VG Format – played on Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield
- All Pokémon on your team must have originally been discovered in different regions!
- Pokémon with a regional variant count as having been originally discovered in that region
- Whether or not a Pokémon can Gigantamax does not affect its region (e.g. G-Max Charizard will always be Kanto)
- Pokémon do not need to have the Galar symbol
- Legendary and Mythical Pokémon are not permitted
- No two Pokémon may have the same Pokédex number, or held item
Example (very bad) teams:
PERMITTED
Charizard (Kanto)
Kingdra (Johto)
Sableye (Hoenn)
Glaceon (Sinnoh)
Alolan Raichu (Alola)
Galarian Darmanitan (Galar)
NOT PERMITTED
Alolan Raichu (Kanto) – Raichu’s Alolan form was originally discovered in Alola
Kingdra (Johto)
Sableye (Hoenn)
Darmanitan (Unova)
Alolan Exeggutor (Alola)
Galarian Darmanitan (Galar) – Has the same Pokédex number as Darmanitan
TCG Format – played on the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online
- Sun & Moon-Ultra Prism onwards
- Limit 2 cards with the same name (excluding basic Energy)
- Only common, uncommon, rare, and holo rare cards may be used.
- Pokémon-GX, Pokémon V, and Pokémon VMAX may not be used.
- Prism Star cards may not be used.
The following cards are banned in this format:
- Beast Ring (FLI, 102)
- Oranguru (UPR, 114)
- Granbull (LOT, 138)
- Aerodactyl (TEU, 103)
- Reset Stamp (UNM, 206)
Saturday April 18 – Swiss Rounds
All times in UTC
The round format for both tournaments will be 30-minute, single game.
- Virtual player meeting: 1 p.m.
- Round 1 begins: 1.30 p.m.
- Swiss rounds expected to end by: 8.30 p.m.
Sunday April 19 – Top Cut Rounds
So, you want to be a Pokémon Master? Ha ha ha…
The Professor Cup Online top cut will feature NO cards, NO hardware, and NO POKÉMON BATTLES. Instead, each of the Top 8 – a combined bracket featuring the Top 4 from the TCG and VG Swiss tournaments – will compete in the ultimate Pokémon Quiz Show. Rules knowledge, TCG trivia, VG acumen, deductive reasoning, teamwork, and a keen eye for a red herring – you’ll need it all to be able to call yourself the Professor Cup Online champion!
Top 8 players can enter the Quiz Show rounds with two friends. You’ll work as a team to tackle each game and earn as many points as possible. Consider yourselves warned to make sure that there is a thorough breadth of Pokémon knowledge between the three of you. You’ll need it! Top Cut rounds will begin on Sunday April 19, at 1.30 p.m. UTC.
Bear in mind that everyone on your team will need to be a current Pokémon Professor, with at least a Basic certification. This is the Professor Cup, after all! They don’t need to have participated in the tournament themselves, but they will need to join you on the online platform through which the Quiz Show rounds will be held. That platform is determined by the Organizers.
Below are briefs for each of the Quiz Show rounds. The Top 8 will receive more detail and will be able to participate in practice games once Swiss rounds are complete!
Top 8 – “Connect Four” Puzzle Walls
Each team will be given a wall of 16 clues. Your objective is to group them into 4 rows of 4 connected items. The Top 8 player themselves will be the one who interacts with the wall, but all three team members may confer as much as they like to correctly identify the one, perfect solution to each wall before the time runs out. Be careful – red herrings abound!
You can earn points in two ways – correctly identifying groups of four, and also for correctly identifying why each group is connected.
Top 4 – The Trial of the Missing Vowels
This game tests how well you really know the names, places, and specialist terminology of the Pokémon world! Each team will be shown a word or phrase related to a named topic. However, the word or phrase will have had its vowels removed and any spaces moved around – to the eyes of a non-Professor, it may be unrecognisable! Your team’s task is to correctly identify the word or phrase before the time runs out.
Points are earned for each correct answer. There are plenty of opportunities to rack up points, as several different topics will be covered in this tricky exercise!
The Finals – The Final Connection
This round asks you and your team to successfully identify the final item in a sequence of four. Each sequence begins with a single revealed item. You can choose to reveal the second and third items to help inform your guess any time before you give your answer, though the number of points earned for a correct answer will decrease with each revealed item. Can you think far enough ahead to master the Final Connection?
Bonus points can also be earned for correctly identifying the connection between all four items, and the order of the sequence they are shown in.
Prizes
Champion, Finalist & Semi-finalists
- Professor Cup Trophy
- Professor Program Messenger Bag
- TCG booster product
Top 8 (in each Swiss tournament)
- Professor Program Messenger Bag
- TCG booster product
Top 16 (in each Swiss tournament)
- TCG booster product
The Professor Cup Online is open to all Professors with a Stage 1 or Stage 2 certification, though there is a cap of 256 players per tournament.