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The voting has begun for the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame Class of 2009!

Here are the candidates:

Ryuuichi Arita
Jose Barbero
Chris Benafel
Marco Blume
David Brucker
Franck Canu
Tiago Chan
Patrick Chapin
Daniel Clegg
Kamiel Cornelissen
Jeff Cunningham
Brian Davis
Antonino De Rosa
Eric Froehlich
Osamu Fujita
Justin Gary
Gerardo Godinez Estrada
Mike Hron
Masami Ibamoto
Tsuyoshi Ikeda
Itaru Ishida
William Jensen
Scott Johns
Craig Jones
Mattias Jorstedt
Mark Justice
Frank Karsten
Mattias Kettil
Brian Kibler
Masashiro Kuroda
Nicolas Labarre
Matt Linde
Raffaele Lo Moro
Michael Long
Pierre Malherbaud
Casey McCarrel
Patrick Mello
Eivind Nitter
Jin Okamoto
Daniel O'Mahoney-Schwartz
Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz
Wessel Oomens
Rickard Osterberg
Diego Ostrovich
Jamie Parke
Brock Parker
Chris Pikula
David Price
Michael Pustilnik
Neil Reeves
Carlos Romão
Antoine Ruel
Brian Selden
Alex Shvartsman
Bram Snepvangers
Ben Stark
Helmut Summersberger
Mike Thompson
Jens Thorén
Tom van de Logt
Tomi Walamies
David Williams

Balloting is done by two groups, the Selection Committee and the Players Committee. The Selection Committee is made up of luminaries in the history of Magic, longtime reporters and commentators, high-level judges and tournament officials, administrators in the DCI, observers of the Pro Tour, Wizards employees who have played on the Pro Tour, and members of the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame. The Players Committee contains all Magic pros with at least 100 career Pro Points.

The Class of 2009 will be announced August 7. Full Hall of Fame information can be found here.

Players I've Heard Of

Chris Benafel
Marco Blume
Tiago Chan
Patrick Chapin
Daniel Clegg
Kamiel Cornelissen
Jeff Cunningham
Brian Davis
Antonino De Rosa
Eric Froehlich
Justin Gary
Mike Hron
Tsuyoshi Ikeda
Itaru Ishida
William Jensen
Scott Johns
Craig Jones
Mark Justice
Brian Kibler
Nicolas Labarre
Matt Linde
Raffaele Lo Moro
Michael Long
Pierre Malherbaud
Casey McCarrel
Patrick Mello
Jin Okamoto
Daniel O'Mahoney-Schwartz
Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz
Jamie Parke
Brock Parker
Chris Pikula
David Price
Michael Pustilnik
Neil Reeves
Carlos Romão
Antoine Ruel
Brian Selden
Alex Shvartsman
Bram Snepvangers
Ben Stark
Jens Thorén
Tom van de Logt
Tomi Walamies
David Williams

Subset - Players I Might Characterize as "Famous"
Chris Benafel
Patrick Chapin
Jeff Cunningham
Brian Davis
Antonino De Rosa
Justin Gary
William Jensen
Scott Johns
Mark Justice
Brian Kibler
Matt Linde
Raffaele Lo Moro
Michael Long - Infamy Counts
Casey McCarrel - See Above
Daniel O'Mahoney-Schwartz
Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz
Jamie Parke
Chris Pikula
David Price
Antoine Ruel
Alex Shvartsman
Bram Snepvangers
Ben Stark
Jens Thorén - Trivia Counts
David Williams - Famous Outside of Magic Counts

Based on reading 10 years of articles about Magic, these are the players I'd consider famous and important enough for Magic Hall of Fame:

Patrick Chapin - More for contributions in deck construction, writing than play success. Possibly a second-balloter
William Jensen - A highly successful player with a humorous nickname and from several accounts, an excellent ambassador of the game
Brian Kibler - Consistent, continuing success on the tour. A classy add.
Daniel O'Mahoney-Schwartz & Steven O'Mahoney-Schwartz - Never having met almost any of these players, the OMS brothers have had volumes written about their successes. I'd be hard pressed to pick one over the other.
Chris Pikula - By all accounts a player who'd do more for the game through his stories than almost any other nominee.
David Price - A class act. Readers of Magic from the earliest days of internet articles will always look to Dave Price as the primary advocate of beatdown