While the Pokémon Winter Regional Championships are all said and done, that doesn't mean that we're done with all Pokémon tournaments, not by a long shot, especially with Pokémon X and Pokémon Y still fresh in most gamers' minds.
Thanks to the wonderous capabilities of technology, gone are the days of having to physically occupy the same breathing space as your competitor. There was once a time where you had to use a cable to link up two monstrous Game Boys to trade pocket monsters and "catch 'em all." And it was always the weird, smelly kind that had the one you were missing. AND you had to walk uphill both ways to meet up. In the SNOW. And we were THANKFUL for it!
Now that my flashback is over, let's get to it. A Pokémon Global Link online tournament has been set for this February, and it'll be the first tourney to allow creatures from Pokémon X and Y's Parisian styled region of Kalos. While a number of participants are already registered thanks to rankings and/or registering X and Y on their PGL accounts, the tourney is open to trainers all over the world playing X and Y, and the time is now for the rest of you to get in.
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If you're interested in signing up, here's what you need to do according to Pokemon.com, followed by all rules, regulations, notices, and whatnot:
"To be considered for the Pokémon X and Pokémon Y Beta Competition, you must sign in to Pokemon.com and follow these steps exactly. If you do not follow these steps exactly, you may not be added to the invitation request list.
- Go to the Pokemon.com support center.
- Click on the "Home" tab
- Click on "Ask a Question."
- In the Department dropdown menu, select "Video Games."
- Do not select anything in the Inquiry Type dropdown menu (this field is not required).
- Click the checkbox for "Request Invitation to Beta Competition"
- Type "XY Beta Competition" in both the Summary field and the Details field, and then submit the form.
You have until February 6, 2014, at 5 p.m. PST to request an invitation. If you are extended an invitation to compete, you will be notified of the results via a pop-up notification after logging in to the PGL on or after 2/14/2014 at 11 a.m. PST."
Pokémon X and Pokémon Y Beta Competition Info and Regulations
The Pokémon X and Pokémon Y Beta Competition will be split into two divisions, based on birth dates. The Junior division is for players born on or after January 1, 1998, and the Masters division is for players born on or before December 31, 1997.
There are two ways to receive an invitation for the Beta Competition. If you participated in the 2013 Global Showdown, a Wi-Fi Competition held for Pokémon Black Version 2and Pokémon White Version 2 in July 2013, and you placed in the rankings, you have already earned a place in this competition. If you qualified in this way, you should see a notice on your main page when you log in to the Pokémon X and Pokémon Y Pokémon Global Link website. The notice will say, "You've Qualified for the Pokémon X andPokémon Y Beta Competition." If this applies to you, you don't need to apply through the second process described below.
The second way to qualify for the Pokémon X and Pokémon Y Beta Competition is by applying for an additional participant spot. You'll need to do several things before requesting an invitation. You'll first need a Pokémon Trainer Club account, and you'll need to have accepted the PGL Terms of Use. Also, you must have either a Pokémon X or Pokémon Y game and have registered your Game Sync ID at the PGL. If you have registered more than one game to the same user name, you may participate using both Pokémon X and Pokémon Y.
Online Competition Rules
- The battle format will be Double Battle.
- Eligible Pokémon are those with Pokédex numbers 1-718.
- Exceptions: You cannot use Pokémon that were brought to Pokémon X or Pokémon Y using the Nintendo 3DS downloadable software Poké Transporter, nor can you use Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Victini, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Xerneas, Yveltal, or Zygarde.
- All Pokémon will automatically have their levels set to Lv. 30 during the battles.
Notable Changes from Past Wi-Fi Competitions
There is a limit on how many battles you can participate in each day. If you reach this limit, you will become unable to participate in any more battles that same day. If you do not use your full quota of battles for a given day, the unused battles will be rolled over to the following day.
The test competition will last for three days, so it is possible to take part in a maximum of 60 battles. The limit will be set to 20 battles per day. However, if you battled fewer than 20 times in one day, the remainder will carry over to the next day. For example, if you battled 15 times on Day 1, you can battle 25 times on Day 2. If you then didn't battle at all on Day 2, you could participate in 45 battles on Day 3 (20 from Day 3 plus the 25 you carried over). The battle count for each new day will be reset at midnight UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).
There may be other limitations, based on your location and time of day.
Important Notes for Participants
Participants who perform any of the following actions may be subjected to a penalty. They may even be banned from all future competitions.
- Any disrespectful behavior that negatively impacts other players' experiences in the competition
- Hacking or other actions that might impede the operation of the competition
- Registering using false information
- Any other action deemed at the sole discretion of the competition organizers to be inappropriate
Organizers, staff, members of news organizations, and others will take part in this test competition alongside our regular participants, and it may later be featured in articles or other reports published on the web and elsewhere. At that time, details about battle opponents may be changed so that you as a participant will not be identifiable.
This event does not follow the Play! Pokémon Championship format.
The organizers bear no responsibility for any accidents or damage that arise during this test competition, regardless of origin or severity.
If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact Pokémon Customer Service.
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And there you have it. The tournament is set to begin February 21, 12 AM UTC, or February 20, 7 PM EST.
Pokémon X and Y released this past fall to rave reviews as well as great sales numbers. It's also been reported by Nintendo Life that Masuda expressed interest in making more Mega Evolutions.
The games represent a radical change for the franchise, the top down perspective having been replaced with more of a three quarter perspective, and battles look radically different. As per usual, players will see several new pokémon, 5 of which were teased in the game's trailer at the time of the announcement. There's the usual array of new starter Pokémon, and each game will play host its own type of new, legendary Pokémon. And what's more, a number of classic Pokémon have earned mega-evolutions they can transform into during battle.
The games got off to a great start, but things could be going better. An influx of new monster hunters courtesy ofChristmas led to an overcrowded Nintendo network, which caused the higher ups to delay the arrival of Poké-apps like the Pokémon Bank outside of Japan. As of yet, there's still no word on when the Bank is expected to arrive, but the app was recently re-released in a number of Asian countries, which is definitely a sign of good news to come.
Keep checking back with GameNGuide.com for more Pokémon updates.
