After opening in Virginia last weekend, the Pokémon Winter Regional Championships continue today on the west coast and in the mid-west, specifically, Long Beach, California, Salem, Oregon, and St. Charles, Missouri. So if you're feeling up to the challenge, pack up your pokéballs, 2 or 3DS, and bring a copy of Pokémon X or Y along with 'em. And depending on your location, here's where you'll want to be later today:
* California - Long Beach Convention Center, on 300 East Ocean Blvd.
* Oregon - Oregon State Fair and Expo Center in Salem, in Columbia Hall, on 2330 17th Street NE.
* Lastly, for those of you in the mid-west, head to the Saint Charles Convention Center in Missouri, on One Convention Center Plaza.
Top finishers in the events get booster packs, trophies, and stipends from a pool of nearly $200,000 in travel allowances, which can be applied toward earning a Pokémon U.S. National Championships Travel Award. But the true blue ribbon is an invitation to the 2014 Pokémon World Championships in Washington, D.C. this August.
More information about each event and entry details can be found here.
Pokémon X and Y released this past fall to rave reviews as well as great sales numbers. It's also been reported by Nintendo Life that Masuda expressed interest in making more Mega Evolutions.
The games represent a radical change for the franchise, the top down perspective having been replaced with more of a three quarter perspective, and battles look radically different. As per usual, players will see several new pokémon, 5 of which were teased in the game's trailer at the time of the announcement. There's the usual array of new starter Pokémon, and each game will play host its own type of new, legendary Pokémon. And what's more, a number of classic Pokémon have earned mega-evolutions they can transform into during battle.
The games got off to a great start, but things could be going better. An influx of new monster hunters courtesy of Christmas led to an overcrowded Nintendo network, which caused the higher ups to delay the arrival of Poké-apps like the Pokémon Bank outside of Japan. As of yet, there's still no word on when the Bank is expected to arrive. Work on the app is still ongoing.
It's unknown how this will affect the free 30 day trial for anyone who downloads and activates the service prior to January 31, if at all. For Japanese players, the Bank has been working fine, and gamers were recently gifted with the legendary pokémon Giratina.