11-year-old Brian Hough from Ann Arbor is a recent winner of the Pokemon Spring Regional Championship and will be competing in the national and world championships this summer.
Courtesy of Valerie Hough
The sixth-grader at Forsythe Middle School is the 2013 Pokemon Spring Regional Champion, and will be competing in the national championships and the world championships this summer.
Brian first became interested in Pokemon in kindergarten and started competing in 2010 as an 8-year-old.
"It's similar to playing chess, but having the shape of the board change and introducing new pieces," explained Brian's mom, Valerie Hough. "The games come out in Japan months before they come out in the U.S., so we got the Japanese version and he played it with all the text in Japanese, with a little help from the Internet." "Playing is a combination of knowledge, executing your strategy and anticipating what your opponent will do," said Valerie Hough. "There is also some luck involved."
Each player chooses a team of six Pokemon — out of hundreds of eligible Pokemon characters before the competition.
"The game is very interesting and is a little bit like poker with elements of luck and bluffing and a lot of mathematics," said Chris Hough, Brian's dad.
Both Valerie and Chris Hough play the Pokemon game, and Chris also has helped design Brian's teams.
"I'm a little bit of a natural because I can remember almost everything about another player's team after a match," said Brian, who says math is his best subject in school. "I play a lot when it gets close to a tournament but not at all in between tournaments."
Brian spends a lot of time practicing the piano and saxophone and participates in martial arts, basketball and swimming.
Last year, Brian finished second in the U.S. and second in the world championships. Because of his success this year in three different regional championships, Pokemon is paying for Brian and a parent (both are going) to compete in the national championships in Indianapolis from July 5-7 and the world championships in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"I already qualify for the world championships so I can have fun at the nationals," said Brian. "I've been to the world championships three times and like going to the cool places they pick to have them."
Brian will be battling for the title of Pokemon World Champion this summer from August 9-11.