| Event | Victory Road August Challenge (2025) |
|---|---|
| Location | Online |
| Date | 30–31 August 2025 |
| Attendance | 356 players |
| Videogame | Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet |
| Season | 2026 Season – VGC Regulation Set H |
| Format | 8 Day 1 Swiss rounds + 3 Day 2 Swiss rounds + asymmetrical top cut Open team lists |
| Organizer | Victory Road |
Table of Contents
Teams and results
Top cut
| # | Swiss | Flag | Player | Prize | Team | List | Exp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9-2 |  | Shohei Kimura (ナンス) | VRtSF Ph2 $1,210 |       |  | |
| 2 | 9-2 |  | Audric David (DricsVG) | $605 |      | | |
| 3 | 9-2 |  | Joseph Ugarte (JoeUX9) | $300 |      | | |
| 4 | 9-2 |  | David Carrasco (Kevid) | $300 |   | | |
| 5 | 10-1 | | Shunsuke Minami (Érizabeth) | $150 |    | | |
| 6 | 10-1 |  | Marcus Koh (Calculus) | $150 |    | | |
| 7 | 9-2 | | Roi Gómez (RoiRehh) | $150 | | | |
| 8 | 9-2 |  | Jonas Nienhüser (Vio Phoenix) | $150 |   | | |
| 9 | 9-2 |  | Amin Lehna (Aminko) | – |   | | |
| 10 | 9-2 | | Louis Markl (Louis) | – |  | | |
| 11 | 9-2 |  | Daniele Seghizzi (Usagi) | – |  | | |
| 12 | 9-2 |  | Raphael Bagara (Raphael) | – | | |
Day 2 Swiss rounds
| # | Swiss | Flag | Player | Prize | Team | List | Exp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 8-3 |  | Li Yu-Chi (東雲青空) | – |    | | |
| 14 | 8-3 | | Michael Kelsch (Michi) | – |  | | |
| 15 | 8-3 |  | Lucas Mester-Christensen (Lucas) | – |  | | |
| 16 | 8-3 | | Jeff Lehmann (Jeff) | – | | | |
| 17 | 8-3 | | Kevin Han (gyarados) | – |  | | |
| 18 | 8-3 | | Thaison Hughes (charismaa) | – | | | |
| 19 | 8-3 | | Shuji Endo (えげ) | – |  | | |
| 20 | 8-3 |  | Raj Desai (Raj) | – |  | | |
| 21 | 8-3 | | Alex DellaPasqua (Castelluccio) | – |    | | |
| 22 | 8-3 | | Rishi Gupta (MrRishi) | – | | | |
| 23 | 8-3 | | Masahiro Ito (がはく) | – |   | | |
| 24 | 8-3 | | Jackson Manning (Jack) | – | | | |
| 25 | 8-3 |  | Sahil Shaikh (Shadewalker) | – | | | |
| 26 | 8-3 | | Stefano Greppi (Ste) | – | | | |
| 27 | 8-3 | | Joan Garcia (Dozo Fisure) | – | | | |
| 28 | 7-4 | | Davide Carrer (Nirinbo) | – |   | | |
| 29 | 7-4 | | Javier Lledó (Lledó) | – | | | |
| 30 | 7-4 |  | Jeonghwan Jeon (흑베에) | – |  | | |
| 31 | 7-4 | | Gaku Sato (ががが) | – | | | |
| 32 | 7-4 | | Matteo Moscardini (Bartolomao) | – |  | | |
| 33 | 7-4 | | Jiang Jin-Hao (PP) | – |    | | |
| 34 | 7-4 |  | Brandon Perry (Itachi) | – |  | | |
| 35 | 7-4 | | Martín Pena (Nani) | – | | | |
| 36 | 7-4 | | Caden Croft (caden) | – |  | | |
| 37 | 7-4 | | Giovanni Piscitelli (Genius) | – |   | | |
| 38 | 7-4 | | Esa Ishaque (TheSheeshMan) | – | | | |
| 39 | 6-5 | | Giuseppe Pugliese (puggiu) | – |  | | |
| 40 | 6-5 | | Dídac Peinado (JamonCocido) | – | | | |
| 41 | 7-3 |  | Zhang Zhe (天难忱斯) | – |  | | |
| 42 | 7-3 | | Eslliey Tan (Tan) | – | | | |
| 43 | 7-3 | | Keisuke Sunaoshi (けいすけ(Keisuke)) | – |  | | |
| 44 | 6-3 | | Christopher Han (Darts) | – | | | |
| 45 | 6-3 | | Richard Mogollon (ChefRich!) | – | | | |
| 46 | 6-3 |  | David Barker (Muphry) | – | | | |
| 47 | 6-3 | | Ibrahim Maarouf (Alice) | – | | | |
| 48 | 6-3 | | Arash Ommati (Alstroemeria) | – | | | |
| 49 | 6-3 | | Théotime Massaut (Didi) | – | | |
Usage stats
| # | Pokémon | D1 | D2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | 43.9% (156) | 39% (19) |
| 2 | | 43.1% (153) | 53% (26) |
| 3 | | 41.1% (146) | 47% (23) |
| 4 | | 40.6% (144) | 39% (19) |
| 5 | | 31.3% (111) | 35% (17) |
| 6 | | 23.7% (84) | 27% (13) |
| 7 | | 23.7% (84) | 22% (11) |
| 8 | | 23.4% (83) | 27% (13) |
| 9 | | 21.1% (75) | 16% (8) |
| 10 | | 20.3% (72) | 16% (8) |
| # | Pokémon | D1 | D2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | | 18.6% (66) | 14% (7) |
| 12 | | 15.2% (54) | 14% (7) |
| 13 | | 14.6% (52) | 16% (8) |
| 14 | | 14.4% (51) | 16% (8) |
| 15 | | 14.4% (51) | 10% (5) |
| 16 | | 13.5% (48) | 14% (7) |
| 17 | | 12.7% (45) | 6% (3) |
| 18 | | 11.8% (42) | 8% (4) |
| 19 | | 11.5% (41) | 10% (5) |
| 20 | | 10.7% (38) | 10% (5) |
| # | Pokémon | D1 | D2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | | 9.9% (35) | 8% (4) |
| 22 | | 8.2% (29) | 12% (6) |
| 23 | | 7.9% (28) | 10% (5) |
| 24 | | 7.6% (27) | 14% (7) |
| 25 |  | 7.0% (25) | 6% (3) |
| 26 | | 6.8% (24) | 4% (2) |
| 27 | | 6.2% (22) | 4% (2) |
| 28 | | 5.6% (20) | 10% (5) |
| 29 | | 5.4% (19) | 4% (2) |
| 30 | | 5.4% (19) | 2% (1) |
Streaming
Unfortunately there is no stream by Victory Road for this event. In any case, players that stream their runs are promoted by Victory Road during the tournament.
Platform and schedule
The tournament is held online through Battlefy. All communication between the players must be done through the Battlefy chat enabled in each round.
Official communication from the organizer staff is performed through Discord, in the Victory Road Discord server.
The tournament will use the modified structure of 2-day Swiss rounds (including an extra Swiss in Day 2) + asymmetrical top cut that will be in place for all major events in the 2026 season.
The schedule of the tournament is as follows:
- 30 August at 13:00 UTC:
- Day 1 Swiss rounds. All signed up players can play all these rounds. Those with 2 or fewer losses (X-2) at the end of this stage advance to Day 2, and all others are dropped from the tournament.
- 31 August at 13:00 UTC:
- Day 2 Swiss rounds: The qualified players continue playing Swiss rounds. At the end of this stage, the top 8 competitors and all others with an equal record as 8th place will advance to the next stage. The limit of 16 players in top cut present in the official tournaments will not be enforced here.
- Top cut: the players in top cut will continue playing right after the end of the Day 2 Swiss rounds, with a bye to the highest-ranked players if the number results in an asymmetrical top cut.
Prizes
This event is a grassroots tournament and is not a part of any official circuit. This means that it does not reward any Championship Points (CPs).
The best-placed players receive the following prizes:
| Placement | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | ~40% of the prizepool |
| Runner-up | ~20% of the prizepool |
| Semifinalists | ~10% of the prizepool |
| 5th to 8th | ~5% of the prizepool |
Overview
The Victory Road August Challenge is an online event hosted by Victory Road, with the purpose of serving as practice for the upcoming live tournaments, with a special focus on the start of the 2026 season.
It is played with VGC Regulation Set H, using open team lists. This ruleset was last used for a VR tournament in September 2024!
All detailed tournament procedures, including rules and penalties, can be found here.
A little bit of history
Victory Road has been consistently holding online grassroots tournaments for years, including standalone events, online invitationals featuring qualifier events, and the yearly biggest online team competition in the World Cup of Pokémon VGC. Victory Road has also provided streams to several official Regional Championships in Europe since 2019.
Our most recent tournament was the Victory Road to Anaheim – The Final Stretch, played with the VGC Regulation Set I earlier on the same month. The finals saw 2023 Perth Regional Champion Taran Birdee defeat eventual 2025 World Champion Giovanni Cischke to win $1,130 and his first VR tournament!
This is a returning ruleset! Our previous Regulation Set H tournament was the VR September Challenge #2, played in September 2024. The finals saw 2021 Players Cup III quarterfinalist Francesco Pio Pero defeat 2023 Senior EUIC Champion Mattia Cognetta to win $520 and his second VR tournament!
Sign-up instructions
Sign-ups for the event are done through Battlefy platform. Sign-ups are $10 (+ $1 Battlefy tax) and open upon announcement of the event. 85% of the total entry fee money is directed towards the prizes ($8.5 per player), and 15% is used to compensate the staff members, tournament organizers and judges ($1.5 per player).
All players need to provide a team list in Pokémon Showdown export format (shared in a link such as PokéPaste, PokéBin or other similar text-share sites) with all open team list data about the team’s Pokémon (including form, Tera Type, ability, held item and moves).
Additionally, all players need to provide another closed team list (only for TOs) with all previous information and either stat values or minted Nature + IVs + EVs. This list may be password-protected.
Please ask any staff member if you need help registering the team lists!
Sign-ups close 15 min before the event starts. Players that do not show up and get their third loss are dropped from the tournament.
