Pokémon professors have always played an important role. They usually introduce players to the key mechanics and let them choose their starter Pokémon. And even in real life, their job is indispensable. Because yes, Pokémon professors really exist. We spoke with one at the World Championships.
Recently, thousands of Pokémon fans gathered in the Pacific Ocean, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The largest Pokémon event of the year took place in the capital Honolulu from August 16 to 18: the World Championships.
- Over 3000 players from 53 countries and regions participated in the tournament, including 200 in the Pokémon GO category.
- They competed for a total prize pool of 2,000,000 US dollars.
- There were also 400 Pokémon professors present.
Here we meet Illya Babycha, a real Pokémon professor from Germany.
Here you can get an impression of the three-day Pokémon event:
A real professor – for Pokémon?
Illya Babycha is not a real professor in the academic sense. He is part of the so-called Professor Program of Pokémon.
In order to hold huge events like the World Championships, there are hundreds of volunteers who help behind the scenes. These helpers are called Pokémon professors.
Depending on their area of expertise, the tasks also vary. Illya is mainly responsible for Pokémon GO:
At the World Championships right now, I am a GO judge, basically a normal referee who also helps the entire team organize the tournament.
Fortunately, Illya did not need to study specifically for this. He took an official online test and received his certificate. He didn’t study extra for it. “Reading the rules is definitely a good tip. That should usually be enough,” he says.
What should a Pokémon GO referee pay attention to? As a referee, Illya is responsible for the smooth running of the competitions.
You have to pay attention to a lot of different things, including, of course, that players behave.
You have to record the results, you have to check the teams. And you have to make sure that no one has personal items on the tables that are not allowed. These are mostly water bottles, food, or personal phones. […]
Additionally, you have to ensure that the internet works. But usually that goes quite well. Once at a tournament, we had a power outage, which was not very helpful.
Source: Pokémon GO Grand Finals (via YouTube)
What other tasks are there? However, Illya is not only active as a referee. Depending on the day, the job is very different, he says.
Friday is the main event. In Pokémon GO, we have “double-elimination” as the format. Accordingly, on Saturday, you only have 32 players left, not 240, to take care of.
That’s much less to do, and therefore you don’t need 15 people in the team anymore, but rather 5. Many others help out elsewhere. For example, we have some colleagues who are now helping with the side events. Many of us are still involved in the streaming. Others help at the GO side event desk.
Side events are various activities that visitors can participate in. At the respective tables, you can sign up for such events or collect goodies if you have fulfilled certain tasks. Above all, interacting with other Pokémon fans there is a great motivator for Illya, more on that later.
Source: www.pokemon.com
“I spent 2 hours a day on it”
But Illya is also an active part of the community not only at large events. He also organizes tournaments from home, sometimes daily.
I’ve been doing this for almost 3 and a half years now. Sometimes really, really a lot. Online we have communities of over 1000 people, where many dozens to hundreds of games take place every day. There was a time when I was putting in an average of 2 hours a day to organize things.
When Pokémon GO became part of the official tournaments, it was clear to Illya that he wanted to help here as well. But at first he had some difficulties:
The Professor Program is quite old, and many who are part of it have been involved for much longer than we [from Pokémon GO]. For us it was relatively complex to understand at first, because we had never dealt with it before. Accordingly, I didn’t even know at first that you had to be a professor. I had no idea about that.
Fortunately, he knew people who were already Pokémon professors and supported him at the beginning. He then came to his first major event, the European Pokémon International Championships 2022 in Frankfurt. He completed his online test, became a Pokémon professor, and has been “even more involved” since then, as he says.
“It is your responsibility to ensure everyone feels good at the event”
Is there a payment? Such a job certainly requires a lot of passion. Not least because it is voluntary and unpaid – at least almost.
“We aren’t paid, but we are compensated with Pokémon cards,” explains Illya.
Additionally, at major tournaments, flights and hotel costs are covered, he reports. “That makes something like Honolulu possible at all, where you have to travel halfway around the world.”
What is the biggest motivation? Illya’s biggest drive remains to share his hobby with others:
At some point, I thought: I have a lot of fun, but I could help others have even more fun. […]
One of the core features as a professor is that you are responsible for ensuring that everyone feels good at this event, that everyone has fun, and that everyone thinks at the end of the day: ‘I want to be back next time!’
It was even sadder when an incident occurred at the Pokémon World Championships. An alleged Pokémon professor betrayed all the values he should actually stand for and cheated at the tournament: A Pokémon player wanted to cheat at the World Championship, but it only became embarrassing for him
MeinMMO was on site at the Pokémon World Championships 2024 as a press representative. The costs for admission, travel, and accommodations were covered by the organizers.
