Justin Gary '02 may be a magician, but you won't see him pulling rabbits out of a hat or sawing people in half. Gary is a world class player of Magic: The Gathering, the card game of spells and wizardry popularized in the early 1990s.
On the outside, one would not immediately recognize extraordinary traits in Gary. An unassuming 18-year-old freshman hailing from Miami, Fla., Gary participated in typical high school activities like debate and the National Honor Society.
But these interests were secondary to his main passion of Magic, which he has been playing for four years now.
During a game of magic, players each draw seven cards from their personally created decks of collectible cards. On each turn, a player must play a card using a strategy to compete against the opponent. Each card has different costs of playing and different effects.
Gary won the 1997 American National Championship in his first professional tournament. He is currently ranked 18th in the world, and has climbed as high as 10th.
Tomorrow he will leave for a professional tour stop in Rome, Italy, with the hopes of earning an invitation to the World Championships in Seattle this summer.
Yahoo, MCI and Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, sponsor the pro tours, and invited about 300 Magic players from around the world were invited to the Rome competition. Gary was invited due to his world ranking.
Gary's trip to Rome will be his second departure from Hanover for a Magic tournament. He competed in Chicago while his classmates finished Freshman Orientation and attended their first day of classes.
Gary said he began playing Magic when an older cousin introduced him to the game. He forgot about the game for a while, but came back to it by chance.
"At this LazerStorm place, all these people there were playing," Gary said. "So I went over there and got my butt whooped." After that defeat, he decided he wanted to improve his playing abilities.
Gary said he discovered the importance of using strategy in the game, and honed his skills reading books about the game and competing against superior players.
He entered several junior tournaments and enjoyed some success. Winning the National Championship started Gary in the professional ranks.
He traveled to Seattle for the 1997 World Championships and missed being invited back last year by one rating point. He said he would have earned the necessary point simply by showing up at one other tournament.
Now, Gary is determined to return to Seattle. He hopes his research and practice over the Internet and at the College have prepared him to beat the other contestants in Rome and at the next major tournament, which will take place in Los Angeles in January.
"Over the summer, I put in 20 hours a week," Gary said of his practice habits. While he said he only practices about five hours a week now that he's in school, Gary maintains that he can win in Rome.
"I definitely have the ability," he said. "It is a game of chance and it does require a little bit of luck to really do well, but it's very much based upon skill."
Gary even believes he can gain the top ranking in the world, but that such a pursuit would require more effort than he's willing to give right now.
Gary said he also has other interests, including Parliamentary Debate and akido. And while he said he would like to continue playing Magic, he said he realizes his Dartmouth education will help him pursue other means of employment.
"Practice really does matter," said Gary. He explained the best players work hard to refine their skills.
"You have to have a poker face," Gary said of the necessary traits. "There are different strategies like bluffing and knowing some probabilities as to what your opponent is holding."
Gary said the current top-ranked player in the world, Jon Finkle of New Jersey, even took a year off from college to practice and play. That player also won $90,000 in prize money and the Rome tournament alone will net the victor $30,000, according to Gary.
But Gary said he doesn't compete just for the money.
"It's just a lot of fun," he said. "I've met a lot of people and been able to travel."
