Duelist Invitational

The Duelist Invitational

The Duelist Invitational will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, along with the Rio Grand Prix, from January 29th - February 2nd of 1998. Attendance should reach over 1000 for the Grand Prix! It will definitely be a hot one, so bring a fan, with temperatures in the 100's (43 degrees Celcius)! The event will be run by Mark Rosewater; Charlie Catino will be the head judge. The Duelist Invitational will feature players from eight different nations, including:

Terry Borer - Canada 47 Pro Tour Points, Top 16 '97 Worlds, Champ New York, Top 64 Los Angeles, Top 32 Dallas, Quarter Atlanta, Quarter Grand Prix Washington D.C.	Paul McCabe - Canada 52 Pro Tour Points, '96-'97 Pro Player of the Year, Semi '97 Worlds, Top 64 New York, Top 64 Paris, Champ Dallas.
John Chinnock - U.S.A. 24 Pro Tour Points, Quarter '97 Worlds, Quarter New York, Top 32 Paris, Top 64 Los Angeles, Top 64 Dallas.	Chris Pikula - U.S.A. 46 Pro Tour Points, Top 64 '97 Worlds, Semi Dallas, Quarter Atlanta.
Svend Geertsen - Denmark 23 Pro Tour Points, Semi '97 Worlds, Top 32 New York, Top 64 Paris, Finalist Danish Nationals.	Olle Rade - Sweden 15 Pro Tour Points, Top 16 '97 Worlds, Quarter Dallas, Top 32 Atlanta, Champ '97 Duelist Invitational.
Brian Hacker - U.S.A. 36 Pro Tour Points, Top 16 Paris, Top 64 Los Angeles, Semi Dallas, Top 32 Atlanta.	Nathan Russell - Australia 5 Pro Tour Points, Top 32 Los Angeles, Top 64 Dallas, Top 32 Atlanta, Finalist Australian Nationals, Champ APAC Championship.
Tommi Hovi - Finland 40 Pro Tour Points, Top 16 '97 Worlds, Top 16 Paris, Champ Los Angeles, Top 32 Atlanta.	Jakub Slemr - Czech Republic 37 Pro Tour Points, Champ '97 Worlds, Finalist Czech Nationals, Top 32 New York, Top 64 Paris, Top 16 Los Angeles.
Mark Justice - U.S.A. 38 Pro Tour Points, Top 32 '97 Worlds, Top 64 New York, Finalist Paris, Top 16 Los Angeles, Top 32 Dallas, Top 16 Atlanta, Invitee '97 Duelist Invitational.	Toshiki Tsukamoto - Japan 6 Pro Tour Points, Top 32 '97 Worlds, Top 16 Atlanta, Finalist Japanese Nationals, Finalist Grand Prix Tokyo, Finalist APAC Championship.
Darwin Kastle - U.S.A. 45 Pro Tour Points, Semi Paris, Finalist Atlanta.	Brian Weissman - U.S.A. 17 Pro Tour Points, Top 32 New York, Top 16 Paris, Quarter Los Angeles, Top 64 Dallas, 12th '97 Duelist Invitational.
Michael Long - U.S.A. 46 Pro Tour Points, Top 32 '97 Worlds, Champ Paris, Top 16 Los Angeles, Quarter Atlanta, Finalist '97 Duelist Invitational, Champ Grand Prix Washington D.C.	Jason Zila - U.S.A. 40 Pro Tour Points, Top 64 '97 Worlds, Quarter Paris, Finalist Dallas, Top 16 Atlanta.

The Invitational will be run in a round robin, fifteen matches for each player, within five different formats. Each format will be used for 3 rounds. The formats will be:

1. Standard (T2).
2. Extended - New York Style (4 cards from each legal expansion) (T1.x).
3. Rosewater Constructed Format. (Vanguard style Mirage-Visions-Weatherlight-Tempest)*.
4. Duplicate Sealed (Each player gets an identical set of cards with which to make a 40 card deck).
5. Solomon Draft.

The cards use for each limited format will not be announced until immediately before the event starts.

The finals will be run in a format voted on by the participants!

Players from around the world are invited to come on down and play in the Rio Grand Prix , and check out the Duelist Invitational! The format for the Grand Prix will be extended, with 8 slots for PT Los Angeles up for grabs!

The participants for the Duelist Invitational were picked from a pool of 64 players by a panel of editors for the The Duelist Magazine. The pool of 64 players were picked based on Pro-Tour points, DCI rating, a vote by the attendee's at the Worlds Competition, and a Duelist Reader's Poll. Three players received automatic invites, including the World Champion (Slemr), Pro Player of the Year (McCabe) and defending Duelist Invitational Champion (Rade).

* -The Rosewater constructed format will use the following sets: Mirage, Visions, Weatherlight, Tempest. In addition, each player must use one Vanguard card. You may choose any of the sixteen cards available (see below). For those unfamiliar with Vanguard, let me briefly explain how it works. The chosen Vanguard card is in play for the entire game and affects only you. The card can not be removed by any means. The card changes your starting and maximum hand size and your starting life total. In addition the card will grant you (and only you) a special ability that cannot be prevented or stopped by your opponent. All decks for this format must have a minimum of sixty cards with no more than four copies of any card. Squandered Resources is the only banned card in this format. You do not need to physically have the Vanguard card with you.