The Pokémon Company has shared lots of information on the future of the Pokémon Video Game Championships (or VGCs). From 4th January 2020, tournaments will officially shift to Pokémon Sword and Shield.
As you might expect, competitive players will need to adapt their current strategies as they begin to compete with the new games. A list of rules has been shared today:
Tournaments in the 2020 Video Game Championships will include the following rules:
- All battles will be Double Battles played in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield.
- Each player will need their own Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch Lite and a physical or digital version of Pokémon Sword or Pokémon Shield to compete.
- Pokémon will need to have the Galar symbol, showing they were caught in the Galar region.
- All Pokémon from the Galar Regional Pokédex will be permitted except for Mythical Pokémon and certain Legendary Pokémon.
- All Pokémon will be set to Lv. 50, including Pokémon below Lv. 50.
- Duplicate Pokémon will not be allowed.
- Duplicate held items will not be allowed.
- Each battle will begin with a 90-second Team Preview phase.
- Players will have 7 minutes of Your Time, 45 seconds of Move Time, and (now returning to the VGC) 15 minutes of Game Time in each battle.
There are also extra rules in place for any Pokémon capable of Gigantamaxing. The list of species permitted to Gigantamax will expand every few months, based on events in which these Pokémon become more common within Sword and Shield. The rules are very clear in that Pokémon capable of Gigantamaxing are not legal until they are included in the Play! Pokémon VG Rules and Formats document (which will be regularly updated in relation to this new ruling).
As of 4th January 2020, the following are the only Pokémon with the Gigantamax Factor that are permitted to compete:
- Butterfree
- Corviknight
- Drednaw
- Centiskorch
- Meowth
- Pikachu
- Eevee
- Snorlax
- Sandaconda
- Charizard (only permitted with the Ability Blaze)
If you're interested in playing competitively, there's still plenty of time to earn your invitation to the 2020 Pokémon World Championships taking place in the UK next year. You'll find more info on the official site.
Do you play competitive Pokémon? Have you ever tried to make your way to a World Championships? Tell us below.
[source pokemon.com]
Comments 18
Missed opportunity to say the rules are evolving...
@gaga64 Did they evolve? I don't know what the rules normally are like.
I can't wait for all the professionals to be upset about these rules. Galar only means that Dexit also affects the competitive scene permanently. And based on these current rules, the only shake-up is going to be new Gigantamax. That is a huge difference then just having Pokemon from the current game and then allowing all Pokemon about a year later.
@Kalmaro me neither. But the headline/article assures me they’re changing, so the opportunity for a pun seems obvious.
NintendoLife used Splash
I originally bought the game specifically just to play VGC, but I hate Dynamax/Gigantamax so much that now I want nothing to do with it. Guess I'm done with competitive Pokemon until at least next Gen when they move onto their next silly gimmick (if the next one is at least tolerable). Mega Evolutions were fine, Z-Moves kinda sucked but I could deal with them but Dynamax just ruins it for me.
@Yorumi Thanks. I'm still curious to see how the exclusions of half the roster will affect balance.
What does only permitted with the move Blaze mean?
@Yorumi Nailed it. And the people saying "it's like a TCG restricting some cards to tournament legal," are ignoring the fact that without a game to play in, and with Home being a subscription service with one-way transfer from Bank (and thus older games), this is like the company putting all my legacy cards into a storage facility and then charging me a fee to LOOK at them, not even to play with them, just to look.
Good thing all the disgruntled fans who “didn’t buy the game” will have a new gripe to obsess over.
@Crockin What's there to gripe about? These are standard first-year-of-a-new-generation rules. Other than the Gigantamax ban they're the same as the first year of Kalos and Alola.
@LordGeovanni Professionals who know their history won't be upset. Since Gen 5 the first year of a generation has always been limited to regional Pokemon. Dexit would't come in until the second year, when traditionally the National Dex is allowed (minus Uber Legends - they're saved for the final year).
@NoxAeturnus And they claim that if your cards are in the storage facility they MIGHT become tournament legal again. But they won't tell you ahead of time if that's happened - you have to pay an entry fee for the tournament to find out.
@JugOfVoodoo
I am guessing that you missed the entire second half of my comment that specifically deals with the fact that the entire National dex is normally released after a full year? The fact that there is going to be no alterations to the available Pokemon, especially as there are no legendaries from previous gens in the galar dex, means that there's only ever going to be Gigantamax added and therefore a very dull changing scene.
@LordGeovanni I did see your whole post but I think I misunderstood you. I thought you were saying that pros would think Dexit was affecting the current rules but I think you meant that pros would look at how Dexit will affect future years. Sorry about that!
I'm willing to bet that GameFreak will release a new game next year with a different assortment of Pokemon and limit the competitive scene to it.
@JugOfVoodoo
I can understand some confusion. I've been looking across multiple years since Dex it was announced.
I seriously hope gamefreak does not have another game ready to go. Because the quality of this game was so lacking I really expect them to either buckle down and make a proper game or they're just going to implode as a company I feel.
@AlexanderDaniels
They mean that you cannot have the same item twice. For example, you cannot have two Pikachus in your team but you can have a Pikachu and a Raichu. In addition, you cannot have two life orbs, but you can have a life orb and a leftovers.
@Wilforce A different Charizard is also impossible to get (only one is able to Gigamax in the game), meaning a different Charizard would be hacked.
Hacked is not forbidden by the VCG, provided the Pokemons generated are not with non natural moves or stats.
@BenAV What do you dislike about dynamax/gigantamax specifically?
I'm just curious. For me it's an amazing mechanic because it provides some much needed bulk to many of my favorite sweepers, enabling strategies previously unthinkable due to the low chance of said sweeper(s) surviving setup or being threatened too hard by basic moves.
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