I'd like to think that the Midwest is one of the toughest places to play in. This area definitely has a lot of up and coming players, and even more that a lot of people don't even acknowledge, yet are very good players. I've had numerous close games with a lot of players in this region, and I like to think I'm a somewhat decent player, playing rogue a lot in a very meta heavy environment (I went 4-2 missing top cut by a small margin at Ohio states using a Machamp/Banette deck!), and there are very many creative players in this area.
Ohio is not tough because we hold nationals, but because we have a lot of dedicated players. You have Fulop and Holton most notably, but I see a lot of other very good potential players. I think AJ Schumacher is a great player, yet nobody knows his name (He was the great lakes Regionals champion, and has a lot of other tourney wins to his name), but he's a very solid player who shows SOTG, Austin and Liz Reed, both Worlds qualifiers, who I have not seen referenced in this thread once, a lot of very solid up and coming seniors players, and numerous other up and coming players. We don't get as much credit as some might think, and playing in this meta for a whole year now, I realize that playing in this area is making me a much better player.
I'm not stating we're the best, by no means. There is a lot of great players in the nation and world, but Ohio's difficulty is one of those factors that makes the Midwest one of the toughest regions to play in. Michigan and Indiana, both tough states, Illinois, very tough state. I think our region as a whole is very difficult to play in, yet a very fun region to play in because you'll never have an easy game. Even some of the not as good players have some creative ideas that prove their potential.
Again, not stating we're the best, but we certainly are no slouches at this game.
