Report: Twin Cities Con 2025

After visiting the convention for the first time last year, I was excited to go again. Did the event live up to my expectations?

Thursday

Rather than flying from Madison, I took a bus on Jefferson Lines from the UW-Madison campus to downtown Minneapolis (the time is about the same, and it’s much cheaper). Instead of a normal hotel, I stayed in a converted studio apartment a few blocks from the convention center. After picking up my press badge, I ate dinner, and then returned to my room to prepare for the next day.

Friday

This first day of the convention started with me going into the dealer hall and browsing the items for sale. I also noted the locations of the guests I wanted to interview, and attempted to organize those. The first panel I wanted to go to was about the confluence of music scene and cosplay (recall that I sometimes cosplay musicians as Pokémon trainers), however after waiting several minutes past the scheduled start time, a con staffer came in and announced that the presenters had run into a personal emergency and the panel had been cancelled.

One issue I ran into several times over the weekend is that there would be several panels or other events that overlapped. That occurred on Friday afternoon, when a panel featuring Eric Stuart and Dan Green overlapped a panel with Marc Summers, Kirk Fogg, and Dee Bradley Baker, which in turned overlapped a panel of comic book authors (which included Pokémon Baking guide author Jarrett Melendez). Oh, and in the middle of all that there was a panel covering the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager. In any case, the authors panel was an interesting watch, with them eating chicken (or perhaps its vegetarian equivalent) while talking about the comics they had in front of them.

Saturday

In some ways, this was less busy than Friday, though I did spend a fair bit of time waiting for things to complete. First up was a RWBY panel (featuring Daman Mills, voice of Amethio and Quaxly in Horizions). As is usually the case, I placed myself towards the end of the question line since my question wasn’t about the featured show. Unfortunately, this meant the panel ended before I could ask my question.

After viewing a panel about taking cosplay photos with a phone, I headed over to the board/video gaming area, where I got to listen to guitarist Brian Koening (look forward to an interview with him), and then observe the Smash Ultimate tournament. I checked in periodically to see how the tournament progressing, and interviewed the winner after the tournament ended around 8:30 pm (having started around 4).

Sunday

The first order of business was the combined Nintendo & Pokemon cosplay photoshoot, which included a trio of Eeveelutions, a pair dressed as the Mario Brothers from the 1993 Mario movie, and even a Corbeau costume. I asked that last one about when they started putting their outfit together, and they indicated they had only started within the last week, which was actually impressive given the level of detail.

Following this, Jarrett Melendez had a solo panel where he demonstrated the brownies recipie from his Pokémon baking guide book. Between steps, he would answer questions from the audience, which covered a variety of topics, ranging from what kind of restrictions he was placed under (if there’s a volume 2, do not expect curry croissants), general baking advice, and what kind of materials he gets to work from when designing recepies.

As I had been unable to track down the cosplayers I wanted to interview from the morning photoshoot, I got in line for the Sunday cosplay contest in an attempt to talk to them. Despite the schedule stating that the doors would open at 2:30, we actually didn’t get let in until a few minutes after the 3pm start time. As for the show itself, the Eeveelution group from the photoshoot had made the contest, but seems to have left after not getting picked for an award. I did not see the Corbeau cosplayer anywhere in the crowd.

Other Notes:

-The entrance into the secure area lacked the long snaking queue from last year, in favor of having folks queue inside the dealers’ hall before it opened. 

-Guests seemed confused on the policy/procedure for interviews, despite me indicating who I wanted to interview in my letter of intent.

-The attendees I talked to generally seemed to prefer this year’s event over last year’s.

-The best restaurant I ate at this weekend was definitely “The Brit’s Pub”, which had excellent food and service.

A press pass was provided for this event.

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 80: Mig Ayesa (Pokémon Live Dubai)

Back in the early 2000s Mig Ayesa was tapped to perform as Ash Ketchum in the Dubai version of the Pokemon Live stage show. I interviewed him to find out about his experience....and Rock Star: INXS. Can you blame me?

Links:

Mig's Website
Rock Star: INXS Reunion Concert

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Wikipedia

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.

Discussing the music of (the game) Detective Pikachu

After the PokePark games, Pokemon pivoted to creating a new kind of Pikachu-centric title. Listen in as Anne from Pikapi Podcast and I discuss the music of this 3DS entry:

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 79: MadEx 2025/The Music of "Pokken Tournament"

The first segment (1:06-13:40) is a pair of interviews from MadEx 2025*, where I got to meet dub director Lisa Ortiz, as well as a winner of the Super Smash Bros. Doubles tournament.

The second segment (14:57-53:46) is a discussion of the music of Pokken Tournament. Anne from Pikapi Podcast joins me to go over the tunes from this one-on-one fighter. The title may not have gotten as much traction as Pokémon wanted, but we make sure to give it due consideration. As usual, there’s a game discussion after the outro:

*A press pass was provided for this event.

Links:
Pikapi Podcast
Poke Casters Network

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Wikipedia

Short: Concierge's Successful Score

Pokémon Concierge's score impressed me more than most of the recent animated Pokémon movies. I discuss why with Anne from Pikapi Podcast:

 

Your Favorite Pokémon Music Video?

In an upcoming discussion, we'll be discussing official Pokémon music videos. Do you have a favorite?