After huge success these past four 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 over 60 countries and territories being represented!
Table of Contents
Format
- Around 60 teams (final number TBC) 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, using VGC Regulation Set H. 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, using VGC Regulation Set H as well. The best 16 teams will advance.
- Play-offs, where the remaining teams battle it out for the championship in a single-elimination bracket, using the next VGC Regulation Set (the one legal in TPCi tournaments from December onwards, still to be announced). All weeks will be played 7v7 individual matches.
- All matches will be played on the Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch 2, using the Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon 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, and there may be 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 7 October. Please notice that dates are provisional, and they may be subject to change as per the interests of the competition.
Qualifiers: 7 to 27 October 2025
- Draft: 5 October, live streamed on Twitch
- Week 1: 7-13 October
- Week 2: 14-20 October
- Week 3: 21-27 October
Group Stage: 28 October to 17 November 2025 (32 qualified teams)
- Draft: 28 October, live streamed on Twitch
- Week 4: 28 October-3 November
- Week 5: 4-10 November
- Week 6: 11-17 November
The tournament will have a break for LAIC. Ruleset changes going forward.
Play-offs: 24 November to 21 December 2025 (16 qualified teams)
- Top 16 round: 24-30 November
- Quarterfinals: 1-7 December
- Semifinals: 8-14 December
- Finals: 15-21 December
* Dates are provisional and are subject to change.
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 2024 World Cup to 2025 World Cup). This means that players who want to leave their previous team shall wait until the following event (in this case, a potential 2026 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 2024 World Cup will be automatically qualified for the Group Stage, thus skipping qualifiers. The teams affected by this are Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and Malaysia.
- 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, 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 returning or debuting in 2025 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.
Sign-ups
If you wish to join the 2025 World Cup as a player, please fill out the form below. You may also express interest on becoming a manager for your team.
Even if your country or territory did not participate in last year’s edition, you may still apply. Any new teams that comply with eligibility requirements for at least 8 players will be allowed to compete.
You also have below the list of confirmed teams and managers. The decision on each teams’ roster is taken by each manager, so please keep in mind that different teams might have different criteria on how to select their players. Contact your team’s managers if you have any questions.
Final roster deadline: 1 October 2025
Teams and 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.
| # | Logo | Country/Region | Managers | Best result so far |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | ★ Japan | Yuki Zaninovich, Yuki Kono | Champions (2024) |
| 2 |  | Argentina | Juan Salerno, Ivo Giorgini | Finalists (2023) |
| 3 |  | Australia | Kiran Singh | Semifinalists (2022) |
| 4 |  | Austria | Shonali Kenn, Simon Bernard | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 5 |  | Belgium | Simon Van der Borght, Nick Theunis, Elias Truyens | Group Stage (2023, 2024) |
| 6 |  | Bolivia | Sergio Argandoña, Giovanni Araníbar | Group Stage (2021) |
| 7 |  | Brazil | Hugo Santos, Rogério Catel | Top 16 (2021, 2022) |
| 8 |  | Canada | Jean-Marc Hébert, Sapphire Lai, Ryan Loseto | Finalists (2022) |
| 9 |  | Chile | Cristóbal Carrasco, Sebastián Lobos | Top 16 (2021) |
| 10 |  | China | Peng Chongjun, Zhou Xinjie, Wang Yuxiang | Semifinalists (2021) |
| 11 |  | Colombia | Cristian André Rodríguez, David Dávila | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 12 |  | Costa Rica | Reynord González, David Rodríguez | Group Stage (2022, 2023, 2024) |
| 13 |  | Denmark | Benjamin Jochimsen, Kasper Wissendorf, Oliver Bøgebjerg | Group Stage (2023) |
| 14 |  | Dominican Republic | Juan Moisés Pérez, Luis Franjul | Group Stage (2023) |
| 15 |  | Ecuador | Yamid Rodríguez, Gabriel Berrios | Group Stage (2022, 2023, 2024) |
| 16 |  | El Salvador | Geovanni Polanco, Eduardo Guzmán, Roberto Saguer | Top 16 (2021) |
| 17 |  | Finland | Mikael Viljanen | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 18 |  | France | Anthony Liuzzo, Rayan Guezi | Finalists (2024) |
| 19 |  | Germany | Markus Hamann, Maurice Uteg, Michael Kelsch | Top 8 (2023, 2024) |
| 20 |  | Greece | Kosta Daidimos, Lazaros Lazaropoulos, Paschalis Dermentzis | Top 16 (2024) |
| 21 |  | Guatemala | Juan Manuel Santizo | Group Stage (2021) |
| 22 |  | Honduras | Andrés Centeno, Ángel Ortega | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 23 |  | Hong Kong | Or Kei Yin, Leung Pak Hei | Group Stage (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) |
| 24 |  | India | Abhay Iyer, Nishant Joshi | Semifinalists (2024) |
| 25 |  | Indonesia | Guntur Prabowo, M. Hafidz Syahril | Group Stage (2021, 2023, 2024) |
| 26 |  | Ireland | Mattie Morgan, Shane Whelan | Top 8 (2024) |
| 27 |  | Italy | Federico Camporesi, Matteo Ballini | Finalists (2021) |
| 28 |  | Luxembourg | Corentin Schepens, Nikola Zirdum | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 29 |  | Malaysia | Azri Firman Aqil, Ismat Myron | Top 8 (2024) |
| 30 |  | Malta | Naim Spiteri | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 31 |  | Mexico | Christian Ramírez, Arath Vera | Top 16 (2024) |
| 32 |  | Morocco | Amin Lehna, Sliman Ziyech | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 33 |  | Netherlands | Akram Hamdi, Mateus de Moura Pimentel | Top 16 (2021, 2022, 2024) |
| 34 |  | New Zealand | Axl Laher, Guilherme Schilling | Group Stage (2021) |
| 35 |  | Norway | Ola Petersen Nordby, Steinar Nicolaisen | Group Stage (2022) |
| 36 |  | Panama | Felipe Molino, Alberto Ríos | Group Stage (2021, 2024) |
| 37 |  | Peru | Sebastián Bisbal, Sebastián Solari | Top 16 (2021, 2022, 2024) |
| 38 |  | Philippines | Enrico Comentan, Ryan Pareja, Arbin Tumaneng | Group Stage (2022, 2024) |
| 39 |  | Poland | Bartosz Ekiert, Michał Dziurzyński, Bartosz Kuskowski | Top 8 (2022) |
| 40 |  | Portugal | Ruben Pereira, Eduardo Cunha | Top 16 (2024) |
| 41 |  | Puerto Rico | Alexavier Alvarez | Group Stage (2021, 2022, 2023) |
| 42 |  | Qatar | Hussam Nasrallah | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 43 |  | San Marino | Alessio Masi | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 44 |  | Singapore | Melvin Keh, Avester Lau, Brian Soh | Top 8 (2021) |
| 45 |  | South Africa | Nico Beets | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 46 |  | South Korea | Sanghyeon Na, Wonseok Jang | Semifinalists (2021) |
| 47 |  | ★ Spain | Guillermo Castilla, Juan Manuel Odriozola | Champions (2021) |
| 48 |  | Sweden | Pontus Westerlund, Cris Eklund | Group Stage (2022) |
| 49 |  | Switzerland | Damo Lokmic, Yanick Ochsner | Top 8 (2021) |
| 50 |  | Taiwan | Tsai Chien-Chien, Huang Yang-Jie | Top 8 (2023) |
| 51 |  | ★ Thailand | Narawitch Naenna, Gunn K. Sathorn, Panyawut Noijan | Champions (2022) |
| 52 |  | Türkiye | Fatih Yörük, Ozan Kaplan | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 53 |  | Ukraine | Maksim Lieder | Eliminated in Qualifiers |
| 54 |  | ★ United Kingdom | Jamie Kean, Ben Kyriakou, Scott Westwood | Champions (2023) |
| 55 |  | United States | Jeremy Odena, Joseph Ugarte, Samuel Temple | Top 8 (2021, 2022) |
| 56 |  | Uruguay | Gonzalo Sintas | Group Stage (2022) |
| 57 |  | Venezuela | Luis Roquet, Joshua Farrera | Group Stage (2024) |
| 58 |  | Vietnam | Long Nguyễn, Dương Trần, M. Khoa Nguyễn | Group Stage (2021, 2022) |
