Report: Side Events at Pokémon NAIC 2026

For the third (and apparently final) time, New Orleans hosted the North American Internationals for Pokémon. As usual, I spent most of my time playing in side events away from the main action. How did that go?

Thursday

Getting to New Orleans involved flying as usual, albeit via a different route than previous years. Instead of flying American via Charlotte and Dallas, I went through O’Hare on United both ways (it was a little odd connecting through an airport I had stayed near the weekend before). I did watch a few episodes of Pokémon Journeys, which I was surprised to find on the IFE. After arriving in New Orleans, I took a ride to my hotel, grabbed a meal at local restaurant Cochon.

Friday

I started my side event experience with a TCG Build-and-Battle, which was a nice experience (especially since I‘ve purposely avoided playing in local prereleases to give space to others),  even if my deck was given little help from the boosters. After a TCG raid or two, I took part in a Chaos Cup, which was made extra interesting when the judge made us play Malamar-style for the third and final round. With side events closed for the day, I headed back to the hotel and ordered food from Oceana Grill.

Saturday

After realizing I had brought the wrong wig for my “Ringo Starr as a Pokémon Trainer” costume, I headed to the convention center and participated in a TCG Raid (I got by with a little help from my friends), then prepared for my Pokémon Center slot. Having spent a fair bit on apparel at the previous weekend’s Go Fest, I decided to focus on other merchandise, including a costume-appropriate Dragonair ring.

Later that afternoon, I participated in a TCG Pocket event, where I actually managed to win a match (admittedly, the 5-heads Misty helped a lot in game two), though I could have done better in the third round with a bit more thought. We did have an issue where there was a long delay between round one and two due to an issue with one of the matches needing its result fixed. Afterwards, I went back to the hotel room and ordered from Daisy Mae’s (no website available).

Sunday

I was getting tired at this point, but I managed to don my Michael Hutchence costume and participate in a few Ditto pack drafts (of course) to close out the weekend. Having collected over 400 tickets over the weekend, I picked up a Detective Pikachu plush (tied to the movie, not the games), some Gen 4 Starter socks, and some packs for the next TCG event at Pegasus Games. Dinner came from Fiery Crab.

Monday

My flight out of New Orleans was at 6:30 am, so I got up around 4:15 (scarfing some leftovers from Fiery Crab) and got a ride to the airport. I decided to peruse the device-based IFE on the flight to O’Hare, and was surprised to find the Detective Pikachu movie on there (it wasn’t on the seat-back screens). The film definitely still holds up. Otherwise, the trip back home was relatively uneventful (a nice change from Anaheim last year).

Overall

As you may have guessed from my summary, side events were extremely smooth this time around, with the issue I mentioned during the TCG Pocket tournament being the only significant issue I encountered. It was really nice that side events were clearly not an afterthought here.

Other Notes:

-I did purchase a pass for the Go Scavenger Hunt, but lost my stamp card, so that’s why that wasn’t included in the report, though I did take some time to play it.
-With the announcement that next year’s NAIC event will be in Chicago, I’m starting to feel really spoiled.
-RK9’s feature to allow match reporting from the website is really convenient and I hope it gets expanded.
-While I had plenty of great food this weekend, the best was probably the Cajun pasta I had from Oceana Grill:

Side Events at Pokémon Milwaukee Regionals 2026

This regional is part of the 2025-2026 season, and is therefore being referred to as the 2026 Milwaukee Regionals (despite being held in October 2025). If you’re looking for information on the previous season’s Milwaukee Regionals held in May 2025, read this article.

Friday

As usual, I took the bus from the UW-Madison campus stop to Milwaukee’s intermodal station downtown. After dropping some things off at my hotel, I went over to the Baird Center to check in and play in side events for the afternoon. Unlike the previous Milwaukee Regionals in May, for this event they had us in the D and E halls on the third floor and as such we had to enter via the north entrance.

I registered for the Hard difficulty of the Pokémon Go Scavenger Hunt, then signed up for the Pokémon Puzzle League tournament. I wish I could tell you I did exceptionally well, but the reality is that I went 1-2, thanks to the skilled competition at the 8-person event. Granted, the typical issues of input lag and worn controllers meant that there were cases where some of my losses didn’t feel like they were my fault, but other participants had to deal with similar issues.

My second event for the afternoon was a TCG Raid. This went relatively smoothly (with far less waiting than what I experienced at Worlds in August), and as usual we were able to defeat the boss relatively easily. Events closed shortly after the raid concluded, so I headed back to the hotel and ordered a meal from the middle eastern restaurant Scheherazade.

Saturday

After donning the latest version of my “Ringo Starr as a Pokémon Trainer” costume (now with a Confined Hoopa plush), I headed over to participate in the Build-and-Battle. This used the “Destined Rivals” set (not to be confused with the anime season “Rival Destinies” from the 2010s), and I was dealt a combination of Misty’s and Team Rocket’s Pokémon. Misty’s Gyarados relies heavily on discarding her Pokémon from the top of the deck, so it seemed like a better idea to go with Team Rocket’s Tyranitar, especially since I literally got zero of Misty’s Pokémon in my packs. Using this setup, I was able to pull of an impressive 3-0 run.

After another TCG Raid, I decided to attempt an 8-person Ditto tournament. This was run using a single pack of cards to build a 20-card deck. Ironically, I did get a Misty’s Magikarp in the pack, which I had no intention of using, instead choosing Team Rocket’s Houndour and Grimer as my basics, and supplementing them with an assortment of Stage 1 cards, and a Stage 2 Annihilape. I was once again able to go 3-0 on this, using that Annihilape in the finals to clinch the win in the finals.

After this point, side events closed for the evening, so I ordered a Mexican omelet from the Omega Family Restaurant and watched the pivotal baseball game (as if there wasn’t enough happening in Milwaukee already this weekend).

Sunday

Having changed into my “Michael Hutchence as a Pokémon Trainer” cosplay (now with Rock Star Pikachu plush), I went to the center and waited for the start of the noon Chaos Cup event. In addition to having pre-made teams (one of which I had to re-enter because it mysteriously dropped off my list between rounds two and three), the judge would assign arbitrary additional rules to groups of players each round. Despite having lesser skills at the VGC than TCG, I was able to finish 2-1.

After turning in my Go Scavenger Hunt results, I participated in the afternoon’s TCG pocket event. I brought in my usual Greninja/Articuno EX and Serperior/Celebi EX decks, but only managed to attain a record of 1-2, and then only by virtue of getting a bye in the second round (which at least that gave me some time to take advantage of the Solosis Community Day in Go). I obviously have some work to do, and probably need to explore some new deck ideas.

Other Observations:

-If Gaming Generations wants to continue to hold retro gaming competitions, it really would be nice if they could upgrade their N64 and GameCube setups to improve the experience. The SNES/N64/GameCube combo adapters may be fine for Stadium and other turn-based games, but for Puzzle League/Challenge and Pinball, faster response times are needed. Games using the Game Boy Player were particularly laggy and difficult. Products like the Rad2x and adapters that use the GameCube digital port (allowing 480p on that system) are available for under $100. If they’re willing/allowed to mod the N64, it seems like there’s a new low-cost mod out there.
-In terms of time taken, there seemed to be far fewer delays at this event than there were at the May regional. I can’t speak personally as to whether they brought in more staff or had fewer attendees, but things ran much better from a time and organizational standpoint.

Side Events (and More) at NAIC 2025

2025 marks NAIC’s second year in New Orleans. I was excited to visit the city again, but did it live up to my expectations?

Thursday

This year, I decided (based on cost and timetables) to fly out of O’Hare instead of Madison. O’Hare doesn’t really have that many direct flights to New Orleans, but I picked a 10 AM departure on American. Unlike last year, my departure left on time and I arrived as expected in the Big Easy. I decided to get to my hotel using the express bus line to downtown, which unfortunately still required me to walk nearly a mile with my luggage. At least I got some exercise that way.

Friday

This first day of the event started with a stop at the Pokémon Center. As Psyduck is one of (if not my very) favorite Pokémon, I had to restrain myself from spending too much on merchandise. I ended up picking up a playmat (partially to replace my Psyduck/Slowpoke mat I have yet to locate post-pandemic), a Psyduck light, a pair of socks, and a few other items.

Upon reaching the side event area, I was disappointed (and a bit confused) to find out that they had substituted a six-pack sealed Ditto format due to a lack of Build-and-Battle boxes. I was especially disappointed when I realized the screen I had seen on RK9 on my phone was actually a payment screen rather than a confirmation. That said, I still had plenty of fun in a series of TCG raids and a Puzzle League competition.

Saturday

Having made sure to register properly the day before, I was able to participate in both a sealed Ditto event and a TCG pocket event. Decked out in my Ringo Starr trainer costume (with the socks I had purchased at the Pokémon Center, no less), I managed to go 2-1 with a deck containing appropriately quirky Pokémon like Ampharos and Sudowoodo. I was less successful at the TCG Pocket event at 1-2, but at least my win came from over an actual opponent instead of a bye like in Milwaukee.

Sunday

After suiting up in my Michael Hutchence outfit, I decided I had enough energy to do another TCG raid, so I made that my last side event and cashed out my tickets on an incubator backpack and a Luxray deck box. I also took some time to wrap up some tasks from the Go scavenger hunt, earning myself a Suicune pin and a few other trinkets.

The last major stop I wanted to make was at the Play Lab, which now offers introductions to the TCG, Video Game, and Unite (possibly also Go). Having not played Unite since its release, I decided to give it another chance. Unfortunately, the experience largely reminded me why I wasn’t a fan of the game. Admittedly, our team was beaten very badly, but overall, it just felt like I wasn’t really accomplishing much there, nor did I have much a feel of being part of a group. At least I have more to talk about when we get to discussing this game on the podcast.

Monday

The only major event of my return trip was the 1.5-hour delay in my flight back to Chicago. After that, it was a typical bus ride back to Madison, dinner, and sleep.

Other Notes:

-There were Switch 2 kiosk set up demoing the updated Scarlet/Violet game. I already had my own system, but gave it a bit of a try to get a feel for the new Pro Controller, which seemed fine.
-I was a bit disappointed at the lack of an anime viewing room at this year’s event.

Overall

I had a great time at NAIC as usual. While they can always use more staff, it did seem to be better than Milwaukee Regionals last month. I do look forward to Worlds in August and (presumably) returning here next year.

Pokémon NAIC 2024 Side Events Review

As someone with more of an interest in socialization than competition, I typically spend most of my time at Pokémon events playing in side events away from the main tournament. This year’s NAIC was no exception, and I wanted to share my experiences.

Side Event Generals:

As usual, side events were in the back part of the tournament area, away from the main stage. Registration was handled via OpenTable (for ad-hoc events) and RK9 Labs (for scheduled everts). No physical event tickets were used for registration. 

For ad-hoc events, players would check in at a set of desks and would then be directed to a set of tables to wait for the event to fill up, at which point a judge would come over and have all the players for the event gather to be led to the appropriate table. This process worked fairly well, but I think it could have been improved by making sure that the person reading the list announces the kind of event being started and by making sure each name has at least a first name and last initial.

Scheduled events were considerably simpler. The event would be announced along with its location, and any pairings or standings would be posted in paper and on RK9 Labs itself (this was actually my first experience with getting my pairings on the website, since prior events had only really used them for the main competition).

TCG Raid:

These were run as standard four-person pods against a judge using a jumbo card as their attacker. I played three of these over the weekend (two against Toxtricity and one against Galarian Rapidash). Rather than using my Vivillion/Marowak deck (nicknamed “Spinal Tap”) as I had in prior TCG raids, I brought out my expanded “Round” deck with Seismitoad. The raids went more or less as expected, and the only thing I really wanted to mention is that using a die to keep track of shared supporter usage and the number of cards the judge has left to play during their turn (also, I recommend the judge only use their die to count the overall number of natural cards to be drawn, rather than increasing the number when a draw card is used, as it reduces the risk of losing count). We won all three encounters.

TCG Build & Battle:

I played in several of these, all of which used the Twilight Masquerade set (great aesthetic for New Orleans, by the way). At this point, this is a well-known format, and my only suggestion is that since this set contains Ace Specs, the judges should mention that the one-per-deck limit still applies, unlike the four-of-a-card limit that is waived. I was 5-1 across the two events.

TCG Ditto Draft:

Technically, this is “sealed” rather than a draft, as you are given cards to use instead of taking a card and passing the rest along. Also, the first round uses a 20-card deck, so you end up using all the cards in the pack and adding basic energy (as opposed to a pack battle, where you typically select a cards from your pack and build a 10-card deck). If you make it to the second round (this event was single-elimination), you get an additional pack and expand to a 30-card deck. I was able to make it to the finals, where I was clobbered by a Greninja ex.

VG Chaos Cup:

In this event, each seat had a rental team listed on it, and a code for retrieving that team (one participant noticed the actual in-game team differed slightly from what was on their sheet). We played three rounds, and used a different team each time (on the chance that we got the same team again, we were given the option to use a team from an adjacent table instead). The biggest difficulty I had with this was actually procedural, since I’ve never competed in VGC, and since this event was on Saturday, we were able to use some VGC docking stations, which I had seen but never used. I’m happy to report the other players were more than willing to help me with the process, which I quickly got accustomed to. I went 2-1 in this event.

VG Booster Draft Cup:

No, you’re not misreading it. This is a new side event the combines aspects of the TCG and VGC. Prior to round one, players are placed into groups (typically of four, though ours had five), open a pack of cards, take a card, then build a team based on the cards they drafted. The exact rules are too detailed to list in full (and not completely firm), but basically you were able to use any Pokémon you had a card for, its immediate evolution (FYI, Twilight Masquerade does have Eevee), or if the Pokémon doesn’t exist in Scarlet & Violet (including the DLC) and you don’t have access to Home, you can substitute a tournament-legal Pokémon of the same type. Any non-Pokémon cards you draft allow you to attach a held item to one of your team members.

I didn’t have much trouble drafting cards to create a team of six (as well as four items), thanks in part to my collection from various raids, but I soon discovered I was at a disadvantage not having that deep a knowledge of the competitive VGC field, as well as not having trained a large number of my boxed Pokémon in IVs or EVs. As a result, I went 0-3 in this event, though I still like the overall concept, and may consider it again once it is more fine-tuned (provided I have time to build up a stable of better Pokémon).

Go Scavenger Hunt:

At this point, Go scavenger hunts have been pretty well figured out, though I do have to note that one of the tasks was somewhat awkward. You could either evolve a Vigoroth with a visor (which I never saw), or get the fully-evolved Goodra from the community day (which was Sunday afternoon, near the closing time of the event). Also, it would be nice if we could get something besides wristbands and pop sockets for those intermediate rewards-I think I have more of the former than I have limbs.

Ticket Redemption:

When redeeming tickets, I make a conscious effort to pick something for myself, as well as some things that can be given away for door prizes at future league events. For myself, unfortunately the incubator I wanted was picked up by someone else while I was in line, so I got a Rapidash-themed dual deck box and a booster pack. For the league, I picked up one of all five of the playmats on offer, so look forward to that if you play at Pegasus Games in the near future.

Non-Side Event Notes:

-As with Orlando regionals, I cosplayed as “Michael Hutchence as a Pokémon Trainer” all three days, with some interesting reactions. I do plan on diversifying the musicians I cosplay as, though finding the right combinations can be difficult.

-The Pokémon Center store was about what I expected. I picked up some apparel and some sleeves.

-Being able to pick up my spectator badge at the airport was a nice bonus that I hope continues for other events.

Overall, I had a great time at NAIC 2024, and look forward to other events in the future. The additional space compared to Columbus seems to have been used to good effect, and the staff was great as always.