The 2001–02 Pro Tour season was the seventh season of the Magic: The GatheringPro Tour. On 18 August 2001 the season began with parallel Grand Prixs in Kobe and Denver. It ended on 18 August 2002 with the conclusion of the 2002 World Championship in Sydney. The season consisted of 33 Grand Prixs and 6 Pro Tours, held in New York, New Orleans, San Diego, Osaka, Nice, and Sydney. Also Master Series tournaments were held at four Pro Tours. At the end of the season Kai Budde was proclaimed Pro Player of the Year, winning the title by a record margin.
New York was the third time Pro Tour was held in the Team Limited format. Car Acrobatic Team who had been amongst the Top 4 at the previous team Pro Tour returned for another Top 4. The event was won by team Phoenix Foundation consisting of Kai Budde, Dirk Baberowski, and Marco Blume. It was Baberowski's second win and Budde's fourth.[1] The final was also a repeat to the final of Grand Prix London a week before, where Budde had already won against Nassif. Eventually Kai's renewed success led to some memorable quotes. Asked about the favorite to win amongst the final 4 several pros exclaimed something to the extent of the words Gary Wise pronounced, "Kai doesn't lose on Sunday".[2]Randy Buehler's comment "if he wins New Orleans, I guess he is" on the discussion whether Kai is the best player in the history of the game also became a classic when Kai indeed won PT New Orleans.[1]
Prize pool: $202,200
Players: 426 (142 teams)
Format: Invasion Team Sealed (Invasion, Planeshift, Apocalypse) – first day, Invasion Team Rochester Draft (Invasion-Planeshift-Apocalypse) – final two days
Head Judge: Collin Jackson[3]
* The team entered the tournament as "My Team Part 17", but decided they wanted to have more serious name as a Top4 team and changed it to "Illuminati".[4]
After winning Pro Tour New York Kai Budde won New Orleans as well, making him the only player to win back to back Pro Tours. His fifth Pro Tour victory also made him the record money-earner and erased almost all doubt, that Budde is the best player in the history of the game.[5]
The 2002 was won by the French Farid Meraghni. It was the first time a French player won a major tournament after several French players coming in second at Worlds and Pro Tours.[1] Also the tournament is known for Magic veteran Eric Taylor literally eating his hat due to losing a bet about Kai Budde winning Pro Tour New Orleans.[6] Canadian player Ryan Fuller won the Masters.[7]
In NiceKai Budde lost his first match on a Pro Tour Sunday, after winning his previous five Top 8.[1] His third final day appearance and ensuing 36-point-lead virtually secured him the Pro Player of the Year title, though. The Pro Tour was won by Norwegian Eivind Nitter, while the Masters Series title went to Alexander Witt from the Netherlands.
As Jens Thorén had not scored any points since Nice and he was not on his national team the Pro Tour Player of the Year going to Kai Budde was already a sure thing before the tournament. While Carlos Romão from Brazil became World Champion by defeating Mark Ziegner from Germany in the final, the German team also starring Mark Ziegner won the team competition.[8]
After the World Championship Kai Budde was awarded the Pro Player of the year title. He thus became the only player to win the title more than once. Budde's 117 Pro Points in this season to date is still the only time that a player garnered more than 100 Pro Points in a season, and his lead of 42 Pro Points over the second place is still the greatest ever achieved at the end of a season.
Kai Budde
Farid Meraghni
Carlos Romão
Justin Gary
Tomi Walamies
Jelger Wiegersma
Anton Jonsson
Raphaël Gennary
Benedikt Klauser
Jeff Cunningham
Frederico Bastos
Bjørn Jocumsen
Itaru Ishida
Svend Geertsen
Diego Ostrovich
Sim Han How
John Larkin
Germany (Mark Ziegner, Kai Budde, Felix Schneiders)
United States (Andrew Ranks, Eugene Harvey, Eric Franz)