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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When i did it through my phone it didn’t seem like i had entered but after putting the same info in on my computer it came up with the message saying i have already entered.. (Hope this helps a little bit)
Are there any banned moves?
i registred ben for him so its no longer a worry guys
On the top of my head there are no banned moves anymore, so dark void smeargle with roar of time is completely legal XD
I was thinking more perish song on mega gengar with his ability shadow tag
Ah, no that combo is perfectly legal.
if it’s being run as bad as people say it is then may as well just use legendary team and skip the smeargle
The only usable legendaries are Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.
Anything you use must have a Kalos Pokédex number.
Yeah I’m pretty sure people would call you out on it and the judges would dq you
Okay, I don’t get it at all. Maybe someone can explain where the logic comes in with this whole series of events? I’ve kept fairly quiet until now, but, I want to spew some thoughts out on the thread.
First of all, these are incredible prizes. Lets not ignore that. I mean, the trip alone is such a good prize, and that bye could prove valuable in someones Nationals run, so a big thank you to whoever is pumping all this money into the UK Pokemon scene. I’m not going to blissey about that, but this is the second time in a matter of months that great prizes have been hidden behind a fairly terrible format.
I mean, in the Winter we had events getting run on a scrap of paper, now we have reports above of events being run in a similarly atrocious fashion. When will the organizers realize this just isn’t an acceptable way to do things? Add this to a really limiting lottery to even enter, and kick it in the teeth with the single elimination format rearing it’s ugly head, and honestly? We’re going to have a really random way of deciding things, I must admit. I mean, is it fair that top players get kept out by a lottery? Or if they do sneak through, get caught in a really rough matchup against another top player. They also don’t seem to realise these cost dollar? I’m really put off the idea of spending my pennies on some good single elim.
I just don’t get it. I have more to say, but I guess it’ll just become a rant. Honestly, why can’t we take this concerted effort, and turn the British VGC into a real season? Rather than one roll of the dice at the end of the year. It doesn’t make sense to me, and it’s a real shame they’re pissing money, and efforts up the wall where a few obvious, and easy changes could be made to get in line with official formats, and really grow the official VGC. I’m not expecting to be on the scale of the USA, but I’d rather have a couple of events in proper venues, not pubs and gaming shops, over these slapdash affairs any day.
I’m not sure. people were using banned pokes in birmingham and still were not dq
I already know this but as i said if it is being run as badly as people are saying birmingham was then it would appear rules do not matter
Rules will matter at my tournament, I’ll make sure of it!
Same here, if I go to Nottingham :3
While the rules in Birmingham were not really enforced at all, ( lopunny in the semi’s) I’d still rather come with a team of legal mons that I’m comfortable with, not some shiny mewtwo’s and excadrills with the idea that all the tourneys will be poorly run. Playing it safe irl and ingame ftw!
Has anyone got an email for the qualifier tomoz (Hamleys, London). I don’t think I’ve been selected :'(
Welp, Cardiff tournament in about 9 hours. Completely unprepared due to work and illness, lol, so this’ll be fun!
I’m hoping the organisational woes of last weekend are isolated – I’ll try and take some notes as to how well/poorly it’s being run.
Good to hear you also had a fun tournament. It’s looking more and more likely that birmingham was just a one off bad tournament that they’ve hopefully learned from.
Cheers Alex! Looks like they have stepped things up after the Birmingham complaints, so that’s very good news. Just hoping I get into the Manchester event now, should be good fun
*Effect spore.
thats all.
How where the multi-battles like ? do you guys know what team one? thanks
Has anyone who has won one of these events received an email from the event team yet? It says in the FAQ/T&Cs thing that we should receive an email immediately after the event but i haven’t got one yet :/
My guess is that they’ll do a mass e-mail to everyone who qualified after every event is over.
Got my invite for Banbury this Saturday at 9:30am.
If the streetpass team are running it I know there’ll be no problems but I think I’ll be printing off the rules plus a list of Kalos only Pokemon just incase they aren’t
Has anyone else here been confirmed for Banbury?
Hoping it will be a well run and fun event
Got my invite for Sheffield.
Just got my invite for sheffield and im excited for my first ever tournament then i see this
Now im also worried
I also haven’t received an e-mail, so I assume the mass e-mail will be what they are planning.
Hi everyone, I’m Rory – I was one of the winners of the Dundee Ultimate Pokemon Expert tournament. I’m usually a bit of a lurker but I decided to sign up here after being told about it by Rachel.
My second name was spelled wrong but it sounds like a small issue compared with what some people have had to put up with – hopefully the rest of the qualifiers will be well-run for those who haven’t had theirs yet.
I’m another one who hasn’t received an email mentioning the London final so it seems pretty likely that a mass e-mail is what they’ll do. Guess I’ll have to wait a while to book my flight!
hopefully i will get an invite very soon for this
My mate Dom got an invite to Sheffield for the afternoon, but my 2 other mates who also registered for Sheffield haven’t heard anything yet so assuming they didn’t get in.
I’m awaiting next week to see if I get an invite to Bluewater Kent. Fingers crossed.
Your friends may still be fine, when I got an invite to Birmingham, one of my friends got it on a Monday and I received it on the Thursday. It wouldn’t hurt to double check e-mails for any event 2 days before just in-case an invite is late.