New Pokémon player predicts 0-9 finish, wins whole regional tournament

VGC newcomer Justin Tang is back with his second Pokémon Regional Championship title. After taking his debut run all the way to the Knoxville finals back in February, he finished in the Top 16 at Charlotte just last weekend and bounced back with another win today in Fort Wayne to secure his 2023 Worlds invitation.

But despite his strong start in the competitive scene, Justin made a bold prediction of how the weekend would go. If his tweet had come true, he would’ve gone 0-9 on day one.

Instead, he was the only player in the entire tournament to go 9-0 on day one. Even more impressive, he walked away with a big win on day two.

The original 0-9 prediction wasn’t due to a lack of confidence, though. It was a nod to fellow VGC newcomer Abdullah Mohayyuddin, who’d also won the first tournament he competed in. Similar to Justin, Abdullah had tweeted out that he’d go 1-8 only to remain undefeated after day one in Vancouver.

Tweets aside, Justin had to be at the top of his game to win this tournament, especially with the huge format shift to Regulation C. For the first time in Scarlet and Violet VGC, players were allowed to bring any of the Treasures of Ruin—Ting-Lu, Chien-Pao, Chi-Yu, and Wo-Chien.

While everyone was talking about Ting-Lu with the OHKO move Fissure, Justin opted for Chien-Pao along with Flutter Mane, Amoonguss, Arcanine, Dragapult, and his trusty Palafin. With his strong offensive team and brilliant performance throughout the weekend, he was able to outlast VGC veterans Wolfe Glick, Aaron Traylor, Paul Chua, Nick Navarre, and his final opponent, Joseph Ugarte.

Joseph made it to the finals two weekends in a row and has been playing incredibly well, but it just wasn’t in the cards for him this time.

In three games where luck and RNG were at a minimum, it was all about making the right calls, and (aside from that dominant Game 2 from Joseph) Justin made some amazing plays that won him the match along with his second Regional Championship.

He walked away with not only a trophy but also a dinner with his fellow finalist. 

And a nosebleed.

With two big wins this season, Justin has now earned enough Championship Points to attend the 2023 World Championship in Yokohama, Japan later this year.