Pokemon championship 2012 Season (USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea)

There are three age divisions in Pokemon:

1. Born in 2001 or later (Juniors aka Adorable Division :3)
2. Born in 1997 – 2000 (Seniors aka Raging Hormones Division)
3. Born in 1996 or Earlier (Masters aka There’s HOW many Pokemon?! Division)

This is all you really need to know to start practising and forming teams:

• All matches are played in Doubles format using Pokemon Black or Pokemon White
• Pokemon above Level 50 will be brought down to 50 for the match while those below 50 will stay as-is
• Players choose 4 of their 6 registered Pokemon after team preview
• No two Pokemon may have the same Pokedex number
• No two Pokemon may hold the same item
• Dark Void and Sky Drop are banned
• Pokemon ineligible for Battle Subway are banned:
  • 150 – Mewtwo
  • 151 – Mew
  • 249 – Lugia
  • 250 – Ho-Oh
  • 251 – Celebi
  • 382 – Kyogre
  • 383 – Groudon
  • 384 – Rayquaza
  • 385 – Jirachi
  • 386 – Deoxys
  • 483 – Dialga
  • 484 – Palkia
  • 487 – Giratina
  • 489 – Phione
  • 490 – Manaphy
  • 491 – Darkrai
  • 492 – Shaymin
  • 493 – Arceus
  • 494 – Victini
  • 643 – Reshiram
  • 644 – Zekrom
  • 646 – Kyurem

Full Rules

Regional competitions happen across the United States and Canada in November and April. They’re done in swiss tournament format. The top player receives a fully paid trip to their National Championship. 2nd – 4th all get a $300 travel allowance. 1st and 2nd also get byes for their first two rounds at Nationals.

Japan also has regionals leading into a National but I’m not sure when or where they are. They were cancelled last year due to the earthquake. Korea had two regionals last year and the winner of each was sent to Worlds directly.

USA
November 13th, 2011

• Long Beach, CA
• Lake Buena Vista, FL
• Ft Wayne, IN
• Crestwood, MO
• Salem, OR
• Providence, RI
• Doswell, VA

April 15th, 2012

• Pleasanton, CA
• Colorado Springs, CO
• Athens, GA
• Philadelphia, PA
• Houston, TX
• Madison, WI

Canada
April 15th, 2012

• Surrey, BC
• Toronto, ON

National competitions are very large scale events. If like last year, the North American ones will have a swiss tournament with a top 16 going into a single elmination best of three.

North America

• Toronto, Canada
• Indianapolis, USA | June 29th – July 1st, 2012

Europe
European Nationals will be happening a bit earlier this year (starting March instead of June!) and will continue to be an open Nationals with no Regionals required. The top four will win invites and trips to Worlds in Hawaii. It’s unknown if it’ll be single elimination, but there seems to be a good chance that it will be a swiss competition.

• Birmingham, UK | March 3rd, 2012
• Essen, Germany | March 10th, 2012
• Paris, France | March 17th, 2012
• Madrid, Spain | March 24th, 2012
• Milan, Italy | April 1st, 2012

Worlds is an invite-only event (although they hold a single elimination last chance qualifier the day before which you can try to get in through) and the largest Pokemon event of the year. Last year’s was held in San Diego, CA, USA and had Jun Masuda and other staff around for fans to meet. There will be a best of three swiss tournament leading into a single elimination best of three to determine the world champion. The top two finishers both receive fully paid invites to the world championship the next year with the winner receiving an additional vacation package for four to his or her choice of Tokyo, New York, or Hawaii.

August 10th – 12th, 2012

• Kona, HI, USA

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They’re honestly a ton of fun to play in even if you’re not very good =) Here’s a story of US Nationals from one of the younger players and a story at Worlds by someone in the Masters Division with tons of pictures.

I know GAF has people who follow RTS, Fighting, and FPS games on a competitive level so hopefully they’re some love for this from some people at least ;D There’s a ton more information on the Smogon VGC Boardif you’d like to poke around.