GoKawiilTo get started with competitive Pokémon battles, all you need is your phone. But to compete at the highest level, like at the Pokémon World Championships, you’re going to need a Switch. And there doesn’t seem to be a good reason why.
Battle simulator Pokémon Champions originally launched on the Switch and Switch 2 in April, with the mobile version following in June. The experience is nearly identical across the game’s versions; since it’s cross-platform, the choice really comes down to what devices you own and whether you prefer tapping or using a controller. I find myself playing Champions on my phone more often just because it’s always in my pocket and I’m blessed with unlimited data.
But at this year’s World Championships, the mobile version of Champions wasn’t allowed in competition. As of September 1st, certain local tournaments will allow the mobile version, but regional-level tournaments and above will still require Switch hardware to compete.
During a roundtable interview at Worlds last week — before the September 1st rules refresh — Champions producer Masaaki Hoshino addressed its absence from the competition. “The reason why we’re using Switch right now is just because graphics are quite nice on the Switch 2,” he said via an interpreter. “Also, because [with] mobile there’s just so many devices out there, if we allow people to bring their own devices, it can be a bit complicated from that perspective.”
This answer made less sense before the rules were updated. Tournaments at the regional level and higher are streamed on official channels, and VGC — the name for the competitive video game circuit — was the most viewed of the four games featured at Worlds this year, according to Esports Charts. Based on Hoshino’s answer and the new rules, it seems like The Pokémon Company views mobile as fine for smaller tournaments, but maybe not premium enough for the biggest VGC stages. (The Worlds finals took place in the Chase Center in San Francisco this year, only the second time the finals have ever been held in an arena as opposed to a hotel ballroom or convention center hall. Production values and attendance were especially high.)
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1 / 4 Pokémon Champions on my Switch 2… Image: The Pokémon Company, Nintendo
Champions is certainly sharper on Switch 2 than on my iPhone 14 Pro, and it makes sense to want to present the best version of the flagship VGC game in a series often criticized for its graphics. But while competitors are required to bring their own devices to tournaments, the official VGC rules handbook does call out one case where hardware might be provided: during streamed matches. Players can generate a “team ID” for the battle team they’re using in a tournament, and technically anyone can use that ID to create a “replica” of that team on their own account. The handbook says specifically that “Team IDs may be used for recordkeeping or team checks, and they may be utilized on hardware provided by the Tournament Organizer for streamed matches.” If visual fidelity is a concern, there’s at least a workaround already available.
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