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Byun Sung-mo and Itagaki Brothers Form 'SPECIAL TEAM' for Pokémon's First Team Tournament, Team Masters

Three players with world championship experience unite across regions; pre-registration closes October 23 at 12:00 PM

김태희 기자 · Published Oct 20, 2026, 14:36 KST · 3 min read
Image: AI 생성 일러스트(TCG뉴스)

A 'SPECIAL TEAM' consisting of three players with international stage experience will compete in the Trading Card Game division of the first Pokémon Trading Card Game team tournament, 'Pokémon Team Masters 2027 in SEOUL'. The official tournament website, 'Pokémon Team Masters Web', announced in an update on October 16, 2026, that they would form and compete as a "cross-regional SPECIAL TEAM". Pokémon Korea also updated and re-posted its tournament announcement originally published on September 28 on the same day.

Who is the SPECIAL TEAM?

According to the official announcement, the team composition is as follows:

| Order | Player | Credentials Listed in Notice | |---|---|---| | 1 | Byun Sung-mo | Winner of 「Pokémon Battle Festival Asia 2021」 | | 2 | Takuto Itagaki | Championship experience in the Pokémon World Championships Trading Card Game division | | 3 | Shuto Itagaki | Championship experience in the Pokémon World Championships Trading Card Game division, TOP4 at 「Champions League 2027 Yokohama」 |

The announcement introduced Takuto Itagaki as a player with "close ties" to Byun Sung-mo, and Shuto Itagaki as Takuto's brother. The lineup consists of one South Korean player and two Japanese players. The announcement stated that the team "aims to win this tournament". The notice does not specify whether the SPECIAL TEAM will go through the same preliminary rounds as general teams or receive a separate seed.

Tournament Overview and Team Rules

喜びThe tournament will be held on January 23 (Sat) – 24 (Sun), 2027, in Halls 1-2 of Exhibition Hall 1 at KINTEX. It is an open league with free entry. The capacity is 2,000 seats (approximately 670 teams), and team leaders of 3-person squads must form and register their teams on the official website. The registration period runs from September 28, 2026, at 14:00 to October 23 (Fri) at 12:00 (Korea Standard Time). If applications exceed capacity, participants will be selected by a lottery, with results announced on Friday, November 13 at 14:00. Supported languages are English, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Thai, and Traditional Chinese.

Rules regarding deck construction are as follows:

  • Regulation: Latest official regulation, 60-card deck, 6 prize cards
  • 3 decks registered per team; deck swapping among team members is not allowed during the tournament
  • Pokémon with the same name cannot be included across different decks. The announcement gave examples that 'Shaymin' and 'Shaymin' are considered the same name, while 'Giratina' and 'Giratina ex' are considered different names.
  • Deck registration deadline: January 23 at 7:00 (Korea Standard Time), penalties apply for failure to register
  • Japanese-language cards cannot be mixed with cards of other languages, while cards in other languages can only be mixed with English-edition cards

Day 1 preliminaries will feature up to 7 rounds of Swiss-style matches, with teams achieving 5 or more wins advancing to Day 2 Main Tournament Stage 1 (up to 3 rounds of Swiss). The top 16 teams will then advance to Main Tournament Stage 2 single-elimination brackets to determine the champion. Match duration is 30 minutes, and a team wins (earning 3 match points) if 2 or more of the 3 team members win their matches. The TOP4 teams will receive entry to the Trading Card Game division of the 「Pokémon World Championships 2027」 and a commemorative plaque containing the promo card 「Victory Medal」.

What Korean Players Need to Know

Since the inaugural tournament is being held in Seoul and Korean is included as a target language, domestic players can participate using Korean-edition cards. The most urgent matter regarding the schedule is the registration deadline. As of this article, with three days remaining, all three team members must complete their account registration by Friday, October 23 at 12:00 PM, and registration can only be submitted by the team leader. Minors require parental consent for account creation and registration. On-site identity verification is based on passports, while domestic participants can also use their resident registration card, driver's license, or youth ID. Tablets are not permitted for participation, so participants must bring a smartphone.

Sources

This article was written with the help of AI based on public sources. Responsible: 김태희 기자 AI principles →

This article was machine-translated from Korean with AI. Original →

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