Why We Play Pokémon
So how many of you have played professional sports? I haven’t, and neither have the vast majority of sports fans. You may have a favorite team, or even just a favorite player, but any connection you have with those teams and players is nothing more than really good advertising. You may have a hometown team and you think that makes you part of that team, but you are wrong. Despite dedicating time, money, and maybe even your sanity to rooting for sports, in then end you are just a dollar sign to those teams. At the end of the day you probably don’t know much of anything about the intricacies of professional sports, from the day to day operations of a team to the players’ personal lives, training, and psychology.
I’m sure right now you are asking yourself, “Paul, you cynical jerk, what does any of this have to do with Pokémon?” My simple reply is, “Everything.”
You are a player. Pokémon may not be the English Premier League or the National Basketball Association, but you are a professional Pokémon player. We may not get paid multimillion dollar salaries like our more famous counterparts, but we are playing our game. The game you have dedicated countless hours, had numerous heartbreaks, and, in the case of some lucky few, experienced the pure joy and adoration of winning a major tournament.
As a player of Pokémon you are given an opportunity that you aren’t given with professional sports: the opportunity to play against the very best players of the game. You may know the batting average of every player in Major League Baseball, but you don’t know what it is like to take a pitch from a Roger Clemens. As a player of Pokémon, you can take on the best players; you have a chance to battle Ray Rizzo, the two-time World Champion, or Wolfe Glick, the two-time US National Champion. You can challenge the top players at any time and let your skills do the talking. In Pokémon, you have the same chance as everyone else at a tournament.
Unlike most professional sports, in Pokémon you don’t have a team to lean on. You may have a support group, but once the game starts you have to go out there and play alone. You are the team, it is your butt on the line. There is no one to pick up your game, no one to blame when you lose. You take all the glory behind every win and all the shame behind every loss.
Some of you may be too nervous or unprepared to step up and challenge the big names. Don’t be. Pokémon is for everyone. Anyone can make a name for themselves, and all it takes is practice. Unlike professional sports you don’t need to be physically gifted. You don’t need to be 7 feet tall or able to throw a ball 100 miles per hour. The only gift you need is the will to get better. I wasn’t always Paul Hornak 3-time Regional Winner; I was once Paul Hornak no-time Regional Winner. But I had the dedication and the will to try to be the best I could be, and since then I have been blessed to put together such a strong career.
That is what playing a game is all about. Understanding it from the inside creates a connection that cannot be emulated in any other way. You may never know what it is like to play a professional sport, but you have your sport sitting right in front of you. You’re not going to get a shot at Justin Verlander, Tom Brady, LeBron James, or Sidney Crosby, but you can take your chances with Mike Suleski, Huy Ha, or Ray Rizzo right now. Get in the game and take a shot at real competition. Quit making excuses, go play and make a name for yourself.
About the Author
makiri started playing VGC in 2008 and has been an advocate for VGC play since then. With three Regional Championship victories and multiple other high placings, makiri is a seasoned competitor ready to impart knowledge of the game to others.
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