Woah.
Pokémon just basically flipped the switch and decided they were going to utilize growth in recent years to launch a new era of their competitive scene. They focus on the big, esports-esque events (and a bunch of the small, necessary stuff) while the community or other organizations take up hosting national events. This isn't going to hurt players in any way--its simply opening new opportunities to go to even bigger events while simply letting the mid-size events get handled elsewhere (and, if the recent growth in the game shows anything, people will be jumping at the chance to host nationals). Given Nintendo and Pokémon's resistance to competitive atmospheres since forever (just look at smash several years ago, and they still refuse to say the word "EV" when talking about the video game), I'm a little shocked at the sudden jump towards what most competitive games look like now. Bravo.
