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2018 Pokemon World Championships Will Be Held in Nashville

Music City, USA will play home to this year's Pokemon World Championships.

Ozzie Mejia

February 12, 2018 9:45 AM

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The Pokemon World Championships are set to return for another year. On Monday, The Pokemon Company revealed the dates and venue for this year's big tournament to name a Pokemon World Champion for both the Pokemon line of games and the Pokemon Trading Card Game. This year, Pokemon Trainers from around the world will descend on Music City, USA.

The Pokemon World Championships will run from August 24-26 from the Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Trainers for both the 3DS games and the Trading Card Game will look to advance to this event through various Championship Series events. Those who earn enough Championship Points will punch their ticket in and compete for their share of a $500,000 prize pool.

This will be the first year the competition is held with Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. And while the Pokemon roster in those games won't be too much different from their predecessors, the rules regarding Pokemon usage have been tweaked slightly. While last year focused more on the Alola Pokemon, this year will open the floodgates back to up to any of the series' 645 Pokemon, outside of a handful of Legendaries. Both standard and Alolan variants will also be usable, so look for more Alolan-form Marowaks like the one used by World Champion Ryota Otsubo to show up. However, no more than one of the same Pokedex number may be used in a single roster.

Through the start of the 2018 tournament, the moves Curse, Forest's Curse, Power Trick, and String Shot had been banned. However, the move to version 1.2 recently fixed any lingering issues with those moves. They are now permitted and all competitions moving forward will be played on Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon version 1.2.

The last chance for players to earn their Championship Points will be the annual 2018 Pokemon North America International Championships. The event will return to the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio and run from July 6-8.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?