Not every 11-year-old gets the chance to travel to Hawaii for a card-playing competition, but Connor Meyers is getting the opportunity of a lifetime.
The Pokémon World Championship will be held in Honolulu, HI. The three-day event on Aug. 16-18 is jam-packed with tournaments that last all day from 8 a.m.-9 p.m., according to the schedule posted on their website.
“The Pokémon World Championships features the best Pokémon players around the globe,” the website says. “Players will compete for prizes, Pokémon World Champion titles, and return invitations for the following year’s Worlds.”
Connor, a rising sixth-grader at Brown Elementary School, has been competing with Pokémon for less than a year; however, he’s been collecting Pokémon cards since he was 5. His collection has approximately 100,000 cards encased in about 50 Pokémon card-holding binders. He keeps track of his cards on his phone through an app called “Collectr.”
Connor started competing because one day in August 2023, he stumbled across a Pokémon shop while he attended a birthday party in the former Crossville Outlet Center.
“We got there early, so we went around the mall that closed down here, and we saw this Pokémon shop,” he said. “We went to it, and then we saw people playing Pokémon. It was on a Saturday, so they did their weekly cup.”
That venture into Dubs Games and Thangs kindled his passion.
“Then, we went home and built a deck,” Connor continued. “Then the next day, we went there [to the mall], and I played against my friend – best friend now – Grayson, and I won.”
His favorite Pokémon is named “Bulbasaur,” a first-generation character from the Johto region, he said.
There are nine generations of Pokémon so far. Each new generation means that the creators of Pokémon have released new cards to trade and battle with. Owning a first-generation card is uncommon due to price and availability.
Connor said he practices almost every day during the summer after camp and after school when school is in session. Parents Melissa and Robert Meyers are his regular practice partners.
He knows how to play in real life and on his phone through an app called “Pokémon TCG Live.”
In 2020, Connor and his parents dove into PokémonGo, an interactive augmented reality Pokémon game modeled with GPS that allows players to capture, battle and train.
To qualify for the Pokémon World Championship, players must compete in cups and leagues, then regionals and finally nationals/internationals.
Connor received his invitation via email to the World Championship shortly after competing in nationals/internationals. These competitions occurred all over the U.S. in Illinois, Texas, Nevada, Louisiana, Florida and Tennessee.
He will compete in the Trading Card Game Junior League at the Pokémon World’s Championship.
Connor has signed up to compete in the TCG JR Day 1 Swiss round and, if he wins, he will compete in the TCG JR Day 2 Swiss rounds, according to the schedule posted on the website.
He said he’s looking forward to “seeing all the people that qualified from around the world and seeing all the different language cards.”
Connor said he wouldn’t be going to the Pokémon World Championship without the support of his parents.
“They supported me by taking me to all of these trips, buying the cards for all of my decks that I need and basically almost everything,” Connor said.
His parents show their support by “just being there to help him practice,” said mom Melissa Meyers. “Of course, buy the new cards that are needed to be competitive.”
She added, “We play a lot with him, my husband and I, to help him practice. And we’ve inadvertently become collectors through all of this.”
As a family, the Meyerses have all three jumped into the world of Pokémon to learn together and grow as a family between road trips to regionals and being able to spend quality time together playing the game.
“I just love that it gives us something to connect about,” Melissa said. “It gives us, as a family, something to connect and do together with him and just kind of immerse ourselves in his world because he is becoming a preteen, and I don’t think that a lot of parents have the opportunity to do those kinds of things with their kids especially as they get older, and so it just gives me something to connect with him on.”
Also cheering on Connor are grandparents Geoffrey and Kersten Rink, Jack and Marilyn Rink, and Suzanne Riccio.
Keep an eye out for Connor’s tournaments live on Twitch or YouTube. To watch, visit www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/about/broadcasts.