So the first two days of PT Amsterdam 2010 are done, and we’re going to have an amazing top eight tomorrow, featuring Brad Nelson, Paul Rietzl, Michael Jacob, Marijn Lybaert, Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, Brian Kibler, Thomas Ma, and Kai Budde.
Nice.
So how did everyone else do?
Well, you can read the full standings after the Swiss rounds here. I’m going to take a moment to highlight some of the results of interest to me.
Team ChannelFireball
Although Conley couldn’t maintain his pristine record coming out of day one, ChannelFireball nonetheless had a decent showing. We have:
Brad Nelson – 1st, 40 points (the only 40 pointer in the group)
Luis Scott-Vargas – 11th, 36 points
Matt Sperling – 19th, 33 points
Conley Woods – 22nd, 33 points
Travis Woo – 72nd place, 30 points
Tom Martell – 94th, 27 points
Tomoharu Saito – 103rd, 27 points
Matt Nass – 219th, 12 points
Tom Raney – 259th, 12 points
David Ochoa – 272, 10 points
Zaiem Beg – 298, 9 points
John Pham – 355th, 6 points
So that’s four players in the top 32, and Luis falling just short of the top eight, being, like in Berlin, in the points range of players who could make it in depending on tiebreakers. From the coverage it sounds like David’s control deck had trouble getting to the finish line in time.
Although I spoke to Zaiem just ahead of his trip to Europe, I don’t know what deck he settled on. I’ll look forward to reading about his tournament experience in his column.
The Hall of Fame
Kai Budde – 8th, 37 points
Raphael Levy – 31st, 33 points
Frank Karsten – 47th, 31 points
Ben Rubin – 54th, 30 points
Olivier Ruel – 87th, 27 points
Antoine Ruel – 110th, 27 points
This is a reasonable distribution of finishes in the upper quarter for our attending Hall of Famers. I’m especially happy to see Kai in the top eight and Karsten in the top 50, as solid performances by Hall of Fame members make me feel good about their being in the Hall – they’re not just showing up to events, they’re trying hard and clearly having a good time.
Special Interest
Katsuhiro Mori – 65th, 30 points
Julien Nuijten – 68th, 30 points
Kenji Tsumura – 160th, 18 points
Patrick Chapin – 178th, 12 points
Lauren Lee – 339th, 9 points
Mori is the odd one out on this list, as my interest in his finish has less to do with wondering about his deck choice or play skill, and more to do with other considerations. I’d really love to see a tally of Warnings he accumulated during the event, if any. He wasn’t DQed, at any rate.
I thought Nuijten had a solid finish, given that most of his time goes necessarily to poker rather than Magic. He’s also interesting in that, following his breakout year, he didn’t make a big mark on the competitive scene.
Kenji is always worth watching. He may or may not do well, but I expect him to play something interesting and to generate cool stories, be they about drunken singing or about doing his level best to make sure none of his opponents miss their pact triggers. Notably, this is the last major event for quite a while where Kenji will have to face that concern.
Patrick Chapin is always on my “how’d be do?” watch list. Looks like he split his four day one losses evenly between Constructed and Limited, which kind of fits the general impression about his play strengths.
Finally, Lauren Lee, aka mulldrifting, took her critical losses during the Constructed portion and was out by the time Limited rolled around. I expect we’ll hear more from her on SCG in the coming week, and I expect she’ll Q for Paris and be back on the Tour soon enough.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow and a stellar top eight, although given the time difference, I’m likely to be coming in somewhere toward the tail end and watching most of it after the fact.
