Pikachu may be the mascot of Pokémon, but it was surpassed at the 2024 Pokémon World Championships. And it’s all because a very special Pachirisu captured the hearts of spectators near and far when he emerged from his Poké Ball.
Players and fans gathered in Honolulu, Hawaii over the weekend to compete in the 2024 Pokémon World Championships. The tournament featured competitions for several games, including the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the latest generation of video games, Pokémon Scarlet And VioletWhile this gave viewers a glimpse of newer additions to the Pokédex, such as some of the powerful Paradox Pokémon, the real eye-catcher was a Pachirisu belonging to Sejun Park, the 2014 world champion in the video game’s Masters Division.
To understand the hype surrounding Park and his Pachirisu, it is helpful to briefly consider their roles in the competitive Pokémon scene. Before his 2014 victory, Park was regularly at the top of the global player rankings but never won. Then, in 2014, he led a creative team around Mega Gyarados and Pachirisu. Due to his team’s success and the fact that his Pachirisu stood out in a sea of similar but more competitive options, his Pachirisu achieved legendary status within the Pokémon community. Today, a Video from the official Pokémon YouTube channel describes his victory as “probably the most legendary moment in the history of the competition”.
On Friday, 10 years after his big win, Park decided to bring Pachirisu back and the crowd couldn’t have been more excited. Recording from the Worlds stream shows the moment when Park sent out Pachirisu and you can hear the crowd roaring. Pachirisu was titled “the chosen one,” and fans watched as the little guy blocked an attack with a critical hit from Aaron Zheng’s Chien-Pao.
Online, people on X welcomed the return of “King Pachirisuand shared clips and pictures featuring the cute Pokémon. One tweet with nearly 16,000 likes showed a picture of Park’s lineup and said, “HE BROUGHT BACK PACHIRISU, NO WAY?!?!”
Unfortunately, Park’s strategy didn’t work so well this time. Park faced Zheng and lost two games in a row – and later that day, his place in the tournament. Still, I have to give him credit for sticking with Pachirisu. In the end, he was He shared a celebratory tweet with side-by-side pictures of his 2014 win and the 2024 competition. Even though Park’s Worlds win was 10 years ago, it warmed my heart to see that his plush friend Pachirisu is still by his side.
