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Pokken Tournament Championship joins Pokemon National Championships around the world

Doctor Oak

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
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The schedule for this year's Pokemon National Championships - the qualifiers for the World Championships being held later this year in San Francisco - has been announced and it's finally been confirmed that the Pokken Tournament Championship Series will be joining the Video Game Championships (OR/AS) and the Pokemon TCG at Nationals across the world. This means that the winners of the Nationals tournaments will be eligible for Worlds - joining the winners of the EVO and CEO championships later this summer.

This is how the schedule for the Pokken Tournament Championship Series works out for this year, with the Nationals and World championships obviously also featuring the standard VGC and TCG tournaments:

May 14-15: Pokemon UK National Championships (Masters [Major] and Seniors) - Liverpool, UK (Exhibition Centre Liverpool)
May 21-22: Pokemon Germany National Championships (Masters [Minor]) - Kassel, Germany (Kongress Palais Kassel)
June 11-12: Pokemon Italy National Championships (Masters [Minor]) - Milan, Italy (Mediolanum Forum, Assago MI)
June 24-26: CEO 2016 (Masters [Minor]) - Orlando, Florida
July 1-3: Pokemon US National Championships (Masters [Major] and Seniors) - Columbus, Ohio
July 15-17: EVO 2016 (Masters [Major]) - Las Vegas, Nevada
August 19: Pokemon World Championships Last Chance Qualifier (Masters and Seniors) - San Francisco, California
August 20: Pokemon World Championships (Masters and Seniors) - San Francisco, California

For Pokken Tournament, there will only be a Masters and a Seniors competition, with only Masters being available in certain areas. Masters will be divided up into two types - Major and Minor - depending on the location. These are the general rules regarding that setup:

Pokkén Tournament Championship Series Masters Division competitions are divided into major and minor events. In the Senior Division, all competitions will be equal. Not all events support two age divisions. In events that do not, all ages will compete together.

Masters Division major events feature:

  • 1st and 2nd place finishers earn World Championships invitation and travel award
  • Top 32 competitors receive Championship Points
Masters Division minor events feature:

  • 1st place finisher earns World Championships invitation and travel award
  • Top 16 competitors receive Championship Points
Senior Division events feature:

  • 1st and 2nd place finishers earn World Championships invitation and travel award
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64 Players in the Masters Division will qualify for Worlds - 16 from Europe and 16 from the US qualifying via event placing and championship points (so you can build championship points up by competing in Nationals, CEO and EVO, for example). The remaining 32 places will be awarded to invited Japanese players and via the Last Chance Qualifiers the day before Worlds.

The Seniors division will only feature 16 players competing at Worlds, with 4 players from Europe, 4 from America and the remaining from Japan/Last Chance Qualifying.

Prizes have yet to be fully announced for Europe, but in America they include monetary prizes for the winners and best players for the Masters division, or consoles, Pokken Controllers and TCG Booster packs for the winners and best players in the Seniors, as well as paid travel to Worlds for the winners and immediate runners up. We'll let you know what the European prizes will be once they're announced.

The winner of the Worlds Championship in August will win a trip for four to Hawaii worth $10,000, a Pokken Tournament prize pack featuring a copy of the game, 2 Pokken controllers 'and more' as well as a commemorative trophy.
 
RafuRum

RafuRum

Formerly Raf-A-Rum
And its not even out yet... I wonder how fast the meta game will develop for this one... Tier lists will probably not exist yet at the time of the qualifiers...
 
Teapot

Teapot

Virtual Duck Enthusiast
Staff member
Administrator
OmegaNave said:
So..... How do you enter? Is anyone allowed to enter? Even me? I've never been to any Pokémon Tournaments!
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Yes, Nationals are usually public events, at least in the countries listed in the article. You can just turn up and play – I have before! :)

Some larger countries have regionals, and so it's slightly different there – if you place highly in a regional event, which anyone can enter, you get invited to Nationals to compete there. But broadly speaking, Pokémon tournaments are open to anyone who wants to play.
 
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