Pokémon World Championships facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Pokémon World Championships

Game	Pokémon
Founded	2004 (2004)
Owner(s)	The Pokémon Company
CEO	Tsunekazu Ishihara
Divisions	Junior (born up to 12 years before the year of the current tournament season, except for those under six years old) Senior (born 13 to 16 years before the year of the current tournament season) Masters (born 17 or more years before the year of the current tournament season)
Headquarters	Bellevue, Washington, U.S.
Venue(s)	Varies

The Pokémon World Championships is a huge event where the best Pokémon players from around the world come together to compete. It's like the Olympics for Pokémon! This special tournament happens every August. Players get to show off their skills in different Pokémon games, including the main video games, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon Go, and Pokémon Unite.

To get into the World Championships, players must earn invitations. They do this by doing well in smaller tournaments throughout the year. Winners at the World Championships can earn scholarship money, cool prizes, and the amazing title of World Champion! The Play! Pokémon program helps organize these events for most parts of the world, except for Asia.

History of the Pokémon World Championships

The Pokémon World Championships started in 2004. Back then, it was only for the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG). This was when Pokémon was becoming super popular again!

Video Game Championships Begin

In 2008, competitive tournaments for the Pokémon video games were added. These are called the Video Game Championships (VGC). Just like in the TCG, players compete in different age groups: Junior, Senior, and Masters. The best players from these tournaments get invited to the World Championships in August. Each year, the VGC tournaments usually use the newest main Pokémon video game.

New Games Join the Fun

In 2016, Pokkén Tournament, a fighting game with Pokémon, also got its own championship series. It was played at the World Championships until 2022.

In January 2022, Pokémon Unite, a team-based battle game, joined the World Championships. It became one of the newest online battle arena (MOBA) games to have an official esports tournament.

World Championships Travel the Globe

The 2020 Pokémon World Championships were planned for London, United Kingdom. This was a big deal because it was the first time the event would be held outside of North America. However, due to health concerns, the 2020 and 2021 events were cancelled.

In 2023, the World Championships finally went to Yokohama, Japan. This was the first time the event was held in the country where Pokémon began! At the end of the 2023 event, it was announced that the World Championships would return to Hawaii in 2024, for the first time since 2012. The 2025 event is set to take place in Anaheim, California.

Where the World Championships Have Been Held

Even though Pokémon is from Japan, most World Championships have been held in the United States. Only one event (in 2023) has taken place in Japan.

Year	Location	City	Country	Video Game Format	Ref
2004	Wyndham Palace Resort & Spa	Orlando, Florida	United States	N/A
2005	Town and Country Resort and Convention Center	San Diego, California
2006	Hilton Anaheim	Anaheim, California
2007	Hilton Waikoloa Village	Waikoloa Village, Hawaii
2008	Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista	Orlando, Florida		Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
2009	Hilton San Diego Bayfront	San Diego, California		Pokémon Platinum
2010	Hilton Waikoloa Village	Waikoloa Village, Hawaii		Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver
2011	Hilton San Diego Bayfront	San Diego, California		Pokémon Black and White
2012	Hilton Waikoloa Village	Waikoloa Village, Hawaii
2013	Vancouver Convention Centre	Vancouver, British Columbia	Canada	Pokémon Black 2 and White 2
2014	Walter E. Washington Convention Center	Washington, D.C.	United States	Pokémon X and Y
2015	Hynes Convention Center	Boston, Massachusetts		Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
2016	San Francisco Marriott Marquis	San Francisco, California
2017	Anaheim Convention Center	Anaheim, California		Pokémon Sun and Moon
2018	Music City Center	Nashville, Tennessee		Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
2019	Walter E. Washington Convention Center	Washington, D.C.
2020	Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021
2022	ExCeL London	London, England	United Kingdom	Pokémon Sword and Shield
2023	Pacifico Yokohama	Yokohama, Kanagawa	Japan	Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
2024	Hawai'i Convention Center	Honolulu, Hawaii	United States
2025	Anaheim Convention Center	Anaheim, California
2026	0TBA	San Francisco, California		0TBA

How to Qualify for the World Championships

The way players qualify for the Pokémon World Championships changes a bit each year. It also depends on a player's age and where they live. Some top players can even skip the first day of the championships and go straight to Day 2!

The Play! Pokémon Program

Players in countries with a Play! Pokémon program (like North America, Europe, Latin America, Oceania, Middle East, and Africa) earn Championship Points. They get these points by playing in regular tournaments. If they get enough points by the end of the season, they receive an invitation!

In 2015, the Play! Pokémon program grew to include Latin America and Asia (except Japan and South Korea). However, since June 2020, Asia has its own way of qualifying for the World Championships.

Here are the regions and countries in the Play! Pokémon program as of January 2025:

Pokémon GO Championship Series

In October 2021, Pokémon announced that Pokémon Go would be part of the 2022 World Championships. Players could qualify through the Pokémon GO Championship Series. The top two players from these events would go to the World Championships. Also, any trainer who reached "Legend rank" in the Pokémon GO Battle League could qualify for the Championship Series.

2022 Pokémon GO Championship Series Events

The 2022 Pokémon GO Championship Series helped players qualify for the 2022 World Championship. It had events all over the world for Senior and Masters divisions. Battles used the Great League format, meaning Pokémon had to be under 1,500 Combat Power. Players could enter by reaching Legend rank in the GO Battle League or by signing up through Play! Pokémon. The best players at these events earned an invitation to the World Championship.

Pokémon Unite Championship Series

In January 2022, it was confirmed that Pokémon Unite would be played at the World Championships. There are eleven different Regional Zones for the first season of the Pokémon Unite Championship Series. These events are usually for players aged 16 or 18 and older, depending on the region.

Each month, tournaments are held in each Regional Zone. Players earn Championship Points based on how well they do. The team with the most points qualifies for the Regional Championships. The top teams from the Regional Championships then get a chance to compete at the Pokémon World Championships.

In 2023, the competitive structure for Pokémon Unite changed. The number of spots at the World Championships almost doubled, from 16 to 31 teams. New Regional Zones were also created. For example, Central America, South America-East, and South America-West became LATAM North, LATAM South, and Brazil.

In 2023, teams were put into eight groups of four. Teams in each group played against each other. The best team from each group moved on to the Top 8 knockout stage. The prize pool for the 2023 championship was $500,000, shared among the top 16 teams.

Qualification in Japan & South Korea

Tournaments in Japan and South Korea are run differently from Play! Pokémon. Players from these countries have their own unique ways to qualify.

In Japan, players compete in big qualifier or online tournaments to get an invite to the Japan National Championships. The best players from the Japan National Championships are then chosen to represent Japan at the Pokémon World Championships.

In South Korea, the qualification rules change often. For example, in 2015, players earned an invite based on their rank in the Korean National Championships. But in 2019, players competed in Korean League tournaments and earned invites based on points they collected.

Other Ways to Qualify

There are a few other ways to get into the World Championships. For example, if a player finishes in the top 4 or better at the previous year's World Championships, they might get an invite. Also, there's a special tournament called the Last Chance Qualifier held right before the World Championships. Players can win an invite by doing well in this tournament.

List of World Champions

Trading Card Game (TCG) Champions

Year	Juniors (U11)	Seniors (11-14)	Masters (15+)	Ref.
2004	Hayato Sato	Takuya Yoneda	Tsuguyoshi Yamato
2005	Curran Hill	Stuart Benson	Jeremy Maron
2006	Hiroki Yano	Miska Saari	Jason Klaczynski
2007	Jun Hasebe	Jeremy Scharff-Kim	Tom Roos
2008	Tristan Robinson	Dylan Lefavour	Jason Klaczynski
2009	Tsubasa Nakamura	Takuto Itagaki	Stephen Silvestro
2010	Yuka Furusawa	Jacob Lesage	Yuta Komatsuda
2011	Gustavo Wada	Christopher Kan	David Cohen
2012	Shuto Itagaki	Chase Moloney	Igor Costa
2013	Ondřej Kujal	Kaiwen Cabbabe	Jason Klaczynski
2014	Haruto Kobayashi	Trent Orndorff	Andrew Estrada
2015	Rowan Stavenow	Patrick Martinez	Jacob Van Wagner
2016	Shunto Sadahiro	Jesper Eriksen	Shintaro Ito
2017	Tobias Strømdahl	Zachary Bokhari	Diego Cassiraga
2018	Naohito Inoue	Magnus Pedersen	Robin Schulz
2019	Haruki Miyamoto	Kaya Lichtleitner	Henry Brand
2022	Rikuto Ohashi	Liam Halliburton	Ondřej Škubal
2023	Shao Tong Yen	Gabriel Fernandez	Vance Kelley
2024	Sakuya Ota	Evan Pavelski	Fernando Cifuentes

Video Game Championships (VGC) Champions

Year	Juniors (U11)	Seniors (11-14)	Masters (15+)
2008	Knight Silvayne	Izuru Yoshimura	N/A
2009	Jeremiah Fan	Kazuyuki Tsuji	N/A
2010	Shota Yamamoto	Ray Rizzo	N/A
2011	Brian Hough	Kamran Jahadi	Ray Rizzo
2012	Abram Burrows	Toler Webb	Ray Rizzo
2013	Brendan Zheng	Hayden McTavish	Arash Ommati
2014	Kota Yamamoto	Nikolai Zielinski	Se Jun Park
2015	Kotone Yasue	Mark McQuillan	Shoma Honami
2016	Cory Connor	Carson Confer	Wolfe Glick
2017	Nicholas Kan	Hong Juyoung	Ryota Otsubo
2018	Wonn Lee	James Evans	Paul Ruiz
2019	Pi Wu	Ko Tsukide	Naoto Mizobuchi
2022	Kosaku Miyamoto	Yasuharu Shimizu	Eduardo Cunha
2023	Sora Ebisawa	Tomoya Ogawa	Shohei Kimura
2024	Kevin Han	Ray Yamanaka	Luca Ceribelli

Pokémon Go Champions

The under-17 age group was removed after the 2022 season. Now, all players of any age compete together. All battles use the Great League format, where Pokémon must be below 1,500 Combat Power.

Year	Seniors (U17)	Masters (17+)
2022	MEweedle	DancingRob
2023	N/A	ItsAXN
2024	N/A	Yekai0904

Pokémon Unite Champions

Year	Team	Players
2022	BLVKHVND	Elo (Angelo Huang)	Junglebook (Nicholas Kim)	Kyriaos (Kihyun Lee)	Overlord98 (William Byrnes III)	Slashcan (Sean Tucker)
2023	Luminosity Gaming	Elo (Angelo Huang)	Kyriaos (Kihyun Lee)	Overlord (William Byrnes III)	Rhinne (Amrit Rama)	Slash (Sean Tucker)
2024	Fennel	Tongg (Haruki Yoshiura)	Lucapo (Yuma Sato)	Mashio (Mashika Shirakawa)	Yume (Yumeto Tanabe)	Pyi (Shouki Takada)

Retired Games: Pokkén Tournament & Pokkén Tournament DX Champions

Year	Seniors (U17)	Masters (17+)
2016	Woomy!gun (Josh Simmonite)	Potetin (Masami Sato)
2017	N/A	Tonosama (Hisaharu Abe)
2018	Kato (Kato Yusuke)	ThankSwalot (Jacob Waller)
2019	Ashgreninja1 (Colin Jones)	Subutan (Hiroki Ishida)
2022	Fruitprime (Reuben Staples)	Shadowcat (Davon Amos-Hall)

2014 Pokémon World Championships

2014 Pokémon World Championships

2014
Attendees of the 2014 World Championships
Tournament information
Location	Washington, D.C.
Dates	August 13–15
Administrator(s)	Play! Pokémon
Tournament format(s)	Swiss rounds, knock-out finals
Venue(s)	Walter E. Washington Convention Center
Participants	155
Purse	US$5,000 in scholarships
Final positions
Champions	Se Jun Park (Masters) Nikolai Zielinski (Seniors) Kota Yamamoto (Juniors)
Runner-up	Jeudy Azzarelli (Masters) Mark Mcquillan (Seniors) London Swan (Juniors)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	481 matches in 3 divisions
Attendance	3,000
← 2013 2015 →

The 2014 Pokémon World Championships was the sixth annual event. It took place in Washington, D.C., at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championship was also held there.

For the first time, the tournament was streamed live on Twitch. Over 800,000 people watched! Junichi Masuda, a video game designer for Pokémon, attended the opening ceremony.

The final match in the Masters division is famous because Se Jun Park won using a Pachirisu on his team. This was a surprising choice that showed how clever strategies can lead to victory.

How Players Qualified in 2014

To qualify for the 2014 Pokémon World Championships, players mainly needed to earn Championship Points. These points came from official Play! Pokémon tournaments. The top 4 players from the 2013 World Championships also got an invite. Plus, the top 4 players from a "Last Chance Qualifier" tournament could also get in.

Many invitations did not include a paid trip. This meant some players could not attend the tournament.

2014 Tournament Structure

Players by Country (Masters Division)

Country	Zone	# of Players
United States	North America	22
Germany	Europe	10
United Kingdom	Europe	7
Japan	Japan	7
Australia	Australia	4
Italy	Europe	3
Spain	Europe	2
South Korea	South Korea	2
South Africa	South Africa	1
Canada	North America	1
Ireland	Europe	1

2014 Tournament Results (Masters Division)

Sixty players competed in six rounds of Swiss-style matches. Each match was a best-of-three. The top 8 players after these rounds moved on to single-elimination matches.

The defending World Champion, Arash Ommati, and three-time champion Ray Rizzo did not make it to the final rounds.

	1	Ryosuke Kosuge	1
	8	Markus Liu	2
						8	Markus Liu	0
						5	Jeudy Azzarelli	2
	5	Jeudy Azzarelli	2
	4	Lee Provost	0
											5	Jeudy Azzarelli	0
											6	Sejun Park	2
	3	Miguel Marti de la Torre	0
	6	Sejun Park	2
						6	Sejun Park	2
						2	Collin Heier	0
	7	Dayne O'Meara	0
	2	Collin Heier	2

2014 Final Standings

Place	Masters Division	Senior Division	Junior Division
1st	Se Jun Park	Nikolai Zielinski	Kota Yamamoto
2nd	Jeudy Azzarelli	Mark Mcquillan	London Swan
3rd	Collin Heier	Eric Rios	Haruka Narita
4th	Markus Liu	Ian McLaughlin	Riku Miyoshi

2015 Pokémon World Championships

2015 Pokémon World Championships

2015
Tournament information
Location	Boston, Massachusetts
Dates	August 21–23
Administrator(s)	Play! Pokémon
Tournament format(s)	Swiss rounds, knock-out finals
Venue	Hynes Convention Center
Purse	$500,000 in scholarships
Final positions
Champions	Shoma Honami (Masters) Mark McQuillan (Seniors) Kotone Yasue (Juniors)
Runner-up	Hideyuki Taida (Masters) Koki Honda (Seniors) Ryan Jaehyun Park (Juniors)
← 2014 2016 →

The 2015 Pokémon World Championships was the seventh annual event. It was held in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Hynes Convention Center. The Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championships also took place there.

The tournament was streamed live on the official Pokémon Twitch channel.

How Players Qualified in 2015

Players could get an invitation to the Video Game World Championships in two main ways. They could be the 2014 Pokémon World Champion. Or, they could earn enough Championship Points in their region through the Play! Pokémon program. Japan and South Korea had their own separate qualification systems.

Since 2014, players earned Championship Points from various tournaments. These ranged from small local events to big National Championships. The points helped rank players in different regions like North America, Europe, and South Africa. In 2015, two new regions were added: Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

There were two types of invitations:

• A regular 'Day One' invite, meaning players started on the first day of the tournament.
• A 'Day Two' invite, which gave players a "bye" and let them start on the second day.

'Day Two' invites often came with travel money from Play! Pokémon.

2015 Tournament Structure

The Video Game Championships had two Swiss-style tournaments and one single-elimination tournament. These were played over three days.

On Friday (Day 1), players with a 'Day One' invite competed. Players with two or fewer losses moved on. On Saturday (Day 2), these players joined those with 'Day Two' invites for another Swiss tournament.

After Day 2, the top eight players competed in single-elimination rounds. The final matches took place on Sunday (Day 3).

2015 Final Standings (Video Game Championships)

Place	Junior Division (U13)	Senior Division (13-16)	Masters Division (17+)
1st	Kotone Yasue	Mark Mcquillan	Shoma Honami
2nd	Ryan Jaehyun Park	Koki Honda	Hideyuki Taida
3rd	Shu Harsaki	Max Marjanovic	Yosuke Isagi
4th	Shuhei Tsukano	Kylie Chua	Naohito Mizobuchi

2016 Pokémon World Championships

2016 Pokémon World Championships

2016
Tournament information
Location	San Francisco, California
Dates	August 19–21
Administrator(s)	Play! Pokémon
Tournament format(s)	Swiss rounds, knock-out finals
Venue	San Francisco Marriott Marquis
Purse	$500,000
Final positions
Champions	Wolfe Glick (VGC Masters) Carson Confer (VGC Seniors) Cory Connor (VGC Juniors) Shintaro Ito (TCG Masters) Jesper Eriksen (TCG Seniors) Shunto Sadahiro (TCG Juniors)
Runner-up	Jonathan Evans (VGC Masters) Yuki Wata (VGC Seniors) Shu Harasaki (VGC Juniors) Cody Walinski (TCG Masters) Connor Pederson (TCG Seniors) Riku Ushirosako (TCG Juniors)
← 2015 2017 →

The 2016 Pokémon World Championships was the eighth annual event. It was held in San Francisco, California, from August 19 to August 21.

For the first time, the Pokkén Tournament invitational was included. It was played alongside the Video Game Championships (VGC) and Trading Card Game (TCG) tournaments. There were also fun side events and an official store with cool merchandise.

Age Divisions and Qualifications in 2016

Both the Pokémon VGC and TCG had three age groups:

• Junior Division (born 2005 or later)
• Senior Division (born between 2001 and 2004)
• Masters Division (born 2000 or earlier)

For the Pokkén Tournament invitational, players were in either the Senior Division (born 2001 or later) or Masters Division (born 2000 or earlier).

Players mainly qualified by earning Championship Points. They got these points by doing well in online and live tournaments from September 2015 to July 2016. Players from Japan and South Korea had their own ways to qualify, not based on these points.

Play! Pokémon divided players into five regions: US and Canada, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and South Africa. Each region had different point requirements because of how many events were held there.

Players could get two types of invitations:

• A regular 'Day One' invite.
• A 'Day Two' invite, which let players skip the first day and start on the second.

'Day Two' invites often came with travel money from Play! Pokémon.

2016 Trading Card Game Qualification Points

This table shows the Championship Points needed for an invitation to the 2016 World Championships:

Players in Japan and South Korea qualified through their own national systems.

2016 Video Game Championship Qualification Points

For the Masters Division, here are the Championship Points needed for an invitation to the 2016 World Championships:

2016 Tournament Structure

The Video Game Championships had two Swiss-style tournaments and one single-elimination tournament. These were played over three days.

On Friday (Day 1), players with a 'Day One' invite competed. Players with two or fewer losses moved on. On Saturday (Day 2), these players joined those with 'Day Two' invites for another Swiss tournament.

After Day 2, players with two or fewer losses moved on to single-elimination rounds. The final matches took place on Sunday (Day 3).

2016 Final Standings (Video Game Championships)

Place	Junior Division (U13)	Senior Division (13-16)	Masters Division (17+)
1st	Cory Connor	Carson Confer	Wolfey Glick
2nd	Shu Harasaki	Yuki Wata	Jonathan Evans
3rd	Rikuto Noda	Mostafa Afr	Markus Stadter
4th	Enzo Reci	Kazuki Ogushi	Eduardo Cunha

2016 Final Standings (Trading Card Game)

Place	Junior Division (U13)	Senior Division (13-16)	Masters Division (17+)
1st	Shunto Sadahiro	Jesper Eriksen	Shintaro Ito
2nd	Riku Ushirosako	Connor Pedersen	Cody Walinski
3rd	Roan Godfrey-Robbins	Rafli Attar	Samuel Hough
4th	Yuta Ozawa	Raphael Souto	Ross Cawthon

Images for kids

• 

  Attendees of the 2014 World Championships