Pokémon: World Championships 2023 Coming to Japan

A few days ago, The Pokémon Company announced the official dates for the 2023 World Championships.

After London 2022, the most anticipated Pokémon world competition will take place in Japan (Yokohama), from August 11 to 13.

But exactly... What is the Pokémon World Championships? How do they take place?

Today, I'm going to delve into the world of this major TCG competition for you today.

---> First, however, I would like to make a service communication, because there are very few hours left for the registration to the spectator lists for the 2023 World Championships to close. More precisely, the closing will take place tomorrow at 8:59.

At thislink you can register in the list of interesting. The lucky ones who will be able to participate in the event will be randomly drawn from this. The drawing will always take place tomorrow. The winners will be contacted via email, who must complete the registration within 72 hours. In this step, you will also be asked to pay for your badge (cost €13.32).

The official website of the Championships points out that the way indicated above is the only way to participate as a spectator in the event. Therefore no further passes will be sold either in stores or online. <---

Now that I have briefly communicated this first cone to you, I can breathe a sigh of relief and get back to the heart of the matter.

What are the Pokémon World Championships?

• History in Brief

Before acculturating to this event, let's start with the basics. It will have happened to you or will happen to you in the next few weeks to read this acronym: VGC. Well, this is none other than the abbreviation of Video Game Championship (said in Italian words: Pokémon World Championships). Over the years, the abbreviation has changed several times, but VGC is the surviving and surviving one, as well as the most used.

The very first competition of this tournament takes place back in 2008, in Florida (Orlando). In the following years almost all the annual competitions of the Championships are based in a North American city. Oh yes, although Pokémon are native to Japan, only this year, for the first time, the different competitions will take place in the Land of the Rising Sun (to the happiness of the Japanese, who are among the strongest coaches in the world, but we'll get to that). Japan corresponds to the second choice exception to the city where the Championships are held. As you know, in fact, the 2022 World Cup took place in London.

We hope that these new directives are a start by the Pokémon Company to organize the World Championships annually in cities of different countries, since the world of PoketMonster is very popular all over the globe.

And it is precisely the Pokémon Company which, since 2004, has organized these competitions in detail.

• Different Competition Categories

The World Championship was born exclusively as a trading card competition. Today, however, not only TCG!

Over the years, the tournament has expanded, also following the novelties of the Pokémon universe, such as the case of PokémonGo.

New competition categories were born, taking the World Championship to the next level.

For example, last year there were 5 gambling competitions in London.

• Pokémon - Trading Card Game
• Pokémon Sword and Shield
• Pokémon GO
• Pokken Tournament
• Pokémon Unite

It should be noted that for some categories, such as Trading Card Game and Sword and Shield, in turn, the tournaments are divided into:

• Masters Champion
• Seniors Champion
• Junior Champion

This breakdown is given by the age of the participants and the number of points a trainer has managed to nab at the official Pokémon competitions.

• Pokémon - Trading Card Game

Where it all began and still continues today. Collectible cards continue to fascinate and excite millions of people all over the world, even resulting in real competitions and titles.

• The rules

There is no definitive regulation, as this is shaped and changed according to new expansions, new moves and so on. Therefore, the Rules can be changed from year to year, even if the most popular format is always the double fights - 4 vs 4.

   > How they are performed

Each team of each trainer consists of 6 Pokémon of which only 4 will play against the opposing team. Before the start, both trainers have the opportunity to see the opposing team's Pokémon, but not know the opponent's moves or items. In this short time, each trainer will also have to choose 4 of his Pokémon to battle. Obviously the one who knocks out wins. all opposing Pokémon.

Explained in three lines it looks like an easy card game, but the Pokémon TCG is close to the game of chess and when you play chess you have to be good at math and think about every move accurately and, why not, even as fast as possible .

      > Pokémon battles require:

• Strategy
• Study
• Concentration

And that's why perhaps among the best Pokémon trainers we find the Japanese, who have won the World Cup 4 times. All the remaining times they almost always finished in the top 8.

• Pokken Tournament

Developed by Bandai Namco in collaboration with The Pokémon company, Pokkémon Tournament is a video game that uses the principles of Tekken and Soulcalibur, but in the Pokémon world.

In the video game it is possible to control a Pokémon, (some of the fighting type and bipedal), with which to face a physical encounter with an opponent.

• Pokémon Unite

Also in this case it is a fighting video game based on strategy, but above all on teams. The challenges take place 5 against 5, where the collaboration between the members of each team is essential to defeat the opposing Pokémon. In addition to strategy and concentration, we also find another fundamental element: teamwork.

• The Biggest Pokémon Center Ever

Returning for a moment to August 2023, again in recent days it was announced that the largest Pokémon Center ever will open for the occasion in Japan. The store will only be open temporarily and will have all sorts of pocket monster themed gadgets.

Store opening: Wednesday 9 August until Sunday 13 August 2023.

And since we are in the country of organization and precision, also in this case the Japanese have thought of everything, even their own time slot to make their purchases in complete serenity (obviously here too they will use the extraction method). For more information on this, we will have to wait for further announcements.

• London, World Championships 2022

Still speaking of world competitions, last year, as mentioned at the beginning, for the first time they took place outside of North America. London has hosted coaches from all over the world and crowned winners

The winners of the previous edition

• Pokémon - Trading Card Game

Masters Champion - Ondrej Skubal (Czech Republic)

Seniors Champion - Liam Halliburton (USA)

Junior Champion - Rikuto Ohashi (Japan)

• Pokémon Sword and Shield

Masters Champion - Eduardo Cunha (Portugal)

Seniors Champion - Yasuharu Shimizu (Japan)

Juniors Champion - Kosaku Miyamoto (Japan)

• Pokémon GO

Masters Champion - Robert "DancingRob" Waßmer (Germany)

Seniors Champion - Maxwell "MEWeedle" Ember (UK)

• Pokken Tournament

Masters Champion - Davon "Shadowcat" Amos (USA)

Seniors Champion - Reuben "Fruitprime" Staples (UK)

• Pokémon Unite

Winning Team: BLVKHVND, USA - (Sean "SLASH" Tucker, Kihyun "KYRIAOS" Lee, William "OVERLOARD" Byrnes III, Nicholas "JUNGLEBOOK" Kim and Angelo "ELO" Huang

• Decks TCG World Championships London 2022

To celebrate the winners of the TCG, The Pokémon Company chose to create an identical deck used by each winner of the 2022 World Championship.

Warning: all cards in each deck are not valid for use in official tournaments.

Each deck contains:

• A 60-card World Championship deck
• A booklet from the 2022 World Championships
• A special pin from the 2022 World Championships
• A coin from the 2022 World Championships
• A deck box from the 2022 World Championships
• A game board with poster
• A code card for the Pokémon Live Trading Card Game

Well, I hope this little trip to the world of Pokémon World Contests has been helpful to you.

We just have to wait and start the countdown to Yokohama 2023!

Until next time!