A specialist events organiser based in Buckinghamshire is celebrating 10 years of success as one of the country’s largest organisers of live events for the trading card game Magic: The Gathering.
Axion Now has brought a unique approach to the world of trading card games in the UK by recognising the appeal of nationwide events that bring together both casual players and competitive players with a serious prize pool on offer.
Axion Now was the first company in the UK to introduce Magic the Gathering national event series ‘CommandFest’ and are the approved partner of Wizards of the Coast, the US-based creators of the Magic: The Gathering game. CommandFest is a tournament festival dedicated to the Commander format of Magic: The Gathering.
Growth of the company
Since the company’s inception in 2014, by joint founders Elizabeth Kolb and Francois Hauchard, the company has built a reputation as the place to go for the very best Magic: The Gathering events. As the company goes from strength to strength, they plan to organise bigger and better face-to-face events at exciting venues across the UK where players can gather to, ultimately, have fun. Already they have held successful events at iconic venues such as Edgbaston in Birmingham and Twickenham Stadium in London.
As a small company one of their great advantages is to be able to conceive a new idea, put it into place quickly and make an immediate impact on what they can deliver for their customers. This agility and flexibility – found in so many SMEs – enables them to continuously improve and deliver better and better innovative events.
One of the key messages of Axion Now since the very beginning, has been to create happiness and enable people to have fun at their events. That’s a striking goal for a business to be focused on but is absolutely key to everyone working at Axion Now.
The company has brought together a huge cross section of people living in the UK but from many internationally different backgrounds and from all sorts of demographics. They have a genuine inclusivity at their live events where everybody quite simply shares the same passion for playing this exciting and challenging trading card game.
Looking to the future
Axion Now celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024 with a special event at the iconic Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham. More than a thousand players from across the country and beyond came together for challenging competitions with fabulous prizes, casual games, and met their favourite artists or traded their collectible cards. It was a fabulous end to the live events season for Magic: The Gathering.
The company will continue to expand its event offerings and are already planning for the 2025 season. As in 2024 they will be including live events for the Disney® Lorcana trading card game in addition to Magic: The Gathering.
There have been plenty of challenges for businesses of all sizes since the start of the Axion Now journey but the team successfully weathered those challenges and are looking forward with enthusiasm to the next 10 years.
