This December’s Pokémon European International Championship in London is charging entrants more money to take part.
The registration fee for the Masters Division tournament (ages 16+) is now £40, while the Junior Division (ages up to 11) and Senior Division (ages 12 to 15) cost £25 each. Previously, these kind of national events have been free to enter.
However, over the last couple of years there have been small fees introduced depending on the event. It’s thought that the move to London’s ExCel centre has caused the price hike.
eSports News UK also understands that £40 is the highest fee ever for a UK Pokémon event of this kind.
The event takes place at ExCel from December 9th to 11th 2016.
Some fans shared their reactions in a recent Reddit post.
Ninjalada said: “Yikes, 40 pounds is a bit steep.”
MegaMissingno responded: “Especially considering that there’s only a couple of weeks to prepare before the tournament. People barely have any time at all to rush through the game, build up teams and sufficiently test them in action.
“That’s a pretty high investment for something that people have little time to prepare for.”
Secatus added: “It is [steep], especially for a community that has got used to big events being free. Personally I think £30 would have been the sweet spot, but I completely understand that free is unsustainable and I’m still willing to go at £40.”
Eiskalt89 said: “The real issue is how much the fee will impact participation among Pokémon’s primary target audience: kids and teens who depend on parents to fork out the money for travel, food, and now an entry fee.”
While the entry fee has risen, participants will be happy to hear that the prize pools have also been increased.
Each event will now have a prize pool of up to $250,000 overall (depending on attendance), across both the traditional Pokémon video games and the Trading Card Game. A full breakdown of prizes can be found here.
The Play system has also been reorganised. For example, December’s tournament is now a Europe-wide championship, as opposed to being a country-focused one.
A separate Pokémon Regional Championship – taking place at the Liverpool Exhibition Centre on November 5th and 6th – will cost £30 to enter.
Liverpool also hosted the 2016 National Pokémon Championships back in May.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
