This is a documentary on Ray Rizzo, the only three time Pokemon World Champion and the player many consider to the be the greatest of all time. This video was produced, edited, directed, shot, and more by Giovanni Costa - I am simply hosting it on my channel to help it get the attention it deserves. if you want to see more of Gio's work, you can follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/the_one_gio
I think one of the best feel good moments of this is that his parents knew how much he loved Pokemon and competing so they funded his Hawaii trip. Some parents would never do that over a "Video game" competition especially back in 2010 where the stigma was "Gaming will never earn you a living" and at the time there was some truth to it. Now of course there's content creating, streaming and all that but there wasn't back then. Kudos to the supportive parents of Ray Rizzo.
This is a great comment. I wish I could've entered more tournaments in the game I used to play competitively back in the 2010s. It was hard to support it before streaming and twitch all came into existence and could make a real living off being entertaining playing at a high level. 😢
@@Jcpygo yeah i can feel that. i had some pretty realistic dreams about gaming as a full time job but i never had the starting money or the support of my parents no matter if it was possible or not, but some people can't follow their dreams because of so many things going on in life. money is the singlehandedly biggest reason dreams fail and not being in the age to be allowed to make decisions. now i am 26, living in germany, working as something like a nurse (there a differences in different countries so lets stay with that word to not overcomplicate it) and i do sometimes feel empty or burned out. i always have been "god-tier" at calculating pretty much anything inside my head and that was a skill helping me in gaming. Nowadays i could not compare with most young gamers because of reflexes and gameexperience without being cut off gaming for a while. if you stop gaming for a while you probably never can come back being as good as being before from my experience. my mother was somewhat supportive but also always on the safe side after making a mistake to move out from poland to germany with her husband (she divorced later on) just because they got "a better paying job" which was worse paid and the company closed soon after moving. sadly moving out of poland was a point of no return because the job my mother had could only be reclaimed by her if she worked for 10 years minimum there but she only had 8 years and the diploma and everything she had was not worth anything in germany (at least that is what she got told and she only found out the opposite like 21 years later). i know this is not interesting for anybody, but i just felt like sharing. sometimes things are not meant to happen but if you get a chance no matter the risk if that is not at cost of your life you might aswell take it. if you reach for the stars you might be the one catching a shooting star.
I think he is also very fortunate his parents could afford it. I know that, for many (myself included), even with super supportive parents the cost would just be impossible to afford.
For real. Wolfe's had a lot of World Champ Difference lines over the years, but I don't think anything he's said has hit quite as hard as "My strategy was 'I'm just going to play better than everybody,' and I ended up executing on that."
when i hear pokemon world championship i think of cards, when i think of greatest pokemon player of all time, its the cardgame! why are these guys acting like this is pokemon when its just some videogame variation?
@@henkdachief that's cool lil bro. Keep going with the card game if that's what you enjoy. The video games came out first though, so the card game is the variation.
Hey Aaron, please make a "reaction" video to this just talking about your experiences during these events, maybe your friendship with Ray and all that.
Definitely a great video. The early era of VGC is not as well documented and the fact this provides a face and context behind a name that's been heard of but not always known. Special and inspiring and really great. Loved it
My respect for Wolfey has shot up to the stratosphere after this video. Uploading a video that is claiming your rival is the greatest pokemon player ever on your channel really highlights how much of a good sport you are.
Despite the fact that he brings his success stories of the past up quite a lot and is very confident in his abilities as a player, Wolfe seems pretty humble in recognizing others' skills and achievements. He's incredibly open in talking about his respect for players like Cybertron, Se Jun Park, PM7 and Pokemon Challenges in their respective areas and has commented in the past his belief that Ray is the best player to ever compete.
he once said something like "only one player had ever won this tournament without getting seeded into the second day so i really wanted to skip day one" without mentioning that the person who'd achieved that was himself...
On top of being an absolute legend and VGC icon, even just the name Ray Rizzo is such an awesome name, man. Not sure if its just me, but that name gives off serious main character energy lol
Facts haha, Gamefreak/Nintendo should make it up to Rizzo by adding him as an elite four Champion in future games with one of his competitive teams he won with. (Never going to happen, but I can dream right LOL)
@@TheMadSnorlaxwhile they haven’t done that, black and white 2 had an online event where you could fight against “world champion ray rizzo” at the PWT where his exact team was used!
Seeing Wolfey host a documentary about his old-rival highlighting him as one of if not the greatest player is the wholesome energy I respect and admire him for editing: mb Didn’t realise Gio made it, but the sentiment still stands
Highly appreciate the video. Ray brought me into playing competitive Pokemon in 2012 and I actually ended up winning the german national championships in 2015 (fun fact: 5 out of the 6 pokemon were a core built by wolfey). Will never forget that time of my life :)
Yeah, sad way to go out but understandable. It makes even less sense since that type of 'cheating' doesn't even give you an advantage. In fact it's not even cheating since cheating is defined as 'a dishourable act in order to gain an advantage' but no advantage is gained from a dream ball.
the advantage came from the pokemon not being able to be "legit" from a dream ball making people assume it was hacked. If you could make pokemon from thin air it would save alot of time and effort allowing for more practice. Annoying that he got flack just because the parent pokemon had a dream ball so it passed it down. If it passed the hacks screening who cares imo. @@finnsnow2495
Good work Gio. I was lucky (Or rather unlucky depending how you look at it) enough to be matched against Ray before, I got absolutely curbstomped but he was a real gentleman, teaching me more about my own team after the battle. Stand up guy and a absolute demon at Pokemon, I never stood a chance.
The state the franchise is at the moment killed all my motivation or love for the franchise. I stopped playing since gen 7 and there's nothing so far worth for me to go back. Hopefully Game Freak will wake up and produce a polished, incredible game someday, like was HGSS or BW2. I still look at competitive content from time to time but that's about it. I can't... Support the current state the games are in.
@@mathieul4303its really sad. I remember looking forward to play sun and moon and was very disappointed what a piece of crap it was. Never played any of the newer games from that on
This is an amazing project and genuinely feels like a cornerstone video for the world of competitive Pokémon as a whole. It takes the competitors seriously and provides a great look into the growth of the competitive scene not just from the players but from organizational changes also. Taking a look at it from Ray Rizzo’s perspective feels really fresh because he does have that stand out reputation as someone who seemed to take it seriously in a way that others at the same time weren’t. Doing research into both American and Japanese metagames and seeing that pay off in his repeated worlds victories. I’m looking forward to how other creators and groups might continue to open up the world of competitive Pokémon in these sorts of large scale documentaries and am so glad to see Wolfey really embrace and promote other creators projects like this. Wolfey’s continued respect and clear desire to see the the entire community of Pokémon grow is truly inspiring.
amazing to see so much footage from "way back when" - I know I'm not the only player who's interested in those earliest days where tournaments weren't widely streamed or recorded, so hearing Ray's accounts of playing and winning make for a fascinating time capsule. although Pokemon has always had wide casual appeal, I'm thankful to everyone who came before that we have the competitive scene we continue to enjoy today, and this documentary is a perfect example of the passion that got us here. great work Giovanni!
Excellent storytelling as always Gio, loved the intro to the lesser known part of VGC history through Ray's story and thanks to Wolfe for providing the platform a wider audience to see it.
Mad respect to Wolfe, Gio Costa and everyone in volved recently in this exercise of documenting the history of competitive Pokémon throughout the different videos shared in this channel. The one about Se Jun, the one detailing Wolfe's win in 2016, the one about Cybertron, this video, even the one about Nuzlockes. They have all done an excellent job at documenting the history of the game.
True. You’re right; It’s not really chest thumping or crowing. It’s data driven. Dude has three world titles. If there have only been…what 14 total world championships since 2009, he owns over 20% of them by himself. That would be like an NFL team having 12 Super Bowl titles.
I actually didn't know a lot about Ray before this! Great job to Giovanni, this was really well put together, felt like a professional level documentary.
This is probably the best video on Competitive Pokémon ever created. Not only on its history, but on the true meaning of the game and what it means to those who love it. I´ve got chills running down my spine right now. Truly thank you Ray, Gio and Wolfey.
This video changed my entire perspective on competition as a whole. Beforehand I thought it was a ladder only one person can climb and everyone who falls short must do better or they're worth nothing, especially considering how often it's pushed by athletes that the only place you should be in a competition is the top. But after seeing Ray supporting and cheering on the other competitors with his friends like Aaron and Wolfey, and how he described how good it feels to support from the sidelines, I see now that competition is more like a podium everyone climbs at once. And when you can't climb any further, it's another reason to give the other climbers a helping hand to the next stage, and once someone finally reaches that top spot it's a celebration of the climb as a whole. I used to be super intimidated by competition in fear of how I'll feel when I'm out of the race, but now I feel strangely excited about it now that I've realised it's not a total separation from having fun, it's just an extension of it.
From someone that was always aware of competitive pokemon but never followed it closely, I LOVE this kind of content. I remember watching clips and battles from the world championships 10-15 years ago but I didn’t know who anyone was. Putting these stories to names and faces I saw a decade ago, is really cool.
So much respect to Wolfey for hosting an incredibly written and developed story by Gio. The two of you and Ray have made immeasurable strides for this community and in getting people the recognition they deserve. Amazing watch!!
This video needs a million views, really well done. Ray Rizzo and the 2012 worlds finals is what got me into VGC and im so thankful for that. I've been able to meet tons of lifelong friends and even compete in Worlds myself. Superb video.
This documentary is beautiful. Ray and Wolfe are my favorite players of all time and hear the behind scenes of tournaments and Rays mentality is just incredible. Thank you Giovanni Costa and Thank you Wolf. :)
Beautifully made. It's so wonderful to see his rise and experience. Honestly it's brutal to see the dream ball controversy. I remember hearing about it loosely as I watched videos back in high school. The aptly named team dream ball in the MBL was why I was subbed to wolfey back then. Now I'm glad that he gets to tell the story that it was a legit pokemon and doesn't devalue the player in any way.
Hey Wolfe I know it’s an old vid, but I couldn’t help but want to comment, I don’t know in which kind of headspace you’re in right now, but I know people all over the world can see just how much fun you have in this competitive scene. I just wanted to say, you’re amazing, not only are you disciplined and dedicated to vgc, but you inspire, at least me, to have that same level of passion in what I do every day. I don’t know if this is the kind of support you need, but for every video I’ve watched of you, that’s motivated me, I think I owed at least a comment attempting the same You’re amazing, you got this!
Watching this late as well but i want to say thank you so much for this comment, Wolfe is the reason i went to the north american pokemon national championships in new orleans this year (I am so surprised and grateful it was held in new orleans and will be again next year), It was one of the best days of my life with my friends and my girlfriend and the energy in the room while spectating VGC battles for hours and hours, so many incredible people who share the same passionate love for the game, and it was just beautiful to be able to express and engage with the pokemon community. It made me feel at home. I would have never known that competitive pokemon is such a welcoming, enthusiastic, respectful, & supportive community if it werent for seeing wolfe's videos about a year ago. I feel so connected now with friends i can finally share my love of the game with freely. It motivates and inspires me to pursue my goals & do what i love to do, like really putting myself out there with confidence. Its amazing how a community around a video game can exponentially create so much positivity and love. Sorry for long comment haha i get emotional about this
this was a phenomenal video, one for the pokemon archives. ray rizzo will always be such a pokemon icon and these videos that carry on pokemon history and make sure it isn't forgotten do so much for the community - old and new. well done Gio
For real! It cannot be understated how much watching Rizzo take what seemed like big risks at the time (bulky Thundurus) changed what standard team building would look like for lots of people moving forward. Tailoring EV spreads to incredible specificity is standard now, but back then it simply wasn't. Most of us were just maxing out a pokemon's obvious strengths and playing by heart. Doing damage calcs wasn't nearly as common outside of finding out what you could one-shot with a neutral nature vs with a +10% nature.
Sad to see that a great career like that ended over a Dream Ball... People are stupid sometimes. Imagine the timeline where that Aegislash wasn't in a Dream Ball or it wouldn't have brought up these controversies. But anyways a great documentary, I loved watching it! Thanks for bringing our attention to this, Wolfey.
This was incredible. I love the watching the history of Ray as well as how the VGC scene changed with him, especially with casters. Here's to you, Ray! Hope you continue to soar!
It's so cool to have this stuff documented honestly. Like, I was there, I don't *need* it for myself, but it'd be sad if it all slipped away into history without being recorded. Watching Ray Rizzo dominate years in a row it really did feel like he was at a different level than most of us. It was also wild later watching Se Jun Park go from experimenting with stuff like Follow-Me Magmar to later winning with Follow-Me Pachirisu.
This should have over a million views by now. This is an amazing documentary. Extremely well put together and was a beautifully told story. Wolfe you've done it again
This was EXTREMELY well edited and produced and WOW what a story. I'm a long time Pokemon fan, was always a Singles player, now I'm nosediving into VGC and this was a hell of a ride. Pokemon is AWESOME.
Thank you for making this video. I've always looked up to Ray, he's been a phenomenal competitor and truly an all-time great! As someone who has played this game a bunch and had a fair share of decent results, it's nice to see what the journey of a Champion is - and even if the game doesn't feel like it's for me right now, I can still be part of the community in a different way, it's part of the reason why I thought to start judging in events for now. Maybe at some point, I'll get that winning result to prove that I was the best player that day - but even if I don't, the game and the community has definitely made me a better version of myself and I'm thankful for that. To Pokémon!
I love Ray, hes so humble yet confident! Cant help it ive been team wolfey every since i seen the head turn when you won worlds!! I know theres no teams or sides its all love! I study and admire you both greatly!!
Incredible production. It was great to hear Ray's story told on his own words, and I hope we see him compete again some time in the future. I love how the GOAT debate repeats itself in VCG and TCG, which as well has just one player who has won worlds more than once (but not in a row) and now you have to compare that acomplishment aganist today's top players. I also loved seeing that GameTrailers interview in the middle there. I remember watching that video when it came out just because I was a fan of GT without knowing anything about VGC. Its crazy to see Kyle Bosman in Wolfe's channel and I reccomend watching that full video, I'm pretty sure its still somewhere here in UA-cam.
No matter how you look at it, from any aspect of who is the very best, Ray is by far the best player of all time, probably for the foreseeable future, nobody will have better titles than him. Ever.
it magic the gathering, it felt like no one could ever top the domination achieved by hall of famer Kai budde in the early days of magic. the average level of pro players has risen dramatically, that you'd think that he'd have the best record forever since it would be way harder to rack up those results (for point of reference, if you can get into the top 8 players at a major tournament 3x, you'll probably be inducted into the hall of fame, and kai had 11x, and 7 of those were outright wins) and yet, about 1 year after Kai "retired", paulo vitor damo da rosa started playing competitively and had matched and exceeded Kai by many metrics in about 7 years against that much tougher competition all that is to say, i appreciate you leaving open the sliver of possibility that it could happen! :)
Winning a World Championship is extremely difficult and I don´t see anyone wining a second trophy in the near future. Probably Ray will remain as the only player to have won in multiple instances. However, if we take into account every tournament that has ever been played, Wolfe takes a huge stand to claim to be the best. He's not the only player to have won every single level of competition, he even has the record for most Regional wins [x7] and most US Nationals [x3] (now NAIC). Both are outstanding players and both are the best in their regards.
The best Pokémon player of all time is CHAMPION LANCE. He has peaked 80 ladders between Pokémon Online, Pokémon Showdown!, and PokeBattle; achieved a GXE of 100% four times; and has achieved win-loss records of 48-0, 50-0, 55-0, 61-0, 203-21, and 209-17 in BDSP Ubers, DPP Anything Goes, Gen 9 National Dex AG, Global Showdown, USUM Anything Goes, and Gen 8 National Dex AG, respectively.
Ray, not everybody agrees if you're the best or not, but everyone agrees that hands-down, you are the most influential and groundbreaking pokemon player of all time.
Hearin the story & how supported he was & how much the community means to him gets my eyes all misty super rude!!! Thank you so much for hostin this video. Thank you Gio for makin it & thank you Ray Rizzo for tellin us the story!!
I’m 31, work out have tats ect. Wouldn’t think twice I’m a huge Pokémon fan Not too familiar with the comp scene in this style but this just blew me away. It’s truly amazing what Pokémon done for this life & am extremely happy for him Like he said, back in our day, being a huge Pokémon fan kind of made u a nerd in HS. & stuff like that ain’t easy. So amazing to see someone even with being Scrutinized by his peers, he kept playing & loving Pokémon. He never gave up on it no matter what others said/though. Amazing vid. Wish you all the best. & don’t ever stop loving Pokémon!
Really awesome video! I always wondered what Ray’s POV was after hearing Wolfey talk about him being his biggest rival and I’m glad Gio who made Cybertron’s video did another banger job once again! I hope to see Ray compete once more 🙏
Ray actually was playing last year and qualified for worlds but in Japan your invite is tied to your save file. His save file was in Japanese to stop other Japanese players from instantly knowing it was him but he wanted to switch his cart to English for worlds so he restarted his file which disqualified him from worlds. Huge bummer
Thanks for being a humble competitor and giving Ray the throne as greatest of all time. If he put this out itd feel weird but you propping up your friend to his rightful place is nice to see from champs
I'm 30 seconds in and already hooked. Wolfey...this kind of content -- although time-consuming -- would be amazing as a monthly series, looking at the best players in the world in this documentary style.
Ray is arguably a better player, but Wolfe easily has the biggest Pokémon SM following. SUPER solid of him to do this. Would love to see more vids like this!
As a 90’s kid who grew up playing red and blue after my older brother showed me the games, this hits home. It’s hard to explain to people who don’t understand how much Pokemon means to me and influences me as an adult. It changed a lot of peoples lives and Ray is proof of that. Great video!
Being put into the game must feel so good ,would love to see more of this sort of content talking about the meta of previous years and the stand out players
As a basketball fan, the way Ray talks about his own player development and play performance sounds like a more mentally-well-adjusted Michael Jordan. Even after winning worlds, he’s identifying areas of growth and how to improve. He doesn’t just want to win, he wants to be the best player he can be. And once he’s been recognized for that, he’s ready for the next thing.
There's something so sweet to me about the line of "or is it whoever the best current day player is" and it shows him interacting with more recent years Wolfe Great documentary-! However, the 2010 Worlds allowing for item changing between sets is wild to me
Amazing job guys, one of the best youtube documentaries around. One important thing that it is not mentioned in the video is that each time more and more plays get into the competitive scene (last Orlando tournament is a good example), making it harder to be consistent, not to say dominant. It'd be interesting to know if Ray would be as dominant as he was in this much more varied and prepared environment.
This is a documentary on Ray Rizzo, the only three time Pokemon World Champion and the player many consider to the be the greatest of all time. This video was produced, edited, directed, shot, and more by Giovanni Costa - I am simply hosting it on my channel to help it get the attention it deserves. if you want to see more of Gio's work, you can follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/the_one_gio
Thanks for this wolfey
Him making a video about Rizzo? Such a unique thing.
Bout time!
Wolfey, thanks for sharing this story. It's always a pleasure.
That's a pretty cool collab, it's great it's getting shared, thank you for this!
Hope everyone enjoys watching this, it was a lot of work but I am very proud of how it came out.
great job on this
This is an excellent documentary, thanks for all the hard work!
That was so cool!!
Great job!!
Gorgeously done, congrats dude!
Yo, phenomenal story telling!
I think one of the best feel good moments of this is that his parents knew how much he loved Pokemon and competing so they funded his Hawaii trip. Some parents would never do that over a "Video game" competition especially back in 2010 where the stigma was "Gaming will never earn you a living" and at the time there was some truth to it. Now of course there's content creating, streaming and all that but there wasn't back then. Kudos to the supportive parents of Ray Rizzo.
This is a great comment. I wish I could've entered more tournaments in the game I used to play competitively back in the 2010s. It was hard to support it before streaming and twitch all came into existence and could make a real living off being entertaining playing at a high level. 😢
And then you got parents who don’t even want their kids living with them, let alone pay school or trips or anything 😔
@@Jcpygo yeah i can feel that. i had some pretty realistic dreams about gaming as a full time job but i never had the starting money or the support of my parents no matter if it was possible or not, but some people can't follow their dreams because of so many things going on in life. money is the singlehandedly biggest reason dreams fail and not being in the age to be allowed to make decisions. now i am 26, living in germany, working as something like a nurse (there a differences in different countries so lets stay with that word to not overcomplicate it) and i do sometimes feel empty or burned out. i always have been "god-tier" at calculating pretty much anything inside my head and that was a skill helping me in gaming. Nowadays i could not compare with most young gamers because of reflexes and gameexperience without being cut off gaming for a while. if you stop gaming for a while you probably never can come back being as good as being before from my experience. my mother was somewhat supportive but also always on the safe side after making a mistake to move out from poland to germany with her husband (she divorced later on) just because they got "a better paying job" which was worse paid and the company closed soon after moving. sadly moving out of poland was a point of no return because the job my mother had could only be reclaimed by her if she worked for 10 years minimum there but she only had 8 years and the diploma and everything she had was not worth anything in germany (at least that is what she got told and she only found out the opposite like 21 years later). i know this is not interesting for anybody, but i just felt like sharing. sometimes things are not meant to happen but if you get a chance no matter the risk if that is not at cost of your life you might aswell take it. if you reach for the stars you might be the one catching a shooting star.
@@ChampionCynthia493Keep your head up!
I think he is also very fortunate his parents could afford it. I know that, for many (myself included), even with super supportive parents the cost would just be impossible to afford.
After playing one Pokemon battle against Ray and getting utterly torn apart. I can confirm he's, like, pretty good at Pokemon
You got torn up by Ray Rizzler 😏
It’s a wild British man!
I can hear this comment. You type exactly how you speak.
Ray is a terrorist for introducing the world to bulky Thunderus
@@12jswilsonfr
Ray’s 2010 team having nicknames that are all Rush songs makes me respect him even more.
dude I KNOW that is so awesome
Ray's win in 2012 was literally the definition of the World Champ Difference. Dude just showed up with the big hitters and outplayed everyone.
For real. Wolfe's had a lot of World Champ Difference lines over the years, but I don't think anything he's said has hit quite as hard as "My strategy was 'I'm just going to play better than everybody,' and I ended up executing on that."
Bros him
when i hear pokemon world championship i think of cards, when i think of greatest pokemon player of all time, its the cardgame! why are these guys acting like this is pokemon when its just some videogame variation?
@@henkdachief that's cool lil bro. Keep going with the card game if that's what you enjoy. The video games came out first though, so the card game is the variation.
@@jeffreymcmillanThat was an execution. gg
insanely great watch, amazing job gio!
Agreed
25:29 I saw this clip and immediately cringed in cringe from the sheer number of Will-O-Wisp misses in that set
It’s thanks to wonderful people like you that the scene has grown so much!
Hey Aaron, please make a "reaction" video to this just talking about your experiences during these events, maybe your friendship with Ray and all that.
W
Ray talking about the prestige of the first competitive circuit and immediately cutting to Hulk Hogan got a solid chuckle out of me
"Just play better than everyone" - Ray Rizzo
The world champ difference
Yeah haha
Definitely a great video. The early era of VGC is not as well documented and the fact this provides a face and context behind a name that's been heard of but not always known. Special and inspiring and really great. Loved it
My respect for Wolfey has shot up to the stratosphere after this video. Uploading a video that is claiming your rival is the greatest pokemon player ever on your channel really highlights how much of a good sport you are.
Despite the fact that he brings his success stories of the past up quite a lot and is very confident in his abilities as a player, Wolfe seems pretty humble in recognizing others' skills and achievements. He's incredibly open in talking about his respect for players like Cybertron, Se Jun Park, PM7 and Pokemon Challenges in their respective areas and has commented in the past his belief that Ray is the best player to ever compete.
he once said something like "only one player had ever won this tournament without getting seeded into the second day so i really wanted to skip day one" without mentioning that the person who'd achieved that was himself...
That's the world champ difference, baby.
@@andy4anhe mentioned that that was him like 3 sentences later
@@lolozo214 no he had the courtesy to wait till the end of the video
On top of being an absolute legend and VGC icon, even just the name Ray Rizzo is such an awesome name, man. Not sure if its just me, but that name gives off serious main character energy lol
Ray Rizzo and Wolfe Glick. 2 GOATS with 2 incredible names
He had the Rizz before it was a thing lol
People, whether conscious of it or not, tend to live up to their names. It's quite fascinating.
Facts haha, Gamefreak/Nintendo should make it up to Rizzo by adding him as an elite four Champion in future games with one of his competitive teams he won with. (Never going to happen, but I can dream right LOL)
@@TheMadSnorlaxwhile they haven’t done that, black and white 2 had an online event where you could fight against “world champion ray rizzo” at the PWT where his exact team was used!
Wolfe: has the world champ difference Ray Rizzo: YOU HAVE ONLY 1/3 OF MY POWER
Fr
hahaha
Seeing Wolfey host a documentary about his old-rival highlighting him as one of if not the greatest player is the wholesome energy I respect and admire him for
editing: mb Didn’t realise Gio made it, but the sentiment still stands
I whole heartedly believe this is a prelude to wolfeys aforementioned "real life elite four"
please!!!
wolfe. ray. moxie. who's the 4th?
@@ace88bfwho's Moxie? And I mean Sejun Park could be one.
@@ace88bf id imagine he'd need 2 more cuz ray would be the champ and then he'd need 2 more for the elite four
Moxie Boosted. his name i think is Marcos @@The_Evening_Sun
Highly appreciate the video. Ray brought me into playing competitive Pokemon in 2012 and I actually ended up winning the german national championships in 2015 (fun fact: 5 out of the 6 pokemon were a core built by wolfey). Will never forget that time of my life :)
Sure thing bud, I'm also 3 times national champion 😂 get outta here man
@@PatrickArcatosomeone’s jealous
@@Abcdefg-rk8jk I just became 4th time national champion man
@@PatrickArcatoMy guy, just because you've done nothing with your life, doesn't mean that's true for everyone else.
@@BeyondTrash-xe1vs Why do you believe him and not me 🤣? I'm 5 times national champion now
Beautifully made documentary. Thank you to Wolfe, Costa, & everyone else who contributed to this art piece that the community (& Ray) deserve.
Death threats over a Dream Ball from a Pokemon who passed a hack check is mental, people are wack. That aside, this is a killer documentary! :D
Too bad Ray's competitive career ended that way, but understandable that he wanted to quit after.
@@redmasterx4477You mean, too bad theres crazy people on the internet.
@@JayceCH. Yeah
Yeah, sad way to go out but understandable. It makes even less sense since that type of 'cheating' doesn't even give you an advantage. In fact it's not even cheating since cheating is defined as 'a dishourable act in order to gain an advantage' but no advantage is gained from a dream ball.
the advantage came from the pokemon not being able to be "legit" from a dream ball making people assume it was hacked. If you could make pokemon from thin air it would save alot of time and effort allowing for more practice. Annoying that he got flack just because the parent pokemon had a dream ball so it passed it down. If it passed the hacks screening who cares imo. @@finnsnow2495
Good work Gio. I was lucky (Or rather unlucky depending how you look at it) enough to be matched against Ray before, I got absolutely curbstomped but he was a real gentleman, teaching me more about my own team after the battle. Stand up guy and a absolute demon at Pokemon, I never stood a chance.
Man this was an incredible watch… if this doesn’t inspire you to play and be the best you can be, I don’t know what will
The state the franchise is at the moment killed all my motivation or love for the franchise. I stopped playing since gen 7 and there's nothing so far worth for me to go back.
Hopefully Game Freak will wake up and produce a polished, incredible game someday, like was HGSS or BW2. I still look at competitive content from time to time but that's about it. I can't... Support the current state the games are in.
@@mathieul4303its really sad. I remember looking forward to play sun and moon and was very disappointed what a piece of crap it was. Never played any of the newer games from that on
This is an amazing project and genuinely feels like a cornerstone video for the world of competitive Pokémon as a whole. It takes the competitors seriously and provides a great look into the growth of the competitive scene not just from the players but from organizational changes also. Taking a look at it from Ray Rizzo’s perspective feels really fresh because he does have that stand out reputation as someone who seemed to take it seriously in a way that others at the same time weren’t. Doing research into both American and Japanese metagames and seeing that pay off in his repeated worlds victories. I’m looking forward to how other creators and groups might continue to open up the world of competitive Pokémon in these sorts of large scale documentaries and am so glad to see Wolfey really embrace and promote other creators projects like this. Wolfey’s continued respect and clear desire to see the the entire community of Pokémon grow is truly inspiring.
amazing to see so much footage from "way back when" - I know I'm not the only player who's interested in those earliest days where tournaments weren't widely streamed or recorded, so hearing Ray's accounts of playing and winning make for a fascinating time capsule. although Pokemon has always had wide casual appeal, I'm thankful to everyone who came before that we have the competitive scene we continue to enjoy today, and this documentary is a perfect example of the passion that got us here. great work Giovanni!
Excellent storytelling as always Gio, loved the intro to the lesser known part of VGC history through Ray's story and thanks to Wolfe for providing the platform a wider audience to see it.
Mad respect to Wolfe, Gio Costa and everyone in volved recently in this exercise of documenting the history of competitive Pokémon throughout the different videos shared in this channel. The one about Se Jun, the one detailing Wolfe's win in 2016, the one about Cybertron, this video, even the one about Nuzlockes. They have all done an excellent job at documenting the history of the game.
I love how Ray can honestly say that he is the greatest of all-time, but when he does, it doesn't sound conceited or self-important.
I mean, being the strongest gets boring after a while, so I don’t blame him
True. You’re right; It’s not really chest thumping or crowing. It’s data driven. Dude has three world titles. If there have only been…what 14 total world championships since 2009, he owns over 20% of them by himself. That would be like an NFL team having 12 Super Bowl titles.
@@kylescott9529 Exactly. He also has every right to crow, considering. But he doesn't.
I mean the stats prove it. Kinda hard to be the only 3 time winner and not say you're the best, especially when no one else has won 2 yet
@@tricatmeows The facts don't lie, sure. But some people with that kind of accolade develop an ego. Ray doesn't seem to have one.
What a fantastic video. Enthralled, start to finish. And what a competitor and person Ray is.
Inspiring piece. Loved this. Good stuff to Gio.
I actually didn't know a lot about Ray before this! Great job to Giovanni, this was really well put together, felt like a professional level documentary.
This is probably the best video on Competitive Pokémon ever created. Not only on its history, but on the true meaning of the game and what it means to those who love it. I´ve got chills running down my spine right now. Truly thank you Ray, Gio and Wolfey.
The part where his parents paid for his trip to Hawaii so he could compete was so moving
Wow having rich parents, so much talent 😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@songa4096 The truth hurts, is your only talent having rich parents as well?
@@PatrickArcatoWhat a sad existence you are
@@thatonerandomguy7937 Nope, I worked hard and achieved things on my own
@@PatrickArcatoHis parents paid for the trip, they didn't help him develop his skill
This video changed my entire perspective on competition as a whole. Beforehand I thought it was a ladder only one person can climb and everyone who falls short must do better or they're worth nothing, especially considering how often it's pushed by athletes that the only place you should be in a competition is the top. But after seeing Ray supporting and cheering on the other competitors with his friends like Aaron and Wolfey, and how he described how good it feels to support from the sidelines, I see now that competition is more like a podium everyone climbs at once. And when you can't climb any further, it's another reason to give the other climbers a helping hand to the next stage, and once someone finally reaches that top spot it's a celebration of the climb as a whole.
I used to be super intimidated by competition in fear of how I'll feel when I'm out of the race, but now I feel strangely excited about it now that I've realised it's not a total separation from having fun, it's just an extension of it.
Gio is just insanely talented. Such a great watch, loved going back through one of the best VG arcs unfold
The amount of false swipe gaming videos that say “Ray Rizzo used __________ to get first at (insert tournament)” says a lot.
Ray Rizzo the GOAT, I think what I most like about him is not only that he's good at the game, but also that he just seems like a really chill dude
Right on Wolfe. Thanks for being here and sharing your pokemon journey with us.
From someone that was always aware of competitive pokemon but never followed it closely, I LOVE this kind of content. I remember watching clips and battles from the world championships 10-15 years ago but I didn’t know who anyone was. Putting these stories to names and faces I saw a decade ago, is really cool.
So much respect to Wolfey for hosting an incredibly written and developed story by Gio. The two of you and Ray have made immeasurable strides for this community and in getting people the recognition they deserve. Amazing watch!!
This video needs a million views, really well done. Ray Rizzo and the 2012 worlds finals is what got me into VGC and im so thankful for that. I've been able to meet tons of lifelong friends and even compete in Worlds myself. Superb video.
This documentary is beautiful.
Ray and Wolfe are my favorite players of all time and hear the behind scenes of tournaments and Rays mentality is just incredible.
Thank you Giovanni Costa and Thank you Wolf. :)
Beautifully made. It's so wonderful to see his rise and experience. Honestly it's brutal to see the dream ball controversy. I remember hearing about it loosely as I watched videos back in high school. The aptly named team dream ball in the MBL was why I was subbed to wolfey back then. Now I'm glad that he gets to tell the story that it was a legit pokemon and doesn't devalue the player in any way.
Hey Wolfe I know it’s an old vid, but I couldn’t help but want to comment, I don’t know in which kind of headspace you’re in right now, but I know people all over the world can see just how much fun you have in this competitive scene. I just wanted to say, you’re amazing, not only are you disciplined and dedicated to vgc, but you inspire, at least me, to have that same level of passion in what I do every day.
I don’t know if this is the kind of support you need, but for every video I’ve watched of you, that’s motivated me, I think I owed at least a comment attempting the same
You’re amazing, you got this!
Watching this late as well but i want to say thank you so much for this comment, Wolfe is the reason i went to the north american pokemon national championships in new orleans this year (I am so surprised and grateful it was held in new orleans and will be again next year), It was one of the best days of my life with my friends and my girlfriend and the energy in the room while spectating VGC battles for hours and hours, so many incredible people who share the same passionate love for the game, and it was just beautiful to be able to express and engage with the pokemon community. It made me feel at home. I would have never known that competitive pokemon is such a welcoming, enthusiastic, respectful, & supportive community if it werent for seeing wolfe's videos about a year ago. I feel so connected now with friends i can finally share my love of the game with freely. It motivates and inspires me to pursue my goals & do what i love to do, like really putting myself out there with confidence. Its amazing how a community around a video game can exponentially create so much positivity and love. Sorry for long comment haha i get emotional about this
This was an amazing shot and produced documentary and I hope Giovanni Costa makes a lot more. Thank you for hosting this Wolfey, it was great
Thank you for hosting the video Wolfey never would've seen it otherwise!
pickles
Same lmao
what? He barely ever talks about the world champ title. So humble.
@@NopeNope-mh4tyListen if I won a world title I’d bring it up a lot too.
@@NopeNope-mh4ty yeah tataly
His autobio would be called "The World Champion Difference"
What a genuinely wholesome, star player story. He’s humble yet honest about being the best. This was a very nice watch.
this was a phenomenal video, one for the pokemon archives. ray rizzo will always be such a pokemon icon and these videos that carry on pokemon history and make sure it isn't forgotten do so much for the community - old and new. well done Gio
Ray rizzo and wolfey Glick are the reason why I started playing competitive Pokémon 9 years ago
What about the guy who won with Pachirisu???
Do u actually play comp or do u just grind ladder in ur basement?
@@name22329ywhy are you shaming people for playing What they like?
Thank you so much for highlighting and documenting one of the most important journeys in this games history. What a great watch.
For real! It cannot be understated how much watching Rizzo take what seemed like big risks at the time (bulky Thundurus) changed what standard team building would look like for lots of people moving forward. Tailoring EV spreads to incredible specificity is standard now, but back then it simply wasn't. Most of us were just maxing out a pokemon's obvious strengths and playing by heart. Doing damage calcs wasn't nearly as common outside of finding out what you could one-shot with a neutral nature vs with a +10% nature.
Sad to see that a great career like that ended over a Dream Ball... People are stupid sometimes.
Imagine the timeline where that Aegislash wasn't in a Dream Ball or it wouldn't have brought up these controversies.
But anyways a great documentary, I loved watching it! Thanks for bringing our attention to this, Wolfey.
World Champ Difference baby, amazing stuff, Incredibly high quality and amazing editing and story telling throughout huge shout outs to all involved!
This was incredible. I love the watching the history of Ray as well as how the VGC scene changed with him, especially with casters. Here's to you, Ray! Hope you continue to soar!
It's so cool to have this stuff documented honestly. Like, I was there, I don't *need* it for myself, but it'd be sad if it all slipped away into history without being recorded.
Watching Ray Rizzo dominate years in a row it really did feel like he was at a different level than most of us. It was also wild later watching Se Jun Park go from experimenting with stuff like Follow-Me Magmar to later winning with Follow-Me Pachirisu.
This should have over a million views by now. This is an amazing documentary. Extremely well put together and was a beautifully told story. Wolfe you've done it again
Thank you so much for sharing this, it was an amazing documentary!
The level of production, details, editing seem straight out of Hollywood, excellent work.
The announcer is so iconic for my childhood. Watching everyone's vods for worlds in the early days! What a throwback.
My favourite part of these documentaries has got to be seeing Nick again. What a legend. Rest in peace
Which Nick do you mean? Didnt know any of these guys had passed away 😰
Nick who
Can you elaborate please? I'm so curious
@@nikunjkhangwal he is talking about nick bailey, he was a competetive pokemon tcg player who unfortunately has passed away from brain cancer
@@kaen4299 Ah! May his soul rest in peace
Thanks for telling
This was EXTREMELY well edited and produced and WOW what a story. I'm a long time Pokemon fan, was always a Singles player, now I'm nosediving into VGC and this was a hell of a ride. Pokemon is AWESOME.
Amazing video, thank you all who contributed.
Thank you for making this video.
I've always looked up to Ray, he's been a phenomenal competitor and truly an all-time great!
As someone who has played this game a bunch and had a fair share of decent results, it's nice to see what the journey of a Champion is - and even if the game doesn't feel like it's for me right now, I can still be part of the community in a different way, it's part of the reason why I thought to start judging in events for now.
Maybe at some point, I'll get that winning result to prove that I was the best player that day - but even if I don't, the game and the community has definitely made me a better version of myself and I'm thankful for that.
To Pokémon!
Awesome video, thank you so much, for showing us his story and thanks to Ray for being such an amazing person
The content just gets better and better. The Ray Rizzo story is a great one.
I agree but Wolfey didnt make the video...
I love Ray, hes so humble yet confident!
Cant help it ive been team wolfey every since i seen the head turn when you won worlds!!
I know theres no teams or sides its all love! I study and admire you both greatly!!
Incredible production. It was great to hear Ray's story told on his own words, and I hope we see him compete again some time in the future.
I love how the GOAT debate repeats itself in VCG and TCG, which as well has just one player who has won worlds more than once (but not in a row) and now you have to compare that acomplishment aganist today's top players.
I also loved seeing that GameTrailers interview in the middle there. I remember watching that video when it came out just because I was a fan of GT without knowing anything about VGC. Its crazy to see Kyle Bosman in Wolfe's channel and I reccomend watching that full video, I'm pretty sure its still somewhere here in UA-cam.
No matter how you look at it, from any aspect of who is the very best, Ray is by far the best player of all time, probably for the foreseeable future, nobody will have better titles than him. Ever.
it magic the gathering, it felt like no one could ever top the domination achieved by hall of famer Kai budde in the early days of magic.
the average level of pro players has risen dramatically, that you'd think that he'd have the best record forever since it would be way harder to rack up those results
(for point of reference, if you can get into the top 8 players at a major tournament 3x, you'll probably be inducted into the hall of fame, and kai had 11x, and 7 of those were outright wins)
and yet, about 1 year after Kai "retired", paulo vitor damo da rosa started playing competitively and had matched and exceeded Kai by many metrics in about 7 years against that much tougher competition
all that is to say, i appreciate you leaving open the sliver of possibility that it could happen!
:)
Winning a World Championship is extremely difficult and I don´t see anyone wining a second trophy in the near future. Probably Ray will remain as the only player to have won in multiple instances. However, if we take into account every tournament that has ever been played, Wolfe takes a huge stand to claim to be the best. He's not the only player to have won every single level of competition, he even has the record for most Regional wins [x7] and most US Nationals [x3] (now NAIC). Both are outstanding players and both are the best in their regards.
The best Pokémon player of all time is CHAMPION LANCE. He has peaked 80 ladders between Pokémon Online, Pokémon Showdown!, and PokeBattle; achieved a GXE of 100% four times; and has achieved win-loss records of 48-0, 50-0, 55-0, 61-0, 203-21, and 209-17 in BDSP Ubers, DPP Anything Goes, Gen 9 National Dex AG, Global Showdown, USUM Anything Goes, and Gen 8 National Dex AG, respectively.
We could only call him the best of all time if he proves that he can compare with modern day pros. There were way less competitive players back then.
@@OutsideSV Is there any footage of this player in game? I'd like to see it.
this is such a good documentary, tysm wolfe and all the people who worked to make this so awesome❤
Ray, not everybody agrees if you're the best or not, but everyone agrees that hands-down, you are the most influential and groundbreaking pokemon player of all time.
Never watched a Pokemon Tournament in my life, but for some reason I got drawn by this video. Very well made, a wonderful documentary.
Hearin the story & how supported he was & how much the community means to him gets my eyes all misty super rude!!! Thank you so much for hostin this video. Thank you Gio for makin it & thank you Ray Rizzo for tellin us the story!!
Loving this content! Very cool biopic of one of the greats
I’m 31, work out have tats ect. Wouldn’t think twice I’m a huge Pokémon fan
Not too familiar with the comp scene in this style but this just blew me away. It’s truly amazing what Pokémon done for this life & am extremely happy for him
Like he said, back in our day, being a huge Pokémon fan kind of made u a nerd in HS. & stuff like that ain’t easy. So amazing to see someone even with being Scrutinized by his peers, he kept playing & loving Pokémon. He never gave up on it no matter what others said/though.
Amazing vid. Wish you all the best. & don’t ever stop loving Pokémon!
Really awesome video! I always wondered what Ray’s POV was after hearing Wolfey talk about him being his biggest rival and I’m glad Gio who made Cybertron’s video did another banger job once again! I hope to see Ray compete once more 🙏
Ray actually was playing last year and qualified for worlds but in Japan your invite is tied to your save file. His save file was in Japanese to stop other Japanese players from instantly knowing it was him but he wanted to switch his cart to English for worlds so he restarted his file which disqualified him from worlds. Huge bummer
Thanks for being a humble competitor and giving Ray the throne as greatest of all time. If he put this out itd feel weird but you propping up your friend to his rightful place is nice to see from champs
I'm 30 seconds in and already hooked. Wolfey...this kind of content -- although time-consuming -- would be amazing as a monthly series, looking at the best players in the world in this documentary style.
He didnt make this...
This is so beautiful to the community Wolfey. You're so blessed for doing this when you didn't have to.
Wolfed you gotta bring this guy back to the game to defend his throne
Wow, such an amazing story and an amazing video to do it justice wolfey!
Amazing job to all involved. Also that ending really makes me wanna see someone win a second championship so Ray makes a proper comeback.
Ray really said "Bring me some real competition" 😂😂
The quality of this video is just something else. Its not a youtube level anymore, it's closer to Netflix documetaries. Great job Giovanni!
smash doc-style videos are absolutely amazing. Wolfe is at a point where im sure that he could bring attention to some amazing stories in vgc.
Being immortalized in a game you love is such an amazing thing, congrats to Ray!
Ray is arguably a better player, but Wolfe easily has the biggest Pokémon SM following. SUPER solid of him to do this.
Would love to see more vids like this!
You two got me into watching competitive pokemon. Ray is the GOAT and it was incredible to see his reign as it played out.
As a 90’s kid who grew up playing red and blue after my older brother showed me the games, this hits home. It’s hard to explain to people who don’t understand how much Pokemon means to me and influences me as an adult. It changed a lot of peoples lives and Ray is proof of that. Great video!
I like that this is basically as much a documentary on the progression of competitive pokemon events as it is on ray rizzo
dude literally has "rizz" in his name what a king
Being put into the game must feel so good ,would love to see more of this sort of content talking about the meta of previous years and the stand out players
As a basketball fan, the way Ray talks about his own player development and play performance sounds like a more mentally-well-adjusted Michael Jordan. Even after winning worlds, he’s identifying areas of growth and how to improve. He doesn’t just want to win, he wants to be the best player he can be. And once he’s been recognized for that, he’s ready for the next thing.
The Generation 4 days of VGC... hearing Ray talking about that era really hit the nostalgia there. Amazing documentary!
never before seen: world champ similarity
Idk that I’ve ever watched a documentary like this all the way through. This was thoroughly awesome and super inspiring to me
i do believe Wolfe is the goat, but it's absolutely understandable to say Ray Rizzo is. He is borderline a God of competitive Pokemon.
Production quality is through the roof on this one. As someone who does a lot of editing, this is realllllly good. 10/10, Wolfe.
In all honesty when i saw Ray first i thought it was a younger version of Jan
Such an amazingly well edited video. Shout out to Ray, really is the best
He only won the world championships several times thanks to his rizz 🥶
Lmao
This dude is so humble. Love seeing one GOAT supporing another GOAT with his platform. Thanks for hosting this Wofley.
There's something so sweet to me about the line of "or is it whoever the best current day player is" and it shows him interacting with more recent years Wolfe
Great documentary-! However, the 2010 Worlds allowing for item changing between sets is wild to me
Love all the Rush reference nicknames for the 2010 entry.
Ray Rizzo rizzing up me.
In all seriousness, Ray is the GOAT
Amazing job guys, one of the best youtube documentaries around. One important thing that it is not mentioned in the video is that each time more and more plays get into the competitive scene (last Orlando tournament is a good example), making it harder to be consistent, not to say dominant. It'd be interesting to know if Ray would be as dominant as he was in this much more varied and prepared environment.
Ray is insane but i wonder how many people played back than and how many play now. Things change but 3 worlds still an insane accomplishment