Pokemon World Championships

The weekend after I started work, I found out the Pokemon World Championship event was being held in Vancouver. I'd actually known about it before we'd even left England and excitedly saved the website page for the event and made a mental note to visit. I'd forgotten all about it and suddenly realised on the preceding Thursday that the 3 day weekend event was starting the very next day, so we made plans!

Friday was mostly a day for competitors day to sign in and some qualifying rounds where being played, so we headed down for a quick look before work. It took us a little while to realise we were in the wrong building of the convention centre (we followed the crowd and ended up with a bunch of people signing up to do a half marathon, eurgh, not a Pokemon in sight.) Eventually we made it to the right building, and was greeted by this...

Awesome right?

Unfortunately the shop was only open to competitors that day, so we didnt get to look around, but we decided to head back the next day and have a look, I was very tempted to buy a t-shirt and geek up.

Then we headed into the main hall where the competitors where preparing to battle! We walked through the doors and wereastounded at how huge the event was! We really didnt expect it to be so huge and to have so many participants, and from so many countries. People came from all over the world. The Tournament was for both the Trading Card Game and the Nintendo DS version, so their where seperate areas for the two types of gaming, and they were split up into age groups, and paired off on schedules dotted around the venue.

There was so much to see, blow up characters, people dressed as Pokemon, a cinema section which showed episodes of the anime series, and even the trophies were displayed in a show case. We spent quite some time wandering around and taking in the atmosphere, reliving our childhoods and getting very nostalgic. (We later looked into getting Game Boys and some older generation versions of the game but my God, they cost a bomb out here! When we head back to England I'm definitely going to play my original Pokemon Blue, circa 1999!)

The Venue

The tournament trophies!

Sadly we had to leave before the real playing got under way as we both had work, but we vowed to return the next day to make the most of it, and I wanted my merchandise!

The next day the event was a lot bigger as it was more open to the public, and more competitive as quilifying was over and players were being eliminated. There were even some camera crews filming certain games and performing interviews, we spent awhile wandering again and taking in the atmosphere.

Then we queued for the shop, which took about half an hour, and I got more and more worried as we got closer to the front, as they appeared to be running out of stock already! They had a list of products which were only available at that one event and which were limited, and the longer we waited the more things were struck from the list. Happily I got to the front, and managed to get myself  my t-shirt, though they ran out of the size I asked for, so I bought a size smaller instead and it fits like a glove anyway, happy days! Ian then surprised me by getting me a lifesize Pikachu plush as well (soppy and lovable git that he is) which I adore. We have come to the conclusion that when we return to England, we will now require an extra suitcase to get him home.