It often surprises people when I tell them how much the focus of Pokémon’s frequent national, international, and world championships is on the Trading Card Game (or TCG to those in the know.) There’s no denying that the card game is popular - in the wake of various internet personalities paying inordinate sums for cards, the Pokémon Company International was forced to print nine billion new cards in the last year to halt aggressive scalping practises which saw grown adults barrelling children out of the way in supermarkets to buy up the latest card stocks.īut for the casual follower of the series the card game doesn’t make such a large impression. Huge artworks of favourite monsters covered the walls, while massive screens at the far end were illuminated with live streamed scenes of players battling it out.
Wandering around the MesseHalle in Frankfurt a few months ago, I found myself living every Pokéfan’s dream.
