The 1998–99 Pro Tour season was the fourth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. It began on 5 September 1998 with Grand Prix Boston and ended on 8 August 1999 with the conclusion of 1999 World Championship in Tokyo. The season consisted of fourteen Grand Prix, and five Pro Tours, located in Chicago, Rome, Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo. At the end of the season Kai Budde from Germany was awarded the Pro Player of the year title.
Grand Prix – Boston, Lisbon
GP Boston (5–6 September) Jon Finkel Randy Buehler Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz Zvi Mowshowitz Darwin Kastle Mike Bregoli Dave Beury Ben Farkas
GP Lisbon (12–13 September) Bruno Cardoso Brian Hacker Randy Buehler Helder Coelho Jean-Louis D'Hondt Laurent Pagorek Alexis Dumay Jorge Martins
Pro Tour – Chicago (25–27 September 1998)
As in the previous season a rookie won the inaugural Pro Tour. In the finals Dirk Baberowski defeated Casey McCarrel. Jon Finkel also had another final eight showing, his third in a row.
Tournament data Prize pool: $151,635 Players: 324 Format: Tempest Booster Draft (Tempest-Stronghold-Exodus) Head Judge: Charlie Catino
Top 8
Loser's Bracket
Pro Tour Chicago also had Top 8 loser's bracket, that had matches held as best of three instead of five. The first round paired the quarter-finals losers against each other. Finkel defeated Coene 2–1 and Fuller defeated Cedercrantz 2–0. In the second and final round the winners of the first round were paired against the losers of the Top 8 semi-finals. Fung defeated Finkel 2–1 and Klauser defeated Fuller 2–1.
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizeComment1 Dirk Baberowski$25,000Pro Tour debut2 Casey McCarrel$15,0002nd Final day3 Jeff Fung$10,0004 Benedikt Klauser$8,0001st Austrian in a Top 85 Jon Finkel$6,5004th Final day6 Ryan Fuller$5,5007 Martin Cedercrantz$4,8008 Dominique Coene$4,300
Grand Prix – Austin, Birmingham
GP Austin (10–11 October) Gary Krakower Darwin Kastle Heath Kennel Richard Van Cleave Jeremy Baca Tony Tsai Sid Rao Jonathan Pechon
GP Birmingham (17–18 October) Craig Jones Kai Budde Darwin Kastle Neil Rigby Arho Toikka Warren Marsh Andreas Jonsson Jean-Louis D'Hondt
Pro Tour – Rome (13–15 November 1998)
Tommi Hovi won Pro Tour Rome, thus becoming the first player to win two Pro Tours. Reportedly Hovi was particularly happy to win another Pro Tour, because he won his first due to a disqualification, and thus felt it was not a proper victory. Olle Råde became the first player to have five Top 8 appearances.
Tournament data Prize pool: $151,635 Players: 266 Format: Extended Head Judge: Carl Crook
Top 8
Loser's Bracket
The first round of the loser's bracket paired the quarter-finals losers against each other. Le Pine defeated Lauer 2–0 and Gary defeated Konstanczer 2–1. In the second and final round of the loser's bracket the winners of the first round were paired against the losers of the Top 8 semi-finals. Dato defeated Gary 2–1 and Le Pine defeated Råde 2–1.
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizeComment1 Tommi Hovi$25,0003rd Final day, First player to win two Pro Tours2 Nicolas Labarre$15,0003 Mark Le Pine$10,0002nd Final day4 Federico Dato$8,0005 Olle Råde$6,5005th Final day6 Justin Gary$5,5007 Erik Lauer$4,8008 André Konstanczer$4,300
Grand Prix – Manila, Kyoto, San Francisco, Barcelona
GP Manila (12–13 December) Toshiki Tsukamoto Scion Raguindin Josua Rivera Leo Gonzales Rozano Yu Francis Robert Profeta GeeVee Vegara Itaru Ishida
GP San Francisco (23–24 January) Richard Van Cleave Mark Schick John Yoo Alan Comer Mike Craig Shawn Keller Hashim Bello Shawn Roush
GP Kyoto (16–17 January) Yoshikazu Ishii Hiroshi Watanabe Masami Ibamoto Tsuyoshi Fujita Tadayoshi Komiya Hirobumi Nakamura Hideaki Amano Eisaku Sueyoshi
GP Barcelona (6–7 February) Kai Budde Alex Shvartsman Roc Herms Raphaël Lévy Daniel Nuttal Matt Henstra Laurent Laclavie Gordon Benson
Pro Tour – Los Angeles (26–28 February 1999)
Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz won Pro Tour Los Angeles defeating his friend and fellow New Yorker Jon Finkel in the final.
Tournament data
Prize pool: $151,635 Players: 337 Format: Urza's Saga Rochester Draft (Urza's Saga) Head Judge: Charlie Catino
Top 8
* = The semi-final of O'Mahoney-Schwartz against Lau went over six games. One of the games had been a draw. After five games the score was 2–2 and a draw, thus the sixth game became necessary.
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizeComment1 Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz$25,0002nd Final day2 Jon Finkel$15,0005th Final day3 Worth Wollpert$10,0004 Terry Lau$8,0005 Lucien Bui$6,5006 Patrick Chapin$5,5002nd Final day7 Svend Geertsen$4,8003rd Final day8 Mike Long$4,3003rd Final day
Grand Prix – Vienna, Kansas City, Oslo, Taipei
GP Vienna (13–14 March) Kai Budde Christian Gregorich Jon Finkel Erik Lauer Randy Buehler Jakub Slemr Dirk Hein Peer Kröger
GP Oslo (10–11 April) Jim Herold Mikko Lintamo Christer Ljones Bjørn Ove Leknes Skogneth Seppo Toikka Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz André Konstanczer Jonathan Brown
GP Kansas City (27–28 March) Mark Gordon Chris Pikula Bob Maher, Jr. Scott Seville Jon Finkel Lan D. Ho Randy Buehler Vincent Johnson
GP Taipei (24–25 April) Kenichi Fujita Iwao Takemasa Tobey Tamber Itaru Ishida Chi Fai Ng Kai Cheog Tang Alex Shvartsman Miller Tsai
Pro Tour – New York (30 April – 2 May 1999)
In the finals of Pro Tour New York Casey McCarrel defeated Shawn Keller, both playing nearly identical decks, which was designed by Ben Rubin, Lan D. Ho, and Terry Tsang, who also made the Top 8 with the deck. The concept of their decks was to quickly generate huge amounts of mana to play big spells. Rob Dougherty and David Humpherys played nearly identical decks, designed by YMG.
Tournament data
Prize pool: $151,635 Players: 308 Format: Urza's Saga Block Constructed (Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy) Head Judge: Dan Gray
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizeComment1 Casey McCarrel$25,0003rd Final day2 Shawn Keller$15,0003 Zvi Mowshowitz$10,0004 Dave Humpherys$8,0005 Rob Dougherty$6,5006 Christian Lührs$5,5007 Nicolas Labarre$4,8002nd Final day8 Terry Tsang$4,300
Grand Prix – Amsterdam, Washington D.C.
GP Amsterdam (15–16 May) Kai Budde Dirk Baberowski André Konstanczer Guido Pacifici Bram Snepvangers Janosch Kühn Daniel Steinsdorfer Vincent Gieling
GP Washington D.C. (19–20 June) Ben Farkas Chris Pikula Noah Weil Zvi Mowshowitz Mike Turian Scott McCord Mark Le Pine Dennis Bentley
1999 World Championships – Yokohama (4–8 August 1999)
Kai Budde won the 1999 World Championship, defeating Mark Le Pine in the finals. The match went into the books as the shortest individual Pro Tour final ever, taking about 20 minutes. The title allowed Budde to take the Pro Player of the year title as well.
The United States defeated Germany in the team finals to win the national team title.
Tournament data
Prize pool: $250,000 Players: 208 Individual formats: Urza's Saga Rochester Draft (Urza's Saga-Urza's Legacy-Urza's Destiny), Standard, Extended Team formats: Team Sealed (Urza's Saga-Urza's Legacy-Urza's Destiny) – Swiss; Standard – Finals Head Judge: Charlie Catino
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizeComment1 Kai Budde$34,0002 Mark Le Pine$22,0003rd Final day3 Raffaele Lo Moro$16,0004 Matt Linde$13,0005 Jakub Slemr$11,0003rd Final day6 Jamie Parke$9,5007 Gary Wise$8,2508 Nicolai Herzog$7,250
National team competition
United States (Kyle Rose, John Hunka, Zvi Mowshowitz, Charles Kornblith) Germany (Marco Blume, Patrick Mello, David Brucker, Rosario Maij) Norway (Nicolai Herzog, Sturla Bingen, Bjorn Joumsen, Marius Johnsen) Sweden (Jimmy Oman, Richard Soderberg, Ken Asp, Kristian Hellman)
Pro Player of the year final standings
After the World Championship Kai Budde was awarded the Pro Player of the year title.
RankPlayerPro Points1 Kai Budde752 Jon Finkel653 Casey McCarrel634 Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz575 Mark Le Pine52
References