This weekend, the European Pokémon International Championship was held from April 22 to April 24, 2022. We had the chance to go there to follow some French players and enjoy the atmosphere. Card games, video games, Pokkén tournaments, and even Pokémon GO have reserved spots for players to compete and earn some championship points this summer for a spot in the world or just for fun.
in one of the largest conference centers in Germany, Frankfurt, Players around the world then encountered the fun games TCG (card game), VGC (video game) and fighting games. It’s a nice mix of strategy and a particularly nice atmosphere to immerse yourself in the big IRL competitions.
Pokémon Esports on GO: Still little known?
The room is huge, the tables are lined up, hundreds of employees and referees are busy and the main stage bursts into the shadows to broadcast the various matches of the day live on Twitch. The only consideration for the already well-known Pokemon rivalry scene was that VGC and TCG would take up most of the room, leaving just a few square feet for Niantic’s mobile game. Indeed, the space reserved for events clearly goes hand in hand with the number of players registered for the event. The most unfortunate was not this expensive Pokémon GO, but the Pokkén Tournament, which had a very small stand located quite far from the rest, next to good shops. Besides, PoGo had his glorious moment by taking center stage on the main stage multiple times and getting thousands of views on it. Private Twitch channel ! Also note that the actor has made some big names, especially in the Pokémon GO scene (caleb peng / speedieschief / zonik / 20butters), which caused a stir this weekend.
The lack of enthusiasm for the Pokén tournament is naturally explained by its age and therefore its decreasing popularity as other franchise games like Pokémon Unite arrive on the Nintendo Switch. Most of the event is not like this, with the latter having a rather separate layout, but will be featured at Worlds 2022 in London. As for Pokémon GO, this year is the first time we’ve seen a mobile game in a competition of this scale (note that the game was also presented in Liverpool a few weeks ago). Released in 2016, the game keeps attracting the attention of millions of players and is regularly updated., which may explain his return to the sports scene. Logically, it is normal that PoGO esports is still very little known, it is only in its infancy!
For more information, do not hesitate to read our file on its success.
Pokémon GO global community manager Dominik Schönleben said the game’s content is desirable for at least the next ten years. In any case, Niantic is determined not to abandon its flagship mobile game without neglecting other projects like Ingress or the game Monster Gathering: Peridot.
It has nothing to do with Pokkén, but the PoGO competition has also struggled to attract players. a little less 100 participants competed this weekendThe glitch isn’t good enough for Nicholas, a PvP enthusiast and rival, but he’s good enough to start with. An engineer by profession, he didn’t hesitate to take up Pokémon GO battles as a hobby, after which he became an active member of the specialized Discord group. Its goal? Democratize and improve Pokémon GO PvP in France by bringing together other competition enthusiasts and for beginners who want to try it at the same time.
If you want to know more, here are the Discord links dedicated to Pokémon GO PvP:
- LeFrenchPvP : Competitive litigation French Community of PoGO,
- french nativity scene : Discord is specially designed for those who want to learn about PvP and get coached.
Is it so hard to be accessible?
In fact, it’s not a lack of enthusiasm in Pokémon GO’s competitive landscape, it’s just a timid starter that should improve in the coming months. The lack of communication, the difficulty in PvP or even the instability of playing on the phone undoubtedly helped if few were aware of the existence of this competitive scene in the game. Millions of players do not live or very rarely experience the PvP title to focus on: Criterion Gathering, Trading or PvE Raids and Team Rocket.
This international Frankfurt is only the beginning of a great story that will probably encourage the organizers to create many regional and even local tournaments since they are held by amateurs, notably at the Silph Arena.
And Nicolas is right. The Pokémon esports scene is very weak right now, and frankly, so is VGC, which sometimes suffers from poor visibility. For example, it is very difficult to find sponsors or sports structures as it regularly happens in big games like League of Legends. Is it because of affordability and usefulness that Pokémon probably never got as far as LoL or CSGO? როFro is more likely. But meanwhile, The return of competitions and worlds this summer will, hopefully, highlight this competitive scene even more! Especially since the live broadcast of the matches is perfectly executed with accessible and dynamic overlays that maintain interest.
At least Lack of communication In Pokémon GO esports, it must be admitted that the PvP gameplay is particularly demanding and can therefore attract professional players like Rhobalas from Fnatic (a separate article will be published on this subject soon). Public, you still have to be well trained to be the best at PoGO: you have to know how to do mental calculations, you have to know the timing of the reload attacks, the best moves, you have to guess the slightest thing. opposing movements, etc. Pokémon GO has no or very little (random) RNG in PvP Unlike VGC and TCG where the luck factor is much higher. It complicates on the contrary, especially since touching the screen is not enough to win.
And when so little is left to chance and victory is only achieved through game brilliance, there is frustration in responding to bugs and other instabilities.
Congratulations on the return and the French high rank
Note, however, that this is only the beginning after the game’s return to the competitive scene: it needs to be improved across worlds with later upgrades and, why not, dedicated servers at events for avoid potential bugs. On the ground, in Frankfurt, The organization was also appreciated And a great atmosphere: Everyone had a phone (the same for everyone) from which they could access their Pokémon GO accounts so that players were not penalized. Similarly, a cardboard panel was placed between the two players to prevent cheating and take into account the movements of the opponent. Obviously Pokémon GO PvP has something to improve on before it can really be considered in the esports scene, but it seems to be on the right track. We’ll see how Niantic and The Pokemon Company International improve their competitive plans in a few months.
Finally, a big congratulations to the French who participated this weekend. They were seven and some entered the top 5! France is a great PvP community that will likely go far in future events. (See you in Lille on May 21 and 22, 2022, especially for the official regional tournament). In the meantime, here are the big winners from Pokémon GO Frankfurt:
- First place Senior: Maxwell Ember (MEweedle) [GB]
- 2nd Senior: Stefan Kojokaru (KrowMDIV) [DE]
- 1st place Masters: Jakub Zatloukal (Aeeriils) [CZ]
- Master of 2nd rank: Domnik Viber (Fr43ka) [DE]
Source : Millenium
