MTG, Riftbound, Lorcana, and Pokemon Leave TGC Awards Empty Handed

Published Oct 26, 2026, 10:20 AM EDT Niall (pronounced Ny-ul) is a UK-based writer who has been writing about Magic: The Gathering throughout his entire career, with everything from new set breakdowns and individual deck guides to offering his opinions on the state of formats and the general direction of the iconic TCG. Niall also has a rich history covering triple-A releases, sports games, and PC hardware. Since The Game Awards rose in popularity, it feels like there's now greater emphasis on achievements and awards for individual games. When it comes to trading card games, we've not really had a solid platform to recognize the games we love dearly. Enter the TGC Awards. This new award show recognizes everything we love about trading card games and the business behind them. The first event took place during Spiel Essen 2026, but the outcomes are very peculiar, and a fan-led voting system seems largely to blame. Star Wars Unlimited Sweeps TCG Awards, But Even Fans Aren't Convinced I have to start by flagging something very obvious: despite some very late promo for the TCG Awards, no TCG community has been actively talking about this event, nor have any major TCG outlets or creators. If not for the results being thrust into my X timeline, I'm not sure I would have known they were happening either. The TCG Awards hosted the event on Twitch, where its account has only 41 followers, and it drew 1,293 viewers (at the time of writing). The short story is that Star Wars Unlimited won Game of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Set of the Year, and Event of the Year. Anyone familiar with the TCG market will immediately be confused that a game released in 2024 is winning a newcomer award for 2026, but the whole string of results just doesn't make sense. This sentiment is echoed in a response to a post on the Star Wars Unlimited Reddit, where one player rants about being "very disappointed with the leadership behind the game" because of issues with set design and the longevity of new mechanics. Unfortunately, the post doesn't have much interaction, and most of it is an argument for and against fan voting. If this is the result of the first-ever showing of what will hopefully become a yearly TCG award show, players need to know that the show is actually happening and how to get involved. Searching for the TCG Awards on Reddit returns very few relevant posts; no major content creators are talking about it, and neither are any of the studios behind the games. If this is to become a yearly tradition everyone gets behind, it needs better marketing moving forward. Shocking as it is that Star Wars Unlimited cleaned house with so many major awards, the bigger shock is that virtually every game bigger than it left with nothing. Granted, Pokémon did take home an award for Artwork of the Year, although I'd be inclined to say that the artist won that, not the game, and the Women+ In Magic campaign won Equality Impact of the Year, and rightfully so, but that's a philanthropic endeavor and nothing to do with the game itself. Riftbound not winning Newcomer of the Year feels like a real disservice given how that game has grown and performed since its release in August 2025, and because it was actually released in the last year and not in 2024, it already really hurts the credibility of these awards that a game like Star Wars Unlimited was even in contention. I understand there was apparently a two-year rule to keep certain games eligible, but it doesn't look great. If you're concerned about which games would be included if you reduced it to a year, you could instead look at upcoming games, or change the category entirely to focus on growth, which, again, would have favored Riftbound anyway. Each category had three finalists, and both MTG and Riftbound feature prominently, but Pokémon does not, and Lorcana is absent entirely. These games have huge, passionate communities that all seemed unaware they needed to show up and support them, casting further doubt on a fan-led vote so early in the TCG Awards' life. I'm no marketing expert; I just write about TCGs for a living, but if the TCG Awards return next year, they should assemble a larger panel of creators, businesses, and media to decide the final three for each category. They would then need to vote, and this round of voting could then be weighed up against a fan vote to decide the winners. Or, just scrap fan voting entirely and have one or two fan-voted categories to keep the communities involved. I love TCGs as do millions of others out there, and we absolutely deserve an awards show to recognize the incredible work of the countless unsung heroes in the industry, whether it's content creators, artists, writers, designers, or just anyone whose voice feels unheard, yet their work is adored by many.