Raymond "Ray" Rizzo is the two-time Pokémon

Pokémon

is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...

 Video Game World Champion. He grew up in the Marlton

Marlton, New Jersey

Marlton is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Evesham Township in Burlington County, New Jersey. As of the United States 2000 Census, the population of Marlton was 10,260.-History:...

 section of Evesham Township, New Jersey

Evesham Township, New Jersey

Evesham Township is a township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. The township population was 45,538 as of the 2010 United States Census....

 in the United States and at a young age took a liking to Pokémon. He attended Cherokee High School

Cherokee High School (New Jersey)

Cherokee High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school, one of four high schools of the Lenape Regional High School District in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. The communities in the district are Evesham Township, Medford Lakes, Medford Township, Mount Laurel Township,...

 as a teenager. He now lives in Des Moines

Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 where he attends college at Drake University

Drake University

Drake University is a private, co-educational university located in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The institution offers a number of undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and pharmacy. Today, Drake is one of the twenty-five oldest law schools in the country....

.

Pokémon career

Ray won his first World Championship in Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 in 2010 after defeating Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's Yasuki Tochigi in the finals. He followed that up by winning the 2011 World Championships in San Diego, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

after defeating Matteo Gini in the finals. He is the first American to win the Pokémon Video Game World Championship and the only participant in the event's history to win twice.