Interview by Emily Darrell

Everett Adams, an eighth grader at Powhatan Junior High, recently placed 2nd in his age group at the Pokémon Trading Card Championship Tournament in Charlottesville. Everett has traveled as far as Indianapolis to compete in Pokémon tournaments. One day he hopes to visit Japan to see the headquarters of Nintendo, the company that developed the Pokémon franchise.

OK, my first question: What is Pokémon?
Well, it started out as a video game and it also became a trading card game. There are different types of cards and each kind of card has a different function it serves. The idea is to knock out your opponent’s Pokémon using your own cards.

How many different cards are there?
Well, they come out in sets, and they kind of function through the sets. I guess [they keep making more cards] to make money, mostly. So there are a lot of cards out there right now. But most of what people use is around 20 cards.

Is there a luck element to this game or is it all skill?
It’s got skill and luck. It’s got a lot of things. But normally people try to make their deck consistent to try to minimize that luck option as much as possible.

What type of animal is Pikachu supposed to be? He’s the yellow thing, right?
Yeah. He’s kind of supposed to be the electric mouse. Like an electric type of mouse.

Aahh . . . an electric mouse. He looks like a flying squirrel to me.
Yeah, they try to base them off of animals. There are pigs and bats, but there are other things that you really don’t know what they are.

Are there many other kids at your school that are into this?
I haven’t really seen anyone who is competitive. I’m really the only one I know of from Powhatan.

So, is there money in this game? Could you go pro? 
To a degree. Most of what [you can win] is you can get packs of other cards. There is a collecting element to it. In fact, last year there were some cards that went up to about $60.

Hmm . . . so these aren’t exactly like poker tournaments.
Your dad tells me you’re two years ahead in math. What math are you in?
Geometry Honors.

Do you like math or are you just good at it?
Mainly just good at it. It has a lot of things that I also like about Pokémon.  It’s a lot of strategy; there are reasons for things. The whole strategy concept of everything just really intrigues me.