The opening trailer to start off the Pokemon World Championships 2022 showcases the iconic moment of how Pachirisu took the internet by storm by immortalising the cute electric squirrel in a CG Statue form.
In the opening trailer, it featured CG Statues of 4 Pokemon which are Salamance, Garchomp, Tyranitar and of course, Pachirisu. This was a homage to the iconic match where player Sejun Park won the 2014 Pokemon World Championships Masters Division for Pokemon VGC during the Grand Finals against player Jeudy Azzarelli.
To newcomers, this may seem like an odd inclusion have pachirisu in the opening trailer for the Pokemon World Championships 2022, so why is this particular match iconic in the Pokemon community?
Pokemon World Championship 2014
Back in 2014 where the latest format of Pokemon VGC took place in Pokemon X & Y, the meta game had heavily revolved around either pseduo legendaries such as Garchomp and Salamance or other powerful attackers such as Gyrados or Gardevoir. So with Sejun Park bringing in a Pachirisu into the masters division was already an unprecedented thing let alone bringing it to the Grand Finals.
The iconic moment that lived down in VGC history is how Sejun Park had used the move Follow Me which redirects all of the enemy’s attack to the user. In the 2nd match against Jeudy Azzarelli with his Salamence and Tyranitar on the field, Sejun Park’s Pachirisu was able to tank a strong Draco Meteor for its partner Garchomp and lived with a sliver of HP left.
Being able to protect Garchomp meant that Garchomp could turn around the fight by landing a Rock Slide which successfully knock out both Salamence and Tyranitar at the same time which secured Sejun Park the victory.