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For as long as there has been an MTG Hall of Fame, there have been tons of articles published about the ballots submitted by members of the voting committee. I've browsed some of the articles, but for the most part they were never terribly interesting to me, as the call was somebody else's to make and slam dunk candidates like Jon Finkel, Kai Budde, and LSV have all made it in without fail, so if the system was ever bad it wasn't by much.
Thinks are slightly different this year though, as WotC has added a community ballot to the Hall of Fame vote. Prior to this, I had no idea the range of players who were eligible for the Hall. For example, did you know that Quiet Speculation's own Adam Yurchick is an eligible candidate?
Samuel Black
Nico Bohny
Marcio Carvalho
Paul Cheon
Stanislav Cifka
Andrew Cuneo
Willy Edel
Gerard Fabiano
Chris Fennell
Ivan Floch
Eric Froehlich
Justin Gary
Mark Herberholz
Tsuyoshi Ikeda
Michael Jacob
Scott Johns
Martin Juza
Tomohiro Kaji
Tzu-Ching Kuo
Shingou Kurihara
Osyp Lebedowicz
Marijn Lybaert
Tom Martell
Kazuya Mitamura
Kenny Öberg
David Ochoa
Jamie Parke
Brock Parker
Neil Reeves
Tomoharu Saito
David Sharfman
Matthew Sperling
Yuta Takahashi
Sebastian Thaler
Robert Van Medevoort
Craig Wescoe
David Williams
Shota Yasooka
Adam Yurchick
Matej Zatlkaj
I had no idea that there were so many eligible candidates! Unfortunately for many of them, the vast majority of voters don't consider players with fewer than three PT Top 8s for induction, and even "only" having three PT Top 8s is considered somewhat below the bare minimum for most. There's a Wikipedia page listing Magic pros by accolade which is helpful for breaking this list down. If we remove the players with fewer than three PT Top 8s, we're left with this list:
Willy Edel (4)
Eric Froehlich (4)
Justin Gary (3)
Mark Herberholz (4)
Tsuyoshi Ikeda (4)
Scott Johns (5)
Tomohiro Kaji (3)
Osyp Lebedowicz (3)
Marijn Lybaert (4)
Kazuya Mitamura (3)
Jamie Parke (3)
Tomoharu Saito (5)
Craig Wescoe (3)
Unsurprisingly, this makes our list a lot smaller. What makes somebody Hall of Fame material goes beyond numbers and is going to have some subjective elements, but this is a decent baseline for who is on the list of people actually in the conversation. Here's who I'm voting for:
Willy Edel
Everybody is talking about Willy's huge contributions to Brazilian Magic right now, and that couples with four PT Top 8s makes him something of a lock. He's not somebody who stands out in my mind as a person I would consider a great, but it's important to consider the perspective of others, and his community contributions in Brazil are huge.
Justin Gary
Everything that you need to know about Justin Gary, you can find here. His name is so freaking generic, but it's still one that is iconic to the game of Magic. Gary's passion is hard to come by, and the stories that Sullivan shares are exactly what makes a person Hall of Fame material.
Mark Herberholz
Back when I first started paying attention to the Pro Tour, Mark Herberholz was winning the Pro Tour. Four PT Top 8s is a phenomenal number, but the reason that I like voting for Herberholz is that he has a huge personality. This is the Hall of Fame after all, and characters like him add a ton of entertainment value to the game.
Shota Yasooka
Numbers aren't everything. While Yasooka only has two PT Top 8s, he has a ton of PT Top 16s and is somebody who I love to snipe in PT fantasy drafts. The greatest thing about Yasooka, is that he does all of his preparation by himself, and he always has a sweet deck. He's always really fun to watch.
Tomoharu Saito
The reason that Saito isn't already in the HoF, is his shady past. He has been suspended from the game, and that stains your reputation. It's hard to talk about a player's numbers when you have reason to believe that they were ill-gotten. At the end of the day though, Saito is one of the game's most brilliant deck builders, and you can't fake that. Strong technical play and good deck-building rarely go hand in hand. He's also great for the Japanese Magic community. I won't be surprised if a lot of people don't want to vote for Saito, but the fact that he's so obviously great despite the shady elements of his history make him an easy pick for me.
What does your ballot look like?
yeah, I wonder if non US candidates make a chance?
I don’t know many of the US pro’s, but I do know Eu pro’s and have a better idea about the way they play, and what they are worth.
Too bad people can vote multiple times. Feels like my votes won’t count at all if someone decides to reload the page over and over or automate voting for some people.
My personal opinion is that if you’ve ever been suspended for cheating you don’t belong in….There are plenty of players who might have a slightly less impressive record, but if they got their record legitimately; they are far more deserving. I always feel like if the DCI found enough evidence of your cheating to warrant a suspension (or multiple suspensions in some cases) then ALL of your wins are suspect to me…It’s the same reason players convicted of steroid use don’t belong in any pros ports Hall of Fame’s….
I mentioned that there are people who think like this in my post, and it’s a respectable position. Not sure what your comment adds to the discussion…
As a firestarter though, is there an level of success going forward that could change your mind on Saito? I know that a lot of people say one more PT Top 8 (or a win) would put him right back in the discussion, but from your wording I don’t think that would do it for you. What if he Top 8’d, say, five more PTs without being under investigation? Would his shady past still keep you off him?
Yes it would. It doesn’t matter how successful he is, if you’ve been caught cheating you’re a cheater and have no place in a Hall of Fame. After all, how can you prove any future success isn’t just a “better cheat”? If you sacrifice your honor/reputation to win then you don’t get it back.
No vote for efro? I thought he’s almost an automatic inclusion?
Efro has exceptional stats in the “in the conversation” level of results. I think he’s already a lock, and with a fifth PT Top 8, there’s no way he misses. That said, I think that he’ll get that fifth Top 8 (and soon), and barring anything outside of the stats department I don’t see a reason to vote for him. He’s not a deck designer to my knowledge, and he doesn’t make significant community contributions. He’s much less negative than he used to be, but even still his Twitter isn’t exactly a place for warm feelings. Efro will easily get my vote with a fifth Top 8, but as far as I know he just doesn’t have anything of note going on outside of the stats department.
This is where I am very, very glad the community vote counts as only one. Not voting for Efro because he is a “lock” is like the people who never voted for Nolan Ryan of Babe Ruth because they are “locks.” Efro streams, he does Constructed Resources, he has become a more outspoken and positive member of the community in the past few years and is generally liked among the rest of the pro community, the ones that actually know him. This is sort of akin of people voting for Cheon in the community vote and have no real clue.
The 3 most correct picks are Efro, Wily, and Heezy/Gary (could be both). I 100% think this is not a 5 person ballot year.
As for Saito, I 100% think he belongs in at some point based on stats and his community work. Stalling is very different than the blatant cheating that was going on in the past. He will need several years of squeaky clean play, but I think he will get there within the next 2-3 years.
I didn’t not vote for him because he’s a lock, I didn’t vote for him and he’s a lock. I don’t see the things you cited as relevant community contributions for HoF potential.
He is also doing VSL coverage now too for the record. I want to include Shouta on my ballot too because his lifetime career of consistently doing well is extremely impressive. So what if he only has 2 PT top 8’s. There’s a whole list of other high finishes unlike any other player on the list. I think that type of long standing and impressive career should be rewarded.
I’m giving Willy the nod because he’s a TO and he went out of his way to BUILD a community. I don’t count content production short of releasing great decks before you play them or timeless strategy articles as relevant community contributions. That’s all just stuff that you can do as a pro to make money.
Community contributions should only have relevance if the player is borderline, and Efro is so far ahead of any one eligible. Plus he probably is the best player playing right now.
That’s just, like, your opinion, man.
Also, I’d make the same argument for Saito if not for the fact that commenters have accused me of being scum for much less than that. I agree with the point that slow play isn’t anywhere near the level of stacking decks though.