London’s Excel venue will play host to the 2022 Pokémon World Championships in August – and this time it will also feature the Pokémon Unite Championship Series.
This tournament for the Nintendo Switch MOBA game Pokémon Unite, which launched in July 2021, will feature more than $1m in prizes including $500,000 at the World Championships. This event will also include finals in other games like Pokémon Sword and Shield, Pokémon TCG, Pokémon GO and Pokkén Tournament DX.
For Unite, there will be seven regional zones supported for its first season: North America, South America, Europe, Oceania, Japan, South Korea and Asia-Pacific (APAC). Each region will allow two teams to progress to the world finals, except for Oceania and South America, which will each let one team progress.
A series of qualifying tournaments in each zone will be held each month, and players will earn Championship Points (CP) based on their team’s finishing place in that month’s tournament. Those with the most CP will qualify for the Regional Championships, then from there the best will reach the Pokémon World Championships.
Each month’s tournament will feature an open qualifier round, such as the February Cup (running from February 19th to 20th 2022), in which teams will compete in a double-elimination format. The top 16 teams will advance to the monthly finals event, which will be broadcast in most regions.
Then, in April, players will also be able to compete in the Aeos Cup, a special tournament that awards prizes and more CP than the monthly tournaments.
Pokémon Unite esports events are open to players aged 16 years old and above, with some countries having a restriction of 18+.
Pokémon Unite is a casual MOBA, akin to League of Legends and Dota 2, but is more friendly to beginners and younger players. Further reading: Pokémon Unite – thoughts from a 4-year-old and his 35-year-old dad: Is this the perfect entry-point MOBA?
Players can register for the Pokémon Unite Championship Series here and see more info on the Pokémon Unite Championship Series prize pool breakdown, rules and more here.
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.
