The Pokémon World Championships is an invite-only

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

event organized by

Play! Pokémon Play! Pokémon, formerly known as Pokémon Organized Play (often abbreviated as POP), is a division of The Pokémon Company International established in 2003 and known for hosting the Pokémon World Championships, a competitive eSports tournament ...

. It is held annually in August and features games from the ''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

'' series such as the ''Pokémon'' video games, ''

Pokémon Trading Card Game The , abbreviated as ''PTCG'' or ''Pokémon TCG'', is a collectible card game developed by Creatures Inc. based on the ''Pokémon'' franchise. It was first published in October 1996 by Media Factory in Japan. In the US, it was first published by ...

'', ''

Pokémon Go ''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game, part of the ''Pokémon'' franchise, developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android ...

Pokémon Unite ''Pokémon Unite'' (stylized as ''Pokémon UNITE'') is a free-to-play, multiplayer online battle arena video game developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by The Pokémon Company for Android and iOS and by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch ...

'' and ''

Pokkén Tournament is a fighting video game developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game combines gameplay elements from Bandai Namco's ''Tekken'' series and other fighting games, such as 3D and 2D movement, with characters from the ''Pokémon'' franchise. I ...

'' (until its 2022 edition). Players earn invitations to the World Championships based on their performance in qualifiers and other tournaments held throughout the season and compete for scholarship money, prizes and the title of World Champion. With the exception of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, invitations to the World Championships are administered by the

program.

History

The Pokémon World Championships first began with the

(TCG) in 2004, which was around the time that the franchise was regaining its popularity. In 2009, Play! Pokémon began to organize competitive tournaments for the ''Pokémon'' video game series alongside the TCG, which is collectively known as the Video Game Championships (VGC). Like the TCG Championships, players compete with other players in their own age divisions (i.e. Junior, Senior and Masters) in different Premier Tournaments, and the season culminates with the best players earning an invitation to play the Pokémon World Championships in August. The tournaments in VGC are played with a different game each year, mainly, the latest ''Pokémon'' game from its main series. In 2016, Play! Pokémon announced that ''

'' would have its own championship series and would be played at the Pokémon World Championships. From 2018 onward, ''Pokkén Tournament DX'' was used to support its qualifiers and competitions. In 2019, it was announced that the 2020 Pokémon World Championships would take place in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, United Kingdom, the first time in which the World Championships would be held in a location outside of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. This is likely due to the setting of ''

Pokémon Sword and Shield and are 2019 role-playing video games developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch console. They are the first installments in the eighth generation of the Pokémon (video game series), '' ...

'', which takes place in a region inspired by the United Kingdom known as Galar, and it is the set of games that would be played by the video game division of the World Championships. On March 31, 2020,

cancelled the 2020 Pokémon World Championships and suspended its 2020 season due to health concerns over the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. This came after earlier announcements in March which saw the cancellation of the 2020 European International Championships and part of its season between March and June 2020. On February 9, 2021, it was announced that the 2021 Pokémon World Championships would postponed till 2022 for the same reasons. In early January 2022, it was confirmed that ''

'' would be played at the World Championships, making it the newest

MOBA Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that i ...

game to have an official esports tournament, after ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

''. In May 2022, after six seasons, Play! Pokémon announced the end of the ''Pokkén Tournament'' Championship Series after the 2022 season. At the 2022 edition of the event, it was announced that the 2023 World Championships will take place in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

, Japan (the basis of Vermilion City in the Kanto region). When the 2023 event takes place, it will be the first time that the World Championships visits the franchise's country of origin, as well as the first World Championships to take place in Asia.

World Championship locations

Qualification

The qualifying process for the Pokémon World Championships varies each year and is dependent on a player's age division and the country in which they are located in. Players may also qualify to play on different days of the World Championships based on their performance in their respective qualifying programs; the best performing players will immediately advance to the second day of the World Championships playoffs (i.e. "Day 2") instead of playing through the first day (i.e. "Day 1").

Play! Pokémon program

Players located in a country with a

program (i.e. in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

and

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

) compete in a regular schedule of tournaments for Championship Points and receive invitations when they meet a predetermined threshold of points at the end of the season. In 2015, the Play! Pokémon program expanded to include countries from the continents of

and

(except Japan and South Korea). However, on June 10, 2020, it was announced that

would no longer be part of the Play! Pokémon program and will have its own qualifying system towards the Pokémon World Championships.

Pokémon GO Championship Series

Pokémon announced in October 2021 that

Pokémon GO ''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game, part of the ''Pokémon'' franchise, developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android ...

would be added during the 2022 World Championships, along with it a qualification system through the Pokémon GO Championship Series, where the top two head to the World Championships. Any trainer who reached Legend rank during Season 9 of the Pokémon GO Battle League would qualify for the GO Championship Series.

Pokémon Unite Championship Series

In January 2022, ''

'' producer Masaaki Hoshino confirmed that the game would be part of the roster of games to be played at the World Championships in London. For the first season of the Pokémon Unite Championship Series, there will be eleven supported Regional Zones: North America, Central America, South America-East, South America-West Europe, Oceania, Japan, South Korea, India, and the Asia-Pacific region. These events will only be open to players aged 16 or 18, depending on the region or country they are from. In each month, a series of tournaments in each Regional Zone will be held. Like other games in the World Championships, players will earn Championship Points based on their finishing position in that month's tournament. The CP can be retained by players to allow for team changes as the season carries on. The team with the most points qualifies for the Regional Championships, and the top teams from the Regional Championships qualify for a chance to compete at the Pokémon World Championships.

Japan & South Korea

Tournaments in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

are organised independently from Play! Pokémon, and as such, players from these countries have a different system of qualification. In Japan, players compete for an invite to the ''Japan National Championships'' by playing in major qualifier or online tournaments held throughout the season. The best performing players of the ''Japan National Championships'' will then be selected to represent Japan in the Pokémon World Championships. In South Korea, the style of qualification for the World Championships changes frequently. For example, in 2015, players would compete in the ''Korean National Championships'' and earn a World Championships invitation based on their standing in the tournament. However, in 2019, players would compete in tournaments organized by the ''Korean League'' and earn an invite based on the number of points they had accumulated by the end of the season.

Other

There are other less common methods of qualifying for the World Championships which include finishing at least top 4 or better in the prior year's World Championships or by participating in a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

known as the Last Chance Qualifier at the location of the World Championships itself.

List of World Champions

Trading Card Game (TCG)

Video Game Championships (VGC)

Pokémon Go

Pokémon Unite

Retired games

Pokkén Tournament & Pokkén Tournament DX

2014 World Championships

The 2014 Pokémon World Championships was the sixth annual edition of the championships. The event took place in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, alongside the 2014

World Championship who were in their eleventh edition. The tournament was streamed via

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

for the first time in the tournament history and reached a viewership of more than 800,000. The defending Video Game champions were Arash Ommati from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

(Masters Division), Hayden McTavish from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

(Senior Division), and Brendan Zheng from the

(Junior Division). The opening ceremony of the event was attended by

Junichi Masuda is a Japanese video game composer, director, designer, producer, singer, programmer and trombonist, best known for his work in the '' Pokémon'' franchise. He was a member of Game Freak where he was an employee and executive at the company si ...

, the video game designer for the ''Pokémon'' franchise and a member of the board of directors of

Game Freak is a Japanese video game developer, best known as the primary developer of the mainline ''Pokémon'' series of role-playing video games published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. History Predating the video game company, ''Game Freak'' ...

. The finals match of the Masters division is best known and remembered within the Pokémon community for Se Jun Park's victory with the inclusion and use of a Pachirisu on his team.

2014 qualification

The qualification process for the 2014 Pokémon World Championships was primarily based on Championship Points accumulated by players from official Play! Pokémon tournaments such as Premier Challenges, Regional Championships and National Championships. In addition, the top 4 players of the 2013 Pokémon World Championships in each division, and the top 4 players of a tournament known as the 'Last Chance Qualifier' will also receive an invitation to play in the World Championships. The invitations for the Masters Division of the tournament were distributed in the following manner: * Top 4 players from the 2013 Pokémon World Championships, * Top 32 players from

with the most Championship Points, * Top 16 players from

with the most Championship Points, * Top 4 players from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

with the most Championship Points, * Top 2 players from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

with the most Championship Points, * Top 8 players from the

National Championships, * Top 2 players from the

National Championships, and * Top 4 players from the Last Chance Qualifier, a tournament held the day before the World Championships in the same venue. Most of the invitations did not include a fully paid trip to the tournament, and as a result several players could not attend the tournament.

2014 tournament structure

Players per country

*Masters Division

Results

Six rounds of Swiss was played by 60 players in the tournament, and each round was played with a set of best-of-three matches. The top 8 players after the Swiss rounds advances to the best-of-three Single Elimination matches. The defending World Champion Arash Ommati and former three-time World Champion

Ray Rizzo Raymond Rizzo is a three-time ''Pokémon'' Video Game World Champion (''2010, 2011, 2012''). He is regarded as one of the best players of competitive Pokémon of all time. His success can be partly attributed to his team building skills - one exa ...

did not advance to the single elimination rounds. *Masters Division

Final standings

2015 World Championships

The 2015 Pokémon World Championships was the seventh annual edition of the championships. The event was held alongside the

World Championships at the

Hynes Convention Center The John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center is a convention center located in Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1988 from a design by architects Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood. It replaced the John B. Hynes Memorial Auditorium, also ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts. The tournament was transmitted with live streaming from the official Pokémon

channel. The defending Video Game champions for the year were Se Jun Park from

(Masters Division), Nikolai Zielinsky from the

(Senior Division) and Kota Yamamoto from

(Junior Division).

2015 qualification

Players could only gain an invitation to play in the Video Game World Championships by either being the 2014 Pokémon World Champions, or by obtaining enough Championship Points in their respective geographic zone designated by

. However, the only exception to this rule are for players from Japan and South Korea, as their tournaments are not overseen by Play! Pokémon and their invites are governed through a different system of qualification. Since 2014, players were able to earn Championship Points from various tournaments within their geographical region. The tournaments vary in scale, ranging from local Premier Challenges to state-level Regional Championships and finally the large-scale National Championships. The number of points awarded varies with scale, and players who earn these points are ranked and divided into zones such as North America, Europe and South Africa. This year, two new zones (Latin America and Asia-Pacific) were introduced. The 2015 Pokémon Video Game World Championship was intended to be played under two Swiss tournaments and one single-elimination tournament which would then determine the 2015 World Champions. As such, there are two types of invites: * a regular 'Day One' invite, and * a 'Day Two' invite, which allows players to receive a bye for the Swiss tournament on the first day. As an example, the invitations for the Masters Division were distributed as follows: * 'Day One' invitation (by Championship Points): **Top 40 players from

**Top 60 players from

**Top 18 players from

Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...

**Top 2 players from

* 'Day Two' invitation (i.e. 'Day One' bye) ** 2014 World Champion **Top 8 players from

by Championship Points. **Top 16 players from

by Championship Points. **Top 2 players from

by Championship Points. **Top 4 players of the

Video Game National Championships. **Top 8 players of the

Video Game National Championships.

2015 tournament structure

The

Video Game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

Championships consisted of two Swiss tournaments and one single elimination tournament played across three days. On Friday (Day 1), all players who earned an invitation without a Day 1 bye were entered into a Swiss tournament, where players with two or fewer losses would advance onto the next round. The second Swiss tournament was then played on Saturday (Day 2), where players who advanced from Day 1 were joined by players who received an invitation with a Day 1 bye. At the end of the Day 2 Swiss tournament, the top eight players played in single elimination rounds until the last two remain. The finals took place on Sunday (Day 3).

Final standings (Video Game Championships)

2016 World Championships

The 2016 Pokémon World Championships was the eighth annual edition of the championships. The event was held at the

San Francisco Marriott Marquis The San Francisco Marriott Marquis is a 39- story skyscraper in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Situated at the intersection of Fourth and Mission Streets, across from the Metreon and Moscone Convention Center, the ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California, from August 19 to August 21. For the first time in the tournament history, the ''

'' invitational was featured alongside the Video Game Championships (VGC) and Trading Card Game (TCG) tournaments. Side events and an official store with event merchandise occurred alongside the event. The defending Video Game champions were Shoma Honami from

(Masters Division), Mark McQuillan from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

(Senior Division) and Kotone Yasue from Japan (Junior Division). The defending Trading Card Game champions were Jacob Van Wagner from the

(Masters Division), Patrick Martinez from the United States (Senior Division), and Rowan Stavenow from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Age divisions and qualifications

Both the Pokémon VGC and TCG were divided into three age divisions: the ''Junior Division'' (born 2005 or later), the ''Senior Division'' (born between 2001 and 2004), and the ''Masters Division'' (born 2000 or earlier). For the ''

'' invitational, players were grouped into either the ''Senior Division'' (born 2001 or later) or ''Masters Division'' (born 2000 or earlier). The process of obtaining an invitation is primarily based on Championship Points. Players could earn Championship Points by performing in select online and live tournaments held throughout the 2016 season (between September 2015 and July 2016). Players from Japan and

were excluded from this rule as these countries had their own method of qualification not based on Championship Points.

divided players into five different rating zones: US and

and

. Different zones had different Championship Points requirements due to the distribution of events around the world. There are two possible invitations players could obtain: * a regular 'Day One' invite, and * a 'Day Two' invite, which allowed players to acquire a 'Day One' bye and automatically enter the second Swiss tournament. 'Day Two' invites were usually accompanied by travel awards and stipends paid by Play! Pokémon.

Trading Card Game Championship qualifications

The following table shows the Championship Points requirement for an invitation to the 2016 World Championships: Players in Japan and South Korea were awarded invitations based on each country's organized play system.

Video Game Championship qualifications

For the Masters Division, the following table lists the Championship Points requirement for an invitation to the 2016 World Championships:

2016 tournament structure

The Video Game Championships consisted of two Swiss tournaments and one single elimination tournament played across three days. On Friday (Day 1), all players who earned an invitation without a Day 1 bye were entered into a Swiss tournament, where players with two or fewer losses would advance onto the next round. The second Swiss tournament was then played on Saturday (Day 2), where players who advanced from Day 1 were joined by players who received an invitation with a Day 1 bye. At the end of the Day 2 Swiss tournament, players with two or fewer losses advanced to play in single elimination rounds until the last two remain. The finals took place on Sunday (Day 3).

Final standings (Video Game Championships)

Final standings (Trading Card Game)

Weapons controversy

During the 2015 World Championships, two Trading Card Game competitors from

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

(Kevin Norton, 18, and James Stumbo, 27) brought weapons in their vehicle, which were recovered by the police. The two posted status updates and images of their weaponry on social media, which were noticed by various ''Pokémon'' fans who treated them as supposed threats against the tournament. The updates were reported to the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), who promptly seized their automobile and then stopped them at the door and barred them from entering the Hynes Convention Center on Thursday evening. Police executed a search warrant on Friday and Norton and Stumbo were arrested at their Red Roof Inn room in Saugus just after midnight on Saturday, August 22, 2015. The two were arrested on charges of unlicensed possession of firearms and ammunition, and were initially held without bail. The weapons recovered were a recently purchased

Remington Remington may refer to: Organizations * Remington Arms, American firearms manufacturer * Remington Rand, American computer manufacturer * Remington Products, American manufacturer of shavers and haircare products * Remington College, American c ...

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...

, an

AR-15 An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation d ...

, a hunting knife and several hundred rounds of ammunition. They plead not guilty at their arraignment on November 10, 2015, and their bail was set at $150,000. On December 2, 2015, their trial was set for May 9, 2016, however, in early April 2016, their trial was postponed to November 2016. Following the release of ''

'' in July 2016, Stumbo's attorney indicated that the case would be resolved soon. Norton and Stumbo were later sentenced to two years in prison with an additional two years probation once their prison term ends.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pokémon World Championships

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Recurring sporting events established in 2004 World championships in esports