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Rules & Regulations of the 2024 Season

On this page you can find all info on the official Rules & Regulations that apply at the VGC events of the 2024 Season. Normally, these apply to all events, regardless of the entity hosting them, and also apply to community-run grassroots events, like the ones from Victory Road.

Note the following distinction:

  • Battle rules: general set of rules that apply to all battles. These are what define “VGC”, such as all matches being Double Battles played with a game time of 20 minutes.
  • Team rules: general set of rules that apply to all teams. These provide the base framework to what is allowed in “VGC”, such as all Pokémon being auto-leveled to level 50, or the Species and Item Clauses (you may not use the same Pokémon or Items, respectively, more than once on your team).
  • Rulesets or Regulation Sets: specific set of rules that apply on top of the previous two. These refer to specific Pokémon, moves or items that are allowed or banned, and change during the season.

Table of Contents

Battle rules

  • Players will play in Double Battles in Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet.
      • Each player selects four out of the six Pokémon in their Battle Team.
      • Gameplay continues until a player makes all four of their opponent’s Pokémon faint or until the in-game time limit has expired.
  • There is no round timer and all matches shall be allowed to finish when a player’s all four Pokémon faint or the in-game time limit has expired. The in-game timers are the following:
      • Team preview: 90 seconds
      • Move time limit: 45 seconds
      • Player total time limit (called “Your time” in game): 7 minutes
      • Game time: 20 minutes
  • If the match ends with an unresolved outcome, the tiebreakers that apply are first late shows, then sudden death. For disconnection cases, refer to the most current rules document.
  • Matches played during Swiss rounds may be best-of-one or best-of-three, with the latter strongly recommended in Regional-level and higher-tier events. All top cuts must be played as best-of-three.
  • In TPCi events, players will compete with open team lists. At the start of a match, players will swap team lists with the opponent, and will exchange them back at the end. Players may not take notes or alter their opponents’ list. The team list contains the following info:
      • Pokémon species, including forms or regional variants.
      • Abilities.
      • Held Items.
      • All known Moves.
      • Tera Type.

Team rules

  • Players may use Pokémon that were:
  • Pokémon may make use of any move or Ability available to that Pokémon through normal gameplay. This includes Hidden Abilities and event-exclusive moves and Abilities.
  • Pokémon above and below level 50 will be auto-levelled to level 50 during battle.
  • Each Pokémon may hold an item, though no two Pokémon may hold the same item.
  • A player’s team cannot contain two Pokémon of the same species, that is, with the same National Pokédex number (for example, Heat Rotom and Wash Rotom are not allowed, since both are still Rotom).

Format rotations

All official events for the 2024 season, which starts on September 2023 and will end at the 2024 World Championships, will use Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet until further notice. This applies to TPCI, TPC and TPCK events.

The official VGC rules may vary with each Series of Ranked Battles in the in-game ladder. That means that both online & real-life events will usually follow such regulations, unless announced otherwise.

  • Regulation Set D: 1 Jul–30 Sep 2023
  • Regulation Set E: 1 Oct 2023–3 Jan 2024
  • Regulation Set F: 4 Jan–30 Apr 2024
  • Regulation Set G: 1 May–31 Aug 2024
  • Regulation Set H: 1 Sep 2024–5 Jan 2025
  • Regulation Set G (returning): 6 Jan–30 Apr 2025

Regulation Set D

The Regulation Set D of Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet is the fourth official ruleset confirmed in the new games. It is the official format of in-game Ranked Battles from 1 July to 30 September 2023, and is used in official VGC events on the same dates.

Regulation Set E

The Regulation Set E of Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet is the fifth official ruleset confirmed in the new games. It is the official format of in-game Ranked Battles from 1 October 2023 to 3 January 2024, and is used in official VGC events on the same dates. It was initially announced to last until 30 November, but was soon fixed with the correct final dates.

Regulation Set F

The Regulation Set F of Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet is the sixth official ruleset confirmed in the new games. It is the official format of in-game Ranked Battles from 4 January to 30 April 2024, and is used in official VGC events on the same dates. Additionally, it is used in the Asian National Championships held in May 2024.

Regulation Set G

The Regulation Set G of Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet is the seventh official ruleset confirmed in the new games. It is the official format of in-game Ranked Battles from 1 May to 31 August 2024, and is used in official VGC events on the same dates (except for some TPC-sanctioned National Championships held in May).

This ruleset is scheduled to come back from 6 January to 30 April 2025.

Regulation Set H

The Regulation Set H of Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet is the eighth official ruleset confirmed in the new games. It is the official format of in-game Ranked Battles from 1 September 2024 to 5 January 2025, and is used in official VGC events on the same dates.

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