The Pokemon International Championships 2019 happened this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio. Players and fans gathered from around the world to watch players the best of the best compete in tournaments to find out who will be the reigning champions of their respective leagues.

General Pokemon International Championships Details

The Pokemon International Championships 2019 featured players participating in one of three different games: the traditional video game, trading card games, and the Pokken Tournament fighting game. Starting with the more traditional portion of the tournament, players competed in the multiple divisions to find out who the best players for their age bracket are.

Competitors used a copy of the Ultra Sun or Ultra Moon games on their own 3DS system for the competition. It’s worth noting that last year’s Let’s Go Eevee and Pikachu games were not eligible for this main event, most likely because of the limited rosters those games have. It is interesting, though, that there wasn’t a fourth tournament for players who want to use those games.

There are three divisions that are based on age and skill that are used for the Pokemon International Championships 2019, specifically, the video game and trading card game tournaments. There is the Masters Division that features the best of the best pro players from around the world.

In addition, there are also the Senior Division for those who are adults and are eligible to compete, and the Junior Division for players who are under 18 years old. All three divisions in the game tournaments had some heated battles, offering plenty of exciting action for players.

Pokemon Video Game Championships Results

Players who competed in any of the divisions had to agree to the rules set by The Pokemon Company including banned Pokemon that aren’t allowed in their tournament team with the exception of some limited allowances like the ability to use up to two box art Legendary Pokemon like Lunala and Yveltal.

Starting with the main event is the Masters Division of the Pokemon International Championships 2019 video game section. These are where the adult professional players reign, showing off their skill in battle. The winner on June 23 of the Masters Division was none other than Wolfe “Wolfey” Glick.

With his successful win at the International Championships, Wolfey has now become the first player ever to be the champion at some point in time of all four Pokemon tournaments. He was the world champion in 2016 as well as the national champion for his region twice and the regional champion six times. This is his first time as the international champion, breaking a record in the process.

It was a hard-earned victory for Wolfey, too, as he took on fellow competitor Graham “Ammodee” Amedee in the finals. Ammodee had an upsetting road to the finals, too, with many spectators and fans cheering for him to win as the eighth seed players was able to take out the fourth seed Jonathan “Ezrael” Evans and the number one seed Melvin “Shaman” Keh.

However, his awe-inspiring winning streak wasn’t enough to take down Wolfey in the finals. With that, Wolfey has been invited to the World Championships taking place later this year in August. He will have an automatic bypass to the second day of competition at the event.

The Grand Finals are well worth a watch if you haven’t caught them yet

What’s crazy is that’s just the Pokemon International Championships 2019 results from the Masters Division of the video game tournament. On the Senior Division side of things, Kareem Muakkit defeated Quentin “Galactic” Colon Roosevelt in a surprising finals match to be the champion of that division.

As for the Junior Division, you shouldn’t count these up and coming pro players out either. The exciting finals match saw Connor Yuen defeat Kenneth Fung to become the Junior Division champion for the video game championships. And that’s still only covering the video games themselves.

Trading Card Game and Pokken Tournament Championships Results

There were also three divisions for the Pokemon International Championships 2019 in the trading card game. The Masters Division finals saw Stephane “Lubyllule” Ivanoff take down Emery Taylor to become the champion of the trading card game’s strongest and most challenging division.

As for the Senior Division, Isaiah Bradner was able to defeat Regan Retzloff to become the Senior Division champion. Last but not least, the Junior Division for the trading card game saw Benny Billinger take out Evan Pavelski to become the Junior Division champion of the card game.

The final tournament of the Pokemon International Championships 2019 was a Pokken Tournament DX event. This single tournament saw Chaz “Mewtater” Wright win the entire tournament and become the champion through an exciting win against Motochika “ELM” Nabeshima in the finals.

What’s Next for Pokemon Esports

Overall, it was a brilliant and exciting weekend for both the participants and fans alike during the Pokemon International Championships 2019 in Columbus, Ohio. However, don’t fret if you missed out on all of the action as we still have one more major event to happen later this summer.

In fact, it’s the largest and most important event for Pokemon fans and players of the entire year: the Pokemon World Championships 2019. This year, the championships are returning to Washington, DC to find out who the best of the best players are in the entire world.

Like with the international championships, players will be competing in the world championships across all three games: the standard video games, trading card game, and Pokken Tournament DX. It is an invite-only event reserved solely for the best players who have qualified for the tournament in their respective age division.

Fans can look forward to all of the exciting action as well as the results from the event when it takes place August 16-18. Stay tuned here in August to find out who your new World Champions are. Also, be sure to get ready for Pokemon Sword and Shield as they will likely replace Ultra Sun and Moon as the core games in the competitive season next year.