Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG, and welcome to another blog article here at TCG Park. Today, we will discuss a very important and relevant topic for the Pokémon community: the Official Pokémon Play European schedule for this season.
What are the official Pokémon TCG events?
First, it is essential to distinguish between official (or sanctioned) events and non-official ones. The official events are the ones that The International Pokémon Company organizes themselves, while the others are private. Both can follow the same rules and share the same formats, but at the end of the day, if you want to get to be recognized and play at the highest level, you need to participate in official events.
What do you get by playing at official events?
Events prizing vary depending on the size of the event and the number of participants, of course, but what they all have in common is that the top players are awarded with Championship Points or CPs to shorten. Championship Points can only be earned if you have an official Pokémon ID, and they serve to rank players in the entire world. Once you get enough points, you will officially get an invitation to play in the prestigious Pokémon World Championship at the end of the year and compete against the best players around the globe. But not only that. Throughout the season, the best players in each region (Europe, Latam, Oceania, etc.) receive financial incentives that allow them to keep travelling and participating in other events. Apart from CPs, some official events also come with generous monetary rewards, which is an additional attraction for players.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the schedule for the announced Pokémon Regionals in Europe:
| DATE & LOCATION |
|---|
| October 22–23, 2022 – Lille, France |
| November 12–13, 2022 – Warsaw, Poland |
| December 3–4, 2022 – Stuttgart, Germany |
| January 21–22, 2023 – Liverpool, UK |
| February 25–26, 2023 – Bochum, Germany |
| May 20–21, 2023 – Malmö, Sweden |
As you can see, there are already six confirmed events but don’t discard that other one that gets announced during the season. If you want to see more details, please check the official Pokémon website.
Apart from having Regionals, there is also the possibility of competing in the so-called Special Events. They are pretty similar to Regionals in the sense that they award the same amount of CPs, but there are some important regionals:
- Regional Events award money, while Special Events don’t
- Special Events have free entry
Currently, there is only one Special Event scheduled for Europe but as I said before I am pretty convinced that there are more coming our way:
| DATE & LOCATION |
|---|
| March 18–19, 2023 – Utrecht, Netherlands |
The last thing I want to point out about the European schedule is that next year probably, we will know the official dates of the International Championship, which is basically like a super big Regional with a massive prize pool. In fact, International Championships (or ICs) are so exclusive that there are only four in the entire year.
Conclusion
So, if you want to earn your invite to the next edition of the Pokémon World Championships (which will take place in no other place than Japan!), you already know where you need to go to start your journey to be the very best! Don’t forget that if you want to prepare well, you can get all the material you need here at TCG Park. Thanks for reading!