Twitter falls in love with Simone Lim, the 7-year-old Singaporean Pokemon champion

Only at seven years of age, Simone Lim has not only emerged as champion in a recent international Pokemon tournament — the Singaporean has also won the hearts of audiences and netizens who watched the contest unfold. 

The 2020 Pokemon Oceania International Championships were held in Melbourne, Australia over the weekend, where Simone took part in her first major tournament. 

In the Junior division of the grand finals of Pokemon Sword and Shield, it was a showdown between the young Singaporean and Justin Miranda-Radbord, a boy twice her age who’s a tournament veteran with multiple wins under his belt. 

The odds weren’t in her favour — Simone had been whittled down to her last Pokemon (a Tyranitar) while Justin still had his Rhypherior and Dusclops. The girl, however, correctly predicted that Justin would use a move called Protect on Rhypherior, leaving her room to decimate Dusclops with a super-effective attack. 

Simone cleaned up quickly after commanding her Tyranitar to use its Superpower attack on Justin’s last Pokemon. The young girl emerged as the champion, scoring US$1,500 (S$2,097) and bragging rights. 

An INCREDIBLE read by Simone, leading to a victory and earning Simone the title of 2020 Oceania #PokemonVG Junior Champion! pic.twitter.com/liiJyEj09I

— Play Pokémon (@playpokemon) February 23, 2020

But it was her adorably shy post-victory demeanour that won her fans on social media. The level of cute went up a notch when she was interviewed as she nervously answered some questions while holding on to her Eevee plushie. 

Simone quickly gained fans, with most of the Twitterverse singing praises for her. 

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ilyas@asiaone.com