‘This is heaven’: The London Pokémon Championships in pictures

An estimated 13,000 Pokémon fans descended on London’s ExCeL centre last weekend (Feb 13-15), travelling from all over the UK and the world, to attend the ninth annual Pokémon Europe International Championships (PEUIC). 

All united by their love for the Japanese game, the event saw 7,000 competitors take part in heated battles in the Trading Card Game (TCG), the Video Games Championships (VGC) and Pokémon GO. Competing is serious stuff, with winners taking home cash from a total prize pool of $500,000 (£369,170). 

Collectors and fans came to meet other Poké-heads and cop as much Poké-merch as they could carry, from cards, to clothing and plush toys, with queues going around the venue and highly-coveted tickets required to enter the enormous Pokémon Centre. 

Time Out went down to meet some of the attendees and capture the action.   

Kay, Newark and Renza, Lincoln

‘We drove two and a half hours to get here, we’re here for the whole weekend.

‘How can I sum [the Championships] up without coming across like a complete nerd? I can’t! You’ve just got to lean into it.’ – Kay

‘I’m dressed as a Team Rocket grunt. We’re huge, huge Pokémon nerds. We love cosplay and we love Pokémon.’ – Renza

Hannah, 23 and Kieran, 23, North London

‘We are really into TCG. I used to dabble in Pokémon but since I came to the Championships last year it has become an obsession. It’s really difficult to get your hands on cards these days. Opening packs is like an addiction, it’s an adrenaline rush to see what you’ve got.’ – Hannah

‘The grips of the addiction are kicking in, TCG is pulling us in more and more every year. I played as a kid but never played the card game. Watching the TCG players, we don’t always know what’s happening. We’re both frantically on our phones Googling it and explaining it to each other. It’s fun to learn about it with somebody else.’ – Keiran 

Lee, London

‘I love the Pokémon community. Everyone is really nice to each other and I’ve made a lot of friends. I’ve been playing since I was four.

‘My favourite Pokémon is Crustle but you can’t get any merch for that, so I’ve gone with Slowpoke instead. I’m wearing a cat backpack, I just shoved all the plushies in there. My outfit is made from merch I collected over two years.’ 

Isabel, 36 and Greta, 27, Germany

‘We travelled from Germany to be here. Pokémon is our life! My flat is full of Pokémon, I have maybe 50 at home. We both talk about Pokémon every day. I’m a VGC content creator.’ – Isabel

‘My husband is a VGC player. We both made our costumes, they took about a week. The longest I ever spent making a costume was when I made a Tinkaton hammer in its original size. It was bigger than me and I spent a month making it.’ – Greta  

Erin, 21, Hertfordshire

‘This is my fourth time at the Championships. I like being surrounded by people who like the same things as I do. I enjoy competing and playing the games and buying things and collecting. I can be competitive, depending on the situation.

‘This is my Quag Bag. It has 15 Quagsire plushes adorning it. Last year I had 11 plushies. I step it up every year.’

 Zoe, 29 and Peach, 31, Bridgend, South Wales

‘I’m a Pikachu stan, I’m basic. We love the ‘Chu. I’ve been collecting and making badges out of sweet packets and old diaries. I’ve been collecting Pikachu merch for a year or two.

‘We travelled from Wales just for the PEUIC, this is our first time at the Championships. Pokémon products are harder and harder to get in shops so we wanted to visit the Pokémon Centre.’ – Zoe

‘This is heaven. I grew up with Pokémon, this is my childhood in a convention.’ – Peach