Raymond Rizzo is a three-time Pokémon Video Game World Champion (2010, 2011, 2012).[2] He is regarded as one of the best players of competitive Pokémon of all time.[3]
His success can be partly attributed to his team building skills - one example of this is his use of a defensive, support-oriented Thundurus at a time when most players used Thundurus offensively, and this innovation subsequently dominated the Pokémon competitive scene for years after its first appearance at the 2011 World Championships.[4][5]
In 2010, Rizzo won his first Pokémon World Championship in Hawaii after defeating Japan's Yasuki Tochigi in the Senior Division finals.[7] He then won the 2011 World Championship[8]inSan Diego, California after defeating Matteo Gini in the then-new Masters Division finals.[3] He next won the 2012 World Championship in Hawaii, defeating Wolfe Glick (who Rizzo regards highly) in the Masters Division finals, making Rizzo the first three-time Pokémon Video Game World Champion.[2] To commemorate this, the Pokémon Company released a shiny Metagross with the same moves, ability and nature as Rizzo's.[9]
Rizzo was defeated in the first round of elimination at the 2013 Pokémon World Championships.[10] In 2014, Rizzo was alleged to have cheated by using a hacked Aegislash at the 2014 US Pokémon National Championships.[11] He denied the accusations, but said that he would not be using the Pokémon in the future.[12] The allegedly hacked Pokémon would have conferred no advantage in the competition, only saving time by avoiding on-cartridge grinding, but would still have been a violation of tournament rules.[12]
Rizzo also has a YouTube channel where he discusses competitive Pokémon. As of May 2024, he has 36K subscribers and over four million channel views.[15]
