Calm down, calm down – the 2016 UK National Pokémon Championships will take place at Liverpool’s Exhibition Centre on May 14th to 15th.
The event is, like, bringing together the UK’s boss Pokémon players, who will get a chance to play at the World Championships in San Francisco on August 19th to 21st. Sound.
For the first time in the UK championships’ history, new fighting game Pokkén Tournament will feature as a competitive title alongside the Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and Pokémon Trading Card Game tournaments. Event rules can be found here.
Entrants to the Pokkén Tournament Championship Series will battle for a chance to get their hands on a prize pool of $100,000 at the 2016 Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco, California.
Other Pokémon National Championships in Europe include those in Germany (May 21st to 22nd) and Italy (June 11th to 12th).
Players in France will also have the chance to compete in a Pokémon TCG National Championships tournament that will take place on the same weekend as the UK competition.
Past Pokémon eSports events have been marred by controversy. Boston Police arrested a pair of young men last year who were caught travelling to the World Championships with guns and weapons in their car.
And in 2012, UK Pokémon Championship winner Ruben Puig Lecegui had his title revoked after being accused of throwing poo in a Birmingham hotel.
Let’s hope this year’s event is free of such crap.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
