Old champions return at the Pokémon North American International Championships

This weekend saw a return to form for some of the best players in both types of competitive Pokémon as several previous winners repeated or claimed a new title at the Pokémon North American International Championships.

Trainers from around the world traveled to Columbus, Ohio to compete for the chance of being named a true Pokémon Master. This event featured three different levels for both the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) and video game competitions (VGC). Even Pokkén Tournament had two separate levels for its smaller championship stage.

In VGC, Connor Yuen from Singapore took the top spot in the Junior Division, continuing a run of high finishes in tournaments that dates back to last year’s NA Championships. Meanwhile, top players Kareem Muakkit and Quentin Colón battled it out for the Senior Division crown, with Muakkit coming out on top with his Xerneas and Lunala core.

The biggest show came in the Masters Division, where 2016 Pokémon world champion Wolfe “Wolfey” Glicke claimed his first international title with an impressive win over Graham Amedee.

Wolfey came into the event as a favorite to make the top cut, which he did as the sixth seed. He had a rough time making it to the grand finals, but so did his opponent, Amedee.

Each player had to beat the best of the best to make it to the final matchup, with Amedee having to play and beat both the first and fourth seeds. His match against top-seeded Melvin “Shaman” Keh was an impressive upset over a tournament favorite.

His run came just short of the big prize, though, as Wolfey showed his masterful knowledge of the current meta and used the unconventional pairing of Celesteela and Rayquaza as his restricted duo. In a field full of Kyogre, Lunala, and other more prominent picks, his team was a slight breath of fresh air.

This victory puts Wolfey into a category of his own, with a win in each category of competitive Pokemon events: at least one regionals, nationals, internationals, and world title.

In the TCG, Benny Billinger has been competing and winning in the Junior Division for several years, and he just keeps piling on the victories. His Zapdos and Ultra Beasts deck was one of several to make it deep into the tournament, showing that this meta can use the Thunderous Assault Zapdos in several combos. This wasn’t the last time we saw it used, either.

Both the Senior and Masters Division were conquered by variations of the Zoroark-GX and Persian-GX deck. Isaiah Bradner claimed the Senior crown over Regan Retzloff and his impressive Weezing deck.

Zapdos returned in the form of a support card in Emery Taylor’s Pikachu & Zekrom-GX build for the Masters tournament. His run to the grand finals included some expert play and a little luck, culminating in a one turn kill (OTK).

Reigning NAIC champ Stéphane Ivanoff ended up getting the best of the mouse and dragon by using that Zoroark-GX deck. Widely considered the most powerful card in the game, Zoroark-GX appeared a total of four times, only being matched by the Reshiram & Charizard-GX deck.

This is Ivanoff’s second-straight NAIC win and, along with the other winners, it will give the Frenchman a first-round bye at the 2019 Pokémon World Championships.

Collin “Ashgreninja1” Jones and Chaz “Mewtater” Wright won the Pokkén Senior and Masters competitions respectively to round out the event.

The 2019 Pokémon World Championships will take place from Aug. 16 to 18 in Washington, D.C.