Masters include participants who were born before 1994 or are older than 16.

Broker said he attends 20 to 30 tournaments each season because his father is a judge at the competitions.

“It’s fun, I’ve got a lot of good friends here and it keeps me out of trouble,” he said.

Journalism junior Tracy Key, a master competitor, said people underestimate the mental challenge involved in the game.

“I really enjoy the strategy that’s involved and the competition,” she said. “Most people think it’s a children’s game, but it’s actually really complicated — there’s a lot of planning and strategy and deck building and math involved.”

Derek Farber, the premier tournament organizer for the Pokémon Company International, said it’s more than a competition.

Although it is possible to win college scholarships and other prizes at tournaments, there are other benefits. Farber said he has seen children memorize an entire 60 card deck of cards so they can play. The game “pushes them to want to read and do math,” he said.

There also is a strong social aspect to the tournaments, which start in September and end with the World Championships in Hawaii in August.

“They’ll still be people playing even though they have absolutely no chance of winning a thing and they have fun, they enjoy it, they make good friends,” Farber said.