Update 3/29/19: Kotaku is reporting that Turtenwald has been accused of having “exhibited a pattern of predatory behavior toward female Magic players that spans several years.” However, Kotaku could not confirm if those accusations were the reason why Turtenwald was removed from the Mythic Invitational. Hipsters of the Coast was unable to find multiple sources to confirm the accusations reported by Kotaku.
Just one day ahead of the Mythic Invitational, Wizards of the Coast announced that Magic Pro League competitor Owen Turtenwald would not be participating in the event. Turtenwald will be replaced in the tournament by the recently-retired Pro Tour Commentator Brian David-Marshall. Wizards of the Coast had no further comment beyond the official announcement made on Twitter.
Turtenwald is the second Magic Pro League member who has been removed from the event. Previously, Rei Sato was uninvited after being disqualified at Grand Prix Prague in January of this year for opportunistically cheating.
The Mythic Invitational is a 64-player double-elimination tournament with a total prize pool of $1,000,000 USD. The event, which is sponsored by OMEN by HP, is set to be the biggest stage on which Wizards of the Coast will display Magic the Gathering Arena, their still-in-beta digital platform for playing Magic the Gathering. The Invitational includes the Top 8 Mythic Constructed players from the February competitive season on MTG Arena, 25 of the top personalities who stream MTG Arena on Twitch, 30 of the 32 members of the Magic Pro League, and Brian David-Marshall.
The Magic Pro League is a 32-player competitive league featuring the top Magic players in the world. Each player is under contract with Wizards of the Coast to compete in the Mythic Championships and Mythic Invitational event. The Mythic Invitational is the first event of the year to shine the spotlight on the Magic Pro League.
We will continue to update this article as the story develops.