Pokémon Champions is already shaking up VGC before its official release

We already know that Pokémon Champions has the potential to make competitive battling more accessible than ever before, but The Pokémon Company solidified its importance by selecting it as the official VGC platform for the 2026 Championship Series. The spin-off title is set for release on Nintendo Switch and mobile in 2026.

The more I hear about Pokémon Champions, the more excited I get for the future of competitive battling. Not only does Pokémon Champions’ approachability when it comes to IV training, stat changing, and Pokémon acquisition make it great for leveling the playing field, but its use as the official tournament platform makes competition that much more accessible – assuming that the app will run on budget gaming phones, that is.

A Nintendo Switch, regardless of the model, is an expensive investment for some, and while smartphones aren’t exactly cheap, you’re much more likely to own a phone than a games console in 2025, so the ability to take part and compete at the highest level of Pokémon VGC using a phone is a huge change. However, the official Champions website does state that certain regions may still use Pokémon Scarlet and Violet for their competitive events.

A huge portion of Pokémon Champions’ promotion so far has shown off the use of Mega Evolution in battles, which doesn’t exist in Scarlet and Violet. If these regions are stuck with the mainline gen 9 Pokémon game, this could limit trainers’ participation in global events. We already know that the Pokémon Unite and Pokémon TCG scenes in mainland China are drastically different from those across the world, so this restriction could, once again, come down to licensing issues in different regions.

Pokémon Champions’ gimmick item, the Omni Ring, could also shake up VGC in a big way. Both the official Japanese and English websites for the game note that, while the Omni Ring essentially acts like Pokémon X and Y’s Mega Ring, it could also have other “special features” and draw out a “variety of Pokémon capabilities” in the future. The image of the ring itself even prominently features the Z Moves symbol from Alola, suggesting that the Omni Ring is like an Infinity Gauntlet for Pokémon gimmick forms.

I imagine that balancing Mega Pokémon alongside Terastal forms, Z Moves, and Dynamax forms would be near impossible, so it’s unlikely that we’ll see all of these gimmicks employed at once, but it’s certainly intriguing. If anything, this could be a way to make reliving old competitive formats more accessible in the modern day without using third-party battle simulators.

The future for competitive Pokémon is bright, and I can’t wait to see how Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s release affects the meta, especially with all the new Mega Pokémon we’re expecting. Pokémon already introduced us to Victreebel’s Mega Evolution in a spooky teaser trailer, and I can’t wait for more reveals in the coming months.