2024 Pokémon UNITE World Championships Preview

Another incredible season of Pokémon UNITE battles is almost in the books, with only the largest competition of the year left to go. The 2024 Pokémon UNITE World Championships fittingly unites teams from regions around the world to find out who is truly the best. Fans can catch the action on Twitch.tv/PokemonUNITE when the battles begin on Friday, August 16.

The format for the 2024 Pokémon UNITE World Championships is quite similar to last year’s event. Thirty teams have been placed into eight groups. Group play will occur on Day 1, with each team competing in a round robin stage; the top two teams in each group will advance to the next phase of the competition. Day 2 will feature a 16-team single-elimination bracket, where only one team will emerge as the World Champion!

Get prepared for two days of the best Pokémon UNITE action by catching up on the top teams and Pokémon expected to make noise in Honolulu.

Pokémon to Watch on Aeos Island

All matches in the UNITE Championship Series are played in Tournament mode (a lobby mode where all Pokémon are unlocked) and using the Draft format. Because of this, teams and players are constantly having to adapt their playstyle to match up well against their opponents. Moreover, throughout the year most teams compete just within their region, which leads to popular Pokémon selections and strategies that are unique to each region! These constant changes are a big reason the World Championships is so exciting—it is one of the only times that these regional metagames developed around the world get to clash.

With the World Championships being played on the current “Shadow Flame” patch, you can expect a lot of Fire-type Pokémon to be chosen. Pokémon like Charizard, Blaziken, and Ceruledge are putting up extremely hot performances. Many Pokémon in the All-Rounder class have also been bringing the heat in tournament play, including Pokémon like Mimikyu, Urshifu, and Tsareena. To counter some of the heavily melee-focused compositions featuring these Pokémon, expect a lot of crowd control focused Supports and Defenders, like Mamoswine, Slowbro, Hoopa, and Mr. Mime.

Those are some of the Pokémon we should expect to see, but if previous Pokémon UNITE World Championships have proved anything, it is that players’ mastery of uncommon choices can make a huge difference. Some of the players this year are notorious for their off-meta picks; Ground Zero’s “JOMEGALULE” and their Scizor, or Nouns’ “Ghatlue” and their Greedent are just two examples. Who else will showcase their skills on less frequently used Pokémon? We’ll just have to watch and find out!

Teams to Watch

With 30 teams in attendance for Worlds 2024, there are a lot of squads to keep track of. Here are a few teams that are poised to make a splash in Hawaiʻi.

Japan

Japan is considered one of the strongest regions competing at this year’s World Championships, largely in part to their Regional Champions, Fennel. Fennel is made up of a team of players with incredible talent: Pyi, TonGG, and Lucapo are all talented players that have recognition far outside their region for their skill. Pyi is a top path player who tends to focus on melee attacking Pokémon and has the skills to take the likes of Blaziken or Tsareena to the next level. With superstar level players, fantastic strategies, and a Regional Championship in a tough region, Fennel might be the tournament favorites.

But don’t count out the regional runner up, Zeta Division. Formally known as Kabichans, this team has been making waves all season long, with strong performances at the Asia Champions League in February, the Aeos Cup at EUIC, and the Japanese Regional Championships. Zeta Division simply has a history of winning, which is no surprise when you see how they play. The team is famous for early game aggression, like breaking a tier one goal zone and immediately invading the enemies’ central area. Teams will have to be quick on their feet to adapt to Zeta Division’s fast and furious playstyle.

North America

North American teams have claimed the only Pokémon UNITE World Championships. Luminosity Gaming are the back-to-back champions in both 2022 and 2023. However, this year there is a new team who have burst onto the scene, the Orange Juicers. Orange Juicers are the North American Regional Champions, and they earned top honors on stage at NAIC in New Orleans this year. Stage experience can go a long way for a team pushing to become the champion, and the Juicers have that in spades. They might just be the most well-rounded roster out of all the North American teams with their flexible central area player Kraitos, incredible rookie Attacker player Flareons, and veteran world class Defender Zugrug. Watch out for this team to always have a strong drafting phase and to keep a level head in intense end game situations.

Latin America

In the UNITE Championship Series, Latin America is divided into two divisions, North and South, and the team who has taken the spotlight amongst all the talented teams is Fusion from Latin America South. Fusion have not lost a single tournament they have competed in this year. Regional events including Monthly Cups and the Regional Finals were all won by Fusion, as well as the Aeos Cup at EUIC. Proving their strength on both national and international stages has made every team from around the globe study the play of Fusion.

This team tends to focus their strategies on the Speedster role, which is a high burst role in Pokémon UNITE, often drafting compositions that will have two Speedster Pokémon. Doing this is an “all or nothing” style of battling, but when Fusion is playing, it always seems to pay off. Could this be the first roster in Pokémon UNITE Championship Series history to not lose a single tournament all season?

Europe

Three teams are headed to Hawaiʻi this year to represent Europe. And while they are all exceptionally strong, the team that is poised to rise to the top is Nouns Esports. Fans of the Pokémon UNITE Championship Series may remember this team from 2022 when they finished in second place at the World Championships in London. Adesu, Ghatlue, and Bruv are back again—this time with new teammates Toonslim and Sareyu. Out of all the teams this year, Nouns Esports is likely the most flexible team of all.

Ghatlue, Sareyu, and Toonslim make up the damage focused players on this roster and have proven their ability to play a huge number of Pokémon at the highest level. That, alongside their confidence in each other, means they are willing to swap roles during the draft stage. Their Defender player Bruv and Support player Adesu are also known worldwide for their strong communication skills.

Last year Europe did not make Day 2 of the competition, but with a team as strong as Nouns Esports it’s hard to believe that Europe will fail to make Day 2 a second time.

APAC (Asia-Pacific)

APAC is another region that is split during the regular season of competition. With teams qualifying from the Philippines, Taiwan/Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia/Singapore, and Thailand, this region becomes very hard to narrow down who is the strongest. But that is part of what makes the World Championships so exciting—these regions finally get to battle each other on the same stage.

One of the most successful teams from these regions this year is Shinn & Rouday. They competed at the Aeos Cup in London and won their region’s World Championship qualifier. The roster is filled with strong players, but if you must choose one to keep an eye on, choose Shingdi, who has shown time and time again to be one of the most talented players in the world. In fact, at last year’s World Championships, Shingdi’s popular Pokémon choices constantly received a ban from the enemy team to slow them down.

This list just scratches the surface of the amount of talent that will be attending Worlds this year. Two-time Champions Slash and Overlord will both be competing for different North American teams, and last year’s World Championships runners-up, now playing as Elevate, will be competing. More honorable mentions include S8UL esports from India, Legacy from Brazil, Talon from Asia-Pacific East, Xora Tigers Gaming from South Korea, and Nemesis from North America.

The talent is bursting at the seams and that can only mean one thing—the Pokémon UNITE World Championships in Hawaiʻi will be one of the best Pokémon UNITE competitions we have ever seen. Don’t miss the action on August 16 and 17 on Twitch.tv/PokemonUNITE!

For more Pokémon UNITE strategy and analysis, visit Pokemon.com/Strategy.