The second African Special Championships of the season is taking place May 25th at Umhlanga Rocks, South Africa. Given the low turnout at the previous South African event, the team at Dracoviz wanted to take the time to highlight the local community as well as any other standout battlers.
We reached out to the admins of the African Pokemon League, a central host for grassroots and Play! Pokemon practice tournaments throughout the continent. Below is the list of players they wanted to highlight:
South Africa
First up is uncle Shep021 (Formerly Shep88), the founder of the African Pokémon League (APL). He is one of the OG grassroots format battlers, hailing from the Mother City, Cape Town, and is currently living in England. A ‘Day 1’ player and stalwart of the African game with vast experience in the show 6 format. From before the first Silph competition he has been around helping to grow the PvP scene in Africa ( and still does so to this day!), as well as being the founding captain of our Gym Breaker’s team. He was constantly in the top3 in Silph’s African leader boards (3rd, 2nd, 2nd and 1st on the continent when competitive), while 1 season just barely missing out on the Legendary rank. He is also a multi – time legend in the Go Battle League. Nowadays he is “too busy” to fully commit (always helping when needed) but we refuse to let him retire!
Kurtywurty12, one of Cape Towns’ well-known battlers, a multi – time Legend in the Go Battle League, who has achieved leader board status a number of times. He is best known for being the current captain of the African Union Gym Breakers Team, he has considerable show 6 experience and has finished as the number 1 ranked trainer on the South African Leader board in the final season of Silph. In the inaugural season of the Devon Corporation, he achieved rank 67 on the Global leader board and competed in the first ever Devon Corporation World Championship. During cycle 3 of the Battle Frontier he topped the Polaris Domain leaderboard and placed 7th on the Overall MVP leaderboard of the APAC Open tier. Kurt has become a pillar of the African PvP community and constantly leading the team to bigger and better achievements. We all grateful he pays us so well 😉
Diveshan, hailing from Richards Bay, the golden discovery of Africa. A newer member of team African Union (something about studying to become a doctor was more important than the game back then, or some rubbish like that), but has grown in leaps and bounds and quickly became 1 of the leaders in the African scene. From his constant time given to team building and helping others with theirs, to his devotion to being a referee for Gym Breakers, his dedication to the game and teammates is amazing. He is also best known for being the Captain of the Gliscoric Gladiators Elite and being one of the first African players to achieve the Platinum ranking in Gymbreakers. He started playing in Grass Roots tournaments in Silph’s Final season and he finished 3rd on Silph’s South African leaderboard. During the inaugural season of the Devon Corporation, he achieved a 13th place finish on the Global Leaderboard for the season and played in the 1st ever Devon Corporation World Championship Tournament. During cycle 3 of the Battle Frontier, he appeared on multiple leaderboards, with his highest finish being 2nd Place on the Overall MVP Leaderboard of the APAC open tier. He finished with a record of 8 – 0 in the competition. A multi-time legend that has appeared on then Go Battle league leaderboard previously, he likes to build and climb with his own teams despite the saying that ‘meta is meta for a reason.’
00Grumps96, a Johannesburg native, a multi – time Legend in the Go Battle League who has made the Go Battle League leaderboard previously. An original member of the African Union Gym Breakers team. In the 3rd Season of Silph, he topped the African Leaderboards. In the inaugural season of the Devon Corporation, he made the top 500 on the Devon Corporation leaderboard despite not competing in many tournaments. Life has taken him away from being as active as he used to be, but you can always rely on him! A player who loves a bit of spice as he feels full meta is too boring. If you can’t find him battling a gym, then you will probably find him in the gym!
Cheesus786YT, a former content creator, resident of Johannesburg. A member of the African Union Gymbreakers team, a multi – time legend that also has considerable show 6 experience. In Silph’s final season, he finished 2nd on the African leaderboard and in Devon Corporations 1st season, he made rank 145 on the Devon Corporation global leaderboard despite not participating in many of the Devon Corporation tournaments throughout the season.
iBeast is a multi- time GBL legend with considerable show 6 experience, a reliable trainer that always pulls his teams across the finish line whenever they need him to. Another OG if you will, who has claimed the top spot in Africa before at the end of a gruelling Season 1 of Silph. Rumour is he originally trained Machamp to look so muscular.
Egypt
Badawyyyy is an exceptional battler from Egypt, a multi – time Go Battle League Legend that has managed to hit the top 25 in the world on the GBL leaderboard. He finished at Rank 52 on the Devon Corporations Season 1 Global Leaderboard. He is also the first battler from team African Union to hit the Platinum Rank in the Gymbreakers World Cup. He is a player that loves a bit of spice and has a fantastic ability to analyze and break a meta.
Ghana
OrphicTempest is one of the few known Ghanian Battlers. A content creator best known for making the Ultra League team of Abomasnow, Skeledirge and Jellicent popular. He is a multi – time legend that has previously hit the Go Battle League Leaderboard. He has a pretty good amount of experience in the show 6 format. He is best known for being an Ultra league specialist and the vice-captain of the Gliscoric Gladiators Elite. He finished Cycle 3 of the Battle frontier on the Wasteland (4th place) and Overall MVP (16th place) leaderboards. Another person who lives on the spicier side of life.
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