Last year’s Pokémon Worlds in Anaheim kicked the Pocket Monsters competitive scene to an esports arena spectacle, but San Francisco’s Worlds has raised the bar this year.
That’s especially true for fans from the United Kingdom, as a young man from York took the top prize from the Pokémon World Championship final’s gaming Senior division bracket.
For those not in the know, Pokémon Worlds is the annual world championships for the major competitive facets of the franchise: Pokémon Unite (this being its last year), Pokémon Go, the trading card game, and the latest big game in the video game series.
The latter is especially interesting in this case, as Worlds would normally run with the latest mainline game (previously Scarlet & Violet), but this is the first year that the new free-to-play battler, Pokémon Champions, has been the default competitive platform for the VGC scene — and it will be going forward.
This doesn’t all take place on the same day, though. This is held in tandem with Pokémon XP: a dedicated Comic-Con-esque fan event also in its debut year, brimming with gaming side quests, exhibitions, spectacle-level attractions, musical performances, interactive experiences, special panels, and more.
Worlds matches were all held from Friday to Saturday at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. For the finals on Sunday, however, all matches were showcased at the competition's biggest venue yet: the NBA’s Chase Centre — housing thousands of screaming, passionate Pokémon fans circling a gloriously lit centre arena stage.
Where normally basketball fans would be checking out three-pointers and dunks on the Chase’s giant monitors, Pokémon lovers got to use it for epic high-resolution plays, knockouts, and match-winning moves that were followed with energetic commentary and effects as if you were watching the NBA playoffs or World Cup indoors.
Who were Pokemon Worlds' 2026 VGC winners?
Pokemon Go’s nail-biting tie-breaker of a final and Unite’s Worlds send-off were highlights, but it was the VGC’s Senior division (ages 13 to 16) that properly made the experience worthwhile.
After an intense back-and-forth between teams both featuring Charizard and Venusaur, it was 16-year-old Vikram Thiagarajan who won his own tie-break game to become Great Britain’s first world champion since Mark McQuillan in 2015.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Shoma Honami and Kotone Yasue took the crowns for the VGC finals’ Master (17+) and Junior (12 and under) divisions respectively.
Representing the UK as a World Champion
As a very pleasant surprise between his win and all three VGC champions getting their trophies, Radio Times Gaming (along with Pokémon Magazine) got to speak to Vikram in a quick roundtable interview about what it means to represent the UK as a Pokémon World Champion.
"It just feels unbelievable", Thiagarajan answered.
"I didn't think I was going to make it this far this year after my last year's result. I wasn't feeling very confident going into the tournament, but as the rounds went on, I just kept feeling more confident until the finals. So it just feels absolutely amazing."
At 2025’s Worlds in Anaheim, Vikram made it to the top four as a semi-finalist with his team including Calyrex, Groudon, Smeargle, and Fluttermane — which is still a great achievement in its own right.
With the shift from Scarlet & Violet to Pokemon Champions this year, though, there’s been a much smaller pool of 208 Pokemon to choose from, compared to the roughly 700 choices before. Plus, this also meant switching from the Terastallization mechanic to Mega Evolution, which Vikram said 'has been nice compared to Scarlet & Violet'.
With all of that, players have had to adjust to a whole new meta compared to last year.
View oEmbed on the source websiteThat said, after losing the first round of his final against Carlos Verástegui, Vikram was able to skillfully adapt with his Archaludon, Venusaur, and Pelipper to close the gap with a second-round win to make a tie. That was before becoming the new champion after a tense third round featuring a leading Charizard on both sides, with his same Archaludon being able to chip away at Verástegui’s team.
Although there was some strategic back and forth from the two players, Vikram noted to us during the roundtable the moment he knew he was the new world champion: just above the final round’s ten-minute mark, when Verástegui’s last-ditch effort to use Venusaur’s Sleep Powder on Archaludon only lasted for one turn — allowing Archaludon to finish off the opposing Charizard, soon followed by Carlos's surrender, since he only had a nearly-defeated Incineroar remaining.
How to play Worlds-level competitive Pokémon
As tense as all this sounds, our new teenage champion agrees that having a good time is still among the most important things. Asked by Pokémon Magazine what his advice would be for young players on what makes a great competitor, Vikram also explained: "I’d say just try and have fun as much as you can."
"That’s what I did this year, and it turned out pretty well, so just have as much fun as you can".
This kind of sentiment is what’s even being shared by other VGC tournament players Radio Times Gaming got to speak to at Worlds, as well.
Take fellow British player Taran Birdee of the Masters division, for example — who placed 19th at this year’s Worlds. Despite his acknowledgement that there’s 'definitely a lot more pressure' compared to regionals, he thinks 'trying to think of it as just another tournament and just trying to play your best is really the best way to go'.
Also honing in on the fact that Pokémon Champions is free-to-play, accessible on both Nintendo Switch 1 and 2 consoles and now mobile devices, Birdee brought up the necessity of actually being a fan of Pokémon, rather than just getting into the competition for the sake of the cash prizes up to $30,000 — otherwise making yourself vulnerable to burnout.
He explained: "Pokémon's one of those games where you have to like playing Pokémon as a whole rather than just the competitive side of it. So, if you like Pokémon, you'll probably enjoy playing competitively, and Pokémon Champions is the easiest way to do it."
Pokémon Worlds makes the most of Champions being fun for beginners
Pokémon Champions being the new standard for VGC has made competitive Pokémon far easier for beginners to get into. As much fun as you can have going through the trial and error working out Pokémon Champions' unique meta yourself, there’s nothing wrong with seeking help from your community or even those in your circle, too.
Brooks Johnson, a San Francisco Bay Area local who placed eighth in his first Senior division (but his third time at the tournament altogether) — mentioned to Radio Times Gaming how another family helped build his first team so he could go to an event, before adding: "I think you can just look at sites and events for a team, then if you build it, you can go to an event, learn from that, and play on the ladder."
Essentially, you can use your local resources as a jumping-off point — then keep adjusting as you try teams out against the current meta to find the best picks for you.
Therein lies a key contrasting pro and con with having a game like Pokémon Champions as the new VGC baseline, with only 208 out of 1,028 Pokémon available at the time of writing. It may make professional-level players like those at Worlds hungry for more variety, but it makes the barrier to entry for casual Pokémon fans much easier to get over — alongside the easy-to-understand tutorial and training mechanics in place.
View Riddle on the source websiteEarlier in the week ahead of Worlds, we also got to sit down with Masaaki Hoshino — the producer and director of Pokémon Champions, asking in a roundtable with other journalists about his thoughts on the game since launch.
Reflecting on the variety of casual and diehard Pokémon fans who’ve been trying Champions out, we asked not only Hoshino-san how the team went about deciding which Pokémon to add, but also if there’s been any surprise about the impact on the meta either at launch or later updates.
With the assistance of his translator, Hoshino-san explained that the root of only adding roughly a fifth of the total Pokémon is indeed to make it more approachable for new players as well as old ones.
The Pokémon Champions boss explained: "Especially with the mobile launch, there's an influx of a lot of first-time players, and especially, you don't want to make Champions too daunting for these new players."
"So, some of the Pokémon are being selected based on ease of use. And, based on that, going forward, of course, there might be some kind of advanced Pokémon being added, but that will probably be a little more later.
"But even within this limited roster and the current regulation, as we can see in [the World Championships], there's a lot of people who are coming up with, like, new metas, and right now [I feel] that it is a pretty good meta environment at the moment."
Where will the 2027 World Championships be held?
Announced during the Pokémon Worlds 2026’s closing ceremonies, headed by Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara, the 2027 World Championships will be taking place in Singapore — from 13 August to 15 August.
Vikram did mention to us that if he could pick any Pokémon to go into Champions next, it would be the Gen V Grass/Steel-type Ferrothorn.
Let’s hope Hoshino-san will let our new UK world champion add that to his next team by then, as we’re sure 2027’s competitive scene will have even more skilled players now that more have seen what competitive Champions is like — making Worlds surely even better than ever.
Read more on Pokémon:
Best Pokémon gifts - the greatest merchBest Pokémon games on Switch - our rankingBest shiny Pokémon - the coolest creaturesBest Dragon-type Pokémon - who's your fave?All cat Pokémon - the felines to catchPokémon natures guide - all you need to knowPokémon type chart - strengths and weaknesses explainedLegendary Pokémon - the full listPokémon Scarlet and Violet cheats - handy hacksPokémon Emerald cheats - what you need to knowPokémon Fire Red cheats - all codesPokémon Go friend codes - and how to find themPokémon games in order - where to startCheck out more of our Gaming coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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