Se-jun Park's Pachirisu

About

Se Jun Park's Pachirisu refers to the Pokémon Pachirisu used by competitive Pokémon player Se-jun Park to help him win the 2014 Pokémon World Championships. Because Pachirisu is generally considered an unremarkable competitive Pokémon and is aesthetically less threatening than other popular Pokémon in the VGC, its aid in Se-jun Park's victory led to fan art, memes and widespread celebration in the competitive Pokémon community and in Park's home country of Korea. In particular, a moment from the finals match when Pachirisu survives two devastating attacks from its opponents, Tyranitar and Salamence, has inspired fan art and memes.

Origin

At the 2014 Pokémon World Championships, which occurred on August 17th, 2014, Se-jun Park faced Jeudy Azzarelli in the final match (reupload by YouTuber Canadian Wifier shown below).

Pachirisu was not considered a relevant Pokémon in competitive play prior to the tournament, nor has it been since.^[1] However, Park added the Pokémon due to it being able to learn the move Follow Me, which lets a Pokémon make opponents target itself rather than its partner. Additionally, Pachirisu learned moves like Nuzzle, an attacking move that paralyzes opponents, and the Pokémon has decent defensive statistics. A full breakdown of the reasons Pachirisu worked for Park was uploaded by YouTuber WolfeyVGC on February 12th, 2021, in a video that gained over 1 million views in two years (shown below).

In a crucial moment of what would be the final game of their match, Park's Pachirisu uses Follow Me and is able to survive both the moves Rock Slide from Azzarelli's Tyranitar and Draco Meteor from his Salamence, allowing Garchomp to knock both Pokémon out and essentially seal the victory (shown below).

Spread

Park's win with Pachirisu was widely celebrated in the Pokémon community, quickly leading to fan art in the following days and years. For example, on August 18th, 2014, Redditor MBArceus posted art of Park and Pachirisu to /r/pokémon,^[2] gaining over 2,600 points in nine years (shown below).

On August 19th, Tumblr user 1212m^[3] posted what would become two widely shared pieces of fan art referencing the match, one with Pachirisu nonchalantly stopping a move, and the other with Salamence, Tyranitar and Pachirisu's ally Garchomp reacting with fear. The post gained over 212,000 notes on Tumblr over nine years (shown below).

Pachirisu's win also inspired memes surrounding a famous quote from Pokémon's Karen, which reads, "Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best." Memes centered around the idea that Park chose Pachirisu simply because it was his favorite Pokémon, though that is not entirely accurate, as Pachirisu held some advantages over the meta of competitive Pokémon at the time combined with the rest of his team.

South Korea planned eight parades for Park and his Pachirisu, but the first proved so popular that it became a safety hazard, so some of the subsequent events were canceled.^[4]

At the 2022 Pokémon World Championships, Park's Pachirisu was notably honored during the tournament's intro video (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References