On Aug. 25, his wish became reality when he was crowned the Pokken world champion in the masters division becoming the first American to win the title in a tournament sponsored by the Pokemon Company International, Inc.

“It feels amazing,” Waller, 17, said about the victory. “It feels good I could accomplish that dream I had.”

Pokken is a fighting game similar to Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, but is an off-shoot of the Pokemon series.

Waller had previously won the Pokken North America International Championship in July in Columbus, Ohio, despite being the second youngest of the more than 100 contenders.

His trusty fighter, Sceptile, a reptilian-like creature with a V-shaped forehead, ran into some challenges against the others, but Waller was able to prevail.

During the world championship in Nashville, Tenn., Waller — going by the screen name ThanksAlot — competed against the best Pokken fighters from around the globe, including gamers from Germany, Australia and Japan.

In the final round, he faced a Japanese player in his mid-20s known by the screen name TARUTARO who used a fighter called Gendar, a round, purple ball-like monster with a huge mouth and spikes on its head.

The Pokemon Company website, in its coverage of the event, said “there's no question that TARUTARO is the best Gengar player in the world.”

“He beat me five times in a row,” Waller said.

But that was before the final round, and TARUTARO was coming out of the loser’s bracket, meaning he had to win more in order to advance. Waller only needed to win the last three games. According to the Pokemon Company’s coverage on its website, Waller “was nearly flawless down the stretch, and managed to eke past TARUTARO in an absolutely breathtaking match.”

“I think he was tired out and I had got used to his playing style,” he said.

The match was played live before thousands of spectators and the company’s YouTube channel The video that features ThanksAlot’s victory had more than 236,000 views as of Thursday.

“I was nervous toward the end of the tournament,” Waller said. “There was a huge sense of relief when I finally won.”

He said he met a player from Australia who spoke Japanese and was able to translate.

Waller said the players from around the world were “all super nice” as they took photos together, offered snacks to each other and played friendly rounds of Pokken after the tournament.

Heading back to class at Oak Forest High School Waller became something of a celebrity.

“Some people call me the Pokemon master at school,” he said. “I thought that was cool.”

Waller said he plans to save his $6,000 prize money for college.

He said he hasn’t decided which college he would like to attend but he wants to develop and design video games.

Waller said he hopes his accomplishments in Pokken will show engineering college recruiters that he’s serious.

“They’ll see my determination and that I try my best and succeed,” he said. “I feel like that’ll help me out.”

Waller’s dad, Rob Waller, of Oak Forest, hopes Jacob’s success will translate into scholarships.

“I’m real proud of him,” Rob Waller said. “I’d like to see how much further he can go with it.”

Jacob Waller said he’ll definitely try to defend his title next year.

But before then he has eyes set on a non-Pokemon sponsored Pokken tournament called Destiny which is scheduled for November in New Jersey.