The Player of the Year race is a points race that runs from 1/23 through the final N.Y.S.E tournament of 2010. Only points from major N.Y.S.E. events (not N.Y.S.E. Lites or weekly tournaments at Mark's Comics) count towards the standings. 3 points are awarded for a win, 1 point is awarded for a draw.
This is the additional bonus given to the top 8:
1st - 12 points
2nd - 9 points
3rd/4th - 6 points
5th-8th - 3 points
Thus if a player has 15 points at the end of the Swiss standings, and this player wins the event, the player would get an additional 12 points for a grand total of 27 points on the day.
The winner of the N.Y.S.E. Player of the Year race gets free entry into all major (not N.Y.S.E. Lite or weekly Vintage touranments) N.Y.S.E events for 2011. I'm working on a trophy as well.
Oh I have the trophy. One could say it was a gift from Ed Goodwin.