Last night, a new Pokémon World Champion was crowned. After over a decade of competing, Takuma Yamazaki took home the grand prize for Pokémon Champions’ first year on the World Championships main stage, and if that wasn’t inspiring enough, Yamazaki’s team also made its mark on Pokémon history, dethroning one of Champions’ most dominant menaces and giving one of the original 151 monsters its first Championship title.
Charizard and Dragonite are the two OG dragons in Pokémon. Though Charizard didn’t actually get the dragon typing until its X-form Mega Evolution in X and Y, that winged lizard is a dragon in everything but. The dragon type was a rarity in the first generation, with the Dragonite family being the only one that actually had it until Gold and Silver introduced Kingdra. Even then, it was still so limited that Clair, the dragon-type gym leader, only had three Dragonairs and a Kingdra as her ace. So for a few years, Dragonite and Charizard were the only real “dragons” in the roster.
Since Champions launched back in April, Charizard has been the ruler of the roost. Its Y-form Mega Evolution has been an oppressive, dominant force in competitive play. Its Drought ability brings down heavy sunlight on the battlefield, increasing its fire-type attack power, weakening incoming water moves that could one-shot it, and allowing it to cast the grass-type Solar Beam without having to charge it up for a turn, letting it easily wipe out plenty of water and rock-type monsters that could threaten it. A well-placed Rock Slide can potentially knock it out, but you gotta hope you have a Pokémon that can hit hard enough and fast enough to take it out. Going into Worlds, it seemed pretty much an inevitability that Charizard would be on the tournament’s winning team, and Yamazaki’s opponent, Hiroshi Onishi, had one leading his crew on the final stage. And yet, in a close match, Yamazaki and Dragonite managed to pull forward, winning both of them their first World Championship win.
Dragonite’s Mega Evolution, which was widely mocked for its goofy, head-wing-having appearance, debuted in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, and many believed it wouldn’t thrive competitively. Now that it’s led the World Championship-winning team, it’s got longtime believers popping off, and doubters falling in line.
dragonite is 30 years old and just won worlds for the first time… you've still got time, unc
— Logan (@LoganMcSilent) August 31, 2026
Be Mega Dragonite:
– Get revealed and hated on for being called nostalgia bait
– Get added to champions
– ability revealed
– get called bad for said ability
– Worlds comes and run the entire bracket
– Beat the number 1 picked Pokemon on the ladder pic.twitter.com/JAHvO3aezN— Just Me Rc (@JustmeRclol) August 31, 2026
MEGA DRAGONITE WORLD CHAMPION AND NOTHING FOR CHARIZARD pic.twitter.com/qNLik04vcf
— ✮ viinayah ✮ (@aliyensuperstar) August 31, 2026
Dragonite went from being one of the single most requested Mega Evolutions to a World Champion right after it happened. pic.twitter.com/rwL747opYj
— PLDH (@PLDHnet) August 31, 2026
Dragonite JUST won its first worlds and in the first trailer for the next Pokemon Champions season they show it get one shot!
Like DAMN bro, let my boy celebrate! pic.twitter.com/FPrq0YVp6j
— ChocolateKieran (@ChocolateKieran) August 31, 2026
I would like an apology from all the ppl that said mega dragonite was mid BECAUSE ITS A WORLD CHAMP NOW
— Prncessdiana👑 (@prncessdianaaa) August 31, 2026
DRAGONITE WORLD CHAMPION pic.twitter.com/Kp63NxVinr
— Yisuno ⚝ | SKARM BELIEVER (@TheYisusOne) August 31, 2026
So this happened. pic.twitter.com/3qiASYYzlu
— Alchem1st (@Alchem1stX) August 31, 2026
Though Charizard will likely remain dominant, ranking number two in the most-used Pokémon for the tournament behind Kingambit, seeing it reach the Masters final match and fail to reach that coveted first-place win is pretty incredible. A lot of competitive Pokémon players would have you believe that you need to adhere to a specific meta and play with only a select group of monsters, and you’ll notice that even in the final match, four out of six Pokémon were shared between Yamazaki and Onishi. It can make playing the game a bit one-note, and it’s kind of sad to see so many people stick to the same handful of monsters when I play online. But this is a reminder that your favorite can help you overcome even the most entrenched of meta mainstays. Congrats to Yamazaki and Dragonite for subverting all expectations and taking home the win.
