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Grinder: The Brad Nelson Story PDF

200 Pages·2011·1.04 MB·English
by  Hagon
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Grinder: The Brad Nelson Story by Rich Hagon Copyright © 2011 Rich Hagon Edited by Glenn Jones Published and distributed by StarCityGames.com Cover design by Kristen Plescow Book design by Lauren Lee All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering, and Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., in the United States and other countries. ©1993-2011 Wizards of the Coast LLC. All rights reserved. Acknowledgements To our families, for supporting us over so many years. To all the many friends we've made around the world. To our readers, listeners, and viewers, who make it all worthwhile. To the staff behind the scenes at StarCityGames.com who have worked tirelessly to see this project through to fruition. To Wizards of the Coast, the people who make Magic the best game in the world. From Rich, a special thank you to all the wonderful people of North Dakota. For sharing your homes, your food, your stories, and your friendship, you guys are the best. And finally to you, dear reader, for joining us on the journey. Many and heartfelt thanks, Rich and Brad Dedication In loving memory of Patricia Anne Hagon 1934 - 2010 Foreward Fargo, March 2011 It has been, quite frankly, an astonishing week. For the last seven days I have lived with Brad Nelson, laughed with (and sometimes at) Brad Nelson, and listened to Brad Nelson as his story has unfolded. How often do we get the opportunity to spend something like one hundred hours engaged in intimate conversation with someone who has reached the peak of their craft? How often do we get to spend day after day exploring the inner workings of a very special human mind? And how often do we get to uncover the fundamental truths that separate the extraordinary from the merely very good? Of course, to listen and to record and to quest for understanding is only half of the equation. Any book like this can only be as good as the subject is prepared to make it. When I arrived in North Dakota, Brad and I were not close friends. I knew that he was smart, a tremendous Magic player, and that I had always enjoyed our occasional professional conversations at various events around the world. I arrived with an outline of a story; a story of wins and losses shaped by the major highs and lows of Brad's Magic career. I leave with something profoundly more interesting, more challenging, and more humbling. I leave with insight into another human being—an insight achieved purely because Brad allowed it. This book does not judge Brad Nelson. That he has achieved considerable success in his chosen field is beyond doubt, as is the fact that he has paid a price for that success. Whether that price was worth paying is something for every reader to consider, because at the heart of this book is a simple question with an infinitely complex answer. How do I succeed? This book is largely about the Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game because that is the arena in which Brad plies his trade—if you're unfamiliar with the game, I suggest visiting the appendix, "More about Magic." Yet this book could be about accountancy, politics, theater, architecture, poker, or any sport under the sun. Anything, in fact, that involves the pursuit of excellence. While the success Brad has achieved is far from a universal experience, his story is precisely that: it's the story of someone who has a goal and sets out to achieve it. Enjoy the ride. R. Prologue In the Event of a Tie "**** Magic." —Brad Nelson Chiba, Japan. December 12th, 2010—the final day of the professional season, the final day of the Magic: The Gathering World Championship. Eight players have reached the Sunday stage, and they will battle for a combined payout of close to $250,000 dollars. The quarterfinals and semifinals are over. Now only two players remain, going head to head under the pitiless glare of spotlights both literal and metaphorical as they vie to secure the title before a global audience that spans hundreds of countries and contains millions of players and fans. Away from the hundreds watching the arena on a giant video screen, away from his friends, and away from well-wishers he just doesn't want to have to deal with, one man paces. This lumbering giant of a man peers with intense blue eyes out of a rounded, deeply-forested face. It doesn't take a genius to look into those eyes and see a man whose world is slowly falling apart. You would be hard-pressed to guess what he does for a living. If this were wrestling, he'd be "The Mountain Man" or "The Great Bear." Without the beard, maybe "The Baby-Faced Assassin." Perhaps he's a security guard. If so, you wouldn't want to pick a fight with him—drunk or sober. In truth, he most closely resembles an offensive lineman for the Minnesota Vikings. Meet our hero, Brad Nelson. Brad doesn't make his living with his body. He isn't a security guard or a football player, and this isn't wrestling. Yes, there's something Incredible about this Hulk, but it isn't the massive power generated from monolithic shoulders. This man's power lies elsewhere. Where it counts, there is nothing slow about Brad Nelson. He has the speed of Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive, between his ears. His mind harbors the machine-like analysis of Peyton Manning, future Hall of Fame football quarterback. His eyes twinkle with the Machiavellian cunning of Phil Jackson, legendary Los Angeles basketball coach. He possesses a mathematical prowess that would put poker professional Daniel Negreanu to shame. Most of all, Brad bears the ruthless will to win that every truly great sportsman requires. And he is losing. It isn't meant to be like this. For most of 2010 he has been just about as dominant a force as a game played with cards will allow. The Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour sees players from around the world bring personalized decks of cards to huge tournaments. There they compete for days, culminating in a Top 8 where the elite display their skills. With thousands of cards to choose from and an ever-changing landscape of available options, this is the ultimate test of gaming skill. Hundreds of players—sometimes thousands—compete at each major event, but only eight will reach the knockout stages of the final day. The chances of reaching the hallowed Top 8 for the average player are miniscule. In 2010, Brad's Top 8 success rate is close to 50%. It's outrageous, unexpected, and completely unprecedented. As the Pro Tour has crisscrossed the globe from California to Kuala Lumpur, from San Diego to San Juan, from Sweden to Sydney, and at last to Japan for the end-of-year finale, Brad Nelson has built a virtually unassailable lead in the race for Player of the Year, Magic's ultimate accolade. And yet... And yet Guillaume Matignon, an unheralded twenty-nine year-old professional from Bordeaux, France, is systematically ruining what was meant to be a coronation. For Brad, it is rapidly turning into a wake. At the end of the first day of competition, Matignon sits so far back in the field that you almost need a telescope to see him. His Top 8 chances were balanced on the point where mathematical improbability intersects with mathematical impossibility. Since that precarious point, Matignon has done nothing but win, and win, and win again. Now, in the finals of the World Championship, he faces fellow Frenchman, fellow traveller, fellow roommate, and even fellow Guillaume: Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, a former Pro Tour Champion. If Matignon wins, defying odds that would quail the heart of even the most ardent chip-and-a-chair Vegas hopeful, he will make Magic history and force a tie in the Player of the Year race. There will also be the not-inconsiderable matter of $45,000 for becoming World Champion—but it is the tantalizing glimpse of a Player of the Year playoff that occupies the minds of most watchers. For Brad, the prospect isn't tantalizing. It is sickening. In truth it's his own fault, and he knows it. While some of his rivals have been piling up miles on their airline loyalty cards, Brad has arrived at this position of global dominance in a manner that borders on the insouciant. He has resolutely refused to chase Pro Points at far-flung events, preferring to stay home while others attempted to bridge the gap his stellar run of Top 8 performances have created. It's ironic that this most perceptive and reflective of characters has only just come to the realization of how important the Player of the Year title is to him at the very moment when he is most helpless to influence the outcome. So he paces. He has been undone by a welter of experiences he has yet to process, the weight of global expectation he hasn't been able to carry, media obligations that have forced him out of his Zen-like comfort zone, a tournament schedule that has left him physically and mentally exhausted, and, above all, by a series of must-win matches that he simply hasn't won. The drip-drip-drip of pressures both real and imagined constitutes a form of mental torture that even Torquemada would envy. The unkindest cut of all comes in the final: the Torture of Hope. While the door to salvation remains however tentatively ajar, Brad Nelson must continue to believe that Wafo-Tapa will do him the greatest of all favors. He must believe that he will hold the Player of the Year trophy aloft before the eyes of the world. So he paces. Finally, mercifully, it is over. In the battle between these French roommates and best friends, it is Matignon who has triumphed, Matignon who is the 2010 World Champion, and Matignon who has forced the first ever playoff for the Player of the Year title. Backstage, a deluge of emotions—none of them good— crash against Nelson's psyche, and he knows this is a time when only family will do. "To be honest, I just hid for a while," Brad recalls. "It was a very, very sad time. I wanted to come home and show off a trophy. I couldn't win Player of the Year any more—I could only lose it. It felt like something that was already mine was taken away from me. I know it wasn't the case, but it felt as if the title was being stolen. Matignon is a good player, and he's now a good friend, but he'd come out of nowhere. He had two huge finishes and got 48 Points from those two events. That's unreal. "For the first time in a while, I needed parental reassurance. When you're a kid, there are times that you think the world is ending, even though of course it isn't, and you just need a hug. Right then, I needed blood." He calls his father Jess, who is watching every moment of the Top 8 back in Bismarck, North Dakota. This is meant to be a moment of high elation—a final justification for all the hard work and heartache, a glorious conclusion to an incredible Grind, and a reward for all the support that loving parents lavish upon their offspring. Instead, this is as difficult a moment as the Nelson family has faced during Brad's time in the game. Brad's pain echoes in his father's words. "I just felt so bad. My heart reached out to my boy who was in a lot of pain. I could tell in his voice that he was just crushed, that the walls had just come tumbling down." Also watching that fateful afternoon is Brad's grandmother Delila, a woman of indomitable spirit. Delila religiously follows every scrap of information about her "little buddy," so she already knows what has transpired. "I was sitting there and thinking, 'Well, you may have won the World Championship Mr. Matignon, but you haven't won Player of the Year.' We still had a chance." Grandma Delila has it right. In the event of a tie, the regulations call for a playoff to determine the destination of the title. This is uncharted territory—as the supposed final day of the season comes to a close, nobody knows what form the playoff will take. All anyone can say with certainty is that the world will have to wait until a date with destiny in Paris, France on Valentine's Day weekend to discover exactly who will be crowned Player of the Year 2010. Delila puts it best. "He was down, but he hadn't lost yet." With two months to wait before the playoff against Matignon, Brad will eventually place the World Championship events into perspective. "Some website nominated my Worlds week for 'Most Depressing Performance of 2010.' I won nearly $11,000 that week. Seriously, that was a bad weekend?" However, as he lies in the silence and solace of his hotel room, the memory of watching Matignon hoist the World Championship trophy high is painfully fresh and perspective is not so easy to come by. As he closes the door on the most painful chapter of his career to date, Brad has time for one last primal thought. "**** Magic." Chapter One North Dakota "From that moment on, I decided that killing things wasn't something I needed to do." —Brad Nelson Bradley Jess Nelson is born on May 21st, 1986, to mother Laurie, a secretary, and father Jess, a postal worker. Both in their early 20's, they marry young and soon want to start a family. Although he would never admit to a preference ahead of time, Jess is thrilled to be the parent of a baby boy. They're tremendously happy parents, but Jess and Laurie's relationship fails with Brad still little more than a baby. Jess moves on to fresh pastures while remaining in close contact with his son, leaving Brad to grow up in the care of his mom and Grandma Delila. It's easy to think in terms of stereotypes, and Brad lives in a world surrounded by the kind of images that dominate the stylized Failing America documentaries. Try "single moms," "broken homes," and "trailer parks" to get the ball rolling—add in emotive words like "drugs" and "prostitution" and you've got a whole HBO miniseries waiting to happen. But, like many of the best true stories, the reality is a lot more prosaic than the headlines that accompany it. Brad is quick to deconstruct the obvious associations. "So, the trailer park thing. Yes, there were a lot of poor families. I mean, you wouldn't choose to be there if you were rich. There were a lot of Native Americans, a few single guys, lots of single moms with their kids. Not many families. There were some drug problems, mostly meth, and there was this one woman who persuaded men to pay for sex under her trailer. I guess there was a little petty crime. So, if you want to say that this was the bad part of North Dakota, then you can say that. But let's be clear—the bad part of North Dakota is nowhere even close to actually being bad." Whereas the north side of town has all the nice homes, all the trailer kids live on the south side. Despite the potential social problems, Brad has a good early education: first at Roosevelt Elementary and later at Fort Lincoln Elementary once he reaches third grade. Both are good schools with good teachers and their graduation rates are high. It's well-known that children can adapt to almost any circumstance and regard it as a normal part of life, but listening to Jess makes it seem as if it was always going to take something significant to disrupt the young Brad's calm. "Right from the start, he was a contented child. He had a wonderful

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Overview: Grinder: The Brad Nelson Story is more than just the entertaining tale of Magic's exceptional 2010 Player of the Year as told by Rich Hagon. The journey that began with Grand Prix Oakland and ended at Pro Tour Paris is contained within the scope of Brad's saga, but there is so much more to
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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.