The Pokemon Sword and Shield Oceania International Championships has given us the best esports player of all time: 7-year-old Simone Lim.
Lim, who hails from Singapore, was up against a trainer twice her age in the Junior Championships at Melbourne, Australia this weekend. She's relatively new on the competitive Pokemon scene (this was her first competitive season and she was the seventh seed heading into the finals), so her challenger Justin Miranda-Radbord, a multi-time International Championships winner, was the clear favorite.
But Lim believed she was the very best, and proved it, reading Miranda-Radbord like a book and prevailing, despite being down one Pokemon to his two. According to Lim, she had a feeling her opponent would use Protect on his Rhypherior, so she knocked out his Dusclops with Tyranitar's Crunch, then went after Rhypherior with Superpower and won the whole thing. The intuition and game sense shown by a 7-year-old is truly incredible - it's the stuff of legends. You can watch the full 30 minute match below:
Lim's post-win interview is so pure and lovely it's almost unreal. She stands on stage, barely reaching her interviewer's waist, clutching an Eevee plushie and thanking her friends, family, and coach. It's important to note this win was called "the biggest upset ever seen in Juniors history," so in case you were thinking of sleeping on her - don't. Equally important are Lim's shoes, which are perhaps the flyest child kicks I've ever seen (do they make them in adult sizes?).
In the words of Simone Lim when asked if there's anything else she'd like to say about her monumental win: "no?" What else is there to say, am I right?
