Pokemon Asia Cup Spring 2014 Challenge wants to unite competitive Pokemon communities

There’s a Pokemon video game tournament this Saturday in Singapore, but it isn’t just any standalone competition.

The Pokemon Asia Cup Spring 2014 Singapore Qualifier is but a cog in the machine. Its first place winner will move on to participate in the Wi-Fi tournament: the Pokemon Asia Cup Spring 2014 Challenge.

This impressive-sounding, Kalos-dex-only, community-initiated competition is not an official one. Though it spans across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan, it has instead been organized by community leaders in these countries.

The Wi-Fi-only Asia Cup tournament will take place in February and span six weeks. As an unofficial Pokemon tournament, it unfortunately will not translate to further tournament participation, but the organizers hope that they will be able to “gain official recognition from [the] official body to have more events in Asia” following its conclusion.

“As countries in Asia have relatively smaller Pokemon communities compared to countries in USA, Japan or Europe, we find that there is a need to unite the Asia region (except Japan and Korea) as one to present ourselves as one huge community.” wrote the Singapore qualifier’s organizer, Ng Soon Aik on the event’s Facebook page.

Japan and South Korea will be having their own qualifying tournaments, and will have the top players from those rounds face off with Southeast Asian qualifying players in March.

The Singapore qualifier takes place on January 11, 2014 at the Rowell Home Entertainment store in Serangoon North. Spectators are welcome, and there are lucky draw prizes to be won!

More details and the exact address of the tournament venue can be found here. Malaysia-based players can take part in or spectate their home event here.

(Photo source: Rowell Home Entertainment, Ng Soon Aik.)

UPDATE 6-1-2014: The article has been updated with the link to the Malaysia qualifier.