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.
Related Posts
Nugget Bridge Update →
GS Cup Announced as Pokémon’s 2016 Ruleset →
2016 Pokémon World Championships Date & Location Surfaces →
So, I really don’t know where to start with this tournament. All I can say is everybody above isn’t really exaggerating. While the staff were very friendly, the whole thing seemed to be more of an advertisement for the game and Nintendo itself rather than an actual tournament. The tournament started at 9:00 and the final was done at 6:00. How it takes 9 hours to complete a 16 man single elim tourney is beyond me, even with the apprentice events etc.
Again, speaking of the staff, clearly none of them had spent an awful lot of time playing or studying the vgc format. Even as far as the semi finals, I still had to call a judge over because my opponent was using a togekiss, my opponent in the quarter final had 3 pokemon not in the kalos dex, and it took about 15 minutes of trying to explain to the staff why they weren’t allowed, before we just decided to go on with the battle anyway, despite all the illegal pokes.
But, rant over, I still enjoyed the day and it was nice to get to see some familiar faces that I didn’t know were going to show up, even if the final didn’t exactly go my way.
I wish samgei the best of luck in London and hope you have a great time there
@professor I witnessed someone secure a win whilst using blaziken, with none of the staff bating an eyelid. I even pointed it out when the combatants were getting their boxes verified. Eventually the guy who lost to the blaziken came back to attempt to contest it but to avail.
Well, this all doesn’t sound very promising.. Let’s hope they see some of this feedback and make the appropriate changes.
I’m kind of expecting the same staff to be in Manchester that were at Brimingham, as they’re probably the ‘big shopping centre tournament’ staff… While the staff at GAME will have StreetPass Group staff etc. Will just have to see.
Hopefully Rachel can give us some good feedback from Dundee today.
—–
Do we know who won the afternoon tournament in Brighton?
Do we know yet when people aiming to go to the London or Manchester tournments will receive their invites
External
Someone called Daniel. Not sure if he is on NuggetBridge. I uploaded a few photos I took during Brighton’s Tournament in that set/album.
I also have photos from The Winter Event back in November/December if anyone is actually interested.
Which London event did you put in for Shaun? There is one in GAME Hamleys, and one in Westfield Stratford City.
These are the expected dates for each of the invites to be handed out for any given tournament:
Hamleys — Between Monday March 3rd and Thursday March 6th
Manchester — Between Monday 24th March and Thursday 27th March
Westfield — Between Monday 24th March and Thursday 27th March
I did the Westfield one and the Manchester one and thanks chris
Had no idea that there was a hamleys London one though but anyway i hope i get one of the 64 invites
So, gotta say, Dundee’s tournament was surprisingly well run and the guys there were very chill about letting us wander about and have breaks between matches. Met up with a few guys I knew from the local Pokemon league and had a chat. Losing in the semi-finals was a bummer (he killed himself with Life Orb recoil so it was a draw with him winning) but we had another match anyway and he had a much clearer victory.
Was a bit bummed out so went back home before coming back when I was meant to just be going for apples, oops. I ended up meeting up with the guys from league again and there was some debate over whether I could team up with one of them for the partner battles. Since it let slip that I wasn’t related to them I couldn’t battle but I gave them my cart to compete with and then ended up winning, woop. Ended up talking to the guy who won the second 16 person knock tournament, both the winners names are on the Dundee Game Facebook page.
Rory Findlitter won in the afternoon.
James (No second name on the site) won in the morning.
All in all a pretty fun day after my loss was out of the way. I’m glad the staff I talked to were willing to listen to us, I think Birmingham was just a one off. The staff running it seemed to recognize VGC players in that they would take in any complaints and such. Luckily there weren’t any such complaints from what I could see and it all went pretty well.
I don’t think there were enough Juniors for two Junior tournaments and there weren’t many places taken up for the tag team tournament, only 3 people showed up. By the sounds of it if you lose in one of the tournaments and there are still spaces in one of the others you can enter that one.
Dropped the website a few times so hopefully a few new players will show up. c:
I think those who went to Birmingham should, as a community, put a complaint in about how badly the tournament was run. It sounds really disappointing that an event you were all looking forward to turns out to be a badly run and unenjoyable battle with the tournament staff. I’m going to print out Nugget Bridge’s VGC 2014 ruleset on an A4 piece of paper now, just in case the organisers decide to let illegal Pokemon through.
Still no official confirmation going out for Nottingham’s tournament yet, but at least I’ve had a heads up from you guys not to keep my hopes up about either going through or the tournament itself. Cheers. Can only hope that the entire event yesterday was a messy one-off from Nintendo UK
So by the sound of the Dundee tournament, it looks more promising for everyone else that Birmingham was just a one off thankfully. Good luck to everyone going to the coming tournaments, hope they’re as well run as Dundee sounded
Oh, forgot to add, they let us start early if we were both there so there and ready.
@SPEevee Unfortunately that wasn’t the case in Birm xD we didn’t mind but me and Russian had to wait about 20-30mins to fight despite us both being there the whole time with no other battles taking place at the time.
Sounds like fun i cant wait to see if im selected
Thank you Dundee for having us. We hope you enjoyed here, there or wherever you played. Also not sure what happened in Birmingham but I’ve highlighted your feedback to our management. Feel free to send comments/feedback to our email at pokemontournament@thisisbd.com .
Thanks
Andrew
Thanks for the congrats guys, and it was a pleasure meeting you all! Made the day a lot more fun than it would have been considering the raffle system etc, and I look forward to seeing you all at Nats. Also a quick thanks to Justin for coming with me so I wasn’t forever alone. Both the semi final and final were epic, but again i’m so sorry for the way I won that final, you had me beat turn 1 so I had to go for flinches and that’s all she wrote. Sometimes Pokemon is Pokemon i guess
Another thing was just general efficiency. Tbh, the organisation would have been top notch if there were a lot of battles to be done. They stuck to the timings really well and gave people enough time to get back if they weren’t there. However, as this was a very small tournament, they made us wait sometimes upwards of an hour for our next match even though both players were present. The only time this wasn’t the case was the final because we were basically opposite each other due to both semis taking place.
.
Anyway on to the tournament itself. Having read what the other guys have posted previously, I must say I have to agree with some of it however I will start with the positives. It was yet another bunch of tournaments that we in the UK can take part in, and I would say in terms of aesthetics, considering the location, it was quite nice (I need one of those white tables with the logos on!). Most of the staff were friendly to me at least and seemed to have a laugh. Also the fact that they made it into a 32 person tournament, morning and afternoon, was very good of them.
However, there were a few things that could have been improved. One of them was the seemingly constant talking during team preview (telling me I had 10s left to choose when there’s a timer on the screen) and the game itself. Quite a few times the staff commented on how much we were concentrating in the semis and the finals, but they kept on talking. I know it was for some spectators who may not have known much about the event but it was still quite annoying. This alongside the staff not really knowing what was banned and not banned, meant that the group of NBers had to essentially teach them what was Kalos etc. I also got told I wasn’t allowed items at one point, but that was quickly sorted
All in all though, regardless of the positives and negatives it was a good day and meeting new faces and talking Pokemon was great! I’m looking forward to London and hope the raffle system gives as many NBers invites to the ‘regionals’ as possible
Although I’m not normally the kind of guy to send whiny e-mails, on this occasion I have actually done so, on the chance that maybe they’ll listen to the feedback to improve all the tournaments that are coming up soon, so thanks for providing this.
Talking about the multi battle’s.
It’s pretty interesting as I went to the Brighton one with my daughter after registering for the Ultimate team tournament. Although the Singles was super busy we we the only people to register for the Team one. They set us up with a match anyway (which we killed due to our opponent not actually having a team) and sent us on our way to London. I really wonder whether the other stores will have had the same problem getting competitors.
Although it was nice to get the win without actually doing anything it robbed my daughter of her first tournament, now her first tournament will be the finals.
Just posting to say I’ve had e-mail confirmation today that I’m in the Cardiff tournament while my friend who’d opted for Hamleys has had his.
Yeah, I think Nintendo missed the point here. Lack of promotion just means that the kids aren’t going to find out about this, but even then, that isn’t the main flaw. Sadly, the teenagers or fans in their 20’s (some of us 30’s) want to battle against the best and prove they are the best. They want the Bye for UK Nationals and a holiday to Japan, it is the logical choice. Even some of the younger children that find out about this would probably rather take the prize for being the Junior Champion instead of playing as a team. I think it’ll be quite the rare case that someone would choose the Team Tournament over any of the others. They should have allowed players to select either Expert, Junior, or Apprentice, while being able to also select Team if they met the qualifications.
This would have made it more competitive and had a lot more entrants. It’s sad that your daughter didn’t get to have many real matches, but at least you’re going to London and I’m sure that’ll be a great day with some much better competition.
Awesome, congrats Alex
Thank you for posting this. I won’t be putting in my two cents until after the Manchester event (if I get in) though, of course.
Just got confirmed for newcastle, but I won’t be at home like I thought I’d be so I can’t go :/ I’ve emailed them about having my secondary choice be entered into the thing, just have to wait and see what happens…
Can somebody help me please i went to register for the junior pokemon expert put in all my info and clicked submit but nothing hapend. Can somebody help me with my problem plz?
Can somebody help me please i went to register for the junior pokemon expert put in all my info and clicked submit but nothing hapend. Can somebody help me with my problem plz?
Please email pokemontournament@thisisbd.com with a subject of Registration Error , and supply your details. They should be able to assist you.
I have also seen others in this thread submitting for others if you trust some others to do this for you.
Kind regards,
Andrew
I would suggest getting an adult to help you with this rather than giving out your information to someone on the internet (even though most, if not all of the people posting in this discussion are trustworthy). If your parent(s) or guardian cannot get it to work, tell them to try using a different web browser to fill in the form.
Google Chrome seems to work for me.
Edit: Or do what argon1474 has suggested.
Hi guys, I’m relatively new to Nugget Bridge(Using the articles here to help build a team), and was the winner of Dundee’s morning Ultimate Expert Tournament yesterday. Trust GAME not to put my second name on the Twitter when I explicitly spelled it out for them at the tournament.
I was really unconfident going into the start of the tournament, due to my complete lack of VGC experience. (10 battles the night before on the Special Battle Spot.)
I saved the semi-final and finals replays, but unfortunately, the Global Link is down at the moment, so I’ll edit this post later with the replay codes.
I need some help here. On the registration form on Nintendo.com, I’ve filled in all the mandatory information and even read the terms and conditions and confirmed so. But when I click ‘SUBMIT’, nothing happens. So I’m not sure if I’ve actually registered. Anybody else had the same problem?
This is a funny one that got me, scroll up, that;’s it lol. At least in my case
Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for me. :/
Maybe try a different web browser or contact the Nintendo support.
I’ll try good ol’ Internet Explorer then. Google Chrome may not be being nice to me!