| Event | Victory Road September Challenge |
|---|---|
| Location | Online |
| Date | 2–3 September 2023 |
| Attendance | 323 players |
| Videogame | Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet |
| Season | 2024 Season – VGC Regulation Set D |
| Format | 9 Swiss rounds + X-2 top cut single elimination Open team lists |
| Organizer | Victory Road |
Table of Contents
Teams and results
Top cut
| # | Swiss | Flag | Player | Prize | Team | List | Exp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7-2 |  | Tomoyuki Yoshimura (SNOW) | $1100 |       |  |  |
| 2 | 8-1 | | Kazuki Ogushi (ミオリア) | $550 |    |  | |
| 3 | 8-1 |  | Elías León (Elías) | $275 |    | | |
| 4 | 7-2 |  | Oliver Eskolin (Owe) | $275 | | | |
| 5 | 8-1 |  | Bartosz Kuskowski (Bartek) | $137 |  |  | |
| 6 | 8-1 |  | Jude Lee (OZASHI1) | $137 |    | | |
| 7 | 7-2 |  | Mattia Cognetta (Magic_Rana) | $137 |  | | |
| 8 | 7-2 | | Raúl Campoy (Rayko) | $137 | | | |
| 9 | 7-2 | | Francesco Iozzia (Young Nova) | – |   | | |
| 10 | 7-2 | | Christian De Nicolo (Dot1Q) | – |    | | |
| 11 | 7-2 |  | Sudoz Zen (sudoz) | – |  | | |
| 12 | 7-2 | | Víctor Medina (Torviv) | – | | | |
| 13 | 7-2 |  | Narawitch Naenna (MyStars) | – |  | | |
| 14 | 7-2 | | Junxi Zhu (zgr) | – | | | |
| 15 | 7-2 | | Gabriele K. Lopez (Gab) | – | | | |
| 16 | 7-2 |  | Daniel Daertni (Coconut) | – |   | | |
| 17 | 8-1 |  | Rayan Guezi (Rayan) | – |  | | |
| 18 | 8-1 | | Hector Fley (Hectorious) | – | | | |
| 19 | 7-2 | | Adrián Ortega (adrigame) | – |   | | |
| 20 | 7-2 | | Alessandro Finotto (VE) | – | | | |
| 21 | 7-2 |  | Taran Birdee (AuraRayquaza) | – | | | |
| 22 | 7-2 |  | Brian Collins (Angelo) | – |     | | |
| 23 | 7-2 | | Francesco Raga (Lil Darkrider) | – | | | |
| 24 | 7-2 | | Gonzalo Estrada (GonesTR) | – |    | | |
| 25 | 7-2 | | Gaetano Di Trapani (gae) | – | | | |
| 26 | 7-2 |  | Tano Rosenkranz (Tano) | – | | | |
| 27 | 7-2 | | Albert Bañeres (Deku) | – | | | |
| 28 | 7-2 |  | Ioannis Berikakis (Romeru) | – | | | |
| 29 | 7-2 | | Anthony-Christopher Manolache (Astora) | – | | | |
| 30 | 7-2 |  | Alex Donaldson (alex) | – |  | |
Seeding
The bracket is seeded according to the Swiss rounds results:
Usage stats
| # | Pokémon | D1 Usage | D2 Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | 65.2% (210) | 67% (20) |
| 2 | | 53.1% (171) | 47% (14) |
| 3 |  | 46.0% (148) | 60% (18) |
| 4 | | 40.4% (130) | 40% (12) |
| 5 | | 38.5% (124) | 50% (15) |
| 6 | | 34.8% (112) | 53% (16) |
| 7 | | 33.5% (108) | 50% (15) |
| 8 | | 24.8% (80) | 27% (8) |
| 9 | | 23.6% (76) | 23% (7) |
| 10 | | 21.4% (69) | 23% (7) |
| 11 | | 18.9% (61) | 27% (8) |
| 12 |  | 15.5% (50) | 10% (3) |
| 13 | | 14.3% (46) | 10% (3) |
| 14 | | 14.3% (46) | 7% (2) |
| 15 |  | 12.4% (40) | 0% (0) |
| # | Pokémon | D1 Usage | D2 Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | | 10.2% (33) | 7% (2) |
| 17 | | 7.8% (25) | 3% (1) |
| 18 | | 6.5% (21) | 7% (2) |
| 19 | | 5.9% (19) | 7% (2) |
| 20 | | 5.3% (17) | 3% (1) |
| 21 |  | 5.0% (16) | 0% (0) |
| 22 |  (all) | 4.7% (15) | 1% (1) |
| 23 | | 4.7% (15) | 1% (1) |
| 24 |  | 4.3% (14) | 0% (0) |
| 25 | | 4.0% (13) | 3% (1) |
| 26 |  | 4.0% (13) | 0% (0) |
| 27 |  | 3.7% (12) | 7% (2) |
| 28 | | 3.7% (12) | 3% (1) |
| 29 | | 3.4% (11) | 7% (2) |
| 30 | | 3.4% (11) | 7% (2) |
The number of Day 2 players divided by Day 1 players was 9.3%, which can be used as reference for the conversion rate (i.e. the Day 2 / Day 1 appearance ratio).
Good performances:
- The highest conversion rate amongst the 10 most used Pokémon was Incarnate Tornadus (14%).
- The highest conversion rates amongst the 30 most used Pokémon were Female Indeedee (18%), Armarouge (18%) and Gastrodon (17%).
Bad performances:
- The lowest conversion rate amongst the 10 most used Pokémon was Iron Hands (8%).
- 4 out of the 30 most used Pokémon did not make a single appearance in Day 2. The most notorious were Cresselia, Iron Bundle and Male Basculegion.
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 starts on 2 September 2023 at 13:00 UTC with the Swiss rounds. The top cut, to which all players with 2 or fewer losses (X-2) advance, is played on 3 September at the same time.
Prizes
This event is a grassroots tournament and is not a part of any 2024 official circuit. This means that it does not reward any Championship Points (CPs).
The best-placed players receive the following prizes depending on attendance. Final prizepool is confirmed upon closure of registrations:
| Placement | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | $1100 |
| Runner-up | $550 |
| Semifinalists | $275 each |
| 5th to 8th | $137 each |
Take a look at the approximate prizes depending on final attendance. 
| Placement | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | Around 30~35% of the prizepool |
| Runner-up | Around 15~20% of the prizepool |
| Semifinalists | Around 8~10% of the prizepool |
| 5th to 8th | Around 4~5% of the prizepool |
| Placement | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | Around 30~35% of the prizepool |
| Runner-up | Around 15~20% of the prizepool |
| Semifinalists | Around 8~10% of the prizepool |
| 5th to 8th | Around 4~5% of the prizepool |
| 9th to 16th | Around 0.5~1% of the prizepool |
| Placement | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | Around 30~35% of the prizepool |
| Runner-up | Around 15~20% of the prizepool |
| Semifinalists | Around 8~10% of the prizepool |
| 5th to 8th | Around 4~5% of the prizepool |
| 9th to 16th | Around 0.5~1% of the prizepool |
| 17th to 32nd | Around 0.5% of the prizepool |
| Placement | Prize money |
|---|---|
| Winner | Around 30~35% of the prizepool |
| Runner-up | Around 15~20% of the prizepool |
| Semifinalists | Around 8~10% of the prizepool |
| 5th to 8th | Around 4~5% of the prizepool |
| 9th to 16th | Around 0.5~1% of the prizepool |
| 17th to 32nd | Around 0.5% of the prizepool |
| 33rd to 64th | Around 0.2% of the prizepool |
Streaming
Unfortunately, there is no stream for this tournament due to team constraints. Players that stream their run are promoted by Victory Road during the tournament.
Overview
The Victory Road September Challenge is an online event hosted by Victory Road, with the purpose of serving as practice for the upcoming live tournaments.
The ruleset is VGC Regulation Set D, with open team lists.
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 Yokohama, played with the VGC Regulation Set D in July 2023. The finals saw Brazilian Thiago Lattanzi defeat 2019 Senior World Champion Ko Tsukide to win a VR tournament for the second time this season, after an earlier victory in February!
Sign-up instructions
Sign-ups for the event are done through Battlefy platform. Sign-ups are $10 (+ $1 Battlefy tax) and open on 28 August. 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, judges and casters ($1.5 per player).
All players need to provide a team list in PokéPaste format 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 for the first three rounds are dropped from the tournament before round 4.
