São Paulo, Brazil, has played host to the Latin America International Championships (LAIC) since 2017. Despite being held in Latin America, competitors from North America and Europe have almost exclusively hoisted the LAIC Pokémon TCG Masters Division trophy. Hometown heroes may have fallen short of winning their most coveted title in the past, but the 2026 LAIC was a different story.

Three-time Regional Champion Pedro Pertusi reminded everyone that Latin America—and more specifically Brazil—is a serious powerhouse. En route to becoming the region’s first LAIC Pokémon TCG Masters Division Champion since 2018, Pertusi’s the latest in a long line of star Trainers from the region. Pokemon.com sat down with the champ to discuss his big win, his playing career, and an exciting, new opportunity.

“Three-time Regional Champion” explains everything you need to know about Pertusi’s skill. He’s been one of the best in the game since advancing to the Masters Division in 2020 and is no stranger to winning a big tournament: the Brazilian Pokémon TCG player had triumphed in Joinville, Santiago—and even São Paulo—at the Regional Championship level before this event. But this win was clearly something different.

“I’ve won before, but [International Championships] and Worlds are on another level of difficulty, right? You have the best players from around the world. [Winning] felt pretty good,” Pertusi said. “I got close a few times before, but I [always] felt like I could go the whole way, and yeah, the time came. I’ve been playing for eight years so I joked that all those years of playing were preparation for the Finals match.”

Eight years is a long time to commit to anything, and that experience served him well in a nail-biter of a three-game set with Sebastian Lashmet. The Gardevoir ex mirror match was one for the ages, and Pertusi navigated the matchup masterfully. After the win, he was happy for more than just his individual victory.

“I think very well of Latin American players, and especially Brazilian players. Our level of play is really good…but we didn’t quite have that finish or the results in an international event,” Pertusi said.

Latin America is home to a variety of tournament-winning stars, including the 2017 Pokémon TCG Masters Division World Champion Diego Cassiraga, two-time Pokémon TCG Europe International Champion (EUIC) Gustavo Wada, and 2024 Pokémon TCG Masters Division World Champion Fernando Cifuentes. You’ll see players such as Brazilian William Azevedo and Chilean Marco Cifuentes—Fernando Cifuentes’s brother—regularly making deep runs at tournaments too. However, not every title can be easy.

“The only time a Brazilian won LAIC [in the Masters Division] was in [2018], and Gustavo Wada won back-to-back EUICs, but in general, we’ve fallen short compared to other regions. [Winning] felt pretty good not just for me, but for Brazilians in general, especially with the tournament being at home.”

With this tournament in his home city of São Paulo, Pertusi couldn’t be more of a hometown hero. Friends and family alike came to support the player—even those who didn’t know anything about Pokémon—as he became the first-ever Brazilian player to win the Pokémon TCG Masters Division title at LAIC. It’s hard to get any better than that, and Pertusi’s ties to those who support him are especially strong.

“Most of my friends are older than me, like ten-plus years older, and many of them have been playing with me since I was young,” Pertusi explained. “They’ve kind of been like role models to me, not only in [the] game, but in general with life advice, career advice, and so on. It’s really meant a lot.”

Among those friends are none other than fellow Brazilian Pokémon TCG players Rafael Yuiti and William Azevedo, who are also part of Pertusi’s primary testing group. Pertusi remarked that Yuiti had coached him “before coaching was a thing,” often swinging by his house two to three times a week to help him improve at the Pokémon TCG. Azevedo has also been a big influence as one of the region’s best players, and played a pivotal role in the development of one of Pertusi’s favorite decks of all time: Charizard ex.

“If you asked me [what my favorite deck was] before LAIC, it would probably be Charizard ex and Pidgeot ex. The whole concept actually came up between William, me, and our testing group,” Pertusi said.

The archetype Pertusi is referring to is specifically a strategy using Charizard ex and Pidgeot ex alongside a full four copies of Arven—which was uncommon before the 2024 Curitiba Regional Championships—and Forest Seal Stone. Azevedo won that tournament—notably defeating Pertusi himself in Top 8—and sent a wave through the Pokémon TCG metagame.

Since then, countless players have adopted the strategy to place well at tournaments, such as Azul Garcia Griego’s triumph at the 2024 San Antonio Regional Championships and Tord Reklev’s own spin on the build at the 2024 Europe International Championships. The popular build using four Arven cards isn’t a trend at the time of writing, but the foundation of that build continues to be seen in competitive play.

“It was really, really cool because we built a deck that became a staple in the metagame until today, Pertusi said with a smile. “I even won the [2024 São Paulo Regional Championships] with the deck. William ended up getting Top 4 at EUIC with it, and we all collectively did really well with the deck.”

If you ask Pertusi what his favorite deck is today, though, the answer’s pretty simple: Gardevoir ex.

“My favorite deck now has to be Gardevoir ex because I won the [Santiago Regional Championships] with it and the Shining Arcana Gardevoir. I also got second at a Regional with it earlier this year, with Drifloon and the Refinement Kirlia,” he said. “Now that I won LAIC with it, [Gardevoir ex] has to be my favorite.”

Pertusi is a champion with plenty of hardware in the trophy case, but he was once “just a kid collecting cards” and getting into the Pokémon TCG himself. He’s worked hard to get to this point with plenty of help from other competitive players at his side, but he’d be remiss not to credit the people who made this possible from the beginning: his parents.

“In general, [my parents] have always been supportive of our hobbies in general. It’s something they always strived for with me and my twin sister. She’s more into artsy stuff, so they always supported her with that,” he said. “I think, when it came to convincing them about Pokémon, playing at Nationals really helped because it gave the dimension of the tournament size, and before, only Nationals and Worlds had that size of event.”

Prior to the International Championships circuit currently in place, there were large tournaments known as Nationals that were hosted once a year. Pertusi notably “convinced his dad a lot” to take him to the 2016 Brazil Nationals in northern Brazil, which is far from Pertusi’s hometown. It was a long way, but Pertusi “doing well at the event” with Night March—a deck focused on getting Pokémon into the discard pile and attacking with high damage numbers—opened the gate for him to continue playing and have his dad’s full support.

It’s common for children who compete in Pokémon events to rely on their parents to take care of the logistics, so Pertusi’s story is one close to many Trainers’ hearts. Taking care of that on his own helped him grow into the hobby as a teenager and young adult. Nowadays, his parents look at that progress fondly.

“Although it was my hobby and I had a regular job, it started to pay for itself,” Pertusi said regarding his playing career. “With prizing getting bigger and bigger, I started to get a return out of it, and that especially helped my parents support me up until today. They always knew that it wasn’t fully a ‘child’s hobby,’ but earning prizes, earning my own trips, and doing my own thing was a good change of pace.”

The Brazilian phenom has truly grown up with Pokémon. Pokémon continues to be an important part of his life as he continues to develop other skills and explore everything the world has to offer.

Pertusi has three Regional Championships and one International Championship under his belt, but he has plenty of other things going on in his life too. Notably, he just completed an endeavor some might consider even more stressful than a three-game Grand Finals match: completing his bachelor’s degree in computer science.

“I already have a [job] offer, so I’m going to work in the [computer science] area, basically, with data and artificial intelligence,” he said. “I also had the opportunity to live in the [United States] this year. I went to the University of Chicago, did a summer program there, and got to work with research assistants and focus on computer science.”

Pokémon always finds a way into Pertusi’s life, and the opportunity to stay in the US for the summer ended up being even more exciting than furthering his technical skills. Pertusi described it as “extremely lucky.”

“My program actually started after NAIC [North American Regional Championships] and finished a bit before Worlds, so since everything was in the US, I got [to] do everything I wanted while staying there,” he explained. “I got the stipend to play in NAIC, stayed for my summer abroad, went to Worlds, and then came back to Brazil. It shows what I try to do with mixing hobbies, my career, and other interests in general.”

Balance is essential for any competitor, and Pertusi clearly has it figured out. He’s offering up a Gardevoir ex master class in the Pokémon TCG, “locked in” in the classroom, and ready to rock the working world. Pertusi’s new job is on the horizon, but don’t worry, he still plans to play plenty of Pokémon.

“[My new job] is probably going to change a little bit of my plans going forward, so I’m not sure if I’m going to go to EUIC yet,” he said. “It’s still a possibility because we have a holiday in Brazil the week afterward. All the other tournaments in LATAM, though, I’m pretty much going to [compete in], except Santiago because of my graduation party.”

Pertusi is savoring all kinds of success these days, but the star has plenty of breathing room as a competitor after winning LAIC. He’s earned himself a direct invitation to the World Championships in San Francisco, California, next year, and the grand event will be his biggest priority going forward.

“The main focus is Worlds for sure, especially with the invite from winning,” Pertusi said. “I’m probably going to figure out a way to do at least one of the remaining ICs, with NAIC being most likely. I’m hoping I can do both of them and Worlds.”

Every Pokémon TCG tournament is more exciting with Pedro Pertusi in attendance. We can only hope he’ll make his way to every event he desires this season, but perhaps the surrounding competitors will be relieved to hear the Brazilian titan might not reign supreme at their next event.

In any case, be sure to stay up to date with all upcoming Championship Series events at the official website, as well as everything Play! Pokémon on X, Instagram, and YouTube.