Trainer Tower Your Journey to the Top
Written and Compiled by Justin Wan
With the distribution of Championship Points this season, players have been playing year-round to get themselves in a favorable position going into the North American International Championships. The top players will fight over the top eight spots of their respective rating zones in an attempt to bypass the first day of the 2019 Pokémon World Championships, while many others are still in the hunt for their invite. In this article, we will be taking a look at the North American players and their standing going into the North American International Championships!
Some of these CP Counts and standings could be different, but due to the delays in the reporting of the May IC, we will give you what we know.
Photo Credits to Sam Schweitzer
| Placement | Championship Points | Kicker |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 500 | 0 |
| 2 | 400 | 0 |
| 3–4 | 320 | 0 |
| 5–8 | 250 | 0 |
| 9–16 | 200 | 48 |
| 17–32 | 160 | 100 |
| 33–64 | 130 | 200 |
| 65–128 | 100 | 400 |
| 129-256 | 80 | 800 |
These players have guaranteed themselves for a Day 2 Invite to the 2018 World Championships
Expect them to do well, as they are the most likely North Americans to win the event if we’re being honest.
| Player | Handle | CP Count |
|---|---|---|
| Ashton Cox | Linkyoshimario | 2190 |
| James Baek | Jamesspeed1 | 1968 |
| Jeremy Rodrigues | Serapis | 1685 |
| Stephen Mea | Gramgus | 1482 |
These players have guaranteed themselves an Invite to the 2018 World Championships
These Players have a Chance to Earn themselves a Day 2 World Championships Invite, no matter how unlikely. Some of these players are also currently in the Top 8 of CP, but could miss under some worst case scenarios.
| Player | Handle | CP Count |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Navarre | Nails | 1340 |
| Justin Burns |
Spurrific | 1300 |
| Yihui Xu |
Yihui | 1073 |
| Wolfe Glick |
Wolfey | 1018 |
| Paul Chua | PwnyPerson | 995 |
| Kyle Livinghouse |
Animus | 986 |
| Alex Underhill | Lexicon | 928 |
| James Evans |
TheKingVillager | 838 |
| Zheyuan “Ken” Huang |
Ken | 789 |
| Raghav Malaviya |
Mudhiman | 756 |
| Brian Youm |
Seven_Poke | 720 |
| Patrick Donegan |
pd0nz | 670 |
| Angel Miranda |
SapphireBirch | 660 |
| Cedric DeRouchie |
TheFloppyMudkip | 629 |
| Ian McLaughlin |
raikoo | 615 |
| Martin Gajdosz | Star Raikou | 604 |
| Rajan Bal | blarajan | 598 |
| Riley Factura |
GENGARboi | 591 |
| Louis Milich |
UncleLou | 582 |
| Allan Martinez |
Mando | 578 |
| Collin Heier | BattleRoom | 532 |
| Aaron Traylor | Unreality | 532 |
| Jake Magier | JackOfSpadesMan | 524 |
These players have guaranteed themselves an Invite to the 2018 World Championships
These players have no chance at earning a Day 2 Invite
| Player | Handle | CP Count |
|---|---|---|
| Enrique Grimaldo |
– | 516 |
| Jeremy Odena |
Tapu_JJ | 514 |
| Tommy Cooleen |
Tman | 512 |
| Hector Vargas |
– | 499 |
| Matthew Jackson | SwaggyMcBuckets | 498 |
| Ben Grissmer |
Chef | 486 |
| Alexandre Lebel | Warchomp | 480 |
| Kimo Nishimura | TFC | 478 |
| Ryan Loseto | SableyeVGC | 478 |
| Brandon Meckley | Ampharos | 476 |
| Jean-Marc Hebert | JeanMarc | 473 |
| Nicholas Lacrampe | PlayOnBirds | 472 |
| Giovanni Costa | TheOneGio | 469 |
| Trevor Rosberg | – | 469 |
| Matthew Tidd | – | 468 |
| Michael Lanzano | JiveTime | 461 |
| Bridger Snow | squirtwo | 460 |
| Andy Anderson | TwiddleDee | 455 |
| Justin Crubaugh | iMagikarp | 454 |
| Chuppa Cross IV | Chuppa | 448 |
| Josh Mecham | 123e45 | 445 |
| Jeremy Parson | TheEntireAtlanticOcean | 444 |
| Jeremy Gross | JZG | 444 |
| Max Simon | Maxdeese | 442 |
| Nicholas Borghi | LightCore | 441 |
| Terry Hong | ScerryTerry | 441 |
| Bingjie Wang | – | 435 |
| Fiona Szymkiewicz | Yoshiandlugia | 434 |
| William Marks | Munkey | 432 |
| Abdul Barrie | BigSlim | 432 |
| Alex Arand | AlexTheRNGLord | 431 |
| Sebastien Biage | Sebby | 430 |
| Michael D’Angelo | – | 430 |
| Yuki Zaninovich | – | 421 |
| Nate Engstrom | – | 420 |
| Kevin Swastek | Ksaws | 419 |
| John Gray | – | 419 |
| Kunal Kanodia | ShadeKirby | 419 |
| Andrew Weaver | VoidedNote | 419 |
| Tyler Miller | Mononymous | 416 |
| Aditya Subramanian | ck49 | 415 |
| Gary Qian | Hitmonqian | 412 |
| Don Czech | Czechmate | 411 |
| Whitney Johnson | – | 410 |
| Keegan Meyer | – | 409 |
| Jake Powell | ShadeKirby | 408 |
| Daniel Thorpe | TTT | 408 |
| Alex Williams | Weeblewobs | 406 |
| Zane Thatcher | – | 404 |
| Brianna Birt | TRJessie | 404 |
| Owen Wright | EclipseOwl | 404 |
| Mark Elson | – | 403 |
| Nate Munroe | NateTheDyno | 402 |
| Alvin Hidayat | Jibaku | 401 |
| Justin Frys | Rexchaos | 400 |
These players can earn their Worlds Invites with a Top 128 Finish
To Note: Some of the players in this area will have earned their invites due to the May IC, but seeing as it has yet to be reported, we’ll keep them here.
If the tournament hits the kicker for Top 128 CP (400 players required), then these players will basically have their invites 100% locked with a 6-3 (or high resistance 5-4) finish.
| Player Name | Currently @ | Points Needed |
| Daniel Name | 399 | 100 (t128) |
| Zach Carlson | 398 | 100 (t128) |
| Westley Long | 396 | 100 (t128) |
| Andy Himes | 390 | 100 (t128) |
| Joshua Esty | 390 | 100 (t128) |
| Nick Sefranek | 380 | 100 (t128) |
| Andrew Nowak | 377 | 100 (t128) |
| Enosh Shachar | 375 | 100 (t128) |
| Daravone Souphommanychanh | 357 | 100 (t128) |
| Kevin Brown | 356 | 100 (t128) |
| Jim Boettcher | 354 | 100 (t128) |
| Santino Tarquinio | 352 | 100 (t128) |
| Cameron Kicak | 347 | 100 (t128) |
| Joseph Costagliola | 345 | 100 (t128) |
| Greg Rowson | 345 | 100 (t128) |
| Jonathan Melendez | 344 | 100 (t128) |
| Diego Aguirre | 342 | 100 (t128) |
| Adam Nguyen | 340 | 100 (t128) |
| Nate Innocenti | 333 | 100 (t128) |
| Tyler Bennett | 326 | 100 (t128) |
| Jared Woitalla | 324 | 100 (t128) |
| Leonard Craft III | 319 | 100 (t128) |
| Alyssa Smith | 312 | 100 (t128) |
| Maura Hazen | 309 | 100 (t128) |
| Gavin Michaels | 308 | 100 (t128) |
| Alex Faust | 306 | 100 (t128) |
| Foster Hughes | 305 | 100 (t128) |
| Aaron Perez | 302 | 100 (t128) |
| Logan Woodul | 301 | 100 (t128) |
This group is 100 percent safe for a Worlds invite if they can make day 2, based off of Internationals attendance trends. Even if they go negative on day 2, they have locked up their invite.
A 6-3 record on Day 1 with high resistance can also give them their invite. Here’s to a 6-0 start!
| Player Name | Currently @ | Points Needed |
| Jimmy Friedle | 295 | 130 (t64) |
| Diana Bros | 292 | 130 (t64) |
| Ben Li | 290 | 130 (t64) |
| Qi Wei | 290 | 130 (t64) |
| David Smith | 288 | 130 (t64) |
| Calvin Chan | 288 | 130 (t64) |
| Mostafa Afr | 280 | 130 (t64) |
| Jack Hatch | 279 | 130 (t64) |
| Jonathan Zambrano | 279 | 130 (t64) |
| Trevor Lang | 276 | 130 (t64) |
Many of these players will need to do much better than they have previously before at previous Nationals. A 10-4 record (between both days) will 100 percent lock up their invite to the World Championships.
9-5 can also give them a guaranteed invite if day 2 has few players due to low attendance. If it is a larger tournament, an overall record of 9-5 can squeeze them into top 32.
| Player Name | Currently @ | Points Needed |
| Calvin Nisson | 268 | 160 (t32) |
| Shreyas Radhakrishna | 266 | 160 (t32) |
| Brady Smith | 264 | 160 (t32) |
| Anupam Dhar | 261 | 160 (t32) |
| Ethan Simpson | 250 | 160 (t32) |
| Jackson Finch | 247 | 160 (t32) |
| Ryan Auld | 240 | 160 (t32) |
This group requires at least an 11-3 record to lock up their Worlds invite. 10-4 record will do depending on the size of day 2. Or, with good resistance, they can squeeze into top 16 if there are many competitors in day 2.
| Player Name | Currently @ | Points Needed |
| Brandon Huang | 232 | 200 (t16) |
| Case Bongirne | 230 | 200 (t16) |
| Samuel Mowery | 227 | 200 (t16) |
| Emily Golub | 225 | 200 (t16) |
| Dylan Salvanera | 222 | 200 (t16) |
| Tre’ Hoard | 216 | 200 (t16) |
| Jon Hu | 216 | 200 (t16) |
| Matt Laughlin | 214 | 200 (t16) |
| Kolten Pope | 208 | 200 (t16) |
| Madison Roy | 207 | 200 (t16) |
| Ryan Schambers | 206 | 200 (t16) |
| Logan Mazur | 206 | 200 (t16) |
| Vishy Vasudevan | 203 | 200 (t16) |
| Ben Omnes-Norton | 203 | 200 (t16) |
| Robbie Moore | 202 | 200 (t16) |
This group requires a top 8 at the US International Championships. This will require a 12-2 record to be 100 percent safe. An 11-3 record will rely on resistance or be guaranteed depending on the size of day 2. A 10-4 record and having high resistance is necessary to make cut depending on the size of day 2
| Player Name | Currently @ | Points Needed |
| Mark Jackson | 198 | 250 (t8) |
| Ezequiel Cordero | 191 | 250 (t8) |
| Nathan Powell | 190 | 250 (t8) |
| Alex Roy | 190 | 250 (t8) |
| JanSpiegelXL | 186 | 250 (t8) |
| Mario Serrano | 186 | 250 (t8) |
| Alejandro Jimenez | 183 | 250 (t8) |
| Myles Kristalovich | 180 | 250 (t8) |
| Toler Webb | 180 | 250 (t8) |
| Joseph Ugarte | 179 | 250 (t8) |
| Meghan Hyman | 176 | 250 (t8) |
| Demitrios Kaguras | 172 | 250 (t8) |
| Jordan Dunlap | 172 | 250 (t8) |
| Matthew Greaves | 172 | 250 (t8) |
| Matt Alcina | 171 | 250 (t8) |
| Alberto Lara | 170 | 250 (t8) |
| Christina Bacino | 170 | 250 (t8) |
| Carl Shotsberger | 167 | 250 (t8) |
| Sean Wen | 164 | 250 (t8) |
| Justin Wan | 163 | 250 (t8) |
| Kyle Gottlob | 163 | 250 (t8) |
| Andrew Burley | 160 | 250 (t8) |
| Donguk Jung | 160 | 250 (t8) |
| Stefan Smigoc | 159 | 250 (t8) |
| John Brig | 157 | 250 (t8) |
| Giovanni Cischke | 153 | 250 (t8) |
| Gunnar Sverdrup | 152 | 250 (t8) |
| Corey Esmeier | 152 | 250 (t8) |
| Raphael Bagara | 150 | 250 (t8) |
| Sachit Patel | 150 | 250 (t8) |
The Simon Yip memorial group. These players need to win their top 8 set. Otherwise, they will face an unfortunate fate.
| Player Name | Currently @ | Points Needed |
| Preston Gadling | 149 | 320 (t4) |
| Karim Dabliz | 144 | 320 (t4) |
| Ricky Green | 140 | 320 (t4) |
| Joshua Lorcy | 140 | 320 (t4) |
| Vincent Montalvo | 138 | 320 (t4) |
| William Sepesi | 137 | 320 (t4) |
| Jonathan Evans | 133 | 320 (t4) |
| Samuel Gutierrez | 130 | 320 (t4) |
| Nicolas Peckman | 130 | 320 (t4) |
| Richard Sheppard | 130 | 320 (t4) |
| Igor Santana | 130 | 320 (t4) |
| Chase Thompson | 128 | 320 (t4) |
| Pat Ball | 127 | 320 (t4) |
| Scott Iwafuchi | 126 | 320 (t4) |
| Keith Stephens | 124 | 320 (t4) |
| John Masters | 124 | 320 (t4) |
| Greyson Garren | 122 | 320 (t4) |
| Devyn Powers | 122 | 320 (t4) |
| David McKinney | 121 | 320 (t4) |
| Kyle Hudson | 120 | 320 (t4) |
| Josh Adams | 120 | 320 (t4) |
| Justin Bradley | 118 | 320 (t4) |
| darkmaster0491 | 115 | 320 (t4) |
| Sohaib Mufti | 111 | 320 (t4) |
| Matthew Coale | 111 | 320 (t4) |
| Randy Kwa | 110 | 320 (t4) |
| Daniel Octasek | 108 | 320 (t4) |
| Kalea Meyer | 108 | 320 (t4) |
| Israel Morton | 106 | 320 (t4) |
| Dustin Lam | 106 | 320 (t4) |
| Adrien Hurley | 105 | 320 (t4) |
| Ingrid Karmazinas | 104 | 320 (t4) |
| Jose Luis Perez | 104 | 320 (t4) |
| Brendan Lewis | 104 | 320 (t4) |
| Camz876 | 104 | 320 (t4) |
| Zeleena Kearney | 104 | 320 (t4) |
| Cory Craven | 103 | 320 (t4) |
| William Hall | 102 | 320 (t4) |
| David Algadi | 102 | 320 (t4) |
| River Davis | 101 | 320 (t4) |
| Charlie Pollock | 101 | 320 (t4) |
| Arbin Tumaneng | 100 | 320 (t4) |
| En Xiao | 100 | 320 (t4) |
| Colin B | 100 | 320 (t4) |
| Jek Rosen | 97 | 320 (t4) |
| Anthony Rossano | 97 | 320 (t4) |
| Emilio Estrada | 96 | 320 (t4) |
| Jake Hockemeyer | 96 | 320 (t4) |
| William Dannhauser | 96 | 320 (t4) |
| Chalkey Horenstein | 93 | 320 (t4) |
| Trista Medine | 92 | 320 (t4) |
| Bradley Pham | 91 | 320 (t4) |
| Manuel Zuniga | 90 | 320 (t4) |
| Patrick Ridenour | 90 | 320 (t4) |
| Steven Sumayo | 89 | 320 (t4) |
| Gabriel Berrios | 85 | 320 (t4) |
| Treskon777 | 85 | 320 (t4) |
| Brandon Wright | 85 | 320 (t4) |
| Mike Suleski | 84 | 320 (t4) |
| Scott Norris | 84 | 320 (t4) |
| Brody Bard | 84 | 320 (t4) |
| Clayton Lusk | 82 | 320 (t4) |
| Irving Johnson | 81 | 320 (t4) |
| Cedric Bernier | 80 | 320 (t4) |
| Blake Hopper | 80 | 320 (t4) |
| Kacey Traver | 80 | 320 (t4) |
| Jonathan Rankin | 80 | 320 (t4) |
| Abel Goodwin | 80 | 320 (t4) |
| Chris Danzo | 80 | 320 (t4) |
| Aidan Adkins | 80 | 320 (t4) |
| Patrick Bonzcyk | 80 | 320 (t4) |
Yeah… this will be tough. They need to go all the way, so time to try your best, guys!
