With the release of Pokémon GO over the summer, the world of Pokémon is making a comeback! But for freshman Toler Webb, the only person to ever win both the US Pokémon Video Game National Championships and the Pokémon World Championships, Pokémon has always been an important part of his life.
Name: Toler Webb
Hometown: Raleigh, NC
Class: 2020
Major: Undecided, but strongly considering Physics and maybe a major/minor in Music
Campus activities: Chorale (he is a music scholar!), Concert Committee
Fav music: Right now he is loving James Blake.
Hogwarts house: Hufflepuff
Summit drink of choice: Hot chocolate
Davidson bucket list: GRADUATE! And spend some time at Lake Campus.
Superpower: To control people’s mind
Plans on binge watching next: The Office
Ok to start off, can you give me some background on the world of competitive Pokémon?
“It is a strategy game, a mix between rock, paper, scissors and chess. You have six Pokémon and you pick four of them to battle. You have to manage which Pokémon goes against each Pokémon, trying to understand your opponent and what they are planning on doing.”
If you have ever played the role-playing video game, this competition is simply the battling component of that!
How did you get started playing Pokémon competitively?
“I started playing Pokémon when I was four and actually learned to read playing the video game.”
It took some convincing, but eventually he convinced his parents to take him to a tournament in Philadelphia when he was ten.
Now that you are in school do you have plans to continue? Start something on campus?
“That’s a hard question that a lot of people have asked me. I can’t drive to tournaments right now, so transportation is tricky. I really would like to try to continue playing because it’s been such a large part of my life…I am planning on starting something on campus once I am more settled in. I really hope I can find some people that are interested.”
Spirit Pokémon:
“Bagon…because it is always struggling to fly but it never succeeds. It likes to jump a lot off of high things because it wants to fly but it can’t…and I definitely resonate with that, trying to do things and failing.” He laughed a lot after that explanation!
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