The Pokémon Company has revealed an AI competition, putting developers to the test by creating AI players capable of dominating the TCG scene.
The Pokémon franchise is in the midst of another huge bubble, sparked by the 30th anniversary celebrations, and a new competition with a prize pool in excess of $300k has been launched.
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Pokémon Launches $300k AI Competition
After impressing in other tabletop games like Chess, The Pokémon Company is putting AI to the test in its trading game, introducing The Pokémon TCG AI Battle Challenge.
Taking place on Google’s Kaggle platform, the first round of the competition is now underway, with the top eight teams earning qualification for the Second Round and $30k each.
There are two categories in the first round, consisting of the Simulation Category, where “teams will submit their developed AI Training Agent for continuous automated matches on Kaggle’. Each team can submit five each day.
Meanwhile, the Strategy Category requires participating teams to “submit a report detailing the strategic logic behind the AI Training Agent,” with rankings determined by “scoring the AI Training Agent’s stability, deck design concept, and Simulation Category Performance.
The card pool will consist of around 2,000 cards from the Standard format, and the final stage is scheduled for September 2026 in Japan, where AI players will compete in a live tournament that will be broadcast on the company’s official YouTube channel, Pokebeach states.
Check out the video of the announcement below.
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