Professors often is the most revered characters within the fictional world of Pokémon (aside from maybe the Fitness center Leaders). In Pokémon Crimson and Blue, Professor Oak greets the participant in a pixelated lab coat, and later supplies trainers with their first battle associate; since then, every successive era of video games has launched one other professor to assist and information trainers via their journeys. In the event you’ve ever performed a Pokémon sport, they’re typically the primary folks that you just meet, aside out of your in-game mother.
However chances are you’ll not know that there are additionally real-world Pokémon professors – volunteers who assist organise the sport’s aggressive communities all over the world. As a substitute of lab coats, they are often seen at occasions carrying crimson Pikachu-mascot shirts labelled “workers”, paired with black trousers and sneakers.
I spoke with a number of of those profs on the 2026 Pokémon world championships in San Francisco, California. Not solely do they fortunately distribute their data about Pokémon, however in addition they function important workers on the match, working as referees and lecturers, in addition to occasion managers.
The official Pokémon website describes the Pokémon Professor Program as a “world community of passionate and knowledgable followers” who volunteer their time to assist run official Pokémon occasions. There have been roughly 300 Pokémon professors current on the 2026 Pokémon world championships, in accordance with a consultant of the Pokémon Firm Worldwide. A professor’s duties depend upon the sport they work with and their assigned position on the occasion. A Pokémon professor officiating a sport reminiscent of Pokémon Unite is perhaps hyper-focused on wrangling gamers and offering technical help, whereas a decide for a buying and selling card sport match would possibly present opponents with hands-on steerage as they navigate their first stay aggressive occasion.
Gemma Byard, a head decide answerable for making the ultimate name on any choices or questions that come up, turned a Pokémon professor after her son began competing within the buying and selling card sport. She says that she and the opposite professors assist make sure the integrity of the match, describing what goes into the day-to-day work at worlds – reminiscent of making certain that occasion officers document the outcomes of competitions appropriately.
“We’ve acquired to ensure that all the match slips have the proper outcomes on them and are signed by the gamers to make sure, , that we get the correct outcomes,” Byard mentioned. “We now have to ensure that the venue is protected for everyone that’s round. We’re consistently searching for something which may be unsafe, or anyone that shouldn’t be within the venue. There’s loads to consider on prime of the rulings.”
Professors typically juggle a number of duties on the competitors ground and can journey the world over to workers an occasion such because the world championships. When requested about how the Pokémon Firm Worldwide compensates its professors, nonetheless, most individuals I spoke to declined to reveal particulars. One Pokémon professor mentioned that the European professors are compensated with goodies, reminiscent of a particular workers equipment with merchandise, whereas the professors at regional tournaments within the US are paid wages; the identical professor mentioned that the Pokémon Firm Worldwide helped with journey, room and board for the occasion. (When requested for an official assertion explaining how Pokémon professors are paid, a consultant from the Pokémon Firm Worldwide declined to remark.)
Evelyne de Groot travelled from the Netherlands to workers this 12 months’s championships. Like the opposite Pokémon professors I spoke to, de Groot labored her approach as much as staffing worlds after organising native competitions in her house area. Earlier than we spoke, she was serving to usher gamers out of the Moscone Middle after the primary conference corridor closed for the night. This 12 months, she labored at a buying and selling card sport facet occasion known as Pokémon Sisterhood League, devoted to giving ladies and non-binary folks an opportunity to compete and join.
For her, an excellent Pokémon professor should steadiness imposing the foundations with giving opponents the instruments they should benefit from the sport itself. She in contrast the place to working in “customer support”.
“[Players] make friendships. You see them smile. You see them have an excellent time, however you’re a part of that,” de Groot mentioned. “In the event you’re not organising it correctly, if you happen to don’t give them clear directions, then you definitely see some failure […] You’ll generally get questions. You must be sure to’re knowledgable relating to that. In the event you don’t know what you’re doing, if you happen to don’t understand how the cardboard sport works, then you possibly can’t assist them.”
De Groot’s expertise as a professor has been comparatively relaxed. Nevertheless, some professors should function referees and make contentious calls all through the competitors. For Byard, which means she generally must take care of upset gamers. At one level through the match, she needed to handle a participant who was upset with a ruling that didn’t go his approach.
“I acquired known as over to the desk, and I mentioned to him: ‘Look, I want you simply to maintain your voice down and be respectful, and we’ll discuss via what’s occurred.’ And he was like: ‘I don’t want to speak to you. I want to speak to the top decide,’” Byard mentioned, chuckling. “Nicely, buddy, you’re speaking to the top decide. That’s the type of sass that we take care of loads.”
A tough name can result in controversy. Earlier this 12 months, a ruling from a special decide at one other match made headlines when a aggressive Pokémon Go participant who goes by the identify Firestar73 was disqualified after profitable the ultimate on the Pokémon Orlando regional championships. Many, together with the competitor himself in a statement, conceded that the choice was a “good-faith mistake”.
I requested Byard about what it’s wish to make robust calls on the match. She mentioned that the professors are sometimes seen as “the dangerous guys”. What does she want opponents and viewers understood in regards to the position?
“What they don’t perceive is that they’re seeing an image, however we’re getting your entire story, and we’re making the choices primarily based upon that story,” she mentioned. “That may make an actual distinction. And we’re those placing ourselves on the market to proper a scenario that’s been damaged by gamers. We haven’t brought about any misery. We’re there simply to try to put it again collectively once more.”