2015 Pokémon World Championships Location & Qualification Info
The site of the 2015 Pokémon World Championships has finally been announced alongside qualification info! Keep an eye out for flights as it will take place in Boston, MA, USA from August 21st to 23rd at:
Hynes Convention Center
900 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02115
Phone: 617-954-2000
There will be no Last Chance Qualifier this year. You must qualify for the invite-only World Championships to play in the main event. Spectators are welcome to attend and watch the most exciting matches of the season! As always, there will also be all sorts of side events and activities to do as a spectator including autograph signings by key Pokémon staff and the chance to purchase exclusive merchandise that will never be released again.
Qualification
The top players from each region as determined by Championship Points will receive an invitation for the Pokémon World Championships. To earn Championship Points, you must attend events throughout the year including Premier Challenges, Regional Championships, and National Championships. The higher you place, the more points you earn at each event.
| Masters Division | Senior Division | Junior Division | |
| US and Canada | Top 40 | Top 40 | Top 24 |
| Europe | Top 60 | Top 60 | Top 36 |
| Latin America | Top 18 | Top 18 | Top 10 |
| Asia Pacific | Top 18 | Top 18 | Top 10 |
| South Africa | Top 2 | Top 2 | Top 2 |
As you can see, Asia Pacific has been added to the list of regions this year! Mexico has been separated from the USA and Canada and added to the new Latin America region as well. We should see plenty of new faces at Worlds this year. Japan and Korea will have separate qualification requirements as they have had in previous years.
Invitations will be finalized on July 13th, 2015. All issues with accounts must be reported by June 1st.
Tournament Structure
The players who qualify for the 2015 Pokémon World Championships will play off in the first day of competition on Friday, August 21st. All players who finish with two or fewer losses will move on to Day 2 of the competition. The top players from each region will be seeded directly into Day 2 of the competition and receive Travel Awards covering their flights and accommodations:
- The Top 8 players from the US and Canada rating zone
- The Top 16 players from the Europe rating zone
- The Top 2 players from the Latin America rating zone
- The Top 2 players from the Asia Pacific rating zone
Players in Korea and Japan will have their own ways of qualifying for both Day 1 and Day 2 of the competition that will be announced later. Players with invitations from the 2014 Pokémon World Championships will play in Day 1 unless they earn a bye into Day 2 this season through Championship Points.
Schedule
Again, there is no Last Chance Qualifier. Only those who have qualified for the World Championships will be able to play in the main tournament. Side tournaments will run all weekend for those looking to compete with other players for smaller prizes!
Friday, August 21st, 2015
Players who have an invitation to the 2015 Pokémon World Championships but did not earn a bye to day 2 by finishing near the top of their region will play off in a number of best-of-three Swiss rounds determined by attendance. All players with two or fewer losses move on to the second part of the competition on Saturday.
Saturday, August, 22nd, 2015
Players who made it past the Friday segment of the tournament will join those who were automatically seeded into the Saturday segment in another best-of-three Swiss tournament. Players can change their teams between Friday and Saturday. Scores from Friday will be reset, so everyone starts Saturday with a fresh slate.
After the Swiss rounds are over, the top eight players will face off in a single elimination best-of-three bracket until only two players are remaining.
Sunday, August 23rd, 2015
The finals for each age division will be played in sequence.
Prizes
All players who have an invitation to the World Championships will receive an exclusive Pokémon World Championships Welcome Kit as an acknowledgement of their accomplishments during the season. Players must be on site to receive the Welcome Kit.
The top 16 finishers in each of the three age divisions receive the following scholarship awards:
- 1st: $10,000
- 2nd: $7,500
- 3rd and 4th: $5,000
- 5th–8th: $3,000
- 9th–16th: $1,500
1st and 2nd place also receive:
- A Pokémon World Championships Trophy
- A Travel Award for the winner (and parent or legal guardian for players considered minors) to the 2016 World Championships
- An invitation to the 2016 World Championships
- Two boxes of the most current Pokémon TCG expansion
3rd and 4th place also receive:
- A Pokémon World Championships Trophy
- An invitation to the 2016 World Championships
- Two boxes of the most current Pokémon TCG expansion
5th through 16th place also receive:
- Two boxes of the most current Pokémon TCG expansion
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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I’M SO SURPRISED!
I thought Aisa pacific included Australia and new zealand?
I’m wondering if travel stipends to Nationals are still around? Something I’d like to know about so I know what I can be aiming for halfway through the season.
I believe it does but I’m not sure if it will or not. That’s the rating zone that includes Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and I think Taiwan. It may be that Australia and New Zealand are run differently through Nintendo Australia again. Hope to hear about that soon.
When do they typically announce new rulesets? They don’t seem to have any information about the format for next year besides announcing that they’re switching to ORAS on Jan 1st.
I’d say expect it in the first half of December.
Im still finding it hard to feel excited because theres no cp events that i can access without travelling :/
Ironic how I can just head into Boston in an hour like it’s no trouble to watch Worlds, when I have to drive 3 hours and change for a premier challenge.
Personally, i dont think Nintendo Australia are experienced enough with running a CP style season so my guess is that Top 18 CP will probably be TCG only
You guys have the Regionals and National required, though, right? I would think it would be a relatively simple switch.
Glad this is completely confirmed, not that it pretty much wasn’t already. Also, according to Chris Brown on twitter, we can expect ORAS rules “soon.”
We’re in the exact same boat here, but I don’t think this is the correct way to be looking at it. TPCi has already thrown us a bone here just by giving us the possibility to qualify and hold Premier Challenges. It’s understandable that they can’t commit much more to our region more at this point of time, and we should be making the most of what we have by being proactive in organising our respective local scenes to rise to the occasion. It takes two hands to clap here. Regarding travelling, having to travel across countries/states for tournaments is the norm in the established scenes of NA, Europe and Japan, and although I am aware our local Southease Asian travel infrastructure is a little shaky, moving forward players will probably have to bite the bullet and be more willing to make it happen if the regional scene is to truly develop.
The big concern I have here is how the events other than Premier Challenges will be distributed in the Asia Pacific region. If no Regional/National-level CP awarding events are held in Southeast Asia and Australia is combined into our region, then by virtue of all the Regionals and Nationals they already have access to, it will be a simple matter for the Australians to dominate the CP rankings and claim most of the AP region invites, especially once their own PCs start up. The few PCs the SEA countries can put together will not be able to compete.
Do we have confirmation whether Friday is BO3 or not?
Also, what does everyone think of on being able to change teams between day 1 and day 2? I anticipate the vast majority of people won’t bother to have more than one team, because you really don’t want to throw away practice and team building time when you might not even make it to day 2, but it’s an interesting dynamic.
It’s best-of-three both days, both Pokemon.com and our news post say so. I would expect many players will not have two vastly different teams, but having the ability to change takes away some of the information advantage players with Day 1 byes would otherwise have. At least they have to respect the threat of their opponent having made changes.
I think the metagame on both days will be reasonably different anyway, though, so there may be a need for different teams to play optimally. There’s going to have a much greater variety of players on Friday. I’m going to guess Friday sees many more off-meta choices because the barrier of entry is a little lower, especially if a lot of the unpaid invites wind up getting used, On Saturday, the field will be more of the typical Worlds metagaming with the top players from each region and the people who survived Friday, which tends to require a different type of team than when you’re trying to account for a wider variety of opponents. There will probably be some merit in having different approaches to both days.
Not entirely, our regionals have good turnouts, its just that Nintendo Australia’s Budget isnt as high as Organised Play in the US and Europe. Which is why we only had a 1 day Nationals that finished at 11 at night
Australia and New Zealand are Asia Pacific? Suuureeee……
Seriously? Asia Pacific should also Include these series of countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong. If there are from these countries you should call it Asia Pacific. If not, then it is only Oceania region…..
Where does it say it doesn’t include them?
Nothing in that article is about TCG.
No news up to now that SEA and others are going to have Premier Challenges. If there are none, then all participants would sure go to Australia or New Zealand. Would better if they change the name to Oceania region.
Up to now, the aforementioned countries always rely on LCQ to join Worlds. If it is taken away, and we have no premier challenges (You could check whether the aforementioned countries does have premier VG or not in Pokemon.com) how should we qualify?
I am sure that expanding VG Circuit needs funds. But there are no signs that we are going to have one either up to now… Up to this point we are independent in making tournaments Local and Internationally (Asia Cup and Friendlies)
I really hope the rules come out soon
It’s our job to make them happen, and we are already in the midst of discussing how to do so.
Oh ok, so this likelly means that Asia Pacific only includes Indonesia, Singapore, ect. as Australia is run by a different company than TPCI. This would explain why Japan and Korea’s qualifying methods aren’t listed as they are run by different people also
Haha! I’ve heard the current situation just before. Hope we could make it. I also think that this is the right time to propose for the premier challenges
I have a question .
Top 16 players of each category recives the invitation payed or is the top 16 of all the categories toghether?
I mean , the top 16 of senior gets the invitation and the top 16 of master too?
This was my question.
Thanks ^^
Top 16 of each division. So 16 Juniors, 16 Seniors and 16 Masters get their paid trip.
So the Top 40 players in the U.S. and Canada combined get invites, or for their individual countries?
Dumb question, but if you look at your ranking at Pokemon.com, does zone translate to these area breakdowns for worlds invites? That was my assumption, at least. The zone for the US includesthe US and Canada. I don’t know how to check any of the other zones to see what they iinclude.
As a player in Latinamerica, I’m currently 9th and I hope to keep improving my positions for the upcoming Premier Challenges. The trip to Boston will be very expensive for me, but I want to participate on Worlds. 😀
2015 Video Game World Championship Notes
Worlds Side Events
Welp, looks like it’s time for me to start scouting out Premier Challenges and practicing a lot.
Chris, thank you very much for sharing your WCS notes. Please do not hesitate to let us (asia) know how we could support your grand plan! Really looking forward for it!
I’m really excited for this year, even if I don’t make top 40 I probably will still fly out to Boston and do a couple side events and cheer people on! Makes for a great vacation