Pokemon Video Game Championship Series

A couple of weeks ago I got up early to drive down to the Pokemon Video Game Northeastern Championship Series in King of Prussia (outside Philadelphia) with my daughter. Nintendo runs these competitions around the U.S. and Japan, culminating in a World Championship event being held this year in San Diego on August 14.

Nintendo splits the competition into two age groups - a Juniors Category for players born on or after January 1, 1997 and a Seniors Category for players born on December 31, 1996 or earlier. I've always found the age grouping odd - you often have 12 year old kids competing against much older adults which, to me as a parent, is a little bit creepy.

The competitor selection process is also setup in an odd way. There are only 128 competition slots in each age group with players randomly selected. We arrived around 7:00 and waited for registration to open - by the time registration ended there we're close to 500 people signed up for the 128 place older age group lottery. Names were randomly pulled and 128 people were selected to compete. Yes, there were 40-plus year old adults competing with 12 year old kids. There were also a lot of discouraged kids (and parents) who traveled some long distances only to not have their name pulled.

I ended up sitting for a while with a guy in his late thirties who had competed in the first round of the seniors category and lost. He told me he had not spent much time preparing for the competition and was really only there to throw his name into the lottery for a chance at the give-aways only the people that compete get. He was extremely proud of the DS (game) sticker he had "won" telling me "Only the people that compete get these special stickers".

I asked him if it bothered him that he had taken a competition slot from a 12 year old who had likely spent a lot more time preparing than he did - he told me "No, not at all".

My Flickr picture set for the event is linked here http://www.flickr.com/photos/gordonfsnyder/sets/72157620201140204/

Pokemon 2008 World Championships

I’m at the 2008 Pokemon World Championships today in Orlando with my daughter. Right now there is a Video Game Showdown going on featuring the top 64 players from the U.S. and Japan - 32 American players and 32 Japanese players divided into two age brackets competing. First place winners of the video game showdown will each receive a grand prize that includes a six-day vacation package to New York City, Honolulu or Tokyo.

The Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) World Championship is also going on and is much bigger with over 350 players (divided into three age brackets) from 30 countries competing to be named the ultimate World Champions of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Top TCG winners will get prizes and merchandise, including scholarship awards totaling $100,000.

Maybe you’ve only been exposed to the animated Pokemon television show or maybe you’ve got siblings or kids or grand kids who have collected Pokemon cards or played the Pokemon video games. These tournaments are intense – both the video and card games require a high level of skill, strategy and creativity. Games also stress fairness, honesty, respect and learning. All qualities we want to see in our kids - especially our science, math, engineering and technology students.

In total there are over 490 players here from 30 countries – three times as many as when we were last here in 2004. I'll be posting pics on my Flickr page at http://flickr.com/photos/gordonfsnyder

This is a very impressive bunch of kids!