World Championship qualification for Pokémon esports will change in 2025, and most players have differing opinions on whether the changes are good or bad.
From 2025, only a set number of players who finish at the top of the regional leaderboards get an invite to the Pokémon World Championships. This differs from the previous method, which required players to hit a certain point threshold to be guaranteed an invite, no matter where they placed.
As you can imagine, limiting the slots upset many players because the previous system rewarded those with the time and funds to travel to multiple events over the year. But not everyone is upset by the announcement.
Gregson went on to say they wouldn’t want to attend Worlds being last. They want to play well enough to get to Worlds and feel like they earned their spot.
Not everyone might agree with their sentiment, though. There have been a ton of online threads on sites like Reddit calling for the changes to be reverted, as they feel Worlds should be a celebration of the community. It’ll be up to The Pokémon Company to see if the 2025 changes had the desired effect next year and whether it will revert them for the 2026 season.
