Worlds 2025 Activities and Side Events Announced, Including First-Ever “Pocket” Championship!

By: Water Pokémon Master · Posted Posted onJun 15, 2025 at 11:27 PM · 20 Comments

The official Worlds 2025 website has been updated with a list of activities and side events that will be hosted at Anaheim:

  • Cosplay Showcase: Do you have an amazing Pokémon Cosplay that you’re looking to show off on stage? Look no further than the Cosplay Showcase! Applications are open now and will be closing on July 28, 2025. Costumes must be of human characters from official Pokémon Animated Series, Video Games, or other official related products and media. If you are planning on applying, please remember that you will need a valid badge for Friday, August 15, 2025. Full rules for the Cosplay Showcase can be found here.
  • Collect and Trade: Are you looking to showcase and trade your Pokémon items with other trainers? Join us at Collect and Trade where you can do just that! Guests can trade their official Pokémon items like plush, play accessories like play mats or sleeves, or Pokémon Trading Card Game Cards singles. We are also so thrilled to announce that for the first time, we will have a dedicated area where guests can trade cards in the Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket app!
  • Pin Trading: Calling all Pin Traders! We're so excited to be partnering with our friends at Pokémon Center to bring you a dedicated space to Pin Trade! In this area you can trade official Pokémon pins with other guests to complete your pin collections. Be sure to keep an eye out for staff wearing lanyards with pins to trade with too!
  • Panels: Get ready for an unforgettable experience at Pokémon World Championships 2025! We're thrilled to announce our Programming Stage, with offerings designed to excite and inspire fans. Join us for exclusive panels featuring some of our amazing trading card game artists, an exclusive look at Pokémon Center's highly anticipated fall line, our Cosplay Showcase featuring incredible handcrafted designs, and much more!
  • Special Guests: We're thrilled to announce that some of our most beloved Special Guests, including VIPs, Pokémon Artists, Pokémon Partners, and Notable Trainers will be joining us at this event! These incredible individuals have significantly contributed to the Pokémon legacy and will be part of the fun. Stay tuned for an official announcement revealing which Special Guests will be present.
  • Autograph Room: We are proud to feature a dedicated Autograph Room at this event where select fans can meet some of our Special Guests — including VIPs, Pokémon Artists, Pokémon Partners, and Notable Trainers — and walk away with a print that is personalized and signed just for them! A limited number of autograph sessions will take place throughout the event. More details on how to participate in this opportunity are coming soon.
  • Creator Meet and Greet: Looking to meet some of your favorite Creators? We will be hosting meet and greet sessions with amazing Pokémon Partners and Notable Trainers all weekend long! Check back soon for a full schedule of all the meet and greets.
  • Character Meet and Greet: Get ready for an unforgettable experience as your favorite Pokémon appear for a visit! Whether you're a longtime fan or just discovering the magic, this is your chance to meet Pokémon up close. More details are coming soon, so stay tuned for all the fun that's headed your way!
  • Workshops: Looking for a space to get creative? Join us for Workshops all weekend long! We can't tell you all the exciting details just yet but, check back soon for a full schedule.
  • Merchants: Shop game and card shops onsite for some of the best Pokémon products! Whether you’re a dedicated collector, an enthusiast or just looking for unique items, the Merchant Area has something for everyone!
  • Activity Zone: Fun and games for the whole family!

The following side events have also been listed:

  • The Switch Series: Saturday, August 16 - 9:30 a.m. The Switch Series is a set of large scheduled events held on Saturday morning in same three formats as the World Championships. Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet players can team up to compete in a Regulation I Event, Pokémon GO players will compete in a Great League event, and Pokémon TCG players will play in a TCG Standard Tournament. These are larger and longer events with some of the best prizes of the weekend on the line, including promos, Pokémon Center merchandise, and the top prize of a Nintendo Switch series system for each tournament's champion.
  • The Pokémon Sisterhood League: Saturday, August 16th - 2:00 p.m. The Pokémon Sisterhood League is a side event series to celebrate the women and nonbinary Trainers that are a part of our community! An inclusive tournament open to all women trainers in attendance, we hope that these events serve to create a safe and welcoming space for our Trainers.
  • Pokémon TCG Pocket Double Deck Open Championships: Saturday, August 16th - 10:00 a.m. Pokémon's newest mobile game gets its own casual Championship event this weekend! Players will play in the Double Deck format - using two different decks to win two game with no Pokémon shared across both decks. Number of rounds determined by attendance, no prize wall tickets awarded but additional prizes for top finishers, the Top 8, and Champion of this event.
  • Mystery Tournaments: Looking for new, exciting ways to play your favorite game? Come try the unique rules on offer for these events. Players should make sure to bring a Standard-legal deck or team with them (or Great League team for GO players) and be prepared to play with them in unexpected ways (or need to use something new altogether). No Prize Wall tickets are awarded for these events, but players will receive prizes for each round played!
View thread (20 replies)
Why aren't Pokémon Showdown or Nuzlock or Unlisted Leave's Card Party included in the side events??
 
Interesting and somewhat odd that they now have a sisterhood league. Cool that they are acknowledging it but it’s weird they are mentioning that it is a safe space (somewhat meaning that everything else isnt). It’s nice though that it is an official thing now.
 
MarlinRimes said:
Interesting and somewhat odd that they now have a sisterhood league. Cool that they are acknowledging it but it’s weird they are mentioning that it is a safe space (somewhat meaning that everything else isnt). It’s nice though that it is an official thing now.
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You have to realize for a long time this kind of events are male-dominated because for a very long time were not seen as a place/hobby for women. High competitivy and toxic behaivour can gatekeep a lot of people out of the game. Pokemon has gone a looong way, now values and perception have changed (from the early 2000's until now) and TPCi has a lot of non-discrimination clauses in their Core Values. Generally all pokemon events I've went were safe spaces but table dynamics change when all people playing are women/queer.
You wanna see more people at your locals? These are the correct steps, specially in the waves of current social political misoginy/transphobia, let them bloom and enjoy it, and also I reccomend to any woman or store owner reading this, try to do some activities like this in your community, they have increased the playerbase A LOT in here because this kind of events give a blank slate to any woman curious with the game. I still read transphobia in every twitch chat during the events and makes sad as hell, even when specifically this community is more queer friendly than others
 
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Dairebt_Lagorve said:
Ah yes I see. I don't want anything to do with GO though. I want VGC single battles
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To be fair, Pokémon balances their game design around VGC these days, and as a result, singles has to deal with things like Adaptability Basculegion, a sweeper who leaves no survivors thanks to its Last Respects boasting a base power of 600 after your teammates are gone. There would probably need to be bans.
Basculegion: "I am the Dwead Piwate Wobert's! I leave no suwvivows!"
 
MarlinRimes said:
Interesting and somewhat odd that they now have a sisterhood league. Cool that they are acknowledging it but it’s weird they are mentioning that it is a safe space (somewhat meaning that everything else isnt). It’s nice though that it is an official thing now.
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sisterhood groups are critical to the health and expansion of any community, especially for ones very masculine in population. it creates a comfortable space for women/feminine-leaning/nonbinary persons to play among people of their demographic. while the pokemon community tends to be more open and accepting of LGBT+ and women in the space, there's a lot of very negative influences within it (like niel patel in VGC, who posed as a teen girl in a tournament for a joke, and held transphobic views; it was his loss at a tournament to an amoonguss that started the Amoonguss Trans Rights memes), even at an official level (such as the judge two years ago who stalked a group of trans women/nonbinary people out of the venue to a private dinner).

as a trans man in the competitive community, i see (and face, though differently) the pain that these women and nonbinary folks go through all the time. they frequently recount the fresh, painful encounters they face when they're just there to press buttons or play cards. they deserve their own dedicated spaces and to know that they're among people who understand them. they deserve to know that there's an official capacity to welcome them and get them engaged in the community just as much as anyone else. even when the dust settles and TPCi punishes the bad actors, it's necessary for them (and any community!) to follow it up with further support for marginalized groups to help them regain a sense of trust and safety that they can be in these spaces, that they belong.

(and just in case, i don't read any malice in your message. i think you pose a perfectly valid question and it opens up a good venue for discussion.)
 
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They should 100% make this an official event and not a side event. But if this is streamed on YouTube then i wanna see if anyone is bringing a off-meta deck or is it all silvally/rampardos and giratina/darkrai
 
bbb888 said:
Why aren't Pokémon Showdown or Nuzlock or Unlisted Leave's Card Party included in the side events??
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Very sure Showdown is unofficial, Nuzlock(e) would take too long.


Mate what are you on about Unlisted Leaf’s Card Party?? That’s just like…a card convention? Also, correct me if im wrong…didnt DPM (deep pocket monster) start Card Party and not unlisted leaf?
 
MarlinRimes said:
Interesting and somewhat odd that they now have a sisterhood league. Cool that they are acknowledging it but it’s weird they are mentioning that it is a safe space (somewhat meaning that everything else isnt). It’s nice though that it is an official thing now.
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Misogyny is very rampant in every male dominated hobby and Pokemon is definitely no different, and it can make women feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Having something marketed towards them as a space where you are "okay" despite being a woman is very important especially for newer players who want to enter the hobby without having nasty comments flung at them just for their gender
 
Well, not really the First-Ever "Pocket" Championship, cause it was already tested during the Stockholm Regionals this March, with the exact same Double Deck format. It wasn't the most popular side event tho - with total of 4 players.. I'm guessing it will manage to gather more people this time, especially since it's been already announced.
 
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