Roundtable-interview med Chris Brown

SÅ ER DET HER! Endelig fik jeg min lydoptagelse til at fungere, og derfor har jeg nu kunne gengive det interview, som jeg – og flere andre pressefolk – havde med Chris Brown (Director og Esports & Events Producer hos The Pokémon Company International).

Rigtig god fornøjelse med læsningen:

Interview med Chris Brown

Journalist #1: “How did Pokémon manage to make such af great community on an eSports event?“

Chris Brown: “I think you have to look at our history and it starts with all the way back in 2004. Our first World Championship was that season, and it was just a trading card game. We are a family-friendly entertainment brand, and we have a Junior division, a Senior division and a Master division. At its core, that requires kids with their parents. Yes, you also have teenagers and young adults, but its a family event. Over the years, a lot of those players who at one point were Juniors and Seniors, they have grown up with us – and they are still coming to these shows, their parents are here. So I think we just have a different origin. Our origin starts with us being for everybody, being inclusive and being family-friendly, and that has allowed us to keep that culture at the show.“

Journalist #2: “Do you think that the Europe event will ever compete with the Asian market? Is it even something to aspire to?“

Chris Brown: “Good question! First, we always want to grow. I do not want to use the word “compete”, every market is different. Obviously population sizes and different markets like in Asia versus Europe versus North America, it is going to influence potential sizes of what you can do. Even things like the size of the venues that’s available. It is difficult to find venues and the things we want for the scale of what the show is now. So, in terms of where we are standing in the industry for Pokémon specifically, our show has all titles: Pokémon UNITE is here, Pokémon GO is here, the Pokémon Trading Card Game and of course our video game is here. Most of our Asian market events are usually just one title, and that one title, for example the TCG, is larger than what we are holding here. But when you factor in all of our additional titles and everything, this is possibly the largest Pokémon event – but that is only because the other markets aren’t holding multi-title shows. It is a difficult answer. I would love to say that we are running the largest Pokémon event – we would love to get there. I can say that we are a couple of thousand players in short of that right now. This show has just shy of 4.000 TCG players, our largest events in Japan has just over 7.000. For us to make that next leap – and this is very technical – we would have to look at the format. How many rounds can you play in a day with that many people, because the tournament has to end up with one player winning it all. It’s not just venues, it’s not just judges – it’s also about how much time you have in a day.

Journalist #3: “Are there any plans to hold an event like this in other major cities in Europe?“

Chris Brown: “We have had this event here for a number of years, and the first International Championship we held here at the ExCeL was in 2016. But we also held this event in Germany. In terms of where this tournament might move in the future, I cannot comment on those specifics. We are kind of always evaluating, and we love our relationship with ExCeL. This is a very accessible venue, but it is not the only venue like this in Europe, and we are always going to take that into account. We also want to make sure that we are reaching our fans. We have our Regional Championships, and those are growing too. When we held this event three years ago, it was as big as what the general Regional Championship is now.“

Journalist #4: “I have heard that players are leaving other TCG’s to join Pokémon. Why is that? What do you think makes Pokémon so appealing?“

Chris Brown: “I cannot comment on other TCG’s and what they are doing, but I would say in our case there are a few things going on. We have made a considerable investment into the quality of our Regional and National Championships – and the World Championships. So, our goal is to become best in class. We look at the production, the broadcast, the judges, how many staff there are even. We have made a considerable investment in order to provide the best experience for competitors. I hope that is part of the reason. Another reason is our community – it is welcoming and we are trying to be inclusive. I also think word-of-mouth is spreading. Pokémon is there for everyone who needs it to be.“

Journalist #5: “Are there any plans to incorporate Pokémon TCGP into future tournaments?“

Chris Brown: “There is no plans for Pokémon Pocket right now.“

Mig: “Pokémon has one of the best communities in the world. But with many new people entering the wonderful universe of Pokémon, how do you ensure that future tournaments continues to appeal to both new and more hardcore players/collecters?“

Chris Brown: “Great question! So, at this show, we have actually done a number of new things. This is the first time we have held artist signings for example and panels. We have four artists from Japan who have come out. Our hope is to start growing the non-tournament aspect. A lot of these fans are coming in and they might play the game, but they may not want to become super competitive. But our hope is that we are bringing the World together through Pokémon. We are constantly adding new elements to the event, and not just for the people who are competitive, but also for collectors and fans of different aspects of the game. Our hope is to always continue to do that in a way that is friendly and accessible. For example with the artist signings, we had this fun, little raffle game. This is very logistical, but we had to figure out how everyone gets a shot. Everyone at least had a chance to get an autograph, and that actually kept it from being super cut-throat. It became a fun, little activity. It seems simple, it seems a little quirky, but that was just how we decided to handle the artist sing-ups.“

Også mig: “What is your favorite Pokémon?“

Chris Brown: “Charizard.“