Big Changes Coming to Competitive Pokemon Gaming

In less than two weeks, Pokemon trainers from around the world will converge in San Francisco for [...]

By Christian Hoffer

championship trophies

In less than two weeks, Pokemon trainers from around the world will converge in San Francisco for the Pokemon World Championships, an annual event to determine the top players in both the Pokemon video game and trading card games. Players compete at regional and national events to score enough Championship Points to qualify for the World Championships.

However, some big changes are coming to next year's competitive Pokemon scene. The Pokemon Company announced that they will be adding new championship events for North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Each event has a prize pool of $250,000, meaning that some of the top players will be getting a big prize payout.

The Pokemon Company is also staggering their smaller regional events, so that players have more opportunity to compete in multiple tournaments. Next year, there won't be any residency requirement to compete at a regional event, so players can compete at multiple regional tournaments.

City Championships are also being replaced next season with a new "League Cup" format that stores can host once per quarter. While smaller Premier Challenges and Midseason Showdown events will return next year, the larger State and National Championships will no longer be hosted by the Pokemon Company.

More information about the new format will be announced in early September before the start of the next "season" of competitive Pokemon play.

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