The real NAIC winner was Pokemon’s social media team

If you were trying to keep up with Pokemon’s North American International Championships this weekend — often called NAIC – you no doubt caught a slew of exciting battles, wild TCG tactics, and some surprising upsets in the frantic Pokemon Go matches.

But for some fans, the most memorable part of the weekend was the barrage of amazing posts, and instant memes, coming from Pokemon’s X account dedicated to competitive play, called Play Pokemon. While the main Pokemon accounts remain reserved, Play Pokemon went off the rails in the best way.

Some of the highlights of the weekend include a post poking fun at previous VGC World Champion Wolfey Glick, and their notorious love/hate relationship with the powerful Pocket Monster Incineroar. Wolfey himself replied to the post, simply commenting, “????????????”

Another one of the most popular posts alluded to the dominance of the Pokemon Munkidori in the TCG league, with the Legendary from Scarlet & Violet’s The Teal Mask DLC somehow making its way into seven out of the eight top decks used over the entire weekend, alongside the stalwart Gardevoir.

Finally, while there were plenty of other notable posts, even the Play Pokemon account themselves acknowledged the fun they were having with one image, showing two folders labeled “memes if Incineroar wins” and “memes if Incineroar loses.”

Across the bevy of light-hearted posts over the weekend, hundreds of Pokemon fans shared their appreciation for the people behind the account, as well as how the memes kept fans entertained alongside the usual NAIC battles.

One person commented, “I need to meet the person that runs this account” before another added, “Good tweet social media guy.” There were also countless requests to give the social media team a raise, and generally celebrate the effort put in by the team.

“Whoever has the keys to this account….should keep them” posted one user, while others chipped in with comments such as “THIS IS SO FUNNY”, “who is even running this account I want to shake their hand”, and “whoever runs this account needs either a raise or an intervention.”

Considering the often stoic and reserved communication coming out of The Pokemon Company, it’s refreshing to see the staff at Pokemon having fun alongside the fans, especially when it’s celebrating huge events like NAIC.