Players residing in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan or Thailand could participate in this tournament. It is the first official tournament for most of these countries since The Pokémon Company (TPC) took over the Asian competitive play from The Pokémon Company International (TPCI). ESL Asia was in charge of managing the tournament.

The qualifiers had a three-stage structure for each participating region. First, 5 to 7 Swiss best-of-three rounds were played on Weekend 1 (28–29 August); then, top 16 players would then advance to 4 fresh new Swiss best-of-three rounds on Weekend 2 (4–5 September); finally, the top 8 players would face each other in a single-elimination bracket on that same weekend to try to earn the spots which qualified them for the Grand Finale: one slot for each region, plus an additional slot for the two regions with the checked-in players:

• Top 2 players from the Taiwan Qualifier
• Top 2 players from the Thailand Qualifier
• Winner of the Hong Kong Qualifier
• Winner of the Philippines Qualifier
• Winner of the Malaysia Qualifier
• Winner of the Singapore Qualifier

These eight qualified players competed in the Pokémon Asia Players Cup Grand Finale, a single-elimination tournament with open teamsheets, in best-of-three matches to crown the Pokémon Asia Players Cup champion.

All the qualified players will receive Day 1 invites for the 2022 World Championships, with the winner receiving a Day 2 invite and a travel award. The two finalist players will also receive an invite to the Pokémon Global Exhibition event that will be held in October.