2010 Pokemon Championships announced, plus Shiny Eevee giveaway (!!!)

Do you feel the crackle of electricity in the air? It's because the details for the 2010 Pokemon Video Game Championships have just been announced.

The tournament will use the Flat Battle option this time, auto-leveling all Pokemon to level 50, so you don't have to worry about having an over- or under-leveledPokemon (although for competitive purposes, you'll still want to have your Pokemon EV trained and so forth, so if your Pokemon isn't trained properly the auto-level feature won't help you too much, just saying!!). GS Cup rules also apply.

Above: Last year's tournament pulled out all the stops -one ofthe coolest parts was thislounge where finalists relaxed and took interviews

Locations for the regional qualifier tournaments are:

US schedule:
May 8, Seattle, WA — Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
May 15, San Francisco, CA — San Mateo County Event Center
May 22, Phoenix, AZ — Phoenix Convention Center
May 29, Dallas, TX — Arlington Convention Center
June 5, Atlanta, GA — Gwinnett Center
June 12, New York, NY — Meadowlands Exposition Center
June 25, Indianapolis, IN — Indianapolis Convention Center

European schedule:
May 29, Birmingham, United Kingdom — National Exhibition Center
June 5, Cologne, Germany — Pullman Hotel
June 12, Lyon, France — Cité Centre de Congrès
June 19, Madrid, Spain — IFEMA Feria de Madrid

The World Championships will be held August 13 in Kona, Hawaii, at the Hilton Waikoloa Viilage, which is also your last chance to qualify for the World Championships at the regional level.

Anyone attending any of the regional championships may also download an exclusive SHINY EEVEE*. Last year you could only receive the Shiny Milotic if you actually participated in the tournament, but this year the Shiny Eevee giveaway will be available to participants and spectators alike, which is great if you're planning on participating but are having a hard time enticing your less-than-hardcore friends to come with you.

The question is, which Eeveelution will you choose for your Eevee? The best-looking Shiny Eeveelutions are probably Vaporeon and Umbreon, but it really depends on what the Nature of the Shiny Eevee turns out to be. Last year's Shiny Milotic had a fixed Timid Nature (meaning you can't soft resetto get a different Nature becausethe values that determine the Natureare fixed), so this year's Shiny Eevee will probably have a fixed Nature as well. So, when choosing how to evolve your Eevee, you'll have to consider both how cool the Shiny sprite of the Eeveelution looks and how well the Nature works with its stats and how you want to use it.

For complete tournament details, including the nitty-gritty of the rules and regulations, head to theofficial Pokemon VGC site.

Apr 14, 2010

*GR trivia: Eevee is the favorite Pokemon of Associate Production EditorHenry Gilbert.