Summary
ThePokémon World Championships 2024is the most prestigious event on the calendar for the long-running franchise’s competitive play. Trainers from across the globe convened in Honolulu, Hawaii this weekend to stake their claim as one of the very best, and the unique four-in-one approach - combining the biggest event of the year for each of thePokémonTCG, the VGC,Pokémon GO, andPokémon Unite- makes for appointment viewing for anyone in Nintendo’s creature ecosystem.
That’s for people who are excellent at what they do, however. I, on the other hand, am a serviceable-at-bestPokémonTCG player with no knack for the VGC and too little patience to properly playUnitebeyond driving friends up the wall when I dive into a 1v3 (next time I’ll definitely win it, though). For me, covering the event forScreen Rantand generally mingling with people far more talented than myself atPokémon, it’s the little things that matter - andI found the best Pokémon World Championships 2024 side event to enjoy, even if it took way too long a wait to justify it.
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The Pokémon World Championships 2024 Ditto Draft Experience
How To Open Packs And Get Obliterated By People
With a few hours to kill and a few other journalists from various outlets in tow, we set out toenjoy the Pokémon TCGin a way that was accessible, easy, and fast. Asking the helpful staff on site yielded a suggestion for Ditto Draft. As best I can tell, this side event is as arcane to many players as it was to us, but the basic rules are that an 8-person pod opens one pack of product, adds 10 energy cards to it that then count as every energy (but only one per energy), and then battles 20 card decks with someone else. The loser is sent packing while the winner adds another booster to their deck and plays another winner, which is then repeated for the finalists.
The most fun element of the Ditto Draft is its namesake, though the Professor we had and the players at the table had differing opinions on how exactly it worked - essentially, either once per game or once per Pokémon, a player can use the “Ditto Evolution” mechanic to evolve a basic with no rule box into a Stage 1 or Stage 2 Pokémon, regardless of whether they’re from the same evolutionary line (reducing the feel-bad moment of having a rare Stage 2 and no basic or Stage 1 included in the same pack).
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In practice, it’s a pretty chaotic format. Both players only get two prize cards and the decks are complete rolls of the dice - I watched someone across the table open Greninja EX and made a mental note that our pod already had its winner - but outside of obviously overpowered cards, it was a lot of fun! Things that feel pretty irrelevant to the average Standard Pokémon TCG experience, like paralysis or weakness/resistance, became vital, fundamental tools for survival as underwhelming basic Pokémon dealt 10 damage to each other over a series of turns.
The Pokémon World Championships 2024 Is For Everyone
I Believe That Messaging More Than Ever Before
Unfortunately, the Pokémon World Championships 2024 plays host to a lot of serious competitors, even amongst those who didn’t qualify for their main event. As a by-product of this, our Ditto Draft pod took ages to fire - there were something like six Standard 8-person pods that assembled and then started before ours finally got enough people together to begin.It took almost an hour, and due to a mix-up with staff and check-ins, one of our friends simply got dropped and not re-added to the pod the rest of us got to take place in(I like to think he would’ve won it all as the person who would’ve opened the Greninja, but who’s to say?)
That said, it wasn’t that bad a wait. We watched a few Standard games develop around us, noting that professional players certainly make it look easy - it was a casual game, but I observed no less than three different rules infractions across maybe two turns, with neither player aware they were doing so and happy to just continue in bliss. We caught up a little, and watched the generally infectious joy that comes with attending a Pokémon World Championships in its many forms - kids opening a pack they got as a reward, Standard players discussing their 60th card, and Professors and other staff being incredibly warm, patient human beings.
I think we secretly found the Pokémon World Championships 2024’s most underappreciated side event during our travels to Hawaii.
The experience was worth it, even with the wait. I got destroyed in the very first round by a player who assembled a Ditto Evolution and normal evolutionary line in a single turn, stymying my poor Leafeon. None of us made it to the finals, though a certain IGN Guides Editor did better than the rest of us. We all agreed that, if our schedule was a little lighter, we’d absolutely come back to play another in spite of our laughable results and the long wait. It was a welcoming event, where everyone was happy to just be there and playing the TCG. I felt so far removed from trying hard to win with my Gardevoir Standard deck it was almost a different game altogether.
I think we secretly found the Pokémon World Championships 2024’s most underappreciated side event during our travels to Hawaii. I’m already planning on running a few Ditto Drafts with friends when I have enough packs to spare, and I can’t recommend the experience enough as something quick (when you’re not in a thousands-deep convention hall trying to run four major events simultaneously on top of numerous sides). Just verify to openan expensive rare Pokémon cardif you want life to be easier, or else you, like me, will need to read what an Okidogi does when every energy is technically a dark one and wonder how on Earth you’ll ever beat that with a Sunkern.
Screen Rant is attending the Pokémon World Championships 2024 as part of the North American media tour.
