Riftbound is already halfway through its 2026 event roadmap, with the Regional Qualifier in Sydney having wrapped up just a few days ago. Out of thousands of local and international players attending, it was the Chinese player Muhan “ EDG Rico1997” Yu to lift the trophy — but his victory celebration was quickly overshadowed by an heavily-scrutinized mistake.
A crucial card for EDG Rico’s win
was drawn upside down, igniting a “witch hunt” against Rico,
accusing him of cheating. A past incident during a Chinese official event did not help his case, and not even his Finals’ opponent, “
SouledOut”, support seemed to have quieted
Riftbound’s community.
In an interview with Sheep Esports, EDG Rico shares his expectations ahead of Sydney’s RQ, addresses the Adaptatron incident, and gives insight on China’s Riftbound community and pro environment.
You’ve just won the Sydney Regional Qualifier, what does this result mean to you at this stage of your Riftbound career?
EDG Rico: “I had some Top 4 and Top 8 finishes before, in China’s major tournaments, but I never won any. This is my first time competing abroad, and I won my first title, so it really means a lot to me. But this isn’t the end. I’ll keep pushing forward. My goal is to become world champion.
Sydney’s meta looked very different from early predictions. What surprised you most when the tournament started? Riftbound changes quickly from event to event. How does that affect how you prepare and build decks?
EDG Rico: I didn’t expect that many LeBlanc. I can see her as a solid Tier1 pick, but the most represented? Luckily, I included 3 Gust in my 48 cards. And yeah, the meta can shift very fast, though the metal cards system does balance out the number, so I’m not too worried about the meta. Just play good cards.
In events like this, how important is a structured team environment in TCGs? Especially since the Best of Yi title went to a teammate of yours — what role does that kind of shared preparation play?
EDG Rico: I think it’s pretty important to have a team having the same goal. With only myself it’s impossible to go over every legend, find the better one, and refine the build. The deck XP Yi seemed pretty mediocre at first glance, but my teammate “Youngnewnew” said it had potential, so I spent one night testing and theorycrafting around it. We reached the conclusion that it’s not a strong deck, but it can win very easily if your opponent makes a mistake or doesn’t know what we are doing.
And when he found XP Yi was the least represented deck in pre-RQ, he just decided to switch to it and had a pretty hot run in Sydney. He finished 10-3, top 64, the only XP Yi deck that advanced to Day 2.
The final became one of the most talked-about matches in Riftbound so far. The Adaptatron situation sparked a huge amount of discussion online afterward. Could you share your point of view on the situation? Because of the previous Rebuke incident, some people connected the dots very quickly this weekend. Did that reaction frustrate you, or did you understand where it came from?
EDG Rico: First of all, thanks to everyone that trusts and supports me! Actually, the Adaptatron is not the only card that was upside-down, the card I drew for that turn was too, you can check the video. I felt a bit odd at that time, but thought “it doesn't matter so just focus on the game itself.” I didn’t expect that much discussion around it. My opponent had the final cut, there is no search effect in Riftbound so I can’t do anything about my deck.
As for the “freebuke” thing: it was not intentional, I was too exhausted at that time and forgot I had already played a Spinning Axe, I even skipped a draw step in that game. I asked both judges at the table and my opponent if I paid the Rebuke energy cost — because I tapped 2 seals for power cost — and they said yes, then I played Mindsplitter.
The misplay is on me, I apologize, but I’m not a cheater and will never be. Everyone hates cheaters, including me.
When something happens on stream, people replay it frame by frame and build narratives almost instantly. Is that something players have to mentally prepare for now?
EDG Rico: Yes, I think players have to mentally prepare for similar things to happen on stream. Riftbound is a complex game, there are many game pieces, rules change frequently, so it’s hard to keep everything in the right place. Mistakes happen, I hope there can be more tolerance for players on stream. I feel much more stressed on stream, worrying about if I make a mistake or illegal play and everyone will talk about me.
You say you feel more stressed when you're on stream, how much mental health preparation should a TCG player usually have? Does being a TCG pro player weigh heavily on your mental health?
EDG Rico: I think mental health is pretty important in TCGs, sometimes even more important than deck building, meta reading.. etc. I've seen great players fail, they have knowledge and skills, unfortunately they tilted and lost to themselves when bad variance happens. So a good mental health is required to be a pro player, I think.
I know the importance of mental health at the very beginning when I started playing TCGs, so I won't say being a pro player weighed heavily on my mental health. I just play my best and enjoy the game!
But the discussions afterwards do scare me, make me more stressed when I play on stream. I know myself not to be a cheater but I can't explain to the audience sometimes.
You’ve played Magic: The Gathering Online
at a high level before. How has that experience shaped how you approach Riftbound?
EDG Rico: Yes, I played a lot of high level MTGO before. I think an online version of the TCG is very helpful for improving. It's very efficient and you can battle against the very best of all over the world.
There’s a growing perception that the Chinese Riftbound ecosystem is ahead strategically. Do you agree with that? Would you say there are a lot of differences between the international and Chinese ecosystems?
EDG Rico: Frankly speaking, Riftbound ecosystems regarding China and the West should be considered as different in some ways, but principally the same. We have talented players as well as content creators that aim to enhance the game by and large. Maybe the game was published in China earlier, but we are eventually on the same page now, that distance will not extinguish the player's desire to be the better ones.
Just like the West uses Discord as well as YouTube for information sharing, we have similar tools and groups like Bilibili and WeChat. But at the end of the day, in general terms, the essence is still the same: there is a large amount of people trying their best to strengthen the community. At the most fundamental level of community ecosystem and user creativity, there is no superiority between East and West.
Are there players or teams from China you think the global community should pay much more attention to right now?
EDG Rico: Obviously there are a lot of high-level players, I’d like to pay tribute to my teammates for supporting me and they deserve the attention.
First of all is my “Captain AP”, known as “EDG.AP” or “Et3rna1ly”, he is the man who single handedly puts the team together and selflessly devotes all of his free time and funds towards the team. He is a true team man and a good captain, also known for his diverse ways of playing, he has piloted various decks, from Kai’Sa to Irelia, from Aurora to Azir, and achieved major accomplishments with all of them.
Also, my team consists of five members, outside me and AP, we have Youngnewnew, Regional Qualifier Champion from Set 1 Hangzhou, also the Best of XP Yi metal card holder; “SNnnnn”, a huge influencer and content creator in the Chinese community as well as finalist in regional Qualifier Fuzhou, known as the best Orange-Yellow pilot; “Shurit”, a team man, and usually plays the best deck of the Format, he has multiple tops in different regionals, and the next champion I believe.
Outside of my teammates, obviously there’s some other top-level players in China, for example “ShanShan”, the Set 1 Beijing Champion Kai’sa, is a representation of the Chinese Top-Level player.
Looking at the bigger picture, what tells you that a competitive card game is healthy and growing the right way? What do you think Riftbound still needs to improve?
EDG Rico: Looking at it by and large, if one can say a competitive card game is growing in a healthy direction, some major points should be seen within the game:
- Diverser format, that every deck holds a viable position within the meta.
- The balance between luck and skill: that in the long run, the player with better skills should have a higher win rate.
- Balanced updates on the format: that there needs to be banlist/ruling change updates, but that doesn’t ruin the entire format.
- Fair qualification system: There should be a fair, merit-based system for the tournament.
- Community content: Deck guides, meta reports and similar content should be accessible to players from content creators, and this kind of content creators should be increasing in number.
Riftbound has done a great job in most of them (at least 4 out of 5). Besides the fact that major tournaments are raffle-based — which is a random draw for many higher-level tournaments — many strong players can’t compete simply due to bad luck. For this part I really like the western way of paying the entry ticket.”
