What to watch this weekend (if you like Pokémon)
This weekend, if you want something to keep on in the background that’s not just infinite reruns of The Simpsons (you know who you are), why not check out these esports-y events: Pokémon World Championships 2022 and Games Done Quick’s Flame Fatales.
The Pokémon World Championships started Thursday, where the best players across various Pokémon games compete to be the very best, like no one ever was. (You see, I am Of A Certain Age, so I had to.) Though live Pokémon competitions have been slowly returning, with this year’s regional championships happening in-person throughout North America, Europe, and Latin America, Pokémon Worlds 2022 marks the return of the biggest championship tournament since the pandemic shut everything down.
No matter what your favorite flavor of Pokémon is, there’s something for you to watch at Worlds. There’s the trading card game, the Pokkén Tournament DX fighting game, and, of course, Sword / Shield (denoted as VGC). 2022 also marks the first year that Pokémon Go and Pokémon Unite will get their own categories as well.
Pokémon esports is a strangely compelling watch. I find the disconnect between how the anime depicts pokémon battles versus the actual games in which you pokémon battle highly amusing. In the anime, pokémon battles are fast-paced, exciting affairs where the decisions made on a moment’s notice are the difference between victory and defeat. Actual Pokémon VGC competitions are… nothing like that at all. They’re more like chess matches. They’ve very slow: players input commands within a time limit before they play out on the screen.
And rather than battles being reactive, they are highly proactive. To win a VGC battle, you have to construct a strategy designed to predict what your
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