Help send me to the Pokémon World Cup in England!

Hello, my name is Liam and I would love to tell you a little about myself and one of my dreams. Five years ago, I discovered the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Playing Pokémon quickly became one of my passions. As I developed my skills and understanding of the game, I found myself dreaming that one day I might be good enough to qualify for the Pokémon World Cup. I knew it would take dedication and I was up for the challenge. Weeks prior to the start of the global pandemic my hard work finally paid off and I had officially qualified to play in the World Cup in London, England!!! A little about me, I have high functioning autism. This means that I have hyper focus for certain things and can do really well with them, and Pokémon is one of those things. Pokémon is what I love to do, and I would like to invite you to join me on my journey to play in the 2022 Pokémon World Cup!

 

My journey started in 2017 when I played my first game of Pokémon. I’ve been playing for a long time and have learned lots along the way. Pokémon has been a source of joy, but it has also helped me learn how to socialize with other people. Many autistic people have greater struggles with social interaction. On my journey to earn enough points to qualify for Worlds I have had to play in competitions weekly, and travelled as far away at Portland, Oregon! I began seeing familiar faces at these competitions, and quickly made incredible friendships with other players. You may be wondering, “Well Liam, how come you like this game so much?” To that I say because the game revolves around patterns and math, and I love these attributes!!! If you break the Pokémon Trading Card Game down you can see it is strategic like chess, only you play with playing cards. For me, I see the strategy as “If this then that”… every battle has a unique strategy. You also must be thinking, “Ok, so I have 20 cards left in my deck, two of those cards will win me the game, and if I play a supporter that draws three cards that means I have a 30% chance of wining the game this turn. One must constantly be crunching the numbers to maximize the greatest outcome. I really like the way math and patterns work together in that game. With my high functioning autism, I see patterns well and I’m very good at math, and that makes me love the game.

 

“Worlds”, you’ve probably heard me say at least once, but what is it? Worlds is the Pokémon world championships. It is where only the best get to compete for the opportunity to be crowned the champion! By the way, you don’t just walk into the building and say, “Look I made it to worlds!!” no, no, no. You must qualify to play in it. For my division I needed to earn 350 points. For me that meant Playing in all kinds of tournaments to qualify for Worlds. Often, I would have to drive down to the USA with my dad to go play in tournaments, like regionals and league cups. It took a significant amount of work to earn enough points to qualify. For more information on Worlds please read: https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/pokemon-tournaments/pokemon-world-championships/

 

In 2020 I was excited to finally travel to London, England to play in the World Cup, but this little thing called Covid19 decided to delay my dreams. I was devastated at seeing my dreams fade away. Thankfully, after two years, the Pokémon Company decided it was safe for in person play to start back up again, and my earned points from 2020 are applicable to the 2022 World Cup. Unfortunately, as I have orbited the sun twice since then I now need to play in a division with older players, but I am up for the challenge!

During the last two years I have maintained my training. With in person competitions being cancelled all play went online. I prefer playing in person, but online was a great way to keep practising. What does online training look like? Basically, you go to www.play.limitlesstcg.com, pick a tournament and play in it. My friends and I join voice calls and stream our matches. While it’s not the same as playing in person it is the next best thing.

 

Currently, I’ve been raising money by collecting cans and bringing them to the bottle depot. So, what’s the point of all this… To ask you for money!!! Going to Europe cost A LOT and to fundraise I’m going to do a 24-hour live stream. I have a YouTube channel, and if you haven’t watched it yet it is not too late to subscribe (google “magicdedenne YouTube” or go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTd47kz8LDAy-ALjTqZmcYg). 24-HOURS that’s an entire earth rotation!!! At 6 am, pacific standard time, I’m going to start living streaming on my YouTube channel. If a person stays up for 24-hours to do live stream surely this confirms their desire to earn enough money to play in Worlds!!! My goal is to raise $5,000, and I was wondering if you’d be willing to help?

 

Now about my 24-hour live stream... I’ve worked hard on designing an entire day of content that will hopefully offer something for everyone. I have sections that teach you how to play, others where I make art out of bananas (yup, you heard that right), and I will even play in a significant online competition. So please go to my YouTube channel on Monday, March 21st, to watch my 24 hours of Pokémon! And if you can, please think about donating.

Due to technical difficulties with getting a live stream working on YouTube we will now being doing the 24 hour live stream on twitch.tv 
 Go to https://www.twitch.tv/magicdedenne to watch my 24 hour life stream on Monday, March 21st,  starting at 6am (Pacific Time).