Leaks Show Pokémon World Championships Could Become PokeCon
It looks like the recent shift to turn the Pokémon World Championships into more of a general Pokémon convention is taking its next steps, at least according to leaked information about upcoming events.
As part of the ongoing Game Freak Teraleaks, some details about upcoming Pokémon World Championship events have been discovered early. This includes promo art for the 2025 PWC coming to Anaheim that might have confirmed the Pokémon Legends: Z-A Starters, along with a list of plans for the 2026 event that will drastically shake things up for Pokémon as a brand.
Since 2004, the Pokémon World Championships have been a place for The Pokémon Company to host top players across multiple different games within the franchise, starting with the Pokémon TCG and expanding to feature side titles like Pokémon UNITE and Pokémon Go as well. In recent years, while the focus of Pokémon Worlds remained on the competitive side of things, there has been growing interest in the event from a casual perspective, and it looks like that interest exists internally too.
For the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, it appears TPC and its partners will host a larger event at the same time that will appeal more to the general Pokémon audience. According to a translation from leaked documentation, the expansion is going by Project Mistral internally. It is listed as “an event that brings together all things Pokémon, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pokémon and the recent rise of the Pokémon World Championships.”
Very few details are included beyond the general plans, but TPC is clearly looking to host both events as complementary to each other, mentioning how the promotional art for each needs to be distinct but related because they will act as “two events linked together.” This is not a new pivot in the event space for big brands, as Wizards of the Coast recently did something similar with Magic the Gathering’s MagicCon, and Evo has been slowly growing from a pure tournament series into a hub of fighting game culture.
According to TPC in this leaked document, the current style of using location-inspired themes would shift to be the theme for Project Mistral’s event art, while the World Championships would take on a more “esports” style look.
Related Article: Leaks Show Pokémon Tried Out More Action-Style Combat in Legends Arceus
As always with Pokémon leaks, none of this information has been confirmed and should be taken lightly until The Pokémon Company makes an official statement heading into the next World Championship events. Additionally, the document being shared is likely machine-translated, so if any context is misrepresented, this article will be updated to reflect that.
