That didn't take long...

Even the forums broke...

[edit] Edited for context in case you're not on the beta yet - there's an event/stresstest which started half an hour ago, and wotc has asked betatesters to sign up for this to test the load on the servers and see if it breaks. That took less than 3 minutes.

The email:

We are calling on all MTG Arena Closed Beta players to try and break our servers. Break them and everyone gets an in-game reward!

Play today (Friday, July 20) between the hours of 12PM – 8PM PDT (7PM – 3AM UTC) and get access to:

Half-Off Draft Event. Draft Core Set 2019 for half-off (2,500 Gold or 375 Gems) with all the same rewards!
No-Entry Fee Constructed Event. Play in a special constructed event with no entry fee and extra prizes.

Warning: Servers might actually break. If they do break, all players get a special reward! Any unfinished Draft event entries won’t be directly reimbursed, but the reward will more than make up for it.

Enjoy!

Lol

Yup, they seem broken alright. Any estimate when the game is up again?

From the forums that currently work-ish:

This thread provides information on the current server status of the Beta.

The server is currently DOWN-ish. We are investigating a number of issues impacting a large number of players.

If you believe the server to be having an unplanned outage, please contact us at support.wizards.com to alert us to a potential unexpected server downtime.

Edited By: MTG Arena Admin 16min

I'm currently in - can't play draft, as it gets stuck when I want to crack the first pack. But the free stress-constructed seems to work ok. Ish...

[edit ]Draft works - at least I picked cards and made a deck now.

Damn!! I really wanted to draft m19

It works currently. I think they fixed it, I'm 1-1 so far.

[edit] ended 2-3, but got double pack reward - on to the next
[edit2] second run went better, 7-2 - need sleep though, so that's it for me.

I just rare drafted until I openned my Vault (I was 70% before the update). I got home from work at 1:00 am and am too tired.and simply don't have the time to play.
I blew most of the gold/gems I had saved up and have playsets of most of the crap rares by now.
I did get some good stuff too and Saw the game break openning a pack (even took a screen grab).

I've still not drafted myself and really wanted to last night to break the servers also but alas.... work. Same as you.
I took about all I had to have a couple good beers, some pizza and watch Justice League with the kids before I fell asleep on the couch. Now it's onto work again for a few hours and then to play a show in a town that's a two hour drive this evening.
Y'all have fun now!

I only played one time, but went 5-1 and got a rare and two mythic rares.

So cool by me.

I drafted a GWB deck that was slow as dirt. I resigned at 1-2.

After CGB stopped playing I got in the game with ease and actually manged like 3 drafts before going to sleep, though my first deck only got a couple wins until I suddenly had a spurt of mana screw that carried all my games with my 2nd deck.
However my 3rd deck got me 7 wins with Tezzeret thopping me to victory almost every time. Haha.