Competitive Pokémon is on phones now — no Switch needed

The mobile version of Pokémon Champions hit iOS and Android in June, after the Switch release in April. Same game. Cross-platform. You can queue up matches on your phone or plug into a controller — the choice is yours.

The catch is that the World Championships still require a Switch. So if you're grinding ranked battles on your phone, you'll eventually need to borrow one to compete at the top tier. No clear reason for that restriction. The game works fine on mobile.

Why this matters for us: la comunidad plays Pokémon on whatever device is around, and locking championships behind a Switch just keeps the tournament scene a little more expensive than it needs to be.