Pro Player of the Year Shuhei Nakamura World Champion Antti Malin Grands Prix 21 | Rookie of the Year Aaron Nicastri Pro Tours 4 Start date 2008 | |
Hall of Fame inductions Dirk Baberowski
Mike Turian
Jelger Wiegersma
Olivier Ruel
Ben Rubin | ||
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.
Contents
Grand Prix – Stuttgart
- 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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.