Play! Pokémon

Earlier today, The Pokémon Company International unveiled a host of changes to the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG), Video Game (VGC) and Pokémon GO Championships (VGC) in the lead up to the 2024-2025 Championship series.

Play! Pokemon has unveiled the latest set of rules and regulations in competitive Pokemon for quarter two of 2024.

Fantasy Sports have long since been a staple of sporting discourse, allowing fans to argue about which players are the best with purpose. For Pokémon fans wanting their share of the fun, Pokémon Fantasy Team has returned for another vague approximation of a Fantasy League. This time, the event being predicted is the 2024 North America International Championships, which will be occurring this weekend from June 7th to June 9th. All entries must be submitted before June 6th, at 9:00pm (PDT).

The Pokémon Europe International Championships are taking place this weekend at the enormous ExCeL Centre in London, England. Fans will be able to catch all the action via livestreams on the various official Pokémon Twitch and YouTube channels, as some of the world's most talent trainers compete in the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Video Games, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon GO, and Pokémon UNITE to qualify for a place at the 2024 Pokémon World Championships, which this year being held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Registration for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet's 2024 Global Challenge III Online Competition will open next week on March 21st at Midnight (UTC). Registration will remain open until the end of the month, with the competition itself scheduled to run from March 29th, at Midnight (UTC) through to March 31st, at 11:59pm (UTC).

Registration for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet's 2024 Global Challenge II Online Competition will open next week on February 22nd at Midnight (UTC). Registration will remain open until the end of the month, with the competition itself scheduled to run from March 1st, at Midnight (UTC) through to March 3rd, at 11:59pm (UTC).

The Pokémon Europe International Championships are coming once again to the enormous ExCeL London event center in England. Running from from April 5th to 7th, the event will feature competitions for the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet video games, Pokémon GO, and Pokémon UNITE. As with the 2022 Pokemon World Championships and 2023 Pokémon Europe International Championships which were also held at this venue, a pop-up Pokémon Center store will be available at the event, selling a wide variety of Pokémon products, including a range of items themed around the International Championships.

In an update posted today to the Official Pokémon Homepage, The Pokémon Company International has announced that the latest series of Play! Pokémon Prize Packs will be available starting February 14th. Players will be able to acquire these special 6-card booster packs by participating in various Play! Pokémon events, including Leagues, League Challenges, and League Cups, at participating retail locations.

The Pokémon Japan Championships 2024 video game tournaments and qualifiers were officially announced earlier this week through the Japanese Poké Portal News in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. The PJCS2024 is being held as a series of official online competitions for Japanese players in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.

The Pokémon Company International have announced that Play! Pokémon events at local retailers in Latin America will now also include officially sanctioned events for Pokémon GO, on top of the existing Pokémon Trading Card Game events already being held at these retailers.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season 14 has now begun, and will run through to January 31st, at 11:59pm (UTC). This season follows the new Regulation Set F, which expands the list of allowable Pokémon to include those found in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 2: The Indigo Disk. The sign-up period for the Blueberry Prologue is also now open, with the competition itself scheduled to start January 12th at Midnight (UTC). An official acknowledgement has also been issued for a bug with the move Dragon Cheer.

The Pokémon Latin America International Championships of the 2023 to 2024 Play! Pokémon season took place in São Paulo in Brazil from 17 to 19 November which was the first International Championships event of the season. The Top 8 players of each division have been confirmed by the Pokémon Company International. The most popular Pokémon in teams for Pokémon GO and VGC and the most popular deck archetypes and their percentages of popularity on Day 2 of the Latin America International Championships were also shown in the livestream on the Official Pokémon YouTube Channel.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season 12 began earlier this week on November 1st, and will continue through to November 30th, at 11:59pm (UTC). This season follows Regulation Set E, which came into force at the beginning of October with the start of Season 11, expanding the list of allowable Pokémon to include those found in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask.

The Pokémon Regional Championships in San Antonio, Texas for the 2023-2024 season will be held between the 15th and 17th of December at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Centre, with registration opening on RK9 Labs from Wednesday 18th at 7:00pm (CDT) / Thursday October 19th at Midnight (UTC). This event will host tournaments for the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon Video Games (VGC), and Pokémon GO, with players competing to earn championship points towards qualifying for the 2024 Pokémon World Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii in August 2024.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season 11 has begun, and will run through to October 31st, at 11:59pm (UTC). This season follows the new Regulation Set E, which expands the list of allowable Pokémon to include those found in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season Regulation Set E will come into force with the start of the next Season on October 1st, running through to November 30th at 11:59pm (UTC). This new regulation set will expand the list of allowable Pokémon to include those found in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season 10 has begun, and will run through to September 30th, at 11:59pm (UTC). This season, which will run through to August 31st, at 11:59pm (UTC), will follow Regulation Set D, which came into force at the beginning of July with the start of Season 8.

As you may have heard, several competitors at the recent 2023 Pokémon World Championships were disqualified due to using hacked Pokémon. The logical question to then ask is: why? Much like in regular sports, we see cheating happen among top players who clearly already have the skills required to win - surely they wouldn't need to cheat, right? For Pokémon, though, the cheating is not compensating for lack of skill, but for lack of time, and this is an issue the series has faced for a while.

The Pokémon Company International has released full information regarding the 2023 Pokémon World Championships Fantasy Team, a skill-based sweepstakes in which Trainers can use their knowledge of the Pokémon Trading Card Game and Pokémon Video Games to submit their predictions of which Pokémon will dominate the 2023 Pokémon World Championships. This sweepstakes is open only to Trainers aged 18 or older who are currently residing in the 50 United States or the District of Columbia. Trainers must have a Pokémon Trainer Club account to sign up for this sweepstakes, with registration closing on August 10th, at 8am (PDT).

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Ranked Battles Season 9 has begun. This season, which will run through to August 31st, at 11:59pm (UTC), will follow Regulation Set D, which came into force at the beginning of July with the start of Season 8.