Stephane Gastaud
Background :
GP Cannes was a 300 players team format GP, held in the famous "Palais des
Festivals" in Cannes (French Riviera), the 26 th and 27th of February
2000. This is the first Grand Prix in the world in this format : a 3
players team for the tournament. Rules questions were not very varied and
plentiful but I can't say more because I had to judge the side event only
(This is my first great tournament)
Organisation :
The tournament was a Sealed deck for the first day : Each team gots 2
Mercadian Masques Satrters and 4 Nemesis Boosters. There were two Sealed
deck during the day and there were six rounds. The top twenty teams could
play the next day. During day 2, there was a rochester draft for the top
20 teams. Each team redrafted each round and the top 4 were admited to
play the semi finals.
During the registration, a lot of teams were not preregistred and got
registered on the site which caused a delay of about thirty minutes. Some
problems with team names, byes granted and numbering each player within
each team (players 1, 2, and 3), but I think this is normal
On sunday, the tournament took place in a castle on the island "Ste
Marguerite" off Cannes which was an innovation and a pleasant surprise for
all the qualified teams. The lanscape was superb and the sunshine was
present.. In a word that was a beautiful day..
The Judges :
The judges team was composed of various nationalities, French, English,
Italian. Thankfully, almost all judges spoke English reasonably well but
many of them spoke a really perfect English. During these two days, we had
judges that could speak many european langages and one of them could speak
Japanese...
Judge list :
Team 1
Frederico Faenza (Senior judge) Level 2
Fabio Borello Level 3
Herve Grillat Level 1
Yves Buttard Level 2
Team 2
Pierre Calendini (Senior Judge) Level 3
Christine Sienkiewcz Level 1
Laurent Louchez Level 2
Riccardo Sandroni Level 2
Team 3
Mathieu Poujade (Senior Judge) Level 3
Andrea Chiarvesio Level 2
Ludovic Arnaud Level 2
Team 4
Stephane "Maurice" Blanchon (Senior Judge) Level 3
Gideon Moss Level 2
Patrice Boulet Level 2
Team 5
Richard Clyne (Senior Judge) Level 3
David Vogin Level 2
Fabien Cazassus Level 2
On the side event we had many judges :
Stephane Gastaud Level 1
Michael Bouet
Christophe Loyre
Ali... (And sorry for the other, I don't remember their name...)
All the judges were very specialized if we consider the language barrier.
We couldn't forget all the Wizards Staff (Christophe, Felix....) without
whom this event would not have been such a succes. With all of that, the
GP could begin and a 48 h marathon started. Many tournament were organised
under the control of Philippe (draft, sealed, standard. ..) with Corean,
Japanese, English... cards. For my part I made only a few interventions
had to do and I did not have big problems for judging these side events.
(Thanks to the players!!!) I hope I'll have the oportunity to experience a
similar event soon
Stephane "No fear" GASTAUD
France - Judge Level 1
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