Cape Coral Pokémon player Regan Retzloff ranked No. 1 in the world

The News-Press

Cape Coral teen Regan Retzloff is back on top in the Pokémon gaming world.

After being ranked in the top 4 all season, Retzloff finally made it to No. 1 this weekend in the Pokémon Trading Card Game rankings. That means he's earned more points than any other player in the world this season in his age group.

Cape Coral teen Regan Retzloff competes at the 2018 Pokémon World Championships in Nashville.

Retzloff didn’t know he’d reached No. 1 until he got home from the regional championships in Daytona Beach and checked the game’s online leaderboards. Players are ranked according to how many points they’ve earned at official Pokémon Trading Card Game competitions.

“Being No. 1 in the world is a pretty big accomplishment,” says Retzloff, 13. “It’s pretty cool.”

This is the second time Retzloff has reached No. 1 in the Seniors division. He reached that milestone last season, too, and was previously ranked No. 1 in the Juniors division.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game is part of the massively successful Pokémon franchise, a 23-year-old phenomenon that includes TV shows, toys, T-shirts and video games.

Players (known as “trainers”) build card decks around their favorite Pokémon monsters and then play against each other by sending those monsters into “battle.” The right card can make all the difference in the heat of battle.

Cape Coral teen Regan Retzloff, far left, poses with his family in Nashville, where he competed at the 2018 Pokémon World Championships.

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Since he started playing the game in 2016, Retzloff has competed in Mexico, Germany, Canada, Australia, Brazil, England and other countries. And he’s earned about $75,000 in prize money and stipends — more than $20,000 this year, alone.

Not bad, considering he'd moved from the Juniors to the Seniors division last year. That meant tougher competition with older kids from ages 11 to 15.

But Retzloff kept training with coaches and other top-ranking players, and he kept collecting Pokémon trading cards to build a better deck. He competes at least two weekends every month, he says, including a regional tournament in San Diego this coming weekend.

Pokemon Trading Card Game champ Regan Retzloff and his parents, Steve Retzloff and Melissa Arterberry

His parents, Melissa Arterberry and Steve Retzloff, have been with him every step of the way, cheering him on and traveling with him to competitions across the globe.

“We’re excited,” Arterberry says about her son’s accomplishment. “It’s quite a challenge in the Seniors division. … It’s very tough competition.”

Pokemon players accumulate points at every competition. After Sunday, Retzloff has racked up 1,280 points — 48 more than the No. 2 player, Renan Takeo Togashi.

That could change after future competitions, though. And Retzloff can’t call himself champion yet — that title won’t be declared until the August 2020 world championship in London.

But for now, Retzloff says he’s enjoying being No. 1 again. “It’s just nice to be back on top.”

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