Pokémon cards have always generated a buzz since they first launched way back in 1996, but today they’re seemingly more popular than ever before. Stock sells out fast, more people are collecting them, and there’s a growing series of competitive trading card game (TCG) tournaments for players to sink their teeth into – with some top UK players taking part.
Ross Warren (aka Bug Catcher Ross, or BlossBlorren) was the highest-placing UK player at the 2024 World Championship in Hawaii. He also works at the Skyward Fire Games card shop in Lowestoft, where he’s helped foster a friendly community of card collectors and players. Dom Sacco sits down with Ross to discuss competing in top-tier Pokemon TCG tournaments, working at Skyward Fire Games and the craziness around the new Destined Rivals set.
When I first set foot into the Skyward Fire Games store in Lowestoft a few months ago, my son and I’s curiosity for Pokémon cards was about to go far beyond what I’d imagined.
There were endless goodies adorning the shelves, from battle sets to packs, binders, accessories, deck sleeves, plushies, board games and more, for Pokémon but for many other games too.
But it was the guy behind the counter, Ross Warren, who helped us take those initial steps on our TCG journey. We had first heard about Skyward Fire after attending the EUIC competitive event in London earlier this year, with staff recommending we find our local store.
We entered the shop hoping to pre-order some of the upcoming Destined Rivals set. But by the end of our visit, we had almost forgotten all about this, and were excited to start building our own decks and playing games against each other.
The reason? Ross. He had asked us if we wanted to collect or play. I looked down at my son, who said quietly to me with childish nervousness and wonder: “I’d like to play, too.”
I said I was leaning more towards collecting, but that we’d also be open to playing. Ross showed us the play area in the store, and mentioned the simple pre-made battle decks to start, or to borrow one of the store’s decks. He mentioned the Charizard/Pidgeot set being a good starting point, and recommended we enter their next weekly community tournament.
As someone with an esports background covering high-level League of Legends for years, the thought of jumping into a tournament without any prior experience or practice whatsoever made me dizzy with anxiety, and I made an excuse not to enter, citing our inexperience. But Ross said the other players would be very welcoming and helpful, and that the best way to learn was to just play.
So we did.
We dived in, head-first, convinced by Ross’ advice, and he was right. I somehow got lucky and won my first match with the Charizard deck, thanks to some early guidance from Ross and my first opponent. Then I lost. Then I lost again. And again. But we wanted more.
Chrissy, Ross’ partner, told my son and I which websites to check to learn the different meta decks and the latest cards. Websites like Limitless, JustinBasil and Pokemoncard.io.
My son and I researched online and in store, and made some tweaks to our Charizard deck. We started playing TCG Online, the digital version of the Pokémon card game, learning about the different strategies and cards.
We found ourselves going back to Skyward Fire again and again, to build our collection, trade and learn.
The Journey Together set came out around this time, and at launch, several customers gave bundles of free cards to my son. I felt bad, and offered some cards in our small collection in exchange. They politely declined, and told us to keep them, and to keep building.
We left feeling elated, and a connection to this local community was made. I realised then, this wasn’t Ross’ doing, or Chrissy’s, or any one person in particular, but a collective. From the players that inspired us at the EUIC in London, to the staff we spoke with there, the store assistants at Skyward Fire, other players online and in person, that create a whole. This community is clearly special.
“I couldn’t say enough wonderful things about the community that we have here and, just in general, the grand scheme of the community,” Ross told me in this interview a few months after our first visit.
“You can go anywhere and play Pokémon at a card game shop, and you’ll find a friend. It’s just so welcoming. And it’s just a really safe environment, a really fun environment.
“The main thing is it’s exciting. We all like Pokémon, we all like Pokémon cards. The fact that you have a place you can go to and enjoy it and facilitate it… it’s not somewhere where you just buy the packs, but it’s actually got everything available – that’s the best part about it really.
“When you guys first came down, it’s just a classic tale for me. I just watched your son getting thrown free cards [at him, by the community], it just happens for everyone.
“So, if anybody ever comes in and says, “oh, I want to get into Pokémon,” I’m like, “oh, you have to come down to the shop and come and try this out, because you’re going to get some freebies, no matter what.
“And when you see new people turn up and they’re always getting free cards thrown at them, the conversation flows so freely, like: “What’s your favourite Pokémon?”
“Oh, well, my favourite’s this.”
“I couldn’t say enough wonderful things about the community that we have here and, just in general, the grand scheme of the community. You can go anywhere and play Pokémon at a card game shop, and you’ll find a friend. It’s just so welcoming. And it’s just a really safe environment, a really fun environment. The main thing is it’s exciting.”
Ross Warren, Skyward Fire Games
Before I delve into Ross’ experiences on the biggest of stages at the World Championship, his answer triggers my curiosity: what is his favourite Pokémon – and card?
“My favorite Pokémon is Dunsparce,” he reveals. “Until Dudunsparce came out, everyone was like, “why the hell would you like Dunsparce?”
“And that’s why I like him, cos he’s really stupid – and I like silly Pokémon!
“As for my favourite card, I was speaking to a kid in the shop today about it actually,” he continues. “It’s a Relicanth from a very old Diamond and Pearl set. I couldn’t even tell you what set it’s from, but every time I look at the card, I just feel joy because it’s just a regular Diamond and Pearl card with a shiny Relicanth on it. They did a few Pokémon cards where they were just normal cards, but the Pokémon itself was shiny.
“So it’s pure and simple, nothing amazing. But I look at this card in my binder and think, “I really like this card”.
This helps to somewhat explain the craze around Pokémon cards. They are simple items that bring simple joy to collectors. Pulling a shiny, a rare, an art card or your favourite Pokémon from a pack – or perhaps an intriguing Pokémon you didn’t even know about before – provides a buzz.
Does the joy of collecting Pokémon cards transfer into competitive play?
“It’s one of those things where, if you’re buying the cards anyway, you might as well give yourself more options with what you’re buying,” Ross explains. “Like, if you open a booster pack and you go, “Oh, I’ve already got this one for my folder”. That’s it. You know. But if you pull it again, you might look at it and say, “oh, I needed this for my deck”!
“It’s not for everybody, but when you’ve got a community who you can trade with and play with all the time, it opens up to so much more when you give it a chance – and then you like it.”
Ross says that right now, the Pokémon competitive format is so open, with many decks and a lot of variety, with player creativity encouraged and rewarded.
It’s true. I played against an unusual Orthworm deck in a tournament in-store recently, put together by one of the store’s regular players, Charlie. At one point in our match, the card eventually had 16 steel energy cards attached to it, meaning my Pokémon would receive 320 damage whenever I attacked it.
“There are so many decks that you can play, and I think it’s really cool that it does two things: One, it means that your creativity can be rewarded,” Ross says. “If you want to play a card, you can. It may not be the best, but with so many cards being good right now, you can do that. And then the other part of it obviously being that it’s not stagnant.
“There are so many options, you are going to be playing against loads of different decks. And even if you do play against the same deck once or twice, it’s not like, “oh, I’m going to be playing against this every time”.
“There are times where only two or three decks are good. And then it will get better and it will get worse. We’re on a really big high right now, and I hope it stays that way. The Pokémon Company’s been doing really cool things.”
‘I wasn’t amazing, but I was determined’ – from starting out in the Pokémon TCG to becoming one of the UK’s top players at World Championships
Ross played at the Pokémon TCG World Championship in Hawaii last year, and was due to be interviewed by another publication about this. It didn’t end up happening, and this made me want to interview Ross even more, so I could share his story. While I’m excited to do so, Ross takes more of a modest approach.
“I play Pokémon. That’s it at the end of the day, it’s a children’s card game and I just happened to be okay at it, you know?” he says.
“I played Pokémon when the Black and White/early X and Y cards were coming out and I just played purely casually, and I did all the way until Sun and Moon, when this shop started up and I started working here.
“Then you learn kind of the same way everybody learns. You learn about Championship Points and tournaments that you can play, and you earn points to go to Worlds So, I just started playing in events and learning that I was fine at it. I wasn’t amazing. I was fine, but I was determined. When you start getting these points, you’re like, “you know, I could do that”.
“And I think a lot of it came from me watching the TV show as a kid, and hearing terms like ‘Pokémon master’. And it’s like, you know what, I could be like that. I could actually try and be a Pokemon master. Even if it’s only at my local shop, it’d be cool to be the top person. And I’ve always come from a competitive background in all my hobbies. So I had to try.”
Ross first qualified for Worlds in the 2019 season – for the Washington DC World Championships.
“That was before they changed the way you qualified. So I must admit, it wasn’t super hard,” Ross admits. “If you wanted to commit to qualifying, you would probably qualify, because you just kind of had to go and play relatively well.
“Then I gave it a rest after that, and when they announced that Worlds was going to be in Hawaii, I was like, “I’ve got to do one more. I want to go there.”
“So I qualified for the Hawaii World Championships in 2024, and I’ve had a few decent results. I’ve not had the best results that a professional Pokémon player would have had. I’ve won money before. I’ve got top 16s and lots of top 32s at tournaments. At the World Championships in Hawaii, I finished 49th, and at the European International Championships that happened a few months ago in London, I finished 56th. So, I know I’ve still got it, even though I’ve taken a break.”
Does he plan to play competitively more in the future?
“Not really, but I couldn’t help but go to [another tournament],” he responds. “You know, it was more a case of I finished Worlds and I wanted to leave it there. I had my journey. I was quite high in a lot of different leaderboards and I was very content being in the position I was. A lot of different websites [like PTLadder] would tell me I was quite highly ranked in the UK, and that was enough for me, because I was like, “okay cool, I kind of am like a Pokémon master of the UK now, I’ll take that!”
“At one point, I was sitting at rank one UK towards the end of the season, just after Worlds [2024]. I was like, “okay, I’m happy.”
“There’s a lot of different websites that rank you, and I don’t like talking about the numbers too much, because it’s not how I like to envision it, but it is nice to have some sort of math that tells you you’re good at the game.
“So yeah, after Hawaii, I said, “I’m going to leave it. I’m not going to play anymore. I’m just going to enjoy myself.”
“But when the 2025 EUIC in London came around, I thought, well, my friends are going to be there in London. I’ve just spent all this year travelling around the world, seeing all my friends and playing and competing, and I haven’t seen them for five months. So, I just went to see them and I played the event for the sake of playing, and it turned out nice. So I know how to play Pokémon. I wouldn’t say I’m the best, but I know what I’m doing, I suppose!”
Again, it seems that the community spirit is key: it’s providing joy, encouragement, and also motivation.
What about any favourite memories from competing?
“Making day two in Hawaii was probably my favourite feeling, because my goal was to get to Hawaii. I didn’t care about where we went after that. I was in Hawaii. I was planning to go fishing every single day!” Ross smiles.
“When I lost two rounds very early on, I was like, “ah, we’ll be out of the tournament in a couple more rounds, I’m just here to play some games. It’s just my locals for the weekend, but the beach is just there”.
“And then I kept winning, and kept winning, and then I’m winning [to reach] day two, and I’m still thinking I’ll probably lose. You know, this is Worlds, everyone’s really good. And when I won [to reach day two], it was kind of this wave of like, “oh my god, oh my god, I’m actually in the second day of a world championship.” It’s a really exciting premise.
“I had all my friends and my partner there, and I just broke down. Like, I know it’s card games, and a lot of people would say, ‘oh, don’t get so emotional’. But you work so hard to be good at it and it’s a passion, you know? I’m just a little kid inside who loves Pokémon. And when you do well, you’re like, ‘oh my God, I am a Pokémon master!’ Even if it’s for one day, I was a Pokémon master. It felt awesome. In that tournament, I was the highest placing UK player. So that moment was like, ‘yeah, okay. I’m number one. Oh my god.’ It’s exciting.”
Ross Warren, Skyward Fire Games
This emotional moment reminds me of esports – the highs, the lows, the rivalries, the upsets, the human side of competition that brings uncertainty, and excitement.
What was it that made Ross break down after progressing further at Worlds?
He pauses.
“I think the reason that I get so emotional about it sometimes is because I feel like I’m doing it for the child version of me that’s inside me,” Ross states.
“That kid loved Pokémon. I still do now, but that kid really loved Pokémon. So when he’s seeing adult me compete at a high level or just play the game and enjoy it and get all these cool cards… I wasn’t even allowed the cards when I was a kid, so having the cards now is just so exciting. And doing all of it, you know, it means a lot. And especially when we were there at Worlds, I think the main thing was my partner was watching my game to get into the second day.
“So, you know, you win and you look up and you see your partner’s face and they’re there supporting you, and you know your friends are behind you. It’s very hard to not get emotional at that point cos everybody around you, even the little tiny version of yourself inside, is just on cloud nine. So, it feels brilliant.”
Ross played a Raging Bolt deck in Hawaii, and like many other players, tweaked and tested this deck with a friend in the community.
“I’d done a lot of testing with my friend Drew, he joined the game as a senior and it was his last Worlds as a senior, and we’ve kind of teamed up and helped each other a lot,” Ross said.
“We tested it and the math worked out. We thought the deck was good and also I was just quite lazy – and the deck is not the hardest to play. You still have to be good to play it, right, but I knew at Worlds everyone’s really good. One mistake is going to cost you a lot. If I play a deck that’s a lot more straightforward and I can really just lock in, I can probably have a good chance. And even if not, at least I get to lay back and just play and not stress over it.
“So, it was a combination of a lot of things, but Raging Bolt was my cool, and it worked out nicely.
“I ended up finishing 46th in Hawaii. Top 64 kind of feels like my sweet zone. Anywhere between top 32 and top 64. I can normally get up the end. And now that the tournaments are getting quite big, it feels really good to see yourself in the top 64 in a 3,000 player tournament.
“So, as long as I keep getting there, I’ll be quite happy.”
Coping with huge demand for new Pokémon sets like Destined Rivals
When the Pokémon TCG Destined Rivals set was announced a couple of months ago, pre-order stock sold out immediately, leaving many fans disappointed about the idea of not being able to secure the cards they’d like to collect.
How does Skyward Fire Games approach this situation, and what does Ross think about it?
“Since I’m the guy behind the desk and I’m the one selling all the packs, I see everything,” he starts. “And the thing I care about the most, personally, is putting the cards in the hands of the people who do care about it. And when you are selling that stuff, you know who cares about it and you know who doesn’t. That makes it quite tough on the odd day when you get someone who really wants to buy a pack and you just don’t even have the packs.
“One word that I’ve used to describe it quite a lot right now is ‘predatory’. I wouldn’t say it’s like that all the time, but there’s so many people who want them, whether it’s for good or bad reasons. I think a lot of the time it is mainly good as well. The word scalper gets thrown around a lot. The thing is there are so many people who want it, and there isn’t enough [product to go around], and that’s the main thing.
“We’re quite fortunate to get as much as we have of this [latest set, Destined Rivals]. It’s less because we’re a Pokémon store and more that there is just more to go around this time. Because for us as a card game shop, we have to fight for the same amount of packs as everybody else.
“We’re not somewhere like Asda or WH Smiths, they get their own direct from the source and they can get a lot more. We have to fight with the same small businesses [like us], even chaps in their bedrooms who say they’re a business or have an online store. We have to buy from the same distributors as those.
“But we do get good allocations. My main take on it is everybody wants the cards because they’re fun. I want to give people those cards so they can have fun, and when I can’t, it does suck. It’s a little disheartening, But at the same time, all you can keep doing is harboring a community that helps each other. Everyone gets their chance to get it. You make sure that you’re not just selling everything to one person.”
“When you’re selling Pokémon cards, you know who cares about it and you know who doesn’t. That makes it quite tough on the odd day when you get someone who really wants to buy a pack and you just don’t have them. One word that I’ve used to describe [scalpers and bots buying a lot of product and up-selling them] right now is ‘predatory’. I wouldn’t say it’s like that all the time, but there are so many people who want the cards, whether it’s for good or bad reasons.”
Ross Warren, Skyward Fire Games
Ross continues: “We’ve got schemes in place to support our local customers and reward people who do keep coming to us, and want to play, to be able to get it first, or at least to be able to have the opportunity to get it. I think if everybody does that, even though it’s tough, most people should be able to get what they’re after. And that’s manageable, and I will continue to try and sell them the best I can, as long as I’m behind the desk.
“So fingers crossed, as more sets come out, and hopefully they make more Team Rocket cards as well, we can keep putting it into the hands of the people who want it. So it’s not too bad at the end of the day. Everyone’s opening packs and having fun.”
On more potential Team Rocket cards in the future, Ross has a theory.
“I think they’ll make more Team Rocket cards. That’s my conspiracy theory, that they’ll do a special set that’ll have all the different trainers they’ve done, and new Pokémon for every single one,” he says. “We’ve got N’s Reshiram, but we don’t have N’s Zekrom. So, I reckon there’ll be a different card for every trainer at some point.
“And next year’s the 30th anniversary of Pokémon, so something’s going to happen. Something big.”
The Sky’s the limit: A brief history of Skyward Fire Games and who’s behind it
Skyward Fire Games started up like a good games business can – a few friends getting together to create something bigger than themselves.
“Essentially, when the shop started up, there were four of us who started it all together, and two of them put the main lump sum of money in, Luke and Simon, so they’re the two directors of the business,” Ross explains. “And then all four of us kind of started it up with different expertises in different games and different elements of hobbies. So, I kind of came along as Mr. Pokémon, but I also did a lot on the role playing game side.
“Originally, my now boss was a player in my Dungeons and Dragons game. So, because I had an experience in Dungeons and Dragons, he wanted me to do that as well. So, they do work the shop floor sometimes, but I guess part of the luxuries of being the bosses is that they don’t have to. And I’m the one down there with the rabble!”
I had assumed Ross owned the place, but he tells me that’s not the case.
“As boring as it probably sounds, all I am in this friendly local game store is a sales assistant,” he says. “I guess for lack of a better term, I’m front of house. I’m always the person on the shop floor, you know, managing the events, communities, and just selling stuff. It’s a glorified retail job at the end of the day.”
Ross says he’s ’just a sales assistant’ and that he ‘plays a children’s card game and happens to be okay at it’ – but don’t let his humble words fool you.
As someone who has visited the store quite a bit over the past couple of months, I can see how he takes the time to help customers, offer advice, deck strategies, engage in conversation and just make the experience magic for the kids (and us big kids) who are so enthusiastic about collecting cards and building decks.
Sales assistants like Ross are a credit to shops like Skyward Fire, and game communities like Pokemon’s, and if he isn’t going to big himself up, then I bloody well am!
At the same time, I of course want to pass credit to the other staff at Skyward Fire, I just haven’t bugged them as much as I have Ross, so don’t know them as well yet and can’t really pass judgement. But it’s clear they have a togetherness and care that filters down to the community.
The shop was sadly broken into a couple of years ago, with a lot of expensive Pokémon cards stolen – but they didn’t let it faze them.
“It definitely sucked, but you know, it’s a thing. All you can do is take it on the chin. And it does suck that people do it, but also the people who steal Pokémon cards, and pardon me if this is a bit too on the nose, are idiots,” Ross says.
“Specifically what they took were graded Pokémon cards with serialised numbers on them. You try and sell that card online, we know what card it is, it’s got the serialised number. It was just some guy who really needed the money and clearly didn’t really know what he was stealing.
“Thankfully you don’t hear too much about that happening in card shops, but when it does happen, I kind of feel more bad for the people who are doing it, because they must be pretty desperate to do that. So it’s one of those things where you feel bad for those people, and it does suck, but at the end of the day, we carry on.”
Lastly, to end the interview, Ross takes the moment to give praise to Skyward Fire Games.
He beams:
“We all came here as mates to run this, but I just think the best part about this shop is what we’ve made. It’s wicked. Like, we’ve got such a lovely community for all of our card games. We’ve got a really good play space. I want to just emphasise how awesome this place is, and everyone should just get stuck in and come check it out. Even if it’s for just coming in and buying a pack of cards.”
Ross Warren, Skyward Fire Games
“I’m glad that in a place like Lowestoft, where it is really hard to have something like that, because we’ve only got one side of the UK to pull people from. The other side’s just water – and we ain’t going to get the fish!
“We’ve got such a good amount of people and everyone wants to come here and wants to play and have fun. It’s really cool and I can’t thank all my local players and you and everyone else enough for getting involved, and you for giving us this opportunity to have this [interview] as well, because it’s all just mega.”
However, as we all know, retail work can be hard, extremely tiring – and difficult to keep everyone happy. So how does Ross deal with that?
“We’ll have days where you have those down days and you think why are we doing it, but you look in the play area and you see people laughing and playing games and having fun, and that’s entirely what it’s there for.
“The bottom line for me is just seeing the players enjoy themselves. I like being behind the desk running it. I like being in the tournaments playing it and I like seeing people like you guys just getting stuck in. So I just hope you keep enjoying it.”
With communities like this, how could we not?
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
