Pokémon players from around the globe gathered in Honolulu, Hawaii, for the 2024 World Championships this weekend, but the home field advantage seems to have failed American VGC competitors.
On the VGC side of Pokémon Worlds (Aug. 16 to 18), we got to witness plenty of epic matches, the return of 2014 World Champion Sejun Park’s legendary Pachirisu, and an impressive 8-0 record for Wolfe Glick—all on the first day of competition. With Glick being just one of three VGC players to go undefeated on day one, the future was looking bright for an American Pokémon competitor to take home the big trophy on home turf.
However, things went south on day two for America in the top cut. By the time the top 16 was determined, only one US player was left standing—Justin Knox—who ended up being eliminated in that round. In other words, not a single American representative made it into the top eight for VGC, which does sting a bit since the event takes place right on US soil.
That being said, Worlds is an international event and plenty of great players traveled far to compete for that prestigious title. In fact, the top eight saw players from seven different countries, with China as the only double-up. The finals match will be Luca Ceribelli from Italy against Yuta Ishigaki from Japan. Japan is coming off of a Worlds win from last year thanks to Shohei Kimura, but anything can happen in VGC, and Italy could very well win the whole event.
Pokémon Worlds wraps up Aug. 18 where new champions will be crowned in VGC, TCG, and Pokémon Go. Japan has already won UNITE after a dominant performance by Fennel.
