The 2016 Pokémon World Championships took place this weekend in San Francisco, and players battled it out to get a share of the $500,000 prize pool. Although Pokémon GO has been very much in the forefront of Pokémon news recently, the game was not present at the World Championships. The Pokémon Company’s J.C. Smith explained that they were concerned that too many fans would turn up to it and it would be overcrowded.

This year, the event had more qualifiers than ever, so the venue was already at full capacity. Smith did go on to say that they have been thinking about how to make an event like the Pokémon World Championships work for Pokémon GO, but they haven’t figured out how to approach the “competitive element.“

“Every year we have a great turnout, a great group of fans. This year, more fans than ever qualified, more players than ever. The fire marshal wasn’t going to let us squeeze more people in. We all agree that safety is not something you compromise on. You need to make sure the players and the families who earn their way in are a priority. The fans that come along with them, unfortunately some of them aren’t able to be a part. “Go is a great introduction, but I don’t see—I haven’t figured what the competitive element will be. It’s cool to have people who can play casually. It’s cool that they can collect and find their favorite characters around the world. We’ve joked about it. But I don’t think it’s something we can make work in a weekend. “We had to make a statement about no Go here. Niantic’s here, and so people always assume there’s a secret or something like that. Rumors of it would have cause people to descend on the location. They couldn’t have gotten in and it would have made things even worse.” — J.C. Smith

Do you think Pokémon GO could be incorporated in the Pokémon World Championships? Let us know in the comments!

Source: VentureBeat

No

ChannelImages

Our Verdict

Top