One week ago I got to live out a dream, competing in the Pokémon World Championships! It was something I always wanted to do ever since I got back into playing the card game and even when I was just casually playing the video game, I always thought, how could would it be to play in the World Championships.
I didn't know if I would ever get there, especially with the new changes to the structure in Singapore but thankfully after many years of trying, we got there for Yokohama in 2023! And the best one too, since I've always been asking for a World Championship to be held in not just Asia but Japan specifically, it is the home of Pokémon after all and for that to be my first Worlds? Couldn't have asked for a better one!
The Week before Worlds
The week leading up to Worlds, I actually didn't do much, if any, playtesting at all. I had already decided I would stick with Arceus/Giratina as my deck choice for Day 1 of Worlds, something I had already planned a month in advance. I tested Lost Zone Giratina as much as I could to convince me otherwise and it didn't do that so ArcTina it is.
All I did was writing down notes and theories on matchups I would likely face, my game plan for certain decks and stuff I should do. Other than that, didn't play test at all. I just wanted to relax and not stress about the whole thing. Like I had mentioned before, I wasn't too bothered about what the result may be, whether I do well or not, I just wanted to have fun and enjoy my first Worlds.
All I really did was just not playing, no testing, just sightseeing around Tokyo with my family. I got into Japan on the Tuesday, so I really only had Wednesday to go around a few places. I did go to Ikebukuro on Thursday to check out the Pokémon Center and sure enough it was packed! And since I wasn't staying in Yokohama, I couldn't test with anyone I knew anyway! While walking around Yodobashi, I was finalising my list and with the help of Jeremy, we got the 60.
The Deck
Pokemon:
x4 Arceus V
x3 Arceus VSTAR
x2 Giratina V
x2 Giratina VSTAR
x2 Bidoof
x2 Bibarel
x1 Skwovet
x1 Spiritomb
Quite simple here, it is just the core that has worked before and why change something this good. Sure it would be nice to have a 4th Arceus VSTAR but I don't own a 4th one. Spiritomb was there to counter Mew and Lugia decks. Bibarel and Skwovet are still too broken not to use in my view.
Supporters:
x4 Boss's Orders
x4 Iono
x3 Judge
x1 Professor's Research
x1 Raihan
4 Boss just made sense to me and works well for ArcTina. Raihan was a fail safe in case an Arceus gets knocked out right away. Research was a backup choice when I have nothing else to search out for from Starbirth and it actually helped me a lot in my games. The Iono-Judge count was the last thing I debated on, I just wasn't sure if 4 Iono was the right call or 4 Judge. After much thinking, I felt 4 Iono made the most sense as I would prefer to use it in the early and late game while Judge would be perfect if I have a board set up after Starbirth or in the mid game.
Items/Tools/Stadiums:
x4 Nest Ball
x4 Ultra Ball
x1 Switch
x1 Escape Rope
x1 Choice Belt
x1 Cleansing Gloves
x4 Path to the Peak
The first five on this list are quite obvious, most ArcTina lists will play the same stuff. Cleansing Gloves was in to deal with Gardevoir and Mew, two decks I expected to see more of. And of course, 4 Path works so well with the 7 disruption supporters in decks.
Energies:
x4 Grass Energy
x4 Psychic Energy
x4 Double Turbo Energy
x2 V Guard Energy
4-4 Grass & Psychic energies are quite obvious. 4 DTE is a must, especially to increase your odds to get a Turn 1 Trinity Charge. 2 V Guard felt like the right move with Giratina VSTAR (Lost Box) becoming more popular in time for Worlds so that felt like the correct choice.
And if you notice, I tried to colour code my deck in a way. The 7 disruption supporter cards are the only silver bordered cards in my deck to make it easier for me to count them for prize checking. Both ball search cards had a red background, I even used my older Escape Rope and Switch so they could stand out, same for Gloves which was one of the only reverse holo cards in my deck. So a lot of thought was put not just into the 60 card decks but also the arts chosen for the deck!
So yup, I decided to go back to my comfort deck, I knew how to play the deck against pretty much any deck in the meta and I didn't want to tie my games, which is why I kept Lost Tina for Day 2 if I made it there, and it was gonna be a wild list too! Oh well. I glad I made the right decision to stick with what I knew.
Thursday Mess - Registration + Pokémon Center
Also while we're on the pre-Worlds, the check in for Worlds itself on the Thursday was a mess. I was lucky that my friends were in line and helped me got in if not I would have been near the back of the line inside the hall, which was still lucky because there were people in the line that were outside the hall in the scorching sun which is not very fun, I should know living in Singapore.
After registration was complete, next up was the Pokémon Centre Worlds store for us. That was another mess in it of itself. The fact that us players were some of the later ones to get in was already not a good idea because most of the good stuff were already sold out before we got there. In my opinion, the players who earned their spots to Worlds SHOULD be the first ones to get into the Pokémon Center, not some influencers who get paid to do all that stuff or the ones who were lucky enough to win a ticket to get in early. It doesn't feel fair for the players who are the main focus of this Worlds to be the last ones in, it makes no sense to me.
So of course I didn't spend much at the Center because the stuff I really wanted were all out of stock. No Yokohama jersey (the main thing I wanted), no dice box, and the Wave playmat that looked really cool was out of stock when I was there. So I didn't buy much to be fair, since there wasn't much for me to get.
I will say this, they gave us A LOT of goodies in the competitor's welcome kit which I truly appreciate, I was not expecting to get that many stuff so that was nice. They even gave us a Ramen Bowl! And I guess I got a new bag to use too, so thank you Pokémon for that!
Biggest Fear
Don't screw up. Don't mess up. Think through your games. That's what I kept telling myself, because I am in the same room as the very best players from around the world, I didn't want to make myself look bad or stupid against all these pro players. That was my number one fear but I know I could control that. I can't control the second one however.
The other big fear I had was actually, potentially, going on stream! I was worried that it might actually happen because, after all, I am that PokéStats guy everyone knows about online. I didn't want to have that this early since, technically, I have been on stream ever. I don't know how I've managed to skip it but in my entire playing time, I have never once been on stream for an official tournament. I did worry that it might happen here if I were to do well but when my name was left out of the players to look out for from the Asian region, I was thinking to myself, I guess they don't know who I am haha! Maybe I'll escape it.
Also, I know some of my friends were upset that my name wasn't on there but trust me, it's all good. I'm still a nobody at the end of the day. If I was playing in the US or Australia or Europe, maybe I might be featured more and have my name there. But because I play in a region that honestly doesn't matter to anyone, why would anyone care about any of us? We have little to zero coverage on any of our events, so why should anyone care about players from our region. I've been on a personal mission to change that and put eyes on our region but unfortunately, I haven't had any success on that so far.
Friday - Day 1 - The Matches
R1 vs Dany Graells (UAE) - Zoroark Toolbox/Bisharp/Hisuian Arcanine W 1-0
Errr well yeah I was not expecting my first round at the World Championships to be up against...checks notes....Bisharp??? The moment I saw Zorua and Gapejaw Bog, I kinda knew what I was going up against because I have actually read this Bisharp before.
So I knew his game plan was to keep putting damage counters on his Pawniards so I decided to go after them right away. Then he discards a Trevenant that says I can't take prizes when I KO it so that changed my gameplan a bit. I still had saved enough Bosses and Ropes to take the first game, which went on for a good 30-35 minutes! We never finished game 2 and I made a play where I chose not to take my 5th prizing knowing he had no way to take his last prize by doing that, giving me the win since I won Game 1. First win at Worlds in Round 1, pretty good start I'd say!
R2 vs Shuuya Kawasaki (JAP) - Mew VMAX WW 2-0
These were some rather quick games actually. We both bricked in Game 1 but I managed to get out of my bad hands first, and got my Tomb down to make him even more stuck. Game 2 I got Tomb out at the perfect timing along with Path and he just hand no answer for it. 2-0 at my first Worlds so far, I could not have asked for a better start than this!
R3 vs Juan Andree (CHI) - Gardevoir ex LL 2-1
And then I hit the first familiar name to me. I've known Juan during the online days and I know how good he truly is. And it showed here. But before the match I got a bit of a scare. I saw someone holding the "match on stream sign" and they were heading towards us. I was thinking, oh crap please don't be us. Luckily for me it was the table before us that went on stream!
He got all 4 Ralts out in both Games 1 and 2, and even had a sea of 4 Kirlias on board game 2. I just had no shot of winning either games with my slow start compared to his rapid starts. 2-1 is still not so bad, still in it!
R4 vs Konsta Kallama (FIN) - Mew VMAX LWL 2-2
This is where my days starts to unravel a bit. I knew about Konsta and had guessed he would still be on Mew and I was right. But my start was extremly bad in Game 1 and I had to scoop early because I could see the writing on the wall. It was a role reversal for Game 2, he scooped early knowing I pretty much had game.
Game 3 was going well for me, I managed to hit into two of his Mew VMAXes so I knew I just needed to find boss to clear them up since the last Mew had evolved. I still had all 4 bosses so I was still feeling confident about winning the set. Somehow I never did find those 4 bosses, even with the Skwovet/Bibarel draw, I just whiffed everything and that cost me game, so I had to hit into his 3rd Mew VMAX knowing it was just a wasted hit.
I pretty much had game on board and needed to find any of my Bosses and it never showed up. Now at 2-2, which meant I had to win my last 4 games to have any shot of making Day 2, I was on my last life now.
R5 vs Jose Marrero (USA) - Arceus VSTAR/Giratina VSTAR/Umbreon VMAX WW 3-2
I was in a must win situation for every game and my next opponent was Jose, everyone knows who he is so I don't need to say more. I told myself before the game, just remember why you're here. Win or lose, it doesn't matter, just have fun and even if I don't make Day 2, it's ok. I still made it to Worlds, that was the dream so might as well just enjoy the rest of the day no matter what happens. Just have fun right?
Those two games went perfectly for me, I went second both times but got Arceus + DTE to set up my Giratina both times to seal the game. Pressure was off since I had already accepted my fate, 4 wins in a row in a bo3 setting, something I hadn't played in over 3-4 years, is a near impossible task for me so might as well just play for the love of the game and enjoy my time here. If it happens, cool! If not, it's perfectly fine.
R6 vs Ryuto Hadano (JAP) - Mew VMAX WLW 4-2
I was up against Ryuto next, one of my favourite opponents of the whole day. He was super cool! I saw Mew again and this time I really wanted to win especially after what happened against Konsta. Game 1 went perfectly for me. Game 2 I had a dead hand and scooped after the 2nd turn.
Game 3 was really close, it came down to Bibarel finding me the boss I needed to win the set and stay alive in the running for Day 2. At this point, of the Singapore contingent, Jit Min was out but the 3 of us (Yong Siang, Yu Xian and myself) were all on the same boat, we all needed to win our last 2 games to put ourselves into Day 2 which I thought was a pretty cool feat. We don't get to play bo3 games all that much and here we are, all 3 still in the fight! I think that says a lot about our players here in Singapore.
R7 vs Ryuya Tamaki (JAP) - Miraidon ex/Flaaffy LL 4-3
And then came the killer blow. The first and only Miraidon I would go up against and game 1 was over before it really ever got started. I started with only an Arceus, energy attachment pass. He managed to get the first turn attack with Miraidon to well...Miraidonk me.
Second game was equally painful. I put myself in a really good spot to win that game, it came down to me just needed Choice Belt to get the last KO and take the game to Game 3. I counted my cards left in deck and knew I had very high odds of hitting my Choice Belt, it just cannot be one of the last two cards.
Sure enough, it was the last card. I extended my hand and that was my hopes of Day 2 dashed. Even though I should still be happy that I'm playing in Worlds, there was that little part of me that was just heartbroken and disappointed that I came so close only to get eliminated with 1 round to go. I couldn't hide my disappointment but I also had to be there for my friends and cheer the other two on. Unfortunately we all lost in the same round, so all of Singapore's hopes crashed in Round 7. I think we still did amazing to even be in the running when we have such a huge disadvantage against the rest of the field since we're playing in their bo3 settings. Good effort for Team SG I'd say!
R8 vs Arthur Trutzschler (NED) - Gardevoir ex WLW 5-3
The last round didn't matter much since we were out of the running but I still wanted to play out and just have fun. I knew who Arthur was since my job with PokéStats meant I had write down names of most of the top players from almost every region and Arthur is someone I knew about so it was cool to play against him. We had a fun game too and it came down to him not being able to set up Ralts in game 3 for me to take the win.
I felt satisfied to finish my first Worlds Championships with a 5-3 score, much better than what I was expecting! I would have been happy with 3! And I got more wins than losses which is my aim for every tournament, and this being a bo3 tournament, I think that proves that I can hang with these guys who play bo3 all the time!
Most importantly, I had fun! In fact I'd say it was the most fun I had playing games ever! Sure it was the World Championships but just something about it meant I was enjoying my games all the time. I was never stressed once (other than possibly being on stream) and I think for the first time in a long while, I didn't make any big misplays from any of my games.
All the games I lost, I lost because my opponents were just better or I just dead drew, not from my own doing so that was a personal win for me. And a fun fact, all 3 guys who beat me all made Day 2 so that's quite cool to know, and just shows I did not have an easy ride on Friday.
If that was the only time I ever get to compete at a Worlds Championship, I left satisfied with how it went.
Saturday and Sunday - Day 2 & 3 - Just a Spectator
Since I didn't make it to Day 2, I had no reason to go to Yokohama right? Wrong, I still made the 75 minute travel from Korakuen to Yokohama just so I can enjoy watching as a fan of the game and because hey, for once I actually go to do my PokéStats reporting live on site! And as an extra added bonus, I borrowed my brother's camera to try to get some cool photos of the guys and girls playing in Day 2, of which I didn't get much sadly.
But probably the most fun thing for me was just hanging out with friends I've known for many years through the online scene but only really meeting them in person for the first time! And because I wasn't playing, I even got to hang out and chit chat with some of them. I especially wanted to say hello to the people I met through the online days from the Hegster era and I did get to do that, including Ethan himself. During the pandemic I pretty much played against most of them in a whole host of online tournaments so it was cool to finally meet them all in person. I would try to name them out but I'm afraid I might miss out some, but you know who you are and it was nice to finally meet in person!
I even got to see some friends again, be it from Asia or the ones I met from OCIC back in 2010 like Rahul Reddy (who I bumped into for the next two days at random spots in Toyko haha, that was cool)! And because I'm a fan of the game itself, I had to say hello to the people who have inspired me to be a better player and whose videos, podcasts, streams or otherwise have helped me along the way, such as people like Chip Richey, Joe Bernard, Andrew Mahone, Azul Garcia Griego, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi, Isaiah Bradner, Stephane Ivanoff and Mike Fouchet. Probably the more surprising thing for me was that they all knew who I was so that made the meeting extra special.
And of course I had to say hello to as many of the PokéStats crew that were there in Yokohama! Those were the ones I was looking forward to saying hello to the most since I talk to these guys and girls all the time, be it Zaya, Loc, Jeremy and even the Australian crew, it was cool to finally meet Matty, Jake & Julian and always a pleasure to meet Chasi, Brent and Henry again, all legends in my eyes. Probably my favourite moment was seeing Kaiwen again after a few years and he had nothing but the nicest of things to say about my progress for the last few years and that really made my day to know someone of his calibre would say that to me, that really meant a lot.
There was plenty of stuff to do out of the venue as well. Outside of the venue they had some stuff which I sadly didn't see much of. The closest mall, Queen's Square, was filled with Pokémon stuff. Be it the Pokémon art on a few walls and even benches, the TCG card walk which stretched out for many areas around the place and at a mall nearby too. They even had a real life SS Anne which I never got to see but hear it was cool, they even had the trash cans! And there were many Pokémon figures around, of which I never caught them either. I just didn't have a lot of time in Yokohama sadly.
It was really cool to see Yokohama turn into a Pokémon festival, wherever you turn, there is something Pokémon related going on. The malls had screens for the streamed matches for all 4 games which I thought was awesome. My favourite bit might be seeing all the arts for every single Pokémon lined up, especially in Queen's Square where they had some of the big EXes, Vs, Tag Team GXex, GX and current day exes on display and of course I caught my favourite bit where they had Reshiram & Charizard GX, Arceus VSTAR and Giratina VSTAR all together! It was as if that corner was made just for me.
There were some cool moments too, someone gave me a Korean Centiskorch V (the special art with Kabu on it), I even got asked to sign a card for the first time which was cool! Some of the friends who I've known for what seems like forever asked me to take a photo with them which is always a nice feeling so thank you Mark, Julius, Zaya, David, Ryuto & Joshua. The place was so huge that I didn't get to meet many more people that I wanted to say hi to as well which was sad. Hopefully I can fix that in the future.
I decided not to play any of the side events during both days, I just didn't have the feels to play in any of them but when I saw the Singapore crew playing 2010 retro, the itch was there. So I had to jump in on the fun for Sunday when Kai Wainwright asked if I wanted to play and of course I was up for it. I jumped into those games with little to no idea what any of those cards did and it was just so fun to play because all the games were long, just the way it should be like the old days. It really did remind me of the older days when I first started playing the game.
And of course, it was cool to see a lot of the Singapore gang actually at Worlds! Since it's the closest Worlds to us, it was nice to see at least 20+ of my locals actually make the trip and I got to hang out with most of them during the weekend and even on my last day in Japan when we went card shop hopping around Ikebukuro with Peke! That was fun, and they were always so supportive of me during the event which I can never thank them enough. And of course it was cool to bring my family along for the trip and let them see what this crazy that is Pokémon is really like for once.
What's next?
Honestly who knows. Hawaii is where Worlds will be for 2024. I'm not gonna do the thing that everyone does and say "see you in Hawaii" because how can I? Everyone else just needs to hit a certain amount of points and they've got their invite. I won't know my fate until the end of June or July, which is why I booked my flights to Japan just weeks before Worlds because that's when I knew I qualified! It was so late there was no hotels to book in Yokohama thus why I stayed in Tokyo.
I'm still going to try my best and do the best I can for the 3-4 major events we will have here in Singapore and whatever happens, it shall be. I've got my Worlds invite so for me I've already achieved the dream, anything else is a bonus. But to tell the truth, there really is nothing more for me to do here. I really had fun playing the games this past weekend because that's how Pokémon should be played, not based on luck in a bo1 setting. I always said I preferred bo3 and my point was proven last weekend. Also I will just say it but it was a little disappointing to see little to no coverage about our SEA players from the Maxsoft or Pokemon Asia crew, they said they were planning some stuff and I saw nothing. No mention of us at Worlds or even an interview. And people wonder why we get no coverage here when even our own people don't want to feature us.
I'm really not looking forward to playing in official events with bo1 setting again, it's just not how things should be done. I will try my best in these events but now I can just play for the fun of it and the love of the game. Also because I might actually have to miss the Singapore Championships in June due to my schedule which means I may have little to no hope of making Worlds next year. So who knows, maybe I'll try to show up at one of the other Internationals. Melbourne isn't far away from Singapore and Vancouver isn't far away from Ohio. We shall see.
I did mention about dreams in the game previously, and I now have achieved the main one, playing the World Championships. The next one? I'd like to play Pokémon TCG in as many different countries as possible. I don't know how I will do it or go about doing it but I would love to make an adventure out of it. For me it would be cool to try my hand at an European or an American regional and test myself against players from that region just to see where I stand. It won't be right away since, well, I do need to start making money first!
Thanks for reading my Worlds post and because I'm me, I thought I should end with some stats from Worlds regarding the top 64 finishers. Enjoy!
