After huge success these past two years, Victory Road is happy to host a new edition of the World Cup of Pokémon VGC! The World Cup is a community-run online tournament that aims to gather the best Pokémon players from all over the world, with 60 countries and territories being represented!
Table of Contents
Format
- 60 teams representing countries and regions from all corners of the world will be playing, with returning teams from last year and open to new additions!
- Each team will have from 8 to 12 players, and team managers are eligible to play if they wish to do so by taking one of these slots in the process.
- The tournament is played in three segments:
- Qualifiers, where all participating teams (except those with a direct bye into the Group Stage) will be randomly drafted into groups and will play in a round-robin stage. All weeks will be played in 8v8 individual matches. The best teams will advance until 32 remain in the next stage.
- Group Stage, where the Top 8 teams from last year as well as 24 more teams will be randomly drafted, again, into new groups for a second round-robin stage. All weeks will be played in 8v8 individual sets, too. The best 16 teams will advance.
- Play-offs, where the remaining teams battle it out for the championship in a single-elimination bracket. All weeks will be played 7v7 individual matches.
- All matches played in the relevant ruleset, which pending an announcement, is expected to be VGC 2024 Regulation Set E.
- All matches will be played on the Nintendo Switch. using the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet games. You will need to have the console with a copy of the game and an active subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online to participate.
- All matches will be played using open team lists.
- Players are allowed to change their team each week. However, it is strictly prohibited changing moves, items, or training any Pokémon to have different stats, using an Ability Capsule or any other item that may modify its stats during the course of a best-of-3 set.
- All weeks will have featured matches streamed on Victory Road’s Twitch channel, as well as extra matches and content on Victory Road’s YouTube channel.
Calendar
Each round takes a week, starting each Tuesday, when pairings are posted, and ending on Monday, beginning on 3 October. Please notice that dates are provisional, and they may be subject to change as per the interests of the competition.
Qualifiers: 3 to 23 October 2023
- Draft: 1 October at 18:00 UTC, live streamed on Twitch
- Week 1: 3-9 October
- Week 2: 10-16 October
- Week 3: 17-23 October
Group Stage: 24 October to 13 November 2023 (32 qualified teams)
- Draft: 23 October, live streamed on Twitch
- Week 4: 24-30 October
- Week 5: 31 October-6 November
- Week 6: 7-13 November
Play-offs: 14 November to 10 December 2023 (16 qualified teams)
- Top 16 round: 14-20 November
- Quarterfinals: 21-27 November
- Semifinals: 27 November-3 December
- Finals: 4-10 December
* Originally it was announced that the tournament would start on 26 September. Since Regulation Set E will be properly announced on 1 October, the tournament was delayed one week.
Eligibility criteria
- Players may apply to join any given team provided they either:
- Were born or hold citizenship rights in said country or any of its territories.
- Are currently living in said country or any of its territories.
- Both player’s parents/tutors were born or hold citizenship rights in said country or any of its territories.
- Special citizenship laws may be taken into account. For example, players with OCI are allowed to join the tournament and play for India.
- Players may only apply for a team provided they can prove at least one of the above criteria as true.
- Players eligible for multiple countries are free to choose where to apply, but ultimately may only play for one team.
- Once players join a team, they cannot join other national teams for the next country-based event hosted by Victory Road. This means that those players who took part of a team last year, are tied to them for this edition.
- This rule gets priority over the regular eligibility criteria shown above.
- This rule applies for the following country-based event hosted (for example: from 2022 World Cup to 2023 World Cup). This means that players who want to leave their previous team shall wait until the following event (in this case, a potential 2024 World Cup) in order to join a different team.
- Any applications not meeting the eligibility criteria will be dismissed. Please keep in mind these rules are final and will be subject to no exceptions.
Seedings
- The top 8 teams from the 2022 World Cup will be automatically qualified for the Group Stage, thus skipping qualifiers. The teams affected by this are Australia, Canada, France, India, Poland, South Korea, Thailand and the United States.
- All other participating teams* will be divided into pots based on their performance of previous editions, as per their Elo ranking. During the Qualifiers draft on 2 October, one team from each pot will be randomly allocated to each group, so that no two teams in the same pot can meet in the first round of competition.
- The teams are allocated into Pots 1 to 4 according to their Elo ranking.
- Any new teams debuting in 2023 will be added to Pot 4.
* Depending on the final number of participating teams, additional byes to the Group Stage may be given, and the seed pots, structure and amount of teams per group of the Qualifier Stage may be modified.
Prizes
Unfortunately, the World Cup is not sponsored in this edition, so there is no prize pool.
Managers
Each team will have one to three managers. Their job is to create their team’s roster of players, select their weekly line-ups and manage all internal communications with the tournament staff and Victory Road.
If you don’t see your region here, sign up anyway! New teams are welcome to enter the competition!
Europe & Africa
| # | Flag | Country/Region | Manager | Co-managers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Austria | Steven Markhardt (Kali) | – |
| 2 |  | Belgium | Simon Van der Borght (Shmon) | Nick Theunis (Niqeth) |
| 3 |  | Denmark | Benjamin Jochimsen (Benno) | Michelle Sørensen (Farcai) |
| 4 |  | Egypt | Karim Awad (Coldflame) | Ahmed Abdel-Moneim (Beb3em) |
| 5 |  | France | Anthony Liuzzo (Glum) | Hippolyte Bernard (Redsilver) |
| 6 |  | Germany | Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37) | Maurice Uteg (Camikasa) |
| 7 |  | Greece | Kosta Daidimos (Kosta) | Lazaros Lazaropoulos (Laz) |
| 8 |  | Ireland | Mattie Morgan (MattieMoo) | Patrick Donegan (Pd0nz), Connagh Johnston (CaisealBoy) |
| 9 |  | Italy | Arash Ommati (Mean) | Davide Carrer (Nirinbo) |
| 10 |  | Luxembourg | Corentin Schepens (Dworlax) | Nikola Zirdum (NFJontra) |
| 11 |  | Morocco | Amin Lehna (Aminko) | Omar Sbayou |
| 12 |  | Netherlands | Andres Escobosa (000aj) | Jessica Franssen (Jennayy) |
| 13 |  | Norway | Brede Stavø (Brede) | Ola Petersen Nordby (NostalgiaIsGreat) |
| 14 |  | Poland | Bartosz Ekiert (Naociak) | – |
| 15 |  | Portugal | Ruben Pereira (Puddles) | Eduardo Cunha (Edu) |
| 16 |  | San Marino | Cedric Muccioli (CedM) | – |
| 17 |  | Spain | Guillermo Castilla (KastyTP) | Àlex Gómez (PokeAlex) |
| 18 |  | Sweden | Pontus Westerlund (Pontus) | David Degerman (Particular) |
| 19 |  | Switzerland | Stefan Mott (Pengy) | Damo Lokmic (Damo) |
| 20 |  | Turkey | Enes Şafak (enessafak) | Fatih Yörük (CONQAD) |
| 21 |  | United Kingdom | Jamie Kean (Kean) | Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou) |
The Americas
| # | Flag | Country/Region | Manager | Co-managers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 |  | Argentina | Juan Salerno (Juanfi) | Julián Martínez (Simius Black) |
| 23 |  | Barbados | Caniggia Willett (Koujex) | Zachary Stabler (ZakStab) |
| 24 |  | Belize | Kyle Zuniga (BigKyle) | – |
| 25 |  | Bolivia | Sergio Argandoña (SergZX) | Giovanni Araníbar (Libiak) |
| 26 |  | Brazil | Hugo Nascimento (Labacedo) | Victor Rachik (Rachik) |
| 27 |  | Canada | Jean-Marc Hébert (JeanMarc) | William Paterson (Willy), Sapphire Lai (Eeveon) |
| 28 |  | Chile | Luciano Muñoz (Hummus) | Javier Sandoval (Jvvier) |
| 29 |  | Colombia | Cristian André Rodríguez (Rukairo) | Juan Vesga (vesgajp) |
| 30 |  | Costa Rica | David Rodríguez (Davidness) | Reynord González (Rey Gaming) |
| 31 |  | Dominican Republic | Bryant Ovalle (BryOv) | Luis Franjul (Luifra) |
| 32 |  | Ecuador | Raúl Ramírez (Rul) | Juan C. Ortiz (MrPenguin93) |
| 33 |  | El Salvador | Geovanni Polanco (Green) | Eduardo Guzmán (Edd) |
| 34 |  | Guatemala | Juan Manuel Santizo (Teka) | – |
| 35 |  | Honduras | Andrés Centeno (Edw) | Ángel Ortega (Necrid) |
| 36 |  | Jamaica | Kevonne Boreland (KD) | Michael Cameron (Rennen) |
| 37 |  | Mexico | Christian Ramírez (Ewokpadawan) | Arath Vera (Arath) |
| 38 |  | Nicaragua | Rommel Maltez (Guarda) | – |
| 39 |  | Panama | Alberto Ríos (7illo) | Felipe Molino (Nator92) |
| 40 |  | Peru | Sebastián Bisbal (Brutus) | Sebastián Solari (Gato-T), Diego Ortiz (Mesquo) |
| 41 |  | Puerto Rico | Alexavier Álvarez (Arekusabi) | Jonathan Quiñones (Pocha), Kenneth Tirado (Kenepa) |
| 42 |  | Uruguay | Gonzalo Sintas (Gonzs) | – |
| 43 |  | United States | Jeremy Odena (JJ) | Justin Burns (Spurrific) |
| 44 |  | Venezuela | Carlos Párica (Crazymix) | Mario Stefani (Bubbles) |
Asia & Oceania
| # | Flag | Country/Region | Manager | Co-managers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45 |  | Australia | Sam Pandelis (Zelda) | Luke Curtale (Dawg) |
| 46 |  | China | Xu Yihui (Yihui) | Zhou Xinjie (Setsuku), Peng Chongjun (Chongjun) |
| 47 |  | Hong Kong | Or Kei Yin (Cyrus) | – |
| 48 |  | India | Abhay Iyer (Abhayfive) | Nishant Joshi (giga) |
| 49 |  | Indonesia | Guntur Prabowo (Osada) | M. Hafidz Syahril (MHS) |
| 50 |  | Israel | Dov Joseph Aloof (Avaddov) | Aminadav Grant (Amin) |
| 51 |  | Japan | Yuki Zaninovich (Yukizan) | Yuki Kono (Forte) |
| 52 |  | Malaysia | Leong Yew Sun (Sunny) | Azri Firman (MrTsukkomi), Ismat Myron (Ismat) |
| 53 |  | New Zealand | Axl Laher (Axl) | Aidan Jackson (midenvgc), Christopher Akroyd |
| 54 |  | Pakistan | Daanish Syed (7SidedDice) | Husnul Khan (2QuidV) |
| 55 |  | Philippines | Enrico Comentan (AlphaTorónado) | – |
| 56 |  | Singapore | Brian Soh (Asada) | Hakim Nah (kimnaise) |
| 57 |  | South Korea | Sanghyeon Na (Nash) | Wonseok Jang (KrelCROC) |
| 58 |  | Taiwan | Tsai Chien-chien (ChienX2) | – |
| 59 |  | Thailand | Narawitch Naenna (MyStars) | Gunn K. Sathorn (Maletix) |
| 60 |  | Vietnam | Khuê Đỗ (Shawn) | Long Nguyễn (Sportaholic) |
Qualifiers Draft
Most teams have to fight for a spot in the main stage of the event, the Group Stage… except for last year’s Top 8 (Australia, Canada, France, India, Poland, South Korea, Thailand & the United States). The other 52 teams will fight for 24 coveted spots in the Group Stage, for a total of 32 teams!
For qualifiers, all teams are allocated in 4 pots based on previous results, and only one team from each pot is drafted into a group. This process was live streamed on Victory Road’s Twitch channel on 1 October at 18:00 UTC!
