Italian Luca Ceribelli is the new Pokémon world champion
The new Pokémon world champion is Italian: his name is Luca Ceribelli, he is 21 years old and comes from Bergamo.
Last Sunday, in fact, the young man won the latest edition of the Pokémon World Championships in the videogame Masters section, scheduled in Honolulu, Hawaii, beating Japanese Yuta Ishigaki in the final.
Ceribelli, who won a $30,000 prize, told the Evening Courier the emotions felt after the victory.
Congratulations to Luca Ceribelli, yours #PokemonVGC Masters Division World Champion! 🏆 #PokemonWorlds pic.twitter.com/Gvhcrt7GEm
— Play Pokémon @ #PokemonWorlds in Honolulu (@playpokemon) August 19, 2024
“I dedicate this victory to my friends, companions in this adventure: after the match I jumped off the stage into the middle of them,” said the young man who then thanked his mother and father: “And then to my parents, who not only never hindered me in this passion, but instead always supported me. Driving for miles to take me to tournaments, and sometimes even allowing me to skip school – but only a day or two, no more – to be able to fulfill this dream.”
Speaking about school, the 21-year-old said: “I have a strong sense of duty, I have always done well in school because… it’s right this way. The pact with my parents has always been this. And I have never failed, doing badly in school is something I cannot understand. Even now. As soon as I get back to Italy, after sobering up, I have to start writing my thesis: at the end of October I will graduate from the three-year degree. Then maybe I will rest a bit before deciding what to do for the master’s degree: I have been running for months, to graduate and to arrive prepared for the World Championships”.
It took a lot of sacrifice to get to the victory: “Let’s say that many of the ‘coaches’ play practically all the time. I do it too, but at a certain point I stop, because I’m afraid of the risk of exaggerating and missing out on other things in life. It’s a bit like what happens with social networks, they create addiction and I’m a child of my generation: it’s very easy to fall into them. So I try to give myself strict rules. And I think that these are also what helped me get here”.
Luca Ceribelli, finally, concludes: “We Italians are disadvantaged because in our country Pokémon tournaments are still considered gambling and therefore cannot give out money. The guys from other countries pay for their trips with the prizes they win during the year. I had to make do, we took a room where six of us sleep. But it’s fine, in fact very good like this: I was with my friends and if I won it is also thanks to this”.
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