Summary
- Pokémon Champions has the potential to change competitive Pokémon battling.
- Former world champion Wolfe Glick says Champions could be the biggest change to competitive Pokémon since the advent of Wi-Fi.
- However, Champions won’t include the National Dex at launch.
Yesterday’s Pokémon Presents included a plethora of announcements, none more surprising than the reveal of Pokémon Champions, a new Pokémon battler currently in development for Nintendo Switch and mobile.
The trailer for Pokémon Champions showcased a brief history of multiplayer Pokémon battling, from the original Game Boy to the Nintendo Switch. We learned that The Pokémon Works, a support studio best known for Pokémon Home and Pokémon Sleep, is working on the title under the oversight of Game Freak.
The revelation of a new platform for Pokémon battling that uses the same rule set as the “core” Pokémon series immediately raised questions about the future of the Pokémon Video Game Championships (VGC), the official competitive Pokémon circuit. As it stands, VGC matches take place on the newest mainline Pokémon game, currently Scarlet and Violet. While this tradition has stood for decades, Pokémon Champions could offer an alternative platform for VGC, especially with the confirmation that Champions will be integrated into Pokémon Home.
A New Generation of VGC
Former Pokémon world champion and VGC’s best-known personality Wolfe Glick also considered these possibilities during yesterday’s Pokémon Presents (nice spot, GamesRadar). After the event, Glick posted on social media “This could change competitive Pokémon in ways I can’t fathom.” During Glick’s live watch-along of the Pokémon Presents, he reacted to the Pokémon Champions announcement by saying “This could legitimately change the game. One of the main barriers to entry of people playing competitive Pokémon is that you have to get the Pokémon in-game. If there’s a mode where you can put in what you want… That could be one of the biggest changes for competitive Pokémon since Wi-Fi was introduced…”
Given the announcement that Pokémon Home will be involved, there’s no guarantee players will be able to seamlessly customise their Pokémon as Wolfe suggests, but it would certainly be a welcome change for competitive players if that were the case. Our own Ben Sledge reckons that Pokémon Champions could be Game Freak’s answer to the third-party site Pokémon Showdown, which is essentially a fast-paced Pokémon battle simulator that VGC players use to practice team compositions.
The trailer also showed Mega Evolutions and Terastallisation in the same Pokémon battle, which is notable. These two mechanics have never overlapped in the same generation, hinting at a possible way to tweak rule sets in Pokémon Champions.
Unfortunately, Pokémon Champions won’t have every available Pokémon at launch. Without a full National Pokédex, Champions would remain unsuitable for VGC. However, there’s still a lot of potential for the game to be used in the future if every Pokémon is eventually added.