Nintendo UK Announces Battle Tournament 2014 + VGC National Details
Nintendo UK have announced another tournament series for UK players, this time taking place throughout March and April. Beginning on 1st March and running until 5th April, there will be a number of qualifier tournaments at various GAME stores around the country, with some events taking place in shopping centres with no specific location mentioned at the moment. There are currently no known prizes for regional tournament winners, other than an invitation to the London grand final on 26th April, although travel stipends will be available to winners to make their way there.
If you manage to win a regional tournament, you’ll get to play in the finals in London where you have a chance to win some great prizes, perhaps the most important of which is a First Round BYE at this years United Kingdom Pokémon Video Game Championships National Tournament in May for the winner and runner-up. Other prizes are a week-long trip to Tokyo, Japan for two and lots of other goodies.
United Kingdom National
Along with this announcement, Gordian Knot Games have announced that the United Kingdom National Event will take place on 24th-25th May, in Manchester, England. The venue is Event City, situated across the road from the Trafford Centre. You can discuss it on our forum thread.
UK & Ireland Pokémon Nationals
24th & 25th May, 2014
Event City
Phoenix Way,
Barton Dock Road,
Urmston,
Manchester M41 7TB
Nintendo UK Event Information
There are four divisions for this tournament, with differing prizes for each:
Ultimate Pokémon Expert – The winner of the prestigious “Ultimate Pokémon Expert” title – a category open to those aged thirteen years or older – will earn themselves a week-long trip for two to Japan, the birthplace of Pokémon. They’ll be able to immerse themselves in the Pokémon world by visiting the Pokémon Center and also explore all of the sights of Tokyo. Recommended for seasoned Pokémon players the “Ultimate Pokémon Expert” title will test your Pokémon skills to the limit. The first and second place winners in the Ultimate Pokémon Expert category will receive fast track entry to the second round of the official Play! Pokémon UK VGC event this Spring.
Junior Expert – Younger Pokémon Trainers (12 or under) itching to compete can enter the “Junior Expert” category. In this competition, a weekend trip for the whole family to Alton Towers theme park with hotel stay is up for grabs, for whoever comes out victorious. The first and second place winners in the Junior Expert age category will receive fast track entry to the second round of the UK Pokémon Video Game Championships event this Spring.
Ultimate Team – The “Ultimate Team” competition is exclusively for two family members (one aged 16 or older, and one 12 or under) who want to team up and take on other families in a four-player Double Battle. Successful teams will have the chance to win a £250 Nintendo UK Online Store voucher and a group trip for four to one of the world’s best gaming shows: EGX London 2014. This event takes place in Earls Court London, from 25th – 28th September and offers visitors the chance to play the biggest games before they are released.
Pokémon Apprentice – New enthusiasts can enter the “Pokémon Apprentice” title; where complete newcomers to Pokémon X and Pokémon Y can battle it out to receive a mega bundle of Nintendo 3DS games up to the value of £300.
Crucially, you can only enter one qualifier tournament and one division. So, you’ll have to choose whether you want the chance at single player glory and the shot at a holiday and Nationals Round One BYE, or whether you’d like to play as part of a team with a sibling to win some vouchers and a visit to a great gaming show. Lastly, there is the opportunity for newer players who aren’t confident of winning one of the tougher tournaments to enter the Apprentice event.
Entering a Tournament
Sadly, the entry process of the qualifiers is not great. Think back to the early VGC Days in Europe, in 2009, or if you’ve been around as long as some of us (me), the Battle Master event in 2004 — where you can only gain entry to the tournament via a random selection process. You can enter at this link. You’ll need to enter some of your personal information and choose which division you are entering, along with choosing two qualifier tournaments you can attend. You will receive an e-mail no later than two days prior to the event stating whether you have gained entry or not and only one of your two choices can be the event you go to, which will again, be randomly selected by Nintendo UK based on popularity of each event. I assume a lot of players will miss out, so best to enter the two you can definitely make as soon as possible and get training.
Tournament Rules and Format
All tournaments (bar the team-tournament) will use the official Pokémon Video Game Championships 2014 season rules, opting for the Flat Battle and infrared process used at the previous Nintendo UK events. Tournaments will be single-elimination format, with each qualifier having a maximum of 16 participants, thus four rounds of battles to determine the winner. The team tournament will use a more specialised set of rules with players using pre-set Pokémon and borrowed consoles from Nintendo.
List of Qualifiers
- Bullring, Birmingham – 1st March
- GAME Churchill Square, Brighton – 1st March
- GAME Murraygate, Dundee – 2nd March
- Intu Eldon Square, Newcastle – 8th March
- GAME Hamleys, London – 8th March
- GAME St. David’s Centre, Cardiff – 8th March
- WestQuay, Southampton – 15th March
- GAME Meadowhall, Sheffield – 15th March
- GAME Castle Street, Banbury – 15th March
- Bluewater, Kent – 22nd March
- GAME Back Of The Inns, Norwich – 22nd March
- GAME Victoria Centre, Nottingham – 22nd March
- Intu Trafford Centre, Manchester – 29th March
- GAME Westfield Stratford City, London – 29th March
- Intu Braehead, Glasgow – 5th April
- GAME Cribbs Causeway, Bristol – 5th April
About the Author
Havak has competed in the VGC series since 2009 when it was first introduced to Europe, qualifying for the World Championships in 2011. Since 2009, he has also been a big influence in the United Kingdom's competitive scene by helping run local tournaments.
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I put Sheffield and Nottingham. Hopefully their email will be bright and colourful… I can see me forgetting these.
I’m heading to Banbury (Primary Choice) or Bristol (Secondary Choice), so hope I will get an entry!
@Nido I believe after you submit the form it says you can change your details
So they starve Manchester #6, which was a better event, better run, with a more experienced host, swiss format and not the frankly ridiculous ballots for entering of prize support, and then shove this at us and throw money at it when it seems they haven’t learnt from the Winter Event and STILL have no idea how to run a Pokemon tournament?
What a complete joke. Still entering – not going to throw away a chance at a week to Tokyo or byes for Nationals – but this is frankly insulting to Havak, if nobody else. Completely ignorant of the time, effort and own money he puts into running that event every year.
I have tried to register for the tournament but the submit button isn’t working, I have e-mailed Nintendo but they might respond after 28th (the deadline for my event) what should I do?
PM me your details in the next 10 minutes (as I will be leaving work at 5:30pm) and I’ll try and submit for you as I had no problems doing so on Friday. Also don’t forget to tell me your preferences and what catorgory you want entered in if you want me to try
Thank you to Osirus for signing me up to the tournament ☺
Thank you to Osirus for signing me up to the tournament ☺
Should just point out, I found on the registration form it doesn’t work unless you have a second reserve location as well.
I’m looking at Bristol btw, with Southampton as a second. I can’t pass up going to a Pokémon tournament when it’s that close to me (Bristol that is, Southampton is a maybe veering toward no but the form didn’t seem to work without it so meh :P)
i hope that i get selected im meaning to prove myself desperately this generation yere mate #team uk
Is this KalosDex only? Also, will we get a ‘not going’ email?
Just got an e-mail confirming Dundee~
Also I think you only get an e-mail if you have a place, they mentioned it somewhere.
Thats a little worrying seeing as Bham is a day before and I have no email ;_; hopefully they are a little late or something, would hate to miss this on chance alone
I just hope they let everyone know before this weekend because if your second preference is before your 1st (like mine with newcy brown and Bristol) I don’t even think Nintendo have the magical powers to enter you in lottery for an event that’s already happened…..just hope they’ve thought this one through.
If you selected Birmingham, Brighton, or Dundee and haven’t had a confirmation e-mail yet, then I would start to worry that this selection has not been gifted to you. Obviously, I could be wrong and e-mails could come as late as tomorrow, but it looks like Nintendo UK are a bit more ‘on the ball’ than I thought. I expected every invite to be e-mailed on the Thursday before the event as they’re usually known for late notice and poor organisation initially (though the actual events on the day are usually great fun).
I really can’t think how Nintendo UK are doing the selection process. I would have to assume that everyone who selected the tournament (first or second choice) is thrown into a random generator and the first 16 to pop out are chosen. They will likely repeat this for every tournament with the exclusion of anyone who was chosen already. By chosen, I mean that they are actually in a tournament obviously. So, SPEevee for example, is in the Dundee tournament and won’t be in the draw for her other choice.
Sadly, due to the limited amount of places, it’s going to be hard to decide how the selections are made. However, I expect that starting on Monday, people will receive e-mails for the following:
So, from Monday 3rd March to Thursday 6th March, if you don’t get an e-mail during that week, then if your choice was one of those three, you’re not in that particular event.
This process will be repeated every week for each weekend’s events.
I hope everyone posts if they get in and which event they are going to, along with which day and roughly what time they were selected on.
A friend of mine received an email confirming he’s in the Birmingham event yesterday so sounds right to me Havok.
Changed my back up choice from Manchester to Nottingham, as its far easier for me to get there if I need too. And yeah my friend got a e-mail for Birmingham as well so I Reckon they have all been sent, hope I’m wrong though Annoying to lose your first choice to a random generator and having to pay far more as a result if accepted in the second one
How do we change our back-ups by the way? As I would probably switch my second choice to Sheffield if that is allowed.
If you would like to change your submission at any time please contact External for assistance. This is what the sign up said to do.
Cheers
I’ll have to see if I can make Sheffield that day.
I recieved a confirmation email for Birmingham heats yesterday afternoon at 12:38pm.
I’ll be popping along to watch then, don’t think I’ve been handed an invite
Make sure to tell us all how the event goes!
Managed to get an invite for Birmingham, battle time 3:00 (I assume this is 3pm haha). Slightly unfortunate that I’ve not played a single competitive battle yet this season but this will be a nice place to get back into it!
Hope everything goes well for everyone competing this weekend and in the forthcoming weeks.
I sent off an email asking for my primary choice to be changed, would I be expecting an email back confirming this change or would they not and change it still?
Just curious.
Ok, so I just recieved an email confirming birmingham, better late than never and since its the last day, I recommend everyone who asked for a place check there e-mails again just incase
Wow so I just checked my emails on the off chance off what Matt said and it turns out me and my bro also have invites to Birmingham!
Looks like its gonna be an all nighter getting my team bred then!
I’ll hopefully see you all there
Expect an e-mail back shortly, I got one anyway confirming it.
Not that it even matters anymore lol
If anyone’s got tickets to EGX Rezzed in Birmingham they’re now doing one of these for each day of that (28th – 30th March), these are in the registration drop down list
___
Put my own registration in for Cardiff and London, while a friend of mine living in London has done the opposite *cue hilarity when I get London and he gets Cardiff*
Received my email confirming I’ve qualified for Birmingham!
It could be a big day for team Walsall considering we’ve all got past the lottery stage