The 2010 Pro Tour season was the fifteenth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. It began on 13 February 2010 with Grand Prix Oakland, and ended on 12 December 2010 with the conclusion of the 2010 World Championship in Chiba, Japan. The season consisted of eighteen Grand Prixs, and four Pro Tours, located in San Diego, San Juan, Amsterdam, and Chiba. Gabriel Nassif, Brian Kibler, and Bram Snepvangers were inducted into the Hall of Fame at the World Championship in Chiba. Although the season formally ended with the conclusion of the World Championship, the final title of season was not awarded until three months later. Guillaume Matignon and Brad Nelson tied for Player of the Year. The title was decided by a single match between the two at the 2011 Pro Tour in Paris, which Nelson won by four games to two.
Mode
Four Pro Tours and eighteen Grand Prixs were held in the 2010 season. Further Pro Points were awarded at national championships. These Pro Points were used mainly to determine the Pro Player club levels of players participating in these events, but also decide which player was awarded the Pro Player of the year title at the end of the season. Based on final standings Pro Points were awarded as follows:
Grand Prix – Oakland
GP Oakland (13–14 February) Format: Extended Attendance: 770 Matt Nass Adam Yurchick Conley Woods Travis Woo Pat Cox Joby Parish Petr Brozek Tomoharu Saitou
Pro Tour – San Diego (19–21 February 2010)
Pro Tour San Diego was held at the San Diego Convention Center. The tournament began with five rounds of Standard, followed by three rounds of Zendikar-Worldwake Booster Draft on the first day. At the end of day one Gabriel Nassif and Luis Scott-Vargas were the only undefeated players left. The second day began with another Zendikar-Worldwake Booster Draft and was followed by five additional rounds of Standard. Luis Scott-Vargas was the story of the day, having won all his matches in day two as well, thus becoming only the second player to win each match in the Swiss portion of a Pro Tour, and the first to achieve this feat over sixteen rounds.
Of the final eight players only Scott-Vargas had ever reached the top eight before. He quickly defeated his Dutch opponent. In the remaining quarter-finals the other Americans, Craig Wescoe and Kyle Boggemes, won their matches as well. German Simon Görtzen won the fourth quarter, defeating the Belgian Niels Viaene. In the semi-final Görtzen ended Scott-Vargas's streak, thus making it to the final where he played Boggemes. Both players had chosen Jund (red-green-black) decks. Eventually the German prevailed in a close match over the full five games.
Tournament data
Prize pool: $230,795
Players: 413
Format: Standard, Booster Draft (Zendikar-Worldwake) Head Judge: Sheldon Menery
Top 8
Final standings
Pro Player of the year standings
Grand Prixs – Madrid, Kuala Lumpur, Yokohama, Brussels, Houston, Lyon, Washington D.C.
GP Madrid (27–28 February) Format: Legacy Attendance: 2228 Andreas Müller David Do Anh Richard Bland Tomoharu Saitou Rubén Gonzalez Lluis Restoy Alejandro Delgado Sven Dijt
GP Brussels (27–28 March) Format: Standard Attendance: 1667 Emanuele Giusti Zoltan Szoke Tamas Nagy Steve Bernstein Nicolas Lambach Christophe Gregoir Francesco Cipolleschi Ludvig Londos
GP Washington, D.C. (22–23 May) Format: Standard Attendance: 1932 Brad Nelson Owen Turtenwald Kyle Boggemes Joshua Wagener Brett Blackman Michael Stanfar Brad Carpenter Carlos Romão
GP Kuala Lumpur (13–14 March) Format: Standard Attendance: 518 Ding Yuan Leong Xue Tong Du Jakguy Subcharoen Shingo Fukuta Shouta Yasooka Wei Han Chin Raffy Sarto Zhiyang Zhang
GP Houston (3–4 April) Format: Extended Attendance: 652 Adam Yurchick Shaun Rodriquez Kenneth Ellis Todd Anderson Shuhei Nakamura Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa Charles Lancaster Pete Picard
GP Yokohama (20–21 March) Format: Extended Attendance: 1122 Katsuhiro Mori Masashiro Kuroda Min-su Kim Takashi Ishihara Kuo Tzu-Ching Yasunori Baba Atsuo Se Tomoyuki Honnami
GP Lyon (8–9 May) Format: Limited Attendance: 1425 Florian Koch Tobias Gräfensteiner Peter Vieren Bram Snepvangers Joakim Almelund Lukas Blohon Vladimir Komanicky Marcello Calvetto
Pro Tour San Juan (28–30 May 2010)
The second Pro Tour of the season was held in Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The formats were Zendikar Block Constructed and Rise of the Eldrazi Booster Draft with the Top 8 doing another Rise of the Eldrazi draft.