The 2005 Pro Tour season was the tenth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. On 10 September 2004 the season began with Grand Prix Rimini. It ended on 4 December 2005 with the conclusion of the 2005 World Championship in Yokohama and was thus the longest Pro Tour season ever. The season consisted of 31 Grand Prixs and 7 Pro Tours, held in Columbus, Nagoya, Atlanta, Philadelphia, London, Los Angeles, and Yokohama. At the end of the season Kenji Tsumura was proclaimed Pro Player of the year as the first Japanese player. Also the first class of the Hall of Fame was inducted. The inductees were Jon Finkel, Darwin Kastle, Tommi Hovi, Alan Comer, and Olle Råde.
Grand Prixs – Rimini, Vienna, Austin
GP Rimini (10–11 September) Format: Standard Attendance: 750 Domingo Ottati Florian Pils Giovanni Gesiot Luka Gasparac Davide Ghini Jan Brodzak Andrea Paselli Luca Cialini
GP Vienna (9–10 October) Format: Rochester Draft Attendance: 979 Nicolaus Eigner Antoine Ruel René Kraft Sasha Zorc Sebastian Aljiaj Daniele Canavesi Dario Minieri Stefan Jedlicka
GP Austin (9–10 October) Format: Rochester Draft Attendance: 386 Jonathan Sonne Eugene Levin Chris Prochak Gerry Thompson Jim Finstrom Neil Reeves Michael Jacob Mike Thompson
Pro Tour – Columbus (29–31 October 2004)
Pierre Canali from France won the inaugural Pro Tour of the season, which was also the first Pro Tour he attended. His deck was an aggressive all-artifact deck called "Affinity". For the first time Japan had three players amongst the final eight while the USA had in the Top 8 for the first time in three Pro Tours.
Tournament data Prize pool: $200,130 Players: 286 Format: Extended Head Judge: Jaap Brouwer
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Pierre Canali$30,00025Pro Tour debut2 Shuhei Nakamura$20,000203 Nicholas West$15,00016Pro Tour debut4 Olivier Ruel$13,000163rd Final day5 Gadiel Szleifer$9,000126 Masashi Oiso$8,500124th Final day7 Ryuichi Arita$8,000122nd Final day8 Geoffrey Siron$7,50012
Pro Player of the year standings
RankPlayerPro Points1 Pierre Canali252 Shuhei Nakamura203 Olivier Ruel184 Nicholas West165 Ryuichi Arita12 Masashi Oiso12 Geoffrey Siron12 Gadiel Szleifer12
Grand Prixs – Helsinki, Brisbane, Yokohama, Porto Alegre, Paris, Chicago, Osaka
GP Helsinki (6–7 November) Format: Rochester Draft Attendance: 455 Olivier Ruel Mikko Leiviskä Jean Charles Salvin Ulrik Tarp Anton Jonsson Wenzel Krautmann Pavlos Akritas Erkki Siira
GP Brisbane (13–14 November) Format: Rochester Draft Attendance: 222 Will Copeman Anatoli Lightfoot Masami Ibamoto Andrew Grain Tom Hay Andrew Varga Jarrod Bright Bryce Trevilyan
GP Yokohama (20–21 November) Format: Rochester Draft Attendance: 707 Kazuki Katou Tomohiro Kaji Akira Asahara Koutarou Ootsuka Masahiko Morita Rei Hashimoto Takashi Akiyama Ren Ishikawa
GP Porto Alegre (20–21 November) Format: Rochester Draft Attendance: 342 Jose Barbero Gabriel Caligaris Mauro Kina Rafael Mendonça Guilherme Fonseca Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa Renato Wholers Adilson de Oliveira
GP Paris (27–28 November) Format: Rochester Draft Attendance: 1594 Wilco Pinkster Bastien Perez Wessel Oomens Raphael Lévy Giuseppe Reale Arnost Zidek Stephan Meyer Jean-Baptiste Gouesse
GP Chicago (18–19 December) Format: Team Limited Attendance: 474 (158 teams) 1. :B Timothy Aten Gadiel Szleifer John Pelcak 2. Gindy's Sister's Fan Club Adam Chambers Zach Parker Charles Gindy 3. The Max Fischer Players Igor Frayman Joshua Ravitz Chris Pikula 4. Voracious Cobra Bob Allbright Mike Hron Paul Artl
GP Osaka (8–9 January) Format: Team Limited Attendance: 480 (160 teams) 1. P.S.2 Masashiro Kuroda Katsuhiro Mori Masahiko Morita 2. FireBall.Pros Jin Okamoto Tsuyoshi Ikeda Itaru Ishida 3. Gatas Brilhantes Ichiro Shimura Shu Komuro Tomohide Sasagawa 4. One Spin Tomohiro Kaji Kenji Tsumura Tomoharu Saitou
Pro Tour – Nagoya (28–30 January 2005)
Pro Tour Nagoya was the last Pro Tour employing the Rochester Draft format. Shu Komuro from Japan defeated Anton Jonsson in the finals to win the tournament.
Tournament data Prize pool: $200,130 Players: 236 Format: Rochester Draft (Champions of Kamigawa) Head Judge: Collin Jackson
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Shu Komuro$30,000252 Anton Jonsson$20,000205th Final day3 Terry Soh$15,000162nd Final day4 Murray Evans$13,000162nd Final day5 Masashiro Kuroda$9,500122nd Final day6 Frank Karsten$8,500127 Jarno Harkonen$7,500128 Vasilis Fatouros$6,500121st Greek in a Top 8
Pro Player of the year standings
RankPlayerPro Points1 Shu Komuro312 Shuhei Nakamura303 Pierre Canali284 Olivier Ruel275 Anton Jonsson23
Grand Prixs – Boston, Eindhoven, Seattle
GP Boston (5–6 February) Format: Extended Attendance: 699 Masashi Oiso Lucas Glavin Keith McLaughlin Benjamin Dempsey Osyp Lebedowicz Masahiko Morita Anthony Impellizzierei Daniel O'Mahoney-Schwartz
GP Eindhoven (26–27 February) Format: Extended Attendance: 1012 Sebastien Roux Rogier Maaten Xuan-Phi Nguyen Tobias Radloff Kamiel Cornelissen Michael Leicht Petr Nahodil Bas Postema
GP Seattle (5–6 March) Format: Extended Attendance: 390 Ernie Marchesano Taylor Putnam Shuhei Nakamura Max McCall Grant Struck John Ripley Tsuyoshi Fujita Ryan Cimera
Pro Tour – Atlanta (11–13 March 2005)
The Canadian French cooperation team "Nova" won Pro Tour Atlanta, defeating the American team "We Add" in the final. "Nova" consisted of Gabriel Tsang, David Rood, and Gabriel Nassif. For Nassif it was the first Pro Tour victory after five previous final day appearances including three second places. Atlanta was the last Pro Tour using the three-person team Limited format, although it was still used for the team competition at the World Championship that year and the next.
Tournament data
Players: 357 (119 teams) Prize Pool: $200,100 Format: Team Kamigawa Block Sealed (Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa) – first day, Team Kamigawa Block Rochester Draft (Champions of Kamigawa-Betrayers of Kamigawa) – final two days Head Judge: Sheldon Menery
Top 4
Final standings
PlaceTeamPlayerPrizePro PointsComment1Nova Gabriel Tsang$60,000203rd Final day David Rood202nd Final day Gabriel Nassif206th Final day2We Add Don Smith$30,00016Pro Tour debut Andrew Pacifico16 Adam Chambers163Les baltringues de Ludipia Benjamin Caumes$18,000122nd Final day Nicolas Bornarel12 Camille Fenet124One Spin Tomohiro Kaji$15,00012 Kenji Tsumura12 Tomoharu Saitou12
Pro Player of the year standings
RankPlayerPro Points1 Shu Komuro392 Shuhei Nakamura323 Pierre Canali31 Olivier Ruel315 Masashi Oiso29
Grand Prixs – Singapore, Leipzig, Lisbon, Detroit
GP Singapore (19–20 March) Format: Extended Attendance: 373 Itaru Ishida Shih Chien Chang Ichirou Shimura Yeung Sun Kit Dennis Yuliadinata Shu Komuro Oliver Oks Gabriel Kang
GP Leipzig (26–27 March) Format: Sealed and Booster Draft Attendance: 899 Rustam Bakirov Rosario Maij Max Bracht Niki Jedlicka Philip Fetzer Sune Ellegard Bernardo Da Costa Cabral Mateusz Dabkowski
GP Lisbon (23–24 April) Format: Sealed and Booster Draft Attendance: 1169 Marcio Carvalho Luis Sousa Mikael Polgary David Blazquez Joao Martins Pierre-Jerome Meurisse Marco Manuel Anton Jonsson
GP Detroit (23–24 April) Format: Sealed and Booster Draft Attendance: 491 Jordan Berkowitz Richard Hoaen Michael Krumb Jeroen Remie Osyp Lebedowicz William Postlethwait Sam Gomersall Patrick Sullivan
Pro Tour – Philadelphia (6–8 May 2005)
Pro Tour Philadelphia featured a tournament system different from those of other Pro Tours. While Swiss system was still used all players with three or more losses and/or draws were automatically dropped from the tournament. Prizes were given out not in relation to the final standings, but for the individual matches won, where matches in later rounds of the tournament were worth more than those in the earlier rounds. It was also announced in the week prior to Pro Tour Philadelphia, that the end of the year payout based on Pro Points would be dropped after the season in favor of the Pro Club. Under the new system a player would receive special benefits based on the total number of Pro Points he had acquired in a season.
16-year-old Gadiel Szleifer defeated 18-year-old Kenji Tsumura in the final to win the tournament. Szleifer played a control deck built around . Former Pro Player of the year Kai Budde received a lot of attention for being undefeated after day one, but was eliminated after he picked up three losses in the first three rounds of day two.
Tournament data
Players: 311 Prize Pool: $194,898 Format: Kamigawa Block Constructed (Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa) Head Judge: Mike Guptil
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Gadiel Szleifer$21,725252nd Final day2 Kenji Tsumura$12,275202nd Final day3 Steven Wolfman$7,475162nd Final day4 Olivier Ruel$6,950164th Final day5 Ryan Cimera$2,82512Pro Tour debut6 Jeff Novekoff$4,75012Pro Tour debut7 Mark Herberholz$3,175122nd Final day8 André Müller$2,07512
Pro Player of the year standings
RankPlayerPro Points1 Olivier Ruel492 Gadiel Szleifer473 Shu Komuro454 Kenji Tsumura445 Shuhei Nakamura40
Grand Prixs – Matsuyama, Bologna
GP Matsuyama (14–15 May) Format: Sealed and Booster Draft Attendance: 420 Akira Asahara Masashi Oiso Kentarou Nonaka Takayuki Toochika Osamu Fujita Shuhei Nakamura Tomoharu Saitou Jun'ya Takahashi
GP Bologna (11–12 June) Format: Sealed and Booster Draft Attendance: 654 Olivier Ruel David Brucker Giulio Barra Leonard Barbou Tomas Klimes Quentin Martin Bruno Panara Marco Castellano
Pro Tour – London (8–10 July 2005)
Geoffrey Siron from Belgium won Pro Tour London, defeating Tsuyoshi Fujita in the finals. In the Top 8 Siron did not lose a single game.
Tournament data
Players: 314 Prize Pool: $200,130 Format: Booster Draft (Champions of Kamigawa-Betrayers of Kamigawa-Saviors of Kamigawa) Head Judge: Jaap Brouwer
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Geoffrey Siron$30,000252nd Final day, 1st Belgian to win a Pro Tour2 Tsuyoshi Fujita$20,000202nd Final day3 Johan Sadeghpour$15,000164 Antti Malin$13,000165 Masashi Oiso$9,000125th Final day6 Tomi Walamies$8,500123rd Final day7 Arnost Zidek$8,000128 David Larsson$7,50012
Pro Player of the year standings
RankPlayerPro Points1 Olivier Ruel592 Gadiel Szleifer503 Shu Komuro494 Shuhei Nakamura47 Masashi Oiso47 Kenji Tsumura47
Grand Prixs – Minneapolis, Niigata, Taipei, Salt Lake City, Mexico City, Nottingham
GP Minneapolis (16–17 July) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 404 Alex Lieberman Mark Herberholz Dustin Marquis Adam Yurchick Celso Zampere Andrew Stokinger Gerry Thompson Sean Inlow
GP Niigata (23–24 July) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 476 Katsuhiro Mori Tomohiro Aridome Akira Asahara Masashi Oiso Takuya Oosawa Kenji Tsumura Ryouma Shiozu Suhan Yun
GP Taipei (6–7 August) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 261 Osamu Fujita Masahiko Morita Jun'ichirou Bandou Shu Komuro Tai Chi Huang Aik Seng Khoo Masashi Oiso Masahiro Kuroda
GP Salt Lake City (27–28 August) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 250 Antonino De Rosa Karl Briem Kenji Tsumura Mark Ioli Frank Karsten Gadiel Szleifer Gabe Walls Rogier Maaten
GP Mexico City (3–4 September) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 305 Julien Nuijten Edgar Leiva Frank Karsten Maximiliano Liprandi William Postlethwait Gerard Fabiano Daniel Fior Rasmus Sibast
GP Nottingham (3–4 September) Format: Limited Attendance: 560 Nikola Vavra Roel van Heeswijk Nikolaus Eigner Philip Reich Jean Charles Salvin Ricard Tuduri Jure Trunk Alfred Benages
Pro Tour – Los Angeles (28–30 October 2005)