2012 World Magic Cup

The 2012 World Magic Cup was the inaugural World Magic Cup event after the discontinuation of the World Championship system. It was held on 16–19 August 2012 in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, and featured 71 different national teams. The first World Magic Cup was won by Taiwan, led by Platinum pro Tzu Ching Kuo, defeating Puerto Rico in the final.
==Format and schedule==
The inaugural World Magic Cup featured five formats: Magic 2013 Booster draft, Standard, Magic 2013 Team Sealed, Modern, and Block Constructed. Team Sealed is a variation of Sealed deck where the team shares a pool of twelve Booster packs, which is used to build three 40-card decks. On the first day of competition, players competed individually to add to their team's score; on the second and third day, teams played against opposing national teams, with the winning team being the first to win two matches (each match being best-of-three-games).
Day 1 - Friday, 17 August
* 3 rounds of Magic 2013 Booster draft
* 4 rounds of Standard
Day 1 was seven rounds of individual Swiss play, where each win a player earned counted towards that player's team's total score. Players could not be paired against other players on the same team. The top 32 teams at the end of the day qualified for Day 2 of competition.
Day 2 - Saturday, 18 August
* 3 rounds of Magic 2013 Team Sealed
* 3 rounds of Team Constructed, featuring Standard, Modern, and Block Constructed
Day 2 was six rounds of team play. Teams played 3-on-3, with the teams being made up of the three players with the best score on Day 1 of competition; the fourth was assigned a "coach" role, being able to assist the other players during the matches. The day also featured "pool play": Teams were divided, according to their standing within the event (seeding), into eight groups of four teams each, where each team played every other team in the group once, the format being Magic 2013 Team Sealed. The top two teams in each group advanced; if two or more teams were tied, the team(s) with the highest seed advanced. The teams were then divided again, according to their standing within the event, into four groups of four teams each, where each team played every other team in the group once, the format being Team Constructed, with one team member playing Standard, another playing Modern, and the third playing Block Constructed. The top two teams in each group advanced to Day 3 of competition; if two or more teams are tied, the team(s) with the highest seed advanced.
Day 3 - Sunday, 19 August
* Quarterfinals, semifinals and final, featuring Team Constructed (Standard, Modern, Block Constructed)
The top eight teams then competed in a seeded (based on total number of points from Day 1 and Day 2), single-elimination bracket.
==Pre-tournament favorites==
Many pundits' favorites prior to the tournament's start was the Belgian national team. The team, captained by Pro Tour top eight competitor Vincent Lemoine, also sported Marijn Lybaert (four PT top eights), Christophe Gregoir (one PT top eight), and Peter Vieren (Grand Prix top eight competitor and Pro Tour mainstay). Another team favored to do well was the Slovak Republic; the team contained all three members of the winning team from the 2010 Team World Championship: Ivan Floch, Robert Jurkovic, and Patrik Surab. Other teams included the United States, with Brian Kibler and Luis Scott-Vargas; Japan, with Yuuya Watanabe and Yuuta Takahashi; and Australia, with Jeremy Neeman, Justin Cheung, and John-Paul Kelly.
==Day 1==
After seven rounds of individual play, Croatia stood atop the field with a combined 51 points, spearheaded by their captain Grgur Petric Maretic with the perfect 7–0 record. Pre-tournament favorites the Slovak Republic and the United States followed in the next positions. Peru made an impressive showing, finishing the day in 12th place despite only showing up with three players. The most surprising result after Day 1 was Belgium's elimination, however; their combined record of 11–11 was only sufficient for 43rd place. Pre-tournament favorite Japan nearly failed to show up due to a missed connection flight in Washington, D.C.. They barely avoided it by taking a cross-state 10-hour taxi ride, but still couldn't avoid a day 1 exit in 60th-place.
The top eight teams after day one:
Rank	Country 	Points
1 	Croatia 	51
2 	Slovak Republic	48
3 	United States 	48
4 	Taiwan 	45
5 	Argentina 	45
6 	Scotland 	45
7 	Philippines 	45
8 	Canada 	42
==Day 2==
===First round of pool play===
{| class="wikitable" width=300p	 	 	
Rank	Country 	Points	Seed
1 	Croatia 	9 	1
2 	Ukraine 	6 	16
3 	Singapore	3 	17
4 	Malaysia 	0 	32
{| class="wikitable" width=300p	 	 	
Rank	Country 	Points	Seed
1 	Finland 	9 	21
2 	Slovenia 	3 	28
3 	Norway 	3 	12
4 	Argentina	3 	5
===Second round of pool play===
{| class="wikitable" width=300p	 	 	
Rank	Country 	Points	Seed
1 	Croatia 	6 	1
2 	Philippines	6 	8
3 	Finland 	6 	9
4 	Portugal 	0 	16
==Day 3==
Place	Country 	Player 	Prize 	Pro Points	Place	Country 	Player 	Prize 	Pro Points
1 	Taiwan 	Tzu Ching Kuo 	$10,000	8 	5 	Croatia 	Grgur Petric Maretic 	$1,500	5
1 	Taiwan 	Tung-Yi Cheng 	$10,000	8 	5 	Croatia 	Toni Portolan 	$1,500	5
1 	Taiwan 	Yu Min Yang 	$10,000	8 	5 	Croatia 	Stjepan Sučić 	$1,500	5
1 	Taiwan 	Paul Renie 	$10,000	8 	5 	Croatia 	Goran Elez 	$1,500	5
2 	Puerto Rico	Jorge Iramain 	$5,000 	7 	6 	Scotland 	Stephen Murray 	$1,500	5
2 	Puerto Rico	Gabriel Nieves 	$5,000 	7 	6 	Scotland 	Bradley Barclay 	$1,500	5
2 	Puerto Rico	Cesar Soto 	$5,000 	7 	6 	Scotland 	Andrew Morrison 	$1,500	5
2 	Puerto Rico	Jonathan Paez 	$5,000 	7 	6 	Scotland 	Chris Davie 	$1,500	5
3 	Poland 	Tomek Pedrakowski	$2,500 	6 	7 	Philippines	Andrew Cantillana 	$1,500	5
3 	Poland 	Mateusz Kopeć 	$2,500 	6 	7 	Philippines	Gerald Camangon 	$1,500	5
3 	Poland 	Adam Bubacz 	$2,500 	6 	7 	Philippines	Zax Ozaki 	$1,500	5
3 	Poland 	Jan Pruchniewicz 	$2,500 	6 	7 	Philippines	Jeremy Bryan Domocmat	$1,500	5
4 	Hungary 	Tamás Glied 	$2,500 	6 	8 	Slovakia 	Robert Jurkovic 	$1,500	5
4 	Hungary 	Gabor Kocsis 	$2,500 	6 	8 	Slovakia 	Ivan Floch 	$1,500	5
4 	Hungary 	Tamás Nagy 	$2,500 	6 	8 	Slovakia 	Filip Valis 	$1,500	5
4 	Hungary 	Máté Schrick 	$2,500 	6 	8 	Slovakia 	Patrik Surab 	$1,500	5
==External links==
*2012 World Magic Cup coverage
*2012 World Magic Cup final standings
*Top 8 Team Constructed decklists
*Video coverage playlist
==References==
Category:World Magic Cups
Category:2012