Six regional tournaments will hold their Pokemon throwdowns in Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Nashville, with the top trainers in each bracket going on to the National Championships in St. Louis this June. From there, the winners in the United States will be among 60 Pokemon Masters gathered from the U.S., Japan and Europe at the grand daddy of them all -- the Pokemon Video Game World Championships. That's a heck of a lot of Pokemon for one paragraph.

Last year's competition was largely dominated by Junior Champion Knight Silvayne of Chicago and Senior Champion Izuru Yoshimura from Hiroshima, Japan, but even more countries will thrown in the mix this year, with the World Finals kicking off in San Diego on August 14 and 15 (the prizes last year included fame, power, and world cruises). See the press release below for more info, compete with dates, locations, and media jargon. More updates from Pokemon USA will come later about registering, rules, and prizes, but I'm going to go train me a new Dragonair.

POKEMON ANNOUNCES SCHEDULE FOR 2009 VIDEO GAME WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

"Pokemon Video Game Players To Compete In Regional Tournaments For Chance to Battle the Best Players from Around the World"

Bellevue, WA -- April 8, 2009 -- This spring and summer, thousands of Pokemon Trainers from around the globe will battle it out with their prized Pokemon for a chance to win it all at the 2009 Pokemon Video Game World Championships! Today, Pokemon USA, Inc. announced details for one of the most anticipated video game events of the year, the 2009 Pokemon Video Game Championships (VGC). The only official Pokemon video game competition of its kind -- placing the world's best Pokemon players in head-to-head competition -- will begin Regional Qualifier Tournaments on Saturday, May 9, kicking off the largest video game tournament season in Pokemon history.