The 2024 World Championships, which will be held on 16–18 August 2024, are hosted in Honolulu, HI, United States. This is the third time the World Championships are held in Hawaii, after the 2010 and 2012 editions; and the first time they are held in the United States since 2019. In these articles, we will take a look at the best players that are qualified to compete in the biggest event of the year.
Here we have Korea! Let’s meet the 4 players with a Round 1 bye at Worlds, and take a look at the other 12 invitees this region brings.
Table of Contents
Korea at Worlds
South Korea is a unique region as its competitive scene is not governed by either TPC or TPCi. The local branch, Pokémon Korea, sometimes known as PTCK, is responsible of a circuit that used to even have Regional-like events but now mimics Japan at a smaller scale.
Korea’s best representatives are Sejun Park and his iconic Pachirisu, which made the whole world vibrate. Sejun achieved the glory as the 2014 World Champion, a feat that only Juyoung Hong has equated as the 2017 Senior World Champion.
The only other top cuts by Korean players came with Sejun‘s other top 8 finishes in 2012 and 2013, and the top 16 finishes by Wonseok Jang and Junghoon Shin in 2017.
It has been some time since the latest successes of Koreans at Worlds, and the way the circuit is structured is not contributing at all. There hasn’t been a proper circuit since 2019, instead joining the rest of Asia in one-off Nationals dubbed the Pokémon Trainers Cup, a tournament obscured every year by disqualifications and by the organization’s backlash to any criticism by the players.
2023 was especially harsh. The results of the original National Championships, fully online, were voided after completion due to technical issues with the game. People had already earned their invites, and they saw them taken away. A fresh new online tournament took place, after which the new winner was again disqualified, and an act of protest by the other qualified players was repressed with indefinite bans. The situation ended up with just two Korean players at Day 2 of the World Championships, Taeseok Roe and Jiseok Lee, the latter of which had qualified through the North American circuit as he was living abroad.
Requirements for a Worlds invite
Similarly to the previous season, the Global Challenges have acted as qualifiers, with top players in Korea progressing to yet another in-game ladder competition, the Pokémon Trainers Cup, which would filter down the 150 qualified players to the 32 that would receive an invite to the double-elimination live stage, the Final Round.
After the mess of 2023, it seems that the 2024 season has some improvements in competitiveness: the Final Round was the first live event in Korea’s circuit since 2019! The top 16 at this event earned invites to the World Championships, with the top 4 getting Round 1 byes at Worlds as well as different types of travel awards.
Korea’s National Championships were held with OTS (open teamsheets), but excluding Tera Types, which were closed. The extra information that Koreans will find at Worlds will probably ease their rounds!
The 2023 World Championships only saw 11 Korean players competing. This season sees a total of 16! Will any of them find the successes last found 7 years ago?
Players with Round 1 bye
1. 
Juyoung Hong
Juyoung will play in his sixth World Championships, his second in the Masters Division! Juyoung may be less famous than Sejun, but he has had a quite similar path: he dominated the local scene with 3 National titles under his belt in the Senior Division, and made it to the top cut of the World Championships in 2014, 2016 and 2017, winning the 2017 World Championships. After a 5-season break and now in the Masters Division, Juyoung is back and in full force with a Round 1 bye!
Juyoung has achieved the invite with their victory at the Trainers Cup Final Round. They qualified through one of the Global Challenges and went on to place 3rd in the online stage of the Trainers Cup to earn their spot at the Final Round, where he only lost the first set of the Grand Finals.
Watch Seongjae will play in his second World Championships! He had previously competed in Day 2 of the 2019 World Championships.
The Korean player, also known as NY or Nayeon (나연), earned his invite by placing 2nd at the Trainers Cup Final Round. They qualified through one of the Global Challenges and went on to win the online stage of the Trainers Cup to earn their spot as seed #1 at the Final Round. He lost his first round against Seowon Kim, and had to win 8 matches in a row in the losers bracket, including the first set of the Grand Finals, until falling in the Grand Finals Reset to the new champion Juyoung.
Seongjae is one of the best ladder heroes in the game. Inactive during the rest of the season, he started preparing for the Korean tournament in Regulation Set F by playing Ranked Battles, and made it to 2nd place in Season 15, 1st place in Season 16 and again 1st place in Season 17.
3. Jiseok Lee
Jiseok would play in his fourth World Championships… but, unfortunately, he has confirmed he won’t attend. The 2016 Korea National Champion had played in Day 2 of Worlds in 2016, Day 1 in 2017 and Day 1 into Day 2 in 2023, when he got his best result at top 64.
Jiseok, also known as MeLuCa, and having played in the North American circuit in recent years, went back to his native Korea this season and earned his invite by placing 3rd at the Trainers Cup Final Round. He qualified through one of the Global Challenges and went on to place 12th at the online stage of the Trainers Cup to earn his spot at the Final Round, where he lost both the Winners and Losers Finals to the champion Juyoung and finalist Seongjae, respectively.
As for in-game ladder competitions, Jiseok achieved a 5th place in the custom-ruleset Kitakami Prologue. And away from the official circuit, he has been a member of Team South Korea in the World Cup since 2021; in the last edition, the team reached the top 16 before being eliminated by eventual winners United Kingdom.
4. Taeseok Roe
Taeseok will play in his third World Championships! He had already played in Day 1 of 2017 and 2023, and his best result was advancing to Day 2 for a top 64 finish last year, with the honor of being the best player from Korea.
Taeseok, also known as TsPoke, earned his invite by placing 4th at the Trainers Cup Final Round. He qualified through one of the Global Challenges and went on to place 13th at the online stage of the Trainers Cup to earn his spot at the Final Round, where Jinwoo Jang sent him to the losers bracket in the very first round and, after a 6-match winning streak, finalist Seongjae eliminated him.
Away from the official circuit, he joined Team South Korea in the World Cup in the last edition, when the team reached top 16.
Other players
South Korea has 12 other representatives in Worlds, some of which are big names in the scene. Watch out for 2014 World Champion and 3-time Korea National Champion Sejun Park, 2022 Trainers Cup semifinalist Hyuk-in Kwon or this season’s Top 6 player Jiho Lee.
The following list comprises all other players with a top 16 finish at the Trainers Cup Final Round, equivalent to Korea’s National.
- Jiho Lee (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 6)
- Hyuk-in Kwon (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 6)
- Jinwoo Jang (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 8)
- Jinho Park (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 8)
- Hyunggeun Lim (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 12)
- Seowon Kim (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 12)
- Joonki Kim (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 12)
- Junhyuk Yang (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 12)
- Junhyuk Song (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 16)
- Sejun Park (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 16)
- Taeyoung Kim (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 16)
- Junhwan Kim (Trainers Cup Final Round Top 16)
