Pokémon World Championships 2022 report: trading and battling at ExCel London
GameCentral reports back from the Pokémon World Championships 2022 in London and a weekend of intense shopping and fan celebration.
This weekend the buzz in the ExCel Arena was strong enough to power an electric pokémon. The Pokémon World Championships first began in 2004 and focused primarily on the Pokémon Trading Card Game, but it has since grown to include dedicated competitions for the mainline video games of the franchise. After three years on hold, this year finally saw players compete face-to-face again, in the first Pokémon World Championships event ever to be held in Europe.
Pokémon not only enveloped the whole of ExCel London but swathes of the surrounding area, as Transport for London fully embraced the franchise with Emirates Royal Docks Pokémon cable cars spotlighting 18 types of pokémon, as well as themed advertising posters and lifts in the connecting stations. Watching Ghastly swoop past the O2 and over the Thames was a sight to see.
Wednesday saw huge crowds in ExCel but they weren’t there for the Championships, which hadn’t even started yet, they were queueing for a coveted slot at the Pokémon Centre pop-up store. The biggest store of its kind so far, it was full to the brim with exclusive Pokémon World Championships merchandise – including the Pikachu and Roserade 2022 Pokémon World Championships plush dolls dressed in a Beefeater outfits and two exclusive London themed coin sets. I couldn’t resist and ended up with a Beefeater Pikachu Bear Walker skateboard and an oversized plush version of Farfetch’d’s leek.
During the opening ceremony on Thursday morning, President and CEO of The Pokémon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara, welcomed players and shared special news about mobile games Pokémon Masters EX and
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