Bath Pokémon League

How we came to exist..

Back in February 2017 I decided to pick up the card game after playing online and really enjoying it. Luckily I had decided to start again just in time for the Sun and Moon release and attended the Pre-Release at 8-bit Plant. The whole experience of playing with others, building decks and playing in person was drastically better than sitting at home on your computer or tablet playing online. You don’t get that same level of interaction nor do you get the same enjoyment from the game.

After looking around tirelessly online and in local groups to see if a Pokemon League existed in Bath or even if there were a group of people that meet up to play I realised that there wasn’t anything around and I would have to travel to Bristol and further to attend events. At that moment I decided to start the adventure to create the league, I began by creating the group, trying to find other local players and begun researching what was required to run your own league.

Fast forward four months to the 12th June 2017 and we were running our first ever Pokemon League session. I was both excited and nervous at the prospect of this, would people actually turn up or would I end up sat in a room on my own for 2 hours wishing I just stayed at home and stuck to playing the online game. Much to my delight people did turn up and 8 months on we have grown massively. We have seen over 30 different people attend the league and generally have about 10 people attending the league each week. We have become eligible for League Challenges that we run on the last Monday of each month and have run a couple of Sealed Booster Tournaments to celebrate the release of new sets.

All of this wouldn’t of been possible without the people who come to league and the guys who also do so much to help the league succeed. We have big plans for 2018 to expand the league, move into larger premises and partner with a store to be able to host premier events. Already this year we have had a re-brand of our logo, created a new merchandise store, made a new website and have over 8 members booked in to attend the Regionals in Sheffield later this year in June.

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