Magic: The Gathering World Championship

History

The first World Championship was held in 1994 at the Gen Con fair in Milwaukee. The tournament was open to all competitors, its mode was single-elimination, and it featured just one format, Vintage (then known as Type I). The 1994 tournament varied considerably from later Worlds. Starting with the 1995 Worlds, all subsequent Worlds were open to invited players only. Also beginning with the 1995 edition, all Worlds were events with multiple formats, two in case of the 1995 tournament, and three since. The team portion of Worlds was introduced in 1995 as well.

With the introduction of the Pro Tour in 1996, the World Championship became the final stop of each Pro Tour season. As the final event to award Pro points every season, Worlds also hosted the Pro Player of the Year award ceremony. Traditionally held in August, Worlds was moved to the end of the year between 2004 and 2006, when the Pro Tour season was adjusted to the calendar year. Since the inception of the Hall of Fame in 2005, Worlds also hosted the induction ceremony of each year's class.

After 15 years in which the Worlds underwent only minor changes, major changes were announced in 2011. For 2012, the World Championships were split into a separate national team event and individual player event. The team event was named the World Magic Cup, and features four player national teams. The individual player event, which was altered to include only 16 players, was named the Magic: The Gathering Players Championship. Meanwhile, the Hall of Fame introduction ceremony was moved to the first Pro Tour in each season. The Pro Player of the Year title was discontinued in favor of the Players Championship, thus attempting to merge the major individual titles, the World Champion and the Pro Player of the Year. However, for the next season, the Players Championship was renamed to World Championship, and Pro Player of the Year was made a separate title again.

Mode

Before 2012, most Worlds were held across five days, hosting an individual competition and a team competition. The individual competition consisted of three disciplines in which every participant had to compete. This meant six rounds of Standard played on the first day, two Drafts of three rounds each on the second, and six rounds of some previously determined constructed format on the third day. The fourth day hosted the national team competition. On the final day the eight highest finishing players from the individual competition returned to determine the World Champion in three rounds of single elimination. Beginning with the 2007 Worlds the tournament had been shortened to four days with the schedule altered to accommodate all parts of the competition.

Since 2012, the World Championship has been a 16-player event (2012 and 2013) or a 24-player event (2014 onwards) rather than a Pro Tour-like event with 300-400 competitors. The mode is similar to previous Worlds events in that it features two constructed formats in addition to Booster Draft. In 2014, three rounds of Vintage Masters draft and four rounds of Modern were played on the first day, followed by three rounds of Khans of Tarkir draft and four rounds of Standard on the second day. After the Swiss rounds, there is a cut to the top four players, who play two rounds of single elimination to determine the World Champion.

For 2015, it was initially announced that the World Championship and the World Magic Cup would be held on separate weeks, sharing the same venue. However, it was later announced that these events would be held at different locations and at different times.

World Championship

Prior to 2012, the following players were eligible to play in the World Championship:

Current World Champion

2nd to 8th-place finishers from the previous World Championship.

Current Pro Player of the Year.

For countries that hold an invitation-only National Championship, the three members of each national team and that team’s designated alternate.

For countries that hold an open National Championship, the winner of that National Championship.

Players with Pro Tour Players Club level 4 or higher. (This includes all members of the Hall of Fame.)

Players with Pro Tour Players Club level 3 that have not yet used their Players Club invitation

Top 25 DCI Total-ranked players from the APAC region.

Top 25 DCI Total-ranked players from Japan.

Top 50 DCI Total-ranked players from the Europe region.

Top 50 DCI Total-ranked players from the Latin America region.

Top 50 DCI Total-ranked players from the North America region.

Players invited to the Magic Online Championship held the same week (New in 2009).

(Compare Magic Premier Event Invitation Policy).

On 2 November 2011, Wizards of the Coast announced a major change to the structure of the World Championship. It was announced that as of 2012, the individual World Championship would be renamed the Magic Players Championship, though the tournament would later revert to its original title, and move from being a Pro Tour-sized event to an exclusive sixteen-person tournament. These sixteen players will be the:

Previous World Champion/Magic Players Champion

Previous Magic Online Champion Series Champion

Winners of the previous three Pro Tours

The top-ranked player from each geo-region (Asia Pacific, Europe, Japan, Latin America, and North America) in the Planeswalker Points Yearly Professional Total in previous' season who are not yet invited based on the above criteria

The top-ranked players in previous' season worldwide Planeswalker Points Yearly Professional Total who are not yet invited based on the above criteria sufficient to bring the total number of invited players to the World Championship to sixteen. Should multiple players finished in same position, the player with a better standing in his/her best Pro Tour in that season will have advantage.

In 2012, it was also decided to invite the 2011 Pro Player of the Year, Owen Turtenwald, though it was intended that the title be retired in that year.

In 2014, the tournament was expanded to 24 players. Additional invites were granted to the players ranked 2nd place from each geo-region, the fourth Pro-Tour winner, the Rookie of the Year, and the top-ranked player from the World Magic Cup winning country in previous season, will be also invited.

In a 2015 revision, the Rookie of the Year invitation was replaced by the top-ranked player in terms of Pro Points earned in Grand Prix events (to which the point cap does not apply). Further revisions include a change in geo-region invitations, which have been increased to Top 3 for Europe and Asia-Pacific (which now includes Japan) and Top 4 for North America, at the expense of at-large slots. Effective after the 2015 World Championship, the captain of the previous season's World Magic Cup winning team would also no longer receive an invite.

Team World Championship

The Team World Championship consists of three-player teams, with each team representing one country. Players that are eligible to play in the Team World Championship are the first, second and third place players at a country's National Championship.

World Magic Cup

In 2012, the Team World Championship became a single separate event called the 'World Magic Cup'. This national team event consists of four-player teams representing selected countries. The four players eligible to play in each national team will be the three winners of World Magic Cup qualifiers and the National Champion (the player finished with most Pro Points in previous season) of the country. The National Champion is the highest ranked player from that country in that year's rankings.

Until 2013, all players in top 4 will be invited into the following Pro Tour with airfare expense paid. It was expanded to top 8 teams since 2014. In 2013 and 2014 running, the National Champion of the winning team was also invited to the following year's world Championship.

1994 World championship

The first Magic World Championship was held at the Gen Con in Milwaukee, USA on 19–21 August 1994. It is the only Worlds tournament which was held in the Vintage format, though it wasn't known as such at the time because there was only one sanctioned format. The 1994 Worlds is also the only Worlds which was not an invite-only tournament. Instead, everybody could register, but the tournament was capped at 512 participants. After two days of single elimination play the final four players featured Bertrand Lestrée, who defeated Cyrille DeFoucaud 2–0 in his semi-final, and Zak Dolan, who defeated Dominic Symens 2–0 in the other semi-final. In the final Dolan defeated Lestrée 2–1.

Final standings

1. Zak Dolan
2. Bertrand Lestrée
3. Dominic Symens
4. Cyrille de Foucaud

1995 World championship

The second Magic Worlds Championship was held on 4–6 August at the Red Lion Inn in Seattle, USA. 71 players from 19 countries participated. The tournament featured five rounds of Sealed Deck on the first day and five rounds of Standard, then known as Type II, on the second day. In each round three games were played and three points were awarded for each individual game won instead of completed matches as today. After 30 games five players were tied at 19 wins. Blumke and Redi advanced to the top eight after a playoff. The top 8 on Sunday were played with the Standard decks from the day before. In the final Alexander Blumke defeated Marc Hernandez 3–2.

Final standings

Team champion

1. United States – Mark Justice, Henry Stern, Peter Leiher, Michael Long
2. Finland – Rosendahl, Henri Schildt, Kimmo Hovi, Punakallio
3. Australia – Glen Shanley, Chris Hudson, Russell, Liew
4. France – Marc Hernandez, Moulin, Woirgard, Lebas

1996 World championship

The third Magic World Championship was held at the Wizards headquarters in Seattle, USA. It was the first Worlds also to be a Pro Tour. 125 players competed in the event. The tournament featured six rounds each of Booster Draft, Standard (Type II), and Legacy (Type 1.5). For each match two points were awarded to the winner. In case of a draw both players received one point. For the first time the World Championship also included an official team portion.

Final standings

Note that Chanpheng's winning deck included a Sleight of Mind, but no sources of blue mana. This stemmed from an error in his submitted decklist, which was supposed to include some number of Adarkar Wastes in place of Plains.

Tom's victory was commemorated with a unique card, named 1996 World Champion.

Team final

1. United States – Dennis Bentley, George Baxter, Mike Long, Matt Place
2. Czech Republic – David Korejtko, Jakub Slemr, Ondrej Baudys, Lucas Kocourek

Pro Tour Player of the Year

1. Olle Råde
2. Shawn "Hammer" Regnier
3. Mark Justice

1997 World championship

The fourth Magic World Championship was held on 13–17 August 1997 in Seattle, USA. 153 players competed in the event. It was the first Magic tournament to be filmed by ESPN2. The competition featured Standard, Mirage-Visions-Weatherlight Rochester Draft, and Extended.

Final standings

Team final

1. Canada – Gary Krakower, Michael Donais, Ed Ito, Gabriel Tsang
2. Sweden – Nikolai Weibull, Mattias Jorstedt, Marcus Angelin, Johan Cedercrantz

Pro Tour Player of the Year

1. Paul McCabe
2. Terry Borer

1998 World championship

The fifth Magic World Championship was held on 12–16 August 1998 in Seattle, USA. This tournament featured a Tempest-Stronghold-Exodus Booster Draft, Standard, and Tempest Block Constructed.

203 players competed in the event. The USA dominated the top 8, taking seven of the eight slots. The USA also won the team competition.

Finishing order

1. Brian Selden
2. Ben Rubin
3. Jon Finkel
4. Raphaël Lévy
5. Scott Johns
6. Chris Pikula
7. Brian Hacker
8. Alan Comer

Team final

1. United States – Matt Linde, Mike Long, Bryce Currence, Jon Finkel
2. France – Pierre Malherbaud, Manuel Bevand, Marc Hernandez, Fabien Demazeau

Pro Tour Player of the Year

1. Jon Finkel
2. Randy Buehler
3. Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz

Rookie of the Year

1. Randy Buehler

1999 World championship

The sixth Magic World Championship was held on 4–8 August 1999 in Yokohama, Japan. This tournament featured an Urza's Saga-Urza's Legacy-Urza's Destiny Rochester Draft, Standard, and Extended.

208 players from 32 countries competed in the event. In the final Kai Budde defeated Mark Le Pine 3–0 in about 20 minutes, the quickest Pro Tour final ever. Budde's win was the first of his seven Pro Tour victories. By winning this title he also claimed the first of his four Pro Player of the Year titles.

Finishing order

1. Kai Budde
2. Mark Le Pine
3. Raffaele Lo Moro
4. Matt Linde
5. Jakub Slemr
6. Jamie Parke
7. Gary Wise
8. Nicolai Herzog

Team final

1. United States – Kyle Rose, John Hunka, Zvi Mowshowitz, Charles Kornblith
2. Germany – Marco Blume, Patrick Mello, David Brucker, Rosario Maij

Pro Tour Player of the Year

1. Kai Budde
2. Jon Finkel
3. Casey McCarrel

Rookie of the Year

1. Dirk Baberowski

2000 World championship

The seventh Magic World Championship was held in Brussels, Belgium on 2–6 August 2000. It was the first time the Worlds were held in Europe. The tournament featured a Mercadian Masques-Nemesis-Prophecy Booster Draft, Mercadian Masques Block Constructed, and Standard.

273 players from 46 countries competed in the event. In the final Jon Finkel defeated his friend, Bob Maher. Both played nearly identical decks with a difference of just one card.

Finishing order

1. Jon Finkel
2. Bob Maher, Jr.
3. Dominik Hothow
4. Benedikt Klauser
5. Tom van de Logt
6. Helmut Summersberger
7. Janosch Kühn
8. Nicolas Labarre

Team final

1. United States – Jon Finkel, Chris Benafel, Frank Hernandez, Aaron Forsythe
2. Canada – Ryan Fuller, Murray Evans, Gabriel Tsang, Sam Lau

Pro Tour Player of the Year

1. Bob Maher, Jr.
2. Darwin Kastle
3. Jon Finkel

Rookie of the Year

1. Brian Davis

2001 World championship

(Complete coverage)

The eighth World Championship was held from 8 to 12 August 2001 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. The tournament featured Invasion-Planeshift-Apocalypse Rochester Draft, Standard, and Extended as individual formats and Invasion block team Rochester as the team format.

296 players from 51 countries competed in the tournament. Tom van de Logt from the Netherlands came out as the new world champion, garnering a prize of $35,000 for his victory (as well as another $1,000 for the success of the Dutch team he was part of). Other finalists included future World Series of Poker bracelet winner Alex Borteh (2nd place), Antoine Ruel (3rd place), Andrea Santin (4th place), Mike Turian (5th place), Jan Tomcani (6th place), Tommi Hovi (7th place), and David Williams (disqualified). John Ormerod did not make the top 8 finishers, but was awarded 8th place after David Williams was disqualified for a marked deck. The team competition was won by the US team, which defeated Norway in the team final.

Finishing Order

1. Tom van de Logt
2. Alex Borteh
3. Antoine Ruel
4. Andrea Santin
5. Mike Turian
6. Jan Tomcani
7. Tommi Hovi
8. John Ormerod

Team final

1. United States – Trevor Blackwell, Brian Hegstad, Eugene Harvey
2. Norway – Nicolai Herzog, Oyvind Odegaard, Jan Pieter Groenhof

Pro Tour Player of the Year

1. Kai Budde
2. Kamiel Cornelissen
3. Michael Pustilnik

Rookie of the Year

1. Katsuhiro Mori

2002 World championship

(Complete coverage)

The ninth World Championship was held from 14 to 18 August 2002 at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia. The tournament featured Odyssey-Torment-Judgment Booster Draft, Odyssey Block Constructed, and Standard as individual formats and Odyssey Team Rochester Draft as the team format.

245 players from 46 countries competed in the tournament. Twenty-four-year-old Carlos "Jaba" Romão from São Paulo, Brazil came out as world champion, defeating Mark Ziegner 3–2 in the final, thereby garnering a prize of $35,000 with the help of his blue/black "Psychatog" deck. Germany won the team competition, defeating the United States in the final 2–1.

Finishing order

1. Carlos Romão
2. Mark Ziegner
3. Diego Ostrovich
4. Dave Humpherys
5. Sim Han How
6. John Larkin
7. Tuomas Kotiranta
8. Ken Krouner

Team final

1. Germany – Kai Budde, Mark Ziegner, Felix Schneiders
2. United States – Eugene Harvey, Andrew Ranks, Eric Franz

Pro Tour Player of the Year

1. Kai Budde
2. Jens Thorén
3. Alex Shvartsman

Rookie of the Year

1. Farid Meraghni

2003 World championship

(Complete coverage)

The tenth World Championship was held from 6 to 10 August at the Estrel Hotel in Berlin, Germany. The tournament featured Onslaught-Legions-Scourge Rochester Draft, Extended, and Standard as individual formats and Onslaught Team Rochester Draft as the team format.

312 players from 54 countries participated in the tournament. German Daniel Zink managed to emerge as the new world champion, beating Japan's Jin Okamoto 3–0 in the finals and taking home $35,000 in the process. The total prize money awarded to the top 64 finishers was $208,130. In the team final the United States defeated Finland 2–1.

Finishing order

1. Daniel Zink
2. Jin Okamoto
3. Tuomo Nieminen
4. Dave Humpherys
5. Jeroen Remie
6. Peer Kröger
7. Wolfgang Eder
8. Gabe Walls

Team Finals

1. United States – Justin Gary, Gabe Walls, Joshua Wagner
2. Finland – Tomi Walamies, Tuomo Nieminen, Arho Toikka

Player of the Year Race

Rookie of the Year

Masashi Oiso

2004 World championship

(Complete coverage)

The eleventh World Championship was held from 1 to 5 September at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, California, USA. The tournament featured Standard on Wednesday, Mirrodin-Darksteel-Fifth Dawn Booster Draft on Thursday, and Mirrodin Block Constructed on Friday. The team format was Mirrodin Block Team Rochester Draft.

304 players from 51 countries competed in the event. This was the first ever World Championships without a player from the United States in the Top 8. Julien Nuijten won the final 3–1 against Aeo Paquette. At 15 years old, he became the youngest ever Pro Tour winner and took home a total of $52,366 – a new record for winnings in a single collectible card game tournament. The total prize money awarded to the top 64 finishers was $208,130. Team Germany won the team final 2–1 against Belgium.

Finishing order

1. Julien Nuijten
2. Aeo Paquette
3. Ryou Ogura
4. Manuel Bevand
5. Kamiel Cornelissen
6. Terry Soh
7. Gabriel Nassif
8. Murray Evans

Team final

1. Germany – Torben Twiefel, Roland Bode, Sebastian Zink
2. Belgium – Vincent Lemoine, Dilson Ramos Da Fonseca, Geoffery Siron

Player of the Year Race

1. Gabriel Nassif
2. Nicolai Herzog
3. Rickard Österberg

Rookie of the Year

Julien Nuijten

2005 World championship

(Complete coverage)

The twelfth World Championship was held from 30 November to 4 December at the Pacifico Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan. The tournament featured Standard on Wednesday, Ravnica Booster Draft on Thursday, and Extended on Friday. The team format was Ravnica Team Rochester Draft. The event began with the induction of the first class of the newly incepted Hall of Fame – Alan Comer, Jon Finkel, Tommi Hovi, Darwin Kastle, and Olle Råde.

287 players from 56 countries competed in the event. Katsuhiro Mori won the tournament, defeating Frank Karsten 3–1 in the final, taking home $35,000. The total prize money awarded to the top 64 finishers was $208,130. In the team final Japan defeated the United States 3–0.

Finishing Order

1. Katsuhiro Mori
2. Frank Karsten
3. Tomohiro Kaji
4. Akira Asahara
5. Marcio Carvalho
6. Ding Leong
7. Shuhei Nakamura
8. André Coimbra

Team final

1. Japan – Takuma Morofuji, Ichirou Shimura, Masashi Oiso
2. United States – Antonino De Rosa, Neil Reeves, Jonathan Sonne

Player of the Year Race

1. Kenji Tsumura
2. Olivier Ruel
3. Masashi Oiso

Rookie of the Year

1. Pierre Canali

Hall of Fame inductees

Jon Finkel

Darwin Kastle

Tommi Hovi

Alan Comer

Olle Råde

2006 World championship

(Complete Coverage)

The thirteenth Magic World Championship took place from 29 November – 3 December 2006 at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, France. The tournament featured Standard on Wednesday, Time Spiral Booster Draft on Thursday, and Extended on Friday. The team format was Time Spiral Team Rochester Draft. Also on Wednesday Bob Maher, Dave Humpherys, Raphaël Lévy, Gary Wise, and Rob Dougherty were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The winner of this tournament was Makihito Mihara, who defeated Ryou Ogura 3–0 in an all-Japanese final. He piloted a combo deck based on the card Dragonstorm. It is the first time players from the same country have been World Champion in back-to-back seasons. The Netherlands defeated Japan 2–0 in the team final. The total prize money awarded to the top 75 finishers was $255,245.

Finishing Order

1. Makihito Mihara
2. Ryou Ogura
3. Nicholas Lovett
4. Gabriel Nassif
5. Paulo Carvalho
6. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa
7. Tiago Chan
8. Katsuhiro Mori

Team final

1. Netherlands – Kamiel Cornelissen, Julien Nuijten, Robert Van Medevoort
2. Japan – Katsuhiro Mori, Shuhei Yamamoto, Hidenori Katayama

Player of the Year

1. Shouta Yasooka
2. Shuhei Nakamura
3. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa

Rookie of the Year

1. Sebastian Thaler

Hall of Fame inductees

Bob Maher, Jr.

Dave Humpherys

Raphaël Lévy

Gary Wise

Rob Dougherty

2007 World championship

(Complete Coverage)

The fourteenth Magic World Championship took place from 6–9 December 2007 at the Jacob K. Javits Center of New York in New York City, USA. The tournament featured five rounds of Standard and a Lorwyn Booster Draft on Thursday. Friday featured five rounds of Legacy and another Lorwyn Booster Draft. The team format was Lorwyn Two-Headed Giant Booster Draft. The top 64 individual finishers received $215,600 in prize money.

386 players from 61 countries competed in the event. The winner of the tournament was Uri Peleg, defeating Patrick Chapin 3–1 in the final. Katsuhiro Mori made the top 8 for the third consecutive year, while Gabriel Nassif made his third final eight within four Worlds. Coincidentally, each player mirrored their performance from the previous year (Mori was eliminated in the quarter-finals, Nassif in the semi-finals).

Finishing Order

1. Uri Peleg
2. Patrick Chapin
3. Gabriel Nassif
4. Koutarou Ootsuka
5. Cristoph Huber
6. Yoshitaka Nakano
7. Katsuhiro Mori
8. Roel van Heeswijk

Team final

1. Switzerland – Nico Bohny, Manuel Bucher, Christoph Huber, Raphael Gennari
2. Austria – Thomas Preyer, David Reitbauer, Stefan Stradner, Helmut Summersberger

Pro Tour Player of the Year

1. Tomoharu Saitou
2. Kenji Tsumura
3. Guillaume Wafo-Tapa

Rookie of the Year

1. Yuuya Watanabe

Hall of Fame inductees

Kai Budde

Zvi Mowshowitz

Tsuyoshi Fujita

Nicolai Herzog

Randy Buehler

2008 World championship

(Official coverage)

The fifteenth Magic World Championship took place from 11–14 December 2008 at the Memphis Cook Convention Center in Memphis, TN, USA. The tournament featured six rounds of Standard play on Thursday, two Shards of Alara Booster Drafts with three rounds of Swiss each on Friday, six rounds of Extended on Saturday, and the finals on Sunday. Also the national teams played two rounds of team constructed each on Thursday and Saturday with the Top 4 teams advancing to the single elimination finals on Sunday. The team format was 3 Person Team Constructed with one player playing Standard, one Extended, and one Legacy. The top 75 individual finishers received $245,245 in prize money.

329 players from 57 countries competed in the event. Antti Malin from Finland won the tournament, thereby claiming the first prize of $45,000. In the team final the United States defeated Australia to become the team champion.

Individual

1. Antti Malin
2. Jamie Parke
3. Tsuyoshi Ikeda
4. Hannes Kerem
5. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa
6. Kenji Tsumura
7. Frank Karsten
8. Akira Asahara

Team Competition

1. United States – Michael Jacob, Samuel Black, Paul Cheon
2. Australia – Aaron Nicastri, Brandon Lau, Justin Cheung
3. Brazil – Willy Edel, Vagner Casatti, Luiz Guilherme de Michielli
4. Japan – Yuuya Watanabe, Masashi Oiso, Akihiro Takakuwa

Pro Player of the Year

Rookie of the Year

1. Aaron Nicastri

Hall of Fame inductees

Dirk Baberowski

Mike Turian

Jelger Wiegersma

Olivier Ruel

Ben Rubin

2009 World championship

(Official coverage)

The sixteenth Magic World Championship took place from 19–22 November 2009 at the Palazzo Dei Congressi in Rome, Italy. The tournament featured six rounds of Standard play on Thursday, two Zendikar Booster Drafts with three rounds of Swiss each on Friday, six rounds of Extended on Saturday and the finals on Sunday. Also, the national teams played two rounds of team constructed each on Thursday and Saturday with the Top 4 teams advancing to the single elimination finals on Sunday. The team format was 3 Person Team Constructed with one player playing Standard, one Extended, and one Legacy.

409 players from 65 countries competed in the event. André Coimbra from Portugal won the tournament, thereby claiming the first prize of $45,000. In the team final, China defeated Austria to become the team champion. This was the first Magic Pro Tour event of any sort in which no player in the Top 8 was from the United States or Japan. It was also the first time a Pro Tour Top 8 consisted of players from eight different countries.

The Magic Online World Championship was held for the first time. It also took place in Rome at the site of the paper Magic World Championship. The tournament was previously announced to be for eight competitors. The qualifications could be gained in special tournaments on Magic Online. The players played three rounds each of Classic, Zendikar Booster Draft, and Standard on computers provided on the site. After nine rounds the two best players determined the title in a final match of Standard. Anssi Myllymäki (screen name: Anathik) of Finland defeated former Pro Player of the Year Shouta Yasooka (yaya3) in the final, thus claiming the grand prize of $13,000. The other contestants won between $4,000 and $9,000.

Individual

1. André Coimbra
2. David Reitbauer
3. Terry Soh
4. Bram Snepvangers
5. William Cavaglieri
6. Manuel Bucher
7. Marijn Lybaert
8. Florian Pils

Team Competition

1. China – Bo Li, Wu Tong, Zhiyang Zhang
2. Austria – Benedikt Klauser, Bernhard Lehner, Benjamin Rozhon
3. Czech Republic – Lukas Blohon, Lukas Jakolvsky, Jan Kotrla
4. Netherlands – Kevin Grove, Niels Noorlander, Tom van Lamoen

Pro Player of the Year

Rookie of the Year

1. Lino Burgold

Hall of Fame inductees

Antoine Ruel

Kamiel Cornelissen

Frank Karsten

Magic Online World Champion

Anssi Myllymäki

2010 World championship

(Official coverage)

The seventeenth World Championship took place from 9–12 December in Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. The tournament consisted of six rounds of Standard on Thursday, two Scars of Mirrodin Booster Drafts of three rounds each on Friday, and six rounds of Extended on Saturday. On Sunday the best eight players gathered for the Top 8. They had to play the same decks, they used in the Standard portion of the tournament. Also, the national teams played two rounds of team constructed each on Thursday and Saturday with the Top 2 teams advancing to the single elimination finals on Sunday. The team format is 3 Person Team Constructed with one player playing Standard, one Extended, and one Legacy.

352 players from 60 countries competed in the event. The national teams competition had 57 countries represented.

The 2010 World Champion Guillaume Matignon earned enough pro points with his performance to equal Pro Player of the Year leader Brad Nelson's total. This led to a play-off for the Pro Player of the Year title at Pro Tour Paris 2011, which was ultimately won by Brad Nelson.

Individual

1. Guillaume Matignon
2. Guillaume Wafo-Tapa
3. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa
4. Love Janse
5. Eric Froehlich
6. Lukas Jaklovsky
7. Christopher Wolf
8. Jonathan Randle

Team Competition

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

Pro Player of the Year

Rookie of the Year

1. Andrea Giarola

Hall of Fame inductees

Gabriel Nassif

Brian Kibler

Bram Snepvangers

Magic Online World Champion

Carlos Romão

2011 World championship

(Official coverage)

The eighteenth Magic World Championship was held from 17–20 November in the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, the same site that already hosted the 2004 World Championship. The tournament consisted of six rounds of Standard on Thursday, two Innistrad Booster Drafts of three rounds each on Friday, and six rounds of Modern on Saturday. This would be the first World Championship to feature the new Modern format. On Sunday, the Top 8 players played against each other in elimination rounds, using the Standard decks they played on Thursday. 375 players from 60 countries competed in the event.

The Swiss rounds were dominated by American player Conley Woods, who would go 16–2 with his only losses being tactical concessions to other ChannelFireball teammates. Ultimately, four ChannelFireball teammates would make it into the Top 8: Conley Woods, Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa, Luis Scott-Vargas and Josh Utter-Leyton. For Paulo this was his fourth World Championship Top 8, making him the first player to achieve this, and his eighth Pro Tour Top 8 overall. Also, for the first time players playing in the Magic Online World Championships managed to make the Top 8 of the Pro Tour, with Jun’ya Iyanaga (SEVERUS on MTGO) and David Caplan (goobafish on MTGO) making it to Sunday. The quarterfinals saw three of the four ChannelFireball teammates eliminated, with only Conley Woods making it to the semifinals after narrowly defeating Craig Wescoe 3–2. The semifinals were clean sweeps with Jun'ya Iyanaga and Richard Bland defeating Conley Woods and David Caplan 3–0 respectively. In the finals Jun'ya Iyanaga defeated Richard Bland in another 3–0 to become the 2011 World Champion. Jun'ya Iyanaga's prize money for winning the World Championship and placing seventh in the Magic Online World Championship was $51,000, making him the second highest earner in the history of the World Championships behind 2004 World Champion Julien Nuijten.

In the team event, Japan played against Norway for the World Team Title. The Japanese team of Ryuichiro Ishida, Tomoya Fujimoto, and former World Champion Makihito Mihara were victorious.

In the Magic Online World Championship finals, Reid Duke (reidderrabbit on MTGO) played against Florian Pils (flying man on MTGO) in the Modern format. Reid Duke won the match 2–1 to become the Magic Online World Champion, the first American and the first Magic Online Player of the Year to win the title.

Individual

1. Jun'ya Iyanaga
2. Richard Bland
3. Conley Woods
4. David Caplan
5. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa
6. Luis Scott-Vargas
7. Josh Utter-Leyton
8. Craig Wescoe

Team Competition

1. Japan – Ryuichiro Ishida, Tomoya Fujimoto, Makihito Mihara
2. Norway – Sveinung Bjørnerud, Kristoffer Jonassen, Andreas Nordahl

Pro Player of the Year

1. Owen Turtenwald
2. Luis Scott-Vargas
3. Martin Juza

Rookie of the Year

1. Matthias Hunt

Hall of Fame inductees

Shuhei Nakamura

Anton Jonsson

Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz

Magic Online World Champion

Reid Duke

2012 World championship

In 2012, the World Championship structure was drastically altered alongside changes to the ranking system used in Magic: The Gathering. The individual World Championship was changed from a Pro Tour-sized event to a sixteen-player event, which was called the Magic Players Championship (though the tournament reverted to being called the World Championship for 2013). The team event, formerly held alongside the individual event, took place before the individual tournament and was contested by four-player teams instead of the previous three-player teams.

2012 World Magic Cup

(Official coverage)

Mode

The first World Magic Cup was held on 16–19 August at Gen Con 2012 in Indianapolis. The World Magic Cup is a modified national team event contested by four-player teams. Of the four players three were winners of a country's three qualifier tournaments, called Magic World Cup qualifiers. The final player on the team was the National Champion, the player with the most pro points for the season from that country.

On Day 1, there were seven Swiss rounds including three rounds of Magic 2013 Booster Draft and four rounds of Standard. Players gained points for the team (Win- 3, Draw- 1, Loss- 0) and the best three scores in each team were added together to make a combined team score. The Top 32 teams with the highest combined team score advanced to Day 2.

On Day 2, all qualified teams will only start with three players, along with their advisor (the lowest scoring player in their team on Day 1). The 32 teams were being sorted, according to seeding, into eight pools of four teams. The teams played in three rounds with the format being Magic 2013 Team Sealed Deck. After these rounds, the top two teams from each pool advanced to the second stage, leaving sixteen teams. These teams were then sorted into four pools of four teams, and played three rounds of Team Constructed, with a player from each team playing Standard, Modern, and Innistrad Block Constructed.

On Day 3, the top eight teams from Day 2 competed in seeded single-elimination rounds, in the Team Constructed format, to determine the winner of the World Magic Cup.

Results

In the final of the tournament the team from Chinese Taipei played against the Puerto Rico team. Chinese Taipei won the final and became the first World Magic Cup holders.

Finalists

1. Chinese Taipei — Tzu-Ching Kuo, Tung-Yi Cheng, Yu Min Yang, and Paul Renie
2. Puerto Rico — Jorge Iramain, Gabriel Nieves, Cesar Soto, and Jonathan Paez
3. Poland — Tomek Pedrakowski, Mateusz Kopec, Adam Bubacz, and Jan Pruchniewicz
4. Hungary — Tamás Glied, Gabor Kocsis, Tamas Nagy, and Máté Schrick
5. Croatia — Grgur Petric Maretic, Toni Portolan, Stjepan Sucic, and Goran Elez
6. Scotland — Stephen Murray, Bradley Barclay, Andrew Morrison, and Chris Davie
7. Philippines — Andrew Cantillana, Gerald Camangon, Zax Ozaki, and Jeremy Bryan Domocmat
8. Slovak Republic — Robert Jurkovic, Ivan Floch, Filip Valis, and Patrik Surab

2012 Magic Players Championship

(Official coverage)

Mode

The 2012 Magic: The Gathering Players Championship was held from 29–31 August 2012 at the PAX Prime 2012 event. It replaced the former Pro Tour-sized World Championship event. Although originally entitled the 2012 World Championship, the tournament was renamed the Players Championship in an announcement in December 2011. The Players Championship also replaced the former Pro Player of the Year title, with that title intended to be encompassed in the Players Championship. The 2012 Magic Players Championship was an exclusive sixteen-person tournament which took place over three days. Day 1 consisted of three rounds of the Modern format followed by three rounds of Cube Draft, the first time a Cube Draft had been used in high-level competition. Day 2 consisted of three rounds of Magic 2013 draft, followed by three more rounds of Modern. On Day 3, the four players with the best records from the past 12 rounds played in single-elimination best-of-five-games Modern rounds to determine the winner of the Magic Players Championship.

Results

Yuuya Watanabe won the 2012 Players Championship and became only the second player ever (after Kai Budde) to receive more than one Player of the Year title.

1. Yuuya Watanabe (Top Pro Points, Japan) - Decklist
2. Shouta Yasooka (Top Pro Points, At-large 3)
3. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (Top Pro Points, Latin America)
4. Jon Finkel (Top Pro Points, At-large 1)
5. Shuhei Nakamura (Top Pro Points, At-large 5)
6. Brian Kibler (Pro Tour Dark Ascension Champion)
7. Samuele Estratti (Pro Tour Philadelphia Champion)
8. Alexander Hayne (Pro Tour Avacyn Restored Champion)
9. Martin Juza (Top Pro Points, Europe)
10. Owen Turtenwald (2011 Pro Tour Player of the Year)
11. Jun'ya Iyanaga (2011 World Champion)
12. Luis Scott-Vargas (Top Pro Points, At-large 2)
13. Josh Utter-Leyton (Top Pro Points, North America)
14. David Ochoa (Top Pro Points, At-large 4)
15. Tzu-Ching Kuo (Top Pro Points, APAC)
16. Reid Duke (2011 Magic Online Champion)

2013 World Championship

(Official coverage)

For 2013 the Players Championship was renamed to World Championship. The title of Pro Player of the Year once again became a separate title, being awarded to Josh Utter-Leyton for the 2012-13 season. The 2013 World Championship was held in Amsterdam on 31 July – 4 August.

The players invited to the 2013 World Championship were.

1. Shahar Shenhar (Top Pro Points, at-large)
2. Reid Duke (Top Pro Points, at-large)
3. Ben Stark (Top Pro Points, at-large)
4. Josh Utter-Leyton (2012–13 Player of the year)
5. Craig Wescoe (Pro Tour Dragon's Maze winner)
6. Yuuya Watanabe (2012 Players Championship winner)
7. Brian Kibler (Top Pro Points, at-large)
8. Shuhei Nakamura (Top Pro Points, at-large)
9. Dmitriy Butakov (2012 Magic Online champion)
10. David Ochoa (Top Pro Points, at-large)
11. Stanislav Cifka (Pro Tour Return to Ravnica winner)
12. Tom Martell (Pro Tour Gatecrash winner)
13. Willy Edel (Top Pro Points, Latin America)
14. Eric Froehlich (Top Pro Points, at-large)
15. Lee Shi Tian (Top Pro Points, Asia Pacific)
16. Martin Juza (Top Pro Points, at-large)

The tournament consisted of three rounds each of Modern Masters Booster Draft, Modern, Magic 2014 Booster Draft, and Standard. After these twelve rounds the field of 16 players was cut to the top four. In the semi-finals Shahar Shenhar beat Ben Stark, and Reid Duke beat Josh Utter-Leyton. After trailing 0–2 in the finals, Shahar Shenhar came back to a 3–2 victory over Reid Duke with his UWR Flash Modern Deck, thus becoming the 2013 Magic World Champion.

2013 World Magic Cup

(Official coverage)

The second World Magic Cup took place during August 2–4, 2013 at the Amsterdam Convention Factory, in conjunction with the World Championship.

In the finals of the tournament France won 2–1 against Hungary.

Mode

The format greatly differs from the inaugural running: Day 1 would still consist of seven Swiss rounds will decide the 32 teams advance to Day 2, but three rounds of Team Sealed Deck and four rounds of Team Standard were played instead. On Day 2, the team play began with teams being sorted, according to seeding, into eight pools of four teams. The teams played in three rounds with the format being Team Sealed Deck. After these rounds, the top two teams from each pool advanced to the second stage, leaving sixteen teams. These teams were then sorted into four pools of four teams, and played three rounds of Team Standard. The Top 8 teams, advanced the top two teams from each pool, will play Team Standard on the final day of tournament in seeded single-elimination rounds.

On Day 1 and Day 2, Teams must switch one of the member played in first portion to player who had not played in first portion at the beginning of second portion of event (i.e. no player can sit out for whole day). In Team Standard, the same decks must be used throughout the whole event.

Final eight

1. France (Raphaël Lévy, Timothee Simonot, Yann Guthmann, and Stephane Soubrier)
2. Hungary (Tamas Nagy, Adorjan Korbl, Gabor Kocsis, and Ervin Hosszú)
3. Czech Republic (Stanislav Cifka, Leos Kopecky, Kristian Janda, and Michal Mendl)
4. Iceland (Alvin Orri Gislason, Orri Ómarsson, Ragnar Sigurdsson and Hedinn Haraldsson)
5. Austria (Thomas Holzinger, Manuel Danninger, David Reitbauer, and Marc Mühlböck)
6. Estonia (Hannes Kerem, Mikk Kaasik, Rauno Raidma, and Simon Robberts)
7. New Zealand (Walker MacMurdo, Jingwei Zheng, Jason Chung, and Digby Carter)
8. Belgium (Vincent Lemoine, Xavier Vantyghem, Marijn Lybaert, and Emmanuel Delvigne)

2014 World Championship

(Official coverage)

In 2014, the World Championship and the World Magic Cup took place from 2–7 December 2014. The events were held in conjunction in Nice, France.

For 2014, the World Championship format was altered to include 24 players rather than the 16 players who were invited the previous two years. Day One of the tournament consisted of three rounds of Vintage Masters Draft and four rounds of Modern. Day Two consisted of three rounds of Khans of Tarkir Draft and four rounds of Standard. After these fourteen rounds the Top 4 players in the Swiss standings played in single-elimination rounds in the Standard format.

The final standings were as follows:

1. Shahar Shenhar (2013 World Champion)
2. Patrick Chapin (Pro Tour Journey into Nyx winner)
3. Yuuya Watanabe (Pro Point leader Japan)
4. Kentaro Yamamoto (8th most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified)
5. Shaun McLaren (Pro Tour Born of the Gods winner)
6. Yuuki Ichikawa (Pro Point runner-up Japan)
7. Ivan Floch (Pro Tour Magic 2015 winner)
8. William Jensen (Most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified)
9. Sam Black (6th most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified)
10. Lars Dam (2013 Magic Online Champion)
11. Josh Utter-Leyton (3rd most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified)
12. Paul Rietzl (5th most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified)
13. Owen Turtenwald (Pro Point leader North America)
14. Reid Duke (Pro Point runner-up North America)
15. Stanislav Cifka (2nd most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified)
16. Tom Martell (4th most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified)
17. Raphaël Lévy (2013 World Magic Cup winner)
18. Jérémy Dezani (2013–14 Player of the Year)
19. Jacob Wilson (7th most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified)
20. Willy Edel (Pro Point leader Latin America)
21. Nam Sung-Wook (Pro Point runner-up APAC region)
22. Raymond Perez Jr. (2013–14 Rookie of the Year)
23. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (Pro Point runner-up Latin America)
24. Lee Shi Tian (Pro Point leader APAC region)

Shahar Shenhar became the first player to win the World Championship for a second time as well as the first player to win the title in consecutive years.

2014 World Magic Cup

(Official Coverage)

Final eight

1. Denmark (Martin Müller, Simon Nielsen, Thomas Enevoldsen, Lars Birch)
2. Greece (Marios Angelopoulos, Bill Chronopoulos, Panagiotis Savvidis, Socrates Rozakeas)
3. England (Fabrizio Anteri, David Inglis, Francesco Giorgio, Riccardo Reale)
4. United States (Owen Turtenwald, Isaac Sears, Andrew Baeckstrom, Neal Oliver)
5. South Korea (Nam Sung-wook, Oh Joon-hyun, Cho Jeong-woo, Kim Sang-eun)
6. Serbia (Aleksa Telarov, Miodrag Kitanovic, Boris Bajgo, Milos Stajic)
7. Slovakia (Ivan Floch, Jan Tomcani, Michal Guldan, Matej Zatlkaj)
8. Brazil (Willy Edel, Gabriel Fehr, Thiago Saporito, Matheus Rosseto)

2015 World Championship

The 2015 World Championship took place from 27–30 August 2015. The event was originally planned to held in Barcelona, Spain in conjunction with 2015 World Magic Cup, but was later moved to Seattle, and was held in conjunction with PAX Prime instead.

Some changes to the previous years' invitation structure were announced, with the following announcement by Director of Organized Play, Helene Bergeot at Pro Tour Fate Reforged.

The 2015 World Championship was the last where the World Magic Cup team-winning captain was invited to

North America now invited its top four Pro Point earners (it was previously two)

Europe now invited its top three Pro Point earners (it was previously two)

Asia-Pacific now invited its top three Pro Point earners (it was previously two for Asia-Pacific and two for Japan, the latter of which was folded into the Asia-Pacific georegion for this event)

A new slot was added for the player who had earned the most Pro Points at Grand Prix in the 2014–2015 Premier Play season (the number of GPs that count for this slot is uncapped)

The invitation for Rookie of the Year had been removed

The format of the tournament was 3 rounds of Modern Masters 2015 draft followed by 4 rounds of Modern constructed for Thursday. On Friday, a Magic Origins draft followed by 4 rounds of standard and after a hiatus on Saturday, the top 4 playoffs on Sunday.

The final standings were as follows:

1. Seth Manfield (Top Pro Points at large)
2. Owen Turtenwald (Top Pro Points at large)
3. Paul Rietzl (Top Pro Points at large)
4. Sam Black (Top Pro Points North America)
5. Magnus Lantto (2014 Magic Online Champion)
6. Martin Müller (2014 World Magic Cup winning team captain)
7. Shaun McLaren (Top Pro Points at large)
8. Thiago Saporito (Top Pro Points Latin America)
9. Ondrey Strasky (Top Pro Points North America)
10. Yuuya Watanabe (Top Pro Points Asia-Pacific)
11. Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa (Top Pro Points Latin America)
12. Jacob Wilson (Top Pro Points at large)
13. Joel Larsson (Pro Tour Magic Origins winner)
14. Alexander Hayne (Grand Prix Pro Point leader)
15. Martin Dang (Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir winner)
16. Steve Rubin (Top Pro Points at large)
17. Kentaro Yamamoto (Top Pro Points Asia-Pacific)
18. Mike Sigrist (2014–15 Player of the Year)
19. Eric Froehlich (Top Pro Points North America)
20. Lee Shi Tian (Top Pro Points Asia-Pacific)
21. Brad Nelson (Top Pro Points North America)
22. Antonio Del Moral Leon (Pro Tour Fate Reforged winner)
23. Shahar Shenhar (2014 World Champion)
24. Ari Lax (Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir winner)

2015 World Magic Cup

(Official Coverage)

Final eight

1. Italy (Marco Cammilluzzi, Andrea Mengucci, Francesco Bifero and William Pizzi)
2. Thailand (Aekarash Sorakup, Suttipong Popitukgul, Veerapat Sirilertvorakul and Chom Pasidparchya)
3. France (Pierre Dagen, Hichem Tedjditi, Fathi Ben Aribi and Arnaud Soumet)
4. Austria (Nikolaus Eigner, Christoph Aukenthaler, Valentin Mackl and Sebastian Fiala-Ibitz)
5. Denmark (Christoffer Larsen, Daniel Lind, Martin Müller and Martin Dang)
6. Guatemala (Fernando José Juárez Oliva, José Andrés Martínez Figueloa, Christopher Andrés Virula Martinez and Wilfredo Bojorquez Castillo)
7. Scotland (Ray Doyle, Stephen Murray, Grant Hislop and Martin Clement)
8. Japan (Kenji Tsumura, Ryoichi Tamada, Yuuya Watanabe and Soyo You)

Performance by country

Japan and the United States have the same number of individual titles won. The United States have won the most team titles, and also have had most competitors amongst the final eight individually. Germany, the Netherlands and Israel are the only other countries with more than one champion. Canada, Italy and Austria are the most successful nations that have never won a title.

As of 5 August 2013