Top 25 Rankings: March 6, 2014

Welcome to our latest look at the Magic Top 25 Pro Rankings. Grand Prix Melbourne, Australia, set a record attendance of 900. The majority of the Top 25 had stayed in Spain following Pro Tour Born of the Gods and were ready to do battle in Team Limited play. Teams of three meant that there were some true powerhouse lineups, including (3) Owen Turtenwald, (4) Reid Duke, and William Jensen representing a US tour de force; Jon Stern, (11) Alexander Hayne, and Josh McClain for a North American alliance; Raphaël Lévy, Melissa DeTora, and (1) Jérémy Dezani as a transatlantic partnership; and (18) Martin Juza, (9) Shuhei Nakamura, and Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa encompassing the globe.

Throughout the event, it was Turtenwald, Duke, and Jensen who set the agenda, dominating Day One with a perfect record and making the Top 4 despite a brief decline on Day Two. Jérémy Dezani finished 7th alongside DeTora and Lévy, and that was enough to return the French Hall of Famer Lévy to the Top 25, knocking 2006 Player of the Year Shota Yasooka from the list once more. Both Juza and Nakamura finished in the Top 16, while McClain and the Canadians couldn't force their way into Day Two. That left the US trio to do battle in the Top 4, where they were unexpectedly defeated by the three Swiss amateurs Olivier Duport, Wilson Lam, and Louis Ballivet, who would in turn fall in the final to Christian Seibold and the Gräfensteiner brothers, Tobias and Daniel. That capped a brilliant week for Seibold, who featured in Sunday action at Pro Tour Born of the Gods a week earlier.

With the Top 5 Grand Prix finishes counting for each player this season, Reid Duke overtook both Ben Stark and his teammate Owen Turtenwald to record his highest position to date at No. 2. Jérémy Dezani remains the No.1, with Stanislav Cifka nudging past Yuuya Watanabe at No. 14. Matej Zatlkaj, commentating in Barcelona, now sits on the Top 25 trapdoor.

Join us next week for all the news from Grand Prix Richmond and another look at the Top 25 Pro Rankings.

Updated March 6, 2014

Rank	Name	Points	Change		Previous
1	Jeremy Dezani	67.73			1
2	Reid Duke	62.81		+2	4
3	Owen Turtenwald	61.52			3
4	Ben Stark	59.72		-2	2
5	Tom Martell	55.66			5
6	Samuel Black	55.32		+1	7
7	Shahar Shenhar	55.14		-1	6
8	Josh Utter-Leyton	52.90			8
9	Shuhei Nakamura	50.46			9
10	Willy Edel	48.81			10
11	Jacob Wilson	47.67		+1	12
11	Alexander Hayne	47.67			11
13	Stanislav Cifka	47.14		+1	14
14	Yuuya Watanabe	47.02		-1	13
15	Makihito Mihara	46.52			15
16	Shi Tian Lee	44.23			16
17	Paul Rietzl	42.99			17
18	Martin Juza	41.81			18
19	Josh Mcclain	41.56			19
20	Shaun Mclaren	40.97		+1	21
21	Chris Fennell	40.70		-1	20
22	Raphael Levy	39.64		—	NR
23	Eric Froehlich	39.02		-1	22
24	Gaudenis Vidugiris	38.70		-1	23
25	Matej Zatlkaj	38.47		-1	24