For a while now, Pokémon has not been doing as well as in past years, especially their video games. The last game that really did well by selling well, retaining players, and meeting player expectations was Pokémon Sword and Shield released back in late 2019. All Pokémon games after that have just not met the mark. This lack of good games has caused a massive drop in viewership for Pokémon’s four esports (VGC, TCG, Unite, and GO) and an overall decrease in trust in the Pokémon Company on all their future games. Soon, it will get to a point where the games, the thing that made Pokémon so popular over these past couple of decades, are going to need to be supported by merch and card sales, both of which are still doing extremely well in the market. Pokémon Champions aims to fix all these issues at once.
Pokémon Champions is the newest game in the franchise on Switch 1 and 2. It resolves the biggest players’ complaints about the competitive play in Pokémon games. Pokémon Champions successfully streamlines the VGC Pokémon battles so that anyone who wants can access competitively viable teams, practice competitive battles, and play in ranked battles/tournaments with ease. Prior to this, trying to get into VGC was an extremely large hassle. To make a competitively viable team of six Pokémon, it took dozens of hours of breeding, leveling, stat boosting, and more types of grinding. All of that had to happen before even being able to do a competitive Pokémon battle because not doing it was basically a guaranteed loss. Pokémon Champions takes away 95% of that grindy gameplay so that players can focus on actually battling.
Unlike other Pokémon games, Champions does not feature any storyline to follow, Pokémon catching, and other staples that have traditionally defined a Pokémon game. Instead, players recruit Pokémon they want by purchasing them via a currency obtained by battling. These Pokémon come competitively viable, so players don’t have to do too much before bringing them into battle. The most difficult part of the game is actually learning the strategy behind competitive Pokémon battling, not building the team that would allow a player to battle competitively.
So far, Pokémon Champions has been well received, perhaps even being the best Pokémon game to come out since Sword and Shield. Not only is it a fun game that focuses on the battling aspect of Pokémon, but it also gives the Pokémon Company a chance to revive VGC esports scene. However, it is too early in the game’s life to be able to see any of this happen. Yes, things are looking good now for the game and the scene, but the developers have to maintain and update the game with meaningful new content/tournaments for it to stay successful, something Pokémon has not been able to do for a while now.
For example, Legendary and Mythical Pokémon are still not in the game. At some point, they will need to be added to the game because traditional VGC teams are allowed to have one Legendary/Mythical Pokémon in them. Without this, Pokémon Champions does not perfectly match the Pokémon VGC esport. There should also be a pipeline from Pokémon Champions into regional, semi-professional, and professional competitions, another thing that is not available yet. Being super highly rated in Pokémon Champions should mean something, just like it does in other competitive games. Lastly, when a new generation of Pokémon comes out (next one coming in 2027), the new Pokémon should be added to Champions. All these updates need to happen as soon as possible for Pokémon Champions to be able to maintain its players and continue being a gateway into VGC.
Overall, the Pokémon Champions is changing the franchise’s esports scene in a good way, but needs continuous work for it to remain that way.
