This weekend, from April 22 to 24, 2022, the International European Pokémon Championships took place. We had the chance to go there to follow some French players and soak up the atmosphere. Card game, video game, Pokkén Tournament and even Pokémon GO had dedicated areas for players to compete against each other and grab some Championship points in order to participate in Worlds this summer or just have fun.
At one of Germany's largest convention centers in Frankfurt , players from all over the world met for some frantic rounds of TCG (card game), VGC (video game) and fights. A nice mix of strategy and a particularly enjoyable atmosphere for the return of major IRL competitions.
Esports on Pokémon GO: still too little known?
The room is huge, the tables follow one another, hundreds of Staff and Judges are busy and the main stage explodes in color to broadcast the different matches of the day live on Twitch. Already well known to the competitive Pokémon scene, it only made sense that the VGC and TCG would take up most of the room, leaving only a few square feet for Niantic's mobile game. In truth, the place given to the activities obviously goes hand in hand with the number of players registered for the corresponding event. The most to be pitied then was not this expensive Pokémon GO but rather Pokkén Tournament, whose very small stand was located well away from the rest, next to the goodie shops. Moreover, PoGo had his moment of glory on several occasions by being at the center of the main stage and making thousands of views on his dedicated Twitch channel ! Note also that the cast was made by big names in the Pokémon GO scene (caleb peng / speedieschief / zyonik / 20butters), which in particular created a certain hype this weekend.
Dominik Schönleben, the global community manager of Pokémon GO, told us that content for the game was desired for at least the next ten years. It is in any case a strong will at Niantic above all not to abandon their flagship mobile game without neglecting other projects such as Ingress or the future monster collection game: Peridot.
Nothing to do with Pokkén, and yet the PoGO competition also struggled to attract players and spectators. A little less than 100 participants competed this weekend , a number not impactful enough according to Nicolas, PvP lover and competitor, but already good enough for a start. An engineer by profession, he didn't hesitate to get into Pokémon GO battles as a hobby to start and then to become an active member of a specialized Discord group. His goal ? Democratize and develop Pokémon GO PvP in France by bringing together other enthusiasts of the competitive aspect but also by initiating and coaching beginners who would like to try it.
If you want to know more, here are the Discord links dedicated to Pokémon GO PvP:
- LeFrenchPvP : the Discord of the competitive French community of PoGO,
- La Pouponnière du French : a Discord created especially for those who want to learn about PvP and get coached.
Finally, a big congratulations to the French who participated this weekend. There were seven of them and some of them managed to climb up to the Top 5! France is a great PvP nation that will probably go very far in future events (see you in particular in Lille, on May 21 and 22, 2022, for an official regional tournament). In the meantime, here are the big Pokémon GO winners from Frankfurt:
- 1st place Senior: Maxwell Ember (MEweedle) [GB]
- 2nd place Senior: Stefan Cojocaru (KrowMDIV) [DE]
- 1st place Master: Jakub Zatloukal (Aeeriils) [CZ]
- 2nd place Master: Domnik Wieber (Fr43ka) [DE]
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