Pokémon World Video Game Championships

Held on the 29th of May in the LG Pavilion. The massive (but that day very empty) Birmingham NEC, the Pokémon World Video Game Championships brought together competitors from all over the UK, as well as one or two from the rest of Europe. The weather was generally chilly and wet, but that didn’t stop hundreds of hopefuls from travelling to try and secure a place in the world finals, which are to be held in the distinctly sunnier Hawaii this August. There were two divisions: Junior (born 1998 and later) and Senior (born 1997 and earlier) with four places up for grabs in each division. As well as Nintendo consoles as prizes, the top two places in each division won air fare and accommodation for the duration of the tournament, as well as a pretty glass block of a trophy.

The main focus was on the competition itself, with most of the hall being dedicated to the battling spaces, not to mention the area for registration and the accompanying massive queue. Other items to keep people entertained were relatively few although there was the chance to play the upcoming Pokémon Rumble for the Wii (take the chaos of Super Smash Bros, put it in a smaller circular arena and then just add Pokémon) and a small Trading Card game area. For those who liked to battle but disliked the official competition (or got knocked out), an informal winner-stays-on tournament was running to one side. Also dotted around the hall were various Pokémon photo opportunities as well as a giant Pikachu doing the rounds – personally this made my day.

In other words, you shouldn’t have been expecting too much unless you were looking to compete. Everything else was a sideline to the main competition, which was of course most people’s primary reason for attending. They certainly weren’t there for the pasty stall or the tiny Subway stand in the corner.

While I was too late to witness the size of the queue for the Junior Division (by the time I arrived battling was well underway), the Senior queue was certainly impressive. The queue must have started as soon as the Junior one finished, since there was a sizable gap between registration times for each division and a ridiculously long line of people waiting to sign up at least three hours before Senior registration even started. The queue was so large that the organisers had to undertake some crowd control and serious sellotaping to mark out some barriers. While this was happening, the queue was transferred outside and unfortunately it started to rain, but this certainly didn’t deter potential competitors, who soldiered through the rain, some still filling out entrance forms and struggling not to get the paper wet. Once the queue was properly organised and brought back inside, it was still so long that it stretched outside anyway; it must certainly have exceeded the 256 competitor-limit, but you can’t fault people for trying.

With 128 contenders in the Junior Division and the 256 contenders in the Senior Division, there were a lot of people to get through, but each battle lasted on average between three and four minutes. The matches were played to GS cup rules, with teams of four Pokémon and a flat level rule bringing all higher level Pokémon down to level 50. This went some way towards levelling the playing field a little bit with EV training seeming to matter less than battle strategy and items. This is certainly one of the best things to have if you’re a spectator, since it certainly makes the battle more interesting! What would have been even more interesting would have been to outlaw legendary Pokémon altogether, forcing people to look even more closely at strategy. This year, although some legendaries were completely banned, there were a few listed as ‘restricted’, meaning that you could have a maximum of two of these Pokémon in your final team. Quite a few competitors used Mewtwo, Palkia and Dialga as a result.

The battle area itself was set up in various colour-coded divisions, the idea being that if you won a battle in the first area, you were moved to the next to battle other winners and so on, until the vast numbers were whittled down to a masterful few. Each area had one DS hooked up to a television screen so that the spectators could watch one of the matches unfold, otherwise you had to make do with watching the expressions and body language of the competitors. The final battle in each division was played on stage, with a television screen hooked up to each DS to give everyone a chance of witnessing the last match.

Spectators gathered around the televisions to see the battles on display, but the biggest draw were the final matches on stage. These were, as to be expected, the best of the day that I saw, involving a mixture of strength, strategy and sheer luck here and there. If you’re interested, there are a few youtube videos floating around. The last few moments of the Senior division battle will make the more hardcore players laugh at least a little.

In conclusion, if you were expecting anything more than the competition, then this wouldn’t have been the event for you. But then again, if you were attending this event, then odds were that you would only have been going for the competition anyway! With Pokémon tending to be a somewhat solitary game, even though it does have features that encourage co-op play, it was lovely to be in an arena where everyone understood Pokémon and went “ooh!” and “ahh!” at the same moments during tense battles. It was a wonderfully geeky day, I can only imagine how the finals will be. For now though, our UK representatives will no doubt be preparing themselves while the remaining tournaments are played out across the world.