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Chattanooga: Local Pokémon player qualifies for collectible card game's ultimate championship

By: Kathy Gilbert
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Brandon Cross

As his mother paced and his father sweated, 10-year-old Ooltewah resident Brandon Cross coolly knocked out, smacked and evolved his way to the 2008 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championships.

“I just went (to a local Pokémon club) and played, and it just snowballed and snowballed and snowballed, and here I am now,” Brandon said.

A year ago, Brandon played his first Pokémon card game. A friend introduced him to league play at Dicehead Games and Comics in East Brainerd. He soon won several local tournaments.

“He had an amazing run through the Battle Roads (a series of local games),” said Brandon’s father, Kenneth Cross, co-owner of C&C Lawn Service. “He won seven out of nine tournaments, a total of 33 out of 35 games.”

Brandon was crowned Georgia state champion, then placed third in the southeast region. Last month, he claimed third prize in the junior division (children born 1997 or later) on June 28-29 at the U.S. Nationals tournament in Columbus, Ohio.

A $1,500 educational scholarship and free airfare and accommodations for the World Championships at Disney World on Aug. 16-17 were among the prizes, he said.

But his favorite winnings were more Pokémon cards.

“I got, like, 36 packs of cards at Nationals,” Brandon said.

Pokémon is an English version of the Japanese phrase Poketto Monsuta, or “Pocket Monsters.”

In the mid-1990s, Pokémon was released by Nintendo as a Game Boy role-playing video game. In the past 13 years, it has evolved into animé (animated film), manga (cartoons), trading cards, toys, books and other media.

So far, at least 493 fictional species have appeared as Pokémon figures, including the mouse-like Pikachu — “the face of Pokémon” Brandon said — the mantis-like Gallade and the flyish Flygon.

Players fight battles. Some cards have attacks and hit points. Others are energy, trainer or supporter cards. Figures evolve and develop varying characteristics.

Flygon, for example, comes in psychic, fighting and colorless versions.

Every three months, the company releases new decks of cards, giving new players a chance to compete with older players, without having to build up decks of old cards, Brandon said.

Each year, about four sets of cards are “retired.” Serious players wind up owning thousands of cards.

The Cross family estimates they own about 5,000 to 6,000 cards “conservatively,” Mr. Cross said.

Only 60 cards can be played at a time in a tournament, however.

Mr. Cross and his wife, Nita, also a co-owner of C&C Lawn Service, support their son by traveling to tournaments, buying cards and taking him to league play at Dicehead.

But Mr. Cross also helps out by “building decks.”

“I’m the deck builder, he’s the player. There are about 1,200 to 1,300 different cards, but you’re only allowed to play 60 at a time, so there are infinite varieties, the creativity is endless,” Mr. Cross said.

Before battles, Cross father and son lay out cards around the family room (known now as “the Pokémon room”). They copy key cards on a copy machine, trying them out in a range of combinations.

Then they “play test” the various decks.

“We try to pick out 16 to 20 Pokémon figures, 15 to 18 energy cards and 20 to 25 trainers and supporters. It’s trying to find the right balance,” Mr. Cross said.

At the World Championships, Brandon will compete against children from about 30 countries. Interpreters have to be provided, Mrs. Cross said.

Brandon will wear his “lucky charm” outfit of Pokémon hat, Christian fish pendant, basketball shorts, Pokémon wrist emblem, Geneva watch and white T-shirt airbrushed with “Team Porygon 2, Chattanooga, TN” on the back and “Brandon C.” on the front.

“I wore it to (the) Georgia State (tournament) and ended up winning it, and went to regionals and got third. I thought ‘it’s working out pretty good, this outfit,’” Brandon said.

The Crosses endorse Pokémon for children.

“It is educational, there is a lot of math involved, and strategy. You have to think on your feet,” Mrs. Cross said.

It has also promoted family bonding, they said.

“We learned to play together. I used to teach him, now he’s teaching me,” Mr. Cross said. “I can take him to soccer but I just have to watch him, but this we can play together.”

Unlike the more rowdy Yu-Gi-Oh (a Japanese dueling card game based on anime) Pokémon tournaments are “very strict,” Mr. Cross said.

“There are no bandannas, no inappropriate clothing, no bad language allowed,” Mr. Cross said.

“A lot of people think it’s Yu-Gi-Oh but it’s totally unrelated,” Brandon added.

“We talk to people in church and tell them we play Pokémon,” Mr. Cross said, “and they look at us strangely — but there’s no harm in it.”

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