World Championships

The Pokémon World Championships (Japanese: ポケモンワールドチャンピオンシップス Pokémon World Championships) are an annual event staged by the Play! Pokémon organized play division of The Pokémon Company International (formerly known as Pokémon USA). The first ever World Championship event was run by Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro, on August 2002 in Seattle, WA. Due to the transfer of the licensing of the Trading Card Game from Wizards to Nintendo, neither company staged a World Championship in 2003. Nintendo resumed World Championships in 2004, and have held them each year ever since. Prior to the start of the World Championships structure, the best players from around the world competed at the Tropical Mega Battle between 1999 and 2001, as well as at several Super Trainer Showdown events held in the US in 2000 and 2001.

An annual invitational-only event held in August of a given year, players are chosen on overall ratings, national champions and past performances in the previous year's World Championships.

Trading Card Game
The championships are staged utilizing that year's TCG Standard format, previously referred to as Modified Format prior to the TCG 2013-14 Modified format (2014 season). The TCG 2014-15 Modified format (2015 season) introduced the TCG Expanded format. Set over three days with a last chance qualifier (known to players as "The Grinder") on the Friday to fill seats left vacant for various reasons (no travel, local qualifiers) until all seats are filled. The second day is limited to Swiss Pairings over a set number of rounds, and the top players (16 each in the Junior and Senior Divisions, as well as the top 32 in the Masters division) move onto the Sunday rounds. The format for this final is single elimination, until the finals, which are a best two matches out of three to decide the World Champion. There are three divisions: Junior (known as the 10 Years Old and Under Division until 2006), Senior (known as the 11 to 14 Year Old Division until 2006) and Masters (called the 15 Years and Older Division until 2006).

Standard/Modified Format Sets

 * 2004 — TCG Expedition to TCG EX Hidden Legends
 * 2005 — TCG EX Ruby & Sapphire to TCG EX Emerald
 * 2006 — TCG EX Hidden Legends to TCG EX Holon Phantoms
 * 2007 — TCG EX Deoxys to TCG Diamond & Pearl
 * 2008 — TCG EX Holon Phantoms to TCG Majestic Dawn
 * 2009 — TCG Diamond & Pearl to TCG Rising Rivals
 * 2010 — TCG Diamond & Pearl to TCG Unleashed
 * 2011 — TCG HeartGold & SoulSilver to TCG Black & White
 * 2012 — TCG HeartGold & SoulSilver to TCG Dark Explorers
 * 2013 — TCG Black & White to TCG Plasma Freeze
 * 2014 — TCG Next Destinies to TCG Flashfire
 * 2015 — TCG Boundaries Crossed onward
 * 2016 — TCG XY to TCG Phantom Forces
 * 2017 — TCG Primal Clash onwards
 * 2018 — TCG BREAKthrough onward
 * 2019 — TCG Sun & Moon to TCG Unbroken Bonds
 * 2020 — TCG Ultra Prism onward

Expanded Format Sets

 * 2015 — TCG Black & White onward

World Championship decks
World Championship decks are purchasable non-tournament-legal prints of 60-card decks used by World Championship players.

Video games
The format for the Video Game Championships (VGC), first staged in 2009 in is virtually the same as the TCG counterparts in which winners of those in the National tournament play. In 2010, a Last Chance Qualifier was held on Friday to fill all vacant spots. In 2011, a Masters age Division was added to parallel the TCG. The most recently released Pokémon game is used for battles. The in-battle rules and banned Pokémon vary from year to year. Usually, the battles are double battles, and each player can use four Pokémon. The event format consists of Swiss rounds, followed by a single elimination tournament. In 2009, the top two advanced to play the finals on Sunday, whereas since 2010, the top eight advance to play in a head-to-head single elimination event to decide the World Champions.

Games used

 * 2009 —
 * 2010 —
 * 2011 —
 * 2012 —
 * 2013 —
 * 2014 —
 * 2015 —
 * 2016 —
 * 2017 —
 * 2018 —
 * 2019 —
 * 2020 —

Games used

 * 2015 - Pokkén Tournament (arcade version, invitational only)
 * 2016 - Pokkén Tournament
 * 2017 - Pokkén Tournament
 * 2018 - Pokkén Tournament DX
 * 2019 - Pokkén Tournament DX

Pokémon GO

 * 2019 (invitational only)

In the games
In, the top four competitors from each division of the Video Game Championships from the 2012 World Championships were featured in the World Championships Tournaments in the Pokémon World Tournament. In the Generation VI games, exists for the top three competitors as opponents in the Battle Maison.

In, several NPCs at the Battle Resort mention the Pokémon World Championships.

In the anime
The Pokémon World Championships will appear in SS012.