Pokémon World Champion hosts the first creator-driven tournament

While the Pokémon Company has consistently hosted esports events since 2008, the game’s competitive side hasn’t garnered the same amount of attention as other titles. Wolfe Glick, the 2016 world champion, wants to change this. Working with esports team Beastcoast, Glick is leading the charge to build creator-driven events that appeal to casual Pokémon fans.

Glick is very ambitious – his desire to raise the bar has made him a critical figure in the Pokémon community. He began competing in Pokémon’s Video Game Championship (VGC) series in 2011. In 2016, he started a YouTube channel creating content about himself and this competitive format. The timing couldn’t have been better – that summer saw the debut of Pokémon Go, rekindling interest in the franchise, and in August he was crowned World Champion.

However, Glick treated Pokémon as a hobby, not a full-time career until February 2020. 2019’s Pokémon Sword and Shield helped double his subscriber count, giving him the confidence to take the next step towards achieving his goals. “Being a YouTuber is risky. The future is uncertain and the path forward would be less clear than in my previous job as a government consultant,” explains Glick.

And then the world fell silent. Glick’s timing was once again perfect. As of March 2020, Glick had 174,000 subscribers. Since then, his channel has grown exponentially. He credits his success to experimenting with different formats (particularly a focus on video essays that made the VGC format accessible to a wide audience), a consistent upload schedule, and a growing team to support him. Today, Glick is approaching 1 million subscribers, making him the most popular competitive Pokémon YouTuber.

But Wolfe Glick isn’t the kind of person to rest on his laurels. He wanted to raise the bar and further elevate the community. While The Pokémon Company’s tournaments worked for the competitive community, no one hosted events that brought more casual fans into the competitive group.

But Glick knew he needed a partner to fulfill his ambitions – enter Beastcoast.

Beastcoast and Wolfe’s partnership

Beastcoast is a smaller esports team primarily focused on underserved communities. This streamlined, yet thoughtful strategy has helped the team differentiate itself from the larger esports organizations.

According to Grant Zinn, founder and CEO of Beastcoast, the pressures and expectations of external financing have led to a homogenized industry: “Modern esports fueled by VC money looks a lot like fast food. It looks the same and tastes the same. Beastcoast took a different path.”

Pokémon was an attractive community for Zinn for several reasons. Of course, the franchise is the most valuable media IP in the world, which means a huge potential audience. In addition, Zinn shared Glick’s vision of uniting the various industries within the community. Considering that competitive Pokémon are also relatively easy for a new player to jump into but difficult to master, there was a real opportunity to grow the audience.

This desire to raise the stakes and make Pokémon esports more accessible was the foundation between Glick and Beastcoast’s partnership. In the end, Beastcoast’s support in addition to the guaranteed money sealed the deal for Glick: “In a lot of esports, the players are younger and they need more hands. I am very self sufficient so I was looking for a partner who would help me achieve my goals not just give me money. Scholarship [Zinn] and Beastcoast wanted to collaborate for these events and handle the logistics while I managed the strategy.

“We both knew we couldn’t accomplish these events without the infrastructure of Beastcoast and the vibrant community of Wolfe. It’s mutually beneficial,” Zinn added.

A story of two events

Glick officially joined Beastcoast late September 2022. Since then, the team has already organized two major events. On December 10, 2022, Glick and other prominent VGC players (such as James Baek of Beastcoast and Aaron “Cybertron” Zheng) created a pop-up Pokémon gym in New York City.

This event had a clear focus on direct contact with fans. Beastcoast pitched the idea and Glick went along with it. The event was sponsored by P448, a shoe brand. Its mid-town location, just steps away from Nintendo’s Rockefeller Plaza store, served as the venue. This partnership made the event relatively cost-effective, especially when compared to the production-value-focused Invitational.

The event was a great success. All 250 competitor slots were occupied. Additionally, Glick’s video of the event is approaching 1.8 million views at the time of writing, making it his fourth most viewed video ever.

Beastcoast and Glick didn’t have time to rest on their laurels – seven weeks later they were running Wolfe Glick’s Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Invitational in Los Angeles. Rather than focusing on consumers, this event seemed to bring makers into the herd.

Instead of featuring top pros, the event featured eight creators who had more loose connections to the Pokémon community. This one included Louis, JaidenAnimations, Sykkuno, Alfarad, LilyPichu, BoxBox, Connor Eats Pants And Emptinesswho took home the win.

This setup is designed to further Glick’s goal of making the competitive side of Pokémon approachable. “We wanted to show that people who aren’t crazy about Pokémon can play competitively with a little coaching and hard work. That way they could show their audience that this game is approachable and accessible,” he said.

To add to this, Beastcoast and Glick teamed up with Beyond the Summit (BTS), a premier esports production company known for its more intimate Summit events. Zane Bhansali, a creative producer at BTS, and Glick had been discussing plans for these types of creator-driven events for years before joining Beastcoast of BTS. “Pokémon is a great competitive scene that just needs personality. It’s what BTS excels at presenting,” said Bhansali.

BTS’ added production value helped Glick introduce the competitive Pokémon scene in its best light and add legitimacy to the event.

Ultimately, the event was a great success. The Stream of 11 o’clock averaged over 18,500 viewers during the broadcast, reaching over 300,000 unique viewers. For comparison, the average of the 2022 VGC World Championship more than 33,000 viewers. However, it is important to note that Wolfe Glick’s Invitational was broadcast exclusively on YouTube, while the VGC World Championship was broadcast on both YouTube and Twitch.

Unknown territory

Hosting both events was a major step forward for Glick and Beastcoast’s ambitions for the competitive Pokémon community. They provided valuable data that will help the team decide on the next steps. In fact, this lack of data and historical examples posed a major challenge.

“There is no precedent for a large in-person Pokémon Invitational, which means we had no viewership or data to support this type of event. It made some sponsors hesitant,” explains Zinn. The Invitational has secured two sponsors: Gaijin Entertainment’s War Thunder and Energy drink of 100 thieves Juve — the week of the event.

Juvee found common ground with Glick and Beastcoast as a creator-led brand. “Juvee was created with creators in mind and we love supporting projects they are passionate about,” said Juvee CEO Sam Keene. “Exposure is certainly great for us, but we also really enjoy seeing Juvee organic consumption with the makers at the event. We are not there to force them to drink our product and it is never just on the table. ”

That said, this sponsorship also exceeded Juvee’s sales expectations. They beat their target for the event by 50%.

While these two brand deals helped offset costs, the primary goal for both Zinn and Glick was to create a proof of concept, not see an immediate ROI.

The other potential concern, of course, is Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International (TPCI) itself. Nintendo has a somewhat adversarial relationship with certain Super Smash Bros. community events. However, the Pokémon competitive scene falls under the purview of TPCI. This distinction may be useful in the future. For now, there is no direct developer involvement in Beastcoast and Glick’s plans.

Of course, there is no desire from Glick or Beastcoast to compete with Nintendo or TPCI. Their focus is on creating a ramp to bolster the competitive scene, not creating an alternative to the VGC circuit. Emphasizing a positive brand image is a top priority.

“We are very careful and careful to make the best possible product that becomes Nintendo property,” Zinn clarifies.

The path forward

While both Zinn and Glick intend to take a breather and evaluate their options for their events, they both have a clear vision for their future.

“Tentpole events are going to be a big thing for us in the years to come… supporting our creators with events will differentiate Beastcoast and provide unique revenue streams and more opportunities,” affirmed Zinn.

Glick has already teased a sequel to his New York sporting event several times, but – unsurprisingly – plans to raise the stakes. Traditionally, after a trainer beats all the gyms in a region, they move on to face the Elite 4 and the champion – five tough battles in a row. Glick’s vision is to bring this ultimate challenge to life.

“These events are a step forward in the history of competitive Pokémon, and I’m thrilled to lead the charge. But I’m just one piece of the puzzle. There’s an incredible community of people who support me and I’m lucky enough to stand on the shoulders of giants,” Glick confirmed. “I feel like I’m just getting started on how we can interact with the wider Pokémon community.”

With a community figure and events that can bring the community together, Pokémon’s future as an accessible, creator-driven esport looks bright. The growth of chess since 2020 could be a template that the Pokémon community draws inspiration from.

Meanwhile, Glick won 2023 Orlando Regional Championships and teased A partnership with Twitch Rivals – the platform’s creator-focused competitive series.