2014 Pokémon World Championships Schedule, Prizes, & LCQ Registration Info
With less than a month left to go, players are making plans for their Pokémon World Championship weekend in Washington, DC! Not everyone has an invitation to play though so there will be great interest in the Last Chance Qualifier being held on Friday, August 15th, 2014. We what you need to know for that as well as the schedule for the weekend so you know where you need to be and when!
Last Chance Qualifier
Much like US Nationals, registration for the Last Chance Qualifier will be done online. If there are any spots left over — or there are players who don’t show up — players will be able to register at the venue. To register online, you are required to have 1 Play! Point tied to your account on Pokemon.com. If you’ve played in any of the following over the course of this season, you should have the necessary points:
- Video Game National Championship
- Video Game Regional Championship
- Premier Challenge
- International Challenge (May or June)
- Sanctioned Video Game Tournament
- League (must have opted in to receive video game points rather than TCG)
If you’re missing the Play! Point you need due to an error, it may not be too late to submit a support ticket to get it added but no guarantees are made. Remember, you are responsible for keeping your Pokémon account up to date throughout the season.
Registration Schedule
At 9:00 AM Pacific (18:00 CEST) on Wednesday, July 23rd, you will be able to register for the Last Chance Qualifier on the Registration Page. Only the first 512 Masters, 256 Seniors, and 256 Juniors will be accepted.
Check-In Schedule
Though you register online, you must still be present or check-in at the venue to be allowed to play. Check-in starts on Friday, August 15th at 10:00 AM and anyone not in line before 11:00 AM will forfeit their right to play. Your battle box is locked at check-in.
The Players’ Meeting will happen at 1:00 PM. If you are not in your seat for the Players’ Meeting, you will be removed from the event.
Structure & Prizes
The Last Chance Qualifier is a best of three single elimination tournament. The final four players remaining will be awarded invitations to the 2014 Pokémon World Championships happening the next day.
World Championships
Players have a bit of work to do before the actual World Championships start!
Confirmation Schedule
On Thursday, July 24th, at 7:00 AM (16:00 CEST), you will be able to accept your invitation to the World Championship on the same page that your clearly inferior friends registered for the LCQ the day before.
Check-In Schedule
You must check-in at the venue at the correct time to be eligible to play. Check-in begins at 5:00 PM on Friday, August 15th. You must check-in before 7:00 PM. The Players’ Meeting will begin promptly at 7:00 PM and The Pokémon Company International is aiming to have everyone out by 7:30 PM so that competitors can enjoy the Pokémon: Symphonic Evolutions concert premiere at 8:00 PM that night.
Event Schedule
Friday, August 15th, 2014
| TCG LCQ Check-In | 8:00 AM – 8:30 AM |
| TCG LCQ Begins | 9:00 AM |
| Information Desk | 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Video Game LCQ Check-In | 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM |
| Video Game LCQ Begins | 1:00 PM |
| World Championships Check-In | 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM |
| World Championships Players’ Meeting | 7:00 PM – 7:30 PM |
| Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions Concert Begins | 8:00 PM |
| Retail for Competitors & Staff | TBA |
Saturday, August 16th, 2014
| Information Desk | 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM |
| Retail | 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM |
| Opening Ceremonies | 9:00 AM |
| Round 1 Begins | 9:30 AM |
| Creative Center | 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM |
| Side Tournaments | 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM |
Sunday, August 17th, 2014
| TCG Final Rounds | 8:30 AM – 3:00 PM |
| Retail | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM |
| Creative Center | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM |
| Side Tournaments | 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM |
| Pre-Release TCG Tournaments | 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM |
| Video Game Finals | 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM |
| Closing Ceremonies | 6:00 PM |
Please note that this schedule is always subject to change as the tournament evolves. The current plan is to have all video game matches from Round 1 of the Swiss rounds to the Semi-Finals match finished on Saturday with only the finals of each age division played on Sunday. There will be no lunch break on any of the days so if you are competing you’ll want to pack something or have a friend do a food run.
A stream schedule has not been released at this time.
Prizes
Prizes for the World Championship this year are very similar to last year though you will notice that there are no Championship Points awarded for the 2015 season to anyone in the Top 8 outside the automatic invites granted to the first and second place finishers.
1st Place
- A Pokémon World Champion Trophy
- An invitation to the 2015 World Championships
- A Travel Award for the winner (and parent or legal guardian for players considered minors) to the 2015 World Championships
- A scholarship award worth $3,500
- Two boxes of Pokémon TCG: XY—Flashfire expansion booster packs
2nd Place
- A Pokémon World Championships Second-Place Trophy
- An invitation to the 2015 World Championships
- A Travel Award for the winner (and parent or legal guardian for players considered minors) to the 2015 World Championships
- A scholarship award worth $1,500
- Two boxes of Pokémon TCG: XY—Flashfire expansion booster packs
3rd Place
- A Pokémon World Championships Third-Place Trophy
- An invitation to the 2015 World Championships
- Two boxes of Pokémon TCG: XY—Flashfire expansion booster packs
4th Place
- A Pokémon World Championships Fourth-Place Trophy
- An invitation to the 2015 World Championships
- Two boxes of Pokémon TCG: XY—Flashfire expansion booster packs
5th through 8th Place
- Two boxes of Pokémon TCG: XY—Flashfire expansion booster packs
9th through 16th Place
- Two boxes of Pokémon TCG: XY—Flashfire expansion booster packs
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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61 Responses to 2014 Pokémon World Championships Schedule, Prizes, & LCQ Registration Info
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that one hour earlier opening for merch sounds great. definatly up for getting there early to camp and getting to see the opening ceremony as well.
Worlds is for players, not for spectators.
And players deserve a lunch break. There might be a gap for the stream but this should end in better matches. Its not only about having lunch, its about having a break.
If I understand correctly there are 512 spots. Just going by my personal experience of LCQ in Hawaii 2012, it’s unlikely it’ll fill up at all.
So…anyone else remember the better prizes of yesteryear compared to their current offerings?
Likely the spots won’t all fill up, but considering its not being held on a prohibitively expensive vacation island this year (as well as being along the east coast), I would expect a better LCQ turnout. So you never know, it could come close.
I’m going to have to disagree with you there. I think Worlds is definitely about the players, yes, but it is even more so about the spectators- or a better word might be audience. If spectators meant the people watching on Worlds TV sets like in 2010 or 2011, I would be inclined to agree that the players come first. However, every Worlds since then we’ve had a much larger audience thanks to the streaming. The streams that are being set up are doing an incredible amount to grow our game and its viewership. I don’t understand how whining about prize support and noticing the lack of a lunch break are happening in the same thread, even- if we want our game to grow, so we can get more prize support, more events, and more people to play, we’ve /got/ to make streaming a priority.
Yes, I’ve played in worlds. My only worlds debut had 15 games- all 5 matches went to best of 3. I understand how tiring these tournaments can be and what’s on the line emotionally. The thing about this lack of a lunch break is- we know about it now. Get really good sleep the night before. Arrange for friends to bring you food or bring snacks. In fact, I’ll probably bring a massive tub of cookies or brownies again which you can have if you want. The lack of a “break” in general is really lame, I agree. But the fact of the matter is what needs to happen to grow the game comes first- and should come first, in my opinion.
It is tough to juggle all the different factors (TCG needs, VG needs, livestream/spectator needs, staff needs, etc.). The solution of playing a single round in potentially two shifts is intriguing and may be something implemented next year (keeps content for spectators while also giving a break) – for 2014 though the schedule is set.
While there is the possibility that a few may see most matches go to game 3, in general there should be at least a couple 15-20 minute breaks during the day due to quick 2-0 matches. Please plan accordingly.
Also – still plenty of spots available for the LCQ.
Just registered for LCQ. See you all there!
Can someone send me the link to the registration for lcq please ???
No. If you can’t find it in the article, I don’t believe in your ability to show up at the right time and place for the LCQ so you’d just be wasting a spot.
Anyway, I’m registered!
Blast. Two of my friends never got their points for the international challenge and Mexico City premier. And like usual, support is taking weeks to reply. Rant rant rant rant-
There’s my rant. >:l
A couple of thoughts given my experience from the past years:
Prizes
While it’s never actually written in the prize desciption, the extra goodies you get for top cutting (i.e. custom Timbuk2 bags, top 8/4/finalist/champion hat, stamped TCG card, hopefully the Top 4 trainer card) are actually really cool. I’d love to see custom DSes make a return, especially since Japan’s been giving them out for some tournaments this year, but I’m not really counting on that. Being more realistic though, I hope that TCPi sticks with the same stuff. The bags have been really nice, the hat is a cool prize to take away, and the stamped cards are super profitable if you decide to sell them, especially the top 4 trainer cards. If they do decide to give out the Top 4 cards again this year (which they absolutely should), I hope they don’t make the same mistake and give the VGC players cards stamped with “TCG” and either specific VGC World Championships or just say Pokemon World Championships in general.
In addition, I feel as if TCPi could add a bit more to the prize pool that wouldn’t cost them too much and would be super profitable to the players. For example, give everyone who top cuts an extra competitor package! I know they tend to have a good amount left over after the event (I actually saw all the extra packages back in 2012). I don’t think it’d be too hard for them to give out 24 extra packages, and I know every player would really appreciate it. It would be cool to also see more stuff like the top8/4/finalist/champion hats they give out (DS cases maybe)? I know they gave out stamped playmats this year at Nationals for TCG playersand having something like that for VGC players would be awesome.
Also, with the release of Pokemoncenter.com, it would be awesome to get gift cards for that site. It’s definitely more useful than TCG boxes as there’s stuff for everyone to buy, and with the release date right before Worlds, it would be a great plug-in while on stream (“In addition to all these amazing prizes, the top 8 competitors will also all get a $100 gift card to Pokemoncenter.com, which conveniently opened just last week”).
I’m just rambling now but how about giving all the players in top cut a signed card (like the ones they gave the people who received the Pokemoncenter.com package) from the guys that actually work at Pokemon? I’ve been to Worlds four times but never actually had the time to line up to get their signatures. Imagine how cool this would be though, especially for the younger kids. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just a small postcard with the Worlds art in the back and something simple like “Dear _____, Congrats on your incredible finish at the World Championships!” Signed by Masuda and Ishihara. The older players might find this a bit tacky but I know the younger kids would love it (and I personally would too)!
Even interviews with top cut players that can be posted onto the Pokemon YouTube would be awesome! My point is that there is a lot that Pokemon can do to make the prizes better, even if they’re not tangible or worth actual monetary value (remember top 4 from 2012 being included in the PWT?) and I’d like to see more of an effort to do so. I don’t know how fesible my examples really but I feel like at least some suggestions are realistic.
Scheduling
Having played 20 straight games at Worlds last year, I can share my personal experience. Yes, it sucks that there’s no lunch break, and yes, for the players who top cut, it’s an exhausting journey. I always think about how my top 4 set against Ryosuke would have gone if I had even some time to think about it, especially I made some key mistakes in that set.
But honestly? I don’t think it’s the end of the world. Worlds is run really smoothly so the rounds go by quickly. You’ll always have some down time between rounds to get your thoughts together and stay collected. (Protip, leaving the actual hall/listening to music/isolating yourself can help a lot. I personally get more stressed when I have everyone asking me how my games just went). People are kind enough to go and grab something for you if you really need the food. I know Wolfe prepared in advance for this in 2012 and bought two Subway sandwiches the night before, and just look at how he finished.
And about the quality of the matches… I know it’s easy to say you’ll play better after a good night’s rest, but I’m honestly not sure if I agree with that. Despite the SWAGGER, I thought last year’s quarter-finals and semi-finals were really exciting to watch/play in… compared to Arash just 4-0ing Ryosuke in the finals. if you’re playing in the finals of Worlds, you have a whole night to make your game plan. Brendan thought Fuko’s leads out, and I remember Arash saying he spent some time planning with Matteo (while Ryosuke just celebrated all night lol), and look how those sets played out. Don’t get me wrong, I feel as if I had a night to prepare for top cut last year, I would have had a better shot at winning it all (especially against Ryosuke given the fact his entire team was online and I could have done damage calculations and even recreate his team to practice against), but it’s a huge advantage and I think it’s why the majority of the Worlds finals have been a 2-0.
Unreality echoed my thoughts exactly about trying to make the game grow with streaming and I think it’s worth doing so at the cost of playing two extra matches the day of.
guys my friend tried to sign up at 2:50 EST and he says he couldnt. are all the masters slots already filled up??? I got in at around 2:10.
I was able to sign up without hassle, but I’ve noticed a lot of people have had issues signing up and getting denied.
I got denied. It said that it couldn’t find a player with my POP ID. I filed a ticket with support on pokemon.com, and everyone else who had the same problem should do so as well.
Have you:
I have done both.
Are you attending the 2014 World Championships or know someone who is? A mass funfest mission for Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 is being organized but we need a lot of people! The funfest mission will start at approximately 1:00 PM on Saturday, August 16. Check the link for more information and please send it to anyone who may be going to the championships or might be interested. Even if you don’t care about medals, we would appreciate the help! (We need at least 30 people). Thanks, hope to see you there!
pokemonfunfestmission.splashthat.com
With all this concern about having a dead time in the stream during a lunch break couldn’t that easily be filled with say the commentators that are being paid to commentate? It would be no different than any other half time report for any sporting event ever. They could talk about who’s maintained an x-0 or x-1 record through whatever amount of swiss rounds have gone by that point, give us updates on how last years worlds winners and runner-ups are doing along with many other interesting and time filling topics.
If you didn’t opt into the Play! Pokémon program before ~July 14th then your ID was not included in the main data pull for the LCQ and will need to be added via a ticket to customer service. There are still plenty of spots available.
Also, if you have opted in after ~July 14th, the Play! Points for competitions in the 2013-2014 season will not be added to the account since we are now in the 2014-2015 season.
I don’t get the scholarship awards? Like how does that benefit older players? The prize support seems really lackluster tbh, talking strictly prize support a lot of regionals had better prizes. I’m not going so I guess I can’t really complain, but seems poor for the player’s that have invested a lot to get there. :/
I’m hoping it can be used to cut a bit of money off student loans. Besides that, yeah, it’d be pretty much useless for me. I guess Pokémon is designed for children though.
Not that I’m going to win anyway ;_;
I would just like to say how impressed I am at how fast the customer service replied to my ticket. They sent a reply in less than 24 hours and I was able to register right after getting a reply.
I have been waiting for a reply to my mails from pokemoncoordinator for over a week now so unfortunately it does not seem like that is the average with pokemon.
In my opinion Top4 should get CP even in this year.
Because for most european people an Invite is not as good as for americans(americans want to get an invite, european need a paid trip)
Still no more customized DSes like the 2009 and 2010 worlds for top cut…
You guys literally have the same amount of paid trips as America has invites.
But for americans an invite is more or less a good bonus but for european its not a bonus because the person with invite needs cp for paid trip to.
And why don’t add t4 cp because also americans plays after invite only for paid trip and can’t steal any invite
As far as a break in the stream goes for lunch, that could also be remedied by staggering the lunch for Juniors/Seniors and Masters to stream some of their matches as well.
Or record more than what can be live streamed and play those matches during the break if you really need to have something going on the stream.
I like the second idea, but that’d require multiple sets of cameras/commentators/commentator booths etc. Might not be the most practical.
The first idea is tough on families that all play.
Well, at nationals there were several games being streamed at once on different screens so perhaps there is a way to save those matches?
I don’t know, obviously there are a lot of things to go into changing anything. I’m just throwing ideas out.