The New Tournament Pantheon

A few weeks ago, the Pokémon Championship Series for 2022 had been announced. This is, of course, the competitive series that seeks to find the best of the best players or Trainers (in in-game parlance) for the Pokémon games, and certainly leads up to the World Championships, which have been absent in live form for a couple of years now since the world was plunged into current conditions. With the announcement, though, things seem to be set to return to what it was before. However, there will be one important difference in the lineup of games that are featured for the competitions, which I term as its "pantheon".

VGC and TCG as its traditional bases will continue to be a part of the championship pantheon, as well as Pokkén even with its niche popularity in a way. What's different this time is that for the first time ever, Pokémon Go is now part of the pantheon after it was featured as an invitational in 2019. Participants will need to have a Play! Pokémon ID as with other parts of the competitive pantheon and link their Trainer accounts to a Pokémon Trainer Club account, and then achieve Legend rank in the current GBL season for an early bird registration to a live competition event, after which registration is open to all. There is more to this, but this is essentially the basic information.

The addition of Pokémon Go to the competitive pantheon is a major one, as it means that Pokémon Go has received recognition as a way by which competitive Pokémon play can take place. This has obviously happened before for the eventual inclusion of Pokkén, and now has happened for the most popular mobile installment of Pokémon games. Certainly, now there is Pokémon Unite, which is starting to surge in popularity and competitiveness, so the same process can be expected to occur with Pokémon Unite a couple of years down the line, perhaps also with an exhibition tournament to precede its entry similar to the process for the inclusion of Pokémon Go.

It should be noted that even though the intent is for the resumption of live events that allow all of these games to be exhibited for tournaments of competitive play, it may be that the path of returning to them might not be so clear-cut at the moment due to certain places that are worsening in condition, including one specific one that is actually important for the Championship Series above and should have been important two years ago when that year's Championship Series terminated abruptly due to worsening conditions in general in the world. For now, at least there's a specific plan for competitions and the protocols to go with them to be able to be held within current conditions. 

With Pokémon Go now included, the competitive pantheon that is represented in the Pokémon Championship Series for next year has essentially been renewed and is ready for action... hopefully as things can settle down, if they can. After current conditions have ravaged the world, things have never been the same for competitive Pokémon players. The new Championship series for next year ought to be a revitalized start with a new competitive game entering the fray and all the Trainers that participate in it, marking a novelty of challenges that are designed to test the very best.

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Three years ago: Dilemma of Colors

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