This spring and summer, thousands of Pok�mon™ Trainers from around the globe will battle with their prized Pok�mon for a chance to claim victory at the 2010 Pok�mon Video Game Championships. The Pok�mon Company International today announced the upcoming tournament dates, locations, and new regulations for the most anticipated Pok�mon video game event of the year.
Pitting some of the world’s best Pok�mon players in head-to-head competition, the Pok�mon Video Game Championships are the only official Pok�mon video game tournaments. Due to the fantastic response from players who came from all over the world to compete in last year’s events, Pok�mon has increased the number of qualifying tournaments and the number of participants at each location for the 2010 event series. The series will also introduce the use of Legendary Pok�mon for the first time in recognition of the popular Pok�mon HeartGold Version and Pok�mon SoulSilver Version titles released earlier this year for the Nintendo DS™ family of hand-held systems. Legendary Pok�mon are some of the most powerful and hard-to-find Pok�mon in the Pok�mon universe.
In Europe, the Pok�mon Video Game Championship qualifiers kick off in Birmingham, UK on Saturday May 29, before heading to Germany, France and then Spain to determine who will get the chance to pit their skills against the best players from U.S. and Japan, at the World Championships in Hawaii, U.S.A.! In parallel with the European qualifier events, tournaments will be taking place in U.S. and Japan.
The European qualifier.schedule is as follows:
May 29, Birmingham, United Kingdom�National Exhibition Center,(The Pavilion hall)
June 5, Cologne, Germany�Pullman Hotel
June 12, Lyon, France�Cit� Centre de Congr�s (Forum 4)
June 19, Madrid, Spain�IFEMA, Feria de Madrid (N101-N104)
World Championships:
August 13, Kona, Hawaii *�Hilton Waikoloa Village
*Last Chance Qualifier for World Championships
At each Qualifier tournament, players from two different age divisions (Born in 1998 or later, and born in 1997 or earlier) will be selected on a first come, first served basis from those in attendance. The top four players from each age division will receive an invitation to compete on the ultimate stage�the 2010 Pok�mon Video Game World Championships in Kona, Hawaii on August 13-15. There, the European players will meet their international rivals from Japan and U.S. to determine the World Champion in each division. Top finishers will be awarded international travel packages, trophies, and special Pok�mon prizes.
“The return of the Pok�mon Video Game Championship season allows Pok�mon Trainers everywhere to join in and be part of the fun and excitement that Pok�mon is known for,” said J.C. Smith, director of consumer marketing for The Pok�mon Company International. “This year we’re increasing the number of tournaments and are implementing new rules to ensure some of the most fast-paced, exhilarating, and entertaining matches that the Pok�mon Video Game Championships have ever seen.”
Competitors in Europe will be required to play with the European versions of the Pok�mon HeartGold Version or Pok�mon SoulSilver Version Game Cards (U.S. events may only use North American versions of the game cards), which became available on March 26 at retailers across Europe. The tournament will use the Flat Battle and GS Cup rules sets. These exciting formats include an auto-level feature, which sets all Pok�mon that are above level 50 down to level 50 for the duration of the battle�allowing players to use some of the most powerful Legendary Pok�mon in battle.
Like last year’s tournaments, all attendees who bring their copy of Pok�mon HeartGold or SoulSilver Version can walk away with a character distribution. This year the Pok�mon distribution is a rarely seen Shiny Eevee™ that will be a different colour than it normally appears in game play.