Eleven-year-old Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) player Yen Shao-tong became Taiwan’s first-ever TCG champion at the annual Pokemon World Championships on Sunday.
Yen defeated opponent Gabriel Borges Torres from Brazil by using a combination of legendary Pokemons Kyogre and Raiko to take down Torres’ trump card, the deity Pokemon Arceus.
The players were accompanied by their translators on the stage at the Pacifico Yokohama exhibition center in Yokohama, Japan. The translators not only assisted the competitors in conversing, but helped them double check the effects and abilities of their opponent’s cards, which were published in their respective languages.
Photo: Screengrab from the Official Pokmon YouTube channel
Yen’s Lost Zone deck was considered a daring bid against Torres’ deck, which centered around Arceus, Duraludon and Umbreon, with the deck chosen by the Taiwanese champ widely recognized as a high-risk gamble. Torres’ deck has long proven to be stable but effective in professional and amateur tournaments around the world.
However, with his expert tactic of banishing a number of cards to the Lost Zone, combined with careful plays using Colress’ Experiment and Comfey alongside cards such as Dragonite V, Raiko V and Sableye, Yen stacked up enough energy cards to unleash his Kyogre’s Aqua Storm upon Torres to take the game, crowning him the champ of the Pokemon TCG Juniors division — the championships’ oldest event.
Taiwan’s last win at the Pokemon World Championships was in 2019 when Wu Pi took home the Video Game Championship title at the age of 10 after pulling out all the stops against his opponent while battling in Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon on the Nintendo 3DS system.
Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen yesterday exited at the BWF World Tour Finals in China, losing in the semi-finals to China’s world No. 1 Shi Yuqi. Shi, who was named the BWF Men’s Singles Player of the Year, had a 9-4 record against Chou going into the match. He extended that record to 9-5 with a 21-14, 21-18 victory. Chou advanced to the men’s singles semi-finals on Friday by upsetting top-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a must-win match at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. The 16-21, 21-18, 21-15 victory saw Chou secure his second semi-finals appearance at the tournament, despite his relatively older
BOOT TO FACE: Wilfried Singo said that his actions were not intentional, ‘but I was able to see afterwards that’ the ’keeper had a significant face injury Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday came from behind to extend their unbeaten start to the Ligue 1 season with a 4-2 win away against AS Monaco, but lost goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to a gruesome facial injury. The bloodied Italy international was left requiring 10 staples after sustaining lacerations to the right side of his face when he was caught by the studs of Monaco defender Wilfried Singo. “I don’t know if the referee was badly positioned, but VAR [video assistant referee] needed to intervene, you have to protect the players,” PSG captain Marquinhos said. “To not give a red in a situation like
India’s chess star Gukesh Dommaraju returned to a hero’s welcome in his home city yesterday after becoming the youngest world champion aged only 18. Hundreds of fans crowded the arrivals area of Chennai International Airport, cheering alongside banks of television cameras as Gukesh made his way out of the airport after victory in taking the World Chess Championship title. “It means a lot to bring back the trophy to India,” Gukesh told reporters, with garlands of flowers draped around his neck, brandishing the glittering trophy in his hand. “I can see the support and what it means to India, I
Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Friday joined Max Verstappen on stage when the Red Bull driver collected the Formula One champion’s trophy for the fourth year in a row at a ceremony held in Africa for the first time. The 27-year-old was handed the trophy by International Automobile Federation president Mohammed Ben Sulayem alongside Kagame, who had earlier spoken at the gala in Kigali of Rwanda bidding to host a race. Verstappen, who is one of only six drivers to have won four or more titles since the championship started in 1950, said he was proud of his season and everyone in
RSS