Marco Blume
Top 8 appearances
Table:
Season

Event type

Location

Format

Date

Rank

1998–99

Nationals

Dietzenbach

Standard

1

1998–99

Worlds

Yokohama

National team

4–8 August 1999

2

2001–02

Pro Tour

New York City

Team Limited

7–9 September 2001

1

2001–02

Masters

Osaka

Team Limited

14–17 March 2002

1

2002–03

Pro Tour

Boston

Team Limited

27–29 September 2002

1

2002–03

Masters

Venice

Team Limited

20–23 March 2003

5

2003–04

Grand Prix

Atlanta

Standard

29–31 August 2003

1

2003–04

Pro Tour

Boston

Team Limited

12–14 September 2003

4

With reference to the table along with the article excerpts listed at the end.

Provide an answer to this question: What were the date ( s ) of the events that took place in the season where Gabriel Nassif was proclaimed Pro Player of the year ? Return your answer as JSON: {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}.

Magic : The Gathering formats are various ways in which the Magic : The Gathering collectible card game can be played . Each format provides rules for deck construction and gameplay , with many confining the pool of permitted cards to those released in a specified group of Magic card sets . The DCI , the governing body that oversees official Magic competitive play , categorizes its tournament formats into Constructed and Limited . Constructed formats require decks to be made prior to participation , with players allowed to use any tournament-legal cards they possess . Sanctioned Constructed formats include Standard , Modern , Legacy , and Vintage . Limited formats , in contrast , utilize a restricted and unknown pool of cards , usually formed by opening Magic products . Limited competition require players to select cards and build decks on the fly within the tournament itself . The primary two sanctioned Limited formats are Sealed Deck and Booster Draft . A number of other formats have been designed by Wizards of the Coast or by players for custom gameplay or reduced investment cost ; these are known as casual formats . Some casual formats utilize rules or sets of cards that differ from those used in sanctioned tournament play .
A calendar date is a reference to a particular day represented within a calendar system . The calendar date allows the specific day to be identified . The number of days between two dates may be calculated . For example , 24 February 2020 is ten days after 14 February 2020 in the Gregorian calendar . The date of a particular event depends on the observed time zone . For example , the air attack on Pearl Harbor that began at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian time on 7 December 1941 took place at 3:18 a.m. Japan Standard Time , 8 December in Japan . A particular day may be represented by a different date in another calendar as in the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar , which have been used simultaneously in different places . In most calendar systems , the date consists of three parts : the day of the month , the month , and the year . There may also be additional parts , such as the day of the week . Years are usually counted from a particular starting point , usually called the epoch , with era referring to the particular period of time ( note the different use of the terms in geology ) . The most widely used epoch is a conventional birthdate of Jesus ( which was established by Dionysius Exiguus in the sixth century ) . A date without the year may also be referred to as a date or calendar date ( such as 20 February rather than 20 February 2020 ) .
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 .
The Magic : The Gathering national champions are the players who won National Championships ( Nationals ) that year . ( with the exception of champions between 2012-16 , which were awarded to players with the most Pro Points at the end of a Pro Tour season ) Nationals took place around the world usually in summer or autumn . Eligibility to play in a national championship was determined on residence instead of nationality . In addition , Nationals required eligible players to qualify . ( prior to 2011 , countries with smaller populations of Magic players open nationals were held , meaning that any eligible player could compete in this tournament ) After 2011 Nationals were discontinued by Wizards of the Coast when they restructured their Magic : The Gathering organized play program , abandoning national championships , and restructuring the World Championship . From 2012 to 2016 the title of National Champion was awarded to the player with the most Pro Points of any given country at the end of a Pro Tour season . At the end of 2018 Wizards of the Coast announced that in 2019 there would be no National Championships . As of April 2019 it is unclear whether Nationals are on hiatus or abandoned . The title National Champion will not be awarded in 2019 . In 2018 , National Champions were determined in 74 nations and regions . In most cases these regions line up with countries , but special exemptions were made in some cases , for example Puerto Rico and the countries of the United Kingdom .
The Magic : The Gathering World Championships ( Worlds ) have been held annually since 1994 . It is the most important tournament in the game of Magic : The Gathering , offering cash prizes of up to $ 100,000 to the winners . With the exception of the first edition , Worlds is an invitation-only event , and from 1996 to 2011 World was the last event of each Pro Tour season . The invitees were mostly top finishers from the National championships , the top-ranked players of the DCI and high-level pro players . Since 2012 the World Championships are held after the season and the most successful 16 or 24 players have been invited to the tournament . After the first five World Championships were all held in the United States , Worlds have since been held in Japan , Australia and various countries in Europe . Besides the main event Worlds were always a huge gathering of Magic players , who came to watch the pros and compete in side events . After the 2011 season , the World Championship was briefly replaced by the Magic Players Championship . The top 16 pro players selected due to various criteria were invited to the Players Championship . In 2013 the tournament was renamed to 'World Championship ' once again . From 2014 to 2018 the tournament was expanded to 24 competitors , but is going back to 16 players for the 2019 Worlds . The large World Championships , held until 2011 , also included a national team portion where the top players from each National Championship engaged in a separate competition .
The 2001-02 Pro Tour season was the seventh season of the Magic : The Gathering Pro 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 .
The Pro Tour ( often abbreviated as PT ) is the second-highest form of competitive play ( after the World Championship ) for the Magic : The Gathering collectible card game . It consists of a series of tournaments held throughout the world , each requiring an invitation to participate . Every Pro Tour awards a total of $ 240,000 in cash prizes , with $ 50,000 going to the winner . Pro Tour competitors also receive Pro Points , the amount depending on their results . Pro Points award special benefits to players , including automatic qualification and travel awards for subsequent Pro Tours . Currently , four Pro Tours are held during a twelve-month season also known colloquially as a year . The Pro Tour was introduced in 1996 with the first event being held in New York . Over 100 such tournaments have been held since . Finishing within the Top 8 of a Pro Tour is considered to be one of the greatest accomplishments a competitive Magic player can achieve . Professional players are thus often compared by the number of Pro Tour Top 8 finishes they have made throughout their career . The most successful players on the Pro Tour are Kai Budde , who won seven Pro Tours out of ten Top 8 finishes , and Jon Finkel , who won three Pro Tours , while making it to the Top 8 sixteen times .
The Masters Series or simply Masters were single-elimination Magic : The Gathering tournaments open to the most accomplished players only . These tournaments awarded cash prizes upon entrance and were held at several Pro Tours each season . The first predecessor to the Masters Series , named Team Challenge , was held at the 2000 Pro Tour New York . In the following seasons Masters were held at four different Pro Tours each season . The last Masters was held at Pro Tour Yokohama . Ben Rubin was the most successful player at the Masters Series , being the only player to win two events . After the 2002-03 season the cash that would have gone into the Masters Series prizes was instead used for a final payout at the end of the season based on Pro Points . This payout was in turn replaced by the Pro Player 's Club two years later .
The 2002-03 Pro Tour season was the eighth season of the Magic : The Gathering Pro Tour . On 24 August 2002 the season began with Grand Prix Sapporo . It ended on 10 August 2003 with the conclusion of the 2003 World Championship in Berlin . The season consisted of 21 Grand Prixs and 6 Pro Tours , held in Boston , Houston , Chicago , Venice , Yokohama , and Berlin . 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 for the third time in a row .
The 2003-04 Pro Tour season was the ninth season of the Magic : The Gathering Pro Tour . On 23 August 2003 the season began with parallel Grand Prixs in Yokohama and London . It ended on 5 September 2004 with the conclusion of the 2004 World Championship in San Francisco . Beginning with this season Wizards of the Coast moved the Pro Tour schedule farther backwards in the year to synchronize it with the calendar year . The season consisted of 26 Grand Prixs and 7 Pro Tours , held in Boston , New Orleans , Amsterdam , Kobe , San Diego , Seattle , and San Francisco . Also the Master Series tournaments were discontinued and replaced by payout at the end of the year based on the Pro Player of the year standings . At the end of the season Gabriel Nassif was proclaimed Pro Player of the year , the first player after Kai Budde 's three-year-domination period , and also the first player to win the title without winning a Pro Tour in the same season .
Grands Prix ( GPs ) are professional Magic : The Gathering tournaments , awarding cash prizes , Pro Points and invitations to Pro Tours . They are open to all players and are usually the biggest Magic tournaments . The first Grand Prix was held on 22-23 March 1997 in Amsterdam ( Netherlands ) . By the end of 2018 , 654 Grand Prix events have been held , the biggest being GP Las Vegas 2015 with 7,551 competitors , making it the biggest trading card game tournament ever held . Grand Prix tournaments are the main event of a minimum three-day mini-convention . The term Grand Prix can refer to either the tournament or to the entire weekend . Starting in 2019 , as part of a broader re-branding , the term MagicFest was introduced to refer to the overall event , which includes both the Grand Prix main event and a number of Side Events , which last for only a few hours and which have comparatively smaller prize pools .