College of Science and Arts student Zhang Zhiyang won team championship of Magic: The Gathering World Championship

The Fifteenth Magic: The Gathering World Championship dropped the curtain in Rome, Italy, days ago. China won the team championship. College of Science and Arts 2008 international economy and trade major student Zhang Zhiyang, as a member of the Chinese team, topped the World Championship, the first Asian player that has won the honor in 16 years. At the same time, Chinese team won the qualification for the First Pro Tour in San Diego, California, USA in February 2010.

The Fifteenth Magic: The Gathering World Championship witnessed 61 national and regional teams with a total number of 405 players. Zhang Zhiyang and 3 other Chinese players overcame jet-lag fatigue and great challenges and finally won the championship. SocialSportInstructionCenter of General Administration of Sport of China held a press conference on November 30 to celebrate the glory.

Originating in USA in 1993 and created by Harvard mathematics professor Richard Garfield, Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game played by two or more players, the first example of the modern collectible card game genre and still thrives today, with an estimated eight million players engaging in different levels of the game. It boasts an annual premium of six million dollars and is translated into ten languages, winning universal appeal all over the world.

Magic cards help to cultivate and sharpen the memory, mathematical and logical thinking, reasoning, overall balancing and creativity in a person. In 1998 Social Sport Instruction Center of General Administration of Sport of China did an exhaustive exploration of Magic cards and made it a sport and cooperated with Wizards of the Coast to promote it all over China.

Starting to play Magic cards as a high school grade two student, Zhang Zhiyang entered the Eight Standings of China National Championship in August 2009 inBeijing and thus became a Chinese national team player. In late August that year, he made his way to the Eight Standings of Bangkok Grand Prix.