Pokemon championships being held in Hawaii

[August 16, 2010]  KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) -- The Pokemon World Championships are being held on Hawaii's Big Island this weekend.

Hundreds of players from around the world qualified to play in the Kona championship, which includes competitions in both its trading card and video game versions.

The game originally gained popularity after its creation in 1996.

Since then, it sold more than 200 million video games, spurred a TV show that's now in its 13th season and produced more than 14 billion trading cards.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.