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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Good luck in your team event. I’ve heard things about the lack of people in those particular events too but even so I’m sure you can get some battles in and hopefully end up getting a trip to the finals
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With regards to your Ditto woes, this might help.
http://nuggetbridge.com/forums/topic/2483-the-nugget-bridge-friend-safari-database/
Might find some other things you need on there too
That does sound like a possibility..haha! Yes well, if we do battle then may the best win!
What’s your IGN?
Thanks! I’ll take a look at that forum.
Still no reply from Nintendo about Nottingham, which kinda sucks. I heard someone got three chances to qualify and then there’s people like me who get 0 chances to qualify.
Oh lottery system you big troll you :3
Amen.
Where can we look at photos for them?
but… but… but… according to FAQs External
“I got knocked out of a tournament heat. Can I apply again?
Unfortunately once you have taken part in a tournament, you will not be able to compete again elsewhere.”
I guess it must be pretty unenforceable or something?
Prob unenforceable during this stage, but i imaging there would be checks on the winners names and birthdates between now and the final to make sure you only entered one.
i.ds are checked at the competition to make sure you signed up with the right details.
yay 1 week 1 day I can’t wait till manchester junior pokemon expert garchompftw
Congratulations to Xenoblade Hero for winning in Nottingham!
Any idea on how the afternoon event is going?
Thank you very much! Safe to say that this was one of the toughest brackets I’ve seen; Seb (SMPGaming) and Brandon (Toquill) were battling each other in the semi finals and it ended up being a huge stall war from what I heard (please upload the video when you see this, either of you, didn’t get to watch it myself!). My opponent in the semis managed to stall me like a good ‘un 4-1 down and it became insanely close.
Somehow I ended up against Brandon in the final and safe to say I was terrified! Somehow managed to make all the right calls getting around his team core. I can’t wait now to attend the finals in London as I’ve got plenty of teams that I want to build and try out. Congratulations to everyone who attended and to Brandon for travelling such a long way just to compete here today
Semi-Final Match (vs Matt) – 9HNW-WWWW-WWW6-AVHQ
Final Match (vs Toquill) – LHLG-WWWW-WWW6-AVEV
I also want to congratulate the staff for hosting the morning tournament terrifically. They were extremely friendly, knew what they were doing and hosted the entire thing very well for saying almost half of the competitors didn’t turn up.
I had a GREAT day in Nottingham, I was really surprised by the competition, everyone I played seemed to know what they were doing and all of my wins were 1-0.
I lost in the final to Xeno, turn one was huge and he made the right call. After that I made a couple of questionable plays but dang, good game, hope you can do well in London man :]
SOME BATTLE VIDEOS GOGOGOGOGOGOGOOGOGOGOGOOGOGGO
R2 vs Alex idk your surname/NB username ;-;
RFCW-WWWW-WWW6–B3W4
Honestly thought I had lost this game, but a misplay on one of the last turns sealed my win
Semi-finals vs Seb King (SMP)
T4WG-WWWW-WWW6-B3WG
omg this game, this was beautiful
I had fun at the Norwich tournament! I was Chloe and I had the Dark Void Smeargle everyone loves to hate.
Any idea on second Notts tourney?
Did you win, Chloe?
Nope, I lost in the semifinals.
almost half of the competitors didn’t turn up.
did they just let people play who were there ? In Nottingham
Does anyone know how the Bluewater event went?
Still gutted I didn’t get an invite but just wanted to know if everyone showed up and how it went?
Bluewater event was good from what I saw, just a little late running in the morning I think. I lost in the first round (to TateB I’m fairly certain) so didn’t cast my eyes over much of the rest of the proceedings.
Someone called Alex won apparently, not sure on their surname. Second tournament was supposedly much quieter than the first
Yeah they were a bit late on our match!! If your name is Joseph then yes we battled
I was knocked out in the second round against Harpreet. You are in my acquantinces now, hit me up when you next fancy a rematch! 
Yeah, that was me! I suddenly put two and two together after our match that your Nugget Bridge handle was your name. I was annoyed as I didn’t get to save a video of our battle – that organiser rushing us off those seats after the battle made me instinctively close my DS and therefore lose the connection before I could D:
Shame that you went out in the second round dude – meant to catch your match but I believe I was duking it out with an eight year old at the time after they challenged me…
Same, I just closed mine and forgot to save beforehand :/
The guy I battled absolutely owned me, he was running crunch on his MegaKhanga and that threw me off completely then I just made awful decisions!
What’s your 3ds friend code? It would be great to have someone I could regularly battle
Sure, it’s 4725-8035-2335
Does anyone know what the finals in London will be like? A couple of my friends want to come and cheer me on so I was wondering what would happen during the day. I haven’t been to any VGC events; would we just turn up and wait to battle?
Something like this hopefully
Either way, there’s going to be plenty of events and people to battle even if you don’t qualify so it’s well worth your time
Anyone here going to the Stratford event Saturday? I’m not in the competition but will be going anyway to pick up some practice and generally see what’s going on.
Anyone else spectating? Or if you’re playing and want a practice match, let me know!
im going to the stratford tournment but wont pratisce with fellow compitors im not giving away my streagey soz
Going to be competing in EXG rezzed tomorrow. Hopefully a preview of the weekend too
Hi, does anybody know if they check for ID etc ? and if they check your pokemon because my pokemon have some unappropriate names lol
Who’s going Manchester today (well it is past midnight lol), my friend Damian (IGN Damos) will be there so if any of you guys meet him give him a warm nuggetbridge welcome and give him some tips cos I think he could do well with a little confidence