Tristin Greenway might look like an average 10-year-old, but he’s a rising star in the world of Pokémon playing card tournaments.

The Trinity Day School fifth-grader is ranked as the No. 1 junior division player in Georgia, and he ranks 18th in the nation out of 1,700 players in the junior division for players age 10 and younger. On Saturday, he will compete in the state championship Pokémon tournament at The Gaming Pit in Duluth.

Tristin, who lives in Flowery Branch, began competing in local Pokémon tournaments just one year ago in Duluth. In December, he took first place in junior division competitions in Duluth, Lawrenceville, Douglasville, Kennesaw and Marietta. He also placed among the top three for four other local competitions.

"I saw Pokémon on television and I thought, ‘Why not play that?’" Tristin said.

He then picked up a deck of 60 Pokémon cards and began practicing at Tower Games and Comics in Lawrenceville on the weekends.

After learning the strategies of the Japanese card game, Tristin began traveling to competitions around Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina with his father, David Greenway.

Greenway said division winners can receive between $1,500 and $7,500 in scholarship prizes from regional competitions up to the world championship competition that will be held in August in Orlando, Fla.

Tristin competed in his first state championship last year in Duluth but didn’t make it to the finals. The fifth-grader wasn’t discouraged, however, and practiced Pokémon card playing enough this past year to earn a first-place junior division title securing him a trip to the Georgia state championship game Saturday.

Tristin said he attends as many Pokémon competitions as possible to gain insight into players’ strategies. He added that no matter how many tournaments he’s played, he still gets a little anxious when facing an opponent.

"You really get to figure out strategies when you watch other people play," Tristin said. "But if you get up against a player you’ve never played before, you get really nervous. It feels great when you win, though, because when you’re a junior and playing, you’re just starting out and you’re having a lot of fun."

Greenway said he encourages Tristin’s interest in Pokémon tournaments because the game is not only fun, but educational, too.

"They can create friendships and there’s a lot of math skills to be gained in Pokémon because there’s a lot of multiplying and adding involved in the game," Greenway said. "There’s also the strategy of building your decks, and the sportsmanship in it is really great."