Jagiasi from Delaware won the Trading Card Game Senior Division title in Indianapolis.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: Thirteen year-old Ishaan Jagiasi, from Wilmington, Delaware, was crowned the US national champion at the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) Senior division, in Indianapolis, earlier this month.
Jagiasi, who will be going to the eighth grade this Fall, won a trophy, a scholarship award worth $5,000 for college, 500 championship points, Travel Award to the 2014 World Championship – to be held at the Walter E Washington Center in Washington, DC, from August 15-17; and a combination of 72 booster packs from the current Pokémon TCG expansion.
Jagiasi, who was ranked 16th in the world before the national championships, is now considered one of the top contenders for the world championships. He won four national championships last year, and is considered a prodigy in the sport.
According to Wikipedia, The Pokémon Trading Card, abbreviated as PCG or Pokémon TCG is a collectible card game, based on the Pokémon video game series, first published in October 1996 by Media Factory in Japan. In the US, it was initially published by Wizards of the Coast, Nintendo eventually took over publishing the card game alongside the video games in June 2003.
In this game, players take on the role of a Pokémon trainer, using their creatures to battle. Players play Pokémon to the field and use their attacks to reduce the opponent’s (Hidden Power) HP. When a Pokémon’s HP is reduced to 0 it is knocked out and the player who knocked it out takes a Prize card into their hand. A player may win the game in 3 ways; by collecting all of their prize cards (initially 6, some cards can increase this), if their opponent runs out of Pokémon on the field or if at the beginning of their opponent’s turn there are no cards left to draw in the opponent’s deck.
According to Eventcombo.com, the trading card game has its own set of elite tournaments, awards, and championships for the truly talented to take part in.
Jagiasi, who is an avid basketball and soccer play, and loves math, writing of his accomplishment winning the national championship, on arollofthedice.net, says: “It was an extremely tough tournament to make it through that took a lot of skill and effort, as well as luck.”
He added: “After winning, I was so happy! I don’t know how else to describe the feeling. This was my 3rd Nationals, and I was finally able to get my big break. After coming down, I was greeted from all my friends which was the best feeling in the world, and I got to sign so many autographs. Also, after my interview for the rest of the day everyone said congrats, and it was honestly just awesome. I spent the rest of the day hanging out with my friends and played in Jason Klaczynski’s Base Set draft. This brought an end to one of the most fun Nationals ever! If anyone wants to watch my finals game, here is the link.”