Many roads lead to the Pro Tour, some of them winding through local game stores before heading to a Regional Championship, others cutting a path through the competition at a Spotlight Series event, and a few that stay close to home thanks to online play. For five players—some new to the Pro Tour, others seasoned veterans of the competitive scene—each one of their routes to qualifying for the Pro Tour is a unique and valuable path to the pinnacle of competitive Magic.

Alexander MacIsaac secured his trip to Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed when he won Magic Spotlight: Spider-Man last October. He'd come close once before, at the Canadian Regional Championship in Montreal earlier in the year. For MacIsaac, playing on the Pro Tour was the next clear stop on his Magic journey.

"It was the next step in achievements in my Magic journey, and the only other after that would be to place high enough in a Pro Tour to qualify for the World Championship! For players regularly attending Regional Championships, it's hard to not develop a goal of qualifying for the Pro Tour. Attending a Pro Tour is a kind of status symbol for many players. You see people walk around the player tables of a Regional Championship, Regional Championship Qualifier, or even casual nights at your LGS, and you can't help but look twice when you spot a player with a Pro Tour backpack or Pro Tour playmat."

For MacIsaac, the Magic Spotlight Series is a unique mix of high-caliber players and newer competitors. It's an opportunity for anyone who wants to sign up and play competitive Magic.

"The Spotlight Series features a lot of really top-tier players, but at the same time you have a pool of players that didn't have that big edge from trying to get into the Regional Championship itself. You didn't have to qualify, you just sign up online and you go. I think it is more difficult to qualify for the Pro Tour through the Spotlight Series just because there is that larger pool of players, but at the same time it's a great experience to go to the Spotlight Series. I always love the coverage and everything.

"It's a really unique feeling for a big international-type tournament, and you don't need to qualify, so it's open to all players of all skill levels. There are less barriers for people to get in there and actually show off their skill. That's one of the big beauties of it. Another [benefit] is that it's a fifteen-round tournament, which a lot of players haven't experienced. Seeing those players of all skill levels, you meet some players who are experiencing it for the first time, and you see the other extreme of the super veteran player that you've seen at the World Championship and they're playing right next to someone that's probably playing their first or second tournament."

Dom Harvey is a longtime Pro Tour player with a 4th-place finish at Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings to his name, though he's probably most well known as an expert on Amulet Titan and the author of more than 30,000 words on how to pilot the notoriously challenging deck. Most recently, his path back to the Pro Tour led through the Canadian Regional Championship, where he once again qualified playing Amulet Titan.

"This is the deck that got me to my first Pro Tour over a decade ago, back when I had no idea what to expect, and it is the deck that got me my one big taste of Pro Tour success as well. That's been the one constant throughout all the different ways the Pro Tour has looked and my different experiences with it, so it's nice to bring that full circle.

"During the past few years of paper Pro Tours, I experienced all the different forms of being invited or not being invited. I had a floating invite from the MTG Arena era of Set Championships, and then I did well at one Pro Tour and that qualified me for a few more. I did badly at all of those, so I fell off and then had to claw my way back on."

For Harvey, one of the important aspects of the Regional Championship is the way that it creates opportunities for players from across the globe, and of varying experience levels.

"I've played some of the US Regional Championships with 1,500 people, and it's a seething mass of humanity. You meet people from some of the Latin American Regional Championships or the Asian Regional Championships where it's 150 or 200 people, and it's a much more intimate vibe there because everyone knows everyone else. It's awesome for them because it's much harder to get to a Spotlight Series event in the US or Europe, and also you're kind of carrying the flame for the rest of your country in a way.

"I think both extremes showcase what Magic can be for lots of different people. You have also this contrast between some of the grizzled veterans who have been around the block a bit, then you have the people who qualify for their first Pro Tour and you can see they're completely overjoyed and they don't know what to expect, but they know they're excited about it. I think having that bridge between those different levels of competition and competition in different areas is what makes those events and the events that they qualify for so special."

Like nearly every player on the Pro Tour, Harvey plays at least in part with the goal of returning to the Sunday stage.

"You spend a lot of your early career dreaming of making it to that first Pro Tour, and once you are there you dream of having more chances so that one day," said Harvey, "if the stars align, you bring your A game, you bring the right deck, and everything goes right, then just maybe you could make the Top 8."

While that's on his mind, his more quotidian reason for qualifying is the opportunity to test and play alongside friends and put up a result that reflects his practice and preparation.

"For me, I had this one amazing experience of making the Top 8 of a Pro Tour, and I've had a lot of quite tragic experiences of putting a lot of work in, then failing and flopping. I hadn't really had that stable outcome in between where I do pretty well and play pretty well, then I go 10-6 and I get to come back for the next one and cheer on my friends who did better. So that's my goal at this point. I would love to win the tournament, don't get me wrong. But realistically, if I could feel like I put work in and got a decent result out of it and get to cheer on my friends who are doing a bit better than me, then that would feel like a victory in a certain way. So that's the goal for this one."

Owen Turcotte also qualified at the Canadian Regional Championship, which he won. Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed will be his first Pro Tour, and his qualification was a bit of a surprise for him.

"Any time that I've gotten close to qualifying before was all online. I have a few different Magic Online Pro Tour Qualifier Top 8 appearances, then I lost playing in the finals of a Magic Online Championship Series Qualifier. Those were my close calls before, and this was my first time actually doing well in a paper event."

Winning the Regional Championship (or even qualifying for the Pro Tour) wasn't at the top of Turcotte's mind going into the Regional Championship. His focus was on improving his paper tournament play, which hadn't matched his online results.

"I went in with pretty low expectations. I realized that I hadn't been doing well at Regional Championships or large paper events since the system started, and I thought that it had a lot to do with my comfort with playing in larger events, especially in person. I went in with a mindset that I wasn't going to care about my final result and just needed to learn to be more comfortable playing larger events, then I think that that mindset really helped to take the pressure off of me. I'm glad that the process gave me the results."

The Regional Championship is also meaningful to players like Turcotte because of the prestige associated with the event, beyond just the Pro Tour invitations that it offers.

"I think having some sort of qualifying structure in paper Magic is super important, and I think that the Regional Championship structure is probably the best they've had so far. I did play quite a bit in the Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifiers system, and I think that this feels similar, but it gives you more of a prestigious event at the end. It feels almost bigger than a Grand Prix, because you get the title of Regional Champion when you win, so there's like some national pride there with that. It's like a Grand Prix that you have to qualify for, and you also still have the in-store play, which I think is pretty important."

While Turcotte found his first taste of success at a paper event, former World Champion and Pro Tour Champion Nathan Steuer made his way back to the Pro Tour by qualifying online, earning an invite via both the Magic Online Champions Showcase and an Arena Championship.

"I've had a lot of success playing in big Magic Online events and having that be a route to qualification. It is really hard to get on the Pro Tour train outside of the RCs, and it was awesome being able to show up and compete where the winner gets a direct invite via Magic Online. That's part of what I love so much about the Magic Online Champions Showcase Opens."

One of the key aspects of online play is its availability to everyone. While travel can be a limitation for some players, Magic Online and MTG Arena both afford players the opportunity to qualify from home.

"Part of it is accessibility. You could play these events from anywhere, and there's no real barrier to entry other than entering the event itself. But the other thing is that playing online has really stiff competition, so it's nice that there's accessibility, but it really trains you to be ready to compete on the Pro Tour if you win via one of the online avenues.

"My favorite aspect of them is that I get to relax in between rounds in the comfort of my own home. When I'm playing live events, I want to talk to my friends and it's a lot of fun, but at the same time it can be mentally more taxing. There are a lot of other variables, and when you're playing online, you get to focus on your matches and recovering between matches."

Steuer already has Magic's two biggest titles to his name, but he still has both the drive to compete and the pull of sharing the Pro Tour experience with friends and teammates.

"The big part of it is that I want to show up and succeed because I love competing. There's a little bit less meaning to me if I were to win on the Pro Tour, but I love testing with my group of friends on Team Handshake, and I also just love feeling like I have to push myself as hard as possible to compete against the best. It is just the most fun form of Magic I would say. That's sort of where I'm at in my Magic journey."

Adriano Moscato has played in almost two dozen Pro Tours, including Pro Tour Edge of Eternities in Atlanta, Georgia. He didn't make it to Day Two and didn't have a qualification lined up for Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed. Luckily, a Pro Tour Qualifier at MagicCon: Atlanta gave him another shot. Even better was the fact that, unlike Regional Championships, the Pro Tour Qualifier was Limited.

"I went to Atlanta to play the Pro Tour but unfortunately didn't make Day Two, but I was pretty happy that there was a tournament to give me a second chance on Saturday. It was a really long and difficult tournament because we were like 500 people and just four slots for invites. It was really nice to have another opportunity even if I missed the Pro Tour, and it was a really fun tournament. I love playing Limited, so I was really happy about playing it.

"I usually play in Regional Championships to qualify for the Pro Tour, so the field was really similar to a Regional Championship. The only difference was that it was Limited, which is my favorite format. I really enjoyed it because all the Regional Championships are focused on Constructed. I was happy that I had the chance to qualify playing Limited, which is my best format."

In addition to being another competitive play opportunity for players who don't make Day Two of the Pro Tour, Moscato appreciates that the Pro Tour Qualifiers at MagicCons are a draw for his friends who have a competitive drive but aren't playing on the Pro Tour.

"We play a lot of competitive Magic, so they probably wouldn't come just for MagicCon, which is a really good experience, but of course we always think about the competitive part. A lot of the time some friends of mine are just coming with us, even if they're not qualified for the Pro Tour, just to enjoy the MagicCon and also to have a chance to play a tournament at a high level."

And it's important to Moscato to have both that opportunity to compete, and that reason to travel whether he and his friends are qualified or not, because that has become the backbone of his Magic experience.

"I've always been a competitive player, so for me the goal is to qualify for the Pro Tour. Not only for playing the tournament, but because it's what I like in Magic, it's the best part. I've been playing for a long time, so all my teammates are not just teammates. They are friends. So it's an occasion to do a trip with my friends, and of course play in the tournament, but for me, the trip is the most important thing. You stay for one week with some friends, having fun playing, and for me that's the best."

Across each path to qualification, for all five of these players and so many more that are heading to Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed, each path to qualification is both an opportunity to compete at the highest levels of Magic and a way to build and maintain the friendships and team partnerships that they've built along the way. Each path to qualification has its set of players that it appeals to most, but in every case, no one player walks that path alone.