Today The Pokémon company International announced the dates and locations for the Pokémon video game European Championships. Players of any age and caliber are encouraged to enter the tournaments which will be held in 3 major cities across Europe. Milan, Italy on May 11th-12th, Bochum, Germany on May 26th and Birmingham, UK on June 2nd. The players at these events will compete for a travel award to the Pokémon World Championships in Vancouver, Canada this August.

A new format for the competition sees a swiss format instead of single elimination in the starting brackets. This means players can attend events and play Pokémon all day instead of having to leave after one loss, making the tournament more new player friendly. The top players will advanced to the single elimination bracket for the really pro Pokémon players until only one is left standing, the national champion.

Each event has 3 divisions based on year of birth; Junior Division for those born in 2002 or later, Senior Division for those born in 1998-2001, and Masters Divison for those born in 1997 or earlier. Players can build there team using Pokémon from the National Pokédex but some restrictions apply to some Pokémon which you can see on the Pokémon website. Players must play using Pokémon Black 2 or Pokémon White 2 on 3DS or DS. All the touraments are free to play with a first come first serve basis on entry, so you have nothing to lose if you love Pokémon!

Will you be entering the Pokémon championships? Do you want to be the very best? Let us know in the comments below.