A Real Life Pokemon Elite Four is Coming to Japan

Japan is getting a real life Elite Four for Pokemon trainers.

The Pokemon Company announced a new eSports show called P-Sports: Aim to Be a Pokemon Battle Master that will feature trainers battling against a team of four celebrity Pokemon trainers. Contenders will have to face each celebrity trainer in a one on one battle, with the goal of becoming the P-Sports Champion.

The Elite Four is a proud Pokemon tradition that dates back to the original Pokemon Red and Blue games. The Elite Four consists of four of the strongest trainers of each region, which weed out potential challengers to the Champion of each region. Trainers have to face all four trainers in succession without access to a Pokemon Center or the ability to switch out Pokemon between trainers. The Elite Four acts as a final challenge of sorts, a final test to prove that trainers are ready to become Pokemon masters.

A 35 second short revealed two members of the Elite Four, including popular Japanese YouTube star Hajime Shacho. Shacho has over 5.7 million subscribers on YouTube and has over 4 billion views for his videos, which usually include him completing some kind of goofy challenge.

Joining Shacho is Hiroshi Yamamoto from the Japanese comedy trio "Robert." Yamamoto is a familiar face to Japanese Pokemon enthusiasts, as he's a former co-host and frequent guest of the Pokemon Sunday television show.

It's a bit unclear based on the 30 second spot announcing the new show whether the other two spots of the show's Elite Four will be rotating slots, or if they'll be revealed at a later time.

The 30 second short uses actual footage from past Pokemon World Championships, so it's not unreasonable to think that competitors will be required to use official competitive Pokemon rules. That would mean players compete in double Pokemon battles (in which a player sends out two Pokemon at a time) and can't use Mythical Pokemon and a handful of Legendary Pokemon.

While competitive Pokemon play has a devoted following, it doesn't have near as much acclaim or exposure as other competitive eSports. A bi-weekly television show could help bring more eyes to competitive Pokemon and attract more fans to the monthly events held around the globe.

The first episode of P-Sports: Aim to Be a Pokemon Master will be aired on Abata TV on January 24th at 8 PM JT. Subsequent episodes will be released on a bi-weekly basis.