Worlds is back and better than ever
The Pokémon World Championships is one of the biggest events in esports, and this year, it sounds like it’s getting an upgrade. After the tournaments were canceled for the past few years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Pokémon Unite will finally be making its debut at Worlds in August of 2022. If that wasn’t good enough news, The Pokémon Company also disclosed in a producer letter that Unite will also be getting a new tournament mode to prepare for the game’s debut at Worlds that will “even the playing field for players, regardless of their held item grades.”
This isn’t the first time the event has seen changes, as the original Worlds only featured the Pokémon trading card game. Mainline Pokémon video games were added in 2009 (with a different game being played every year), while Pokkén Tournament got its own championship series in 2016. It was also announced last year that Pokémon Go would be added to the 2022 World Championships as well, along with Unite, so it sounds like this year, the event is going to be bigger than ever.
In addition to the news about Worlds and the tournament mode, the producer letter also announced that Pokémon Unite will soon support additional languages, including Bahasa Indonesia, Brazilian Portuguese, Hindi, Russian, Thai, and Turkish. The Pokémon World Championships already welcomes players from all around the world, so hopefully these language updates can help even more players be part of the franchise’s largest event of the year.
This is all we know so far, so make sure to keep an eye out for any more updates about Worlds and Pokémon Unite‘s new tournament mode. And of course, jump in-game and start practicing, because qualifying rounds are just around the corner, and August will certainly be here before we know it.
