At only 10 years old, Max Overdevest has fought battles against monsters, and he even has a nemesis.
Overdevest, who has been playing Pokémon competitively for a year, has won three Pokémon City Championships and competed in the Pokémon National Championships, where he placed top 11 in the video game division.
“I started going to a league, and that’s how I eventually found out how to play. It’s a card league that used to be at Books-a-Million (on) Friday and then at the Millhopper library," he said.
To get to the junior division in the 2015 Pokémon World Championship, which will take place in Boston this summer, players must reach 200 championship points. Championship points are earned by performing well in competitions. So far, Overdevest is only 10 championship points shy of making the cut.
Overdevest is usually excited before his competitions. When matches are close, he says his blood pressure rises and he gets really anxious — especially when he’s playing his nemesis, whom he comes across at most of his tournaments. Despite getting anxious, Max is used to competition. He’s competed in various cities, including Orlando, Atlanta and Indianapolis.
Max says that Pokémon, similarly to chess, is a game that every kid should play to strengthen their brains by gaining strategic thinking skills.
“If you’d like your kids to play chess, you should want your kids to play Pokémon, because Pokémon is much harder than chess,” he said.
He said he also wants to debunk the common misconception that Pokémon encourages violence.
“There are no deaths in Pokémon, monsters just faint,” he said. “If they visit the Pokémon center, they’ll heal and return to the game.”
Though Max is only 10, he already has career plans in mind. He hopes to own his own card shop and video game store one day.
