How To Become Pokémon World Champion

Se Jun Park won the Pokémon Video Game World Champion Master’s Division last year. You’d think preparing for a tournament that has the words “world” and “champion” in it would require months of dedicated prep beforehand. You’d think.

“Actually, I spent less time playing Pokémon in 2014 than I ever have ever since I really got into Pokémon battle.” Park admitted in an interview with Weekly Famitsu. “I had college entrance exam studying to do and the national tournament to select the Korean representative last year was fairly late, so I only had a few days to prepare for the Pokémon World Champions.” Park noted that he prepared the Gothitelle in his deck only a few days before travelling to the US to compete in the tournament.

One of Park’s winning tactics was the use of the Pokémon, Pachirisu, a pokemon that was a fan favourite mostly for its cute appearance, but that Park managed to find a tactical advantage to. “I had a Gyarados in my deck, so I figured I needed someone to act as a support character for him.” Park explained. “At first, I was thinking of Amoonguss, but at the time, Ludicolo and Zapdos with Safety Goggles were popular and I thought I might be at a disadvantage. When I was looking for another candidate, I noted the ability, “Follow Me” and it was one of the abilities that Pachirisu can use. Pachirisu has “Nuzzle” and “Super Fang” so I thought he would be good for countering Ludicolo and Zapdos.”

Picture: pokemon.com

While Park admittedly likes the cuter Pokémon, he was not expecting the crowd response when he brought out Pachirisu. (Check out around 13:47 in the video below for the massive cheer)

In ｔhe end, Park equates his victory partly to luck but also to his understanding of the battle environment and the trends among trainers. Park is already set for entry to the next national Korean tournament and is currently in preparation to hopefully win the Korean representative seat in the next world championship.

Said Park in closing “People often ask me for tips, but I believe, rather than aim to win a tournament right from the start, if you don’t give up even if you lose, and understand why you lost and what methods there are to become stronger, and are able to find you own way, you can eventually become a champion.”

For some reason, I’m kind of expecting an elderly woman in a kitchen baking cookies to show up explaining what “temet nosce” means right about now.