Stefan “Pengy” Mott - Devon Corp Exclusive interview

Stefan “Pengy” Mott is a Swiss VGC player with a high level of competitive spirit from his time playing games like StarCraft 2 and Hearthstone in his past. After becoming a master of competitive gaming and meeting his now partner, Rosemary Kelly, Stefan was looking for a new challenge. He was introduced to competitive Pokemon by Rosemary, and a few weeks later, Sword and Shield dropped. He went all in on learning the game, forging his own path to victory held back by no one but his own limits.

“I play Pokémon! I’m a Pokemon guy. I like to play Pokemon, I go to a lot of tournaments. I do a lot of Pokemon coaching, I stream Pokemon, I like Pokemon!” Stefan proclaimed this with a chuckle in my interview with him through a Discord call. “...I grew up in Switzerland. I moved to the US in 2016, but I live on the east coast in the Boston area...I won the Indianapolis regional in 2022, I got top 8 in the Liverpool regional in 2022, I have gotten top 16 at San Antonio, and last year I was in the Sacramento and Indianapolis regionals. I’ve even day two’d at internats!”

“I play Pokémon! I’m a Pokemon guy. I like to play Pokemon, I go to a lot of tournaments. I do a lot of Pokemon coaching, I stream Pokemon, I like Pokemon!”

Like most VGC players and fans now, Stefan was introduced to Pokemon at an early age. In 1999, Europe was taken by storm with Pokemania, just like North America a year prior. Pokemon was inescapable: lunchboxes, a TV show, comics, trading cards, and even Kraft Mac & Cheese had Pokemon variations. It was no different for Stefan growing up in Switzerland. Through chance encounters with Pokemon as a franchise, Stefan received a quite unconventional introduction to the first Red and Blue games of Generation One. “...I was 5 when one of my classmate’s parents accidentally got them Pokemon Red version in Italian, and they just gave it to me. I also didn’t speak Italian, but I got to Rock Tunnel somehow before I got stuck!”

Even when introduced in a foreign language, the power of the Pokemon IP influenced a young Stefan to push through an already exceedingly difficult game for a young child. Perhaps sparking his love for a good challenge. “...that was my first experience with Pokemon. I got into VGC because I happened to be working on events for Starcraft 2. I used to play Starcraft 2 professionally and did a lot of management stuff, coaching, and stuff like that for Starcraft 2, and about in 2019 I was getting kind of bored. I wasn’t happy with where the game was. The scene was very stagnant, which was not necessarily a problem in and of itself, but the patch we were on was not something I considered all that entertaining. Blizzard was doing massive scalebacks on how often they were going to introduce game-changing patches.”

A King of Games Takes on VGC Looking for a Serious Challenge

The RTS genre in general has seen massive stagnation in recent years, where MOBAs like DOTA and League of Legends have taken over the scene. Stefan’s desire for a game that hasn’t been solved yet grew until a chance encounter with a close friend told him something that would change his competitive gaming career forever. “...I was working at an unrelated event where I met Rosemary Kelly. She mentioned that competitive Pokemon was doing good, and I also had already been doing speedrunning and things like that for many years. I also wasn’t aware at the time that VGC existed at all, so she mentioned that Sword and Shield were dropping in like two weeks, and whenever a new game drops, it’s a new opportunity to level the playing field, and you can try it out! So I tried it out, and I thought it was fun!”

Stefan didn’t learn VGC the traditional way most do. Scouring forums, YouTube videos, and other resources wasn’t the path he decided to take. Instead, Stefan took his knowledge of competitive gaming and spearheaded himself straight into the metagame. “...I already had a good understanding of how to become ‘good” at things. So I kind of just figured it out myself. In my opinion, that’s how I have a relatively unique outlook on the game and how I approach it. I didn’t know a single top player when I joined the game. I didn’t know who Cybertron was, who Wolfey was…I just played on Showdown and on the in-game ladder and taught myself what was good and what was not.” Many VGC veterans are familiar with Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng and Wolfe “Wolfey” Glick, two pillars of the VGC community and two faces upon Devon Corp’s Mt. Rushmore of VGC. To Stefan at the time, these were just other passionate players of Pokemon’s video game foundation. This gave him a unique outlook on the game that propelled him forward thanks to his cunning ability to become great at a game. “...For example, you’ll hear a lot of people harp on fire/water/grass cores in teambuilding. I just don’t really care about a lot of those norms. Those are not the building blocks I created for myself on how to build or play a good team. Because of that, I think I have a unique outlook on the game.”

”I didn’t know who Cybertron was, who Wolfey was…I just played on Showdown and on the in-game ladder and taught myself what was good and what was not.”

Stefan puts forth the proposition that practice can be done at any time, in any place. Like a sort of VGC “Zen” of the art of Pokemon battles. “...One of the most valuable ways to improve at Pokemon is to spend a lot of time thinking about Pokemon. Because obviously when you are playing the game, your practice is not going to be useful if you’re not thinking about the game, but beyond that, you know, creating board states in your head and creating problems in your head to solve and increase your understanding of whether it’s the team you’re using, the style of play you are using, or thinking about win conditions...all of that can be done when you are out walking your dog or when you’re out at lunch. You don’t always have to be sitting in front of Showdown for it to be useful time.” 

Stefan has a uniquely mindful approach when it comes to learning a new skill such as Pokemon battling. He has a dedication to becoming better as a player in every game he touches, and the Pokemon video game is no exception. “...I probably spend at least 4 hours a day practicing most of the time. Then I also have coaching time, which isn’t practicing in itself, but it’s still time you are spending thinking about the game, and in turn, the more time you spend thinking about the game, the more time you spend deepening your understanding of the game.”

“[Practice] can be done when you are out walking your dog or when you’re out at lunch. You don’t always have to be sitting in front of Showdown for it to be useful time.”

Stefan finds any time spent thinking about the game as valuable time spent getting better at the game. “For example, if I’m helping somebody with a Groudon team, that’s going to help me deepen my understanding of Groudon proto-spam as an archetype. Even if it’s not something I’m currently using, even if it’s something I’m not currently practicing. Spending that time with somebody else is still beneficial long term!”

Stefan also enjoys time as a content creator streaming on Twitch. “On top of the hours actually spent practicing, there are also the hours I spend coaching, and I think streaming is similar. When I’m streaming, it’s usually not practice. I’m just trying to have some fun. But if I’m streaming Pokemon, even if you’re using a team that’s not a serious team, you’re still putting in practice and your understanding of something like Solgaleo. Is this information that will help in a tournament? Probably not, but that’s still something you can apply elsewhere.”

“Even if it’s not something I’m currently using, even if it’s something I’m not currently practicing. Spending that time with somebody else [when coaching Pokemon] is still beneficial long term!”

Stefan takes minimal notes when it comes to practice, preferring to take reference to matchups. “...If I’m preparing for a tournament, and I’m out of the house or if I’m shopping. I’ll go “wait a minute, I’ve been having issues with Calorex-Shadow Rider hyper offense. This is a really niche idea, why don’t I try that?” I have a personal channel that only I have access to in my Discord where I shove stuff or a team concept when I’m lying in bed but not so much.”

Stefan may have had a head start in competitive gaming, but that did not make his first tournament easy. His first tournament was in a New York mid-season showdown with around 80 or so people. The first-ever opponent he faced was Chuppa Cross, a veteran of the game who is surely not the first player one would want to encounter at the start of their VGC career. “It was really interesting! I played a lot of people that are very good because NY is very strong, and this was in January of 2020, and I started 4-1 actually around 5 or 6 weeks after I started playing the game. I played against Chuppa and lost 2-1…” 

Stefan’s unconventional way of learning the game did have some downsides, which cost him a match. “I played Dandy, and I got to a point where Dandy was convinced that I had won the set against him. Then I was unaware that Chandelure should have Flash Fire, and I lost to an Eruption from Torkoal. So on one hand you have, “Oh yeah, I almost beat Dandy right after I started playing!” And on the other side, you have, “I did not know that Flash Fire was a better ability than Infiltrator.” So it’s kind of funny! It was a fun experience, and it was a really cool experience to play with a lot of great players…I went up to my friend Nick and was like, “Hey, I paired up against this guy. Are they good? And he’d be like, “Uhhh… yeah… have fun!” The New York locals, especially back then at the beginning of Sword and Shield, were huge. There were three or four mid-season showdowns that had 80-plus people! It was crazy!”

Pokemon’s VG community has exploded in popularity since Sword and Shield’s first release. Stefan experienced this firsthand. “When you think about Dallas 2020, it was around 500 people. Now, they put up signups for Atlanta, and currently we have like 700 people registered. Monterey, a Mexican regional, already has 250 people registered! EUIC has 1,500 people registered! It’s getting to a point where venue sizes might start to become a problem for regionals, and they already are a huge problem for internationals! But we will have to see how Pokemon decides to actually handle that.” 

“It’s getting to a point where venue sizes might start to become a problem for regionals.”

I asked Stefan if he thinks that’s part of the reason The Pokemon Company International came up with the new qualification system for Worlds this year. Only the top 75 Masters age division players will qualify on top of the automatic invites from regional and international tournament wins. “In my opinion, I think there’s one logical explanation. What happened was the bar for last year's Worlds was 500 CP, and you were capable of getting 425 from locals. Which functionally just makes it very, very easy to get to Worlds. Especially if you live in a place that has many locals…”

Stefan went on to describe the overall skill of players in each region. Coincidentally making it easier or harder for newer players to earn points for Worlds. “New England is hard, New York is hard, but even Chicgao is not that hard to get around 350 points at. Then you have places like Alaska, and these places might not have locals, but if you drive a bit and you’re willing to drive a couple of hours anywhere in NA, it’s not that hard to get those 425 points. Then you just need points from a regional, an international, or two to actually make it to Worlds.

If anyone is familiar with the last two World Championships, both Japan in 2023 and Hawaii in 2024 showed that The Pokemon Company is unprepared for such large numbers of competitors. I asked Stefan why he thought the Pokemon Company whittled down the number of competitors able to make it to Worlds so much. “...I imagine is that 75 is how many people they actually want qualifying for North America, plus the auto-invites. Let’s just round it up to the hundred. If you’re TPCi, and you want a hundred people from NA, and you are planning for 100 people from NA, and then suddenly in the middle of your season a ton of people register to run locals, and all of a sudden you have way more locals happening, and because of that you have way more people maxing out their locals points, then you have way more people who just need their points from regionals, and then suddenly you have 250 more people qualifying from NA where it creates a logistical nightmare for TPCi when it comes to Worlds.”

In the immense heat of both Japan 2023 and Hawaii 2024, Worlds seemed to be a logistical nightmare for the titan of a company such as Pokemon International. “...this past year, when it was almost impossible for locals to get tickets to Worlds because you had two or three times as many people qualify for VG at least for what they expected, and then each of those people gets two spectator passes to go along with it. There was just no availability for the local people to enter this event that was being held in Hawaii. Which, on top of just kind of sucking for them, is just really, really bad for them logistically for them to have to deal with, so realistically they probably just missed the mark by a massive margin last year.”

“...this past year, when it was almost impossible for locals to get tickets to Worlds because you had two or three times as many people qualify for VG at least for what they expected.”

The changes to the Worlds structure were largely unpopular. With enough support tickets being sent about the changes to make an official announcement. “Ultimately, I’m not a big fan of it. I wish they would just make a bar that would change. They’ve changed the bar year on year in the past, so they clearly are putting a bar somewhere where they expect “this is how many people we expect to hit this bar,” and they just missed the mark so heavily last year. I wish they still had a bar and just overshot it, like make the bar 1100 [points] if you need to. Having it be limited to top x just creates a much more toxic environment where you’re rooting for people’s downfall instead of just praying for your own success.”

Stefan described a scenario where toxicity could thrive in the current structure. “...maybe you’re paring into NAIC for fun and you pair into your friend, and your friend doesn’t have their invite yet so you wouldn’t have scooped, but you’re going to scoop to your friend because they need the points. Or even more extreme, you pair into your friend who is like rank 76 going into the tournament, and you pair into the person who's like rank 73. If your primary objective is for your friend to qualify for Worlds, the best way for you to help them do that is to lose your games and screw over that other guy’s resistance. You create weird situations like that that don’t need to exist. I understand why “C-suite” executives, or even logistics people, are like, “Hey, we can’t have a runback next year.”

I moved on the conversation from here to more about Stefan’s first experiences with Worlds and Regionals. Stefan got to his first regional before the pandemic of 2020 in Dallas, Texas, with some pretty impressive results for a first-timer. “...a month and a half after I started playing. I went 5-5, I played some really good people. I didn’t know who any of them were because I was still pretty new. It was a fun experience overall! I’m a pretty competitive person, so even going 5-5 at your first regional 6 weeks after starting is like a good result! I wasn’t really happy with my play. I felt I could have played better. It was really fun though!” 

Aaron Traylor went on to win that regional, and to Stefan, he was one of the few players he was familiar with at the time. “...he was someone I had talked to once beforehand, and by the standards of how little I knew everybody in Pokemon, somebody who I knew slightly more won who was fun to cheer for. It was really fun to just sort of be in that large sort of area where all these people play Pokemon and really enjoy Pokemon.”

Stefan was thrilled to be in a space where he could be in attendance with a massive amount of people who are passionate about one thing, Pokemon. It reminded him about his earlier days of competitive gaming. “It was really fun to just sort of be in that large sort of area where all these people play Pokemon and really enjoy Pokemon. To put it in Starcraft 2 terms at the time, it was very reminiscent of early-day MLGs where you would have 256-person open brackets, people of all skill levels signing up, and everyone was just there to sort of play Starcraft 2, and it was the same type of feeling but for Pokemon. Over the years, Starcraft 2 sort of lost that. A lot of the tournaments were scaled down, there were fewer players, and it got to a point where only legitimate pro-players could get into these tournaments, and sort of going back to what was more community-focused at the major level was really, really cool.”

“It was really fun to just sort of be in that large sort of area where all these people play Pokemon and really enjoy Pokemon.”

Stefan’s first Worlds was during London 2022. Overall, Stefan was happy with his performance but didn’t quite make it to day two. “Obviously I prep really hard for Worlds, and I work really hard for Worlds, and Worlds is the most important tournament. But when I’m playing a tournament, I’m playing a tournament, and it doesn’t feel any more or less grand, partially because I haven’t been on stream at Worlds. The stream on Worlds is crazy. I can imagine that being a little different experience. But fundamentally, when I go to a tournament and I sit down to play against somebody, my priority is to focus on the game at hand and not think about the context surrounding it.”

Stefan went on to cement his stance on being in the present moment when competing. “The experience of playing at Worlds isn’t all that different to me than playing at a regional. There’s a large number of people. Obviously, the level of play is significantly higher, and that’s really fun. But I’m also there as a competitor, and there’s a lot of really cool stuff that happens around Worlds, but it’s also not for us [competitors]. Especially in Japan, a lot of what was happening during the times we would be playing we didn’t really get to do. I did a little bit in London, but I’m not really there for that stuff, so it was a sort of bonus. I love how grand Worlds is! It’s a real experience to just watch. It feels a lot more grand when you are walking around, but in the context of the game, it’s important to my performance. I think to just put all of that out of my mind so it doesn’t really feel all that different.”

“In the context of the game, it’s important to my performance. I think to just put all of that out of my mind so it doesn’t really feel all that different.”

Stefan plays every match with the same amount of dedication. He doesn’t let outside forces influence his performance. I asked him if he had any particular battles from Worlds or regionals that stood out to him. “I’ve played a lot of good games,” said Stefan in response. “I hold myself to a very high standard, so if I play really well, it’s not really something for the record books for me. It’s not like, “Oh man, I’m super pumped, and I'm going to live off that high for months!” It’s more like I come out going “acceptable, that’s what I came here to do!” and the things that stick with me more are like when I paly poorly and I go, “That was not acceptable, and I have to make sure that does not happen again!”

The moments that stand out the most for Stefan are his stream matches. He said he tends to have a lot of fun during some of them. “My OCIC match against Alex Underhill was kind of cool! I was able to utilize some of the tech that I put on my team for some really interesting calcs. The stream match at EUIC was pretty funny. I won game 2 last year on stream last year at EUIC because I created a board state where my opponent had to KO themselves. It was a 3v1, but all of their Pokemon had to knock themselves out on my rocky helmet, and that was pretty funny. I don’t think too much about my past games that much. I’m usually looking forward and always trying to improve!”

When playing VGC, sometimes people may come across a person they deem their rival. A person who a player grows alongside and aims to defeat in battle. For Stefan, no such rival exists at the moment. “I really like playing against good players. I really enjoy playing against Wolfe, because every time I play against him we have really close sets. And they’re always very enjoyable sets. It’s really fun playing against him because he plays very well, but he also has a slightly different take on his teams. So it’s always really interesting to play against Wolfe Glick. However, I think it would be extremely arrogant to call Wolfe my rival. He probably doesn’t think twice about our matches.” Wolfe Glick went on to win EUIC 2025, the biggest Pokemon tournament in history, even outnumbering previous Worlds. Stefan placed in the top 64, still an impressive feat for a tournament with around 1,400 players. Overall, Stefan really pushed the idea that he loves playing against strong opponents. “I enjoy playing Joe Ugarte! I go about 50/50 with Joe at majors. The way we build our teams is so fundamentally different that a lot of the time when we pair up, somebody just has a very large matchup advantage and just wins. We played a really good set at San Antonio, which was fun. Then again, Joe is also a much more accomplished player than I am, so rival is definitely the wrong term to use for him as well. I don’t really consider anybody a rival I just have a lot of players I respect, and I enjoy playing against those players. There are some players that I would really like to beat more, like Zachary Weed. I probably have a 20-25% win rate against Zachary Weed. Zach Weed and Carson are the two people who immediately come to mind for who I lose to more than I would like to. So when I pair up against them, I’m like, “Here we go, ha ha, let’s see what happens! Maybe this time!””

“I really like playing against good players. I really enjoy playing against Wolfe, because every time I play against him we have really close sets. And they’re always very enjoyable…”

It can be easy to find role models with so many top-performing players in the spotlight. Wolfe Glick, Joseph Ugarte, Dylan Yeomans, Sejun Park, Jeudy Azzarelli—there are a lot of top performers to look up to. I asked Stefan if he had anyone who comes to mind for inspiration. “I have a lot of respect for Wolfe Glick. Obviously that’s the cop-out answer, but like, it’s really fun to watch his games and study turn-by-turn what he's doing and why. Marco Fiero is the same way. They are both so good at identifying lines to victory earlier than most other players would. So it’s really interesting to kind of watch back at a game you haven’t watched before of theirs, pause on turn two, and say, “Oh, this is an interesting play. What are they doing here? Why are they doing it?”. I really like watching these guys from a pure top-level perspective... Other than that, though, I like how Wolfe builds teams. I think his building style is similar to mine. Not exactly the same in mindset, but his approach to building teams is very similar to mine. He has a tendency to use a lot of weird mons, and it’s not because I go into teambuilding going, “I’m going to use that weird mon today,” but the process leads me into those, and Wolfe also ends up with a lot of weird mons sometimes. And it’s also from watching his videos that I think he comes at it from a similar perspective to mine. So whenever he does well with an interesting team, I tend to sort of study that team from a building perspective and try to figure out the minute details on my own rather than from the Wolfe video and learn what I can from his teambuilds.” 

Stefan namedropped several players he regards highly: Joe Ugarte, Michael Kelsh, and others. “I have a lot of respect for people who can consistently find really good results. Because that consistency is what a lot of Pokemon players can’t find and what a lot of people in our position are striving for. When you see people performing consistently to a level that should not be possible in a game with this much variance. Those are the kinds of people I like to study and have a lot of respect for. I have a lot of respect for anybody who’s good, but specifically those kinds of people.”

In my experience, I’ve found the overall Pokemon community a very welcoming one. I asked Stefan if he held the same idea. “I think there’s this weird misconception from people outside looking in who are scared to get into it—this idea that everyone is in their cliques and closed building groups and nobody wants to be friends with you. But actually, everybody is super chill at events! You can talk to basically anybody and strike up a conversation. People just want to talk about mons. Yeah, if you walk up to me and introduce yourself at a regional, I’m not going to invite you to my building group for the next regional. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a chill conversation and hang out and enjoy watching games together, right? I think a lot of people get it in their heads that like, “Oh, everybody already has their friends, and it’s going to be really hard for me to make friends.” But naturally, on a tournament day, you are already meeting a minimum of 8 people you are playing against. Talk to them! You will be sitting next to a bunch of people before your matches start. You can talk to them, and of course if you have somebody you are on a team with for a team league, or you see a content creator that you really like, or there’s a player you really like watching, go say hi! Everybody is super chill in the VGC community, and I think that’s one of the things that’s really unique. People are really accessible at events as well. Everybody is super chill to talk to as long as you are chill back.”

“Naturally, on a tournament day, you are already meeting a minimum of 8 people you are playing against. Talk to them!...Everybody is super chill in the VGC community, and I think that’s one of the things that [makes it] really unique.”

I started to conclude our interview with some more simple questions. I asked Stefan about our home region of New England and if he thinks the region has a lot of strong players. “Yeah, as far as people showing up to locals! I think the New England community is the strongest region in North America. New York has more top players, but a lot of them won’t go to locals or won’t go to locals very often. I legitimately think that an average cup in Boston is the strongest local that you will get in North America.” 

Pokemon Day is right around the corner as of the time of writing this interview. I asked Stefan what he was hopeful for during the Pokemon Day presentation. “It’d be nice to get a gen 10 announcement. My secret wish is always “Let’s Go Johto”. I really like Pokemon Let’s Go, I think it’s so fun. I just want a “Let’s Go Johto”, man.” 

For one of the final two questions, I asked about Stefan’s food and drink options for long tournaments that can last several hours. “water and protein bars! Ha ha! I think eating a meal in the middle of a tournament is a very big mistake. Because you will get tired as your body tries to break down that much food. So, it’s not super healthy but I will usually wake up, I will maybe have a small breakfast. Then during the day I will have two, three, protein bars, maybe some nuts. I go about a bottle of water per round. I think drinking a lot of water is really important and a coffee or energy drink maybe. As soon as you get out you usually get out in time for dinner. You’re usually out by like 5 or 6, then you can go get your dinner and eat a ton for dinner.”

Finally, concluding the interview, I asked Stefan if he wanted to shout anyone or anything out. He had high praise for his groups of friends and his partner. “Big shoutout to my organization that I represent, Capital Underdogs. Smoliv Garden, best group in the biz! And of course a shoutout to Rosemary Kelly, my lovely partner!”

Check out Stefan’s Twitter @PengyTwitch, and his Twitch streams under: Pengyy! Be on the lookout for more exclusive interviews of your favorite VGC players coming soon on Devon Corp!