CORNWALL, Ontario – A group of Pokémon GO players came together to compete in a Kingdom Cup tournament on Sunday, April 28 at the Salvation Army.
Wayne Trenchard, event organizer, explained that this was the seventh tournament the group participated in.
“We usually hold two tournaments per month. There’s usually different types of tournaments. The one we are doing is called the Kingdom Cup. It uses four predefined Pokémon types…” said Trenchard.
According to Trenchard, near the end of last year a player vs. player feature in the game became available, and an independent website called The Silph Road created a system for local, regional and even world championships in Pokémon GO.
“It’s a feature I myself was looking forward to having, the trainer battle feature. With some of the Youtube channels I follow…there has been a lot of hype about The Silph Road and about The Silph-led arena and stuff like that. I saw the need because there wasn’t really anyone who had the initiative to organize this type of thing (locally),” said Trenchard.
With a feeling of gratitude towards the Salvation Army, as the group is allowed to utilize the space for free, players organized a food drive among themselves to show appreciation and give back to the food bank.
“We are fortunate enough to be able to use the space here at Salvation Army free of charge, so as a token of appreciation, we decided to hold a food drive for the food bank. The bulk of it was last month but we have carried it over into this month…and we have gift cards available (to win) in a raffle,” said Trenchard.
So far, Trenchard said tournaments have averaged about 10 to 15 players each time. All events are free, and food drive donations are always appreciated. With tournaments occurring twice a month, anyone interested is encouraged to check out the CWall Raiders public Facebook page, or the private page Pokemon Go – Cornwall & SDG for more information.
“It’s more than a game. It’s this community that we’ve built. We’ve taken all of the video game nerds out of their house and made them face each other,” said Trenchard with a laugh.
