The Pokémon Company has announced that the pop-up Pokémon Center store will be returning to the 2024 Pokémon Europe International Championships in London this year.
The store will be open throughout the event at ExCeL London from 4th-7th April and will offer "International Championships-exclusive products" — a 'sneak peek' of which we can expect to see on socials in the coming weeks — as well as a selection of goodies from Pokémon Center UK.
According to the announcement on the event's website, the pop-up store will be open to the public and you will not need a competitor or spectator badge to gain access. What you will need, though, is a reservation, additional information about which the Pokémon Company will provide closer to the event.
This will not be the first time that the store has adopted a booking system for entry, though it has gone wrong in the past (remember when attendees were advised to arrive an hour before their reserved slot back in 2022?). Let's hope that the reservations work a little better this time around.
News of the 'Championship-exclusive' products might be enough to send a shiver down any Pokémon fan's spine, with the exclusivity often walking hand-in-hand with reports of scalping. This year, The Pokémon Company has reaffirmed that "the number of some products that can be purchased may be limited" in an attempt to make them available to as many customers as possible.
We will be sure to keep you updated over the coming weeks as we learn more information about the event-exclusive merchandise and when the all-important reservation system opens.
You can find out more about this year's European Championships on the event website and by checking out the following video.