I really like Pokémon! I think it’s neat! I’m not super into the hardcore competitive scene or anything, but I also love a good sporting event, I love to cheer and yell, and I love watching an underdog come from behind and tear things up. For those reasons, as well as the fact that it was taking place in beautiful San Francisco, I thought this year I might try to make it to Pokémon Worlds, the annual esports gathering where the finals for the biggest tournaments in Pokémon video games and the TCG take place. I’d never been, it seemed fun, and my bud Pikachu was going to be there.
Unfortunately, I am not going after all. I am not going due to a combination of people being total weirdos about Pokémon, The Pokémon Company having a confusing website and customer service process, and the process of buying tickets being uncertain, frustrating, and poorly executed.
My story begins back in April, when The Pokémon Company opened up an “interest list” for anyone who thought they might want a ticket to Worlds. The sign-up was open for several weeks, which is very reasonable and plenty of time to put your name in. I did this, as did my partner, who wanted to go with me, and my friend, who also wanted to attend. We made some tentative plans for how long we’d stay, but we didn’t want to buy flights or get a hotel until we were 100% sure we were going.
Worlds passes operate on a lottery system, where individuals are randomly selected to purchase tickets and must do so within a small window of time (72 hours) or forfeit the opportunity. This is understandable on The Pokémon Company’s part. Adults are extremely weird about buying popular things online, whether it’s concert tickets or rare plush dolls or, apparently, Worlds passes. Scalpers are rampant. A lot of people will buy passes just to get their hands on exclusive collectibles. The Pokémon community has seen its share of wild behavior from grown adult people in the midst of children who just want to enjoy their cartoon video game. A lottery system makes sense to curb these bizarre urges and make sure as many regular people who just want to attend the event as possible can get tickets for their families. Also, there are a lot of people who want to go, and they cannot all fit in the Moscone Center.
However, understandable as it is, the fact that we have to have a lottery at all sucks. I wish I could just buy the three adult multi-day passes I want, and show up.
In May, my partner was lucky enough to be selected to purchase multi-day tickets. He happily went to do so, dropping $120 for one pass. However, he missed the prompt that would have allowed him to purchase a second adult pass, and there was no way to go back and purchase it after the fact. He tried to contact customer support almost immediately, but the representative he spoke to over email didn’t really know what to do. The tickets are non-transferable and non-refundable, too. So now we just had to pray that either my friend or I got the email too. We didn’t.
May turned to June, and multi-day passes sold out. Single-day pass emails began circulating via the same lottery system. We patiently sat watching flight and hotel prices rising higher and higher as the month wore on. Finally, as we entered July, we collectively agreed we’d cut our losses and just plan not to go. $120 down the drain.
Then, about a week ago, my partner got an email from customer support. He was allowed to buy a second pass after all. We mulled it over for a few days, and looked at prices again. Flights were fine, but hotels and AirBnBs were looking bad if we wanted to be anywhere near the venue. Plus, one member of our party still wasn’t guaranteed to get in, and at this point it felt pretty hopeless. We declined to buy another ticket.
Then, today, both my friend and I got an email inviting us to buy single-day passes. Baffled, I opened it up immediately on receipt to see what was left, only to see this:
??????????
So The Pokémon Company emailed me to invite me to buy a pass it doesn’t even have for sale? Okay???
Looking at the various Pokémon subreddits, it does seem like most other folks have managed to navigate this system with less trouble than I, though I do see a lot of people confused as to when they can buy tickets, or whether they’ve even still available. I personally found that this whole ordeal was pretty frustrating and poorly communicated. I want to go to Worlds one of these days but I don’t really want to do this again. I’m not someone who can plan big trips on a moment’s notice. I like to have a couple of months’ lead-up so I can take time off work in advance, get a good deal on a decent place to stay, arrange pet care, and track flights for a bit to get inexpensive ones. I would have felt a lot better if The Pokémon Company had shared literally anywhere some sort of timetable as to when invites were going out, so we’d know what to expect. It also would have made a difference if their customer support had responded in a timely manner instead of months later.
So no Worlds for me this year. The Pokémon Company should consider holding this thing in Kansas City sometime. We’ve been a World Cup host city. We can handle it. I’d get merch of Pikachu doing a little barbeque, and I could decide to go last minute if the lottery system continued to fail me.
