Beginning

My name is Ben Chapman and welcome to my Quest for the PT Blog.

I am starting this blog for a few reasons. One, I want to chronicle my path to Magic's Pro Tour. Two, I think I can write entertaining content that other Magic players will want to read. Third, I think this blog will be an educational tool for learning the upcoming Theros limited format. Finally, I want to use this blog as additional motivation to achieve my goal. 

Why try to qualify for Pro Tour you ask? This answer requires some writing. First some words about my history with Magic:

I have played and loved the game since 1995. My first sanctioned event was the prerelease for Odyssey in September of 2001. I have played tournament magic at various intensities from that point until today. My best tournament result was a win of 2006 Regionals, which allowed me to attend 2006 Nationals.  This incidentally was the coming out party for @LSV and Paul "@HAUMPH" Cheon. While they were making history, I was punting matches with a Heartbeat of Spring deck that I hadn't played until the night before the tournament. I did 3-0 the Coldsnap draft, which I did test a lot for!

Other notable results include being one win out of the money at GP Worcester last year, making day 2 of the Two Headed Giant GP in Mass 2007, and various X-3 finishes at PTQs and other GP day ones.

I have not made top 8 of a PTQ...yet. This the first step of achieving what I hope to achieve this upcoming PTQ season.

Why have I not "broken through" thus far in my tournament career? I put it down to mainly not practicing nearly enough. The results above were achieved with minimal hours put into preparation. I honestly haven't deserved to qualify for the PT nor cash at a GP. I hope to change this soon, and I want to share my journey with you, if you wish to follow along.

I revisit the question again, Why try to qualify for the Pro Tour? Currently I have a steady job that is interesting and rewarding, but definitely not my passion. When it comes down to it, Magic is my passion and the path to doing more with Magic is success at the game's biggest stage.

How will I get there?

My format of choice is Sealed Deck/Draft. It just so happens that this fall, there are a number of PTQs, nearly all of which will be Theros Sealed. I am also strongly considering attending GP OKC this October and potentially GP Toronto in November for  additional cracks at qualifying via Limited.

I plan to draft and play sealed events fanatically on MTGO in between these events as well as crack some paper sealed pools with friends for preparation. Given my work schedule, I can get in 2-3 drafts a night on weekdays, which if I do consistently over this time period, will be considerable amounts more practice than normal.

I plan to use this blog to talk about the format as I learn it, share/discuss sealed pools and drafts, and most importantly recap the major tournaments I attend this season.

We do have a few months before Theros is released however. I am going to use this time to play M14 limited to try and sharpen up my game in general. I know I make many mistakes while playing, mainly because I play too quickly. My goal there is to consciously play a lot slower and try to figure out the best play at all times, which isn't always the most obvious. I also apparently have been drafting incorrectly, at least as far as the teachings of Ben Stark go. I definitely want to try to apply what he explains in that article and start drafting "the hard way".

In between blog posts, I will occasionally do some tweeting. Follow me at @bchap55

Thanks for reading!

-Ben