The 2012 Pro Tour season is the seventeenth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. Due to major changes in the Pro Tour systems the 2012 season was retroactively made to overlap with the 2011 season. Originally the 2012 season was supposed to begin on 7 January 2012 with Grand Prix Austin, but retroactively the events from after Pro Tour Nagoya on 10–12 June 2011 were made to count towards the 2012 season as well as the 2011 season. The major changes included a shift of the season. Instead of Pro Tour seasons aligning with the calendar year, beginning with the 2012–13 season Pro Tour seasons will be going from spring to spring. Also a major overhaul of the ratings system was conducted. A new bye policy based upon the new ratings system and a new invitation policy for the Pro Tour were introduced. Finally the number of Grand Prix tournaments was greatly increased.
Mode
Four Pro Tours will be held in the 2012 season. The amount of Grand Prix is still unknown as only Grand Prix tournaments through March have been announced yet. The prize purse of future Pro Tours is also unknown, however Wizards of the Coast announced, that future Grand Prix tournaments will have a total prize pool of $10,000 to $40,000 instead of a flat $30,000 pool that was awarded at each Grand Prix in 2011.
Grand Prix: Austin, Orlando
GP Austin (7–8 January) Format: Limited Attendance: 1044 Raphaël Lévy Pat Cox Craig Edwards Eric Downing Jason Howden David Ochoa Austin Bursavich David Saylor
GP Orlando (14–15 January) Format: Standard Attendance: 926 Conley Woods Patrick Chapin Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa Stephen Mann Gabriel Nieves Ben Friedman Javier Adorno David Ochoa
Pro Tour Dark Ascension – Honolulu (10–12 February 2012)
The first Pro Tour in the 2012 season is the first to have a proper name. Previously Pro Tours were referred to by their location and/or date. The name Dark Ascension refers to the Magic set with the same name that is to be released a week prior to the Pro Tour.
Tournament data Prize pool: $233,500 Format: Standard, Booster Draft Players: 445
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Brian Kibler$40,000305th Final day, 2nd Pro Tour win2 Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa$20,000249th Final day3 Jon Finkel$12,5002213th Final day4 Mamoru Nagai$12,500225 Denniz Rachid$10,000206 Matthew Costa$10,000207 Lukas Blohon$10,000208 Jelger Wiegersma$10,000204th Final day
Grand Prix: Kobe, Lincoln, Madrid, Baltimore, Lille, Seattle, Indianapolis, Nashville, Kuala Lumpur, Mexico City, Melbourne, Salt Lake City, Turin, Manchester
GP Kobe (18–19 February) Format: Limited Attendance: 1117 Masahiro Hiraga Ken Yukuhiro Kouji Takeishi Hiroaki Kitahara Katsuhiro Mori Hiroshi Ishida Yuuya Watanabe Takayuki Nagaoka
GP Baltimore (25–26 February) Format: Standard Attendance: 1545 Matthew Costa David Shiels Jackie Lee Matt Scott Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa Max Tietze Eric Meng Adam Snook
GP Indianapolis (10–11 March) Format: Legacy Attendance: 1214 Tom Martell Kenny Castor Dan Jordan Colin Chilbert Ando Ferguson Caleb Durward Pascal Maynard Adam Yurchick
GP Mexico City (24–25 March) Format: Limited Attendance: 685 Paul Rietzl Humberto Patarca Craig Wescoe Daniel Hernandez Pascal Maynard Mario Flores Gottlieb Yeh Gustavo Nuñez Moreno
GP Turin (31 March–1 April) Format: Modern Attendance: 1063 Antonino De Rosa Michael Thiel Jose Velazquez Alessandro Lippi Marco Cammilluzzi Yann Blumer Alessandro Portaro David Progin
GP Lincoln (18–19 February) Format: Modern Attendance: 716 Bronson Magnan Andrew Cuneo Luis Scott-Vargas Samuel Friedman Mary Jacobson Samuel Karls Matt Mercier Derrick Rutledge
GP Lille (3–4 March) Format: Standard Attendance: 1505 Richard Parker Simon Diaz Kristof Benaets Tom Valkeneers Manuel Mayer Jonas Köstler Grzegorz Kowalski Martin Zimmermann
GP Nashville (17–18 March) Format: Limited Attendance: 1037 Reid Duke Todd Anderson Kyle Babin Josh Utter-Leyton Caleb Durward Robbie Cordell Lissa Jensen Shuhei Nakamura
GP Melbourne (31 March–1 April) Format: Limited Attendance: 558 David Crewe Geoff Zhao Oliver Oks Simon Harnden Thomas Rafferty Daniel Unwin Jeremy Neeman Hao Wu
GP Manchester (21–22 April) Format: Limited Attendance: 1028 Alexandre Darras Mario Pascoli Joel Larsson Lasse Nørgaard André Müller Marijn Lybaert Ciro Bonaventura Adam Katz
GP Madrid (25–26 February) Format: Limited Attendance: 1314 Ivo Grossholz David Garcia Copete Guido Sondag Fabio Rodrigues Christian von Kalkstein Florian Koch Marco Frantuma Martin Juza
GP Seattle-Tacoma (3–4 March) Format: Limited Attendance: 1160 Robert Smith Iain Bartolomei Jason Huang James Nguyen Andrejs Prost Paul Rietzl Henry Romero Owen Turtenwald
GP Kuala Lumpur (24–25 March) Format: Standard Attendance: 612 Yuuya Watanabe Xin Sui Sutti Lee Chao Lu Sukhum Kiwanont Kuo Tzu-Ching Kingston Tong King Yim Jason Yap
GP Salt Lake City (31 March–1 April) Format: Standard Attendance: 1137 Shahar Shenhar Michael Peterson Tom Martell James Cooper Michael Hetrick Bryan Olvera David Gleicher Marcel Angelo Zafra
Pro Tour Avacyn Restored – Barcelona (11–13 May 2012) Tournament data Prize pool: $233,500 Format: Block Constructed, Booster Draft Players: 379
Top 8
Final standings
PlacePlayerPrizePro PointsComment1 Alexander Hayne$40,000302 Gaudenis Vidugiris$20,000242nd final day3 Joshua Cho$12,50022Pro Tour debut4 Ken Yukuhiro$12,500225 Jon Finkel$10,0002014th final day6 Denniz Rachid$10,000202nd final day7 Thomas Holzinger$10,000208 Naoki Shimizu $10,000202nd final day
Invitees to the 2012 Players Championship
The following sixteen players received an invitation to the 2012 Players Championship due to their performance in the 2012 season.
PlayerQualified due to Owen Turtenwald2011 Player of the year Jun'ya Iyanaga2011 World Champion Reid Duke2011 Magic Online Champion Samuele EstrattiPro Tour Philadelphia winner Brian KiblerPro Tour Dark Ascension winner Alexander HaynePro Tour Avacyn Restored winner Josh Utter-LeytonPro Point leader North America Paulo Vitor Damo da RosaPro Point leader Latin America Martin JuzaPro Point leader Europe Yuuya WatanabePro Point leader Japan Kuo Tzu-ChingPro Point leader APAC region Jon FinkelMost Pro Points of otherwise unqualified Luis Scott-Vargas2nd most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified Shouta Yasooka3rd most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified David Ochoa4th most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified Shuhei Nakamura5th most Pro Points of otherwise unqualified
References