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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Seconding this; I know that I got my Dundee confirmation a day or two before some other people did. The rules say that you’ll receive an email “no later than three days before the start date of your selected location” so they should get/have got something today if they’ve been invited to Sheffield..
Unfortunately they had emails saying they’ve been unsuccessful today
But they are still in with a chance of their 2nd choice, so fingers crossed.
P.S has anyone else heard about Pokecon Ireland next Friday? Apparently it’s an official tournament giving out CP’s?
PokéCon in Ireland can’t give out Championship Points.
They’re giving out ‘Play! Points’ which are just participation points. In the past, they have been used to reward players for taking part in the season (both TCG and VGC). However, to my knowledge, VGC players never got any rewards, or if they did, they were just the same as the TCG ones (a lot of people will have been getting holographic energy cards in the post now for example, if you had enough Play! Points). The whole rewards process has been scrapped starting this season though, so Play! Points do nothing in VGC I believe. As for TCG, you need so many Play! Points in order to enter Nationals or the Worlds LCQ.
Ah my bad, just saw the bit that said you can earn points towards qualifying for Nationals and didn’t realise it meant for the TCG.
Yeah I got a pack of the energy cards in the post a couple of weeks ago
No there not giving out cp their giving out play points
Have the emails for manchester been sent (I haven’t got one yet)
Came in top 4 in Sheffield, not bad for my first time! Can’t believe I beat baz though, must of got really lucky
You have slayed baz
I guess i’m the Baz Slayer Slayer lol. I won got myself a nice invite to London at the Sheffield event, good games from everyone I played.
Congrats mate, did both finalists receive a golden ticket? Or just the winner?
My final opponent didn’t get a ticket, only me. I stuck around a little after I won but didn’t really pay much attention to the tournament so i’m not sure if anything else happened lol.
Well there was no way you weren’t winning with that mega khangaskhan and scizor lol
I lost in the semi-finals of the Sheffield tournament against the person who faced Xenexic in the finals. I had the choice of two plays at the end, one would have won me the game and the other lost. I chose the wrong one of course.
I won the Southampton Morning tournament today. It was a really well run event with friendly staff, got to meet a bunch of cool people, play some good matches, and came away with a golden ticket for the grand finals. The competition level seemed to be quite high considering the lottery required to secure a space, every opponent I played today had good teams and were well equipped to win. I even faced a 3/4 mirror match in the final!
I saved all the battle videos from today in case anyone is interested:
First round: BLEG-WWWW-WWW6-6DNL
Second round: GYFG-WWWW-WWW6-6DNQ
Semifinal: HFPW-WWWW-WWW6-6DNU
Final: DUKG-WWWW-WWW6-6DZ2
Hope to see everyone in London!
poor baz and no garchomp guy the emails for manchester dont go out untill at least a week monday thats what i heard anyway
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CHANGING YOUR NAME
If you don’t he’ll send his owl to get you
(Seriously though don’t define yourself by having beaten someone once! Be your own player!)
Haha I chose the name for a bit of fun pal, I didn’t even know who the guy was until after our fight. And I have no idea how to change the name now anyway
Just been confirmed for the Nottingham event, really hyped about it now! Who else has qualified for their event?
What time did your email come through Xenoblade? I’m waiting for Bluewater this week, keeping fingers crossed
About 3:30 today, doubt yours will be far behind if it’s this weekend. I wish you the best of luck!
My manchester invite came through 5 mins ago, Got a 9:50 battle time.
What is the current layout, two mini torniments? one in the morning and the one in the afternoon? If things go well, will i have to stay through to the afternoon too?
Well, looks like I’ve probably been lottery screwed.
I’d say it was nostalgic to feel back in the era when nobody in charge cared about the players, but I sort of wanted to go to Japan. Eheh.
Just a reminder to anyone who wasn’t playing back in 09, I think the Philly regional had 128 places and over 1000 people turned up? So about 87% of the people who came didn’t get to play, amongst them the beautiful Ray Rizzo, who in furious vengeance would go on to win the next 3 world championships. That was the most extreme example, but getting rid of the lottery was one of the first steps in making VGC actually worthwhile, and here we are in 2014 with another lottery tournament.
The strange thing is I think it’s not based on a lottery system like they claim, but it’s first come first served. Me and my friends all signed up immediately when the tournament was first announced in Nottingham and ended up with the same battle time this Saturday. Surely that can’t be a coincidence (also we’ll all be knocking each other out in the first round which sucks)
Well, I signed up before SeanSymphony and Die2Distroy (albeit only about an hour or two before). They have their e-mails and I don’t, so I’m not fully sure (I’d also come first alphabetically).
I think the only way to describe the lottery system they’ve run is a farce. I don’t understand these decisions at all.
been selected for the london pokemon tournment for a 11.10am start wish me luck
Gutted I still haven’t heard about Bluewater and that’s this Saturday!! My 2nd choice was Westfield Stratford and nothing for that either yet.
Looks like I’ve missed out then
Yes just recieved manchester email see u there everyone
Well checked the event registration page and both my choice are showing as fully booked, so as I don’t have an email I’ve definitely missed out.
Did anyone get into Bluewater from here? I really didn’t think there would be many from Kent area as never seen many at VGC’s etc