The 2007 Pro Tour season was the twelfth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. On 9 February 2007 the season began with Pro Tour Geneva. It ended on 9 December 2007 with the conclusion of the 2007 World Championship in New York. The season consisted of 16 Grand Prixs and 5 Pro Tours, held in Geneva, Yokohama, San Diego, Valencia, and New York. At the end of the season Tomoharu Saitou from Japan was proclaimed Pro Player of the year. At the Worlds in New York the third class of the Hall of Fame was inducted. The inductees were Kai Budde, Zvi Mowshowitz, Tsuyoshi Fujita, Nicolai Herzog, and Randy Buehler.
Pro Tour – Geneva (9–11 February 2007)
Mike Hron of the United States won the Pro Tour, defeating Takuya Oosawa in the Japanese player's second finals appearance. Willy Edel of Brazil became the first South American player with three top eight finishes, and former of player of the year Kenji Tsumura reached the quarter finals for the fifth time.
Tournament data Prize pool: $240,245 Players: 387 Format: Booster Draft (Time Spiral-Planar Chaos) Head Judge: David Vogin
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Mike Hron$40,000252 Takuya Oosawa$22,000202nd Final day3 Kenji Tsumura$15,000165th Final day4 Shingou Kurihara$14,000165 Marijn Lybaert$11,500126 Jim Herold$11,000127 Willy Edel$10,500123rd Final day8 Ervin Tormos$10,000122nd Final day
Grand Prixs – Dallas, Singapore, Amsterdam, Kyoto, Massachusetts
GP Dallas (24–25 February) Format: Extended Attendance: 748 Raphaël Lévy Paul Cheon Kenji Tsumura John Pelcak Mark Herberholz Paul Nguyen Alex Ledbetter Jim Davis
GP Singapore (3–4 March) Format: Extended Attendance: 331 Raphaël Lévy Shingou Kurihara Antoine Ruel Osamu Fujita Olivier Ruel Koutarou Ootsuka Ryou Ogura Tomoharu Saitou
GP Amsterdam (10–11 March) Format: Two-headed Giant Limited Attendance: 1336 (668 teams) Richard Hornansky Michael Havlik Amiel Tenenbaum Gabriel Nassif Olaf Koster Christian Kok Vassilis Fatouros Georgios Kapalos
GP Kyoto (17–18 March) Format: Standard Attendance: 859 Yuuya Watanabe Yuusuke Iwasaki Motokiyo Azuma Tsubasa Tomii Naoki Shimizu Ren Ishikawa Atsushi Wada Katsuhiro Ide
GP Massachusetts (31 March – 1 April) Format: Two-Headed Giant Limited Attendance: 690 (345 teams) Matt Wang Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz Gerard Fabiano Eric Ziegler Ben Lundquist Timothy Aten Matt Rubin Rob DiPalma
Pro Tour – Yokohama (20–22 April 2007)
Frenchman Guillaume Wafo-Tapa won the second Pro Tour of the year, emerging from a Top eight in which every other contestant has at least twice appeared in a PT final eight. Masashi Oiso became only the fifth player to reach the quarter finals more than five times, Portugal's Paulo Carvalho put up his second top eight in three events, and Raphaël Lévy continued his hot streak with his first Pro Tour top eight since 1999.
Tournament data Prize pool: $240,245 Players: 387 Format: Time Spiral Block Constructed Head Judge: Sheldon Menery
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Guillaume Wafo-Tapa$40,000252 Kazuya Mitamura$22,000202nd Final day3 Mark Herberholz$15,000164th Final day4 Tomoharu Saitou$14,000164th Final day5 Paulo Carvalho$11,500122nd Final day6 Raphaël Lévy$11,000123rd Final day7 Masashi Oiso$10,500126th Final day8 Sebastian Thaler$10,00012
Grands Prix – Stockholm, Columbus, Strasbourg, Montreal
GP Stockholm (5–6 May) Format: Limited Attendance: 713 Nicolay Potovin André Müller Kenji Tsumura Oliver Oks Bas Postema Thomas Refsdal Klaus Jöns Samuel Korsell
GP Columbus (19–20 May) Format: Legacy Attendance: 883 Steve Sadin Owen Turtenwald Bill Stark Max Tietze Gadiel Szleifer Paul Nicolo Ryan Trepanier Michael Belfatto
GP Strasbourg (19–20 May) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 1155 Tomoharu Saitou Raul Porojan Shouta Yasooka Florian Pils Christoph Huber Klaus Jöns Petr Martinek Stefan Heigerer
GP Montreal (23–24 June) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 739 Celso Zampere Jr. Paul Cheon Guillaume Wafo-Tapa Kenji Tsumura Gabriel Schwarz Koutarou Ootsuka Jason Imperiale Shouta Yasooka
Pro Tour – San Diego (29 June – 1 July 2007)
Pro Tour San Diego was the inaugural and as yet only event for the Two-Headed Giant format at the Pro Tour level. Chris Lachmann and Jacob van Lunen won the tournament, both in their first Pro Tour, playing an innovative sliver strategy. They won the elimination bracket in a combined nine turns making it the shortest semi-final and final ever.
Tournament data Prize pool: $240,500 Players: 390 (195 teams) Format: Two-Headed Giant Booster Draft (Time Spiral-Planar Chaos-Future Sight) Head Judge: Toby Elliott
Top 4
Final standings
PlacePlayersPrizePro PointsComment1 Chris Lachman$50,00020Pro Tour debut Jacob van Lunen20Pro Tour debut2 Yuuta Takahashi$30,00016 Kentaro Yamamoto163 John Fiorillo$22,00012 Eugene Harvey124th Final day4 Masami Kaneko$20,00012 Genki Taru12
Grand Prixs – San Francisco, Florence
GP San Francisco (25–26 August) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 672 Luis Scott-Vargas Jonathan Stocks Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa Brett Blackmann David Irvine Andrew Walden Zack Smith Paul Cheon
GP Florence (8–9 September) Format: Block Constructed Attendance: 1082 Masami Kaneko André Coimbra Marco Cammilluzzi Mido Kagawa Armin Birner Manuel Bucher Rasmus Sibast Ronald Guetl
Pro Tour – Valencia (12–14 October 2007)
Pro Tour Valencia began with a bumpy start. The first day of play to be canceled due to flooding. On the other two days the schedule had to be altered somewhat, including additional rounds on Saturday and three rounds on Sunday before Top 8. In the end, Frenchman Remi Fortier defeated Germany's André Müller in the final, making Valencia the third consecutive extended Pro Tour to be won by a French player.
Tournament data Prize pool: $240,245 Players: 424 Format: Extended Head Judge: Jaap Brouwer
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Remi Fortier$40,000252 André Müller$22,000202nd Final day3 Giulio Barra$15,000164 Shuhei Nakamura$14,000164th Final day5 Takayuki Koike$11,50012Pro Tour debut6 Tine Rus$11,000121st Slovenian in a Top 8, Pro Tour debut7 Sam Stein$10,500128 Makihito Mihara$10,000122nd Final day
Grand Prixs – Brisbane, Bangkok, Krakow, Kitakyuushuu, Daytona Beach
GP Brisbane (20–21 October) Format: Limited Attendance: 233 Anatoli Lightfoot Shawn Rayson André Coimbra Hassan Kamel David Zhao Norman McPherson Andrew Eckermann Chris Ninnes
GP Bangkok (27–28 October) Format: Limited Attendance: 314 Masahiko Morita Shingou Kurihara Yong Han Choo Kok Seng Ong Junya Iyanaga Koutarou Ootsuka Steven Tan Takuya Oosawa
GP Kraków (3–4 November) Format: Standard Attendance: 849 Paul Cheon Amiel Tenenbaum Armin Birner Olivier Ruel Robert Jacko David Besso Guillaume Wafo-Tapa Matej Zatlkaj
GP Kitakyuushuu (10–11 November) Format: Limited Attendance: 354 Junya Iyanaga Shouta Yasooka Akira Asahara Olivier Ruel Kazuya Hirabayashi Jun Young Park Kenji Tsumura Chih-Chun Tsai
GP Daytona Beach (17–18 November) Format: Limited Attendance: 636 Seth Manfield Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa Tillman Bragg Tanon Grace Gabe Walls Steven Wolansky Kyle Miller Alex Lieberman
2007 World Championships – New York City (6–9 December 2007)
The World Championships began with the induction of the third class into the hall of fame. The inductees were Kai Budde, Zvi Mowshowitz, Tsuyoshi Fujita, Nicolai Herzog, and Randy Buehler. In the individual competition Uri Peleg became the first Israeli, not only to reach the top eight, but also to win a Pro Tour. For Mori it was his third consecutive Worlds Top 8 appearance. In the team competition, the Swiss defeated the Austrian team in the finals
Tournament data
Prize pool: $215,600 (individual) + $192,200 (national teams) Players: 386 Formats: Standard, Booster Draft (Lorwyn), Legacy Head Judge: Mike Guptil
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Uri Peleg$40,000251st Israeli to win a Pro Tour2 Patrick Chapin$22,000203rd Final day3 Gabriel Nassif$15,000168th Final day4 Koutarou Ootsuka$14,000165 Christoph Huber$11,000126 Yoshitako Nakano$10,000127 Katsuhiro Mori$9,000123rd Final day8 Roel van Heeswijk$8,00012
National team competition
Switzerland (Nico Bohny, Manuel Bucher, Raphael Genari, Christoph Huber) Austria (Thomas Preyer, Stefan Stradner, David Reitbauer, Helmut Summersberger)
Pro Player of the year final standings
After the World Championship Tomoharu Saitou was awarded the Pro Player of the year title.
RankPlayerPro Points1 Tomoharu Saitou682 Kenji Tsumura623 Guillaume Wafo-Tapa594 Shingou Kurihara575 Olivier Ruel54
Performance by country
Japan players dominated the season, making 16 Top 8 appearances although they had only about half as many players on the Pro Tour as the United States, which had the secondmost Top 8 appearances at 9. Both countries generated 21 level 4+ pro players in this season. For the Netherlands despite having generated 7 level 4+ pro players in the season success on the Pro Tour was almost elusive with a single 8th place being their only Top 8 appearance.
CountryT8Q*Q/T8GTBest Player (PPts) Japan1621Tomoharu Saitou (68) United States921Paul Cheon (52) France47Guillaume Wafo-Tapa (59) Germany36André Müller (36) Italy10Giulio Barra (18) Netherlands17Frank Karsten (37) Spain01Saul Aguado (20)
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 (PT San Diego is missing as no country breakdown is available for that event); GT = Gravy Trainers (aka players with a Pro Players Club level of 4 or more) from that country generated in the 2007 season; Best Player (PPts) = Player with the most Pro Points from that country, Pro Points of that player in brackets.
References