Pokemon World Championships move to London for 2020 – CNET

The Pokemon Company has announced that the 2020 World Championships battle will be jumping from North America to London for the first time. During the three-day event, the best players of Pokemon trading card and video games — including Pokemon Sword and Shield and Pokemon Go — from across the globe will compete for a prize pool worth several thousand dollars. The competition will be held on Aug. 14-16 at the Excel London event center. 

If you want to compete, you need to start earning championship points at local events to score an invitation to the Pokemon World Championships. There’s no entry fee to participate, but it’ll cost you to be a spectator.

Pokemon Go maker Niantic has also announced its 2020 events, CNET sister site GameSpot said Wednesday. They include:

• Taiwan Lantern Festival in Taichung, Feb. 6-9
• Pokemon Go Safari Zone St. Louis, March 27-29
• Pokemon Go Safari Zone Liverpool, April 17-19
• Pokemon Go Safari Zone Philadelphia, May 8-10

Augmented reality mobile app game Pokemon Go has been downloaded more than 1 billion times, according to Sensor Tower data. Its community days see fans play together in local spaces, using their phone’s GPS to move around the physical world while interacting with AR objects, creatures and battles.

Pokemon Sword and Shield for the Nintendo Switch was released in November.