Pokémon’s First eSports Program Announced As “P-Sports,” Starts On January 24 In Japan

The Pokémon Company announced Pokémon’s very first eSports program, called “P-Sports” where challengers will face a variety of celebrities, YouTubers, and top Pokémon players every other week.

The program will be available for live stream on AbemaTV, and the first episode takes place on January 24 starting at 8:00pm JST. From the second episode onward, each the program will be available every other Saturday at 9:00pm JST.

P-Sports will recruit a variety of celebrity Pokémon Trainers and have them join the “P-Sports Elite Four” who will take on challengers. Those who can defeat the P-Sports Elite Four will be given a title of “P-Sports Champion.”

The first episode’s P-Sports Elite Four members include the top Pokémon trainer of entertainers Hiroshi Yamamoto of the comedy trio “Robert,” a top Pokémon player known as Raibarori, a trainer who placed #3 of Japan at JCS2016, and the top(?) YouTuber Pokémon trainer Hajime Shacho. The program will be MC’d by the owarai duo TKO.

No further information was shared about the program, but there will be plenty of Pokémon battles to showcase. We might even see some news announced during the show sometime in the future.