Immense growth marks this year’s Pokemon worlds

SAN FRANCISCO, United States – The continuous growth of Pokemon was on full display in the Pokemon World Championships held here over the weekend.

A decade after the event was last held in San Francisco, Pokemon returned to the Golden City for a three-day event, which also included the Pokemon XP. 

And for Pokemon Director for Global Esports and Events Chris Brown, the difference between the two events is very stark. 

“Well, 2016, we were in the Marriott Marquis. We had about 70,000 square feet, about 4,000 total attendees, and I want to say the number of players was about 1,500 or so. Here, we're at about 2,700 players, a range of 50,000 unique attendees,” he said in an interview with reporters here.

“We've got 52-plus countries and regions, and we will be doing a million square feet plus of space while we're also doing the Chase Center finals, which is a whole arena production that 15,000 people will be attending. So organizationally, it is extremely difficult,” he added.

The first two days of the World Championships and the Pokemon XP were held at the Moscone Center here, while the final was held at the Chase Center. 

The event was so jam-packed that it resulted in long queues — from the Pokemon Center store, to the entry to the Pokemon XP, to the pin rallies, to the paid, and unpaid, experiences.

Thousands were also in attendance during the final of the world championships on Sunday (Monday, Manila time).

“There's so much now that goes into producing the show that we're not doing when the show is 4,000. We have 2,000 staff-ish now versus 4,000 total attendees 10 years ago, to give some idea of just the immense growth,” Brown said.

This year’s event also commemorated the 30th year anniversary since the first Pokemon Games — Red and Green — were launched. 

Sunday’s final day crowned new world champions.

In the last Pokemon Unite event in the World Championships, Japan’s Zeta Division ruled the competition after defeating Europe’s Komai. 

Japan’s Hiroki "GGs489hiromaru" Yamauchi defeated MEweedle in Pokemon Go in an emotional clash.

USA’s Andrew Hedrick (masters’ division,) Australia’s Jake Ng (seniors’ division) and Japan’s Yuta Araki (juniors’ division) also topped their respective events in the Pokemon Trading Card Game. 

In the Pokemon Video Game, Japan’s Takuma Yamazaki (masters’ division,)  UK’s Vikram Thiagarajan (seniors’ division) and Japan’s Kazuki Kage (juniors’ division) ruled as Pokemon Champions. 

After the high-octane matchups, several huge advisories were also made, highlighted by the  announcement by Pokemon president and CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara that next year’s world championships will be held in Singapore. 

A new feature-length movie, Pokemon: Wild Card, will also be released next year. 

Several updates for Pokemon Go, Pokemon Unite and Pokemon Champions were also announced. 

Morpeko, Toxtricity, Jolteon and Flareon will be playable Pokemon in Unite in upcoming updates. 

Pokemon that can Z Mega Evolution will likewise make their debut in Pokemon Champions on September, as well as Baxcalibur and Rillaboom.

New battle features and mega-evolved Pokemon will also be playable in Pokemon Go, as well as the Armored Mewtwo.

Aside from the video games, new Pokemon cards, such as Mega Lucario Z ex, Mega Rayquaza ex, Mega Darkrai ex, Mega Greninja ex and Mega Zygarde ex, will also be unveiled in the Pokemon Trading Card Game.

Legendary Pokémon Raikou, Entei and Suicune, coming soon to the Pokémon TCG in the newly revealed ex? Series.

And as the games continue to evolve, Brown stressed that he is hoping that local markets would continue to develop. 

“I think for us, running a world competition, my hope is that all competitors from anywhere feel they have a great chance to win,” he said. 

“I hope that their local market continues to develop so that they get stronger and that they're able to put their best players in those markets, to put their best foot forward and have, hopefully, a fantastic shot to win world championships.”