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Catch Every Pokémon World Championships 2025 Announcement Here_1 The Pokémon Company

Catch Every Pokémon World Championships 2025 Announcement Here

Originally posted on Nerdist | By Christian Hoffer | Last updated Aug 20, 2025 1:03 PM ET

This year’s Pokémon World Championships was one for the books with lots of announcements. The heart of the event centered around Mega Evolution. With the return of the battle gimmick coming later this year in Pokémon Legends: ZA, many of the various arms of the Pokémon franchise are pivoting to bring in Mega Evolution in some way. Several of the closing ceremony announcements involved Mega Evolution in some way. This included a new game mode in Pokémon Legends: ZA, new cards for Pokémon TCG Pocket, and a brand-new card rarity for the physical Pokémon Trading Card Game. But the biggest announcement was the “mega evolution” of the Pokémon World Championships itself, with a full-fledged fan event coming to San Francisco next year. (More on that later.)

Mega Evolution’s Place in Pokémon Games

Mega Evolution was first introduced in Pokémon X & Y and marked the first of the franchise’s “battle gimmicks,” which super-charge Pokémon battles in some way. These are temporary transformations to certain Pokémon that grant those Pokémon new forms, new powers, and enhanced stats. While Mega Evolution cycled out several games ago, the franchise is returning to Mega Evolution in Pokémon Legends: ZA.

The Z-A Battle Club: A Multiplayer Mode

Although the last Pokémon Legends game was a purely single-player experience, the Pokémon World Championships featured the reveal of a new multiplayer mode called the Z-A Battle Club. This new game mode is a four player battle royale mode that utilizes the game’s new real-time battle system, allowing players to attack and dodge instantly. The Z-A Battle Club mode will pit players against each other in three minute battles, with players also able to Mega Evolve to up their ante. If a Pokémon is knocked out, players return to the edge of the field with their Pokémon fully healed and able to either return to battle or be swapped out for another Pokémon on a player’s team.

New Card Game Updates Elevate Games to Another Level

Pokémon’s two card games both received significant updates tied to Mega Evolution. The physical Pokémon TCG previously announced that Mega Evolution was returning to the game via Mega Pokémon ex cards, but Pokémon World revealed that these cards would also have a new kind of alternate art cards. Mega Attack Rare cards feature fresh comic book-inspired illustration. This includes Japanese text meant to hearken back to old Mega Evolution cards from the XY era. Of course, one highlight of the upcoming era of Pokémon cards are new Mega Charizard cards. These will almost certainly be chase cards for collectors.

Mega Evolved Pokémon Are Coming to TCG Pocket

Additionally, Pokémon TCG Pocket announced that they would be introducing Mega Evolved Pokémon to the game, mirroring the physical card game. These new cards will be released around Pokémon Legends: ZA as part of a new “season.” Similar to their physical counterparts, these Mega Evolved Pokémon ex cards cost three points when they’re defeated, meaning that defeating one of these cards results in an automatic victory. Based on the brief glimpse we got of the cards in a trailer, these Mega Evolved Pokémon cards appear to be the strongest cards we’ve seen for the game so far.

Pokémon Champions Game Is in for VGC Competitions in 2026

For fans of competitive Pokémon video game play, next year will mark a brand new era. The Pokémon Company confirmed that VGC competitions at next year’s World Championships will use Pokémon Champions instead of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. This new game will allow players to use Mega Evolution via the new Omni Band, an item that can also be used to Terastallize and Dynamax Pokémon or let them use a Z-Move. Basically, the Omni Band means that all battle gimmicks will be in play in future VGC competitions, which could open the chess-like competitions to even more strategies in future years.

Additional Note: The only non-Mega Evolution-related announcement came from the smaller Pokémon Unite game, which is boosting its lineup of Pokémon with three new Water-type Pokémon. Fan-favorite Vaporeon is coming to the game along with Empoleon and Dhelmise. While Dhelmise (a ghostly anchor) is a bit of a surprise, it’s in keeping with Pokémon Unite’s tendency to feature less-heralded Pokémon in some way.

Pokémon World Championships Will Add Fan Event in 2026

The biggest but most vague announcement was that next year’s Pokémon World Championships in San Francisco will be accompanied by a new PokémonXP fan event. As one of the biggest franchises in the world, it’s always seemed odd how muted Pokémon is when it comes to fan events, with few places for Pokémon fans to gather outside of the competitively-minded Pokémon World Championships. Cognizant of this, the Pokémon World Championships have had a steadily growing number of pure fan events, ranging from small arts and crafts tents to massive drone shows held at night.

This new PokémonXP event looks to be the biggest Pokémon event of all time, with panels, workshops and the all-important “fan experiences” available for attendees to attend. Details about PokémonXP are vague, but this marks a big step for the Pokémon franchise as they’ve never had a place for fans of the franchise to gather in one space. In many ways, PokémonXP looks to be a Mega Evolution for the Pokémon fan experiences at the Pokémon World Championships, transforming fun moments for attendees into a full-blown fan experience that can be enjoyed over days instead of a couple of hours.

Although no new Pokémon or Mega Evolutions were revealed at this year’s Pokémon World Championships, it’s hard not to be excited about the state of the Pokémon franchise. Mega Evolution fans are especially feasting, but it seems like the Pokémon franchise is especially bustling with a new game coming out this year. The only real question is whether Mega Evolution is poised for another multi-year run at the heart of the franchise, or whether this is just a passing fad meant to help get fans by until the next games are released around the franchise’s 30^th anniversary.

This article first appeared on Nerdist and was syndicated with permission.

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