BOYERTOWN — Come to battle or just watch Boyertown’s first Pokémon GO Tournament on Sunday, Feb. 18.
Held from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Building a Better Boyertown and Team Asylum will host the Pokémon GO Tournament and community vendor event at Boyertown Area YMCA at 301 Spring St., Boyertown.
Building a Better Boyertown event planner Krista Gross said that the Pokémon GO Tournament is a great event for Boyertown.
“It reaches a whole spectrum of community members we may not have reached with our past events,” Gross said in a statement. “The gaming community is large and very inclusive. And it’s important to make sure all members of our community feel important and heard.”
Open to participants and spectators, the event features food, local vendors, game playing and possible meet and greets.
“Because the tournaments being held at this event have the option of being played competitively or casually, we hope it brings out seasoned players along with players who would like to learn more about how to play on a more competitive level,” said Gross.
Building a Better Boyertown is also partnering with Deal Me In Games which will be hosting a Pokémon trading card tournament alongside Team Asylum’s gaming tournament.
Along with the tournaments, Building a Better Boyertown will be hosting 10 local vendors selling their art and other merchandise. The YMCA Youth and Government group will be selling concessions.
Bringing Pokémon Go to Boyertown
Randy Renninger from Team Asylum approached Building a Better Boyertown with the idea of a community e-sports tournament. Together, BaBB and Team Asylum began planning Boyertown’s first Pokémon Go Tournament, said Gross.
“Randy wants this to be an event that brings the community together in a way it has never done before and BaBB loved that idea,” Gross said.
Tournament organizers Renninger and Jake McCoach of Team Asylum, both Boyertown Area Senior High alumni, work as part of the North American e-sports organization, featuring teams, content, and events for Team Asylum in which players participate in Pokémon GO, a mobile video game that got its start with characters created by Japanese electronics maker Nintendo and was hugely popular in 2014, according to a recent online article by Jane Stahl published on the digital news site The Boyertown Area Expression.
“Camaraderie is healthy for young minds,” Renninger said in The Boyertown Area Expression article. “Being part of a Pokémon team allows some kids to be included. Not everyone can play football or baseball, but they can play on Team Asylum from their home; even with a disability, they can be part of a team. The accessibility and the inclusivity that the game allows are important for me.”
Renninger said that one of the benefits of the game is that anybody can play — no matter what shape they’re in — from a chair in their homes, on their phones — even without the use of their hands.
“And they can come from any walk of life. There’s more opportunity for more people to belong, to be part of a team,” he said. “Belonging is important.”
Real world meets virtual world of Pokémon
According to https://www.pokemon.com/us/app/pokemon-go, participants can travel between the real world and the virtual world of Pokémon with Pokémon GO for iPhone and Android devices.
“Pokémon GO gives you the chance to explore real locations and search far and wide for Pokémon. More and more Pokémon continue to appear around the globe, including rare and powerful Legendary Pokémon,” the Pokémon website stated.
Pokémon GO can be downloaded to phones on Apple and Android operating systems. Using each phone’s location finder and clock, the app detects where and when players are in the game. Pokémon characters appear on their screens in virtual places like parks and gyms. Players then locate, capture, tame, and train characters for tournament battles against competing teams, all on their phones, according to the website.
In Boyertown, every Bear Fever bear in Boyertown is a poke-stop.
How to participate
Anyone looking to participate in the Pokémon Go or Trading Card tournaments can register online at https://www.start.gg/tournament/sanctum-series-boyertown/events. The cost to play in the Pokémon Go Competitive Tournament is $15.
There is a spectator fee of $10 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under.
“Any money raised at this event will benefit our Community Improvement Project,” said Gross.
Audiences can follow the Team Asylum tournament on X (formerly Twitter).
Source: Berkshire mont
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