After huge success these past two 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 50 countries and territories being represented!
Table of Contents
Format
- Over 50 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. 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. The best 16 teams will advance.
- Play-offs, where the remaining teams battle it out for the championship in a single-elimination bracket. All weeks will be played 7v7 individual matches.
- All matches played in VGC Regulation Set H.
- All matches will be played on the Nintendo Switch. 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 1 October. Please notice that dates are provisional, and they may be subject to change as per the interests of the competition.
Qualifiers: 1 to 21 October 2024
- Draft: TBC, live streamed on Twitch
- Week 1: 1-7 October
- Week 2: 8-14 October
- Week 3: 15-21 October
Group Stage: 22 October to 11 November 2024 (32 qualified teams)
- Draft: 22 October, live streamed on Twitch
- Week 4: 22-28 October
- Week 5: 29 October-4 November
- Week 6: 5-11 November
Play-offs: 12 November to 10 December 2024 (16 qualified teams)
- The tournament will account for LAIC and this round will last 2 weeks.
- Top 16 round: 12-25 November
- Quarterfinals: 26 November-2 December
- Semifinals: 3-8 December
- Finals: 9-15 December
* Dates are provisional and may change in the future.
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 2023 World Cup to 2024 World Cup). This means that players who want to leave their previous team shall wait until the following event (in this case, a potential 2025 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 2023 World Cup will be automatically qualified for the Group Stage, thus skipping qualifiers. The teams affected by this are Argentina, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.
- 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 2024 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 2024 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: 23 September 2024
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.
If you don’t see your region here, sign up anyway! New teams are welcome to enter the competition, and some are found at the end of this post!
Europe & Africa
| # | Flag | Country/Region | Manager | Co-managers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Austria | Shonali Kenn (Shonatron) | Gero Meyer (Jeremiah) |
| 2 |  | Belgium | Simon Van der Borght (Shmon) | Nick Theunis (Niqeth) |
| 3 |  | Denmark | Benjamin Jochimsen (Benno) | Kasper Wissendorf (Blox) |
| 4 |  | Egypt | Karim Awad (Coldflame) | Ahmed Abdel-Moneim (Beb3em), Dina Plasencia (Dina) |
| 5 |  | France | Anthony Liuzzo (Glum) | Hippolyte Bernard (Redsilver) |
| 6 |  | Germany | Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37) | Maurice Uteg (Camikasa), Michael Kelsch (MichaelderBeste) |
| 7 |  | Greece | Kosta Daidimos (PokeKosta) | Lazaros Lazaropoulos (Laz), Paschalis Dermentzis (PasDer) |
| 8 |  | Ireland | Mattie Morgan (MattieMoo) | Brian Collins (Angelohunter), Shane Whelan (Shane) |
| 9 |  | Italy | Federico Camporesi (FedeCampo) | Matteo Ballini (Mava) |
| 10 |  | Luxembourg | Corentin Schepens (Dworlax) | Nikola Zirdum (NFJontra) |
| 11 |  | Morocco | Amin Lehna (Aminko) | Omar Sbayou (Onaika), Sliman Ziyech (Slisli) |
| 12 |  | Netherlands | Bas van der Heijden (Baars) | Lennard M. (Dura) |
| 13 |  | Norway | Brede Stavø (Bred) | Ola Petersen Nordby (NostalgiaIsGreat) |
| 14 |  | Poland | Bartosz Ekiert (Naociak) | |
| 15 |  | Portugal | Ruben Pereira (Puddles) | Eduardo Cunha (Edu) |
| 16 |  | San Marino | Pending confirmation | |
| 17 |  | Spain | Guillermo Castilla (KastyTP) | Raúl Campoy (Rayko) |
| 18 |  | Sweden | Pontus Westerlund (Pontus) | David Degerman (Particular) |
| 19 |  | Switzerland | Damo Lokmic (Damo) | Samuele Santelli (Zayon) |
| 20 |  | Türkiye | Fatih Yörük (Conqad) | Ozan Kaplan (Tigerozi11) |
| 21 |  | United Kingdom | Jamie Kean (Kean) | Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou), Scott Westwood (Scottyw01) |
The Americas
| # | Flag | Country/Region | Manager | Co-managers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 |  | Argentina | Juan Salerno (Juanfi) | Julián Martínez (Simius Black) |
| 23 |  | Barbados | Caniggia Willett (Koujex) | Pending confirmation |
| 24 |  | Belize | Pending confirmation | |
| 25 |  | Bolivia | Sergio Argandoña (SergZX) | Giovanni Araníbar (Libiak) |
| 26 |  | Brazil | Hugo Nascimento (Discord: labacedo) | Rogério Catel (Discord: guithu) |
| 27 |  | Canada | Jean-Marc Hébert (JeanMarc) | Sapphire Lai (Eeveon7), Ryan Loseto (SableyeVGC) |
| 28 |  | Chile | Javier Nain (Jvvieree) | |
| 29 |  | Colombia | Cristian André Rodríguez (Rukairo) | David Dávila (Cormyrean) |
| 30 |  | Costa Rica | David Rodríguez (Davidness) | Reynord González (Rey Gaming) |
| 31 |  | Dominican Republic | Juan Moisés Pérez (Rickinch) | Luis Franjul (Luifra) |
| 32 |  | Ecuador | Yamid Rodríguez (DrVGC) | Pierre Castro (Peters) |
| 33 |  | El Salvador | Geovanni Polanco (Green) | |
| 34 |  | Honduras | Andrés Centeno (Discord: andr3dwarhn) | Pending confirmation |
| 35 |  | Jamaica | Kevonne Boreland (KD) | Abdul Barrie (Slim) |
| 36 |  | Mexico | Christian Ramírez (Ewokpadawan) | Arath Vera (Arath) |
| 37 |  | Nicaragua | Rommel Maltez (Guarda) | Pending confirmation |
| 38 |  | Panama | Alberto Ríos (7illo) | Felipe Molino (Nator92) |
| 39 |  | Peru | Sebastián Bisbal (Brutus) | Sebastián Solari (Gato-T) |
| 40 |  | Puerto Rico | Alexavier Álvarez (Arekusabi) | Kenneth Tirado (Kenepa) |
| 41 |  | United States | Jeremy Odena (Jerm) | Justin Burns (Spurrific), Joseph Ugarte (JoeUX9) |
| 42 |  | Uruguay | Gonzalo Sintas (Gonzs) | Agustín Marinucci (Mari) |
| 43 |  | Venezuela | Luis Roquet (ApaRocks) | Joshua Farrera (LordChochua) |
Asia & Oceania
| # | Flag | Country/Region | Manager | Co-managers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 |  | Australia | Kiran Singh (Mevlad) | |
| 45 |  | China | Peng Chongjun (Chongjun) | Xu Yihui (Yihui), Zhou Xinjie (Setsuku) |
| 46 |  | Hong Kong | Or Kei Yin (Cyrus) | Leung Pak Hei (Esmond) |
| 47 |  | India | Abhay Iyer (Abhayfive) | Nishant Joshi (Giga) |
| 48 |  | Indonesia | Guntur Prabowo (Osada) | M. Hafidz Syahril (MHS) |
| 49 |  | Israel | Dov Joseph Aloof (Avaddov) | Aminadav Grant (Amin), Enosh Shachar (Human) |
| 50 |  | Japan | Yuki Zaninovich (Yukizan) | Yuki Kono (Forte) |
| 51 |  | Malaysia | Azri Firman (MrTsukkomi) | Ismat Myron (Ismat) |
| 52 |  | New Zealand | Axl Laher (Axl) | Guilherme Schilling (Guilherme) |
| 53 |  | Pakistan | Daanish Syed (7SidedDice) | Husnul Khan (2QuidV), Ahmed Aamad |
| 54 |  | Philippines | Enrico Comentan (AlphaTorónado) | Ryan Pareja (Choco.Pau), Arbin Tumaneng (Cypher) |
| 55 |  | Singapore | Melvin Keh (Shaman) | |
| 56 |  | South Korea | Sanghyeon Na (Nash) | Pending confirmation |
| 57 |  | Taiwan | Tsai Chien-chien (ChienX2) | Huang Yang-jie (KKCWind) |
| 58 |  | Thailand | Narawitch Naenna (MyStars) | Gunn K. Sathorn (Maletix) |
| 59 |  | Vietnam | Long Nguyễn (Sportaholic) |
Potential new and returning teams!
These are the teams that are looking forward to joining the World Cup after missing out the previous edition!
| # | Flag | Country/Region | Contact | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TBD |  | Algeria | Adam Benzoubir (Ace.bnz) | Recruiting players! |
| TBD |  | Finland | Oliver Eskolin (Owe), Mikael Viljanen (Maikkeli) | Recruiting players! |
| TBD |  | Malta | Naim Spiteri (NerfGanon) | Recruiting players! |
| TBD |  | Paraguay | Martín Riquelme (Martinique) | Recruiting players! |
| TBD |  | Qatar | Hussam Nasrallah (Safena) | Recruiting players! |
| TBD |  | South Africa | Nico Beets (Groenkobra) | Recruiting players! |
| TBD |  | Ukraine | Maksim Lieder (Cactusmax) | Recruiting players! |
| TBD | Your team may be next! Don’t hesitate and sign up! | |||
