Pokémon

Play! Pokémon suspends all live events through 2020

09/17/2020

It’s been a rough year for esports due to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for games that relied heavily upon live attendance of their tournaments. While games like League of Legends and Overwatch had complications, they were able to successfully continue their seasons with online formats. Play! Pokémon, on the other hand, had to completely reformat its competitive scene for 2020.

If you aren’t familiar with the competitive Pokémon scene, it’s made up of several regional and international live tournaments over the year. Players from the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon Sword and Shield, and Pokkén compete to earn invitations to the World Championship.

Play! Pokémon cancels all live events

Once COVID-19 began to make its way around the world, Play! Pokémon had to cancel live events. While they hoped they would still be able to have events later in the year, the pandemic hasn’t gone away. Now, they have officially canceled all events for the remainder of 2020. They are going to release an update for 2021 this November once they have more information.

Pokémon hasn’t fully abandoned their competitive scene, however. They held the Pokémon Players Cup over the summer, and are preparing for a second Players Cup with qualifiers beginning later this month.

There will be multiple Pokémon League at Home events happening throughout the year as well. If you want to get more information, you can use the official event locator to find stores near you. Some of these stores will be hosting League at Home events for players.

You can also watch the next Players Cup on Twitch. It’s a serious change of pace from what fans are used to, but it should still bring some exciting battles from the different games.

An important update on the status of Play! Pokémon live events and competitions: https://t.co/CC8MzaXzL1

— Play Pokémon (@playpokemon) September 17, 2020