ROCK HILL, S.C. — A 10-year-old boy from Rock Hill hopes to win the 2022 Pokémon World Championships in London.
Max Lentz was invited to the championship after he ranked 15th in Canada and the United States for the game, CN2 repored.
“I’ve never left the country before, so it’s going to be fun,” Max said.
“You get to build strategies. You get to attack or not attack,” he said.
The goal of playing Pokémon is to knock out all your opponents’ creatures.
Max has already traveled to Tennessee and Virginia for the game, but he began playing in South Carolina at Grand Slam Rock Hill, his favorite card shop.
“I started off trading cards at school, and then we went to a prerelease at Grand Slam, which was my first game,” Max said. “I liked it, so we started playing.”
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Max has had the support of his father, Ian Lentz, since the beginning.
Lentz said he has seen his son’s skills grow throughout his three regional competitions, eight cup tournaments and other local competitions.
“We took him down to Columbia (South Carolina) for his first competition. He won that,” Lentz said. “We played some other local competitions. He did well, and we took a trip to a regional competition out of state. He did very well there, handled the pressure very well.”
Max wants to win, but he has also been able to learn and make friends throughout this process, CN2 reported.
“It’s great for children. It really brings out their reading ability,” Lentz said. “There’s a lot of math ability involved in it. A lot of friendships are made with it. It’s been a great experience for him.”
Max’s mom has also been helping him start a YouTube channel to show others the game and document his competition experiences.
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Max will compete in the World Championship from Aug. 18 to Aug. 21.
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