Friday Night Magic (or FNM) is a format of Magic: The Gathering tournaments, held on Friday nights in gaming stores and associations all across the world. They are designed to be a beginner-friendly introduction to organized play. History In 1996, the Pro Tour debuted as part of Wizards of the Coast's marketing strategy for Magic. People who participate in Friday Night Magic (FNM) "earn Planeswalker Points, which can help them gain free entree to the next two levels: Pro Tour Qualifiers (PTQ) and Grand Prix (GP)". The first FNM promo card was released in 2000. Over the course of the 2000s, Wizards shifted their strategic focus to amateur players. This included a shift to more events in local stores that participate in the Wizards Play Network with FNM advertised as "the event where new players can approach the game, and start building their community". Internationally, "thousands of games shops" participate in FNM. In 2015, the Wizards Play Network loosened restrictions on what formats of Magic could be played at official FNM events. In 2018, The New Yorker reported that "even as it has grown in popularity and size, Magic flies low to the ground. It thrives on the people who gather at lunch tables, in apartments, or in one of the six thousand stores worldwide that Wizards has licensed to put on weekly tournaments dubbed Friday Night Magic". In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wizards of the Coast suspended in-store events in North America, Europe, and Latin America. In response to the in-person suspension, Wizards of the Coast launched the Friday Night Magic at Home program utilizing the online game Magic: The Gathering Arena. Polygon reported "stores that typically host Friday Night Magic events will be able to pass out reward codes to encourage communities to come together — Wizards of the Coast said its helping stores set up online communities if they don’t already have them". In May 2021, the in-store suspension was lifted in the United States, Japan and Africa but not in Latin America or Europe. Format FNM is managed by the Wizards Play Network (WPN). FNM tournaments are run at Regular Rules Enforcement Level (REL), which is the least stringent REL. This is used to encourage players to learn the correct way to play, readying them for stricter tournaments. Prior to December 2014, Friday Night Magic tournaments were limited to four sanctioned formats: constructed,