Paul Chua - Devon Corp Exclusive interview
There are few players who can call themselves one of the very best. It takes a lot of time, practice, and talent to even be considered one of the greatest players out there. You could say it would take two championship titles from one of the biggest tournaments of all time. Paul Chua recently made that accomplishment at the European International Championships for 2026. After two EUIC wins, one in 2023 and now in 2026, Paul has just become one of the most decorated players in VGC history. Devon Corp took the time to get to know Paul and his journey with Pokemon.
“My name’s Paul Chua, I’m from New Jersey, and I’m a software engineer," Paul answered as I asked him to give a general introduction of himself for this spotlight. “I was first introduced to Pokemon from the commercial for Diamond and Pearl. It looked interesting, so I ended up getting Diamond on the release date.”
Diamond and Pearl marked a point in time where many of the older fans that grew up in the Pokemania of the 90s started transitioning out of the fandom. However, newer and much younger fans started taking their first steps into the franchise. Eight-year-old Paul Chua was one of those kids, and it started with the anime.
“Diamond and Pearl was my first video game, but I knew some stuff about Pokemon beforehand because I watched the show. I think that was mostly why I kept playing.” Paul went on to remark about “little kid strats” that may be all too familiar to most of us who grew up playing these games. “I did the little kid strat where you only have one Pokemon and level it up all the way, and I did the thing where you teach it all HM moves and all that. I struggled against Cynthia, but I think every kid had a problem with (battling her) back then.”
Ash and Pikachu were the stars of the anime for the longest time until Pokemon Horizons. The Diamond and Pearl era had Brock and Dawn with her Piplup join them.
Cynthia served as a turning point in difficulty in mainline Pokemon games, so much so that when she made an appearance in Black and White, the internet was ablaze with nightmare-fueled scenarios of an impossible battle in unlikely circumstances. Fans to this day look back at her battle as one of the most difficult. But this was thanks in part due to how powerful the dragon type was at the time. “It took me a while; I needed to learn how to use an Ice-type move to KO the Garchomp, because the Garchomp always got me.”
“Diamond and Pearl was my first video game, but I knew some stuff about Pokemon beforehand because I watched the show. I think that was mostly why I kept playing.”
As for Paul’s first starter of choice? “I picked Piplup, obviously, and it leveled up into an Empoleon.”
Coincidentally, Diamond and Pearl also marked the birth of the format that would become modern-day VGC. Doubles was becoming the new standard for competitive battling at the time, and the Wi-Fi connection on the DS allowed for online battles and trading across the world. But this isn’t where Paul would begin his competitive journey.
“My interest in VGC came a little bit later, a few years after, because I was playing the game casually. I was scrolling through YouTube videos, and then I saw videos on VGC somehow and saw that there was a regional nearby me and that we were playing on Heart Gold and Soul Silver.” This was the Secaucus, New Jersey regional in 2010. A regional tournament as an introduction to VGC somewhat parallels the story of how Wolfe Glick and many others first got their start. Back then in the Gen 5 era, there weren't any locals to speak of. So people like Wolfe and Paul got their bearings in a regional that just so happened to be a part of their general area.
As for what YouTube videos Paul was watching? “People just recorded stuff from regionals; one of the channels that comes to mind is Team Rocket Elite. Since he captured a lot of the regionals' footage from back then, and that’s how I got interested.”
Paul continued to hone his skills through battle. However, most of his knowledge came from more YouTube videos. “Obviously at the start, though, I didn’t put too much thought into it. There were strategies from those guidebooks like "Earthquake," "Discharge," and stuff like that. The complex strategies later came from singles YouTubers like Shofu, for example.”
"...At the start... I didn’t put too much thought into it... The complex strategies (came) later..."
Becoming a two-time champion of the biggest VGC tournament takes a lot of hard work and practice, and Paul is no stranger to that. “On average in a week it’s about 10 hours at least. I try to play at least two hours a day on Showdown in general. Obviously, as an event gets closer, I try to lower it down. This way I don’t get nervous if things go wrong.”
Prepping for the biggest Pokemon VGC tournament of all time wasn’t going to be much different from Paul’s previous win in Toronto. He stuck to what worked for him and made small adjustments to his strategy. “So preparing for EUIC, I ended up using the same team as Toronto. The only things I really did for prep was one or two best of threes on Showdown. The team was the same, so I didn’t have to play it that much because I knew most of my matchups from the prep for Toronto.”
Photo used with permission from thatguyinabeanie. @thatguyinabeani on Twitter, thatguyinabeanie_ on Twitch.
Even with what would become the biggest tournament in VGC history at the time of writing, Paul still stuck to slowing down his practice near the start of a big event. “...it was just practicing the newer matchups with stuff that popped up between Toronto and EUIC.”
Where EUIC has numbers, it’s the World Championships that has prestige, and that’s every player’s end goal. Paul is no exception, so in 2012 he was off to Hawaii in his first World Championship tournament. “I got my invite that year by getting top 4 in Nationals that year. I had to play against Aaron Zheng in the semifinals, and I lost, but the game was pretty close.”
I asked Paul a little more about his thoughts on Aaron Zheng, as he’s up there as one of the most well-known VGC players. “I did like watching his videos back then when he put them up. It just allowed me to see like, other people’s teams basically. I feel that’s what he did pretty good about that series.”
Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng got his YouTube start doing commentary on various battles and teams he encountered or played with. Today, Aaron does commentary for some of the biggest tournaments out there. But there’s no doubt his videos back then helped a lot of people enter the VGC space, along with a certain WolfeyVGC, who also started making his own videos around that time.
“I got my invite (to Worlds)...by getting top 4 in Nationals that year. I had to play against Aaron Zheng in the semifinals, and I lost, but the game was pretty close.”
Rivals are a natural part of the mainline Pokemon game storylines. However, I personally view “rivals” in real life VGC as a player who drives you to keep playing and improve. I asked Paul this question, but he had what I found to be a very humble response.
“Personally, I don’t think I have anyone I consider a rival. But I think it’s because I’ve been playing so long. To me, everyone feels the same so I don’t really see anyone I’m worried to face, or that I want to face. Because Pokemon is game where anything happens, so there’s no one that I’m dreading to face.”
Traveling across the world playing in tournaments near and far can put you across a table from a wide variety of people. Pokemon is a series about companionship, growth, "evolution," and an all-around positive message. So is it any wonder that most people you face in a battle might be a pretty welcoming and nice person? I asked Paul this question to see if he agreed.
“Yeah! Even at regionals I think if you just chat with your opponent, usually they are pretty nice. I don’t think I ever met someone who was mean. Obviously you’ll face a few people who are just locked in and won’t talk much. But the general experience at VGC events has been pretty positive.”
“Pokemon is game where anything happens, so there’s no one that I’m dreading to face.”
After so many years of play, both casual and competitive. One is bound to have some favorites, so I asked Paul what his favorite Pokemon to use were, and he mentioned his 2022 World Championships semi-finalist team. It included some staples we still see today a generation later, like Incineroar, Porygon2, and Amoongus. “I just felt that was a very me kind of team. It had all these pieces and enough defenses where it could be offensive at the same time.”
Even four years later, Paul loves his balanced teams. The same archetype of team he used to win EUIC 2026 and many other majors. “One Pokemon that I really like using in VGC is Amoongus. I feel like Spore is such a powerful move. Especially nowadays where it has Pollen Puff. It’s really good when you need to heal your partner for basically free, or if you need to score knockouts and have them both be asleep.”
At the time of recording the interview, Pokemon’s 30th anniversary had just started, and Pokemon Day had some big reveals for gen 10, and some interesting news or lack thereof for the next game VGC will be playing on for the foreseeable future. Naturally, I had to ask Paul his thoughts about it. “I’m looking forward to gen 10. I always look forward to a new generation of Pokemon. The Pokemon look interesting! I like the water guy (Gecqua), but I always pick the water types in general. Regardless if people think it’s ugly or whatever.”
Pokemon Champions marks a new era for VGC
However, Pokemon Champions, which would be the next game in the series to house VGC for the foreseeable future, did not have much revealed during the Pokemon Day presentation. Instead, for some unknown reason, Pokemon decided to only elaborate on a Japanese and Chinese website at the time. Western fans and VGC competitors alike scrambled to decipher as much info as they could with what translation methods they had available.
“For Champions, I feel like even after all these trailers, there’s still not much information. So it’s kinda hard for me to get a good opinion of it. I just hope I don’t have to spend that much money to have most of the stuff I need.” For those who don’t know, Champions is going to be free-to-play or, in Nintendo’s terms, “free to start."
“I play gacha games, and I don’t spend money on those, so hopefully Champions follows a similar route where you don’t have to spend money. I guess it might be a little awkward depending on when we actually start using Champions at events.”
Some of the info from the Asian sites included starting with 30 box spaces, a battle pass, paid and free emotes, music, and trainer customization materials to collect. However, some hinted at a starter pack giving 80 spaces for Pokemon from the initial 30. “I think 80 is a decent amount. I think if you’re going to be transferring Pokemon from HOME I think that’s okay. 30 I think is way too little, just because I like using Pokemon HOME sometimes to transfer Pokemon and I don’t obviously purchase anything, I’m just using the basic account on that.”
Many VGC players would agree with 30 being too low. It may be enough for a casual player just starting out. We still don’t know how HOME will connect to the games beyond changing a Pokemon’s stats and moves. How Champions monetizes itself is a topic that worries a lot of people playing VGC. Paul shared his thoughts on the matter. “...with the battle pass I think it’s fine as long as the important stuff is still possible to get from the free pass. I just hope nothing super good is hidden behind the paid one…I guess it just depends on how fast you get the stuff to be able to train Pokemon, right? Because it’s a different system to train them in that game.”
With a shift from the mainline games to a big free-to-"start" title, if Champions fails, surely that will do catastrophic damage to the VGC scene as a whole right? “Yes, definitely," said Paul, agreeing with the concern. “Especially how it sounds like we are moving to the game for VGC. If this game just sucks, or if it’s bad, I can see VGC dying. Even though people like Wolfey are trying to push people to it. If the game we are playing on just isn’t good, I can see a decline in VGC.
In a trailer released on Pokemon Day, we got some reveals in battle for what abilities the Mega Kalos starters will be bringing into Pokemon Champions from the abilityless Z-A game. Mega Delphox got Levitate, Mega Greninja has Protean, and Mega Chesnaught has Bulletproof.
Paul shared his thoughts on the matter. “Greninja and Chesnaught are kind of expected because I’m pretty sure that’s what the normal forms get. The Delphox one is interesting just because it normally doesn’t get Levitate. I guess looking at it, it kinda makes sense. But, I think one thing that kind of sucks is that you can’t use it with expanding force since it’s going to be floating in the air. That can kind of hurt some psyspam teams or people theroying psyspam teams. I haven’t really played Z-A, so I don’t really know any of the stats. But it sounds like it would have been pretty broken, because you’d be able to just spam Expanding Force. So maybe it was a good decision that it got levitate.”
With Champions and Z-A bringing the big return of Mega Evolution, a lot of the Mega Pokemon roster is expected to come back into the VGC format. I asked Paul about what megas he thinks will be good with the current Pokemon we know we will have. “I don’t really know what the megas in Z-A are, but I think some of the old ones will still be pretty good. Something like Charizard-Y can still be good because you can setup sun at will. You just have to mega evolve and you can get drought up. I think Salamence can be good too. It’s an intimidate Pokemon, so you can’t really go wrong with it, and its stats are pretty decent.” Kangaskhan was mentioned as well, a big contender during the CHALK team archetype era. “It got nerfed back then, but I still think there are some good ways you can use that Pokemon. I think that the old ones can probably still have a chance even with all these new megas being added into this roster.”
Paul has a lot of history with Megas, in 2018, he got 1st in the Madison Regional Championships, 4th at NAIC, and top 16 at Worlds that year. “In the 2018-19 era, there were mostly a few really good megas. The notable ones were Metagross, Charizard, and Salamence…a lot of other megas still had a chance to be used. They’re still good but need to be on a specific type of team. Like Manectric, Kangaskhan, and Gengar were the kind of examples of those. It definitely felt like it was a little limited, but back then the pool of megas was kind of small anyway. I think even in 2019 that was still a thing. The only megas people were using were Salamence, Rayquaza, and some others.”
Pokemon has had a lot of gimmicks, Terastallization, Dynamax, Z-Moves, but Megas have been Paul’s favorite. “I do like Megas the best. Even if it felt like there weren't many. I still felt like it was the most balanced compared to the other mechanics that we’ve had, like Terastalization and Dynamax.”
Mega Pokemon obviously become stronger with their new forms when they Mega Evolve, but the stat bump they got wasn’t that noticeable to players like Paul. “Especially in 2019 you could get away without running a mega. Where compared to Dynamax and Tera, you had to use it most of the time.”
“I do like Megas the best. Even if it felt like there weren't many. I still felt like it was the most balanced…”
With all the stats, thousands of moves and Pokemon to choose from, and how intimidating damage calculators can be, it can be hard for newer players to get into VGC. I asked Paul for what advice he could give to newer players just starting out. “Don’t be afraid to go to your nearest local. Especially now, when locals are a good way to start. Because when I started, that stuff didn’t exist. So that’s definitely a good way to get started. Especially nowadays when the internet is a lot different compared to 2010. There’s stuff like Discord. Community Discords is another way for you to get to know people. I think the easiest way to get better is obviously to play more. There are different opportunities for you to make new friends, and you guys can get better together.”
Paul recently started a new YouTube channel, his first upload was “How I qualified for Worlds by (kinda) doing nothing." Where he goes over his EUIC 2026 win. You can find Paul’s channel @paulchua3009 or by the URL https://www.youtube.com/@paulchua3009. Paul is also on Twitter under the handle @Paul_Chua_. Show him some support by checking out his YouTube and following/subscribing!
As for what’s next for Paul?
