Wolfe and the Pokemon Finals, Part 1

My great-nephew, Wolfe Glick, won the US championship for the Pokemon videogame tourney last month, after winning the regional tourney earlier this year. As US champion, he and his Mom got a paid trip to the “Worlds” – the tournament to determine the overall champion.

Because the international tourney is held in San Diego this year, during this weekend, I decided to fly down to cheer him on and share in the fun and stress of the weekend. Wolfe, his brother Max, and his mom Heather (who is my only neice) arrived on Thursday.

They and the players from all over the world converged on the Hilton, taking over most of the hotel in what is, in essence, a trade show for Pokemon enthusiasts. For those of you who don’t know, Pokemon is made up of animated characters, and they were well represented in the common areas of the tournament.

Friday was check in and warm-up time for the champions from the different countries. I don’t know how many countries are represented, but I hear lots of different languages being spoken in lines that queue up for Starbucks and other limited-availability convention resources.

There are actually two tournaments going on – the videogame tourney, where Wolfe is competing – and the larger “card division” where kids who are playing the card game version of Pokemon compete. This picture is actually of the card division; the videogame division takes up about half this area.

Friday was also a time where people who did not win their respective tournaments could “grind in” – that is, compete for a limited number of “wild card” berths in today’s tournament. Wolfe and some of the other champions were available on Friday to encourage and help some of those players.

I stood line this morning with the mother of an 11 year old who “ground in” yesterday so he could compete today. She and I talked about the pressure the kids feel. This is “big league” stuff. If Wolfe wins, he and him family get an all-expenses paid vacation to Hawaii for a week, not to mention all the press. I pointed out that he had been profiled in the Washington Post and a bunch of local press and gamer blogs. He had to learn how to do interviews and all. It’s a big deal, and a lot of pressure, even though it’s not exactly life and death. They have to learn how to deal with pressure, taking care not to psych themselves out, succumb to insomnia or fear or otherwise fail to perform under pressure. “Wait,” she said. “Who is your nephew again?”

“Wolfe Glick” I answered.

“Oh my goodness,” she exclaimed. “My son actually read an interview with Wolfe, and he’s changed some of his [tactical starting positions] based on what Wolfe said. This is amazing that I met you.”  My brush with greatness, I thought.

At 15, learning that you can excel and actually be The Best in something is pretty heady stuff and reinforces life-long lessons of working hard and always doing your best. Achieving some success and seeing that you can have a real impact on the world – even if only an 11 year old boy from Florida who follows the strategic advice that was outlined in an interview in a gamers’ blog, well … that’s a real heady lesson, too.

As I write this, Wolfe has played 4 of the 6 games in today’s round-robin eliminations. He’s 3-1 now. Another loss and he’ll likely not make the cut for tomorrow’s Finals Tournament. He reported that the first two games were “OK.” The third one was “very difficult” and he lost the fourth one. Now the pressure is really on.

Win or lose, though, I’m really proud of him and know that he’ll learn a ton either way.

Here are some of the critters walking thru the lobby:

Update: Wolfe just won game 5. Today is a “round robin tournament” to determine who gets into tomorrow’s final tournament. He’s now 4-1, having had at least two really difficult games. If he wins the last one, he’s in tomorrow’s games. If not, he likely will be eliminated.

Update: 5:20 PDT  —  Wolfe lost the last game.   But, because of the cumulative records of all the players, he was ranked #6 in today’s tourney, and the top 8 will go on to tomorrow’s “Finals”.   He came out of the Hall looking like he’d been put thru a meatgrinder.  He said he was really exhausted and “just want[ed] to go to the room” and crash.   Wow, I’m number 6 in the world now.  Tomorrow is going to be so hard — my first match is with last year’s World Champion, who was 6 and 0 today!”

Note: Wolfe is the youngest player in his division — the Master’s Division — which goes up thru age 20.  There will no celebrating tonight.  Probably a quiet night in is what would be best.   

My point about “feeling the pressure” could not have been more aptly demonstrated by Wolfe’s comments.