After years of hiatus due to the pandemic, the Pokémon World Championships have just kicked off today and everyone can watch how it unfolds through live streams.
As you may have noticed in the name of the event and the fact that it’s a plural, this isn’t just one tournament but several encompassing several game systems under the Pokémon umbrella.
These are the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG), Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC, the term given to the most recent mainline games which are Sword and Shield), Pokkén Tournament DX, Pokémon Go and Pokémon Unite.
The links to stream these events can be found below. It doesn’t seem like Unite has an active link to watch on YouTube right now.
- TCG on YouTube and Twitch;
- VGC on YouTube and Twitch;
- Pokkén Tournament DX on YouTube and Twitch;
- Pokémon Go on YouTube and Twitch;
- Pokémon Unite on Twitch.
When there isn’t an ongoing pandemic, the Pokémon World Championships usually take place every year as the culmination of a worldwide competitive circuit.
This circuit is built around Championship Points which competitors need to earn by performing well at smaller events during the year. Once they reach a certain threshold they can participate at the championships to see who is best in the world, at least for a year.
“Worlds is now a four-day event, with exciting activities for players and spectators alike. The very best Pokémon Trainers will be vying for the title of World Champion, but that’s only the beginning of the fun—other activities will be available for all Pokémon fans,” reads a description.
Today is the first day of proceedings with 21st August being the final day of competition.
As far as we are able to ascertain, there is a single competitor from South Africa taking part in the World Championships, playing in the TCG. We’re in contact with this person and we’ll hopefully have them giving us a report on what happens at the event after the fact. Check back to Hypertext in the near future for that.
