... you'll get an avatar for participating in either event... All participants will receive an Avacyn, the Purifier avatar.

So it looks like they will keep the avatars for now.

A pre-release report:

I started out drafting twice and went 2-1. After the draft I liquidated all uncommons and above. I came out with a 7 tix surplus.

Then I went on to play 4x leagues. In the first 2 leagues, I went 0-3 and dropped. With the surplus from drafting, I was now down with 1 tix. Fairly happy given the entertainment value. I was surprised that I could break even with such a bad record.
In the next two leagues I went 4-1 and 5-0. My total profit was something like 50 tix plus 460 play points.

Conclusion: I would never have played under the old structure. I enjoyed the pre-release and was surprised I could break even despite a poor record. But maybe I was lucky wirh my pool of cards. However, on average I think my pool of cards could be sold for around 25 tix in each of the leagues. Oh, I guess that is including the boosters that I won.

Hmmmm. My league pools would go for under ten, both times, if I decided to sell them. So just how did you sell draft pickings from two drafts for 19 tix (2-1 record puts you down 6 tix)? And then you spent 112 tix for entry fees to the leagues, got no prizes from two of those, and yet turned a 100 tix profit? I think I remember you being a mathematician IRL, so could you maybe explain this a bit?

In other news, I do enjoy the release league. On my first try, I went 3-2 with a deck featuring two red mythics (the Wolf and the Angel, both of them worth less than two tix). The second league pool I'm currently still playing (2-1 for now) is the most fun I've had in Limited for a long time. It is a RU aggro-control deck that plays five of my rares, Tamiyo's Journal and four red ones, two of them being Sin Prodder. That card makes for some interesting decisions.