Pokemon convention

A very good friend of mine was in the Washington DC area with her youngest son as he was competing in the World Pokemon championship.  Her youngest son won the New Zealand Juniors competition this year, whereas last year her oldest son won and went to the Championship in Vancouver.  I haven't seen my friend in nearly 7 years when she relocated back to New Zealand.  So I took this opportunity to cash in some of my husband's frequent flier miles and headed to DC to visit with her for 36 hours and I got to see what a Pokemon championship looks like.  My kids were so jealous:)

I was to met my friend at the convention center Friday evening as her son checked himself into the competition.  This was the scene upon my arrival...somehow we did find each other but it did take a bit of time!

A very excited competitor!!  this young man practices his game for several hours every Sunday at a game shop near his home in New Zealand.

Next we stood in an unbelievely long line to check out the exclusive Pokemon shop.  Only competitors were able to shop on Friday night.  It was open to the public on Sat and Sunday however the line was incredibly long, luckily for me when my friend went in she got me a T-shirt to take home to my kids:)

All the countries represented at the Competition.  I had no idea it was so big and honestly my kids and I have no idea how to play the pokemon card game, although the kids to have a deck of cards given to them by someone:)

Saturday morning was the day of the competition, I missed the opening ceremony so once again I had to try to locate my friend in the crowds.

The main room of families and competitors...and in case you didn't know this is very serious business.  Some kids showed up with entire families in matching T-shirts to cheer them on, others had colored their hair or dressed up in their favorite Pokemon costume.  

I honestly can't tell you what any of these characters are, but enjoy the crazy pictures!

Pokeball hair cut cracked me up:)

While siblings were playing their games, many were playing  games in the halls, along the stairs through out the convention center.  Wearing pokemon hats was very popular:)

A place to review all the world champions and learn about them

There were even interviews with winners of certain matches and play by play commentary for the video games.

The convention was divided into 2 sections those who play the game via computers

It was fun to see the games on the huge TV screens and sometimes there were oohs and ahhs and gasps of frustrations in the entire hall based on a play.  It made me smile and I had no idea what was going on as it all went way to fast for me.

The other side of the room was for those playing the card version of Pokemon

There were several hundred players all played a total of 7 games each lasting about 60 minutes...the more games you win the higher you place

There were lots of judges available and they were there to help players with any disputes and their ruling was final.  Some of the players needed interpreters 

Had a wonderful time meeting up with old friends and watching her son compete in the championships!

My kids have informed me they want to go the the Pokemon convention next year, fortunately for me they want to go as observers not players.  We shall see:)!