Details for Pokémon VGC ’14 European National Championships
Just a few short weeks after the final set of regionals in North America end, all eyes will be on Europe as the first Championship Point events in the region begin. Today, we received the first concrete details on these events. For reference, the three Pokémon Video Game National Championships in Europe are:
Locations & Dates
Germany National Championships: May 3–4, 2014
RuhrCongress Bochum
Stadionring 20, 44791 Bochum, Germany
UK National Championships: May 24–25, 2014
Event City
Phoenix Way, Barton Dock Road, Urmston, Manchester M41 7TB
Italy National Championships: May 31–June 1, 2014
Mediolanum Forum
via G. di Vittorio, 6 – 20090 Assago (MI), Italy
Eligibility
Any player not banned by Play! Pokémon is able to play in these events regardless of nationality or prior experience. The first 270 Junior Division, 270 Senior Division, and 540 Masters Division players will be guaranteed spots. They will fit as many people as possible within the venue but no guarantees are made beyond those numbers. Divisions are determined as follows:
- Junior Division: Born in 2003 or later
- Senior Division: Born in 1999, 2000, 2001, or 2002
- Masters Division: Born in 1998 or earlier
Format
After the awesome turnout from last year and the increased interest in the game for Pokémon X and Y, all European National Championships have moved to two day events. Saturday will feature the Swiss rounds through which the top 16 or 32 players (depending on attendance) will be decided upon for day 2 of the competition. On Sunday, the top players will play off in a single elimination bracket to determine the National Champion!
Byes
Byes will make a return this year and work just like last season. The top 16 players in the Championship Point rankings going into the tournament will receive a first round bye. Additionally, the top two players from Nintendo’s Ultimate Pokémon Expert and Junior Expert tournament will receive a bye at the UK National Championship.
Prizes
1st Place
- A Pokémon VG National Championships First-Place Trophy
- 480 Championship Points
- A Nintendo Wii U 32GB Deluxe Set
2nd Place
- A Pokémon VG National Championships Second-Place Trophy
- 440 Championship Points
- A Nintendo 3DS XL system
3rd & 4th Place
- A Pokémon VG National Championships Semi-Finalist Trophy
- 360 Championship Points
- A Nintendo 3DS XL system
5th through 8th Place
- 210 Championship Points
9th through 16th Place
- 150 Championship Points
17th through 32nd Place
- 90 Championship Points
33rd through 64th Place
- 30 Championship Points (if division attendance is 128 or greater)
65th through 128th Place
- 15 Championship Points (if division attendance is 256 or greater)
Travel Awards & Invites
The top 16 players in Europe based on Championship Points on July 14th, 2014 will receive an invitation, flight, and accomodations for the 2014 Pokémon World Championships in Washington, DC, USA. Those ranked 17th to 32nd will receive an invitation to the World Championships but no travel award.
About the Author
Firestorm is one of the co-founders of Nugget Bridge and the Community Manager for eSports Tournament Platform Battlefy. He has been playing Pokémon since 1999, competitively since 2007, and attending tournaments since 2010. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with a degree in Interactive Art & Technology + Communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @rushanshekar.
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The prizes for top 4 look amazing!
Holy Guacamole at the prizes!!!! Why does the US always get crapped on by Pokemon?!?!?!? Im pretty sure after Japan we are their biggest market. I absolutely loved my packs of cards for placing 5th through 8th…….especially since I have never played TCG in my life.
literally exactly the same prizes as US Nationals
lol
Thanks for updating as soon as the information came out ^^ Looking forward to entering the UK Nationals
just wondering how european players are supposed to earn CPs before nats Oo
There may still be WiFi tournaments… Otherwise it will be the CP you gain at earlier Nationals in Europe.
I tried to just copy paste from the US news story and in the process of doing it realized that Europe didn’t get cards
And honestly I wouldn’t call a Wii U for winning a 300-500 person tournament amazing… At least the CP works out to guarantee you the trip to DC which is the real prize — especially if you live in Europe.
well the april friendly is starting in 2 weeks, I don’t think they’re going to announce another tournament right after that, especially with 3 nats around in the same month
and that’s bs imho
I guess being able to get byes by top cutting in prior Nationals is good for all the players going to all three events but honestly, I think it’s complete bs to reward “continuity” like that. I’d rather play in 3 separate tournaments without byes because I can already see how Grimer from last year is gonna happen again.
Also, do we have an up-to-date CP list for Europe?
Other than that, good announcement!
Worse prizes, no Bo3 Swiss and byes for people who either were at 2013 Worlds or tiebreakered their way through a previous event and have too much money on their hands. Well, at least I can be somewhat happy for not leaving Germany this time anyway. #europegetshafted
As far as I know, Worlds CP don’t have an influence of giving out byes in Europe because they are only awarded when US Nats is over (July 10th is the cutoff date I believe).
How low can you place at a single event to be most likely guaranteed a placement in the final top 16?
Maybe one guy with a top 8 finish and nothing else will make it, but I’d say you pretty much have to top 4. That should be safe.
The CPs earned by me, Tyvyr an Luigi for “being at Worlds” will be assigned after Milan, not making them count as a bye for us, indeed.
Mean, do you know if you get 600 CP and will be listed in the final Top16 rating, taking away one paid trip + invite or will that be handled seperately?
For people wondering what the likely CP cut off for top 16 will be i have looked at the figures from last year and factored in this years CP weighting to get a rough idea of what kind of CP is needed this year.
Just by roughly looking at it I think the Top 16 CP cut off will be ~350 which is basically equivalent to a T8+T16 placement. I would say that the minimum needed for T
For people wondering what the likely CP cut off for top 16 will be i have looked at the figures from last year and factored in this years CP weighting to get a rough idea of what kind of CP is needed this year.
Just by roughly looking at it I think the Top 16 CP cut off will be ~350 which is basically equivalent to a T8+T16 placement. I would say that the minimum needed for a Top16 will be 330 and the maximum will be 360.
Im pretty sure my numbers are kind of off because i cant precisely remember what CP was given out for each placement last year and i just guessed at the placements for last years Top16 without actually looking them up. For anyone interested External is last years final CP rankings.
@Yoshi: It’s very likely that while I won’t count as one of the 16 trip+invite players, Matthias and Luigi will (because the CPs they earned from Worlds aren’t enough to secure them the top 16 placement).
(Can’t be 100% sure though, never read this info anywhere).
Top stuff!
I’m gunning for one of those Wii Us, since I kind of want one but no way in hell am I buying one.
And to be honest, I don’t ever want there to be loads of byes being given out at our nationals. If you want to win, you should fight for it!
If I live in the US, attend one of these and earn CP does that go towards my CP here in the states or do I get ranked in Europe?
Thanks for the Article firestorm !
I’m Looking to go to UK nationals but how early should I get there to get a place ?
You should get a place provided you are there before 10am. But I will probably aim to be in line before 9am.
Your CP would be added to your US Ranking.
You should get a place provided you are there before 10am. But I will probably aim to be in line before 9am.
At first I was kind of annoyed that it’s gone to CP for worlds invites, given I can barely afford to go to even one tournament, but now that I look at it, the jump in CP distribution between 3rd-4th place and 5th-8th place is big enough that somebody would still have to perform consistently very highly to knock somebody in Top 4 out.
I’m not sure if you’re even officially allowed to enter, going by what it says External. I know Chalkey was planning to go to some of the European Nationals and now isn’t because of that.
I doubt they’d stop you playing given they don’t check ID or anything, but don’t be surprised if they refuse to give prizes.
So, no invites for Top 4? I haven’t really kept up with the CP system until now, but if it’s exclusively CP invites then that sucks since I can only go to one National ;_;
Top4 __should__ be safe.
Seems to be at odds with what is stated in the new page which says that they’re open to everyone regardless of residency. Hopefully one of the two pages is updated for consistency.
Correct. We were discussing this earlier in the year as well.
Tournaments are open to anyone – the news article released was localized and most of the marketing is toward Europeans. It is both “Open to all Europeans” and “Open to everyone”.
Byes will be awarded based on the Top 16 in CP in Europe – it is likely there will be no Byes at the first National tournament in Germany unless a player from Europe has managed to earn CP in North America or South Africa.
Worlds CP isn’t factored in until mid-July.
Depending on what the distributors do there may be additional prizing, door prizing, giveaways, etc. – what is covered by the general FAQ is the base-level for each of the three European National VG tournaments.
So top 16 in each age division or overall
390 CP guarantees you get an invite
570 CP guarantees you get the free trip
(Of course the actually numbers will be lower)
Man I didn’t realize the system would be so dumb to allow players to get CP from multiple zones. Is there at least a best finish limit of 1 nationals? And is there any European who will let me crash on their couch a couple days before or after regionals?