2015 VGC Championship Point Breakdown and Season Outline Announced
Today on Pokemon.com both the season outline and the breakdown of Championship Points awarded at events were announced. While we still don’t know exactly how players will be qualifying for the mysterious 2015 World Championships in location unknown, almost everything else about the 2015 North American European VGC circuits was revealed today.
Perhaps the most important change is the vast increase in scope and value of Premier Challenges. There is a FAQ about Premier Challenges on Pokemon.com.
The outline for the 2015 VGC season is as follows:
- September 2014: Premier Challenge Kickoff Series
- October 2014: Autumn Regional Championships (US only)
- November 2014–January 2015: Premier Challenge Alpha Series
- January 1, 2015: Format switches to Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
- February 2015: Winter Regional Championships (US only)
- March–May 2015: Premier Challenge Omega Series
- May 2015: Spring Regional Championships (US only)
- April–July 2015: National Championships
The Championship Point values for the 2015 season follow. The kicker, when applicable, is how many players need to be playing in the event for the CP at that level to be awarded.:
Online Competitions
Best Finish Limit: None
| Placement | CP |
| 1–2 | 12 |
| 3–4 | 10 |
| 5–8 | 8 |
| 9–16 | 6 |
| 17–32 | 4 |
| 33–64 | 3 |
| 65–128 | 2 |
| 129–256 | 1 |
Important Note: CP is now global for Wi-Fi events instead of being a separate pool for each region. Players still need a Player ID to count for Championship Points.
Premier Challenges
Best Finish Limit: 5
| Placement | CP | Kicker |
| 1 | 40 | 0 |
| 2 | 32 | 0 |
| 3–4 | 26 | 0 |
| 5–8 | 20 | 16 |
| 9–12 | 14 | 32 |
| 13–16 | 8 | 32 |
| 17–32 | 4 | 64 |
| 33–64 | 2 | 128 |
Regional Championships
Best Finish Limit: 3
| Placement | CP | Kicker |
| 1 | 120 | 0 |
| 2 | 100 | 0 |
| 3–4 | 80 | 0 |
| 5–8 | 60 | 0 |
| 9–16 | 40 | 0 |
| 17–32 | 30 | 64 |
| 33–64 | 20 | 128 |
| 65–128 | 10 | 256 |
National Championships
Best Finish Limit: 5
| Placement | CP | Kicker |
| 1 | 600 | 0 |
| 2 | 500 | 0 |
| 3–4 | 400 | 0 |
| 5–8 | 300 | 0 |
| 9–16 | 200 | 0 |
| 17–32 | 150 | 0 |
| 33–64 | 100 | 128 |
| 65–128 | 50 | 256 |
We now have a much less foggy view of the 2015 VGC circuit in North America and Europe. To say there is a much greater focus on more local tournaments this year would be an understatement, so find your local Premier Challenges and support your local events! Let us know in the comments what you think about the 2015 schedule so far!
About the Author
Scott started playing VGC in 2011. He finished 17th at US Nationals, then lost in the final round of 2011 Worlds LCQ. He finished 10th in the 2012 World Championships and qualified for Worlds again in 2013 after going into US Nationals second in CP. Instead of playing, he commentated at US Nationals and the World Championships in 2013 and 2014. Follow him on Twitter @NBNostrom!
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76 Responses to 2015 VGC Championship Point Breakdown and Season Outline Announced
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There’s a thing I really dislike about Premier Challenges: “Premier Challenges use the in-game timer: 90 seconds to preview your opponent’s team and choose your own Pokémon, 99 seconds to choose a move, 60 minutes for the entire game.”
This will create a lot of evasion shenanigans! Come on, TPCi, you’re giving out so many Championship Points in tournaments that can be won by Minimize Eviolite Chansey or Contrary Shuckle + Sableye + Crobat?
Maybe I’m just overreacting, but I hope they include Evasion Clause in VGC 2015.
You’d think they could just patch in an adjustment to the timer, but considering it will be ORAS standard in 2 months, maybe it has a better timer in place…
Not that I expect stalling tactics to be used, pray to hax and you might just get burned by it instead.
I’m looking forward to VGC 2015 – since Pokemon is expanding throughout the years, it’d be great to see people from new countries and compete and fight at Worlds, showing even more versatility. It’s great to see more international tournaments and it’s going to be an exciting ride!
Yep. I really do think that’s a strategy you should be able to take on in the Premier Challenge format given the time limit, though I doubt competent people will try it.
You’re overreacting. Also, they won’t.
What does it mean by kicker
Kicker means minimum attendance needed.
For example, at Premier Challenges in order to earn 20 CP for being in 5-8th, there needs to be a minimum attendance of 16. At Regionals, to earn 30 CP for being in 17-32nd place, the minimum attendance is 64.
Ah now I understand thanks
A little late on this front due to IRL things but I don’t like how heavily weighted these Premier Challenges are for the reasons that Gavin pointed out in detail. Yes, growing the game is important but does it really have to sacrifice part of the competitive integrity of the circuit by making the easiest tournaments in the circuit that much more weighted and favoring people who’re lucky to live in certain regions and those with more money?
I don’t think increasing the CP payout the way they did will actually influence how many people will show up to these events. If you talk to some of the players that go to VGC tournaments, you’ll find that many don’t actually care about how much CP is available. Or if they do care, they just don’t want it to be too low. Heck, most players are really in it just to play in a tournament and hang out with people, because they don’t expect to do well. That’s it. Increasing the CP value the way they did won’t have a significant impact in actually growing the game. Letting people know that tournaments actually exist is most of what actually grows the game.
There better be a CP bar of 400 this year, because I’m really worried that Top 4 at US Nationals won’t be enough to qualify for Worlds anymore. I know this gets brought up ever year, but I think that possibility looks much more likely this year. Last year, the Top 16 had a minimum of 308 CP. Considering how the payout at Nationals hasn’t altogether changed much (though the scaling has changed) and that regionals has actually decreased while Premier Challenge CP payouts have skyrocketed, the odds that Top 4 at Nationals isn’t enough to qualify for Worlds is looking much more likely. I haven’t actually run calcs to verify this, so I hope someone can prove me wrong.
I don’t mean to toot my own horn here, but the US National tournament structure is really tough. To get Top 4, you have to go through 9 rounds of Bo1 play on Day 1, 6 rounds of Bo3 play on Day 2, and then win 1 round of Top 8 Single Elimination Bo3. There’s no doubt at all that those who get Top 4 after getting through such a grueling tournament deserves a Worlds invite. I don’t like the idea of someone getting through all that and STILL missing out on a Worlds invite to someone who simply had the time and money to go to all the easy Premier Challenges and farm CP that way, and then follow it up with mediocre performances at regionals and Nationals. How is a player who does that deserving of a Worlds invite? I’m probably being a little biased here considering how Nats 2015 will be the first tournament and likely only tournament I can play next season, but this just doesn’t look right at all.
These changes are great, but unfortunately won’t do alot in countries where there are no VGC Leagues :/
The Netherlands should get a VGC nats this season.
Pending a few other variables including accessibility of PCs, the existence of a CP bar, and how the ORAS metagame looks (hint: if it looks like 2014), this is going to be either a great or terrible structure change. I don’t really see a middle ground, but I also can’t legitimately make a judgment until I know the other factors.
How the timer is used at Premier Challenges will be watched closely – we are working on rule adjustments at “untethered” tournaments (tournaments without TPCi employees present and special regulation units that lock battle boxes) since they will be operated and have different constrictions than what is possible at Regionals, Nationals, and Worlds. The short of it – if the timer becomes an issue and starts to draw out tournaments unnecessarily then we will work to address this issue.
The weight of Championship Points on Premier Challenges should signal the importance of the local events and the series. Please http://nuggetbridge.com/forums/topic/9198-2015-vgc-season-announcement-notes/ for other notes.
My recent move put me closer to regionals but further away from PCs just as PCs become the most important tournament xD
Huh. Well I have a league in So Cal. I guess I could try doing VGC tournaments.
Source? With how incredibly small our VGC community is and us not having any PC’s, Regionals, whatever up until now (if we actually do have those feel free to correct me) I find it hard to believe we’d suddenly get a Nationals…
Because we are getting VGC events in NL.
PC are 40 points for a win, not a surprise.
Honestly premier challenges are the equivalent of what battle roads were for tcg. Although they came just as often as premier challenges the point possibility was no where near this level. 3 CP wins and im a regional champ(technically).
It’s great that they expanded the vgc scene and in the future they should continue to do so, but these heavy weighted tournaments are awkward. It’s hard to be local in states like California and Texas as it seems almost everything isn’t walking distance.
Overall the new schedule for vgc is amazinb if we have a CP cutoff. However if it is like years past where there is a bloodbath for a top X, this is plain out idiotic. Without a cutoff it’s pretty much who has the most time and money will get an invite.
TL;DR
Expanding local scene is cool, give us a flipping cutoff already.
So, with all the PCs, there is not going to be state or city championships? I saw that TCG is still having them, so I just wanted to make sure I understood correctly.
There isn’t a single PC where I live or where I attend college. ._.
(Why do I play this again.)
this is really exciting. assuming there are at least a few PC’s within a reasonable distance combined with the 2 or so regionals that i expect to be in the area this is looking to be my most involved season yet. i do agree though that there is a bit too much weight on XY in the 2015 season.
Really disappointed that information is still unavailable on the Worlds location, the Worlds invite structure, and any travel-reimbursement prizes. Also disappointed that Premier Challenges are being continued despite the poor attendance and other issues that we experienced last year (we didn’t attend a single event that had more than 5 seniors, and in all the events we attended, seniors and juniors had to be paired with Masters).
I’m sure the expanded circuit is considered a great thing for many college students with available funds and for others who have the freedom to travel widely, but for a parent like me, the expanded circuit means devoting yet more money and more time to a competition that isn’t offering very good prizes for support. If it’s going to be another Hawaii year where only four North Americans get travel awards for each division, then that’s not a good thing. If, on the other hand, it’s going to be a year where Worlds is in France with North America getting as many paid trips and invites as Europeans have the last couple years, then that would be interesting. If there’s going to be a CP bar for Worlds qualification, that’d be nice to know too. Asking us to go “all in” with so many important details missing is not exactly fair, considering the devotion necessary for CP to matter.
Right now, there isn’t a Premier Challenge scheduled anywhere near Georgia, and the closest Fall Regionals to us are 700 miles away. The Premier Challenge situation might change, but it’s still patently unfair that vectors like distance to events, deep pockets, and flexibility of work schedule play such a large role in the game. Did I read the rules correctly that say the best finish limit for Nationals is 5? Will North American players start hitting a couple Nationals in Europe?
Well, I’m glad we have some information, but I question what the Powers-That-Be are thinking when it comes to families. Unless there’s a return to offering travel-award prizes for single events and Nationals invites for single events, the circuit is potentially stretching the patience of parents who don’t want to devote all their vacation time and money to Pokemon.
I’ve ran into people 1700+ people on the special doubles ladder in game doing this on a 30 minute timer. It’s definitely possible if these same players are comfortable with thier strategies at a live event with a 60 minute timer.
Just wanted to echo these concerns and explain why this is absolutely
I strongly disagree with Premier Challenges being weighted so much, 40 CP is nearly 3 times as much as it was before! In fact, where I live in the desert of Texas I still have to travel 3+ hours to CP events and I still don’t feel like it’s worth it. Another thing is players who are dedicated to the game still have to travel far for these, while locals can easily go in and play for CP and get it in places where only TOs who care about VGC can. But as others have address, Pokemon locally should be promoted through fun, not advertise events that give huge sums. Regionals don’t even feel relevant anymore, I don’t even feel like traveling out of the state for those anymore if I do well a PCs. What would really make this these new CP payouts more reasonable is variety. Putting Premier Challenges in every single urban area would actually make this system better, like if we could call TCG tournament organizers in cities like every single metropolitan area in the USA to coach them that would actually make this system better. Or, they could have made the regionals weigh more now that PCs weight more or not just blow up PC payouts. Time and money just to travel out to these events its painful for all of us, and people also have lives to go to. If this is going to be expanded, I really hope the Pokemon Company gives tournament organizers more freedom to do things, and that means more events in areas that really deserve VGC.
Man I don’t know what everyone’s problem is, German boards are currently in the process of evaluating areas where people would travel to for PCs and try to get in touch with TOs there to make things happen. Why aren’t states that run into a similar problem doing the same?
Because if we’ve learned nothing else from Pokemon, it’s that people will always choose to complain about things outside of their control instead of trying to actually improve their situation by using the factors under their control when given the option.
We are waiting for confirmation but we should get PC in Argentina for VGC 15 i’m so happy that they give us the chance :’)
40 CP for PC winners in age-divisions with only 4 or 5 players? I’m sure a lot of people in the U.S. have mixed feelings about the PCs, and thus are reluctant to go “Rah-Rah” and rally TOs (which may not even lead to a PC happening)–while trying to make travel plans happen for Regionals that are 500+ miles away. I haven’t seen a complaint on this topic (that PC opportunities aren’t evenly distributed or evenly attended) that didn’t seem a fair concern. Improving one’s situation likely means caving in to the travel time and costs or giving up on being Worlds competitive and just having fun at the events that your budget can allow.
While I look forward to Regionals and Nationals, things like PCs and WiFi challenges end up feeling more like a grind to me. If you hope to be competitive in the CP race, you’re obligated to play them, but I’m sure I’m not alone in questioning their legitimacy. I’m also sure some love the PC opportunities, particularly those who will be able to attend one when they might not be able to attend a farther-away Regional.
I keep getting signals that you don’t really understand the implications of the things you are saying yourself.
The fact that Juniors/Seniors are usually in the same tournaments as Masters for Premier Challenges means it’s equally difficult for Juniors/Seniors across the country to get the CP from those tournaments, so how is this even an issue if it’s the same for everyone?
Instead of putting all this time into complaining how you dislike this system and the “grind” you should rather think about how to get more PCs in your area. At least that’s what is (hopefully) happening all across Europe now, considering there are next to no TOs who opted in for PCs yet.
There is also always the option of just being good at the game and getting a good finish at Nationals, World’s isn’t invite only for giggles. Of course they want people to put effort into being able to play at the biggest and most prestigious event with money on the line.