Articles

Published on August 7th, 2013 | by Baz Anderson

10

Meet Team UK

Next weekend, some of the best Pokemon trainers in the world will represent the United Kingdom in the 2013 Pokemon Video Game World Championships. While they weren’t able to get information on all of the members of Team UK on such short notice, Baz Anderson and Kyriakou have put together an article to introduce you to some of the competitors from the United Kingdom, regaling you with their previous accomplishments and Worlds qualifications, how they rose to fame this year, and what they do outside of Pokemon. Keep in mind that to qualify this season, competitors had to gain enough Championship Points (CP) throughout the season and finish in the Top 32 in Europe.

Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou)

Age: 21
Location: Norwich, UK
Previous Worlds Qualifications: 2012 (32nd)
Qualified This Year Through: 1st Place UK Nationals
Most Notable Accomplishment: 2-time UK national champion
Signature Pokémon: Scarf Machamp, Nidoking

Ben “Gary MF Oak” Kyriakou has been playing VGC since just before UK Nationals in 2011, where he got knocked out in the second round. Coming back looking mighty fine in a Gary Oak cosplay, he stormed onto the scene, earning second place in UK Nationals in 2012. He was later being promoted to first place due to an unfortunate “incident” in a hotel, only to go on to get battered at Worlds trying to use something that was legit good, rather than spamming the (clearly) awesome Pokemon that Gary used.

This year he’s been hard at work becoming good at the game, and this has paid off with a 10th place finish in Milan, 22nd place finish in Bochum (apparently BS from a Garchomp, same story, different day), and retaining his title of UK champion with a truly disgraceful 17-1 record over the tournament.

He has just finished his degree in mathematics at the University of York, where he spent a lot of time playing pool and snooker for the uni, and playing assorted video games with his friends. Other than that, most of his time is taken up either ordering pizza, waiting for pizza to be delivered, or eating pizza.

What will Ben use this year? Well, if history has shown anything, it’s that he likes to take out threats, rather than play around them, but will he opt for a more defensive team to deal with the Worlds metagame? Only time will tell…

Benjamin Gould (Ben91293)

Age: 19
Location: United Kingdom, Leeds
Previous Worlds Qualifications: N/A
Qualified This Year Through: 2013 UK Nationals, Birmingham/CP invitation
Most Notable Accomplishment: Top 8 in UK, Top 32 in Europe
Signature Pokemon: Nidoqueen, Choice Scarf Abomasnow

Benjamin Gould  is a relatively new face to the Pokèmon scene. He has attended three National events so far; missing out on qualification in the previous two years due to the horrifically flawed system the UK events used (single elimination only). Finally, when swiss came to the UK, his 7-2 record allowed him to make a top cut. His competitive achievements so far stand at placing top 8 in the UK and in the top 32 of Europe, packing an invite to worlds in the process.

Ben’s hobbies include skateboarding, playing the guitar, zoological related activities and of course, playing competitive Pokèmon.

As for favourite team archetypes, Ben has been known to use fast paced, hard hitting teams that aim for type coverage in offensive synergy. He used dedicated Trick Room in VGC’12, only to be knocked out of the top 32 due to repeated Heat Wave misses. VGC’13 saw the use of Nidoqueen in a fast paced hail-centred team. What will we see from Ben at Worlds this year? Your guess is as good as mine.

Barry Anderson (Baz Anderson)

Age: 25
Location: Lincoln, England
Previous Worlds Qualifications: N/A
Qualified This Year Through: Championship Points (13th EU)
Most Notable Accomplishment: 6th Place Italian Nationals 2013
Signature Pokemon: Liepard, Breloom

Barry has been playing Pokémon since Red & Blue were released, but only stumbled into competitive battling in 2011. This year saw Barry finally make a name for himself being the only person in Europe to top cut all three Nationals, and dominating the rankings of the Nugget Bridge circuit.

Outside of Pokémon, Barry gets to interview bands and write publications for a large heavy metal website he has a long history with. He used to work at a falconry centre, and keeps an eagle-owl he raised, imprinted and taught to fly. He also has a degree in Psychology.

His teams are never standard, successfully representing the UK on stream earlier in the year with a Marowak and Gallade. His Nationals successes came from using a Liepard, but his team had changed once more for his most recent stream appearance in the Nugget Bridge Invitational. This will be Barry’s first Worlds experience, so it is tough to know what to expect.

Daniel Nolan (Zog)

Age: 20
Location: Halifax, England and Bangor, Wales
Previous Worlds Qualifications: 2011
Qualified This Year Through: 6th Place UK Nationals
Most Notable Accomplishment: Top Cut Worlds 2011
Signature Pokémon: Skill Swap Venomoth, Beheeyem, ones with a lot of STATS

Always competitive, Zog has been a trainer since the first generation’s playground days. Since European VGC started in 2009, he’s top cut four of the five UK Nationals: one of the most consistent Europe Nationals records in the game.
Zog, as well as being one of the world’s most effective players, is as reliably controversial inside and outside of his Pokémon activities. Avidly outspoken and with an infamous VGC history involving choice items, orange juice and being knocked flying on livestream (and more), Zog is surrounded in chaos as often as hunnies. That said, he’s certainly very warm and helpful and adds some humour to the community. Chaotic as he may seem, Zog always stands up for the game and is far from a destructive influence on the VGC community.

In the “real world”, Zog does zoological research at university involving reptiles, which he’s kept at home for 8 years in his huge animal room (complete with vivarium wall and beetle cabinet). He enjoys animals, writing, photography and most of all partying hard.

Zog is a self-professed shrewd tactician: his battling style being to simply never lose. A strong proponent of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, this strategy has served him well over the years. With his mirthfully fierce outlook on Pokémon and a team forged in the fires on Mount Doom, Zog is one of the most frightful players on this year’s world stage and he expects his opponents to tremble before being crushed. Apparently, they have been warned.

Christopher Arthur (Koryo)

Age: ???
Location: Bangor, Wales
Previous Worlds Qualifications: N/A
Qualified This Year Through: CP – 15th in Europe
Most Notable Accomplishment: Top 16 in Milan and Birmingham Nationals 2013
Signature Pokémon: Scizor

Christopher ‘Koryo’ Arthur (yes, that’s his real name) is from the UK and has been playing competitively for the last 2 years. He started playing on PO last year as a friend suggested it was a good place to start and was on there a lot doing pretty well. He also went by the name of “Bahamut Zero” and “The Black Knight”. This year, he decided to train by himself, and has only been seen in the Wi-Fi tournaments, where he has done pretty well.

Not much is known about this mysterious trainer except that he does everything Pokémon-related by himself. He plays for a semi-professional football team (or soccer to you Americans) every Saturday, so he is in pretty good shape. He also likes to cosplay and thinks his “sharingan” is real.

He failed to qualify for Worlds last year, getting top 32 at the UK Nationals, but he attended all 3 European nationals this year, top cutting twice and placing 17th in the other. His consistency has earned him 15th place in Europe overall and an invite for this year’s Worlds. He also placed first among European players in the last Wi-Fi tourney with a sneaky new untested team, but will he use it for Worlds? Also, has he improved it? And has he actually done any defensive calculations to go with the offensive ones he always does? One thing is for sure, if he doesn’t improve his terrible record in best-of-three, then I wouldn’t worry too much about him at Worlds!

Rina Purdy

Age: 20
Location: Bath, England
Previous Worlds Qualifications: N\A
Qualified This Year Through: Championship Points (28th EU)
Most Notable Accomplishment: 16^th Place German Nationals 2013
Signature Pokémon: Salamence, Bisharp, Mawile

Rina Purdy is no stranger to competitive doubles play, having played in the European VGC national tournaments since 2009.  That experience and persistence paid off this year, as her top 16 showing in Germany secured her invitation to the World Championships.

While Rina has less of a presence in the competitive community than others on this list, this may prove to her advantage this weekend.  Largely free of the influence of Nugget Bridge players, she developed effective novel strategies that opponents in Germany were unprepared to handle, stopped only by unfortunate Thundurus paralysis hax.  But let’s be honest, who hasn’t lost to that?  Unless her fellow Worlds competitors can adapt quickly, her tactics may be their undoing.

Outside of Pokémon, Rina pursues a degree in computer science and mathematics at the University of Bath.  Her other interests include Touhou, Sonic the Hedgehog, and long walks through the countryside, sometimes even along the beach.

About the Author

Baz Anderson has a wealth of knowledge and experience playing Pokémon VGC, most notably placing 9th at Worlds in 2013 and becoming Nugget Bridge Invitational Champion in 2014. He works as an animal ranger, writes as a heavy metal critic and has a degree in Psychology.

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