Hélène Bergeot started her career with Wizards of the Coast in France in December, 1995; afterwards, she spent a few years in the European headquarters based in Belgium and eventually relocated to the Renton office. She is currently the director of organized play and trade marketing.

Editor's Note: This article was amended with the changes announced at Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar.

A little over a month ago, at Pro Tour Magic Origins, we announced a number of improvements to the 2015–16 Premier Play season and revealed the schedule for 2016's Grand Prix. Since then, we have had to make some changes to that schedule. Today, we will also be revealing the modified prize structure for 2016's Grand Prix, which we briefly touched on in our previous announcement.

2016 Grand Prix Schedule Changes

Since our initial announcement, we have had to shift a couple of dates and formats around for the 2016 Grand Prix schedule. You can find those changes below:

Grand Prix Beijing: Date moved to April 15–17, format changed to Limited to match other Grand Prix that weekend

Grand Prix Kuala Lumpur: Date moved to October 21-23

Grand Prix Milwaukee: Format changed to Limited

Grand Prix New York City: Date moved to May 6–8

Grand Prix Sydney: Date moved to July 29–31

Grand Prix Taipei: Date moved to June 24–26

In addition, the Grand Prix have been split into blocks that will qualify top finishers for a selected Pro Tour. Those date ranges are:

November 28, 2015–March 20, 2016

Feeds: Pro Tour Madrid 2016

GPs (11): Oakland, Vancouver, Nagoya, Mexico City, Houston, Detroit, Bologna, Melbourne, Washington, D.C., Paris

March 26, 2016–June 5, 2016

Feeds: Pro Tour Sydney 2016

GPs (10): Albuquerque, Barcelona, Beijing, Toronto, New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Manchester, Costa Rica

June 10, 2016–August 28, 2016

Feeds: Pro Tour Honolulu 2016

GPs (13): Columbus, Prague, Pittsburgh, Taipei, Sao Paulo, Montreal, Stockholm, Sydney, Portland, Rimini, Indianapolis, Lille, Guangzhou

September 3, 2016–November 27, 2016

Feeds: The First Pro Tour of 2017

GPs (11): Louisville, Kyoto, Atlanta, London, Kuala Lumpur, Providence, Warsaw, Santiago, Dallas, Rotterdam, Chiba

December 2, 2016–December 11, 2016

Feeds: The Second Pro Tour of 2017

GPs (3): Denver, Madrid, Milwaukee

Note: The early-2017 Grand Prix will be added to this list once those events are scheduled later next year.

The previous announcement will be modified to reflect these changes. However, you can find the complete schedule, broken down by season along with which organizer is running which event, below. If you are planning on attending any Grand Prix next year, then I highly advise bookmarking this page for your records and your convenience.

Editor's Note: The schedule was updated to remove Buenos Aires and add Costa Rica, as a result of this announcement and the announcement at Pro Tour Battle for Zendikar. The schedule was also updated to reflect the change in venue for Grand Prix Madrid.

City Country Venue Date Format Organizer Oakland USA Oakland Convention Center January 8-10, 2016 Standard ChannelFireball Vancouver Canada Vancouver Congress Centre January 29-31, 2016 Limited GameKeeper Nagoya Japan Port Messe January 29-31, 2016 Limited BIG MAGIC Mexico City Mexico Expo Reforma January 29-31, 2016 Limited Necrotower Houston USA George R Brown Convention Center February 26-28, 2016 Standard ChannelFireball Detroit USA Cobo Hall March 4-6 2016 Modern Professional Event Services Bologna Italy Bologna Fiere March 4-6 2016 Modern Legacy Distribution Melbourne Australia Melbourne Olympic Park March 4-6 2016 Modern ChainLinks Washington, D.C. USA Walter Washington Convention Center March 11-13, 2016 Team Limited StarCityGames Paris France Paris Le Bourget March 18-20, 2016 Standard ChannelFireball Albuquerque USA Albuquerque Convention Center April 15-17, 2016 Limited Cascade Games Barcelona Spain Fira Barcelona April 15-17, 2016 Limited TournamentCenter.EU Beijing China Yi Fang Sports Center April 15-17, 2016 Limited Panda Events Toronto Canada Enercare Centre April 29-May 1, 2016 Standard Face-to-Face Games New York USA Meadowlands Exposition Center May 6-8, 2016 Standard ChannelFireball Tokyo Japan Big Sight May 6-8, 2016 Standard Hobby Station Los Angeles USA Los Angeles Convention Center May 20-22, 2016 Modern ChannelFireball Charlotte USA Greater Charlotte Convention Center May 20-22, 2016 Modern StarCityGames Minneapolis USA Minneapolis Convention Center May 27-29, 2016 Standard Pastimes Manchester England Manchester Event City May 27-29, 2016 Standard Mind Sports International San Jose Costa Rica Barcelo San Jose Palacio June 3-5, 2016 Standard Playcon Columbus USA Greater Columbus Convention Center June 10-12, 2016 Legacy Professional Event Services Prague Czech Republic Výstaviště PVA Expo Praha June 10-12, 2016 Legacy TournamentCenter.EU Pittsburgh USA David D. Lawrence Convention Center June 24-26, 2016 Standard TJ Collectibles Taipei Chinese Taipei Expo Dome, Taipei Expo Foundation No. 1 June 24-26, 2016 Standard ChainLinks Sao Paulo Brazil Pro Magno July 1-3, 2016 Team Limited Jambô Loja Montreal Canada Palais des congrès de Montréal July 29-31, 2016 Limited GameKeeper Stockholm Sweden Stockholmsmässan July 29-31, 2016 Limited TournamentCenter.EU Sydney Australia Sydney Olympic Park July 29-31, 2016 Limited ChainLinks Portland USA Oregon Convention Center August 12-14, 2016 Standard Cascade Games Rimini Italy Palacongressi August 12-14, 2016 Standard Legacy Distribution Lille France Lille Grand Palais August 26-28, 2016 Modern Mind Sports International Indianapolis USA Indiana Convention Center August 26-28, 2016 Modern Pastimes Guangzhou China Guangzhou PWTC Expo August 26-28, 2016 Modern Panda Events Louisville USA Kentucky Exposition Center September 9-11, 2016 Team Limited TJ Collectibles Kyoto Japan Pulse Plaza September 9-11, 2016 Team Limited Hobby Station Atlanta USA Georgia World Convention Center October 7-9, 2016 Limited StarCityGames London England ExCel London October 7-9, 2016 Limited ChannelFireball Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre October 21-23, 2016 Standard ChainLinks Providence USA Rhode Island Convention Center October 21-23, 2016 Standard TJ Collectibles Warsaw Poland Expo XXI October 28-30, 2016 Standard ChannelFireball Santiago Chile Gran Palace October 28-30, 2016 Standard La Forja de Stone Dallas USA Fort Worth Convention Center November 4-6, 2016 Modern Professional Event Services Rotterdam Netherlands Ahoy Rotterdam November 11-13, 2016 Team Limited TournamentCenter.EU Chiba Japan Makuhari Messe November 25-27, 2016 Legacy Hareruya Inc. Denver USA Crowne Plaza International Airport Hotel & Convention Center December 2-4, 2016 Standard Cascade Games Madrid Spain Pabellón Multiusos I. Recinto Ferial Casa de Campo December 2-4, 2016 Standard Mind Sports International Milwaukee USA Wisconsin Center December 9-11, 2016 Limited Pastimes

The 2016 Grand Prix schedule can also be found on our Premier Events calendar as well as the Grand Prix events page later today.

2016 Grand Prix Prize Structure Updates

As mentioned in our announcement during Pro Tour Magic Origins, we have re-evaluated the current prize structure that exists for players who finish well at a Grand Prix. After careful consideration, we determined that the prize money awarded to the Top 4 finishers of a Grand Prix does not accurately reflect the difficulty in reaching that stage of a tournament.

The revised prize structure places more of the prize money awarded at Grand Prix to the top finishers, with the winner of an individual Grand Prix now slated to take home $10,000USD starting in 2016.

Below are the revised prize structures for individual and team Grand Prix in 2016, based on the number of players. No changes to Professional Point payouts have occurred.

Individual Grand Prix

Place 0–2,999 3,000+ 1 $10,000 $10,000 2 $5,000 $5,000 3–4 $2,500 $2,500 5–8 $1,500 $1,500 9–16 $1,000 $1,000 17–32 $500 $500 33–64 $250 $250 65–100 n/a $250 101–180 n/a $200

Team Grand Prix (prize payouts per team)

Place 0–999 1,000+ 1 $15,000 $15,000 2 $7,500 $7,500 3–4 $3,750 $3,750 5–8 $2,100 $2,100 9–12 $1,800 $1,800 13–16 $1,500 $1,500 17–20 $1,200 $1,200 21–24 $900 $900 25–30 n/a $900 31–42 n/a $750 43–58 n/a $600

As always, we strive to bring the community a positive, memorable experience at our Grand Prix, and we aim to both listen to and address appropriate feedback as quickly and professionally as we can.