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.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Sumo is facing a potential chasm at the top of the ancient sport for the first time in more than 30 years after the only yokozuna, Terunofuji, announced his retirement yesterday. The Mongolian-born 33-year-old has struggled with injuries and withdrew from the ongoing New Year Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo on Thursday after forfeiting his bout. He told reporters that he was retiring to train young wrestlers after “a tough 14 years” in the ring. “I’ve given everything, but at this tournament, I wasn’t able to perform as I’d like, and you shouldn’t enter the ring if your mind and body are
RSS