Youtuber Ruxin34 has taken down a sponsored video promoting the MTG 30th Anniversary Edition on his Yugioh-focused channel, after getting negative comments on social media. In an apology follow-up video, he says he’s cutting ties with Wizards and doesn’t wish to receive compensation.
Ruxin normally creates Yugioh content such as pack openings on YouTube. But he posted a Magic: The Gathering video, apparently sponsored by Wizards of the Coast, on Wednesday, November 23, titled ‘Opening Magic’s NEW 30th Anniversary Edition’.
However, Ruxin soon set this video to ‘private’, after getting a lot of heat in his comments section and on social media, from Magic fans angry about this product. Then on Friday, he released a second video, titled (in classic Youtuber apology style) ‘I Made A Huge Mistake’.
In the video, Ruxin34 apologises to his fans for taking the sponsorship from Wizards of the Coast, and says the MTG 30th Anniversary Edition is something he “should’ve done more research on”.
“I had an inkling – a slight inkling – of the disappointment in the product that we opened,” he says, but owns up to not doing enough research. “I didn’t realise how bad it was. So me opening it was not just a cool video for people to watch, me enjoying some older stuff, it wasn’t that. It was not that for most people who watched it.
“Most people that watched it were very upset with this because it means something more than just a fun opening like we normally do on the channel.”
Ruxin says he “messed up” and shouldn’t have taken the sponsorship from Wizards. He says he’s taken the video down to “hopefully get a fresh start.”
“I have not been compensated for any of this,” the Youtuber says. “So I am just going to cut ties with both of these companies that I was working with. I’m just going to say: ‘I think we’re done here’. I don’t want to continue doing anything. I don’t need to be compensated because if I am compensated that means I need to leave the videos up.”
It looks like Ruxin’s hopes for a clean slate may have been realised, since the comments section on his apology is far kinder.
Of note, it appears that Ruxin34 is not the only non-Magic content creator Wizards has reached out to about the MTG 30th Anniversary Edition. In the comments of an Alpha Investments video about Ruxin’s apology, Pokemon TCG Youtuber Leonhart claimed the following:
“Last week WOTC contacted me offering a significant amount of money to promote the product. Not knowing too much about it other than it sounding cool, I did a preliminary yes before signing anything but did some research on it and saw the reception to it and went back and declined them.”
Wargamer has reached out to Wizards of the Coast for comment, and we’ll update this story if and when we receive new details.