Today is the second class of our current March class period. There will be four classes in this study period. Our class will start with our casual conversation. Next, we will complete our speaking prompt. Our reading this week is about investment in culture. Our listening is about the Pokemon World Championship. We will finish class with shared wisdom.
Click HERE for the reading
For Pokemon fans this summer, the most exciting place on Earth was the Convention Center in Anaheim, California. That's where thousands of players and fans recently gathered for the annual Pokemon World Championships. But as Jamal Michel reports, for some, Pokemon is about more than just winning.
JAMAL MICHEL, BYLINE: Growing up in south Florida in the '90s, no kid was immune from Pokemania (ph).
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: At Greenwood (ph) Elementary School, lunchtime is trading time, and the cards are flying.
MICHEL: I even traded away my lunch money for a folder full of some pretty dope original Pokemon cards, and my mom was furious. It didn't help that every weekend, I drove her up the wall to take me to my local Toys R Us. Back then, the retailer hosted some of the first official events through the Pokemon League. It was just a space for neighborhood kids to battle each other and trade.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: You'll do awesome activities, learn wicked strategies, earn cool trainer badges and meet new friends as you begin your journey to become a Pokemon master trainer.
MICHEL: Twenty-five years later, what everyone thought was just a fad that wouldn't survive the moment turned into a media behemoth. Last year, the Pokemon Company pulled in $12 billion, and it hasn't let off the gas. Just this month, it hosted its 20th World Championships in Anaheim, California, to the tune of over 25,000 fans in attendance. Folks came from across the globe, and for me, it was decades overdue since my Toys R Us days.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: We have an interesting fight possibly...
(CROSSTALK)
MICHEL: Yet, for some, they were surprised to even be there.
ANNALISE DE MEL: Coming to the Pokemon World Championships was not on my 2025 bingo card, but here we are.
MICHEL: That's Annalise De Mel, a mother from Australia whose son just made the cut to qualify for the event.
DE MEL: My son is 9, and this is his first year playing Pokemon competitively. Oceania only has 10 qualifying spots for the world championships, and we have found ourselves flying, you know, 15 hours because of tiny pieces of cardboard. Life is incredible.
MICHEL: We talked about the sea of young competitors trying to get to the top and the potential hardship and heartache of defeat that comes with trying to be the very best. De Mel says Pokemon is the best game to help with losing.
DE MEL: My son is neurodivergent, and part of his personality is that he'd be very, very perfectionist. And through Pokemon and playing so many games all the time - the repetition, the creativity behind it - he knows that a loss doesn't define who he is, and it doesn't even define what happens next.
MICHEL: Win or lose, it's all about perspective for many of these players, even veterans who have been to this rodeo before. Ciaran Farah was Canada's No. 1 ranked trading card game player in 2023.
CIARAN FARAH: It turned out pretty well. I finished in the top 32. I think I was, like, 21st or 22nd. I unfortunately tied my last round. If I would have won, I would have made it to the Top 8 knockout round.
MICHEL: This was his ninth championship event. And despite the massive surge of competitors, he's happy with how it turned out and also just happy to play.
FARAH: Worlds is always, like, the premier weekend of the year for me. You know, you get to see all your friends from around the world, which is really cool. One of the great things about Pokemon tournaments is it's truly a global game, and Worlds kind of brings everyone together for that.
MICHEL: For fans like me, the Pokemon Company has always been a place to find friendship, and it didn't stop with us. De Mel sees it happening with her son, too.
DE MEL: Finding, you know, your tribe who have that common interest in things that they can just talk away at 1 million miles an hour is really precious, and they're all just supporting each other and cheering each other on while they have the time of their life.