2012 Pro Tour Season
| 2012 Pro Tour Season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player of the Year | Template:Flagicon JPN Yuuya Watanabe [I] | |||
| Rookie of the Year | Template:Flagicon CAN Alexander Hayne | |||
| World Champion | n/a | |||
| Hall of Fame inductions | n/a | |||
| PTs | 2 | |||
| Grand Prix | 16 | |||
| ||||
The 2012 Pro Tour season was the seventeenth Pro Tour season. It was a transitional season, as changes were made to the Pro Tour system (including the new World Magic Cup and Players Championship tournaments), and it was retroactively made to overlap with the latter half of the 2011 season. As such, events in 2011, starting with GP Kansas City in June, counted towards the 2012 season's races and end-of-year levels and benefits. However, the 2012 season itself started on 7 January 2012 with Grand Prix Austin, and ended on 13 May 2012 with the conclusion of Pro Tour Avacyn Restored.
2012 season changes
The season introduced a number of changes that were announced during the tail end of 2011. These include the abandonment of the DCI ratings system in favor of Planeswalker points; byes at Grand Prix events would now be awarded to players earning a sufficient number of Planeswalker points, rather than to players with a high DCI rating. For Pro Tour Dark Ascension, players could get invited by earning enough Planeswalker points, but this method of qualification was removed after that event. Pro Tours were now scheduled to be held shortly after each new Expert-level set release, with the event taking the name after that expansion rather than the host city, as had been customary in past seasons. The number of Grand Prix events was greatly increased, though the number of Pro Tour invitations awarded for each of these was substantially decreased; in past seasons, the top 16 players had qualified for an upcoming Pro Tour; in 2012, only 2-4 players per event qualified.
Lastly, the World Championships and the Player of the Year race were replaced by two events: The World Magic Cup and the Magic Players Championship, with the winner of the Players Championship being considered the Player of the Year. This was somewhat altered in later seasons, however; the Player of the Year race returned, and the Players Championship was renamed into the World Championship, with the winner of the event being considered the World Champion. As such, the winner of the 2012 Magic Players Championship, Yuuya Watanabe, is considered the 2012 World Champion.
Grand Prix (January 2012)
| GP Austin | GP Orlando |
|---|---|
| Date: 7–8 January 2012 | Date: 14–15 January 2012 |
| Format: Limited | Format: Standard |
| Attendance: 1044 | Attendance: 926 |
| 1. Template:Flagicon FRA Raphaël Lévy | 1. Template:Flagicon USA Conley Woods |
| 2. Template:Flagicon USA Patrick Cox | 2. Template:Flagicon USA Patrick Chapin |
| 3. Template:Flagicon USA Craig Edwards | 3. Template:Flagicon BRA Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa |
| 4. Template:Flagicon USA Eric Downing | 4. Template:Flagicon USA Stephen Mann |
| 5. Template:Flagicon CAN Jason Howden | 5. Template:Flagicon USA Gabriel Nieves |
| 6. Template:Flagicon USA David Ochoa | 6. Template:Flagicon USA Ben Friedman |
| 7. Template:Flagicon USA Austin Bursavich | 7. Template:Flagicon USA Javier Adorno |
| 8. Template:Flagicon USA David Saylor | 8. Template:Flagicon USA David Ochoa |
Pro Tour Dark Ascension
10–12 February 2012 in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States.
| Place | Player | Prize | Pro Points | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Template:Flagicon USA Brian Kibler | $40,000 | 30 | Fifth Pro Tour Top 8, Second Pro Tour win |
| 2 | Template:Flagicon BRA Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa | $20,000 | 24 | Ninth Pro Tour Top 8 |
| 3 | Template:Flagicon USA Jon Finkel | $12,500 | 22 | Thirteenth Pro Tour Top 8 |
| 4 | Template:Flagicon JPN Mamoru Nagai | $12,500 | 22 | |
| 5 | Template:Flagicon SWE Denniz Rachid | $10,000 | 20 | |
| 6 | Template:Flagicon USA Matt Costa | $10,000 | 20 | |
| 7 | Template:Flagicon CZE Lukas Blohon | $10,000 | 20 | |
| 8 | Template:Flagicon NLD Jelger Wiegersma | $10,000 | 20 | Fourth Pro Tour Top 8 |
Grand Prix (February–April 2012)
Pro Tour Avacyn Restored
11–13 May 2012 in Barcelona, Spain.
| Place | Player | Prize | Pro Points | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Template:Flagicon CAN Alexander Hayne | $40,000 | 30 | |
| 2 | Template:Flagicon LTU Gaudenis Vidugiris | $20,000 | 24 | Second Pro Tour Top 8 |
| 3 | Template:Flagicon USA Josh Cho | $12,500 | 22 | Pro Tour debut |
| 4 | Template:Flagicon JPN Ken Yukuhiro | $12,500 | 22 | |
| 5 | Template:Flagicon USA Jon Finkel | $10,000 | 20 | Fourteenth Pro Tour Top 8 |
| 6 | Template:Flagicon SWE Denniz Rachid | $10,000 | 20 | Second Pro Tour Top 8 |
| 7 | Template:Flagicon AUT Thomas Holzinger | $10,000 | 20 | |
| 8 | Template:Flagicon JPN Naoki Shimizu | $10,000 | 20 | Second Pro Tour Top 8 |
Notes
- ^I Yuuya Watanabe is considered the 2012 Player of the Year, as he won the inaugural Players Championship event, later renamed the World Championship. However, Yuuya would have been the 2012 Player of the Year even under the traditional Player of the Year system.[1]