Hall of Fame

The Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame consists of an online museum and the Pro Tour Hall of Fame Exhibit, which makes appearances at events such as Magic World Championships and the first Pro Tour of the season. The Hall honors Magic: The Gathering's "significant and influential competitors". The Hall opened in 2005.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, a player must have at least 150 lifetime Pro Points (prior to 2014, only 100 Pro Points were needed), must have participated in their first Pro Tour event (including Worlds prior to 2011) at least 10 seasons before the current voting year, and must not be currently suspended by the DCI. Starting in 2017, an added rule prescribes than a player must have at least two Pro Tour final-day finishes.

Removal from ballot

Players who have been eligible for the Hall of Fame, but received less than 10% of the votes in three years, are removed from the ballot. Prior to 2018, this was restricted to three consecutive years. Players who have been removed from the ballot can be reinstated by earning four or more Pro Points within one calendar year.

Selection process

Each year, eligible players are selected for the Hall of Fame through voting by a Selection Committee consisting primarily of certain Wizards of the Coast employees, reporters and commentators of the Pro Tour, high-level judges, previously inducted Hall of Famers, and professional players with at least 150 Pro Points.

For the first three years, the top five players on the ballot with the most votes were elected. This was changed in 2008; only players who received at least 40% of the votes would be inducted – or, if no one on the ballot reached 40%, the top vote getter. In theory, this means that as few as one player could get inducted, but also that the number of inductees could be in excess of five. In 2017, the threshold was raised to 60%.

Each year, at the first Pro Tour of the new season, an induction ceremony is held to award Hall of Fame rings to that year's Hall of Fame elects, officially enshrining them into the Hall. Prior to 2012, this ceremony was at the Magic World Championships.

Benefits

Being elected to the Hall of Fame has several benefits in addition to the recognition:

• Three byes at all individual format Grand Prix events
• Invitation to all Pro Tours and Nationals
• One bye at Nationals
• Complimentary sleep-in special at all Grand Prix events (where available)
• 35 QPs given each month in Magic Online Championship Series
• A $1500 appearance fee for participating in the Pro Tour where the Hall of Fame introduction ceremony is held (i.e. the first Pro Tour of the season). Should the player is also a Platinum-level pro, both appearance fee rewards applies.
  • Prior to the 2016–17 season, this appearance fee was also awarded upon attendance at all other Pro Tours, as well as the World Magic Cup.

The Hall of Fame appearance fee is in addition to what, if anything, they receive for their Pro Players Club level. For byes and Magic Online QPs, however, only the higher reward applies.

Inductees

Class of 2005	Votes	Class of 2006	Votes	Class of 2007	Votes	Class of 2008	Votes
Template:Flagicon USA Jon Finkel	97.1%	Template:Flagicon USA Bob Maher, Jr.	60.0%	Template:Flagicon DEU Kai Budde	90.4%	Template:Flagicon DEU Dirk Baberowski	52.4%
Template:Flagicon USA Darwin Kastle	62.3%	Template:Flagicon USA Dave Humpherys	56.8%	Template:Flagicon USA Zvi Mowshowitz	62.3%	Template:Flagicon USA Mike Turian	50.1%
Template:Flagicon USA Alan Comer	52.2%	Template:Flagicon FRA Raphaël Lévy	42.6%	Template:Flagicon JPN Tsuyoshi Fujita	49.7%	Template:Flagicon NLD Jelger Wiegersma	48.2%
Template:Flagicon FIN Tommi Hovi	46.4%	Template:Flagicon CAN Gary Wise	39.0%	Template:Flagicon NOR Nicolai Herzog	41.5%	Template:Flagicon FRA Olivier Ruel	46.0%
Template:Flagicon SWE Olle Råde	34.8%	Template:Flagicon USA Rob Dougherty	38.2%	Template:Flagicon USA Randy Buehler	35.6%	Template:Flagicon USA Ben Rubin	45.6%
Class of 2009	Votes	Class of 2010	Votes	Class of 2011	Votes	Class of 2012	Votes
Template:Flagicon FRA Antoine Ruel	63.4%	Template:Flagicon FRA Gabriel Nassif	89.3%	Template:Flagicon JPN Shuhei Nakamura	89.3%	Template:Flagicon BRA Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa	85.7%
Template:Flagicon NLD Kamiel Cornelissen	62.5%	Template:Flagicon USA Brian Kibler	49.4%	Template:Flagicon SWE Anton Jonsson	69.8%	Template:Flagicon JPN Kenji Tsumura	81.8%
Template:Flagicon NLD Frank Karsten	44.8%	Template:Flagicon NLD Bram Snepvangers	40.0%	Template:Flagicon USA Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	50.6%	Template:Flagicon JPN Masashi Oiso	76.2%
						Template:Flagicon USA Patrick Chapin	44.9%
Class of 2013	Votes	Class of 2014	Votes	Class of 2015	Votes	Class of 2016	Votes
Template:Flagicon USA Luis Scott-Vargas	95.6%	Template:Flagicon JPN Makihito Mihara	86.8%	Template:Flagicon USA Eric Froehlich	66.4%	Template:Flagicon JPN Yuuya Watanabe	90.3%
Template:Flagicon USA William Jensen	60.0%	Template:Flagicon USA Paul Rietzl	72.6%	Template:Flagicon JPN Shota Yasooka	62.5%	Template:Flagicon USA Owen Turtenwald	70.9%
Template:Flagicon USA Ben Stark	59.0%	Template:Flagicon FRA Guillaume Wafo-Tapa	60.9%	Template:Flagicon BRA Willy Edel	47.6%
Class of 2017	Votes
Template:Flagicon USA Josh Utter-Leyton	86.3%
Template:Flagicon CZE Martin Jůza	66.4%

Controversy

Although Mike Long was eligible since the first year of the Hall of Fame (2005), he was not inducted. Though he has the necessary statistical credentials and garnered some votes (21.7% in 2005 at the most), he was not voted in. Mark Rosewater is among those who have voted and argued for his induction. However, his alleged cheating and his shady reputation repeatedly prevented his induction. He fell off the ballot following the 2012 voting, when he received 5.2% of the votes.

Notes

^I In 2010, Tomoharu Saito was voted into the Hall of Fame, receiving 47.7% of the votes. However, at Grand Prix Florence, two weeks before the induction ceremony, Saito was disqualified and subsequently suspended from the game for 18 months. The Hall of Fame rules state that suspended players cannot be voted for, but Saito had already been voted in. However, Wizards of the Coast announced that due to the suspension, Saito would not be a part of the 2010 Hall of Fame. Saito was eligible for Hall of Fame again in 2012, and has received 11.2%, 18.3%, 14.7%, and 13.9% of the votes from 2012 to 2015, respectively.

^II In the originally announced voting results for 2010, Bram Snepvangers barely missed getting voted into the Hall of Fame, receiving 39.95% of the votes. Following the announcement, however, it was discovered an error in the calculations, and that Snepvanger's correct result was 40.03%, barely enough to be inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside Gabriel Nassif and Brian Kibler.

External Links

• Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame
• Hall of Fame Eligibility By Year