2018 Pokemon World Championships Results

The Pokémon World Championships in Nashville have concluded after a weekend of exciting action and thrilling games. The new TCG and VCG champions have been crowned, and their names recorded alongside the other Pokémon Masters. Here’s a brief recap of the action.

The day started with the Pokémon TCG Junior Division Finals, which saw Naohito Inoue of Japan and Sebastian Enriquez of the United States battling hard for their shot at glory. Both players started the series slowly, as they looked for an opening to exploit, before Naohito found the result he was looking for. The second round was a close one, with Sebastian coming back from behind to make it a close match, however it was not enough to stop Naohito from claiming victory and the title of Pokémon TCG Junior Division World Champion.

Next on the agenda was the Pokémon RCG Senior Division Finals, which ended up being a rematch of the Oceania International Championships finals between Denmark's Connor Pedersen and Magnus Pedersen of the United States. Magnus took the first round after Conner ran out of resources, however fell in the second round when he realized how many crucial cards had ended up as Prize cards, forcing him to concede. The final round saw Magnus take advantage of the type weakness of Conner’s deck to seal the victory and claim the title.

The final battle in the TCG series was the Pokémon TCG Masters Division finals between Robin Schulz of Germany and Canada's Jeff Kolenc. While both players played extremely well, and had some very heavy hitting decks, in the end it was Robin Schulz who was able to sweep the series 2-0 and claim the title as the Masters Division Champion.

With the TCG matches concluded, it’s time to move onto the VGC series. First up saw the Junior Division Finals, with Wonn Lee and Sota Tamemasa of Japan doing their best to claim victory. The first round went to Wonn as hey knocked out a crucial Pokémon of Sota’s early on. Round two was revenge for Sota as he managed to get off his combo and seal the deal. The final round ultimately went in Wonn’s favor, handing him the VGC Junior Division Title.

The VGC Senior Division finals were up next, with James Evans from the USA and Bram de Jonge of the Netherlands clashing head on. Both players played quite tactical games, though in the end James Evens was able to grind out the victory after some hard-fought battles, claiming the VGC Senior Division Titles.

The final showdown saw Paul Ruiz from Ecuador and Emilio Forbes from the USA battling hard to claim the VGC Masters Division championship title. Game one was something of a slow burn, with both players looking for an angle for victory. Emilio ended up conceding after losing his Incineroar, recognizing that his chances for victory were slim at that point. The second round saw Emilio switch up his Pokémon to start the match, which seemed to play out well initially, however Paul Ruiz was able to counter with some effective moves of his own to ultimately force Emilio to concede the match.

For more information on the tournament results, check out the official website, here.