The 2008 Pro Tour season was the thirteenth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. It began on 15 December 2007, with Grand Prix Stuttgart, and ended on 14 December 2008, with the 2008 World Championship in Memphis. The season consisted of twenty-one Grand Prixs, and four Pro Tours, located in Kuala Lumpur, Hollywood, Berlin, and Memphis. The Grand Prixs from June until August were designated Summer Series Grand Prixs, awarding more prizes and additional Pro Points. At the end of the season, Shuhei Nakamura became the fourth consecutive Japanese player to win Pro Player of the year. Dirk Baberowski, Michael Turian, Jelger Wiegersma, Olivier Ruel, and Ben Rubin were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Grand Prix – Stuttgart GP Stuttgart (15–16 December 2007) Format: Limited Attendance: 1336 Shuhei Nakamura Robert van Medevoort Jonathan Bergström Raul Porojan Joel Calafell Fried Meulders Patrizio Golia Marc Vogt
Pro Tour – Kuala Lumpur (15–17 February 2008) Jon Finkel of the US won Kuala Lumpur, becoming the first Hall of Fame member to do so after his induction. The top eight is considered to be one of the best ever, with the players having a total of six Pro Tour wins between them prior to Kuala Lumpur.
Tournament data Prize pool: $230,795 Players: 346 Format: Booster Draft (Lorwyn-Morningtide) Head Judge: Toby Elliott
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Jon Finkel$40,0002512th Final day, 3rd Pro Tour win2 Mario Pascoli$20,000203 Marcio Carvalho$15,000162nd Final day4 Ming Xu$13,000161st Chinese Player in a Top 8, Pro Tour debut5 Guillaume Wafo-Tapa$11,000122nd Final day6 Mike Hron$10,500122nd Final day7 Joel Calafell$10,000128 Nicolai Herzog$9,500125th Final day
Grand Prixs – Vancouver, Shizuoka, Vienna, Philadelphia, Brussels
GP Vancouver (23–24 February) Format: Extended Attendance: 395 Paul Cheon Ben Lundquist Marc Bonnefoy Zack Hall Jason Fleurant Michael Guerney Aaron Paquette Hunter Coale
GP Philadelphia (15–16 March) Format: Extended Attendance: 969 Gerard Fabiano Adam Yurchick Luis Scott-Vargas Tyler Mantey Paul Mathews Ben Wienburg Matt Hansen Jonathan Sonne
GP Shizuoka (8–9 March) Format: Standard Attendance: 827 Yuuta Takahashi Olivier Ruel Kenji Tsumura Ryousuke Masuno Kazuya Mitamura Shintarou Ishimura Taichi Fujimoto Akira Asahara
GP Brussels (3–4 May) Format: Limited Attendance: 1430 Kamiel Cornelissen Gabriel Nassif Raphaël Lévy Antoine Ruel Gaetan Lefebvre Rogier Kleij Holger Lange Alexandre Peset
GP Vienna (15–16 March) Format: Extended Attendance: 1154 Mateusz Kopec Nikolaus Eigner Matija Vlahovic Tomoharu Saitou Gianluca Bevere Horst Winkelmann Wojciech Zuber Andras Nagy
Pro Tour Hollywood (23–25 May 2008) Charles Gindy became the second American to win a Pro Tour in the 2008 season. Playing a green-black elf/rock deck, he defeated Germany's Jan Ruess, playing merfolk, in the finals.
Tournament data Prize pool: $230,795 Players: 371 Format: Standard Head Judge: Sheldon Menery
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Charles Gindy$40,000252 Jan Ruess$20,000203 Shuhei Nakamura$15,000165th Final day4 Yong Han Choo$13,000165 Nico Bohny$11,000126 Makihito Mihara$10,500123rd Final day7 Marijn Lybaert$10,000122nd Final day8 Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa$9,500123rd Final day
Grand Prixs – Birmingham, Indianapolis, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Kobe, Denver, Copenhagen, Manila, Rimini, Kansas City, Paris
GP Birmingham (30 May – 1 June) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 581 Lee Shi Tian Remi Fortier Raphaël Lévy Jelger Wiegersma Antti Malin Matthias Künzler Manuel Bucher Jonathan Randle
GP Summer Series Indianapolis (21–22 June) Format: Limited Attendance: 1124 Jelger Wiegersma Gaudenis Vidugiris Jamie Parke Tyler Mantey James Beltz Eric Franklin Randy Wright Ben Rasmussen
GP Summer Series Buenos Aires (28–29 June) Format: Standard Attendance: 580 Francisco Braga Felipe Alves Pellegrini Adrien Degaspare Damian Buckley Ivan Taroshi Fox Olivier Ruel Nicolas Bevacqua Sebastian Pozzo
GP Summer Series Madrid (26–27 July) Format: Limited Attendance: 1465 Lasse Nørgaard Daniel Martin Bermejo Manuel Bucher Romain Fenaux-briot Allan Christensen Sergio Salas Martinez Tommi Lindgren Geir Bakke
GP Summer Series Kobe (2–3 August) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 811 Yuuta Takahashi Takayuki Takagi Masaya Tanahashi Shou Yoshimori Hirosi Yosida Katsuya Ueda Koutarou Ootsuka Tsuyoshi Ikeda
GP Summer Series Denver (9–10 August) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 625 Gerry Thompson Lee Steht Nathan Elkins Kenneth Castor A.J. Sacher Kyle Bundgaard Antonino De Rosa Hunter Burton
GP Summer Series Copenhagen (23–24 August) Format: Standard Attendance: 610 David Larsson Tomoharu Saitou Jakub Jahoda Shuhei Nakamura Guillaume Wafo-Tapa William Cavaglieri Philipp Summereder Robert Van Meedevort
GP Summer Series Manila (30–31 August) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 641 Hironobu Sugaya Shouta Yasooka Luis Magisa Shingou Kurihara Masami Kaneko Koutarou Ootsuka Raphaël Lévy Wai Keat Ken Lim
GP Rimini (13–14 September) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 686 Emanuele Giusti Shuhei Nakamura Claudio Salemi Marcello Calvetto Matthias Künzler Rodrigo Renedo Joel Calafell Petr Nahodil
GP Paris (18–19 October) Format: Limited Attendance: 1838 Arjan van Leeuwen Pierre Rensonnet Menno Dolstra Simon Görtzen Niels Noorlander Romain Lisciandro Artur Cnotalski Jan De Coster
GP Kansas City (18–19 October) Format: Limited Attendance: 746 Tim Landale Carlos Romão Jonathan Sonne Sammy Batarseh Brandon Scheel Justin Meyer Chris Pait Willy Edel
Pro Tour Berlin (31 October – 2 November 2008) Luis Scott-Vargas of the US, defeated Matej Zatlkaj in the finals of Pro Tour Berlin. Six of the eight quarter finalists, including all four semi-finalists, played variants on the Elf-Ball combo deck.
Tournament data Prize pool: $230,795 Players: 454 Format: Extended Head Judge: Sheldon Menery
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Luis Scott-Vargas$40,000252 Matej Zatlkaj$20,000203 Tomoharu Saitou$15,000165th Final day4 Sebastian Thaler$13,000162nd Final day5 Kenny Öberg$11,000126 Martin Juza$10,500127 Denis Sinner$10,000128 Jan Doise$9,50012
Grand Prixs – Atlanta, Okoyama, Taipei, Auckland
GP Atlanta (15–16 November) Format: Limited Attendance: 684 Luis Scott-Vargas Gerry Thompson Chris Fennell Steven Wolansky Brett Piazza Tomoharu Saitou Chris Pait Ken Adams
GP Taipei (29–30 November) Format: Limited Attendance: 270 Shu Komuro Yoshitaka Nakano Osamu Fujita Homg Gi Tsai Tun Min Huang Sheng Xiu Jian Lee Shi Tian Kang Nien Chiang
GP Okoyama (22–23 November) Format: Limited Attendance: 635 Makihito Mihara Kazuya Mitamura Chikara Nakajima Tsuyoshi Ikeda Daisuke Muramatsu Olivier Ruel Akimasa Yamamoto Guillaume Wafo-Tapa
GP Auckland (6–7 December) Format: Limited Attendance: 254 Dominic Lo Nick Tung Justin Cheung Jason Chung Olivier Ruel Joseph Combs Basam Tabet Chris Hay
2008 World Championships – Memphis (11–14 December 2008)
The World Championships began with the induction of Dirk Baberowski, Michael Turian, Jelger Wiegersma, Olivier Ruel, and Ben Rubin, into the Hall of Fame. In the individual competition, Antti Malin of Finland emerged as the World Champion from a top eight including only one player without a prior Sunday appearance. In the team competition, it was the first time that the top four teams would play on Sunday, as opposed to only the top two. The US team defeated Australia in the finals.
Tournament data
Prize pool: $245,245 (individual) + $192,425 (national teams) Players: 329 Formats: Standard, Booster Draft (Shards of Alara), Extended Head Judge: Toby Elliott
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Antti Malin$45,000252nd Final day2 Jamie Parke$24,000202nd Final day3 Tsuyoshi Ikeda$15,000163rd Final day4 Hannes Kerem$14,000161st player from Estonia to Top Eight5 Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa$11,000124th Final day6 Kenji Tsumura$10,500126th Final day7 Frank Karsten$10,000123rd Final day8 Akira Asahara$9,500122nd Final day
National team competition
United States (Michael Jacob, Paul Cheon, Sam Black) Australia (Aaron Nicastri, Brandon Lau, Justin Cheung) Brazil (Willy Edel, Vagner Casatti, Luiz Guilherme de Michielli) Japan (Masashi Oiso, Yuuya Watanabe, Akihiro Takakuwa)
Pro Player of the year final standings
After the World Championship, Shuhei Nakamura was awarded the Pro Player of the year title, making Japan the first country to win the title in four consecutive years.
RankPlayerPro Points1 Shuhei Nakamura702 Olivier Ruel58 Luis Scott-Vargas4 Marcio Carvalho50 Tomoharu Saitou
Performance by country
Japan had the most Top 8 appearances at 6 although they had less than half as many players on the Pro Tour in the season than the United States, which had the secondmost Top 8 appearances at 5.
CountryT8QQ/T8MGTBest Player (PPts) Japan6155.519Shuhei Nakamura (70) United States5196.516Luis Scott-Vargas (58) Germany32083Jan Ruess (35) Belgium2158.53Marijn Lybaert (33) Brazil2185.54Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (42) France1183.56Olivier Ruel (58) Italy12303Mario Pascoli (40) Spain12241Joel Calafell (33)
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 2009 season; Best Player (PPts) = Player with the most Pro Points from that country, Pro Points of that player in brackets.
References