Aaron Traylor (right) defeated Bingjie Wang (left) to become the first regional champion of the Pokémon Sword and Shield Era (photo by Jason Krell).

While building their Dallas Regional Championships team, Aaron Traylor said Wolfe Glick showed him and Justin Carris the damage calculations for Blast Burn Gmax Charizard. At first, he balked at the idea. But when Traylor compared the numbers to Overheat and considered the rest of their team, he said he knew the trio of trainers had found something powerful.

“That was when I knew we were going to win the regional,” Traylor said.

The other 543 players at what became the largest Video Game Championship regional of the modern era had no idea, even by the end of the tournament’s first day. Traylor slid into top 32 cut with an 8–2 record while both Carris and Glick fell short of joining him at 7–3. Glick, a popular selection for highlight matches as the 2016 world champion and current North American International champion, managed to avoid revealing their team during the event, possibly thanks to a shortened stream schedule.

Traylor only provided his first hint at victory during his top 8 match against Justin Crubaugh. His Gmax Charizard powered through a Thunder Wave in game one and whittled down a dangerous, Scope-Lens Togekiss while it slept. Traylor even avoided being punished for using Blast Burn twice after his Gigantamax ended.

Apparently, that was how game one usually went for him. Traylor said that out of all his many sets, he only lost the first game in his loss to Carris during the tournament’s Swiss rounds. His game two against Crubaugh, which played out similarly, reinforced why Traylor had found so much success with this team.

Despite this, Traylor found himself in a difficult situation in top 4. He was up against another Justin (Burns, in this case), who brought four of the same six Pokémon as Crubaugh. Traylor said that gave his opponent additional information about how to handle the match up.

“They had a similar team and it was challenging in the same ways, so I had to do different stuff,” Traylor said. “And at the end of the day, he got a little lucky, so it pushed me in ways that other opponents didn’t.”

The situation looked dire during the first half of game one, but by bringing his previously unseen Trick Room option, Traylor eked out a close win. But Burns adjusted where Crubaugh couldn’t, quickly removed the first half of Traylor’s team and brought his Rhyperior to handle Trick Room. He did land a number of well-timed critical hits, but Traylor couldn’t risk that happening again by sticking to his original plan.

That was when he said he decided to improvise.

“Wolfe and I came up with a game plan, and that was me sort of going off script in game three,” Traylor said. “He was like ‘you need to do this every game and stick to it.’ But in game three, I had this crazy game plan and I just decided to do it. And I could see him in the audience like, watching the steam, like ‘no!”, head in hands.”

His crazy plan was to lean on the original core of their team, Duraludon and Whimsicott. After losing his Togekiss and removing Burns’ Grimmsnarl, he used the potent combination of Fake Tears and Life Orb boosted special attacks to bring him to the edge of victory. Then, after enduring a powerful Thunderbolt from Dragapault, his Jellicent closed out the set with a Water Spout.

At that point, only Bingjie Wang stood in Traylor’s way, with a seemingly easy to handle Pokémon anchoring his team: Durant. With a Gmax Charizard in tow against a Pokémon that’s four-times weak to Fire type attacks, victory looked certain. Yet, Durant was faster than Charizard, and its Hustle boosted Max Rockfall would almost certainly land the knock out after the residual damage from sand.

Traylor handled the issue like a champion, dancing around the Durant until he could vaporize it. Wang did get a bit too aggressive in game two by not protecting his Durant with Follow Me, but Traylor was playing like a man on fire. He showed no fear as he ordered his Charizard to attack in the face of potentially lethal damage.

In the end, Traylor proved a number of things with his win. First, that he shines under the limelight of regionals streamed by The Pokémon Company International. Traylor brought home his first regional win at St. Louis in 2015, the very first regional streamed by TPCI.

Second, he proved that players may have overlooked Gmax Charizard, as well as other Gigantamax forms. Traylor said he expects the community to look at all Gmax Pokémon more critically as they’re added to this year’s format and beyond.

Finally, Traylor proved the potential of teamwork in what is normally an individual esport. In addition to the joy he felt from winning such a huge, grueling regional, Traylor said he was also proud of what he’d built with Carris and Glick. His only regret was that the three of them didn’t make top four together.

“I would have been much happier if it was the three of us in top four, because I think this team deserves it,” Traylor said. “But ten rounds of Swiss is really hard.”

With the first regional of the Sword and Shield era in the books, trainers are now setting their sights on the first International Championships, which takes place in Melbourne from February 21–23. In the remaining weeks until then, trainers will be exploring new teams and learning from the lessons provided by the Dallas Regional Championships. To get started, check out Traylor’s written team report and Glick’s video report on the winning squad.