Competitive Pokémon Increases Its Prize Pool, But It’s Bad News For Oceania
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Competitive Pokémon is pretty serious business, with thousands of players around the world dedicating hundreds of hours to honing their skills and competing to be the best there ever was. It can also be a bit of an expensive hobby, and in recent years, the prize pool hasn’t quite stacked up for competitive players. That’s about to change for the better — but there’s a huge catch for some players.
The Pokémon Company announced today in a blog post that it will be increasing the prize pool for competitive Pokémon events, both for International Championships and for Worlds. The prize pool for Internationals will now be over half a million dollars, spread across three International events and three main pools: TCG, VGC, and Pokémon Go.
Worlds on the other hand will now have a total prize pool of over $2 million USD, with first place winners earning up to $50,000 at the competition, which is set to take place in Honolulu in 2024. Prize pools will also be increased for Regional competitions, and the prize pools in every level of competition will no longer be subject to attendance like they have been in previous years.
That’s a great thing, as it means anyone entering a competition knows exactly how much money they could potentially earn from competing, regardless of how many players compete. The prize pool for a Regional championship will be exactly the same if one person competes as if 500 players compete.
There is some bad news though, as the number of International Championships is decreasing in the coming year. While previous years have had Internationals in Europe, North America, Latin America, and Oceania, the 2024 competitive season is dropping Oceania from the circuit.
Players in Oceania, which includes Australia, New Zealand, and a few smaller pacific countries, will still be able to compete in Regional events, and even in Internationals, but the cost of doing the latter will likely be much higher as they’ll have to travel further to other countries to compete. Online events will also be available to earn championship points in, but these events typically offer much fewer points than Internationals.
It’s a bit of a bummer honestly, especially as an Australian player. Players would come from all over the world to compete in the Oceania International Championship, but there’s much less incentive for those players to come and play in, say, the Perth Regional Championships instead. Still, the increased prize pool is a fantastic change, and hopefully The Pokémon Company makes up for the lack of Internationals in Oceania with more Regional competitions.
