开车上班 #14 - 职业巡回赛

好的。

Okay.

我正在把车开进车道。

I'm pulling on my driveway.

我们都知道这意味着什么。

We all know what that means.

该开车去上班了。

It's time for drive to work.

好的。

Okay.

嗯，今天，在我一直努力为播客寻找不同话题的过程中，我一直在思考可以聊些什么。

Well, today, in my ever my ongoing quest to try to figure out different topics, for the podcast, I've been thinking about different kinds of things that I can talk about.

我意识到一件事，那就是我当女巫已经很久了。

And one of the things I realized is I've been a witches a long time.

我参与过很多事情。

I've been involved in a lot of things.

虽然我参与了很多系列的设计，但我也涉足了魔法的其他方面。

And while I've been a lot involved in a lot of sets, I'm involved in other aspects of magic.

所以今天，我要聊聊职业巡回赛的创立。

And so today, I'm gonna talk about the creation of the Pro Tour.

那是我参与过的事情。

That's something I was involved in.

顺便说一句，我最近一直在想，我有个播客。

So one of the things I've realized, by the way, I've been thinking about how my like, I have a podcast.

我还有个专栏。

I have a column.

我想确保自己做的事情适合我使用的媒介。

I wanna make sure that I'm doing things that fit the medium by which I am working with.

我意识到，播客最擅长讲故事和回忆往事，而文章则更适合讨论具体的话题，因为我可以反复修改，做到非常精确。

And that I've come to realize that podcast, I think they shine in storytelling and sort of recalling things and you know, Where I think articles do a little better job of being you know, talking about a very specific thing where I can rewrite and be very exact.

所以我正在寻找那些能让我讲故事的主题，因为我觉得这才是播客最擅长的。

So I'm trying to find topics in which I get to tell stories because I think that's what podcasts do best.

我之所以选择职业巡回赛，是因为它是我深度参与创建的事情之一，而且我亲眼见证了它的诞生。

The reason I picked the Pro Tour is it's one of the things that I was very involved in the creation of, and then I have a very firsthand, you know, viewpoint of watching it happen.

所以，总之，我觉得职业巡回赛已经成了万智牌的一个关键部分。

And so, anyway, I think the Pro Tour has become a pretty, you know, a key part of magic.

所以今天，我要讲讲职业巡回赛的创建过程。

So today, I'm gonna talk about the creation of the Pro Tour.

其实我在其他几个播客里也聊过这个话题。

And, like, I I've I've talked about it in a couple other podcasts.

我觉得我的一个角色就是做这个游戏的史官之一，而这个播客的职责之一，就是给那些可能不了解的人补充一些故事。

I feel that one of my roles is I'm one of historians of the game, and that kind of one of my responsibilities of of this podcast is, hey, to kinda fill in a bunch of stories for people that might not know.

因为我希望，随着时间的推移，大家能了解万智牌是怎么发展起来的。

Because I want, you know, in time for people to sorta know about sort of how magic came to be.

所以今天，我想聊聊职业巡回赛。

So anyway, today, I thought I would talk about the Pro Tour.

要解释职业巡回赛，我得先说明几件关键的事情。

So to explain the Pro Tour, I need to explain a couple of key things.

首先，我想聊聊我在组织化赛事方面的经历。

First, let me talk about my background with organized play.

好的。

Okay.

那么，是什么让我参与到职业巡回赛的创建中来的呢？

So what led to me being involved in the creation of the Pro Tour?

我觉得答案就是万智牌谜题。

I think the answer would be magic the puzzling.

可能有些人不知道，我当时在《决斗者》杂志上做了一个谜题专栏。

So for those who don't know, I did a puzzlecom.

实际上，我为万智牌做的第一件事是这样的：我住在洛杉矶，第一期《决斗者》杂志出版后，我很喜欢，但觉得对老玩家来说内容有点单薄。

In fact, the very first thing I did for magic is that I lived in Los Angeles and the first duelist came out And I I liked it, but I thought it was kinda light on material for more experienced players.

于是我就提出了一个谜题专栏的想法，有点像国际象棋谜题，游戏进行到一半，你需要想办法破解。

So I ended up pitching this idea for a a puzzle column, kinda like a chess puzzle where the game's in progress and you have to solve it.

总之，他们接受了这个提议。

Anyway, they they accepted it.

这是他自己的故事，改天再讲。

It's his own story for another day.

总之，我开始在《决斗者》杂志上做谜题专栏。

But anyway, I started doing a puzzle column in the duelist.

这和比赛活动有什么关系呢？

What does this have to with organized play?

我来解释一下。

I will explain.

事情是这样的，他们让我做谜题，结果这些谜题很快就变得非常受欢迎。

So what happened was they wanted me when I did the puzzles became very popular very quickly.

而且有很长一段时间，它们是杂志里最受欢迎的栏目。

And for quite a while, they were the most popular, feature in the magazine.

所以他们希望我的谜题能跟上最新的内容。

And so they wanted my puzzles to be up to date.

也就是说，如果某篇文章是介绍《冰河时代》的，你知道，《冰河时代》刚出，他们就希望我出一些用《冰河时代》卡牌的谜题。

Meaning, if this was the article that premiered Ice Age, you know, Ice Age had just come out, they wanted me to have puzzles with Ice Age cards.

因为这是一本杂志，你知道，我们得提前几个月准备，所以为了我能做谜题，我需要提前看到那些卡牌，因为我根本没法用我没见过的卡牌来设计谜题。

So because this was a magazine, you know, and we had to work months ahead, that meant in order for me to be able to do puzzles, I needed to see the cards ahead of time because there was no way for me to make puzzles with cards I hadn't seen.

而且我需要看到所有的卡牌，因为我要了解整体情况才能构建谜题。

And I needed to see all of the cards because I needed to be able to get context to build puzzles.

我还得知道有哪些工具可以用，因为很多时候你在设计谜题时，并不清楚自己具体需要什么。

And I needed to know what tools I had because a lot of times when you're building a puzzle, you don't know quite what you need.

你得先看看有什么可用的。

You have to see what's available.

总之，我最后提前拿到了那个系列的卡牌信息。

So anyway, I ended up getting advanced knowledge of the set.

他们会寄给我我们所谓的指南手册，其实就是一页一页的纸。

They would send me what we call guidebooks where they're literally pages.

那时候还没有互联网，我们也没法发电子图片。

This is before the Internet we would send Internet images.

所以他们真的通过邮寄，把印着所有卡牌的纸页寄给我。

So they physically would, in the mail, send me pages that showed all the cards.

所以我提前知道了这些内容，感觉挺酷的。

And so I knew stuff ahead of time, and that was cool.

实际上，这还挺让人兴奋的。

In fact, it's quite exciting.

但其中一个坏处是，我不能参加官方认证的比赛。

But one of the downsides was I was not allowed to play in sanctioned tournaments.

官方认证的比赛在那之前不久才开始。

Sanctioned play had started a little before that.

1994年1月，他们成立了DCI，也就是国际决斗者协会，如果你不知道DCI代表什么的话。

In January '94, they created the DCI, the Duals Convocation International, if you didn't know what DCI stands for.

然后他们开始举办官方认证的比赛。

And they started having sanctioned tournaments.

万智牌后来发展出了更完善的比赛体系。

Magic would go on to a much more robust organized play system.

这个我们一会儿再聊。

We'll get into that in a second.

但在早期确实有一些官方认证的比赛。

But there there was some sanctioning in the early days.

总之，我不能参加官方认证的比赛。

Anyway, I wasn't allowed to play in a sanctioned tournament.

这主要影响的是那些高规格的比赛，比如地区赛之类的。

Where that mostly mattered was the high profile stuff, regionals and things.

我没办法参加那些比赛。

I I couldn't play in that.

既然不能参赛，我就开始做裁判了。

So since I couldn't play in the tournaments, I started judging.

大多数人不知道的是，我其实有很长一段时间是四级裁判。

And most people don't know this, but I actually, for a long time, was a level four judge.

我做过很多裁判面试。

I did a lot of judge interviews.

早期我在裁判圈子里非常活跃。

I was very active early on in the judging scene.

事情是这样的，我刚到威世智的时候，听说斯卡菲勒斯正在筹备一个万智牌的职业巡回赛。

And what happened was when I first got to wizards, I learned that Scaphelius was in the process of putting together a Pro Tour for magic.

我们先停一下，聊聊斯卡夫·奥夫·莱夫这个人。

Let's jump over and talk about Scaff of Life for a second.

我在做《同盟》那期播客时提到过他，因为他属于我们所说的东海岸测试玩家之一。

Now I brought him up during the alliances podcast I did because he's one of what we call the East Coast play tafters.

他是设计《冰河时代》《同盟》《堕落帝国》和《古文明》的团队成员，斯卡夫是万智牌最早的测试玩家之一。

He was on the team that designed ice age and alliances and fallen empires and antiquities, And Scaff was one of the original play tafters of magic.

他是在费城认识理查德的。

He met Richard back in Philadelphia.

如果我没记错的话，斯卡夫认识吉姆·林恩，因为他们一起上的普林斯顿大学，而吉姆·林恩在费城或宾夕法尼亚大学就认识理查德了，所以我觉得斯卡夫是通过吉姆认识理查德的。

If I remember correctly, Scaff knew Jim Lynn because they both went to Princeton together, and Jim Lynn had known Richard in Philadelphia or UPenn, and they I believe Scaff met Richard through Jim.

我觉得这个说法是准确的。

I believe that is true.

总之，斯卡夫和理查德很快就成了好朋友，关系非常密切。

Anyway, Scaff and Richard became fast friends, very close friends.

事实上，现在他们关系非常非常好。

In fact, right now, they're very, very good friends.

当理查德来到西雅图开始在威世智工作时，斯卡夫很快就跟着来了。

And when Richard came out here to start to work at Wizards, Scaff followed very shortly thereafter.

所以斯卡夫很快就成了核心人物。

And so SCAF quickly became a mainstay.

他在研发部门工作，但斯卡夫基本上是想做什么就做什么。

He was in r and d, but SCAF kinda did what SCAF wanted to do.

就像我说的，他是执行副总裁，负责他想负责的那些事情。

Like I said, he was an executive vice president and kind of in charge of things SCAF wanted to be in charge of.

那么，让我解释一下斯卡夫的几件事。

And, I mean, it's let me explain a couple of things about Scaff.

第一，斯卡夫聪明得不得了。

A, Scaff is intelligent like nobody's business.

我是说，研发部门大多数人都是聪明人，但斯卡夫特别聪明。

I mean, most of R and D is on the intelligence side, but Scaff is very intelligent.

第二，他非常有激情。

Two, he is passionate.

他对自己相信的事情很执着。

He believes things.

我之前在播客里提到过，他和吉姆那次彻夜争论的事。

I I talked about the podcast one time that the argument Jim and he had all night long.

斯卡夫做任何事都充满热情，你知道，他做什么都这样，我是说他现在还活着呢。

Well, Scaff was passionate in everything he did, you know, or does, I mean, not dead or anything.

而且他真的是那种感情很强烈的人，他性格里带着一股冲劲。

And he really, like, he felt things strongly and he would, you know he he he is a has red in his personality.

他很有干劲，一旦认定了什么事，就会拼命去推动。

He would drive and and he if he felt something, he would really push it.

斯卡夫也有点古怪。

Scaff also was a little eccentric.

我们常讲的一个故事是，斯卡夫有张睡袋，一直放在办公桌底下。

The story we often tell is that Scaff had a sleeping bag he kept under his desk.

经常晚上他不回家，就直接睡在办公桌底下。

And often nights, instead of going home, he would just sleep under his desk.

在研发部，Scaff 还以什么都吃而出名。

Scaff was also known for, in r and d, for eating just about anything.

不管是什么剩菜，放多久了，他都会吃掉。

If there were leftovers of any kind, no matter how old, Scaff would often eat them.

不过话说回来，Scaff 确实很有干劲。

But, anyway, Scaff was very driven.

他也很风趣。

He was very fun.

他爱玩爱闹。

He was playful.

是个特别棒的人。

An awesome guy.

我特别喜欢 Scaff。

I like Scaff a lot.

不过话说回来，斯卡夫当时在琢磨魔法风云会往哪个方向发展。

But, anyway, Scaff was trying to figure out where magic was going to go.

很明显，早期的时候，魔法风云会一直在开拓新市场，因为它最初只是小范围发行。

And, obviously, in the early days, magic just kept finding new places because it it it came on in very limited release.

一开始，它在西海岸火了，然后传到东海岸，接着是美国其他地方，再后来是欧洲，就这样一点一点地开拓新市场。

And, originally, it was this hit on the West Coast, then the East Coast, and then then the rest of The US, and then in Europe, and, you know, and, like, little by little, it was exploring new markets.

很多增长都来自于找到之前没有魔法风云会的新市场。

And a lot of the growth came from finding new markets that hadn't had Magic before.

但斯卡夫意识到，这种情况不会一直持续下去，总有一天我们需要想办法让这个游戏有更持久的生命力。

But Scaff realized that that was only gonna last for so long that at some point, we needed to figure out how to sort of give the game legs.

要知道，大多数游戏其实都活不了太久。

So one of the things to remember about games in general is most games don't actually last that long.

我是说，当你想到游戏时，你想到的是那些经典作品，而经典当然能经久不衰。

I mean, I think when you think about games, you think about the classics, and, obviously, the classics have lasted a long time.

但普通游戏的寿命其实相当短。

But the average game has a pretty short lifespan.

所以斯卡夫就想，那怎么延长这个周期呢？

And so Scaff was like, well, how do we extend this?

怎么让大家一直玩下去？

How do we keep people playing?

斯卡夫意识到，关键之一就是有组织的比赛，因为人们放弃万智牌的首要原因——一个小知识问答。

And Scaff realized that a key part of it was organized play was because the number one reason people stop playing magic, a little trivia question.

你们知道吗？

Do you guys know?

就是他们一起玩的社交圈没了。

Is the social network they play with goes away.

意思是，他们本来跟一群人玩，然后情况变了。

Meaning, they play with some people and then something changes.

比如毕业了、搬家了、朋友搬走了，或者发生什么事，社交圈就变了。

They graduate or they move or their friends move or something happens and that social network changes.

因为万智牌是我们所说的核心游戏，面向核心玩家。

Because the magic is what we call a core game made for core gamers.

什么是核心玩家？

What is a core gamer?

核心玩家就是把游戏当成爱好的人。也就是说，每个人都有自己的空闲时间和闲钱，那他们会怎么花呢？

A core gamer is someone who gaming is a hobby for them, which means that, you know, everybody has some free time and free money and, like, what do they do with it?

有些人可能会去打高尔夫。

Some people might go play golf.

有些人可能会去集币。

Some might, you know, collect coin.

玩家就是玩游戏。

Gamers game.

这就是他们做的事。

That's what they do.

那就是他们的爱好。

That is their hobby.

现在的游戏可太棒了。

And now games are awesome.

有很多积极的地方。

There's a lot of positive things.

确实，它非常充实。

You know, it definitely is very enriching.

对心理健康有好处，能带来各种积极影响。

It's good mentally and does all sorts of positive things.

其中一个重要的方面是它很有社交性。

And one of the big things about it is it's a very social thing.

但缺点是，很多游戏一旦你失去了社交圈，你就不再玩了。

But the downside is a lot of games, once you lose your social network, you stop playing the game.

所以很重要的一点是，我们要创造一个让人们能玩游戏的地方。

And so one of the things that was important is, well, let's create a place for people to be able to play.

一方面，这样总有人能一起玩；另一方面，如果有人想挑战自己，也有途径可以做到。

A, so there isn't there is always someone for them to play with, and b, that if people want to test themselves, that there is a a means by which they can.

我们之前讨论过那个图表，就是关于高峰体验的，有很多玩家喜欢通过游戏来证明自己。

And we talked about the same graph, it's about spike, you know, and that there there's a lot of players who really like to prove themselves through the game.

而“所见”这个词，就很好地让你能跟最顶尖的玩家较量。

And the term is seen does a very good job of letting you test against the best.

另外，顺便说一句，我不确定我在心理画像那期播客里有没有提到，但你看，所有心理画像类型的人都想赢。

Also, by the way, I I don't if I talk about this in my the psychographics podcast, but, look, all the psychographics like to win.

游戏的目标就是赢。

The goal of the game is to win.

只是赢的方式不同，你知道，而且你需要赢多少次才能满足，也因人而异。

How you win is different, you know, and how often you need to win to be satisfied is different.

但每个人都有赢的欲望。

But everyone has a desire to win.

而参加比赛的好处就在于，你真的可以全力以赴，接受考验。

And the nice thing about going to a tournament is you really get to sort of try to try your hardest and and get tested.

这是每个人都能享受的事情。

And that is something that everybody can enjoy.

斯卡夫做了一些研究，他发现，设立一个入门级别的有组织的比赛很重要，但这也是更大体系的一部分。

Now Scaff did some research, and what he realized is that having a bottom rung organized play is important, but it's part of a larger system.

他研究了很多其他运动，发现其中一部分是这种‘向往型参与’——我打球是因为心里有个目标，梦想着有一天能达到某个水平。

And part of that, he looked at a lot of other sports, was this idea of aspirational play, that I play because there's some goal I have in mind that I one day dream of getting to some level.

比如说，什么让篮球卖得最多？

For example, what sells a lot of basketballs?

NBA。

The NBA.

对吧？

You know?

什么让棒球手套和棒球卖得最多？

What sells a a lot of, you know, mitts and baseballs?

美国职业棒球大联盟。

You know, Major League Baseball.

就是有个值得追求和仰望的目标。

That there's something to achieve and look up to.

所以斯卡夫的目标是：如果我们打造一个顶级的组织化比赛体系会怎样？

And so Skaff's goal was, what if we made a top tier of organized play?

如果万智牌有个职业巡回赛会怎么样？

What if Magic had a Pro Tour?

斯卡夫做了大量的调研。

And what Scaff did is he did a lot of research.

他去跟很多其他商业体育项目交流，特别是那些有巡回赛的小众运动。

He went and talked to a lot of other com sports, especially smaller sports that had a circuit.

我知道他去找了沙滩排球的人聊过。

I know he went and talked to beach volleyball.

我知道他跟很多不同的人谈过，试图从他们那里学习经验。

I know he talked to a bunch of different people, and he's trying to learn from them.

他就像在问，你们是怎么做的？怎么搭建这个体系的？

He's like, well, you know, what how do you do this, and how do you set it up?

斯卡夫做了大量研究后得出结论：万智牌需要这种有激励性的顶级赛事。

And and Scaff did a lot of research, and he came to the conclusion that, look, what would help Magic is to have this aspirational top level play.

所以，我们得创建一个职业巡回赛。

So that meant, okay, we needed to create a Pro Tour.

事情是这样的，我是95年10月开始的。

Now what happened was I started in October '95.

那时候，他们好像已经在纽约租好了帕克大楼，时间是2月初。

And at that point, they had set up I think they had rented the Puck Building in New York in early February.

但除此之外，他们知道要做这件事，可还没把所有细节都落实到位。

But other than that, they they knew they were going to do it, but they hadn't really put all the pieces together.

我意识到这事在推进，心里挺兴奋的。

And I recognized this was going on, I was excited.

我就去找斯卡夫，跟他说，嘿。

And I went to Scaff, and I said, hey.

你知道，我有办比赛的经验。

You know, I have a background in running tournaments.

我很乐意当研发部门的联络人。

I would be very interested in being the liaison between r and d.

我也不确定有没有联络人这个职位。

And I don't know if a liaison position existed.

我不清楚。

I don't know.

我只知道我跟Scaff说，让我帮他。

All I know is I give him Scaff and let me help him.

我和Scaff两个人非常努力地把所有环节拼凑起来，最终促成了这件事。

And Scaff and I were the two that worked really hard in putting all the the build the pieces to build this together.

就像我说的，这是Scaff的主意，也是他一手操办的。

Like I said, it was Scaff's idea, and Scaff had set it up.

Scaff已经租好了场地。

Scaff had gotten the hall rented.

但我去得够早，帮Scott想清楚了怎么把它落实。

But I was there early enough that I helped helped Scott figure out how to make it happen.

所以当时有很多问题要解决，因为这事挺吓人的。

So there are a bunch of things we were trying to solve because it's a pretty daunting thing.

好的。

Okay.

我们要搞一个职业巡回赛。

We're gonna do a Pro Tour.

那具体是什么意思呢？

Well, what does that mean?

好吧。

Well, okay.

显然，我们需要有一系列的活动。

Obviously, we need to have a series of events.

这个大家都明白。

That was understood.

但问题是，怎么把人吸引过来，怎么把整个事情启动起来呢？

But, well, how do you get people there, and how do you jump start the whole thing?

当时我们最担心的事情，大概首要的顾虑是——嗯，其实有两个顾虑。

Now the big things we were concerned about probably the number one reason of of concern was well, there's I guess there were two concerns.

一个是，这个游戏到底有没有足够的技巧性？

One was this idea of is the game as skill testing as it need to be?

我们当时担心的是，如果把大家聚在一起，结果每次都是随机决定胜负，那该怎么办？

One of our worries was what happens if we get people together and then it's just random every time?

而且，这样一来，非但不能展示游戏有多考验技术，反而会让人觉得恰恰相反。

And and, like, instead of showing the game being skill skills very skill intensive, it shows the reverse.

就会觉得，哇，原来是这样。

That it's like, oh, wow.

《万智牌》真的很随机。

Magic's really random.

为了抵消这种印象，我们就说，好吧。

So to offset that, we said, okay.

我们需要把最顶尖的玩家请到这里来。

We need to get the best of the best players here.

你知道，如果要搞这个，就必须是精英中的精英。

You know, if we're gonna do this, this has to be the cream of the crop.

不能只是附近随便什么人都能来。

It can't just be whoever's in the in the vicinity.

我们想要全世界最顶尖的万智牌玩家。

We want the best magic players in the world.

那要怎么做呢？

Well, how do we do that?

想法是，先找出我们知道的那些厉害的万智牌玩家。

Well, the idea was, okay, let's figure out who we know are good magic players.

所以我们查看了所有能拿到的数据。

So we looked at all the data we had.

那时候，已经举办过两届世界锦标赛了。

At the time, there have been two world championships so far.

94年那届，扎克·多兰打败了伯特兰·莱斯特。

There was the 94 where Zach Dolan beat Bertrand Lestre.

95年那届，亚历山大·布鲁吉击败了马克·埃尔南德斯。

There was a 95 championships where Alexander Bluegee meet beat Mark Hernandez.

所以我们邀请了94年的前两名，主要是因为，说实话，除了前两名之外，我们对其他人了解不多。

So we ended up inviting the top two from '94, mostly because we didn't have actually, we didn't know a lot beyond the top two.

我觉得我们当时知道前四名，但那时候的记录不太全，所以我们也不是什么都清楚。

I think we knew the top four, but we the records weren't that great back then, so we didn't know everything.

但我们邀请了前两名，他们算是万智牌界的名人，毕竟他们参加了第一届万智牌世界锦标赛的决赛。

But we invited the top two, and they were some of the celebrities of Magic because they had obviously, you know, the the the finals of the very first Magic World Championship.

我们邀请了95年的前八名，这样我们就请到了亨利·斯特恩、马克·贾斯蒂斯、比尔·布鲁姆金·埃尔南德斯，还有一堆我们知道是高手的人。

We invited the top eight of the 95 because that got us Henry Stern, it got us Mark Justice, it got us Bill Blumkin Hernandez, it got us a bunch of names we knew that we knew were good players.

然后我们就开始真正地找出哪些是高手，最后的标准就变成了，比如，我们知道戴夫·汉弗莱斯是个很厉害的玩家，他还在多伦多赢得了《冰河时代》售前赛。

And then we literally just started figuring out who were the good players, and then the criteria ended up being like, for example, we knew that Dave Humphreys is a very good player, and he had won the Ice Age pre release tournament in Toronto.

那时候只有一次售前赛，还不是一个系列。

There was one one pre release at the time, not a series yet.

所以我们就想，好吧。

So we're like, we okay.

《冰河时代》售前赛的冠军被邀请，因为我们想让戴夫·汉弗莱斯来。

The winner of the Ice Age pre release gets invited because we wanted Dave Humphries there.

所以我们做的就是，我们有点挑选和定制我们的类别，就是为了把最厉害的玩家请过来。

So what we did is we kinda picked and choose our categories to just get the best players there.

然后我们用排名系统邀请了其他玩家，确保他们也能参加。

And then we used our rating system to invite other players, to make sure that other players got invited.

实际上，现在回想起来，我们可能只邀请了世锦赛的前两名，因为亨利好像是靠排名邀请进来的。

And actually, now that I think of it, I think we might have invited just the top two from worlds because I think Henry actually got in on a rating invite now that I think about it.

所以可能我们邀请了每届世锦赛的前两名，但排名系统也让贾斯蒂斯进来了，总之我不太确定，但我知道我们特意确保那些知名选手都到场了。

So maybe we invited the top two of each worlds, but the ratings got in justice and anyway, I'm not sure exactly, but I know we went out of our way to make sure the name players were all there.

当时大家都非常兴奋，因为那时候万智牌的比赛奖金大概也就一千美元。

And everybody was very excited because Magic at the time had had, I think, some thousand dollar tournaments.

我知道纽约的Neutral Ground和Gray Matter当时都举办过一千美元奖金的比赛。

I know neutral ground in New York at the time, a gray matter, was running thousand dollar tournaments.

我记得波士顿可能也有几场。

And I I think Boston might have had a few.

不过，当时冠军奖金是17000美元，现在想想还挺有意思的。

But, anyway, at the time, the first place prize was $17,000, which is funny.

放到现在，冠军奖金是四万美元，所以17000听起来可能不算多。

Modern day, it's 40,000, so that might seem like not a lot.

但在当时，那可是一大笔钱。

But at the time, that was a lot of money.

冠军能拿到一万七千美元，而以前最多也就一千美元，或者赢一些价值差不多的卡牌。

The winner gets $17,000 when previously the best you could do is a thousand or, you know, maybe win, you know, some cards that are worth somewhere around that.

所以我们把这件事搞得很大。

And so we made a big deal.

我们另一个担心的是，怎么把这个赛事启动起来。

The other big worry we had was just how to get it started.

你知道，一旦它办起来了，大家自然就会期待。

You know, like, it's one thing like, once it's in place, people know to be excited for it.

对吧？

Right?

就像你看到一样东西，你会觉得，哇。

Like, once you see something, you're like, wow.

我也想要。

I want that.

但首先得让它成真，这还挺棘手的。

But you have to make it happen first, and that's kinda tricky.

所以，这确实不是一件简单的事，有点像搭纸牌屋，一开始得让某些牌互相平衡。

So, you know, it's definitely not something It's it's kinda like building a house of cards where you kinda have to balance certain cards against each other when you start.

当时我们很多人都在努力做这件事。

And there was a lot of us trying to do that.

哦，还有一件有意思的事，一开始我们想给它起个名字。

Oh, the other interesting thing was, at first, we're trying to get a name for it.

我们最先想到的名字是‘黑莲花职业巡回赛’。

So the idea we came up with the first was to call it the Black Lotus Pro Tour.

我们喜欢这个名字，因为黑莲花是万智牌里的招牌卡牌。

I think we like that name because Black Lotus was the marquee card of magic.

它有种高贵感，也有点美感，而且我们觉得这个名字听起来挺顺耳的。

It had a sense of dignity, a little sense of beauty, and we and we felt like, it has a nice sort of sound to it.

但后来我们了解到，在亚洲，黑莲花有毒品走私的意味。

But then then we learned out that a Black Lotus in in Asia has a connotation of drug running.

所以我们得想一个全球通用的名字。

So we needed something that we could use worldwide.

最后我们决定，那这个万智牌职业巡回赛该叫什么好呢？

And in the end, we decided, what should we call the Magic the Gathering Pro Tour?

就叫万智牌职业巡回赛怎么样？

How about the Magic the Gathering Pro Tour?

我们花了点时间才想明白。

It took us a while to come to that realization.

就直接叫职业巡回赛吧。

Just just look, just call it the Pro Tour.

哦，我是说，当然是万智牌职业巡回赛。

Oh, I mean, Magic the Gathering Pro Tour, obviously.

好的。

Okay.

然后我们拿到了一份选手名单。

So we get a list of players.

那其他人怎么才能去呢？

How do we get the rest of the people there?

嗯，当时还没发明PTQ这种比赛。

Well, PTQs wouldn't get invented yet.

实际上，PTQ是从第二届职业巡回赛才开始有的，就是洛杉矶那场。

In fact, PTQs didn't start till the second Pro Tour, the one for Los Angeles.

纽约那场，如果你想去，又不是我们邀请的精英选手，那你怎么才能去呢？

For New York, if you wanted to go and you weren't one of the elite we invited, how did you get there?

答案是——打电话报名。

The answer is you called on the phone.

对。

Yes.

我们发了个通知，说在某个时间点，前多少名打电话的人可以报名参加。

We made an announcement that at a certain time, the first n number of people that called up could sign up to come.

所以很多人开玩笑说，这职业巡回赛其实是“电话巡回赛”，因为要参加就得打电话报名。

And so a lot of people joked that it was Pro Tour call in because in order to get there, you had to call on the phone.

结果呢，最投入的那批人就是最积极去做的。

Now as it turns out, the most dedicated people were the ones that are most active about doing it.

第一届职业巡回赛的参与人数其实还挺可观的。

And we actually had a pretty turnout in the first Pro Tour.

就像我说的，我们当时挺担心的。

And like I said, we were concerned.

有意思的是，如果你回头看看第一届职业巡回赛，很多事情放到现在——毕竟都过去十七年了——有些操作简直让人觉得不可思议。

I mean, there's a whole the funny thing is, if you go back and look at the first Pro Tour, so much about it, like, in modern day, because, you know, we're seventeen years in, seems like almost crazy in some of the stuff that happened.

但不管怎么说，最后都顺利办成了。

But, I mean, it all came together.

还挺好笑的。

It was funny.

哦，对了，我之前提到过我们在二月份纽约办了第一届职业巡回赛。

Oh, so what happened was I talked about how we had a Pro Tour in February in New York.

结果发现，那个选择其实不太理想。

Well, that turned out to be a little not the greatest choice.

结果来了一场大暴雪。

So there was this giant blizzard.

暴雪把机场都封了。

Giant blizzard shut down the airport.

实际上，第一届职业巡回赛就被推迟了。

In fact, the very first Pro Tour was delayed.

开幕式也推迟了。

The opening was delayed.

第一晚我们其实办了个鸡尾酒会，你信不信？

The first night, we actually had a cocktail party, believe it or not.

现在早就不搞这个了。

Something we don't do anymore.

然后第二天我们又得推迟开赛，因为那场大暴雪把整个城市和机场都瘫痪了。

And then we had to delay the start for the second day because there's this giant blizzard that shut down the city and shut down the airport.

不过大多数万智牌玩家幸好都提前到了，他们踩着雪赶来了。

But most Magic players luckily have gotten there early, and they trudge through the snow.

哦，说到这个，我记得有一张特别棒的照片。

Oh, speaking of which, I think there's an awesome image.

斯卡夫还有个怪癖，就是他特别喜欢穿短裤。

One of the other quirky things about Scaff is Scaff liked wearing shorts.

我不是说他有时候穿。

I don't mean some of the time.

我是说，他几乎一直都穿。

Mean, much all the time.

斯卡夫就是爱穿短裤。

Scaff loved wearing shorts.

所以我记得我们在纽约暴风雪里走。

So I remember us walking in New York in a blizzard.

就是那种，面对面都看不清的暴风雪，斯卡夫还穿着短裤走。

I mean, like, can't see 10 feet from your face blizzard, and Scaff is walking in shorts.

总之，这就是斯卡夫的一个小片段。

Anyway, a little a little a little moment of Scaff.

好的。

Okay.

所以我们已经把东西都准备好了。

So we have the thing set up.

人也到位了。

We got the people there.

外面暴风雪，但没关系。

It's blizzard, but okay.

我们准备开始了。

We're gonna start.

哦，我们还设了一个青少年组，因为当时我们想着要发奖学金，年轻选手们可以自己比自己的。

Oh, we also did a junior division because the idea at the time was we thought that we were giving away scholarships and the younger players were gonna play in their own division.

当然，后来我们把所有组都合并成一个大赛区了。

Obviously, since we morphed them all together in one kinda giant division.

但有意思的是，第一届职业巡回赛的青少年组，那批人素质真不错。

But the funny thing about the juniors is the juniors at that first Pro Tour was a good group of people.

我记得下面这些人当时都参加了青少年组。

I mean, I believe the following people all played in the juniors.

这只是我凭记忆说的，肯定漏掉了一些人。

And this is just off the top my head, so I'm I'm missing people for sure.

约翰·芬克尔当时在。

John Finkle was there.

兹维·莫舍维茨也在。

Zvi Moshevitz was there.

帕特·查平也在。

Pat Chapin was there.

鲍勃·马尔也在。

Bob Marr was there.

其实很多职业巡回赛名人堂的选手都参加过青少年组。

I mean, a lot of, like, you know, Pro Tour Hall of Famers played in the Junior.

青少年组的竞争还挺激烈的。

Junior's was pretty tough.

而且，整个赛制其实有点复杂。

Also, it so the format of of the whole thing was it was a little tricky.

当时《家园》是最新出的系列，所以我们特别想让一些《家园》的牌能派上用场，因为你看，职业巡回赛的一部分就是市场营销。

So Homelands was the most recent set to have come out, and so we really wanted some Homeland Homelands cards to show up because, look, part of the Pro Tour is marketing.

毕竟，钱是赞助商出的，我们当然也想测试最强的牌。

I mean, dollars pay for it, and it is I mean, we do wanna test the best.

我们确实有追求，但另一个完全不同的方面是，它也有营销的考量。

We do wanna have aspirations, but another completely different aspect of it is, look, it's a marketing aspect.

所以，我们想展示一下最新的系列。

And so, okay, we wanted to show off a latest set.

那就是《家园》。

It was Homeland's.

好吧。

Okay.

《家园》并不是最强的系列。

Homeland's not the strongest set.

所以我们搞了个赛制，我记得好像叫‘标准家园’什么的。

So we created a format that the player is called home decap standard home decap, I think.

总之呢，就是标准赛制，但你必须从每个合法系列里选五张牌，也就是说你得放五张家园的牌。

So anyway, it was standard, but you had to play with five cards from every set legal in the format, which meant you had to have five home lens cards.

我记得好像还有一个系列稍微有点难凑，但最头疼的还是家园的牌。

I think there was one other set that was a little bit of a pinch, but the real pinch was the home lens cards.

有些玩家干脆就用基本地，然后备牌放十张。

Some players just played basic with 10 card sideboards.

有些玩家找到了办法，比如锯齿箭就用得很多，其他有创意的玩家也塞了几张牌进去。

Some players found ways know serrated arrows got played a lot, and the other people that were creative found a few a few cards to sneak in.

有意思的是，当时能组的牌里其实可以组一套死冥套牌，而那年夏天就会变成死冥之夏，死冥会彻底爆发。

The interesting thing was, by the way, is that with the cards available, it was possible to make a Necro deck, and that summer would become the Necro summer when Necro would go crazy.

而且，死冥爆发的原因不只是没找到合适的套牌，还因为黑蝇还没被限制。

And and by the way, part of the reason the Necro exploded was not just a matter of not quite finding the deck, but also was the fact that Black Flies hadn't been restricted yet.

不过不管怎样，第一届职业巡回赛上死冥套牌是合法的。

But anyway, Necro deck was legal at the first Pro Tour.

那谁用了死冥套牌呢？

So who played a Necro deck?

八强里有个瑞典选手叫莱昂·林德巴赫，他玩的是早期版本的死冥套牌。

In the top eight, Leon Lindbach was a Swedish player who played the early version of a necro deck.

但真正厉害的死冥套牌，那个好用的版本，其实是青少年组冠军格雷厄姆·塔蒂默用的。很多人后来都觉得他那套是比赛里最强的，怎么说呢，算是早期死冥套牌，但比莱昂那版进化得更完善。

But the real net necro deck, the the good one, was actually played by the winner of the juniors, a guy named Graham Tatimer, who had what many considered retroactively to be the best deck of the tournament, which was I mean, it was an early Necrodeck, but the more evolved version than Leon's version.

总之，很多人以为职业巡回赛一开始就有的那些标配，其实第一届比赛里根本没出现。

Anyway, so a lot of things that people think of as staples of the Pro Tour didn't actually happen at the first Pro Tour.

比如说，我来聊聊焦点对局吧，这可是我的心头好。

For example, let me talk about feature matches because this is one my baby, the feature matches.

第一届和第二届职业巡回赛的时候，我们允许观众随便走动，直接看选手比赛。

So what happened was at the first Pro Tour and at the second Pro Tour, we let people any spectators who showed up could just walk through and watch people play.

就是，直接走到桌子旁边看人家打牌。

You know, just walk through the tables and watch people.

后来嘛，我们就不让这么做了。

Now later on, we would, you know, keep people from from being able to do that.

但在早期，你可以直接走过去看。

But in the early days, you could just walk through.

第一次比赛结束后，到了第二次比赛时，我就说，嘿，各位。

And I realized after the first one, to the second one, I said, hey, guys.

我觉得可以让大家知道哪些比赛值得看。

I think there's an opportunity to let people know what where the cool matches are.

其实第一次职业巡回赛的时候我就有这个想法，但当时没有一套好用的系统来实现。

I think I'd come up I think during the first Pro Tour, I'd come up with it, but it there wasn't a neat system to do it.

所以我就自己写点东西，但到了第二次比赛，我们做了个大牌子。

So I I would write things, but for the second one, we made a big sign.

就叫‘罗丝沃特推荐’，我会说，嘿，这一轮，去看看88号桌。

And that's just called the Rosewater's picks, where I would say, hey, this round, check out table 88.

比如，马克·贾斯蒂斯正在和哈默特·奈尔对战。

You know, Mark Justice is playing hammer at near, you know.

然后我就会告诉大家去哪里看比赛。

And so I would have you I would point out where to go to see them.

到了第三届职业巡回赛的时候，我们觉得不能再让人随便乱逛了。

So come the third Pro Tour, we figured out that we didn't want people wandering through.

就是哥伦布那届。

That's the one in Columbus.

所以我们搞了个焦点比赛区，把那些比赛都集中到那里。

So what we did is we created a feature match area where we took them and pulled them.

你想看的比赛，我们就放在一个区域里，方便你观看。

And so the matches you wanted to watch, well, we put them in an area where you could watch them.

那时候还早。

Now this was early.

我觉得当时我们甚至还没开始做赛事报道，但至少现场观众能看。

I don't think we even covered them in coverage yet, but it was live for the spectators.

后来我们开始做报道，再后来就上了摄像机。

We started doing them coverage at some point, and eventually, we put them on camera.

另外，他们还想继续搞‘罗斯沃特推荐’，其实是我说的，我觉得还是别了吧。

Also, by the way, they were trying to continue calling Rosewater's picks, and I actually was the one that said, I I I don't think so.