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Traveling from nearly 30 countries and six continents, more than 400 players ages 6 to 62 competed for the chance to be crowned the best Pokémon players in the world this weekend in Orlando, Florida.  Hosted by Pokémon USA, Inc., the worldwide leader in trading card games and video games, the 2008 Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) World Championships and Pokémon Video Game Showdown gave the Pokémon TCG and video game players from around the world a chance to show they were the best.  Both championship events emphasized the skill, strategy, creativity and fun involved in playing the Pokémon TCG and video games.

The 350 people from nearly 30 countries who qualified for the TCG World Championships spent countless hours preparing, and survived a storm of battles through an entire season of competitions that included city, state, regional and national tournaments.  Each of the three first place TCG finishers received a grand prize that includes a scholarship award worth $7,500 and an invitation to the 2009 World Championships. In total, the value of the scholarships divided amongst the TCG participants from 1st through 16th place in all age divisions totaled more than $100,000.  After two full days of fierce one-on-one TCG battles, three winners were crowned in each age group, including:

2008 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Champions – Junior Division

• First Place: Tristan Robinson (11) from Denver, CO USA
• Second Place: Takuto Itagaki (11) from Japan
• Third Place: Simone Zucchelli (10) from Italy

2008 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Champions – Senior Division

• First Place: Dylan Lefavour (14) from New England USA
• Second Place: Paul Atanassov (11) from Canada
• Third Place: Nicholas Kolibas (14) from Boston, MA USA

2008 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Champions – Masters Division

• First Place: Jason Klaczynski (22) from Chicago, IL USA
• Second Place:  Khan Le (15) from Norway
• Third Place: Gino Lombardi (18) from Johnston, RI USA

Concurrently, the top 64 Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl video game players from the United States and Japan won a trip to Orlando by defeating hundreds of challengers in regional championships held in each nation.  The junior and senior champions each received a grand prize that includes a six-day vacation package for four to New York City, Honolulu or Tokyo, and a custom Nintendo DSTM Game System.  The winners include:

Pokémon Video Game Showdown Junior Champion
Knight Silvayne (11) from Chicago, IL USA

Pokémon Video Game Showdown Senior Champion
Izuru Yoshimura (21) from Hiroshima City, Hirsoshima Pre. Japan