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Good news for those who play Pokémon TCG competitively: Play! Pokémon Premier events will be resuming in 2022. This comes after a year in which the events were halted due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The events will pick up once more beginning in March of 2022. Here’s a look at the schedule:
2022 Pokémon North America International Championships
- June 24–26, 2022
- Greater Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, OH, USA
2022 Pokémon Europe International Championships
- April 22–24, 2022
- Messe Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Play! Pokémon Regional Championships and Special Events will also resume in North America and Europe in 2022, at the following dates and in the following locations:
North America
- March 18–20, 2022: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
- March 25–27, 2022: Orlando, FL, USA*
- May 6–8, 2022: Indianapolis, IN, USA
- May 20–22, 2022: Secaucus, NJ, USA
- May 27–29, 2022: Vancouver, BC, Canada*
- June 17–19, 2022: Milwaukee, WI, USA*
Europe
- March 26–27, 2022: Liverpool, UK
- May 7–8, 2022: Bilbao, Spain (Special Event)
- June 4–5, 2022: Milan, Italy (Special Event)
Additional Regional Championships and Special Events may be announced later.
According to the press release, four Pokémon products that will be featured are the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon video games, Pokkén Tournament DX, and Pokémon GO. GO is making its debut this year in partnership with Niantic. Here’s the rundown on how GO competition will work:
Pokémon GO competitions will be open to Senior and Masters age divisions and will follow the Great League format. Placing highly at Pokémon GO competitions will earn players prize money, and top players will earn invitations to compete at the 2022 Pokémon World Championships in London in August 2022.
You can learn more specifically about GO at this link. As for the timing of this return, here’s what The Pokémon Company has to say about that:
The health and safety of the competitive play communities continue to be the most important aspects of resuming live Play! Pokémon events. The situation is being continually monitored, and the timing for the commencement of in-person Play! Pokémon events will be determined by the health mandates, guidelines, and recommendations provided by appropriate government agencies. Once in-person events resume, all competitors, vendors, staff, and spectators must comply with The Pokémon Company International’s COVID-19 policy to ensure the health and safety of all attendees.
This is all exciting news, for sure. Are you part of the Pokémon competitive scene? What do you think about its impending return? Tell us in the comments!
Source: The Pokémon Company Press Release
