The World Championships, which will be held on 18–21 August 2022, are finally back after three years! In these articles, we will take a look at the best players that are qualified to compete in the biggest event of the year.
Here we have North America! Let’s meet the 12 players with a Day 2 invite, and take a look at the other 56 Day 1 invitees this region brings.
Table of Contents
North America at Worlds
The World Championships will be played outside North America for the first time, and we will have to see whether that is influential to the players from this region!
North America has seen two World Champions but four crowns, as Ray Rizzo won the title three times in a row (2010, 2011 and 2012), setting up a legendary record that will probably never be broken; and Wolfe Glick getting the victory in 2016.
There are other Americans that have reached finals without success, such as the same Wolfe four years before his win (2012), Jeudy Azzarelli (2014), Jonathan Evans (2016) and Emilio Forbes (2018).
The latest World Championships featured James Baek in top 4 and Stephen Mea in top 8. Will North America come back to the top after six years?
Requirements for a Worlds invite
As per the North American system, all players that have achieved at least 400 CP (or Championship Points) in the 2020 and 2022 seasons receive an invite to Day 1. Additionally, the top 12 players achieve a direct pass to Day 2, with the best 8 players earning a Travel Award.
Day 2 players
At 2179 CP, Joseph is having a very long and fruitful season and will compete in Worlds for the first time!
The American’s season started very well with Regionals top cuts in Knoxville, with a top 4 (2019); Richmond, with a top 8 (2019); and Daytona Beach, as runner-up (2019); and a victory in Portland (2019). This was followed by global finals participations in Players Cups I (2020) and III (2021). And with the comeback of live events, new Regionals top cuts in Salt Lake City, with a top 4 (2022); and Indianapolis, with a top 16 (2022); as well as his two big top 4 finishes at Europe (2022) and North America Internationals (2022).
As a content creator focusing in VGC, he has hosted several editions of the X9 League Championships and has competed at the highest level in the online grassroots era, getting the win in the VR Tundra (2020), Series 11 (2021) and February S12 Challenges (2022), as well as top cutting so many others. You can read his VR Series 11 Challenge winning team report here! Joseph has also represented the United States in the World Cup since 2021, achieving a top 8 in the 2021 edition.
At 1550 CP, Connor will participate in his fifth straight Worlds, in which he has participated already as a junior in 2016 and as a senior in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Connor has taken advantage of his great 2020 season in the seniors division before aging up to masters, as he has not competed in 2022. Apart from his successes early in the season with a top 4 in Knoxville (2019) and second places in Portland (2019) and San Diego (2019), he made his best result by reaching semifinals of the Oceania Internationals (2020).
3. 
Enzo Reci
At 1500 CP, Enzo may be very young, but this will be his seventh straight Worlds appearance. He qualified as a junior in 2014, 2015 and 2016; and as a senior in 2017, 2018 and 2019, year in which he achieved a top 8 finish. He will now play in the masters division for the first time!
Same as Connor, Enzo has taken advantage of his great 2020 season in the seniors division before aging up to masters, as he has also not competed in 2022. In his accomplishments this season, he is a double Regional champion, having won in both Knoxville (2019) and San Diego Regionals (2019).
4. James Evans
At 1432 CP, James has qualified to his fourth Worlds, the second one in the masters division after winning it all as the 2018 World Champion in the seniors division. In his first year as master, he didn’t go through Day 1, but this time he has a direct pass to Day 2, looking to repeat his previous accomplishment in his current age category.
James has made top 8 in Knoxville (2019), top 4 in Richmond (2019), top 32 in Dallas (2020) and top 4 in Milwaukee (2022) before going on to win the North America Internationals (2022) with his comfort Shadow Rider Calyrex + Groudon team.
In the grassroots scene, he got to top cut the 1,492-player The Champions Cup (2020) and adapted well enough to win the biggest event in the unofficial VGC format of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Pokémon Shining Pearl, the VR Sinnoh Open (2021).
Watch James’s win at NAIC!
5. Brady Smith
At 1428 CP, Brady has qualified to his fourth Worlds, after receiving Day 1 invites in 2015 and 2016 and a Day 2 invite in 2018.
Brady’s main successes have come in the 2020 season, with a top 4 in Atlantic City (2019), a Regionals win in Daytona Beach (2019) and a top 32 in Dallas (2020). In the higher tier of events, he made it to top 8 of Oceania Internationals (2020) and to day 2 of North America Internationals (2022), event in which he played the Zacian + Shadow Rider Calyrex team that he has brought to other Series 12 events.
In the non-official tournaments, he got to top cut The Champions Cup (2020), as well as a top 16 at the VR Tundra Challenge (2020), a top cut in last year’s World Cup Open (2021), and a top 8 in the Victory Road to Frankfurt (2022). Brady is also currently representing the United States in the World Cup.
At 1424 CP, Chongjun has qualified to his first-ever Worlds, qualifying in the North America rating zone as he is based in the United States.
Chongjun’s season started with top 4 finishes in both Knoxville (2019) and Kuala Lumpur (2019), went through his first Regionals win in Salt Lake City (2022), and finished with top 8 finishes in Milwaukee (2022) and at North America Internationals (2022), having been the pioneer of Rinya Sun outside Japan.
Chongjun is representing China in the current World Cup.
7. James Baek
At 1253 CP, James has qualified to Worlds for the seventh straight time. Ever since he made it to 2014 Worlds in the seniors division through the LCQ, he has made it to Day 2 already in the masters division in three separate ocasions, in 2015, 2016 and 2019; the first two times he reached Day 2 all the way from Day 1, and the last time he reached semifinals!
Even though he had already earned a Travel Award and a Day 1 invite thanks to his 2019 Worlds result, he has raised the stakes with a direct pass to Day 2! James’s best results this season have come in the higher-tier events, as he is the current Latin America International Champion (2019) and made top 8 at the North America Internationals (2022). In the online era, he was invited and got a top 4 finish at the Players Cup Kickoff Invitational (2020) and reached the global finals of Players Cup IV (2021), ultimately making it to the top 8.
Additionally, James has established himself as one of the top content creators in the VGC English-speaking community and has made top cut at The Champions Cup (2020).
Watch James’s win at LAIC!
8. Zach Gray
At 1240 CP, Zach is one of those players that have taken advantage of a great 2020 season in the seniors division, when he earned all but 50 of his CP. This will be his third Worlds appearance and first as a master, after reaching Day 2 all the way from Day 1 in 2018, and playing in Day 1 of 2019, both as a senior.
Zach’s accomplishments this season include two Regionals wins, in Atlantic City (2019) and Dallas (2020), and a second place in Daytona Beach (2019), all in the senior division. All in all, it has been enough for him to get the last Travel Award spot in the North America region!
At 1176 CP, Jeremy has qualified for his fourth Worlds. He received his first invite in 2016, and played in Day 2 in 2018 and 2019.
Jeremy started the season with a top 8 in Knoxville (2019), followed it with a top 8 at Latin America Internationals (2019) and finished it with a second place in Indianapolis (2022) using an Ice Rider Calyrex + Reshiram team.
In the grassroots scene, Jeremy has represented the United States in the World Cup since 2021, when the team achieved a top 8 result.
At 1140 CP, Emma is a veteran of Worlds, earning her seventh participation. She started as a junior in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and continued her run as a senior in 2017, 2018 and 2019, the latter two times in Day 2. She is now looking forward to her first big result as a master!
Emma has taken advantage of her great 2020 season as a senior, where she won Richmond Regionals (2019) and made top cut in Atlantic City (2019), Dallas (2020) and Collinsville (2020).
11. Ashton Cox
At 1138 CP, Ashton has had a very similar path as his sister Emma, earning this time his seventh participation. Having played in every Worlds since 2014, his best results have come with a top 16 in 2014 and a top cut in 2017.
The best results in Ashton’s season came early, with a top 8 in Daytona Beach (2019), a second place in San Diego (2019) and a top 16 in Collinsville (2020), and he was invited a got a top 4 at the Players Cup Kickoff Invitational (2020).
In the online era, Ashton reached top cut of The Champions Cup (2020), achieved a top 16 in the VR May Challenge (2020) and was a part of the United States team that achieved top 8 in last year’s World Cup (2021).
12. Paul Chua
At 1130 CP, Paul is one of the most veteran players in the Worlds invitee list, having qualified previously eight times: in 2012, 2013 and 2014 as a senior; and in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 as a master, two of those times playing in Day 2.
Paul’s best result this season was his Regional win in Atlantic City (2019), which was followed by a second place in Richmond (2019) and a top 4 finish in Secaucus (2022).
Day 1 players
The following list comprises all other players with 400 or more CP in the US & Canada rating zone, and is based on the official Play! Pokémon leaderboard.
- Cedric DeRouchie (1080 CP)
- Wolfe Glick (980 CP)
- Justin Burns (970 CP)
- Kyle Livinghouse (952 CP)
- Andrew Ding (932 CP)
Raghav Malaviya (890 CP)
Xu Yihui (859 CP)- Jeremy Odena (831 CP)
- William Marks (816 CP)
- Alex Underhill (775 CP)
- Allan Martinez (744 CP)
- Boston Elliott (722 CP)
- Sohaib Mufti (694 CP)
- Wang Bingjie (693 CP)
- Duncan Bryk (653 CP)
- River Davis (632 CP)
- Stephen Mea (627 CP)
- Aaron Traylor (624 CP)
- Collin Heier (620 CP)
Aditya Subramanian (620 CP)- Jeremy Parson (620 CP)
- Justin Ramirez (584 CP)
- Gavin Michaels (582 CP)
- Ben Grissmer (574 CP)
- Kevin Swastek (552 CP)
- Emilio Forbes (541 CP)
- Zee Costagliola (519 CP)
- Chuppa Cross (519 CP)
- Zhang Zhe (510 CP)
- Alberto Lara (494 CP)
Ezequiel Cordero (493 CP)- Adrien Hurley (492 CP)
- Dylan Salvanera (487 CP)
Jonathan Quiñones (470 CP)
Fiona Szymkiewicz (466 CP)- Chalkey Horenstein (463 CP)
- Steven Stewart (458 CP)
- Zhang Hengyue (451 CP)
Jean-Marc Hébert (450 CP)- Alex Arand (446 CP)
Patrick Donegan (446 CP)- Matt Tidd (442 CP)
- Santino Tarquinio (440 CP)
- Max Simon (435 CP)
- Calvin Nisson (434 CP)
Nathan Ortiz (433 CP)- Justin Frys (433 CP)
- Leonard Craft (421 CP)
- Visishtah Vasudevan (417 CP)
- Devyn Powers (414 CP)
- Kimo Nishimura (411 CP)
- Devin Bales (409 CP)
- Abdul Barrie (404 CP)
- Maura Hazen (404 CP)
Stefan Mott (402 CP)- Karim Dabliz (400 CP)
Closing words
Congratulations to all North American players having qualified for the World Championships! As, arguably, one of the toughest regions in the World, there are high expectations on their shoulders. We wish you all the best of luck.
If you’re not attending but will be following their struggle from home, check the Pokémon World Championships website for detailed infos on the live stream.
