Reported by Psythor on Sun 09 May 2004 17:43:59 UTC
Last updated by Psythor on Sun 09 May 2004 17:43:59 UTC
Section: Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald

Yesterday Psythor attended the Grand Final of Pokémon Colosseum Battlemaster 2004 in London- and what a Grand Final it was! Get a full report by clicking "read more".

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On arriving at the Imax, it was immediately apparent there were Pokémon things inside, and that I was late. I blame the complex underground system.

Excitingly, I got to do the real-life equivilent of login as a member of the press- putting me on a vaguely equal footing to representatives of Pokémon World magazine, and Nintendo Official Magazine. One of the first things I did was meet Freddy K of Team UK and Pokémon World magazine- he's dead nice person and said he'd try and get PUK into Pokémon World. He told me about the next TCG championships that are being held later this summer, which we'll try and do our best to attend.

The setup was that there was a large foyer-eque room which there was some Colosseum demo machines setup (12, to be precise), a TCG table, and some REAL LIFE POKÉMON walking around. Also present was a few inflatable Pokémon- identical to those at the "Live at the Colosseum" event in the Netherlands, that Susan attended. Question is: was it the same Torchic?

I got into the main arena, which was the big Imax screen room a bit later- when they were in the middle of the quarter finals. As soon as we got in there, my sister realised that the guy commentating and talking to the contestants was in fact "someone off the telly"- on closer inspection it was Iain Lee of RI:SE fame. In retrospect, he was probably the best person for the job- because he was enthusiastic, he made jokes and obscure cultural references and didn't do it like a kids TV presenter, which is probably a good thing for all of the parents and older kids who were there.

Seeing Pokémon Colosseum on a massive screen was great- and I was particually impressed with the presentation of the event. In between battles, rather than see various Colosseum prompt and setup screens, which would have seemed tedious, they faded up the Battlemaster logo, dead professionally.

The quarter finals ended, seeing four of the eight last contestants knocked out- one in a particually more dramatic way than others. He challenged his opponent, the eventual runner-up to a rematch on Sky One series "Gamezville". Excitingly, Iain Lee agreed to answer some questions. Unfortunately though, I hadn't actually prepared any. Thinking on my feet, I asked him about his favourite Pokémon, how he thought the kids were battling, and what his favourite coup d'etat of all time was (seriously). We'll have a video download up in a few days in which you can discover his answers.

In retrospect, this was very, very embarassing. I should have prepared more- you'd have high quality digital photos if I'd remembered to put the memory card in the camera. Instead, you've got a video soon, and the live pictures from my sisters camera phone.

In the interval between the quarter and semi-final I managed to speak to a guy from Nintendo Official Magazine. He told me he'd been to PUK before- I told him how he used one of our pictures in a FRLG article. He seemed surprised and mentioned how it should have been edited off. I think someone at the NOM office might be getting a talking to Monday morning. Whoops.

Soon afterwards, the semi-finals began. Seated in a much better position, I witnessed the contestants battle it out to win all sorts of prizes.

Iain promised he runner up would win his respect, but later admitted that it didn't mean much. Finally we got to the final (!) and it was a tense match- with Will having the overall power (will power) to send Sarah into a virtual Pokémon grave. Plenty of Kabuto there.

What's the best part? In a couple of days time, you, $pukuser[realName] will be able to download a video of the highlights from the day, right here at PUK. Complete with irritating Psythor commentary and the full final battle. Can't wait to see our bandwidth meter this month- so if anyone can mirror it for free, get in touch!

Finally, I'd like to thank Rebecca Strickland and her colleagues for all their hard work and making the day fantastic- I think I speak for everyone when I say we had a fantastic time.

Were you there? Reply below with your thoughts and stuff. Especially if you saw me.

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