Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 2010

2010 Pro Tour season

Pro Player of the Year	Brad Nelson
Rookie of the Year	Andrea Giarola
World Champion	Guillaume Matignon
Pro Tours	4
Grands Prix	18
Hall of Fame inductions	Gabriel Nassif Brian Kibler Bram Snepvangers
Start of season	13 February 2010
End of season	12 December 2010
← 2009 2011 →

The 2010 Pro Tour season was the fifteenth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. It began on 13 February 2010 with Grand Prix Oakland, and ended on 12 December 2010 with the conclusion of the 2010 World Championship in Chiba, Japan. The season consisted of eighteen Grand Prixs, and four Pro Tours, located in San Diego, San Juan, Amsterdam, and Chiba.^[1] Gabriel Nassif, Brian Kibler, and Bram Snepvangers were inducted into the Hall of Fame at the World Championship in Chiba. Although the season formally ended with the conclusion of the World Championship, the final title of season was not awarded until three months later. Guillaume Matignon and Brad Nelson tied for Player of the Year. The title was decided by a single match between the two at the 2011 Pro Tour in Paris, which Nelson won by four games to two.^[2]

Mode

Four Pro Tours and eighteen Grand Prixs were held in the 2010 season. Further Pro Points were awarded at national championships. These Pro Points were used mainly to determine the Pro Player club levels of players participating in these events, but also decide which player was awarded the Pro Player of the year title at the end of the season. Based on final standings Pro Points were awarded as follows:^[3]

Grand Prix – Oakland

GP Oakland (13–14 February)

• Format: Extended
• Attendance: 770

1. Matt Nass
2. Adam Yurchick
3. Conley Woods
4. Travis Woo
5. Pat Cox
6. Joby Parish
7. Petr Brozek
8. Tomoharu Saitou

Pro Tour – San Diego (19–21 February 2010)

Pro Tour San Diego was held at the San Diego Convention Center. The tournament began with five rounds of Standard, followed by three rounds of Zendikar-Worldwake Booster Draft on the first day.^[1] At the end of day one Gabriel Nassif and Luis Scott-Vargas were the only undefeated players left.^[4] The second day began with another Zendikar-Worldwake Booster Draft and was followed by five additional rounds of Standard. Luis Scott-Vargas was the story of the day, having won all his matches in day two as well, thus becoming only the second player to win each match in the Swiss portion of a Pro Tour, and the first to achieve this feat over sixteen rounds.

Of the final eight players only Scott-Vargas had ever reached the top eight before.^[5] He quickly defeated his Dutch opponent. In the remaining quarter-finals the other Americans, Craig Wescoe and Kyle Boggemes, won their matches as well. German Simon Görtzen won the fourth quarter, defeating the Belgian Niels Viaene. In the semi-final Görtzen ended Scott-Vargas's streak, thus making it to the final where he played Boggemes. Both players had chosen Jund (red-green-black) decks. Eventually the German prevailed in a close match over the full five games.^[6]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $230,795
Players: 413^[7]
Format: Standard, Booster Draft (Zendikar-Worldwake)
Head Judge: Sheldon Menery

Top 8

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Simon Görtzen	$40,000	25
2	Kyle Boggemes	$20,000	20
3	Luis Scott-Vargas	$15,000	16	3rd Final day
4	Craig Wescoe	$13,000	16
5	Daniel Gräfensteiner	$11,000	12
6	Niels Viaene	$10,500	12	Pro Tour Debut
7	Yoshihiko Ikawa	$10,000	12
8	Jeroen Kanis	$9,500	12

Pro Player of the year standings

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Simon Görtzen	25
2	Kyle Boggemes	20
3	Luis Scott-Vargas	18
4	Craig Wescoe	16

Grand Prixs – Madrid, Kuala Lumpur, Yokohama, Brussels, Houston, Lyon, Washington D.C.

Pro Tour San Juan (28–30 May 2010)

The second Pro Tour of the season was held in Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The formats were Zendikar Block Constructed and Rise of the Eldrazi Booster Draft with the Top 8 doing another Rise of the Eldrazi draft.^[1]

The following players made it to the final draft table (clockwise in order starting at seed one): Guillaume Matignon, Jeremy Neeman, Andrea Giarola, Paulo Vitor da Rosa, Brad Nelson, Noah Swartz, Koutarou Ootsuka, Josh Utter-Leyton. In his fifth individual Top 8 appearance Paulo Vitor da Rosa was finally able to win a quarterfinal match. Defeating Noah Swartz in the semifinals and Guillaume Matignon in the final, Paulo eventually claimed his first Pro Tour trophy.

Tournament data

Prize pool: $230,795
Players: 396^[8]
Format: Booster Draft (Rise of the Eldrazi), Zendikar Block Constructed
Head Judge: Sheldon Menery

Top 8

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa	$40,000	25	6th Final day
2	Guillaume Matignon	$20,000	20
3	Andrea Giarola	$15,000	16	Pro Tour debut
4	Noah Swartz	$13,000	16
5	Josh Utter-Leyton	$11,000	12
6	Brad Nelson	$10,500	12
7	Koutarou Ootsuka	$10,000	12	2nd Final day
8	Jeremy Neeman	$9,500	12

Pro Player of the year standings

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa	37
2	Simon Görtzen	31
3	Kyle Boggemes	28
4	Luis Scott-Vargas	26
5	Brad Nelson	25
	Tomoharu Saitou	25
	Adam Yurchick	25

Grand Prixs – Sendai, Manila, Columbus, Gothenburg

Pro Tour Amsterdam (3–5 September 2010)

The third Pro Tour of the season was held in Amsterdam Convention Factory in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The formats were Extended and Booster Draft with the Top 8 playing Extended again.^[1]

Brad Nelson finished in first place after the Swiss rounds, thus continuing his string of Top 8 appearances that he had started at GP Washington in May. Despite losing in the final with his green-white-black Doran-deck, the additional Pro Points were sufficient to make him the leader in the Pro Player of the Year race. Kai Budde had his tenth showing in a Pro Tour Top 8 after six years of absence. He had piloted his Gabriel Nassif-designed White Weenie-deck to a 9–0–1 performance in the Swiss portion of the tournament before losing to Nelson. The eventual winner of the tournament was American Paul Rietzl, playing a White Weenie deck similar to Budde's. Rietzl made a clean sweep of the Top 8 going 9-0, the first time this had ever been done at a Constructed Pro Tour.^[9]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $230,795
Players: 457^[10]
Format: Extended, Booster Draft
Head Judge: Toby Elliott

Top 8

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Paul Rietzl	$40,000	25	2nd Final day
2	Brad Nelson	$20,000	20	2nd Final day
3	Michael Jacob	$15,000	16
4	Marijn Lybaert	$13,000	16	4th Final day
5	Guillaume Wafo-Tapa	$11,000	12	3rd Final day
6	Brian Kibler	$10,500	12	4th Final day
7	Thomas Ma	$10,000	12	Pro Tour debut
8	Kai Budde	$9,500	12	10th Final day

Pro Player of the year standings

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Brad Nelson	54
2	Tomoharu Saitou	44
3	Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa	41
4	Guillaume Matignon	38
5	Simon Görtzen	37
	Marijn Lybaert

Grand Prixs – Portland, Sydney, Toronto, Bochum, Nashville, Florence

2010 World Championships – Chiba (9–12 December 2010)

The 17th Magic World Championships was held in Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan.^[1] The tournament was won by Guillaume Matignon beating long-time friend and colleague Guillaume Wafo-Tapa in the final. In the team event, Slovakia defeated Australia in the finals.^[11]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $245,245 (individual) + ? (teams)
Players: 352^[12] (57 National Teams)^[13]
Formats: Standard, Booster Draft, Extended
Team Formats: Standard, Extended, Legacy
Head Judge: Riccardo Tessitori

Top 8

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Guillaume Matignon	$45,000	25	2nd Final day
2	Guillaume Wafo-Tapa	$24,000	20	4th Final day
3	Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa	$15,000	16	7th Final day
4	Love Janse	$14,000	16	Pro Tour Debut
5	Eric Froehlich	$11,000	12	2nd Final day
6	Lukas Jaklovsky	$10,500	12
7	Christopher Wolf	$10,000	12
8	Jonathan Randle	$9,500	12

Team Competition

1. Slovakia — Ivan Floch, Robert Jurkovic, Patrik Surab
2. Australia — Adam Witton, Ian Wood, Jeremy Neeman

Pro Player of the Year final standings

For the first time in Pro Tour history, there was a tie for Pro Player of the Year. The tie players, Brad Nelson and Guillaume Matignon, played a single match play-off at Pro Tour Paris 2011 to determine the winner of the 2010 Pro Player of the Year title. Brad Nelson would win the match 4-2 to claim the 2010 Player of the Year title.^[14]

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Brad Nelson	66
	Guillaume Matignon
3	Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa	64
4	Martin Juza	52
5	Shuhei Nakamura	51
	Guillaume Wafo-Tapa
7	Luis Scott-Vargas	47
8	Yuuya Watanabe	45

Performance by country

The United States had the most Top 8 appearances at twelve, but they also had by far the most players playing in the Pro Tour. With 26 they also have the most Pro Club Level 4+ professional players. Compared to the previous season, the United States put 2 more players into Top 8s (+20%) and generated 9 additional "gravy trainers" (+53%). Japan's performance at the top fell sharply, putting 4 players less amongst the Top 8s (-67%) and also generating 8 level 4+ pros less than in the preceding season (-47%). Meanwhile, France had the second most Top 8 appearances at 4 after a single Top 8 in 2009.

Country	T8	Q	Q/T8	M	GT	Best Player (PPts)
United States	12	468	39	210	26	Brad Nelson (66)
France	4	87	22	191	6	Guillaume Matignon (66)
Germany	3	84	28	202.5	6	Simon Görtzen (40)
Japan	2	160	80	160.5	9	Shuhei Nakamura (51)
Belgium	2	42	21	168.5	3	Marijn Lybaert (43)
Brazil	2	33	17	276	1	Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (64)
Czech Republic	1	38	38	127	5	Martin Juza (52)
Nethlands	1	53	53	172	2	Bas Melis (25)
Italy	1	64	64	197	2	Andrea Giarola (26)

T8 = Number of players from that country appearing in a Pro Tour Top 8; Q = Number of players from that country participating in Pro Tours; M = Median finish over all PTs; GT = Gravy Trainers (aka players with a Pro Players Club level of 4 or more) from that country created in the 2010 season; Best Player (PPts) = Player with the most Pro Points from that country, Pro Points of that player in brackets.

References