Jace McGough knows his kid has it better than him. 

For one thing, the little one is part of a family that is 100% composed of Pokemon fans, with two parents who not only support their son’s competitive trading card hobby but also participate in it themselves. There’s also the fact that McGough, 27, has taken his son to the Pokemon World Championships and PokemonXP event in San Francisco, an annual international celebration of the franchise. This past weekend, the convention, which wasn’t nearly as prominent during McGough’s childhood, turned Moscone Center into a Pokemon wonderland.

But the biggest generational difference is that while McGough had to travel 30 to 45 minutes to get to the closest card shop growing up, his son could theoretically go to a local event every day of the week and never hit the same shop twice, even in their hometown of Salt Lake City, which is on the smaller end of this country’s major metropolises. 

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People attend the 2026 Pokemon World Championships and PokemonXP at Moscone Center in San Francisco on Aug. 29, 2026.

It’s an example that runs counter to the headlines of disappearing third spaces for children, but it’s an exception that proves the rule. The malls and various other public spaces that kids once could use as a place to hang out between home and school, or work, have gone away throughout the country. All that’s really left for children to find connection in a world that demands they stay glued to their screens are these spaces for like-minded hobbyists to gather.

“I think that is a big thing — him actually being able to play against other kids,” McGough told SFGATE on Saturday. “Having a place where people are just there to play or trade — I like getting him out to these events, and he loves running around and talking to everybody … Everything we do outside of that is just to get him to not be playing games or looking at TV.”

Being into Pokemon on its own does not naturally guarantee this connection. The franchise has seen a recent boom in popularity that, if it were a country, would be the economic miracle that immediately precedes the emergence of a new global superpower. Some, after catching the wave of excitement, have expressed that fandom by spending hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on merchandise for themselves at events like these, or spending hundreds, if not thousands, of hours on Pokemon video games by themselves. The Pokemon World Championships, or Worlds, could in theory be the first time some attendees are interacting with fellow fans for the first time.

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People attend the 2026 Pokemon World Championships and PokemonXP at Moscone Center in San Francisco on Aug. 29, 2026. 

Then there are those for whom that is certainly not the case. For all of the purchasing and collecting opportunities that exist at this convention party, there’s an enormous competitive underpinning where thousands can compete for international titles; and among those attendees are fans who come from truly the last remaining environment that actively requires them to go out and interact with, meet and befriend people on a face-to-face level: the trading card game, or TCG, players. Worlds is also just one of the few real places where they can connect with Pokemon. The draw of an event like this is based on what people are starting to lack in a third space, the presence of which has only gone in the opposite direction of Pokemon’s popularity.

This weekend’s massive event was a 30-year celebration of the existence of Pokemon, and there’s little doubt that things will slow down anytime soon for the franchise. But many fear the same is not true on the local levels, especially at the card shops.

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When McGough thinks of his own experiences at his childhood card shop, he thinks of pancakes. His fondest memories are from the midnight pre-releases for the game of his choice at the time: Magic the Gathering. There was a whole process to getting there in the first place. Since he lived in a town he describes as “middle of nowhere, Utah,” he would need to hitch a ride with older friends, oftentimes adults who also frequented the shop, to make his way over. But the journey was worth it, as they’d be up all night playing a new set, and some members would make........

© SFGate