The Pokémon Platinum Version video game is coming to Nintendo DS on March 22nd and this spring Pokémon Trainers around the globe will battle for a chance to win it all at the 2009 Pokémon Video Game World Championships!

For Pokémon Trainers, it could not possibly get more exciting than this. Pokémon Video Game Regional Tournaments will be held this spring throughout the United States and Europe and the competition is guaranteed to be intense. Trainers tough enough to quality will earn an invitation and travel award to participate in the Pokémon Video Game National Championships held in St. Louis, Missouri on June 27th and 28th.

Pokémon Trainers who have the skill to quality at the National level will earn an invitation and travel award to the ultimate stage -- at the Pokémon Video Game World Championships! This prestigious event will take place in San Diego, California on August 14th and 15th.

Detailed rules will be announced in the coming weeks, but for now we can reveal the Pokémon Trainers will compete using the 2-on-2 Double Cup format, with no Pokémon allowed to exceed level 50. Stay tuned for more information about which Pokémon will be restricted.

The competition will take place exclusively using Pokémon Platinum Version, so be sure to pick up the game when it is released on March 22nd. With new adventures, never-before-seen Formes of powerful Pokémon and expanded online options, Pokémon Platinum Version has plenty of new surprises for Pokémon fans.

The Pokémon Video Game World Championships will showcase the world's best Pokémon Trainers and their prized Pokémon. When the competition begins, will you be prepared for battle? To participate in the Pokémon Video Game Championships, you'll need to bring your own copy of Pokémon Platinum Version.

Source: http://www.Pokémon.com/#news_/XML/news_354.xml

With no way for Pokemon USA to detect properly hacked Pokemon using Pokesav and then inserted onto legitimate carts using Rein, users are going to be able to make their perfect team of 'legal' Pokemon in order to win this tournament. It's unfortunate that there is a hack, but everyone knows this is going to happen. Some people will be caught and it will be interesting what they will do with those people.

It's also unfortunately that Canada and Mexico seem to be left out of this tournament. Some world tournament if half the countries cannot participate.

Yeah, and it's not just Canada and Mexico that aren't included - "United States and Europe" isn't exactly a worldwide selection of countries. I know there are a lot of Pokemon fans in Asia, not to mention Australia and New Zealand.

Since this is just the first mention of the tournament, I guess it's possible that other countries will be included once more details are revealed. But given that Nintendo Australia hasn't even announced Platinum yet, I don't really like our chances of being included.

It's not that I'd expect to get far myself (especially if it's double battles) but it would have been a great experience to be able to compete, or even just to watch the regional tournaments.

Also, the fact that players are required to use Platinum makes the whole competition a marketing ploy to get everyone to buy it.

I hope that one day there would be a Pokemon tournament in Mexico,I only participated in the Game Stop Pokemon tournament back in Summer 2007 when I was fortunate to be inthe US in that moment,but I just had a month with my Diamond Version so the team I used was actually my Ruby team.

i have to drive 4 hours to get to the closest one near me. they need another one on a jaa scale