Masters Series (Magic: The Gathering)

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The Masters Series or simply Masters were single-elimination Magic: The Gathering tournaments open to the most accomplished players only. These tournaments awarded cash prizes upon entrance and were held at several Pro Tours each season. The first predecessor to the Masters Series, named Team Challenge, was held at the 2000 Pro Tour New York. In the following seasons Masters were held at four different Pro Tours each season. The last Masters was held at Pro Tour Yokohama. Ben Rubin was the most successful player at the Masters Series, being the only player to win two events.

Single-elimination tournament knock-out sports competition

A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, whose winner becomes the tournament champion. Each match-up may be a single match or several, for example two-legged ties in European football or best-of series in American pro sports. Defeated competitors may play no further part after losing, or may participate in "consolation" or "classification" matches against other losers to determine the lower final rankings; for example, a third place playoff between losing semi-finalists. In a shootout poker tournament, there are more than two players competing at each table, and sometimes more than one progressing to the next round. Some competitions are held with a pure single-elimination tournament system. Others have many phases, with the last being a single-elimination final stage, often called playoffs.

<i>Magic: The Gathering</i> Collectible card game

Magic: The Gathering is both a collectible and digital collectible card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game and has approximately twenty million players as of 2015, and over twenty billion Magic cards produced in the period from 2008 to 2016 alone.

After the 2002–03 season the cash that would have gone into the Masters Series prizes was instead used for a final payout at the end of the season based on Pro Points. This payout was in turn replaced by the Pro Player's Club two years later.

The 2002–03 Pro Tour season was the eighth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. On 24 August 2002 the season began with Grand Prix Sapporo. It ended on 10 August 2003 with the conclusion of the 2003 World Championship in Berlin. The season consisted of 21 Grand Prixs and 6 Pro Tours, held in Boston, Houston, Chicago, Venice, Yokohama, and Berlin. Also Master Series tournaments were held at four Pro Tours. At the end of the season Kai Budde was proclaimed Pro Player of the Year for the third time in a row.

Masters champions

*Elected to the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame
Season Location Winner Runner-up Result FormatRef.
1999–00 New York City Black Ops
Antoine Ruel*
Olivier Ruel*
Florent Jeudon		 Antarctica
Jon Finkel*
Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz*
Daniel O'Mahoney-Schwartz		 2–1 Team Rochester Draft [1] [2]
2000–01 New York City William Jensen* Jason Zilla 2–1 Extended [3]
2000–01 Chicago Ben Rubin* Jon Finkel* 2–0 Booster Draft [4]
2000–01 Tokyo AlphaBetaUnlimited.com
Chris Benafel
Noah Boeken
Ryan Fuller		 Panzer Hunter
Reiji Ando
Itaru Ishida
Momose Kazuyuki		 2–1 Team Rochester Draft [5]
2000–01 Barcelona Ben Rubin* Jay Elarar 2–0 Block Constructed [6]
2001–02 New Orleans Michael Pustilnik Chris Benafel 2–0 Booster Draft [7]
2001–02 San Diego Ryan Fuller Dave Humpherys* 2–0 Standard [8]
2001–02 Osaka Phoenix Foundation
Dirk Baberowski*
Marco Blume
Kai Budde*		 Panzer Hunter
Reiji Ando
Itaru Ishida
Momose Kazuyuki		 2–1 Team Rochester Draft [9]
2001–02 Nice Alexander Witt Justin Gary 2–1 Extended [10]
2002–03 Houston Jens Thorén Gary Wise* 2–0 Booster Draft [11]
2002–03 Chicago Franck Canu Ken Ho 2–0 Standard [12]
2002–03 Venice PS2
Masahiro Kuroda
Katsuhiro Mori
Masahiko Morita 		2020
Elijah Pollock
David Rood
Steven Wolfman		 2–1 Team Rochester Draft [13]
2002–03 Yokohama Bob Maher* Gabriel Nassif* 2–0 Extended [14]

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References

  1. ↑ "Magic: The Gathering Team Challenge 2000 Finals". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  2. ↑ "Magic: The Gathering Team Challenge 2000". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  3. ↑ "Masters Series Coverage: New York 2000". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  4. ↑ "2000 Chicago Masters Coverage". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  5. ↑ "2001 Tokyo Masters Coverage". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  6. ↑ "2001 Barcelona Masters Coverage". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  7. ↑ "2001 New Orleans Masters Coverage". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  8. ↑ "2002 Masters Series San Diego Coverage". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  9. ↑ "Pro Tour Osaka Masters Coverage". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  10. ↑ "Pro Tour Nice Masters Coverage". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  11. ↑ "Live Coverage of 2002 Houston Masters". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  12. ↑ "Live Coverage of 2003 Masters Chicago". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  13. ↑ "Live Coverage of 2003 Venice Masters". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.
  14. ↑ "Live Coverage of 2003 Yokohama Masters". Wizards of the Coast . Retrieved 2009-08-16.


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