The Pokemon Company has announced that their TCG illustration contest will be open to those who reside within the United States for the first time, which is pretty cool.
While there have been a pair of past competitions that allowed Americans to participate, never had the main Pokemon TCG Illustration Contest done so. These were: a contest with Kids' WB in 2004 where 5 grand prize winners winner received 50 promo booster packs and one pack was given to 5,000 first prize winners out of kids who submited. The second contest was in 2015 and held by the Pokemon Art Academy, where each winner received 100 copies of their card featuring their illustration.
While that's all well and good, it's not everyday that illustrators get the opportunity to draw a card that could be worth $220,000 or even $900,000, right? You could get rich!
I kid, I kid. Anyways, the event will take place from October 12, 2021 to January 31, 2022. The theme of the contest is to "draw a Pokemon in its daily life", which sounds like an interesting idea at least. Illustrators will only be able to draw from a list of eight Pokemon: Bulbasaur, Charizard, Pikachu, Arcanine, Galarian Rapidash, Scizor, Greninja, and Cramorant.
Each artist (that's at least 18 or older) will be able to submit up to three illustrations depicting the same Pokemon or different Pokemon from the approved list. The three winning artists will be announced in June 2022. Here's the prizes:
- One Grand Prize Winner (JP or US contestant): $5,000 cash prize and TCG promo card
- Two 1st Runner-Up selections (1 winner from JP, 1 winner from US): $3,000 cash prize and TCG promo card
- Two 2nd Runner-Up selections (JP or US contestant) : $1,000 cash prize
- 15 Judges Award selections (JP or US contestants): $500 cash prize
Not too shabby, eh? Of course, that isn't to say that it's a ton of money, but $5k dollarydoos for one drawing is pretty sweet no matter how you put it. If you'd like to sign up for this contest and potentially become a winner, be sure to go here and apply.
Interested in playing or are already playing Pokemon TCG? Check out the article we recently wrote on the Pokemon TCG Live app here.
What do you think of this contest? Let us know in the comments!