Nintendo Australia has announced that for the first time, Australia will be competing in the Pokémon Video Game World Championships to be held in Vancouver, Canada. Five State Pokémon Battle Competitions have been announced, the winners of which will travel to Melbourne to compete in the first Australian National Championships. The National Championships will be held at the PAX Australia show which has already sold out; winners and runners-up of the State tournaments will be awarded with tickets to the event along with flights and accommodation.

The press release also indicates that New Zealand players will be able to compete however no competition dates or locations have been announced for New Zealand yet. Full details are below.

Win a Trip to the 2013 Pokémon Video Game World Championships in Vancouver, Canada!

This year, Pokémon fans from around Australia and New Zealand will have the chance to compete in the Pokémon Video Game Australian National Championships, to be held at the sold-out PAX Australia in Melbourne on the 20th and 21st July, 2013.

Players will battle it out on the Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2 games utilising the following rules for a chance to win a trip to Vancouver, Canada to compete in the 2013 Pokémon Video Game World Championships to be held on 9th -11th August, 2013. The following age divisions will apply:

•       Junior Division: Born in 2002 or later

•       Senior Division: Born in 1998, 1999, 2000, or 2001

•       Masters Division: Born in 1997 or earlier

Players who place in the top two of their age division will win flights, accommodation and invitation to the Pokémon Video Game World Championships, hosted by The Pokémon Company International.

Hopeful competitors without a ticket to the sold-out PAX Australia will have the opportunity to battle for the chance to win flights, accommodation and entry tickets to the expo plus additional standalone tickets to PAX at a number of Pokémon Meet-ups to be held around Australia in the coming weeks. Pokémon Battle Competitions will take place at the following Pokémon Meet-ups:

•       Perth (Supanova Pop Culture Expo) Sunday 30th June

•       Melbourne (Deakin Edge – Federation Square)  Saturday 6th July

•       Brisbane (Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre) Sunday 7th July

•       Adelaide (AVCon Anime and Video Game Convention) Saturday 13th July

•       Sydney (Luna Park) Sunday 14th July

Players should familiarise themselves with the rules before attending a Pokémon Battle Competition at a Pokémon Meet-Up.

Further information regarding the Pokémon Video Game Australian National Championships, Pokémon Meet-ups and how Pokémon fans from Australia and New Zealand can win tickets to attend PAX Australia will be released at a later date.

Source: http://www.nintendo.com.au/index.php?action=news&nid=2939

It's cool that Australia is finally included in the world championships but this really seems like a last-minute, disorganised decision. Perth only got 2 days' notice so many players may already have plans or just not have enough time to organise their teams. Plus, holding the national championship at an event that sold out long before the championship was announced seems a bit unfair to people who would have liked to watch. If they had announced it while tickets for PAX were still available I may have even tried to attend because that would have given me two reasons to go (the first being Ron Gilbert).

I haven't trained any competitive pokemon in B2W2 so I'm not sure whether I'll bother entering the Sydney competition, but I may still show up to watch and to film the finals like I did for the Black/White tournament a few years ago (no guarantees but I'll see what I can do!).

Its unfortunate that this year was disorganized for Australia but perhaps next year people will have a better chance to participate. The world championships are being held here in Canada this year, but the really isn't that many events available outside the major cities GTA, Vancouver and Montreal.

True, at least participation in the world championships means that there may be yearly competitions in Australia from now on. Until now, Nintendo Australia only held one tournament each generation (one for Ruby/Sapphire, one for Diamond/Pearl and one for Black/White). Perhaps they're trying to build up more of a competitive battling community in anticipation of X/Y's upcoming release.