Pokémon National/International Tournament

[Showsni]

Now, I've only seen up to the start of Hoenn so perhaps they address this somewhere; but so far, the Pokémon anime (and the games, for that matter) have all been about the Regional competitions.

And it seems pretty obvious, that where you get a Regional Championship, surely they must feed in to a National Championship; a competition for the best Pokémon Trainers in the nation, presumably those who've won or come runner up in the Regional finals. The franchise seems to shy away from depicting the larger nation; but do you think the anime will ever show such a competition? With a possible long wait after Sinnoh for Gen. 5, it might be the ideal time for Ash to do well enough in the Sinnoh Regional Championship to be offered a place in a Nationwide tournament.

Similarly, are there any International Tournaments in the Pokémon World? The Pokémon World Cup?

 

[xNovaXx]

Well that would make sense to have an international conference, but I don't know that the writers would even consider having and/or showing an international competition. The top trainers from each regional conference would go to the Inter/National conference which would limit the total regional conferences, thus limiting the amount of regions which Ash could travel to. I just can't see the writers limiting themselves in this regard, especially with the amount of revenue that they are bringing in. Maybe if the anime was ending they might, but otherwise I don't see it happening.

 

[Sleet]

It seems logical that there would be higher tournaments, considering how popular Pokémon battles seem to be in the Pokémon universe. It's just never come up because Ash has never been good enough to qualify for anything beyond regionals.

That gives me an idea. It'd be cool if Ash would win Sinnoh (or at least come in second, depending on the rules), then they could dedicate a filler arc to a national tournament. The only problem would be that if Ash gets curb stomped, then it won't be very enjoyable for little kids and they get to show fewer battles, but if Ash does well, it wouldn't make sense if he suddenly starts beating numerous people who win tournaments he couldn't keep up with. It'll never happen, but it'd be cool if they could work it out.