Meet the real-life Pokémon professors, the unsung heroes of competitive monster-battling
Let the battles begin … people attend the 2026 Pokemon world championships in San Francisco, California. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenLet the battles begin … people attend the 2026 Pokemon world championships in San Francisco, California. In Pokémon Red and Blue, Professor Oak greets the player in a pixelated lab coat, and later provides trainers with their first battle partner; since then, each successive generation of games has introduced another professor to aid and guide trainers through their journeys.
- ▪Let the battles begin … people attend the 2026 Pokemon world championships in San Francisco, California.
- ▪Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenLet the battles begin … people attend the 2026 Pokemon world championships in San Francisco, California.
- ▪In Pokémon Red and Blue, Professor Oak greets the player in a pixelated lab coat, and later provides trainers with their first battle partner; since then, each successive generation of games has introduced another professor to aid and guide
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| Original publisher | The Guardian — Tech |
| Canonical URL | https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/sep/24/meet-the-real-life-pokemon-professors-the-unsung-heroes-of-competitive-monster-battling |
| Publication time | Thu, 24 Sep 2026 09:00:14 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-24T09:15:25.412Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-24T09:15:25.412Z |
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| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
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| Cluster | NN686zC099YK · 1 stories |
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Let the battles begin … people attend the 2026 Pokemon world championships in San Francisco, California. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenLet the battles begin … people attend the 2026 Pokemon world championships in San Francisco, California. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty ImagesGamesMeet the real-life Pokémon professors, the unsung heroes of competitive monster-battlingThey offer advice, referee card games and manage players’ tantrums – we caught up with some of the volunteer profs who keep the competitive game going at this year’s world championshipsAna DiazThu 24 Sep 2026 05.00 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleProfessors may be the most revered characters in the fictional world of Pokémon (apart from perhaps the Gym Leaders).
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