Play! Pokemon Increases Prize Pool For Regionals, Worlds
The upcoming 2024 Pokémon Championship Series has some major changes to the prize pools, making it a little more enticing to take on the regional grind.
Attendance for the Pokémon TCG and VGC regional championships and international championships has increased this past year and Pokémon wants to reflect this by offering a bigger prize pool for regionals, internationals, and the World Championships.
“Attendance will no longer affect prize money, so players will know exactly how much prize money is on the line before they know how many other players there are in the tournament,” the official blog said.
What Are the New Prize Pools for Pokémon Tournaments?
According to Play! Pokémon, there will be “major” changes to the prize pools at larger events. While they will most impact the Masters division, Juniors, Seniors, and GO will also see higher prizing than last season.
Regional championships will now have a prize pool of over $100,000 between TCG, VGC, and GO. International championships will now have over $500,000 in prizing for the same three tournaments. Worlds will have over $2 million across TCG, VGC, GO, and UNITE.
Updates to our 2024 Championships
— Chris Brown (@4Chris_Brown) August 25, 2023
*Worlds prize pool across TCG, VG, GO, UNITE is now $2m
*International Championships across TCG, VG, GO is now >$500k
*Regional Championships where all of TCG, VG, and GO are featured is >$100k. #playpokemon pic.twitter.com/4p1Hnx5ynz
In response to the news, the competitive Pokémon community expressed excitement over the improvement. The community has felt for the longest time that the prize support was not adequate and many players have not been able to justify traveling to regionals across the United States and beyond every month to get points for Worlds.
With the amount of Championship Points increased this season, the grind is now on thanks to the higher prize pool enticing competitors.
Despite the good news, however, some Pokémon players are still not satisfied with how events are run. Regionals are run by a handful of various tournament organizers and many of them have been accused of being inadequate this past season due to various mishaps and bad scheduling.
The worst culprit, however, was Worlds itself. The event initially excited the community since it was in Japan, but the frustrations mounted as trainers learned that spectator badges required you to win a raffle and the line to get into the largely sold-out store at the event took hours to get through.
Still, the prize pool increases are a step forward.
Olivia is a long-time esports journalist and editor who covers just about every game but has a deep love for the FGC. Her goal is to find community-driven stories that bring a new perspective to the esports scene. In the past, she has worked for Team Liquid, Rogue, Inven Global, Dot Esports, Upcomer, and more. Outside of esports, Olivia enjoys Kirby, Pokemon TCG, Fallout, and writing science fiction. She can be found trying out new foods, traveling, or hanging out with her two orange cats. Fun fact: Olivia can do some video game and cartoon impressions!