2013 Pokémon World Championships Details
We’re just over three months away from the 2013 Pokémon World Championships and information has gone live involving many aspects of the competition.
Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ)
For players who aren’t currently in contention for an invite, the biggest question on their minds is about the Last Chance Qualifier. The LCQ takes place on Friday August 9th, 2013 and allows once final chance at an invite in a single elimination tournament with the last few standing moving onto the World Championships the next day. The format will be as follows:
- Single Elimination, Best of 3 with 20 Minute time limit per game
- Top 4 in each age division move on to the World Championships the next day
Registration will be at 8:00 AM. Anyone not in line by 8:30 AM will not be allowed to enter. Those not in their seats for the Player Meeting at 9:30AM will be disqualified. Unlike the TCG, there is no Play! Point requirement to enter the Video Game Last Chance Qualifier.
Worlds Tournament Structure
The Pokémon World Championships is an invite-only event. There will be a number of best-of-three swiss rounds to determine the top 8 players who will move onto the single elimination portion of the tournament on Sunday. The last player standing at the end of the Best of 3, single elimination event in each age division will be crowned the World Champion!
Prizes
Prizes are awarded to the top 16 players in each age division.
Junior Division: Born in 2002 or later
Senior Division: Born in 1998, 1999, 2000, or 2001
Masters Division: Born in 1997 or earlier
The top 16 finishers in each of the three age divisions receive the following prizes:
1st Place
- A Pokémon World Champion Trophy
- Championship points equal to the invitation level (To Be Announced) for the 2014 World Championships
- A Travel Award for the winner (and parent or legal guardian for players considered minors) to the 2014 World Championships
- A scholarship award worth $3,500
- Exclusive Pokémon World Championships merchandise
- Two boxes of the next upcoming Pokémon TCG expansion
2nd Place
- A Pokémon World Championships Second-Place Trophy
- Championship points equal to the invitation level (TBA) for the 2014 World Championships
- A Travel Award for the winner (and parent or legal guardian for players considered minors) to the 2014 World Championships
- A scholarship award worth $1,500
- Exclusive Pokémon World Championships merchandise
- Two boxes of the next upcoming Pokémon TCG expansion
3rd Place
- A Pokémon World Championships Third-Place Trophy
- Exclusive Pokémon World Championships merchandise
- Two boxes of the next upcoming Pokémon TCG expansion
- Championship Points (specific award TBA)
4th Place
- A Pokémon World Championships Fourth Place Trophy
- Exclusive Pokémon World Championships merchandise
- Two boxes of the next upcoming Pokémon TCG expansion
- Championship Points (specific award TBA)
5th through 8th Place
- Exclusive Pokémon World Championships merchandise
- Two boxes of the next upcoming Pokémon TCG expansion
- Championship Points (specific award TBA)
9th through 16th Place
- Two boxes of the next upcoming Pokémon TCG expansion
From this, it seems our prizes may have been extended to include the Top 16 rather than just Top 8 like last year. Additionally, the Championship Point prizes seem to indicate we might be moving to a system like the TCG next year where everyone who passes a certain Championship Point threshold will receive an invitation to the 2014 World Championships!
Miscellaneous Information
The 2013 Pokémon World Championships will take place at the Vancouver Convention Centre
Vancouver Convention Centre
1055 Canada Pl
Vancouver, BC V6C 0C3 Canada
Phone: 604-689-8232
The event is open to spectators and completely free to watch or play in. The tournament will be run using the official ruleset.
Further Information:
About the Author
Firestorm is one of the co-founders of Nugget Bridge and the Community Manager for eSports Tournament Platform Battlefy. He has been playing Pokémon since 1999, competitively since 2007, and attending tournaments since 2010. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with a degree in Interactive Art & Technology + Communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @rushanshekar.
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24 Responses to 2013 Pokémon World Championships Details
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Looks like the links relating to the LCQ needs some updating still since one mentions Hawaii and the other is broken, but a little bummed they aren’t openly making LCQ a bracket. Last year it was one even though they presented it as though it was random Swiss pairings, would have enjoyed them playing off of that and seeding the bracket with CP.
Of course, while it’s probably just copy pasta this is the most interesting part of that link
Horrific Top X CP system removed after one year to establish CP predictions as seen in TCG???
Also Huy and I feel very trolled if top 16 actually getting something at Worlds is accurate and not also copy pasta
Good, now I can buy my bus tickets to Vancouver without worry of LCQ not being there. Now I just need to cram into someone’s hotel lol.
I think it should only be top 4 make it to the next day because if you lose more than once you don’t deserve to make it to the final day.
Seriously pissed that last years worlds didn’t earn CP. But I am glad we get more tcg cards instead of a 3ds because none of us like video games. I mean they can make pikachu 3dsxl’s but can’t make customized 3ds’s for top 8? I love tpci logic
TPCi still trying to convert VGC players into TCG.
oops. got me.
holy crap thats pretty cool that if you are in the top half of the competition you get 2 boxes, so around like 200ish bucks
It only works on the weak
sorry i am not strong like you guys
So I expected to see some prize changes since the prize money given out at Regionals was less this year but this is sad to see lol, I really wanted to see better prizes at the top (more scholarship money for 1st and 2nd, trips/worlds invites to Top 4) than this.
I like how game systems are given out at Nationals again this year but not at Worlds… instead we get TCG cards that’s just awesome
Idk, some people do both. I like both the VGC and TCG. Though I’ll probably not be good enough to qualify for anything since this is my first year even attempting competitive pokemon. The article didn’t mention where the LCQs will be taking place. Anyone know?
The same place as the world championships
I play both pretty competitively but that doesn’t mean I want TCG cards as a VGC prize.
Well, if any of you don’t want any boxes, sell them for about $100 each and make some money
Well, people still don’t realize that these VGC events including worlds are relatively low-cost (an entire set of a cheap and working DS and a copy of BW2 can cost less than $60) and the events themselves are free, so I can understand the rather low prizes for the non-finalists
Except that the real cost comes from travel, but for some that’s a non-issue due to either being close to Vancouver or previous tournament winnings (Nats).
I don’t really mind the cards, and as Ludi said, you can just sell them.
VGC World Championship 16th place gets Two boxes (72 packs total) of the next upcoming Pokémon TCG expansion.
TCG World Championship 5th place gets 36 booster packs.
That’s kinda amusing.
I’m going to be upset when i get 5th at worlds.
Three months does not seem like a long time!!!
BOOSTER BOXES FOR PARTICIPATING
I’m gonna get 17th and flop or get armageddon donked out of top 12 at nats now that I said that, but 2 booster boxes is always okay with me. I’m just a casual TCG player, but it’s still a great reward for all the hours of effort that go into preparing for that and reaching that goal.
Pls don’t be a typo :c
Also maybe roadtripping this cause there’s a ton of cool places to visit on the way to Coover
I still don’t get how after all these years they don’t have a $5 entree fee to be able to give out better prizes. Like seriously.
I think that a $5 entry fee might cause playing pokemon to be considered a form of gambling, which isnt the best thing for pokemons brand to be associated with
While worlds didn’t have a fee iirc, every other tournament in the USA used to have an entry fee with it, Pokemon events have been free for a long while now but any older players should remember having to pay. Believe me there are pros and cons, granted if you’re a top player then you probably don’t mind ponying up money for better prizes since you know odds are you will place high enough to be worth the investment and the worse players (in a way) are subsidizing your prize.. But for the better percentage of players out there who aren’t as good, then they feel like they lose out. Under this system, now those people don’t feel like they’re losing with free entrance, but the people who win now want more. So eh, like I said, pros and cons to both.
WOAH, VGC gets tcg boosters now????
SO MUCH trading cards
My son and I played cards for 2+ years, but as the VGC has expanded over the last two years, we haven’t had time to play the cards much. It seems odd that Pokemon is offering cards to the VGC players as part of the prize package (plus the promo card all competitors get for every event), especially since the circuit doesn’t allow one to be competitive at both cards and the video game. I’m not saying that there aren’t people who are good at both, but the TCG and VGC shedules overlap for Regionals, Nationals, and Worlds.
I actually remember two regionals last year where I was temporarily worried my son would make it into top cut of cards, which would’ve led to a tough decision since TCG top cut and VGC were scheduled simultaneously (didn’t really have much to worry about there, as he’s much better at the video game). We prefer the video game, though we did just drop $60 on a pre-release tournament today (only to pull no cards of value). As a parent, the VGC is cheaper to support, but I have also enjoyed playing the cards at times. With three Regional and five Wi-fi tournaments, we haven’t ventured out to a State TCG or Battle Roads so far this year.
That’s a lot of intro text, but I’m thinking that VGC Worlds competitors generally don’t have a way to compete in the TCG at a high level. If nothing else, the overlapping schedules of the main events are prohibitive.
I think the point people are not understanding is that TCG gets upwards of 7 times the prize support. They couldn’t even bother stamping some extra tropical beaches for Video game top cut players. So a 1 cent cost to TPCI caused top 8 players to lose out on hundreds of dollars.
The whole point of these events, according to their business model and investor relations, is to “Satisfy dedicated fans.” Going to worlds (and other tournaments) is such a blast that people who attend are more likely to keep buying pokemon products for the rest of their lives. The prize support is supposed to be enticing enough to attract new players to expand the pokemon brand and get more people to attend events. If they increased the prizes, more people would compete which would mean:
More players attending worlds = more people who are dedicated pokemon fans for life = more profits.