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.
The format for the Pokemon VGC will include six different U.S. stops in addition to tournaments being organized in Europe and across Japan. Pokemon fans will play in the U.S. Regional Qualifier Tournaments and Pokemon Video Game National Championships and if successful will meet their international rivals from Japan and Europe at the Pokemon VGC World Championships, which take place in San Diego on August 14 and 15.
The 2009 Pokemon VGC schedule will include competitions in six cities with weekend stops in Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Nashville. At each regional, up to 128 players for each age division (Juniors and Seniors) will be selected at random from those in attendance but all registrants will walk away with a character distribution of a powerful, and rarely seen, level 50 Shiny Milotic. Details about the tournament and each of the event locations can be found at www.pokemonvgc.com.
May 9 -- Seattle, WA
May 16 -- San Francisco, CA
May 23 -- Phoenix, AZ
May 30 -- Dallas, TX
June 6 -- Philadelphia, PA
June 13 -- Nashville, TN
June 27 -- St. Louis, MO
Winners from each of the regional tournaments will win trips to play in the Pokemon Video Game National Championships in St. Louis on June 27 and 28 -- before landing one of only 60 coveted international invitations to compete on the ultimate stage -- the Pokemon Video Game World Championships.
"Pokemon is proud to present an opportunity for thousands of Pokemon video game trainers across the globe to come together and battle to determine who is a true World Champion," said J.C. Smith, Pokemon USA, Inc.?s director of Marketing. "The Pokemon VGC tournaments are a great way for our biggest fans to meet with each other and test their Pokemon strategies against the best."
Competitors will be required to play with Pokemon Platinum Version, which became available on March 22 at retailers nationwide. Players will need to bring their own copy of the North American Pokemon Platinum Version to participate and will compete using the "2-on-2 Double Cup" format, with no Pokemon allowed to exceed level 50. European players will use Pokemon Diamond Version or Pokemon Pearl Version at their qualifier tournaments.
More information, including prizes, tournament locations, times, as well as Pokemon restrictions and rules can be found by visiting www.pokemonvgc.com. A European site will be available soon, so check back for details about Pokemon VGC events in that region.
UPDATE: The website is now live, with information about rules and registration. Trainers that love to spam Legendaries will be out of luck, with every one from Mewtwo to Giratina being banned from competition.