2005 Pro Tour season

Pro Player of the Year	Kenji Tsumura
Rookie of the Year	Pierre Canali
World Champion	Katsuhiro Mori
Pro Tours	7
Grands Prix	31
Hall of Fame inductions	Jon Finkel Darwin Kastle Alan Comer Tommi Hovi Olle Råde
Start of season	10 September 2004
End of season	4 December 2005
← 2003–04 2006 →

The 2005 Pro Tour season was the tenth season of the Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour. On 10 September 2004 the season began with Grand Prix Rimini. It ended on 4 December 2005 with the conclusion of the 2005 World Championship in Yokohama and was thus the longest Pro Tour season ever. The season consisted of 31 Grand Prixs and 7 Pro Tours, held in Columbus, Nagoya, Atlanta, Philadelphia, London, Los Angeles, and Yokohama. At the end of the season Kenji Tsumura was proclaimed Pro Player of the year as the first Japanese player. Also the first class of the Hall of Fame was inducted. The inductees were Jon Finkel, Darwin Kastle, Tommi Hovi, Alan Comer, and Olle Råde.

Grand Prixs – Rimini, Vienna, Austin

Pro Tour – Columbus (29–31 October 2004)

Pierre Canali from France won the inaugural Pro Tour of the season, which was also the first Pro Tour he attended. His deck was an aggressive all-artifact deck called "Affinity". For the first time Japan had three players amongst the final eight while the USA had in the Top 8 for the first time in three Pro Tours.^[1]

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Pierre Canali	$30,000	25	Pro Tour debut
2	Shuhei Nakamura	$20,000	20
3	Nicholas West	$15,000	16	Pro Tour debut
4	Olivier Ruel	$13,000	16	3rd Final day
5	Gadiel Szleifer	$9,000	12
6	Masashi Oiso	$8,500	12	4th Final day
7	Ryuichi Arita	$8,000	12	2nd Final day
8	Geoffrey Siron	$7,500	12

Pro Player of the year standings

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Pierre Canali	25
2	Shuhei Nakamura	20
3	Olivier Ruel	18
4	Nicholas West	16
5	Ryuichi Arita	12
	Masashi Oiso	12
	Geoffrey Siron	12
	Gadiel Szleifer	12

Grand Prixs – Helsinki, Brisbane, Yokohama, Porto Alegre, Paris, Chicago, Osaka

Pro Tour – Nagoya (28–30 January 2005)

Pro Tour Nagoya was the last Pro Tour employing the Rochester Draft format. Shu Komuro from Japan defeated Anton Jonsson in the finals to win the tournament.^[3]

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Shu Komuro	$30,000	25
2	Anton Jonsson	$20,000	20	5th Final day
3	Terry Soh	$15,000	16	2nd Final day
4	Murray Evans	$13,000	16	2nd Final day
5	Masashiro Kuroda	$9,500	12	2nd Final day
6	Frank Karsten	$8,500	12
7	Jarno Harkonen	$7,500	12
8	Vasilis Fatouros	$6,500	12	1st Greek in a Top 8

Pro Player of the year standings

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Shu Komuro	31
2	Shuhei Nakamura	30
3	Pierre Canali	28
4	Olivier Ruel	27
5	Anton Jonsson	23

Grand Prixs – Boston, Eindhoven, Seattle

Pro Tour – Atlanta (11–13 March 2005)

The Canadian French cooperation team "Nova" won Pro Tour Atlanta, defeating the American team "We Add" in the final. "Nova" consisted of Gabriel Tsang, David Rood, and Gabriel Nassif. For Nassif it was the first Pro Tour victory after five previous final day appearances including three second places.^[4] Atlanta was the last Pro Tour using the three-person team Limited format, although it was still used for the team competition at the World Championship that year and the next.

Final standings

Place	Team	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Nova	Gabriel Tsang	$60,000	20	3rd Final day
		David Rood		20	2nd Final day
		Gabriel Nassif		20	6th Final day
2	We Add	Don Smith	$30,000	16	Pro Tour debut
		Andrew Pacifico		16
		Adam Chambers		16
3	Les baltringues de Ludipia	Benjamin Caumes	$18,000	12	2nd Final day
		Nicolas Bornarel		12
		Camille Fenet		12
4	One Spin	Tomohiro Kaji	$15,000	12
		Kenji Tsumura		12
		Tomoharu Saitou		12

Pro Player of the year standings

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Shu Komuro	39
2	Shuhei Nakamura	32
3	Pierre Canali	31
	Olivier Ruel	31
5	Masashi Oiso	29

Grand Prixs – Singapore, Leipzig, Lisbon, Detroit

Pro Tour – Philadelphia (6–8 May 2005)

Pro Tour Philadelphia featured a tournament system different from those of other Pro Tours. While Swiss system was still used all players with three or more losses and/or draws were automatically dropped from the tournament. Prizes were given out not in relation to the final standings, but for the individual matches won, where matches in later rounds of the tournament were worth more than those in the earlier rounds.^[5] It was also announced in the week prior to Pro Tour Philadelphia, that the end of the year payout based on Pro Points would be dropped after the season in favor of the Pro Club. Under the new system a player would receive special benefits based on the total number of Pro Points he had acquired in a season.^[6]

16-year-old Gadiel Szleifer defeated 18-year-old Kenji Tsumura in the final to win the tournament. Szleifer played a control deck built around Gifts Ungiven.^[7] Former Pro Player of the year Kai Budde received a lot of attention for being undefeated after day one, but was eliminated after he picked up three losses in the first three rounds of day two.^[8]

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Gadiel Szleifer	$21,725	25	2nd Final day
2	Kenji Tsumura	$12,275	20	2nd Final day
3	Steven Wolfman	$7,475	16	2nd Final day
4	Olivier Ruel	$6,950	16	4th Final day
5	Ryan Cimera	$2,825	12	Pro Tour debut
6	Jeff Novekoff	$4,750	12	Pro Tour debut
7	Mark Herberholz	$3,175	12	2nd Final day
8	André Müller	$2,075	12

Pro Player of the year standings

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Olivier Ruel	49
2	Gadiel Szleifer	47
3	Shu Komuro	45
4	Kenji Tsumura	44
5	Shuhei Nakamura	40

Grand Prixs – Matsuyama, Bologna

Pro Tour – London (8–10 July 2005)

Geoffrey Siron from Belgium won Pro Tour London, defeating Tsuyoshi Fujita in the finals. In the Top 8 Siron did not lose a single game.^[9]

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Geoffrey Siron	$30,000	25	2nd Final day, 1st Belgian to win a Pro Tour
2	Tsuyoshi Fujita	$20,000	20	2nd Final day
3	Johan Sadeghpour	$15,000	16
4	Antti Malin	$13,000	16
5	Masashi Oiso	$9,000	12	5th Final day
6	Tomi Walamies	$8,500	12	3rd Final day
7	Arnost Zidek	$8,000	12
8	David Larsson	$7,500	12

Pro Player of the year standings

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Olivier Ruel	59
2	Gadiel Szleifer	50
3	Shu Komuro	49
4	Shuhei Nakamura	47
	Masashi Oiso	47
	Kenji Tsumura	47

Grand Prixs – Minneapolis, Niigata, Taipei, Salt Lake City, Mexico City, Nottingham

Pro Tour – Los Angeles (28–30 October 2005)

Antoine Ruel defeated Billy Moreno in the finals to become champion of Pro Tour Los Angeles. He played a blue-black control deck, built around Psychatog.^[10]

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Antoine Ruel	$30,000	25	3rd Final day
2	Billy Moreno	$20,000	20
3	Kenji Tsumura	$15,000	16	3rd Final day
4	Chris McDaniel	$13,000	16
5	Tsuyoshi Fujita	$9,000	12	3rd Final day
6	Chih-Hsiang Chang	$8,500	12	1st Taiwanese Player in a Top 8
7	Ervin Tormos	$8,000	12	Pro Tour debut
8	Ryuichi Arita	$7,500	12	3rd Final day

Pro Player of the year standings

Rank	Player	Pro Points
1	Kenji Tsumura	72
2	Olivier Ruel	67
3	Masashi Oiso	62
4	Gadiel Szleifer	58
5	Shu Komuro	55

Grand Prixs – Melbourne, Copenhagen, Kitakyuushuu, Philadelphia, Bilbao, Beijing

2005 World Championships – Yokohama (30 November – 4 December 2005)

The tournament began with the first Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Jon Finkel, Darwin Kastle, Tommi Hovi, Alan Comer and Olle Råde were honored for their accomplishments and their determination to the game. In the final of the 2005 World Championship Katsuhiro Mori defeated Frank Karsten, thus completing an all-Japanese Worlds in Yokohama. The Top 4 also included Japanese players Akira Asahara and Tomohiro Kaji, shortly before Japan had won the team competition, and even the Pro Player of the year went to Japanese Kenji Tsumura.^[11]

Final standings

Place	Player	Prize	Pro Points	Comment
1	Katsuhiro Mori	$35,000	32
2	Frank Karsten	$23,000	24	2nd Final day
3	Tomohiro Kaji	$15,000	16	2nd Final day
4	Akira Asahara	$13,000	16
5	Marcio Carvalho	$9,500	12
6	Ding Leong	$8,500	12
7	Shuhei Nakamura	$7,500	12	2nd Final day
8	André Coimbra	$6,500	12

Pro Player of the year final standings

After the World Championship Kenji Tsumura was awarded the Pro Player of the year title as the first Japanese player.

Rank	Player	Pro Points	Prize
1	Kenji Tsumura	84	$12,000
2	Olivier Ruel	83	$11,800
3	Masashi Oiso	80	$11,600
4	Shuhei Nakamura	66	$11,400
5	Gadiel Szleifer	62	$11,200

References