Trainer Talks: A Reflection on Worlds 2019

Whaddup guys!

It’s Ammodee here, and I’m here to recap, look back, and reflect on the Pokémon World Championships that just went by. I would also like to talk about my personal experience and some observations from the largest Pokémon VGC competition.

The Pokémon World Championships were held at the Washington DC Convention Centre. The place was packed with people, Pokémon, and so much merchandise. I was honestly blown away by the amount of worldwide competitors that attended!

This was my very first Worlds experience, and all I can say is that I had an absolute ball. I spent a week prior travelling through some of the country, sightseeing, and catching up with friends. This helped me overcome any form of jet lag before the big competition. Rocking up to registration was insane; I never expected having to wait in line for 1.5 hours to collect my competitor’s badge! This was purely because there were so many more competitors and spectators than I would have ever imagined. The staff did an amazing job getting everyone through registration and running the competition across the weekend.

Come competition day, I couldn’t believe the line to get in to the venue, either—the line wrapped right around the convention centre!

I eventually made it inside and was stunned by the amount of people that spectated the opening ceremony. The ceremony was so hyped, and every single competitor and spectator brought such amazing energy. The atmosphere was surreal!

I was fortunate enough to have a Day 2 paid invite, so I had the privilege to watch fellow friends and competitors battle it out through Day 1. There was so much excitement and healthy competition present.

This brings me to the meta I saw throughout Day 1, and holy moly, was it something! In my Pre-Worlds write-up, I expected mass amounts of XernDon, RayOgre, and some XRay. Instead, I was surprised to see so many Ultra Necrozma! I never saw much of Ultra Necrozma in Columbus. There were so many obscure Pokemon and team ideas. I couldn’t believe the diversity in the teams that made it to Day 2 after playing through Day 1!

All I can say is that I was even more excited to play in Day 2 against these diverse teams piloted by some of the strongest trainers worldwide.

Personally, I loved playing through Day 2 as there were tough opponents from the get-go. There were a lot of nerves for many trainers, and I ended up losing 2 matches within my first 3 rounds myself. My run was looking dead at this stage: one more loss out of the next four meant I would be done. My last four matches were extremely tough, especially because I had to knock out two fellow Australians in the process to get my chance to Top Cut. Fortunately, I won my next 4 matches, and it resulted in me top cutting my first ever World Championships!

I did end up losing to a Japanese player in my top 16 play-off game. He had a great match-up and played extremely well, so I was pleased to see him make top 4. I can gladly say that there was a wide variety of cores and restricted that made the top 8 at the World Championships. There was Ultra Necrozma, Lunala, Yveltal, Xerneas, Rayquaza, Kyogre and Groudon. There was never a dull moment throughout the finals play-offs. There was so much hype for the two Japanese finalists come the Grand Final day. Everyone spectating was on their toes to see who would become the next World Champion, and the core that ultimately ended up winning the World Championships was Lunala and Primal Groudon!

Overall, I believe that a huge majority of VGC spectators and competitors had an amazing time. I loved how everyone came together after the competition, had some good catch-ups, and united in good company, despite our cultural differences. It’s amazing to see how Pokémon can bring the world together like this!

I really hope everyone enjoys what time remains of the Ultra series format before the new Pokémon Sword and Shield become available. I can’t wait to see how VGC 2020 pans out. Bring on the next World Championships in London next year!