Pokémon has revealed that its World Championships set to take place later this year have been canceled and will not return until 2021.
Since most of the world is cooped up behind closed doors with little to do, people have been turning to consoles, PCs, and mobile phones for entertainment. Sales of video games are certainly seeing a boost due to the current public health crisis.
However, in many other ways, COVID-19 has had just as detrimental an effect on the gaming business has it has a litany of others. The area hit hardest is the convention and tournament scene. Events that require hundreds, if not thousands of people to gather in one place which have naturally had to be canceled. The latest casualty are the Pokémon World Championships which were scheduled to start in June.
Pokémon revealed the news via a statement on Twitter earlier today, which can be read below in full. The 2020 North America International Championships and 2020 Pokémon World Championships are the two major events that have been canceled and will now not take place until 2021. The former was supposed to take place in Colombus, Ohio between June 26 and 28, 2020. The latter would have been held in London between August 14 and 16, 2020.
Players compete for championship points throughout the year at events around the world in order to qualify for a spot at the now-canceled World Championships. Pokémon has confirmed that points accrued up until this point will roll over to next year, but since all other League, Club, Prerelease, League Challenge, and Premier Challenge events have all been canceled, there will be no more Championship points up for grabs this year.
The cancellation of these tournaments will be a bitter pill to swallow for the Pokémon TCG community. The release of Sword and Shield had seen a boom in interest in its events across the board. It could also mean cards released this year for 2020’s competition will now be ineligible and may never be used on the competitive scene. As for when 2021’s events will begin, Pokémon is yet to confirm any dates at this time.
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