Above: Rizzo celebrates his victory

GamesRadar: How does it feel to be the first-ever consecutive two-time world Pokemon champion?

Ray Rizzo: It feels great to be the first at accomplishing something so difficult. I put a decent amount of time in these past two years so it feels good now that it’s paid off.

GR: Can you walk us through your process for preparing for the VGCs? How did you decide on your team and how to train each Pokemon?

RR: I had been playing a lot online for fun, just to get a feel for all of the new Pokemon. However after Nationals I started playing more seriously. I found a good core of 4 Pokemon (Gothitelle/Thundurus/Hydreigon/Conkeldurr), all with unique movesets and stats that I felt countered the metagame well. I used my last 2 Pokemon slots for Pokemon that helped to counter the last few popular Pokemon the other 4 couldn’t.

Above: Gothitelle might seem like an odd choice for competitive play, but Ray Rizzo knows the benefit of surprising your opponent

GR: Did you have a particular strategy overall when heading into the tournament?

RR: I wanted to use Pokemon that countered what was very popular at the European and US National Tournaments. This included using multiple Pokemon with the move Thunder Wave to slow down my opponents’ faster Pokemon, and training my Pokemon so they would have high HP and Defenses so they could live through many different attacks.

GR: How did only being able to use Unova Pokemon make the tournament different this year? Do you think the relative newness of Black/White had an effect on how the competition shaped up?

RR: Being able to use only Unova Pokemon changed the tournament a lot. Everyone started on a level playing field and had to learn the ins and outs of all the new Pokemon. The biggest change was that there were only a small number of Pokemon that were useful in battle, and not many strong defensive Pokemon. When US Regional Tournaments rolled around, I think everyone had already though of most of the good strategies, since there weren’t a whole lot of good Pokemon to choose from.

GR: Did you see any strategies from other players that surprised you?

RR: Most of the strategies I went up against were exactly what I expected going into the tournament. I only recall one of my opponents, my Top 8 opponent, who used something unique. He had a very good Trick Room team which gave me my toughest match that day.

GR: What was your favorite moment from the tournament?

RR: Meeting so many new people, as well as hanging out with so many old friends was my favorite moment from the tournament.

Above: Brian Hough took the victory in the junior division this year too. To see videos for all the final match-ups, head to the official Pokemon VGC site

GR: As a competitive battler, what are your thoughts on Pokemon Black/White as a game? What do you think about the Unova Pokemon in general and how they fit in with the older Pokemon?

RR: I like the Pokemon Black and White games from a competitive standpoint. They introduced a lot of cool new moves, items, and of course Pokemon. I think some of the Unova Pokemon are very good and can compete with many of the older Pokemon, but as a Pokemon fan from the very beginning of Red and Blue I can’t help but like the older Pokemon the most.

GR: What advice would you give to anyone who wants to challenge you to battle?

RR: I would say to not be afraid of using something non-standard if it helps to counter a lot of the common Pokemon strategies. I’ve seen other people have success using unexpected Pokemon as well.

Aug 31, 2011

The post An interview with the worlds greatest Pokemon player appeared first on Game News.

Pssst.Hey, how are youdoing? Yeah, you.We hear you’re looking for agaming podcast. Well we’ve got one here and it’s a bloody beauty. One ofa kind style shit. Interested?Why are we acting so secretive?Erm, no idea. But our mysteriousstance has built up a swell ofintrigue inside you that will only be quenched once you’ve listened to TalkRadar UK.

And what have we got for you in this week’s show? Well, apart from the usual heee-larious seguesinto nonsense we have adiscussion on how DiRT3 has left us feeling slightly deflated (geddit? Cars have tyres and when they’re not at full pressure they’re… ah, forget it) andthere’s an update on Cundy’s Pokemon Black obsession. There’sthe Appreciation Section in which Justin gets teary-eyed about an excellent Disney game,we’ve got your somewhat depressing replies to Question of the Week – whichgame character do you relate to most and why? – and we rattle through your texts to the GamesRadar Hotline.

All this and our views on the Modern Warfare 3launch trailer andstay tuned for an embarrassing story from Matt’s past as he confesses about how he upset a group of Trekkies. Let’s just keep this amaze-o-cast between us, ‘kay?

TalkRadar UK
Fan Art

Do you want to win a GamesRadar branded 1GBUSB stick that contains behind the scenes snaps of the GR UK team? Of course you do! Create some fan art, put ithereand for your first appearance we’ll give you the prize. Just e-mail gamesradar@futurenet.com with your name and address to claim your stick. Anyways, onwards with this week’s effort.

cj12297

Above: Cundy can’t actually make out the image but it’s a statue of him from Minecraft. Splendid

mrwindowpayne

Above: If Matt could get past the first few levels of Portal he’d actually understand this joke. He doesn’t

Mooshon

Above: Justin *is* working on an iPhone game called Cheese Dreams, and we think this’d be a great cover

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Right, here’s the deal… DO: Send us game related questions/trivia or a confession. Ensure that your text isn’t a small essay. DON’T: Send us chain texts, jokes or requests asking for a job. Got it? So with the serious crap out of the way, please do drop us a linewe’ll play your dulcet tones across the airwaves via the wonders of technology. Or simplydrop us a text. We love hearing from you guys.All calls and texts charged at your local standard rate.

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Post date: Wednesday 25thMay 2011
Run time:01 hour28 minutes00 seconds
Intro music:Sabrepulse| Outro and minigame music:The Disco King
Find all the previous episodes of TalkRadar UK on ourcompendium page

The post TalkRadar UK Episode 90 appeared first on Game News.