Prizes Announced and Top Cut Confirmed for Autumn Regionals
The Pokémon Company International has bucked their Friday evening trend and just put up the information on the VGC Autumn Regionals! As previously announced by Pokémon Premiere Tournament Organizers, the autumn regional will exclusively use Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version. And although it’s not listed on the official page, Organized Play has communicated to us that you will not be allowed to use movesets, abilities, or anything else traded back from Pokémon Black Version 2 or Pokémon White Version 2.
Unfortunately there has been a downgrade in travel stipends. Masters division participants will receive $300 regardless of their age with no additional money for a parent or guardian. Junior and Senior division participants will receive $500 for both themselves and their parents instead of the $600 in previous years. The first place travel prize remains the same.
Additionally, a change has been made to the byes awarded. You will now receive a one round bye at the Canada or US National Championships instead of two. This was likely done to balance the power of byes in relation to the size of the player field. This may be tweaked in future years as the video game’s competitive playerbase grows.
The good news is, a top cut has been awarded this year for the Video Game Championships Regionals. After the single game swiss rounds, regionals will cut to a top 8 best of three single elimination bracket. This should ensure more accurate results to determine which players will receive the byes, travel stipends, and the most Championship Points (CP).
If you recall, Championship Points will have an effect for VGC players this year. The top 4 players in each rating zone receiving an unpaid invite to the 2013 Pokémon World Championships in Vancouver, BC, Canada next August. We’ve listed the full prize breakdown below complete with CP information.
- 1st Place
- A Pokémon VG Regional Championships 1st Place award
- A Travel Award (including a parent or legal guardian for players under 18) to the 2013 U.S. National Championships at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, OR the Canada National Championships in Toronto, ON.*
- A first-round bye at the U.S. National Championships**
- 120 Championship Points
- 2nd Place
- A Pokémon VG Regional Championships 2nd Place award
- A Travel Stipend of $500 for Junior and Senior Division finalists, collected on site at the National Championships. Valid ID will be required to collect your stipend.
- A Travel Stipend of $300 for Masters Division finalists, collected on site at the National Championships. Valid ID will be required to collect your stipend.
- A first- round bye at the U.S. National Championships**
- 110 Championship Points (if division attendance is 4 or greater)
- 3rd & 4th Place
- A Travel Stipend of $500 for Junior and Senior Division semi-finalists, collected on site at the National Championships. Valid ID will be required to collect your stipend.
- A Pokémon VG Regional Championships 3rd or 4th Place award
- 90 Championship Points (if division attendance is 8 or greater)
- 5th Place through 8th Place
- 70 Championship Points(if division attendance is 32 or greater)
- 9th Place through 12th Place
- 50 Championship Points (if division attendance is 64 or greater)
- 13th Place through 16th Place
- 40 Championship Points (if division attendance is 64 or greater)
- 17th Place through 32nd Place
- 20 Championship Points (if division attendance is 128 or greater)
- 33rd Place through 64th Place
- 10 Championship Point (if division attendance is 256 or greater)
* Travel awards and byes are awarded to the winning Canadian or United States player and are awarded to the National Championships corresponding to the player’s nationality. A Canadian player is therefore eligible to win a travel award to the Canadian National Championship from an event hosted in the United States, and vice versa.
** Byes do not “stack.”
† Travel awards do not “stack.” If you have won a travel award at a previous Regional Championships event, the travel award will pass down to the next eligible player. If there is a stipend awarded to the player who the travel award is passed to, that stipend will instead be awarded to the player the travel award was passed down from. Travel stipends DO stack, meaning that a player may earn multiple travel stipends.
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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