Chesterfield Pokemon players to battle for place at world championships

Players from Geeks Headquarters, which is located on Soresby Street, will be attending the Pokemon International Championships at London’s ExCel Centre next month in the hope of scoring enough points to be invited to the world championships in Japan in August.

The shop's Yu-Gi-Oh players also took part at the 250th Yu-Gi-Oh Championship series events last week, where they had the chance to win exclusive prizes and points towards a World Championships invite.

Shop co-owners, Alberto and Massimiliano Naso said: “It’s fantastic to see a group of not only Pokemon players, but friends, who met and play in our store are now going to be playing in this massive, important tournament in London for the chance to win a world championships place”.

Geeks Headquarters has been trading in the town for close to a decade, hosts weekly tournaments for both card games, as well as for other popular tabletop card games, and hosts groups of Dungeons and Dragons players too. The business is also a registered store with Pokemon, the creators of Magic: The Gathering and Bandai (who hold the rights to various trading card games), allowing it to also host official tournaments and release events for various trading card games.

Alberto and Massilmiliano are very proud of the community within the store: “At GHQ, we aren’t just a store, we are a meeting place for the geek community. We pride ourselves on being welcoming to everyone and allowing people to make friends, and this goes to show that we are doing just that. We have a fantastic customer base, without them we wouldn’t have survived the pandemic, and it’s great to see everyone back in the store again.”

One of the store's regular players, Kieran Cobley, said: “Coming to Geeks Headquarters is now a ritual for me. Not only do I get to release my geekier side, but I get to have a laugh and play a game I love with my friends. The staff are so welcoming and friendly and really do go above and beyond for their customers.”