Networking, Math, Add to Pokémon Champ’s Success

The spoils for conquering video games have come a long way since the 1980’s when a high score meant an initialed spot on the leaderboard, and possibly some schoolyard cred. The parents of Manoj Sunny, a junior at , discovered this recently when he told them about the trip to Hawaii he won while playing Pokémon on his Nintendo DS.

Sunny said when he asked his parents to take him to a national competition for Pokémon in Madison, WI, in April, they thought he was crazy for waking up at 4 a.m. to arrive on time. Sunny came in fourth place, won a $600 stipend to attend the regional competition in Indianapolis, IN, and placed third to go onto the world games. Sunny said his parents were surprised when he won.

“When I went to nationals, got the $600 and won a free trip to Hawaii, that’s when they realized it was for real,” Sunny said.

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Sunny placed 11^th in the masters division, for players born in 1996 and before, at the Pokémon World Championships held in Waikoloa, Hawaii from Aug. 10 to Aug. 12.

Millions of players have made Pokémon an international phenomenon. Both the playing card and video game versions have been played by millions of people around the globe.

Sunny said connections he made with players online was crucial to his preparation for the competition.

“Something like this, you need to talk with others, figure out how you’re going to win, your team, stuff like that," Sunny said. "This is actually a very social game.”

Players connect on Pokémon websites that talk about competitive battling, blogs and Facebook, Sunny said. Through playing the video game and attending the competitions, Sunny said he began friendships with players in California, Arizona, Washington and New York.

“It’s really nice to have this network of connections,” Sunny said. “You talk with them online, but to have met them in real life, it’s just nice.”

Sunny said he prioritized his schoolwork ahead of Pokémon, and he’s enrolled in accelerated courses including calculus at Maine West this year. Math is a large part of playing Pokémon competitively, Sunny said.

“The game is all about numbers and math and calculating,” Sunny said. “It’s not really as simple as it looks onscreen.”

The Pokémon champion is also captain of the chess team and plays trumpet in the school band. Sunny said playing Pokémon was similar to chess, due to the strategizing involved. He said playing Pokémon was different than participating in other types of competitions, however.

“I go to a lot of other competitions for other stuff like chess team, and it’s really competitive, and sometimes it’s too intense,” Sunny said. “But at these Pokémon events I really want to win and it’s really competitive, but the people there are just really friendly, and it’s so nice meeting them after talking to them on the computer.”

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