For me, it was Pro Tour champion Will Craddock.
Long before he ever won the Players Tour online in 2020, Craddock was the best Magic player in Oklahoma—and he was the player I was constantly chasing as I leveled up my own competitive Magic game. I remember being stuck in 2nd place in ELO rating because Craddock's was unassailable, even as my rating approached automatic Pro Tour qualifying territory, and I remember him defeating me late in Pro Tour Qualifiers. That's a regional end boss by every metric, and there's certainly no shame in coming in second to a three-time Grand Prix Top 8 competitor.
Fast forward to 2026 and the Regional Championship system that's in full swing. The thrice-yearly circuit of a dozen tournaments across the world to qualify players directly for the Pro Tour has become the de facto gathering of an area's best Magic players, particularly in some smaller regions where there's a real feeling of familiarity between the competitors. Familiar faces in both the playing field and tournament staff, repeat destinations, the chance to regularly test yourself against those whom you know are standing between you and the Pro Tour.
It's a breeding ground for improvement, and over the last several years Regional Championships have evolved from more than just a large Pro Tour qualifying event to their own standalone highlight. Testing teams form, bootcamps fire up, lodging together for Regional Championships, just like they hope to eventually do for the Pro Tour. Some smaller regions have seen multiple repeat Top 8 competitors—a few of them like William Araujo seemed to make it a habit—and the prestige of performing well at a Regional Championship has only grown.
So, with that in mind, how do you stand out at the Regional Championship? Winning, obviously. But how about winning back-to-back Regional Championships?
That's exactly what happened last month in China, as Yuchen Liu accomplished something at the MTG China Open that no one else can lay claim to.
Consider the bar raised. Liu's back-to-back dominant runs in China are unreal when viewed collectively: He is 20-1-2 in matches played. That's nearly an incomprehensible number (having won 87% of his matches) and bodes very well for Liu as he prepares for Magic World Championship 32 coming up next month.
The 35-year-old Beijing native knows that those titles, that becoming the first back-to-back Regional Championship winner, is a meaningful accomplishment; it's certainly one I'll be referencing in this column for a long time to come. And it means something to Liu, as well—the Regional Championship isn't just a stepping stone on his way to the Pro Tour and the World Championship.
"I don't have many titles in my career; it's quite important to me," explained Liu, who made his Pro Tour debut in 2010 in Amsterdam and has since amassed three Top Finishes at the premier level, including a pair of Top 8s in 2025 at Pro Tour Aetherdrift and Pro Tour Magic: The Gathering®—FINAL FANTASY™. "I play the tournaments at my own pace; at most of the Regional Championships, I've gotten mediocre results, but not at the last two!"
Of course, if Liu let a few poor results deter him, he never would have continued with the game after flaming out at the Ravnica: City of Guilds Prerelease in 2005, his first foray into tournament Magic.
"I was fascinated by MTG tournaments, and since then I've played in events from Friday Night Magic to Pro Tour Qualifiers," he recalled. "My first really big tournament was Grand Prix Bangkok in 2009, then Pro Tour Amsterdam in 2010, and I've tried to play in as many events as I can ever since."
He's got plenty of those in his immediate future, starting with the World Championship in Atlanta next month. And the next Regional Championship in China will carry with it an unprecedented storyline and more intrigue than any of the thirteen Regional Championships held in China prior.
Liu's run last month is emblematic of what he's been doing at the highest levels for the last two years. After taking Izzet Prowess to the Standard title back in May, he transitioned over to Modern by piloting the complex
"Modern is a format with a lot of diversity, and there are so many things to learn," he said. "It is usually better to choose the deck you are most familiar with, but not the 'best' deck. I think play skill in Modern is way more important than deck choice."
That's the common refrain for the format, and fortunately for Liu he may have both on his side as he worked his way through nine Swiss rounds and a gauntlet of a Top 8: He first outlasted Zihao Wang's lightning-fast Modern Izzet Prowess list before winning the mirror match in the semifinals against Yiren Jiang. That set up a finals rematch with Izzet Prowess, this time against Steven Li, who was trying to avenge his own earlier loss in the tournament to Liu. But it was not meant to be, and Liu's tight list carried the day in a deciding Game 3 in the finals.
What's next for Liu after the win? More of the same. He's looking forward to his next big event, and two decades after picking the game up from a friend at school lunch, Magic is still just as fascinating. With an international slate of events already full, Liu is preparing for those by enjoying Magic in much the same way he has for the past 20 years: with a fervent desire to improve at the game he has so much fun playing.
"And I'm going to work hard to play in as many high-level Magic events as I can," he added.