Pokemon Producer Junichi Masuda Competes With Psyduck at the World Championships

Invitational, the very first official Pokemon Go tournament ever, at the Pokemon World Championships. Rather than outfit his team with the most powerful, commonly-seen competitive Pokemon, he brought his well-known favorite: Psyduck.In his first battle against Poké AK, Masuda humorously (and un-strategically) seemed to save all three shields to keep his Psyduck alive as long as possible. Later in the best three out of five match-up, Masuda replaced Psyduck with another odd duck: Ludicolo. Poké AK took the match 3-0, and went on to finish the tournament at second place.

More popular Pokemon at the Pokemon Go Invitational included, for example, Skarmory, Altaria, Defense Deoxys, and Umbreon. Masuda did have an Umbreon, but the casters pointed out that, unfortunately, it lacked the Community Day exclusive move Last Resort, which may have made a difference in its performance.

Masuda’s ability to expertly complete Pokemon Go’s Charge Move mini-games though is a sign that he isn’t a complete stranger to Pokemon Go PvP–just that he wanted to use his favorites. Including another odd duck, Ludicolo, who he switched in during a later battle. Masuda has previously gone on-record saying Psyduck is his favorite, and a Psyduck based on his own was distributed as part of an event in 2016 in Pokemon Centers around Japan to anyone with a copy of Pokemon Omega Ruby or Pokemon Alpha Sapphire.

Evident by the previous match between Strawburry17 and Yamada, and of course the nail-biting Grand Finals, Pokemon Go PvP is much more strategic than it initially seemed, made especially so by recent changes – so it’s fairly obvious Psyduck is not exactly a viable choice.

Take this play for example. Strawburry17 switched Venasaur in against Yamada’s Altaria, which at first seemed like a mistake, considering Venasaur is weak to Altaria’s Flying-type attacks. However, Strawburry17’s intentions were to bait Altaria’s Flying-type Charge Attack. Anticipating the attack, she switched yet again for her Skarmory, which took little damage from the Charge Attack. This switch baiting is a familiar tactic in the usual core video games, and it came with the added benefit of charging up Venasaur’s attacks for later, which ended up winning Strawburry17 the battle.