While poring through his seven-card hand, third-grader Wesley S. ’35 giggled maniacally across the table from Rohan K. ’32.
“I know just who I want to get out…” Wesley threatened, eying his friend. As Rohan grew increasingly nervous, Wesley pulled a Mega Dragonite EX from his card deck and slapped it onto the Active Spot in his lineup of six Pokémon.
“No! No! No!” Rohan shrieked. Wesley’s play had dramatically weakened Rohan’s lineup, and Rohan was forced to flip his dice, symbolizing the damage he had suffered.
Through giggles, Wesley explained his play aloud: “Mega Dragonite EX is really strong because it can do a Ryuno Glide with 330 damage. I think it works pretty nicely!”
Wesley and Rohan both belong to the Nueva Pokémon Team: a new, nine-student team coached by Nueva alumnus Daniel Hwang ’21, Wesley’s father Dave Scott, and three professional Pokémon professors. The team, whose members range from third to eighth graders, meets weekly in room A201 of the Lower School Building to practice the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG): a tabletop game designed for the franchise’s collectible cards.
The idea for a Nueva Pokémon Team originated last summer, when Dave and Wesley came across an official Pokémon tournament at an international gaming convention.
While Dave is the CEO of Evil Genius Games and familiar with many tabletop games, both he and Wesley were surprised to learn about the sheer scale and stakes of Pokémon gaming; winners will often walk away from tournaments with scholarships, prize money, and other lucrative awards. Meanwhile, Dave was also struck by the cognitive benefits of a game like Pokémon, by bolstering players’ strategic thinking, math, and memory skills.
Wesley’s motivations were a bit simpler: “I really like playing Pokémon!”
Inspired by what he had discovered at the gaming convention, Wesley sent a letter seeking support for a Pokémon team to Head of School Lee Fertig. Fertig responded, recommending that the father-son duo meet with Lower School Division Head Megan Terra and Middle School Division Head Karen Tiegel to create an after-school enrichment program.
After some initial setbacks with fielding enough teammates in the fall semester, the team officially launched in January.
At the first practice, some teammates didn’t even know how to play the game. And yet, lead Pokémon Professor Kai Kasim described the team as “very promising.” Kasim specifically recalled asking Royce Z. ’35 to reflect on sportsmanship and being shocked by the young student’s answer: “We learn and grow by losing.”
In that same session, Kasim also gave students an initial introduction to the game’s “metas:” 17 of the highest-performing Pokémon decks that competitors can use in tournaments. Over the course of the students’ training, they will study the metas to prepare for real competition.
Kasim underscored the complexity of metas in the game. “It’s as if, for chess, you got to bring whatever pieces you wanted—and there were hundreds of pieces you could choose from,” she explained.
Mastering that complexity takes serious focus, which is why Hwang was extremely impressed by the students’ dedication in the first practice. Hwang is also an Upper School alumnus and serendipitously ranked as the world’s eighth-best Pokémon Video Game Competition (VGC) player.
“They actually did their best to pay attention and listen. That’s the first thing that immediately stuck out,” Hwang described.
Hwang is focused on helping the team prepare for the team’s first challenge, which will be the Los Angeles Pokémon Regional Championships in May. Later in August, the team will travel more locally to spectate the annual Pokémon World Championships. There, the students will be able to meet other Pokémon enthusiasts, witness high-level competition, and improve their own gaming skills.
Looking forward, Dave is optimistic about the team’s success and chance to be globally-competitive in the future. “If anyone has the raw talent to capitalize on this phenomenon, I think it’s a Nueva student,” Dave said. “We have students that I think are really promising, and I can’t wait to see them compete on the national level.”
But the path to victory will not be without challenges, and the coaches already anticipate the students will have to weather losses. In addition, the Pokémon game undergoes an annual rotation that swaps out certain playable cards, forcing players to adapt to new strategies. Unfortunately, the next rotation will remove Charizard, an orange dragon that is the most-favorite Pokémon of teammate Ian L. ’35.
Despite these obstacles, Wesley is looking to achieve one major aim: “beating everybody in the club at least one time. To get there, he’s ready to put in the work. “I think I still have a bit to learn!”
