Yuuya Watanabe (渡辺雄也) is a Japanese
Magic: The Gathering
''Magic: The Gathering'' (colloquially known as ''Magic'' or ''MTG'') is a tabletop and digital collectable card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro), ''Magic'' was the first ...
player and former World Champion. With five
Pro Tour top eights and 27
Grand Prix
Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour
Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to:
Arts and entertainment ...
top eights (including seven wins), Watanabe is best known for his Rookie of the Year title in 2007,
and his Player of the Year titles in 2009 and 2012. He is one of only three players to become Player of the Year more than once.
He was elected to the
Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame in 2016, along with
Owen Turtenwald
Owen Turtenwald (born ) is a former American professional ''Magic: The Gathering'' player. He won a number of awards during his career, notably the 2010 Vintage World Championship and 2011 and 2015-16 Player of the Year. In 2016, he was inducted ...
,
but removed in May 2019 after a cheating scandal involving marked card sleeves.
Career
Watanabe's professional Magic career began in
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
at Grand Prix Kyoto. He emerged as the champion from a top eight of relatively unknown players, something former Player of the Year
Kenji Tsumura had predicted on day one of the tournament. This qualified him for his first Pro Tour,
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...
, held about a month later. Despite not making another top eight that season at either the Pro Tour or Grand Prix level, strong finishes at
Pro Tour San Diego (22nd) with teammate
Shuhei Nakamura
is one of the most successful professional Magic: The Gathering players. He has reached the Top 8 of six Pro Tours and won seven Grands Prix, as well as being the 2008 Pro Player of the Year. In 2011, he was inducted into the Magic: The G ...
, and at
Pro Tour Valencia (21st) were enough for him to win the Rookie of the Year title.
The following season Watanabe did not perform as well on the Pro Tour, with a 35th-place finish at the
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
being his best finish. However, off Tour he did have some stand-out finishes. A third place standing at the Japanese National Championship earned him a place on the Japanese national team. Along with his national team colleagues
Masashi Oiso and Akihiro Takakuwa, Watanabe made the semifinals of the national team competition at Worlds, where Japan lost to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
team.
In 2009, Watanabe achieved a strong season, though the first half was somewhat unimpressive. He was able to offset the deficit of earning only the minimum two Pro Points at
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
and
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
with a second-place finish behind
Tomoharu Saitou
is one of the most successful professional Magic: The Gathering players and the owner of Hareruya Store in Tokyo.
Career
Saitou debuted at Pro Tour Chicago 2000. An 83rd-place finish meant he fell just short of making money. Later the same seas ...
at Grand Prix Kobe. The second half on the other hand was nothing short of spectacular, with Watanabe making the top eight in six consecutive premier level events. The run began with a second-place finish at Japanese Nationals behind his San Diego teammate
Shuhei Nakamura
is one of the most successful professional Magic: The Gathering players. He has reached the Top 8 of six Pro Tours and won seven Grands Prix, as well as being the 2008 Pro Player of the Year. In 2011, he was inducted into the Magic: The G ...
. After this finish, Watanabe made the top eight of four back-to-back Grand Prix in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
,
Niigata,
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, and
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, winning the last of these. This gave him the lead in the player of the year race going into
Pro Tour Austin, and made him the first non-Australian to win a Grand Prix in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. A year and a half after his Pro Tour debut, Watanabe made his first Pro Tour top eight at Pro Tour Austin. He lost his quarterfinal match in five games to Hunter Burton. After a 62nd-place finish at the next event, Grand Prix
Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
, Watanabe pick up right where he left off with another Grand Prix top eight in
Kitakyushu
is a Cities of Japan, city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, Kitakyushu has an estimated population of 940,978, making it the second-largest city in both Fukuoka Prefecture and the island of Kyushu after the city of Fuku ...
. Despite not doing very well at the
World Championship
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
, finishing 101st individually and 7th with the Japanese team that were favourites to win the tournament, none of Watanabe's competitors for Player of the Year were able to capitalise, and he was awarded the title at the end of the tournament.
During the
2012 season, his most successful season yet, Watanabe reached three Grand Prix top 8s, winning two of them (
Kuala Lumpur
, anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera''
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, pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia
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, su ...
and
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
) and thus securing his participation, as the Japanese player with the most Pro Points, to the first
Magic Players Championship, which he eventually won by defeating his fellow countryman
Shouta Yasooka
is a Japanese Magic: The Gathering player. He is best known for his success in the 2006 Pro Tour season, when he won Pro Tour Charleston with Tomohiro Kaji and Tomoharu Saitou, as well as the Player of the Year title. In 2015, Yasooka was el ...
in the final.
Since the tournament replaced the briefly retired Pro Player of the Year title, Watanabe also became the second Magic player after
Kai Budde
Kai Budde (born 28 October 1979),Kai Budde 2005 Pro Player card (from the Magic: The Gathering Ravnica expansion) is a semi-retired professional Magic: The Gathering player, who holds the record for Pro Tour victories, and for a long time held ...
to earn this title more than once. Later that year, at
Pro Tour ''Return to Ravnica'', Watanabe got his second Pro Tour top eight, losing in the final to Stanislav Cifka. The next year's Players Championship was renamed to the World Championship, with Watanabe receiving an invitation as the winner of the Players Championship. He went on to finish 6th at the event.
At Grand Prix Beijing 2014, Watanabe won his seventh Grand Prix title, equalling the all-time record for Grand Prix wins held by
Kai Budde
Kai Budde (born 28 October 1979),Kai Budde 2005 Pro Player card (from the Magic: The Gathering Ravnica expansion) is a semi-retired professional Magic: The Gathering player, who holds the record for Pro Tour victories, and for a long time held ...
.
With seven Grand Prix wins in 21 total Grand Prix Top 8s, six more than Kai Budde, Watanabe was for a time the most successful Grand Prix player in the history of the game, until
Shuhei Nakamura
is one of the most successful professional Magic: The Gathering players. He has reached the Top 8 of six Pro Tours and won seven Grands Prix, as well as being the 2008 Pro Player of the Year. In 2011, he was inducted into the Magic: The G ...
won
GP Dallas in July 2015. His performance during the season earned him an invitation to the
2014 World Championship.
Watanabe started the next season strongly, making the top eight of the first Pro Tour of the
2014–15 season,
Pro Tour ''Khans of Tarkir'', where he lost in the quarterfinal to eventual champion
Ari Lax.
At the
2014 World Championship in December, Watanabe came close to becoming the first repeat World Champion, finishing the Swiss portion of the tournament in first place. However, it was his semifinal opponent
Shahar Shenhar who would go on to claim his second Worlds title.
He ended the season on 59 points, resulting in an eight-place finish in the Player of the Year standings, as well as an invitation to the
2015 World Championship. He was the only player to have qualified for the first 6 invite-only World Championships since the format change after the
2011 Pro Tour season. His streak was broken at the 2018 World Championship where he failed to qualify.
Watanabe was disqualified at Mythic Championship II for cheating by using marked card sleeves.
After an investigation, Wizards of the Coast determined that he had intentionally marked several key cards in his deck, which would allow him to identify a card before drawing it and make decisions based on that information. As a consequence of this, they banned him from
organized events
Organizing or organized may refer to:
* Organizing (management), a process of coordinating task goals and activities to resources
* Community organizing, in which communities come together to act in their shared self-interest
* Professional organi ...
for 30 months, removed him from the Magic Pro League, and removed him from the
Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame.
Achievements
Top 8 appearances
Other accomplishments
*
Pro Tour Rookie of the Year 2007
*
Pro Tour Player of the Year 2009, 2012
*
Magic: the Gathering World Champion 2012
* World Magic Cup Champion 2017
Notes
: Watanabe has never won an event called the World Championship. However, the
Players Championship, which he won in 2012,
was later changed to the World Championship, and Watanabe is therefore considered the 2012 World Champion.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watanabe, Yuuya
Japanese Magic: The Gathering players
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
People from Sagamihara
Players who have won the Magic: The Gathering World Championship