A Trip to the Pokémon EUIC
The Pokémon Europe International Championships (EUIC) are the second International Championships event of the 2024 Championship Series season. This event is sure to be one of the largest Pokémon Championship Series tournaments as competition gears up for the World Championships, and it features exciting competitions for Pokémon Trading Card Game, Pokémon Video Game Championship, Pokémon GO, and Pokémon UNITE players.
On Friday 5th April, the Cat Is Loaf team hopped onto a train and sped off to the ExCel Centre in London to attend the Pokémon European International Championships and the pop-up Pokémon Center!
Myself and Si had already previously attended the year before so we were super excited to be able to attend again this year and see all the new decorations, Pokémon Center items, and the teams competing in the tournament.
We arrived at the venue at around 10am, collected our badges and had a look around. The decorations were amazing, and they had even recreated a part of Kitakami with some stalls just like in the Scarlet & Violet games. The soundtrack of Kitakami playing in the background of the areas was a beautiful touch, and it made me so happy to see so much love for that area of the game.
The Championships
The main part of the Pokémon EUIC is to find a European Champion for Pokémon GO, TCG, Scarlet & Violet and Unite to represent Europe at Pokémon Worlds in Honolulu. There are 4 stages, one for each of the games mentioned above, where you can watch people from around the world compete to become the champion.
One of my favourite tournaments to watch is Pokémon Unite. I always find it to be extremely hype and you can’t help but cheer along with everything that is going on. We were able to witness some amazing clutch games while we were there, and it has definitely inspired me to play some more Unite with friends.
The Pokémon Center
We had a reservation for the Pokémon Center for 2pm so made our way to a separate area of the ExCel venue to queue up. There were some really cute photo opportunities while you waited to go inside, and every so often Captain Pikachu from the Pokémon Horizons anime made an appearance for customers to meet.
While we were there we didn’t queue for very long, maybe 15 minutes but I am aware that on other days the queuing system wasn’t as well planned, so we were lucky in how simple and easy the system was for us.
The Pokémon Center was bigger this year than the previous year which was nice as it felt more spread out and helped with overcrowding. There was a lovely variety of merch available, from Championship Exclusive merch, from items available on the website, including plushies, clothing, TCG and household items such as lights and statues.
I was pretty well behaved when it came to spending, and I ended up only picking up a Championship exclusive t-shirt and badge featuring Gengar, and a couple of sitting cutie plushies. I think if some of the sold out items on the website such as the fluffy Clodsire, or the Growlithe blanket were available I probably would have ended up purchasing more.
Being a Pokémon Creator
As some of you may know, as a side hobby I pride myself as being a Pokémon content creator. My Instagram page, TikTok and Youtube heavily focus on Pokémon, whether it is Pokémon Cards, Plushies or shiny hunting on the games.
If you are interested in seeing what I get up to when it comes to Pokémon, please feel free to follow my socials and join in on the Pokémon fun! If you are also a Pokémon creator, let me know in the comments below.
Overall, we had an amazing time at the Pokémon EUIC in London, and really hope it comes back to London next year! Did you attend the European Championships? Or are you attending a different Pokémon Event or Worlds? Let us know in the comments below!
Cherebi
Indie, Nintendo & Pokemon Gaming Enthusiast 🎮 Loves to talk about the newest unique and inspiring indie games.
