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Toughest regions that I can think of, both relative to the state and in general:

SE PA C, with so many potential national qualifiers. In B, SW is pretty tough now that Franklin Regional has gotten good (and SE is still strong)
Ohio Region 1, Solon, Mentor, Chardon, Westlake.
New York doesn't really have many unbalanced regions, I actually can't think of a most competitive one.
San Diego is probably pretty competitive in both divisions solely on the basis of size (118 B and 78 C or something like that).
Here in Georgia, UNG-Gainesville (B) and UNG-Dahlonega (C) are pretty clearly the top regions (and also historically the earliest).
Michigan, probably Region 12 in B on the basis of competitiveness and size (since Meads Mill's region (6 or 8, can't remember) is pretty small).

Unome wrote: Michigan, probably Region 12 in B on the basis of competitiveness and size (since Meads Mill's region (6 or 8, can't remember) is pretty small).

Honestly, I don't think region 12 is that competitive anymore relative to 6 and 9. I mean, in terms of size it definitely takes the cake (region 9 has like what, 10 teams?), but the teams that make it to states from 6 and 9 have fared better than teams from 12 in the past few years.

As far as Meads Mil's region (region 8), it isn't that small, but it's generally just them and Hillside that do very well at states.

Unome wrote:In B, SW is pretty tough now that Franklin Regional has gotten good (and SE is still strong)

In my opinion, the toughest regional in PA tends to be between two regions: SE and CE. SE has the larger amount of teams, but CE probably has the highest competitive teams/total teams ratio. Unfortunately for them, the states allocation process is based on total region size, so the fact that CE can't seem to get a wide base of teams in B division (even though they have so many in C) means that deserving teams don't qualify all the time.

As for SW, I don't know if they're at that level yet. Shady Side and Franklin Regional are good, but it really drops off from there. If Sewickley still had a team, it would be the toughest, no contest.

There was a time when NE was up there with lots of top-10 contenders in Abington Heights, JT Lambert, Stroudsburg, Wyoming Area, and Park Forest, but they've kind of dropped off slightly. They've got a lot of solid teams but not really that one great team that can realistically contend for nationals (yet) that SE, CE, and SW all have.

Personally, I don't think any of these are difficult to the scale of "toughest regional in the nation", but if I had to select one, it'd probably be SE, with CE just behind, only because the number of teams makes it difficult to finish in a medaling place.

Central Jersey region? You sign up for the location of the regional tournaments but it's all close together.

C: WWPN, WWPS, (Montgomery!), Princeton
B: Grover, Community, (Montgomery!)

peter_ni wrote:Central Jersey region? You sign up for the location of the regional tournaments but it's all close together.

C: WWPN, WWPS, (Montgomery!), Princeton
B: Grover, Community, (Montgomery!)

I believe Grover doesn't usually compete in the same region as Community. Besides that, yes, I totally agree that the UCC Regional in NJ is very very competitive. Add in JP Stevens and South Brunswick and no wonder people say UCC is great preparations for states, especially if you look at this year!

In Indiana, for Div B, I'd have to say that the IUNW regional is probably the most competitive (not div C, though). It's got Thomas Jefferson, Stanley Clark, and Chesterton just to name a few, and these teams usually are the top competitors for the nationals seed.

For Division B, the most competitive areas are probably Texas, Illinois, and Ohio.
Coming from Illinois I can say that Daniel Wright always does amazing, with Marie Murphy also placing well at Nationals and Science and Arts Academy following closely behind at the State tournament.

Ohio Region 1 is pretty rough, I agree with Unome.

For IL B, the Harper College Regional was pretty insane in 2019. There were 4 bids, and they went to South (9th at state), Latin (10th at state), Twin Groves (6th at state), and Science and Arts Academy (4th at state). Because of the incredible competitiveness of this regional, many schools that normally go to state (Hannah Beardsley, Springman, St. Joan of Arc) were unable to qualify this year.