Pokémon Baltimore Regional – 2025 Season

As the first regional of the 2025 Pokémon Worlds season, Baltimore was highly anticipated by players, but it had a lot of questions to answer. With a new Tournament Organizer (TO) for the event, harsher Day 2 requirements, and the restructured prizing and CP allocation, many people saw this as a window into what the rest of the season will hold.

New Tournament Organizer

One of the biggest questions surrounding the North American Regionals for the 2025 season revolves around the newest TO to take over the events. For years, Overload Events, Day 2 Events, and Gallery Games LLC have run all of the North American Pokémon Regionals. Day 2 even helped run the North American International Championships in New Orleans and the Pokémon World Championships in Honolulu for the 2024 season. Due to this, it was quite a surprise to find Gaming Generations was going to run Baltimore. Gaming Generations has had a hand in setting up and/or running all sorts of events, but this is the first time the company had complete control over a Pokémon event. Players and spectators had a lot of questions and high expectations for this event.

A Rough Start

Check-in Friday morning was fairly smooth, with plenty of workers checking in players, spectators, and Professors alike. There were no badges for players or spectators at this event, just wristbands featuring the new Regional logo.

The first hiccup came just after check-in started. Doors to the event halls were supposed to open at 12, allowing players and spectators to get the lay of the land, sign up for side events, and shop at the five different vendors inside the hall. Around the time the doors were supposed to open, the massive crowd that had accumulated in the small space around the hall doors were told that there was a delay of about twenty minutes before the team would be ready to welcome the Pokémon fans inside. Players spread out in the space to group up with friends, many sitting on the floor and pulling out decks or Switches to play a few games to pass the time. Sometime well after the initial delay came and went, the crowd was told that the delay was still ongoing and to not expect to be let into the hall until after 1 at the earliest–an hour after the doors were originally meant to open.

Sometime after 1, the hall doors finally opened, and Pokémon fans rushed inside. While some players made a beeline for the side events table to participate in League Challenges held that day (now on a severe delay, causing confusion and frustration among players), others rushed to the vendors to check out their wares. Vendors included META TCG, Cradilicious, Kayfabe Cards, The Side Deck, and Top Cut, and they were selling everything from cards, deck boxes, and Honolulu Worlds exclusives to Pokémon Center Japan merch, plushies, playmats, and more. By Sunday morning, most of these stores were pretty empty. When asked, a few vendors reported they had sent in applications to be in Louisville next month but had heard no word on whether they were accepted.

There were a few more hiccups over the weekend, namely long, slow moving lines on Saturday morning holding up check-in for players, causing more than a few participants to receive a round 1 loss, despite Gaming Generations posting on X that they were delaying Masters TCG and VGC start times because of the delay. Technical difficulties caused the stream to be delayed as well. Players also reported the chairs used for the play space were horrendous, with some breaking on people while they were in the middle of their matches. There were posts complaining that side events were not handled well either and that the prize wall was incredibly sparse and uninteresting compared to the events last season.

Gaming Generations did receive some praise throughout the weekend, the biggest and most important being that the location for the event was more than adequate in size. The space was massive, utilizing halls B, C, D, and E for the event. Rows and rows of tables took up a huge chunk of the provided space and were more than sufficiently spread out, allowing players to easily find and get to their seats and still have room left over.

Tournaments

Pokémon GO

The finals had wdage and 0EL1T30 meet, and after an incredible 5 games, wdage came out on top to be the Baltimore GO Champion.

The winning team list is: Chesnaught, Dundunsparce, Clodsire, Shadow Alolan Sandslash, Cresselia, and Azumarill.

Pokémon TCG

A new Day 2 structure was announced a few months ago that significantly altered how Masters TCG players need to go about their Regional runs. Before, players had to get 19 match points across nine matches to proceed to Day 2–each win providing 3 points, a tie 1, and a loss 0. This meant that players essentially had to go 6-2-1 (wins/losses/ties) to progress into the next day. This setup allowed for players to intentionally draw (or ID) during their ninth match, pushing both players into Day 2, with an average of 250 players making that cutoff. However, with the new structure things are much tougher. Players now need 21 match points to proceed to Day 2 with a record of 7-2-0 being the goal. This has mostly eradicated IDs as ties are much more detrimental to players than before, and an increase in gentlemen’s agreements was noted across all age divisions. An asymmetric Top 8 Cut was also implemented for this season, which many players were happy to see.

Juniors and Seniors

Unlike with Worlds, Regional Championships do not stream or showcase the Juniors or Seniors finals, and they end much earlier than Masters due to having fewer rounds. That being said, the Junior winner for Baltimore was Liam Stuntz, whose deck list can be found here, and the Senior winner was Landon Ellison, whose deck list can be found here. Both of these players are the first in their age division for TCG to cement their invite to Worlds in Anaheim next August.

Masters

Henry Chao (USA), piloting Gardevoir ex, met Ciaran Farah (CA), piloting Lugia VSTAR, in the finals. Though the match had some back-and-forth knockouts, Henry was able to close out the finals 2-0 to become the TCG Masters Baltimore Champion, and the first Master to lock-in their Worlds invite for the 2025 season.

The winning deck list is:

Pokémon: 16
4 Ralts ASR 60
4 Kirlia SIT 68
2 Gardevoir ex SVI 86
1 Drifloon SVI 89
1 Scream Tail PAR 86
1 Munkidori TWM 95
1 Klefki SVI 96
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38

Trainer: 36
4 Iono PAL 185
2 Arven OBF 186
2 Professor’s Research SVI 189
1 Boss’s Orders PAL 172
1 Professor Turo’s Scenario PAR 171
4 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
3 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
2 Ultra Ball SVI 196
2 Nest Ball SVI 181
2 Counter Catcher PAR 160
2 Super Rod PAL 188
2 Rare Candy SVI 191
1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
1 Night Stretcher SFA 61
1 Secret Box TWM 163
1 Pal Pad SVI 182
3 Bravery Charm PAL 173
1 Technical Machine: Evolution PAR 178
1 Pokémon League Headquarters OBF 192

Energy: 8
7 Psychic Energy SVE 5
1 Darkness Energy SVE 7

Pokémon VGC

Juniors and Seniors

The Junior winner for Baltimore was Cameron C. whose team list included: Tatsugiri, Dondozo, Dragonite, Pawmot, Talonflame, and Gholdengo. The Senior winner was Justin M., whose team list included: Amoonguss, Archaludon, Basculegion, Pelipper, Garchomp, and Incineroar. Both of these players are the first in their age division for VGC to cement their invite to Worlds next August.

Masters

First time Regional player Nicholas Morales went up against multi-winner and well-known player, Paul Chua in the VGC Masters finals. The games had quite a few surprises, such as Nicholas’s Maushold hitting Paul’s Terastallized Dragonite, getting a One-Hit KO in game 3, pushing Nicholas through the final stretch to win 2-1.

The winning team list is: Archaludon, Basculegion, Pelipper, Amoonguss, Incineroar, Maushold

More Information

A new graphic was released showing the timeline for the North American Regionals and the three International Championships, revealing three more regionals that have yet to be announced. The first will take place between Toronto and EUIC, the second will be between Vancouver and Milwaukee, and the third will be between Milwaukee and NAIC. The locations for these regionals are unknown at this time.

The next North American Regional to take place will be in Louisville, KY from October 11th-13th. Based on the current information for the event, TCG Masters will not hit the required threshold to have 9 rounds on Day 1, making the requirement to proceed to Day 2 18 match points, or a record of 6-2 or better.