Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour season 1998–99

1998–99 Pro Tour season

Pro Player of the Year	Kai Budde
Rookie of the Year	Dirk Baberowski
World Champion	Kai Budde
Pro Tours	5
Grands Prix	14
Start of season	5 September 1998
End of season	8 August 1999
← 1997–98 1999–00 →

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.^[1]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $151,635
Format: Tempest Rochester Draft (Tempest-Stronghold-Exodus)^[2]
Head Judge: Charlie Catino^[3]

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Dirk Baberowski	$25,000	Pro Tour debut
2	Casey McCarrel	$15,000	2nd Final day
3	Jeff Fung	$10,000
4	Benedikt Klauser	$8,000	1st Austrian in a Top 8
5	Jon Finkel	$6,500	4th Final day
6	Ryan Fuller	$5,500
7	Martin Cedercrantz	$4,800
8	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.^[1]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $151,635
Format: Extended
Head Judge: Carl Crook^[3]

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Tommi Hovi	$25,000	3rd Final day, First player to win two Pro Tours
2	Nicolas Labarre	$15,000
3	Mark Le Pine	$10,000	2nd Final day
4	Federico Dato	$8,000
5	Olle Råde	$6,500	5th Final day
6	Justin Gary	$5,500
7	Erik Lauer	$4,800
8	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.^[1]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $151,635
Players: 337
Format: Urza's Saga Rochester Draft (Urza's Saga)
Head Judge: Charlie Catino^[3]

Top 8

	Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Finals
	1	Lucien Bui	1
	8	Jon Finkel	3
							Jon Finkel	3
							Worth Wollpert	1
	4	Worth Wollpert	3
	5	Svend Geertsen	2
												Jon Finkel	1
												Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	3
	3	Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	3
	6	Mike Long	1
							Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	3
							Terry Lau	2
	2	Patrick Chapin	0
	7	Terry Lau	3

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	$25,000	2nd Final day
2	Jon Finkel	$15,000	5th Final day
3	Worth Wollpert	$10,000
4	Terry Lau	$8,000
5	Lucien Bui	$6,500
6	Patrick Chapin	$5,500	2nd Final day
7	Svend Geertsen	$4,800	3rd Final day
8	Mike Long	$4,300	3rd 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 Bjorn 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,^[1] 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.^[4]

Tournament data

Prize pool: $151,635
Format: Urza's Saga Block Constructed (Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy)
Head Judge: Dan Gray^[3]

Top 8

	Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Finals
	1	Zvi Mowshowitz	3
	8	Terry Tsang	2
							Zvi Mowshowitz	2
							Casey McCarrel	3
	5	Casey McCarrel	3
	4	Christian Lührs	2
												Casey McCarrel	3
												Shawn Keller	1
	3	Shawn Keller	3
	6	Nicolas Labarre	1
							Shawn Keller	3
							Dave Humpherys	1
	7	Dave Humpherys	3
	2	Rob Dougherty	1

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Casey McCarrel	$25,000	3rd Final day
2	Shawn Keller	$15,000
3	Zvi Mowshowitz	$10,000
4	Dave Humpherys	$8,000
5	Rob Dougherty	$6,500
6	Christian Lührs	$5,500
7	Nicolas Labarre	$4,800	2nd Final day
8	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 – Tokyo (4–8 August 1999)

Main article: Magic: The Gathering World Championship#1999 World Championship

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.^[1]

The United States defeated Germany in the team finals to win the national team title.^[1]

Tournament data

Players: 208
Format: Standard, Rochester Draft (Mirage-Visions-Weatherlight), Extended 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^[3]

Top 8

	Quarter-finals					Semi-finals					Finals
	1	Jakub Slemr	2
	8	Matt Linde	3
							Matt Linde	2
							Mark Le Pine	3
	5	Mark Le Pine	3
	4	Gary Wise	1
												Mark Le Pine	0
												Kai Budde	3
	3	Jamie Parke	1
	6	Kai Budde	3
							Kai Budde	3
							Raffaele Lo Moro	0
	7	Nicolai Herzog	1
	2	Raffaele Lo Moro	3

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Comment
1	Kai Budde
2	Mark Le Pine		3rd Final day
3	Raffaele Lo Moro
4	Matt Linde
5	Jakub Slemr		3rd Final day
6	Jamie Parke
7	Gary Wise
8	Nicolai Herzog

National team competition

1. United States (Kyle Rose, John Hunka, Zvi Mowshowitz, Charles Kornblith)
2. Germany (Marco Blume, Patrick Mello, David Brucker, Rosario Maij)

Pro Player of the year final standings

After the World Championship Kai Budde was awarded the Pro Player of the year title.^[5]

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Kai Budde	75
2	Jon Finkel	65
3	Casey McCarrel	63
4	Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz	57
5	Mark Le Pine	52

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Rosewater, Mark (26 July 2004). "On Tour, Part 1". Wizards of the Coast. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr134. Retrieved 1 December 2008. 
2. ^ Web Archives: Decklists from Chicago '98 Top 8
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Head Judges of Pro Tours and World Championships". XS4ALL. 30 October 2009. http://magic.wiki.xs4all.nl/index.php?title=Head_Judges_of_Pro_Tours_and_World_Championships. Retrieved 16 November 2009. 
4. ^ "Pro Tour-New York 1999 Top 8 Decklists". 2 May 1999. http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/article.asp?PTNY9899/Top8Decks. Retrieved 31 March 2009. 
5. ^ "1997–1998 Player of the Year Standings". Wizards of the Coast. 1999$2. http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=protour/standings/9899. Retrieved 31 March 2009.