The quiet space of Tournament Center’s creators lounge at Malmö’s Regional Championships gave me the opportunity to catch up with an old friend and fellow VGC player Johan Huang!
Johan is based in Sweden and, as well as competing, hosts local Premier Challenge tournaments in the city of Malmö to support the rapidly evolving competitive scene in Sweden!
GP: How long have you been playing Pokémon for?
JH: The games themselves? Since I was about seven years old; I started off with Pokémon Gold after initially trying Pokémon Red version, however I guess kids prefer the Gold and Silver colours more!
GP: What was your earliest memory of starting your adventure on Pokémon Gold?
JH: Well, I bought the game pre-owned and it already had someone’s save file. I remember it had many rare and strong Pokémon like Steelix but I just deleted the save file and started over it… I don’t know why!
GP: Why did you start to play Pokémon competitively?
JH: I enjoyed the games and found it fun to compete! I started off playing the smogon ruleset which was fun but I converted to VGC in about 2016.
GP: What made you switch over from Smogon singles to VGC?
JH: Mainly for the live events, however I feel the variety in strategies makes it more fun to play.
GP: Do you remember your first VGC team?
JH: It was a long time ago I don’t remember it fully; I know it contained Kartana and Alolan Raichu but I can’t remember the rest! It was on the Sun and Moon series.
GP: And did you use this at your first tournament?
JH: Yes, it was at Malmö regionals in 2017
GP: And finally, what keeps you coming back?
JH: Mainly the people but also the intrigue of discovering new strategies and seeing how strategies do in tournaments; I prefer Pokémon to fighting games because you can build your own teams and utilise the turn based strategy. You don’t have to be quick with a controller, you can think your moves through between turns.
You can catch Johan over on Twitter by following @JG0NE through this link!
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