Official Worlds Mini-Site
The 2014 Pokémon World Championships is this weekend! It will be streamed on Twitch starting with the Opening Ceremonies right up until the end as the best Pokémon players from across the world fly in to Washington, DC for their shot at the title of Pokémon World Champion.
Stream Schedule
This year, the stream is starting right from the beginning with the Opening Ceremonies at 9AM. The video game portion of the event will be casted by Nugget Bridge Co-Founders Evan Latt and Scott Glaza as well as Nugget Bridge Tournament Host Duy Ha and Twitch Personality Justin Flynn.
The Trading Card Game portion of the event will be casted by The Top Cut Co-Founders Kyle Sucevich and Josue Rojano as well as YouTube Personality Joshua Wittenkeller and The Pokémon Company International's Dylan Mayo.
All times in Eastern Daylight Time.
Saturday, August 16th, 2015
9:00 AM - Opening Ceremonies (Mega Kangaskhan was revealed during this last year)
9:30 AM - Round 1 of Swiss begins
3:00 PM - Approximately when elimination rounds (Top 8) should begin
5:00 PM - Video game stream ends to make way for TCG stream
Sunday, August 17th, 2015
9:00 AM - Trading Card Game Top 4 and Finals (3 Age Divisions)
3:00 PM - Video Game Finals - Junior Age Division
4:00 PM - Video Game Finals - Senior Age Division
5:00 PM - Video Game Finals - Masters Age Division
6:00 PM - Closing Ceremonies
Last Chance Qualifier
Weren't able to earn an invitation this year? The Last Chance Qualifier is held at the venue the day before the World Championships kicks off to give four more players an invite. Up to 512 players will face off in a best of three single elimination tournament. The final four remaining will be awarded an invitation to Worlds the next day in what players colloquilly refer to as "The Grinder."
Register online at http://2014.registration.pokemon.com. If there's room left, you can also try coming in to the venue the day of the tournament to to try and snag one of the last spots. Check-in begins at 10:00 AM and finishes at 11:00 AM.
Countries Represented
The followin countries have representatives at the World Championships in the video game this year:
- Austria
- Australia
- Canada
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Netherlands
- Poland
- South Africa
- South Korea
- United States
- United Kingdom
There will be three Pokémon employees to give signings this year:
- Junichi Masuda - Game Director, Composer
- Tsunekazu Ishihara - President, The Pokémon Company
- Hironobu Yoshida - Artist
Merchandise
The merchandise shop will have exclusive Pokémon products you can't buy anywhere else ever again. They'll also carry an assortment of goods from the Pokémon Center. The Worlds stuff usually sells out quick so get there very early Saturday morning (before the venue opens).
Spectators
The event is free to come watch and do all the activities -- including side tournaments open to all -- so if you're in the area and a Pokémon fan you absolutely owe it to yourself to stop by! This is the biggest Pokémon event of the year.
Symphonic Evolutions
The Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions concert series will kick off the day before the World Championships in DC . An orchestra will play these arrangements for the first time to an audience comprised of dedicated Pokémon fans from around the globe. If you're going, please do chime in with your impressions!
Coverage
Keep an eye on the official World Championships page as it will be updating throughout the weekend. The Pokémon staff did an amazing job with their Nationals updates and I expect Worlds to be even better.
As a shameless plug, I'll also be doing live updates through my site's Twitter as well as our main page. Our first article is up now which gives you a preview at the weekend's events to come as well as the players you might want to watch for and the stories going into this weekend!
Hope to see some of you there and even more following along at home!
