The ultimate Pokemon finals are ongoing, and you may have a chance to enter. See, The Pokemon Company and Pokemon USA teamed up to create this super challenge, the Pokemon Video Game Showdown 2008, where 16 US players and 16 Japanese players of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl would duke it out for glory. While the official entry period for players closed, additional players who attend the Qualifier Tournaments.

There are two Qualifier Tournaments being held in the US, and they’re on both coasts. The California Science Center in Los Angeles will be having one on July 12, 2008, and the Altman Building in New York will be having one on July 19, 2008. Both tournaments start at 8am. People will be broken into Junior (born after 1996) and Senior (born before 1995) divisions, and up to 128 alternates from each division will be chosen to participate.

June is shaping up to be a fun month for Pokemon Diamond/Pearl owners. On May 31 and June 1, 2008, Toys “R” Us stores were offering up a Darkrai download. Now GameStop stores will be offering up Deoxys.

On two separate weekends in June, 2008, GameStop stores will be offering Deoxys as a download. So if you live near a GameStop, stop in between June 20~22 or from the 25~27 with your DS and either Pokemon Diamond or Pearl to download the exclusive pokemon to your game.

Do you like Pokémon but haven’t beaten Pokémon Ranger? Nintendo and Toys R Us are teaming up to release the rare legendary Pokémon, Manaphy, as a free download to the eager masses. According to Nintendo Power, on September 29, 2007, from noon to 3 p.m. you will be able to download Manaphy to your copy of Pokemon Diamond or Pokémon Pearl via Nintendo DS download.

Previously, players hoping to catch Manaphy could get a Manaphy egg for completing a certain objective in Pokémon Ranger. Unlike most legendaries, Manaphy can breed but it’s baby form, Phione, can never evolve, making the Manaphy an especially rare catch, indeed.

Famitsu announced today that Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl have reached a milestone: Ten million Pokémon have been traded between the games over Nintendo’s Wi-Fi network. Kotaku claims that is ten million trades between players in the United States and Japan but N-Philes reports the number is the combined number of trades in both regions. Sadly, Famitsu is a Japanese language site, so we’ll have to wait for clarification.

One side effect of trading overseas is the ability to have foreign-named Pokémon. American copies of the game don’t allow players to…