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Mega Battlers Two Honolulu boys will be fighting monsters this weekend at an international tournament being staged in Waikiki.
Two Hawaii boys are among
50 youths competing to win the
title of Pokemon 'master trainer'By Mary Adamski
Star-BulletinActually, monster battling is what Devin Chang, 14, of Kaimuki, and Yi Shun Li, 13, of Palolo, do most Saturday afternoons.
Now don't picture knights vs. dragons in sweaty, bloody combat. The playing fields in the Tropical Mega Battle will be tabletops. The kids' weapons will be decks of Pokemon cards. And in one-on-one battles, each person's ultimate goal will be getting their opponent down to zero points.
Fifty youngsters from Japan, the United States, Canada, Latin America and Europe will participate in the invitational tournament, which will open at 1 p.m. tomorrow and continue Sunday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Mid-Pacific Conference Center.
The competition is not open to the public, said a spokesman for the sponsoring Wizards of the Coast, the Washington state publisher of hobby games, including Pokemon. The sponsor's publicist described the match as "an effort to transcend language and communications barriers through entertaining game-play."
There will be translators present to help the Honolulu boys and other Americans communicate with competitors speaking Japanese, Spanish, German and French. A reception tomorrow and a catamaran cruise Sunday are planned but, Chang said, "basically, we'll be battling."
Chang and Li were chosen in a qualifying tournament at Jelly's Atomix Comics, one of several island stores that stage Pokemon card games. Van Fujishige said fans from 8 to 30 years old play every Saturday at the Puck's Alley store.
Li, the son of Yuan Yang and Pin Si Li, said he's not nervous about the Tropical Mega Battle. "It takes some math, some concentration," he said of the hobby he just started this summer. His 16-year-old brother introduced him to the intricacies of the game.
"It's a role playing game. You go on a journey," said Chang, son of Duane and Shirleen Chang. "It takes strategy."
The goal is not to kill the monsters depicted on the cards, but to "train" the creatures. The winner Sunday will be dubbed a "master trainer."
The convoluted card game launched last year follows the plot lines of the previous incarnations of Pokemon, which means "pocket monsters." Started in Japan as a Nintendo video game, it grew into a marketing dream fed by collector mania.
Cards depicting hundreds of versions of cute creatures that "evolve" into powerful monsters have been sold in venues from toy stores to supermarkets, given as fast-food prizes and traded by both adults and children. The second Pokemon movie was released this summer, and it continues as a television cartoon series.
Chang said he and his brother, Daeton, 13, joined the collector craze about two years ago. But with some firm guidance from their parents, "we don't spend money on them," he said.
"When we realized it could get to the point of being fanatic, we set some boundaries," Shirleen Chang said. "School work and chores come first. Some families buy a lot of cards. We bought one set to start them off. They get cards as prizes at the Saturday games they win, and they trade with friends."
Ted Mays, owner of Gecko Books and Comics, said the card game is one in which "kids can play against adults and have a fighting chance. Kids have the advantage because they have knowledge of all the characters. It's kind of a secret club."
Mays' Kailua bookstore draws 20 or more players to its weekly session.
Instead of both players drawing cards from a house deck, player build their own decks and bring it to play. "Every card has its nemesis," Mays said. "The strategy is to get cards that complement each other. You can attach energy cards that give your Pokemon extra powers, and use them to drain the enemy's energy.
"But there is also the randomness because you are drawing cards."
The theme, as in the television series, "isn't violent, nothing compared to baser video games. There's no punching or kicking," Mays said. "You use your psychic energy to make them confused, lose energy ... but you're not killing them off."
Mays said Pokemon cards "were like pogs; when they became a speculation thing, it sort of killed the fun. Now people are finding out it is a neat game."