board when it comes to mtgo as right now the programs available are a colossal joke. The only reason people put money into mtgo is because of how addicting magic is as a game. If magic wasn't that good of a game hypothetically speaking magic online would be completely dead.
WotC decides where they go in regards to magic online and paper magic. Shutting of dailies and such is their move and guess what? There's virtually nothing we can do about it. As for grinders not being able to sustain an income? Well tough **** find a real job. People making a living off of just magic are fools and I'm sorry to say had it coming. You aren't helping anyone but yourself when you make a living off of magic whereas if you have some job in any company in the world at least you're helping other people as well as yourself. Supporting a wife and 2 kids off of just magic? That's unbelievable in terms of how stupid it sounds and how little job security that offers. I guess the grinders have to face the fact that they were just fired from their job and have to go job hunting. Maybe you should have thought about the potential for this to happen, just saying.
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The only reason why WOtC would shut down their most likely biggest source of online income at a moment's notice is that there is a BIG hardware problem they can't fix in a timely fashion. As of now, they are losing money in thousands of dollars every hour. This decision to shutdown these events is because they know they will crash again and mass reinbursement will occur. Why they can't just replace the servers quickly is the mystery to me. Most likely because big changes are coming with the new client and they don't want to put big bucks in machines that won't be needed a year from now.
Nothing any pro player says has anything to do with what is happening right now.
As others have said, Poker is probably the best backup plan if you're trying to make a living in an online card game.
The exit of grinders should have virtually no effect on the overall MTGO economy. Grinders simply win at very high rates and then sell their packs and tickets. The packs and tickets eventually get back into the market.
The removal of the Constructed DE's will have an effect on the MTGO economy though. You can expect a number of people to sell their decks and for fewer people to purchase constructed cards for the considerable future. For this reason, the price of singles should fall considerably.
The price of THS booster packs should also rise quite a bit since fewer packs will be paid out from constructed events now.
This.
Kibler's QQ was just that. It had zero weight in the decition to close these dailies down. I'm sure his QQ was seen in the office however, I'm also sure that there was a discussion about his fit and there might have even been an attempt to reach out to him, by someone.
However the 'breaking point' for this type of decision would have been the Mox failure then the additional dailies crashing in subsequent days. There obviously is a big problem on the back end that simple maintenance couldn't fix. Its going to be a software and hardware fix. Based on the way they move through builds on the Software end, this could be a very very long process.
Grinders 'leaving' wont have an effect on the overall market. However Grinders 'leaving' along with everyone else that decides to sell off might.
The thing that I'd be worried about is the amount of money Wizards is going to lose from this change. If the amount of cash they were making before allowed them to keep pushing beta month after month, cutting previous dailies whats going to happen to MTGO now. They've taken arguably the biggest source of income and decided to move ahead with out it.
There must have been a ton of ppl involved in this type of decision. It certainly wasn't the Live/Production team reading a few QQ's and making a snap decision. This went well above their pay grade.
I don't think people are blaming Kibler exactly. I think people who say that are expressing their frustration that this issue, which has clearly been a MAJOR problem for months to years and has not been addressed, suddenly gets pushed to a top priority simply because Kibler spoke up. They are frustrated because this illustrates how little WotC cares about everyone BUT Kibler.
For example, MTGO has consistently been reducing the value of playing by increasing the cost of redemption absurdly and trimming their best EV events for years. Many people have complained, nothing has been done and those people have largely been ignored. Now if someone like Kibler or LSV made a huge post clearly articulating all of these changes and saying he is done playing MTGO and recommends everyone else quits too, you can bet something major would be done about it. WotC simply does not care about screwing over the common MTGO player unless someone with enough visibility really holds them over the fire.
Just a curious observation. I'm certain someone else has better info that I do as I'm just looking at Goldfish Prices.
But it was interesting and worth a post IMO as I've never seen this before.
Good thing for you, Hearthstone is going into open beta soon(tm) as announced at Blizzcon last week. I understand it's coming in December.
I've had a key for 4-5 months now I think? I enjoy it, but you're right... Hearthstone is no MTG. I do find it interesting that the skills I take from MTG translate fairly well into HS. The arena/draft portion in particular.
So he broke their servers then told them to get rid of the dailies? The only thing he did was call them out what was broken and that they need to fix it.
You want to take away PTQs fine. You want to take off the MOCs, fine. But you took away everything. Kibler was the catalyst to all of this. November 4, 2013 an article was posted on the upcoming MOCs Year. Would they make such an announcement, if they had plans for shutdown? I understand Kibler is a good looking guy, but good god I didn't know he was so delicious, because you guys are riding him like it is nobodies business.
Kibler makes a post about GPs being a waste of money, WOTC changes GP structure promptly. He makes a post about MTGO being a complete waste and should be uninstalled. He clearly believed WOTC would not respond to such a bold remark. So tnx again buddy.
Any woman that decides to marry and have kids with a guy whose main source of income comes from digital verision of a fantasy card game should have her head checked out.
I read it as a snarky "why would you even expect to be able to support a family grinding MTGO?"
A sentiment I have to say I agree with. Wizards is under no obligation to ensure that you can continue supporting your family by grinding on MTGO.
You are speaking from a point of American privilege that does not understand that people outside of this country have few opportunities to make good money, and, if you're good at MTG, MTGO is one of the ways they can. You have access to "actual jobs" because you are privileged, and your standard of living being built from this guy and his two kids being poor, so how about instead of rolling your eyes with a digital smiley face you open up some dissertations on global inequality?
1. For everyone saying "it's stupid to make a living off a game", I'd like to quote a tweet from PVDDR earlier today: go tell that to professional LoL players. Or professional sports players for that matter. The whole game benefits from having a pro scene, and MTGO is what truly makes it internationally viable. Are you going to say the same things about big bot chain owners? They too build their whole lives around a 'digital version of a fantasy trading card game' and depend on a healthy MTGO market to survive.
2. WotC knows that grinders exist. They're aware that people can make a living off of MTGO. Therefore it's pretty rude, not to say cruel, to make such drastic changes without some previous warnings. There's a reason companies are obligated to warn people in advance before they decide to fire them.
3. I'm from Brazil aswell, so let me do some explaining. Batutinha has stated that he makes around ~100tix a day on his twitter. Let's assume he profits an average 80 tix a day in a given month, then sells the tix for .95 dollars each. That's 80 x 30 x .95 = over 2k USD/month, and over 5k BRL/month. If he does indeed gain 5k BRL a month, that means he's in the top 10% of brazilian society. That's probably more than I'm going to get after I graduate from architecture school. It's a legitimate way of getting money if he's good at it.
So please at least try to show some sympathy for a man who's been majorly ****ed up overnight.