News

Published on August 22nd, 2013 | by makiri

124

2013-2014 Play! Pokemon Season Rules, Dates Revealed

Lots of news today in relation to next season’s rules. The Pokemon website has revealed a number of things about the next season.

The official changes document has been posted on the Play! website but we have also included links to more specific information where necessary.

First off Regionals, Nationals, and Worlds dates have been revealed, though no information on location has been revealed just yet for the stuff we didn’t already know. You can see those dates here, but they are also as follows:

Fall Regionals
Weekends of October 12th, 19th, 26th

Winter Regionals (2014)
Weekends of January 11th, 18th, 25th

Spring Regionals (2014)
Weekends of April 5th, 12th, 19th

US Nationals
July 4th-6th, 2014

Worlds
August 15th-17th, 2014

Fall Regionals will continue to use Pokemon Black 2 and Pokemon White 2, while further tournaments will transition to Pokemon X and Pokemon Y.

Along with these changes to Regionals dates there has been a restructuring of prizes for the next season. Instead of directly giving you a travel award from your performance at a Regional, your Championship Point standing will determine which prizes you will qualify for. Winning a Regional will now give the first place winner a Nintendo 3DS. All the information related to Championship Points can be found here.

After the Spring Regional Championships, the Championship Point rankings will award Travel Awards and Stipends for North American players to the 2014 U.S. National Championships with the following distribution (per age division):

1st–16th: Travel Award and a $300 Stipend
17th–32th: $700 Travel Stipend
33rd–64th: $350 Travel Stipend

After July 10th, 2014, the final video game Championship Point rankings will be pulled. Accounts must be in good standing and updated by the user to reflect accurate information. At this time, Championship Points earned at the 2013 World Championships will also be added to players’ accounts. The following prizes will be awarded (per age division):

1st–4th in North America: Travel Award to the 2014 World Championships
1st–16th in Europe: Travel Award to the 2014 World Championships

Included are also best finish limits to the number of Regionals that will count towards your Championship Point total. Only 3 of your best Regionals performances will be counted towards Travel Awards/Stipends and Worlds Invites. The Top 16 North American players at the end of the season will receive an invitation to the World Championships, with the Top 32 European players also getting invites to the World Championships. There will also be 4 spots available for Last Chance Qualifier top 4.

What do you think of these changes Nugget Bridge? You can find all the information related to VGC for next season on the Play! Pokemon website.


About the Author

started playing VGC in 2008 and has been an advocate for VGC play since then. With three Regional Championship victories and multiple other high placings, makiri is a seasoned competitor ready to impart knowledge of the game to others.



124 Responses to 2013-2014 Play! Pokemon Season Rules, Dates Revealed

  1. Aoam Bojail says:

    I have no complaints about the CP system, because it really doesn’t pertain to me. My single complaint is the same as Kinderlew’s: they moved next Worlds back a weekend, but they couldn’t do the same with Nats? Great, so I get to miss my family’s yearly celebration YET again? Why must it be on the 4th weekend? That is pisspoor planning. I get that they want to use the holiday to get max attendance, but I don’t care about that. It’s a holiday, which means all the associated travel costs (parking a car overnight, parking anywhere during the day, hotel rooms, etc.) are jacked up higher than normal. Make it last weekend in June, seriously.
     
    Also, yay Indy again. Can’t we do any better? Why not give Indy a regional and move Nats to Chicago or something?

  2. TwiddleDee says:

    It’s already a financial stretch for me to MAYBE make it to two regional’s, let alone 3+
    I really wish top 2 or something got an invite. People like me, who can only afford one regional (two tops) are at a huge disadvantage. Depending on the CP given, even if I placed 1st in two (which is unpredictable and unlikely), I may still not even be able to make it to National’s.

    Well darn… I’ve been hitting the grindstone the past week or so non-stop training and forming strategies, but it looks like it was all for nothing. :/

  3. TwiddleDee says:

    I know the system has its positives, such as assuring that only the best make it, but it still is unfair for people like me who can’t afford to make it to three or more events. There’s never been a VGC in my state, and I doubt there will be, but that’s beside the point.
    It has its cons, but its pros as well. It just seems the cons are outweighing the pros in some cases.

  4. Firestorm says:

    This is something people probably haven’t seen because it’s a TCG thing, but they’ve convered Battle Roads (which previously were mostly run by PTOs) into “League Championships” run by local Leagues. I really hope that this experiment works and if it does, that we get League Championships for VG in the VGC ’15 season. This would create the local entry-level tournament that I think the video game is really missing right now and hopefully encourage more players  to look into tournament play. You could potentially have 8 more tournaments per league in your area. In the Vancouver area for example, we have four leagues. That could mean 32 more fun entry level tournaments. The CP and prizes up for grabs aren’t much, but that’s really how it should be. Also gives more players a chance to win an event and be “League Champion.”
     
    Very excited for the future! It was only yesterday I was posting about how important leagues are for the health of the game and growing young players into life-long Pokemon fans!

  5. mattj says:

    Also, has anyone found any information on CP from wifi competitions?  I guess that’s what the test competition will be for?

  6. makiri says:

    Alright maybe my last post here but this is something that I really want to see answered.

    Worlds 2013 top 8 will all receive “Championship Points (specific award TBA),” this already is something a bit worrisome for players who didn’t get those points because the ones who did will already have an advantage. Not only do Masters players have to deal with Masters who get these points, but Seniors players who will be aging up will also have access to points no one else can earn this year. What is even more distressing is the winner and runner-up will get “Championship Points equal to the invitation level (TBA) for the 2014 World Championships.” From what we know so far it really seems like Arash will take one of the 32 Euro invites and Ben and Hayden (Senior top 2) will take 2 Masters invites from North America. This leaves North America with only 14 potential Masters invites to be earned this year, and this doesn’t take into account Aaron, Enosh, and the rest of the Senior top 8 that will have access to points no one else can earn.

    I really hope this isn’t what happens because it puts a huge downer on all the good news today. I think it is a bad system where the only chance you have to get an invite to Worlds is to do well in the previous Worlds.

  7. Scott says:

    I really hope this isn’t what happens because it puts a huge downer on all the good news today. I think it is a bad system where the only chance you have to get an invite to Worlds is to do well in the previous Worlds. We really need to know how much CP top 8 get and do these Senior top 2 players take Masters invites this year.

     
    This is definitely a reasonable take on what could happen when a maximum of 7 players have a head start and there are 16 invites.

  8. TKOWL says:

    What I’m more confused about is why they’re doing such a big change to how invites are distributed on the income of a new generation. Gen 6 has already shown it’s going to change up the metagame tremendously, probably the most we’ve ever seen with the introduction of a new type and Mega Pokemon, so 2014 will not be quite as professional as this year was, therefore meaning the best of the best players might not even earn their invitations. It’ll be even worse if they decide to go with what they did at the beginning of Black and White and restrict the meta to just Kalos mons only. Everyone is going to have to completely change their strategies and teams in-between Fall and Winter Regionals, so I don’t know if we can really count on “consistency”. 
     
    But hey, that’s just my two cents, everything else in the season looks great so far, hoping we can get locations officially announced soon. 

  9. Firestorm says:

    What I’m more confused about is why they’re doing such a big change to how invites are distributed on the income of a new generation. Gen 6 has already shown it’s going to change up the metagame tremendously, probably the most we’ve ever seen with the introduction of a new type and Mega Pokemon, so 2014 will not be quite as professional as this year was, therefore meaning the best of the best players might not even earn their invitations. It’ll be even worse if they decide to go with what they did at the beginning of Black and White and restrict the meta to just Kalos mons only. Everyone is going to have to completely change their strategies and teams in-between Fall and Winter Regionals, so I don’t know if we can really count on “consistency”. 
     
    But hey, that’s just my two cents, everything else in the season looks great so far, hoping we can get locations officially announced soon. 

    You do realize we had repeat World and National Champions in both 2011 and 2012 right? Results looked pretty consistent to me. Pokemon is Pokemon. Invite structure hasn’t changed either. It’s still based on CP but now more people have a chance to get to an event because there are more chances to go to them. Literally everything is better than last year. The only problem I have is keeping it to a Top 16 instead of say 250 or 200 CP cutoff — especially without knowing how much CP Aaron and Enosh get.

  10. Braverius says:

    What I’m more confused about is why they’re doing such a big change to how invites are distributed on the income of a new generation. Gen 6 has already shown it’s going to change up the metagame tremendously, probably the most we’ve ever seen with the introduction of a new type and Mega Pokemon, so 2014 will not be quite as professional as this year was, therefore meaning the best of the best players might not even earn their invitations. It’ll be even worse if they decide to go with what they did at the beginning of Black and White and restrict the meta to just Kalos mons only. Everyone is going to have to completely change their strategies and teams in-between Fall and Winter Regionals, so I don’t know if we can really count on “consistency”. 
     
    But hey, that’s just my two cents, everything else in the season looks great so far, hoping we can get locations officially announced soon.

    I think you misunderstand how the best players remain the best. Rushan summed it up well by explaining Ray’s case in 2010 -> 2011, but something to take note of at least: people who consistently do well year in and year out are able to make consistent plays at every tournament, every match, every turn. How each person learns and applies consistent play (whether that be mathematical knowledge, from repetition, from understanding of the big picture) is different, but it does boil down to risk management and calculating your best instantaneous decision in order to give you the best chance of winning a match (the uncontrollable factors are less important individually)

    So regardless of what the format is, the most consistent players will still do well. Although, depending on the format’s restrictions, team vs team matchups could become a big deal, which is the only gripe anyone would be able to have early on in the new format (assuming it’s like 2012-2013)

  11. Maestro says:

    I just plan on hitting all the regionals in the fall and raking in a load of CP before the format changes.  In the winter, while many of you are breeding furiously on X/Y using power items (in hopes of catching me and the Worlds’ Top 8), I’ll be sitting back and waiting for others to crack the X/Y RNG so that I can get my dream team ready for Nats.  ;)
     
    Seriously, though, if the Powers-that-Be want more Pokemon weekends, why not split up the TCG and VGC to separate weekends–one weekend for each competition in the fall, winter, and spring?  My son and I have had to give up the TCG (mostly) since you can’t really compete in both competitions anymore.  We’d love to build the new Genesect-Virizion deck and give it a try, but not at the cost of the VGC.
     
    I’ll never suggest a return to the 2011 format, but I do think there is a point when the commitment leads to overload.  At some point last season, I ended up dreading Wi-fi tournaments and the scramble for small amounts of CP while fearing DQs.  I continue to be happy that the VGC competition is expanding, but I don’t like the need for best-finish limits (there’d be no need if the seasonal regionals were scheduled on the same weekend).  I also wish that we weren’t always stuck on Sundays when so much travel is required.
     
    While I’m wishing, I’ll also add that I hope the Fall Regionals offer a BW format wrinkle.  It’d be nice to finally see the Shadow Tag Chandelure (though I’m not convinced it’ll be great for doubles) or something different, though it looks like the Shiny Sinnoh Legendaries will be the last of the distributions before X & Y.   It may be that any new wrinkle will have to be related to a change in the allowable Pokemon. 

  12. crazysnorlax says:

    The Nationals are still in Indy, yes? Because that’s what it says online.

  13. Aoam Bojail says:

    Edit: also just realized DM suggested Chicago instead of Indianapolis for nationals…I’ll try my best to respond to that in a serious manner The cost of having nats in Chicago would be ridiculous, transportation would be obnoxious (the highway is basically a bunch of Anger Point Tauros that got critical hit), the crime rate is about the same, the vibe isn’t any better, and if you wanted to host it in a nicer area, the drive from the airport to the good suburbs is like 45 minutes. Best suggestion: make nats not in the Great Lakes armpit area. Something like Orlando, Dallas, Louisville, or even Minneapolis would be a more welcoming setting, especially considering this is often a family trip.

     
    1. Thank you so much for making the effort to be serious.
     
    2. Dallas/Orlando/Louisville in July? No thanks, I’ll pass. The further north, the better, in my opinion. Minneapolis, okay, you’ve got my ear. Hell, why not Detroit or Buffalo or Green Bay or Madison? Plenty of great, affordable choices.

  14. Firestorm says:

    The Nationals are still in Indy, yes? Because that’s what it says online.

     
    Unfortunately, yes. I’m with Adam and would prefer it in Chicago or any other major transportation hub. Not all of us are within driving distance of Indianapolis and as easy and cheap as it might be for midwest players, it’s a pretty expensive trip for those of us on the west coast. With Worlds in DC this year, I’ll have two expensive trips to make. I like that Worlds lets me have a bit of a vacation by visiting a new city. Indianapolis has literally nothing aside from Pokemon.  I really don’t understand how anyone could say the vibe in Chicago is the same as Indianapolis to be honest…

  15. Flash says:

    I don’t like this system- Well, I don’t like how things are going to work now in Europe, it seems it’s going to be like last year but right now a top 4 finish doesn’t guarantee nothing, so you have to travel 2-3 times in one month and pray to be able to. If you miss 1 regional because of your studies or work there are high chances of being able to participate in another one 2 months later, in Europe if you have a busy month you are screwed. I like the regionals system in US because there are months between events and you actually get some cash back, here in Europe you have to make top 2 in Nats and if you don’t, you have to go to another event so i think it’s a downgrade. If the events were separated in the year and you get cash for a good finish in the past Nats then It’d be a nice replacement to “regionals”(one in each country 3 times a season) + European championships.

  16. Ace2014 says:

    My couple questions. Does it really matter that someone win regionals considering we can’t get travel awards based on how we placed? and is it possible for someone to go one regional + wifi tourneys + nationals = worlds invite

  17. shinryu says:

    The 3DS is a nice prize but…still…I mean, if you win one of the after-Fall regionals where it’s XY-format, you have a 3DS already, so what’re you gonna do with a second? Resell is what, maybe $100-$125 if you’re lucky for the small model? Or if it’s an XL model, that’d be kinda nice I guess. I’d like to see a Wii U though as a top prize, for when that sweet looking Pokemon fighting game comes out…

  18. What I’m more confused about is why they’re doing such a big change to how invites are distributed on the income of a new generation. Gen 6 has already shown it’s going to change up the metagame tremendously, probably the most we’ve ever seen with the introduction of a new type and Mega Pokemon, so 2014 will not be quite as professional as this year was, therefore meaning the best of the best players might not even earn their invitations. It’ll be even worse if they decide to go with what they did at the beginning of Black and White and restrict the meta to just Kalos mons only. Everyone is going to have to completely change their strategies and teams in-between Fall and Winter Regionals, so I don’t know if we can really count on “consistency”. 
     
    But hey, that’s just my two cents, everything else in the season looks great so far, hoping we can get locations officially announced soon. 

     
    I totally agree with you dude. How will the good players know which teams to run without a Japanese tournament beforehand they can all copy off of? 
     

    1. Thank you so much for making the effort to be serious.
     
    2. Dallas/Orlando/Louisville in July? No thanks, I’ll pass. The further north, the better, in my opinion. Minneapolis, okay, you’ve got my ear. Hell, why not Detroit or Buffalo or Green Bay or Madison? Plenty of great, affordable choices.

     
    Niagara Falls. Who doesn’t want to go battle near a giant waterfall?
     

    I don’t like this system- Well, I don’t like how things are going to work now in Europe, it seems it’s going to be like last year but right now a top 4 finish doesn’t guarantee nothing, so you have to travel 2-3 times in one month and pray to be able to. If you miss 1 regional because of your studies or work there are high chances of being able to participate in another one 2 months later, in Europe if you have a busy month you are screwed. I like the regionals system in US because there are months between events and you actually get some cash back, here in Europe you have to make top 2 in Nats and if you don’t, you have to go to another event so i think it’s a downgrade. If the events were separated in the year and you get cash for a good finish in the past Nats then It’d be a nice replacement to “regionals”(one in each country 3 times a season) + European championships.

     
    Yeah dude 32nd place had 80 points last year and top 4 only awards 250 points. No one is safe. bidoof those Australians who don’t deserve to go to worlds.
     

    My couple questions. Does it really matter that someone win regionals considering we can’t get travel awards based on how we placed? and is it possible for someone to go one regional + wifi tourneys + nationals = worlds invite

     
    Regionals don’t matter any more. All you need to do is get championship points, by beating the elite 4 champion 100 times.
     
    Did you even read the article?
     

    The 3DS is a nice prize but…still…I mean, if you win one of the after-Fall regionals where it’s XY-format, you have a 3DS already, so what’re you gonna do with a second? Resell is what, maybe $100-$125 if you’re lucky for the small model? Or if it’s an XL model, that’d be kinda nice I guess. I’d like to see a Wii U though as a top prize, for when that sweet looking Pokemon fighting game comes out…

     
    It seems to me they are trying to cut back on what they award people who win multiple times (so babbytron doesn’t win $2k). If you win twice, I think the travel award + $300 stipend and 2 3ds’s is more than fair compensation

  19. Indianapolis is awful for Nats, Zach has an irrational hatred for Chicago despite it being strictly superior to his hometown of Milwaukee, and basically anything would be better than Indy. I would love Minneapolis or Madison for obvious reasons, but Chicago or NYC should be the answer and its not particularly close.

  20. pookar says:

    nyc is good in imaginationland and imagination land only, i almost said good in theory but thats not true either. the public transportation isnt a problem, except that its like an influx of 600-700 people all traveling in the same area in an already crowded tourist area. hotels in nyc? i havent checked, but i would guess they are worse than vancouver. these are both points that dont even affect me. NYC is a fantastic place, and I personally would love any events there, but it doesnt make any sense to have it there besides being a tourist attraction

  21. Braverius says:

    Indianapolis is awful for Nats, Zach has an irrational hatred for Chicago despite it being strictly superior to his hometown of Milwaukee, and basically anything would be better than Indy. I would love Minneapolis or Madison for obvious reasons, but Chicago or NYC should be the answer and its not particularly close.

    Chicago is just a larger Milwaukee with different areas of problems, they’re comparably bad. I don’t like either city that much, honestly. However, I would actually be sorta okay with Milwaukee nationals if only because SUMMERFEST is going on during it (and I’d rather they just reschedule nats a week earlier anyways so this shouldn’t ever be a perk). But the city sucks otherwise. Madison would be alright, but having no major airport in the city hurts that idea a bit (plus it’s Wisconsin, does anyone actually ever want to visit Wisconsin?)
     
    If cool weather is a thing, Buffalo would work, especially since it’s Canada / USA nats and it’s near Toronto. Denver also wouldn’t be a bad idea for one year, just to give west coast folks a bit of a break, and it’s a nice airport hub to boot.
     
    The TCG event isn’t remotely close to the airport, they’re a solid 50 minutes from O’Hare and 40 minutes from Midway, and that’s assuming the commute isn’t between 6am-10am or 3pm-8pm. I don’t think that’s a great example of a good location, although I do respect the efforts they’re making with that event. It’s more because that’s where their main vendor is located, and it’s near where Jason lives (and is near most of the Top Cut folks, namely Pooka).

  22. Andykins says:

    The 3DS is a nice prize but…still…I mean, if you win one of the after-Fall regionals where it’s XY-format, you have a 3DS already, so what’re you gonna do with a second? Resell is what, maybe $100-$125 if you’re lucky for the small model? Or if it’s an XL model, that’d be kinda nice I guess. I’d like to see a Wii U though as a top prize, for when that sweet looking Pokemon fighting game comes out…

     
    You farm it for streetpasses 

  23. Calm Lava says:

    Man Indy is great for nats, I already know where all the hotels are so I can walk to them, they have a chòde themed restaurant, and Buffalo Wild Wings which is I’m sure you can find anywhere, and that’s about it but that’s all I need anyways! Also come regionals time I know I’m gonna try to just drive up Saturday evening and play Sunday and leave right after instead of makin an entire weekend out of it so I can save money and do it multiple weekends in a row need be

  24. Havak says:

    My guess on the status of Arash (and the Seniors Finalists) is that in an ideal world they do not take up any of the allocated slots. Remember, if there are any ties on Championship Points, all players involved in that tie go to Worlds. I’ll use Arash as the example because it’s the easiest option. It’s likely that the amount of Championship Points he earns is from Worlds 2013 is going to be equivalent to whatever the 32nd place player in Europe has. Thus to tie, and not take up one of the 32 slots. However, this takes into account that Arash does not play a single competition in the season, as even playing one Wi-Fi event has the potential to knock that 32nd place player down to 33rd and miss out on a Worlds Invite (probably not fair). The alternative is that for the players who made the 2013 World Championship final, the Championship Point amount they earn is dependent on how many points they gain in the season. For example, if Arash simply played in a few Wi-Fi events for practice and tested out a team at Nationals, earned about 100 CP.. If the 32nd place player had 120 CP, he’d be granted 20 Points from the 2013 Final in order to qualify. A less flawed system, but again, it is dependent on how many Championship Points he earned. If he for example, went and won the Italian National, he’s going to take an invitation off somebody regardless and potentially even take a paid trip from someone else, despite already having one. I would assume that the paid trip would be passed down, but this is all speculation anyway. These are just my potential theories on why the CP amount is currently unknown. 
     
    However, this doesn’t cover the rest of the Top 8. I see no reason to keep the amount of points they earn from the previous World Championships a secret. I don’t mind them having a head-start because top-cutting Worlds arguably deserves that, but it really should not be an amount as significant as say, over 50 CP in my opinion. I hope this information is released before the first Regional in North America. 

  25. Die2Distroy says:

    Asuming that Europe will have 3-5 Nationals and Top 4 in each get an invite + paid trip, we would have 20 Invites, + the top 16 with CP points, we already have 36 Invites, but this again will all depend on how many Nationals we Europeans do end up having, I personally can’t see 36 free Invites, looks like I’ll be trying to get Top 4 at Nats or Top 16 in CP points.

  26. Osirus says:

    I think we as players need to know what the CP distribution from worlds will be, not just for the rest of us but for the actual players who won CP, as getting them at a later stage of the season when the opportunity to actually do something about the advantage/disadvantages presented by this may have passed. 
     
    I think Arash’s invite and trip will be separated from the final rankings in Europe, I ‘Mean’ even if he is given a certain amount of CP I think they will bump his place to the next player in line (17th place). We have 3 other European players who have all been awarded CP for next season and one (Ben) with a guaranteed invite so it will be interesting to see how they distribute these points, it could result in Ben being awarded enough CP to be guaranteed a top X finish in the standings which with this new structure would also grant him a paid trip, I guess this would be the same situation as Aaron in the U.S and I’m sure they would like to know about this themselves sooner rather than later, as much of the rest of us would.
     
    Aside from the above I think the way we are heading is great and if we are kept up to date in the manner throughout the season with news and updates I will be extremely happy.
     
    Looking forward to the season starting, even though its only just finished ….

  27. Havak says:

    Asuming that Europe will have 3-5 Nationals and Top 4 in each get an invite + paid trip, we would have 20 Invites, + the top 16 with CP points, we already have 36 Invites, but this again will all depend on how many Nationals we Europeans do end up having, I personally can’t see 36 free Invites, looks like I’ll be trying to get Top 4 at Nats or Top 16 in CP points.

    I’m pretty confident that Nationals will not grant a paid trip in this system… 

  28. Firestorm says:
    I think Arash’s invite and trip will be separated from the final rankings in Europe, I ‘Mean’ even if he is given a certain amount of CP I think they will bump his place to the next player in line (17th place). We have 3 other European players who have all been awarded CP for next season and one (Ben) with a guaranteed invite so it will be interesting to see how they distribute these points, it could result in Ben being awarded enough CP to be guaranteed a top X finish in the standings which with this new structure would also grant him a paid trip, I guess this would be the same situation as Aaron in the U.S and I’m sure they would like to know about this themselves sooner rather than later, as much of the rest of us would.

    I am pretty sure only Arash and Ryosuke have confirmed invites. I think some people on staff mistakenly told Aaron and Ben they had invites because TCG gets invites for Top 4? They should get CP but I don’t think it’s a full invite. Regardless, it would be good to get confirmed info on this soon.

  29. Die2Distroy says:

    I’m pretty confident that Nationals will not grant a paid trip in this system… 

    True, but still we are only in the early stages of the season, besides, we have no idea what exact dates our nationals are or where exactly they will be held this time around, most importantly, we haven’t a clue on what the prizes are either, so we will just see what happens over the next few months (maybe even days with how early dates for the US Regionals and National have popped up, but might not be likely it will be announced this early).

  30. foodking2win says:

    im so pumped for the new season im going to cool off in the hot springs as it all unfolds

Leave a Reply

Back to Top ↑