Following the latest events we hosted such as VR Tundra Challenge, we’re back to welcome the new VGC 2021 Series 8 ruleset, featuring a lot of new Pokémon and strategies to try out with our lovely restricted legendary Pokémon.
Victory Road Circuit aims to gather the best Pokémon VGC players from all over the world during 5 weeks of qualifying tournaments. All players will be able to earn VR points, which will be needed to get one of the 16 invites to the Grand Finals.
Structure
The Circuit will begin on its official start date (February 8th, 2021), kicking off with the first qualifier sign-ups. From that day onwards and for the next 5 subsequent weeks, each of the 5 qualifiers will take place on the weekend. The Grand Finals event will be hosted in April (date to be determined).
| Dates | Event |
|---|---|
| Feb 13-14 | Qualifier #1 |
| Feb 20-21 | Qualifier #2 |
| Feb 27-28 | Qualifier #3 |
| Mar 6-7 | Qualifier #4 |
| Mar 13-14 | Qualifier #5 |
| April – TBD | Grand Finals |
The events will follow these regulations:
- Format: battles will be played using the VGC 2020 Series 8 regulations
- Players can bring their own team of 6 Pokémon OR use a Rental Team.
- In both cases, you are required to fill the info about your team on this form.
- It is strictly forbidden to change a single move or item on your team during the tournament, as is training your Pokémon to have different stats once you’ve locked in your team.
- Event structure: Best-of-3 Swiss rounds on Saturday + Single-elimination Best-of-3 Top Cut bracket on Sunday.
- Each round is played within 60 minutes after pairings are posted and announced on Discord. There will be a grace period of 5 min for matches having technical issues out of any of the players’ control. Full breakdown on the rules for this is on the Procedures & Penalties section below.
- Up to 64 players: Swiss rounds on Saturday + Top 8 Cut on Sunday.
- Over 65 players: Swiss rounds on Saturday + X-2 Cut (all players with 2 or fewer losses advance) on Sunday.
- Platforms: all players are REQUIRED to be…
- Registered on Battlefy and signed up for the tournament.
- Present at all times during their participation on Victory Road’s Discord server.
- Procedures:
- Players will contact with each other through Battlefy, where pairings will be randomly generated for each round and standings can be followed by anyone.
- The Discord server will be used for staff announcements & feedback from the players, but NOT to set up your matches.
- All games will be played on Pokémon Sword or Pokémon Shield for the Nintendo Switch family of consoles. Make sure you have a Nintendo Online subscription before the tournament starts.
Qualifying method
All players will be able to participate in all qualifying events if they choose to. However, only their 2 best results in all 5 tournaments will count towards the Grand Finals qualification. This means that the points from the 2 best results will be grouped for the Circuit ranking.
The sixteen (16) players with the most accumulated points at the end of the qualifying phase (when all the 5 events are done) will earn an invite to the Grand Finals event; which will be hosted online. In the situation where one or more of the qualified players are not able to participate, their invitation will be moved to the next players on the list, in descending order (for example, if one of them can not participate, the 17th player in the ranking will be invited).
Prizes
Qualifier prizes
The players will earn VR points in each qualifying event according to the following point distribution for the players with a record of X-2 or better:
| Result | VR points | Player kicker |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 400 VR points | – |
| 2nd | 300 VR points | – |
| 3rd-4th | 200 VR points | – |
| 5th-8th | 150 VR points | – |
| 9th-16th | 80 VR points | +64 players |
| 17th-32nd | 40 VR points | +128 players |
| 33rd-64th | 20 VR points | +256 players |
The number of points given by each tournament depends on the number of participants (kicker). This means that the more players there are in each tournament, the more points will be distributed overall.
Grand Final prizes
The best players in the Grand Finals will earn money prizes based on the total participation in the qualifying events. Based on the following proportional examples:
| Result | 750 total participations | 1000 total participations |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | +$1200 | +$1600 |
| 2nd | +$700 | +$900 |
| 3rd-4th | +$350 | +$450 |
| 5th-8th | +$130 | +$180 |
| 9th-16th | +$30 | +$45 |
Entry fee
The entry fee for this event is standardized for everyone at $6.50 USD (+$0.65 USD Battlefy platform fee). If you’re using a different currency, conversion rates could mean an extra charge. This will be paid directly when registering on Battlefy. No other methods will be allowed. Regardless of attendance, the 70% will be directed towards the grand finals prizepool. The other 30% to cover our staff, translators, website, streaming and other management instances on our end.
Refunds for this event will only be granted to users who are no longer registered at the time the registration has closed. Failure to check-in, participate in or being disqualified for a rules violation in any tournament will NOT be cause for a refund. Refunds are not automatic and will be done manually after the tournament brackets have been seeded and registration is final.
Please, reach out to the Victory Road staff on Twitter, Discord or by email (at management@victoryroadvgc.com) if you experience any issues registering on Battlefy.
Sign-up guide
In order to sign up for the VR Circuit qualifiers, please complete the following steps:
- Join the tournament’s Battlefy page and complete all steps regarding sign-ups. (link in the button at the end of the page)
- Join Victory Road’s Discord Server, which will be our main source of announcements during the event. All communication between players and players-TOs should be addressed through Battlefy.
- Check your Nintendo Online subscription and make sure to download the Battle Spot Series 8 ruleset.
- Fill the team sheet form. You can do this anytime before the tournament. If you change your mind after sending a team, just fill the form again — only your last submission will count.
Reach out to our staff over on Twitter, Discord or by email (management@victoryroadvgc.com) for any questions or issues.
