By Harold Goldberg
Honolulu – Before you read my reporting about the Saturday night scene in Honolulu and the scandal that erupted last night during Pokémon play, here’s who’s won today, all the savvy champions:
Saturday Night:
Pokémon Unite Champion:
Fennel.
They just had the power – all day long and into the night.
Sunday:
Pokémon Trading Card Game:
Junior Division Winner:
Sakuya Ota:
“I knew I was good and how to get there (to win). He’ll be back next year “no matter what.”
Senior Division Winner:
Evan Pavelski:
He’s a quiet guy when being interviewed and said he was kind of “scared” entering into the match. But he played clean and masterful games.
Masters Division Winner:
Fernando Cifuentes
Video Game Champion:
Luca Ceribelli
During the day, there was a sudden rush in the convention center. Adults and kids started running as though a superstar were present. Here below, children took photos with a Hawaiian Pikachu mascot, a true superstar. They were thrilled.
Influencers and media then threw Genki Balls into the water to help to clean up the pollution and restore the ecosystem in the Ala Wai Canal near the convention center, which is rife with trash and other pollutants. It’s poisonous now but this biomedication in the living organisms within the balls can potentially clean up the precious waterway.
Even at night, it’s all about games here in Hawaii, at the convention center and beyond. My Lyft driver last night was from Korea and he talked excitedly about playing DOTA and StarCraft professionally in Seoul. “I was really good,” he said. “There are so many Pokémon players here, it’s crazy. But it’s good for business.”
We were soon stuck in traffic near the hotel. Indeed, the Saturday nightlife in Waikiki teemed, as active as the crowds on Rivington Street or Dimes Square on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
But our media WhatsApp exploded at 7:04 pm because TCG competitor Ian Robb was disqualified for making an obscene gesture (see below). He had done super well up until that point and Twitter lit up as well when the news hit. Robb was silent initially online, but the talk grew. Some supported Robb while others agreed that the competition should always be family friendly, especially with small children in the audience. Robb later said he supported the competitor, an affable Chilean name Fernando Cifuentes. Cifuentes proceeded on to the Masters Finals … to win it all!
Sunday, brought rainbows over the hotel. I was told by journalist Christian Hoffer from ComicBook.com that it reminded him of the memorable Rainbow Rare Pokémon cards. So far, the finals have been as brilliant and as generally exciting as the colors of a rainbow.
