A History of the Tournament of Champions
The Tournament of Champions is one of, if not the most, prestigious event on the Circuit. All players that play in this event were invited for either winning a Circuit tournament (as was the case in 2006), or being in the top 8 in Player of the Year points (as is the case starting in 2007). All other players who had points would fight for the 9th seat in the TOC making this a wild day for all players.
The 2006 event (which ironically was held in 2007), had ten players, all of whom won a Circuit event or was runner up to a previous TOC seated player. The winner of the first ever Tournament of Champions was Adam Martinez, one of the few players who was runner up to an already seated TOC player. He won what was the largest prize at the time, $400 for first place. Chris Sepcsik (notice a pattern), was runner up.
In the 2007 event (actually in 2007) had the top 8 players in the Player of the Year standings and the winner of the 9th seat satellite, which was Justin Loggia. The winner of this event was Frank Ermel who has the largest payout in JSOP at that time, $500.
In 2008, the top 8 players in the Player of the Year standings and the winner of 9th seat satellite (this year was Gary Wise of UPL fame) sought to take down the glory and prestige of this event with a record top prize of $500, with a $750 prize pool (also the largest JSOP prize pool to date). This event was taken down by Josh Weber who had a phenomenal run in the last half of 2008.
The 2009 should be even stellar for the JSOP, even though there is a lower amount of Circuit events, the amount of players have increased in all of the games from last year. So maybe this may be a bigger prize pool than 2008. Maybe?
