The theme for the Winter Professor Cup is Celebrating Standard, challenging Professors to research and master the secrets of the formats they’ll be judging in real-life once in-person play returns to the Championship Series in 2022.
Schedule | |||
| Swiss Rounds | December 11 | Top Cut | December 18 |
| Virtual player meeting: | 11:00 UTC | Virtual player meeting: | 11:00 UTC |
| Round 1 start: | 11:30 UTC | Round 1 start: | 11:30 UTC |
| Predicted end: | 18:00 UTC | Predicted end: | 14:00 UTC |
TCG Swiss Format | |
| Round time: | 60 minutes |
| Match format: | Best of three |
| Deck lists: | Required; open deck lists |
| Deckbuilding Restrictions | |
| Legal sets: | Sword & Shield onwards |
| Legal rarities: | All rarities are legal in this format |
| Maximum quantity of each card: | 4 (excl. basic Energies) |
| Banned cards: | No cards are banned in this format |
| Additional restrictions: | None |
VG Swiss Format | |
| Round time: | In-game timer |
| Match format: | Best of three |
| Ruleset: | Ranked Battle Series 11 |
| Battle format: | Double Battle (4v4) |
| Rental teams: | Permitted |
| Team lists: | Required; open team lists |
| Team Building Restrictions |
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| Permitted Pokémon: |
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| Banned moves: | No moves are banned in this format |
| Banned Pokémon: |
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Top Cut Rounds |
Vitals
Date: December 18, 2021
Virtual player meeting: 11 a.m. UTC
Top 16 begins: 11.30 a.m. UTC
Top Cut rounds expected to end by: 3 p.m. UTC
Trainers competing in the 2021 Winter Professor Cup Top 16 may recruit two friends to help them in the challenges ahead. 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 these rounds will be held.
Top 16 – Battlegories
Our first top cut round will be a very special virtual version of the game Scattergories, in which trainers will try to come up with unique answers to score the most points! At the beginning of the game, each trainer will receive a link to a Google Slides file in which to write their answers. Once the time is up for each round, a preview will be snapped of all the files so we can see everyone’s answers. If your answer is unique, you’ll score 10 points. Points awarded will decrease depending on how many other trainers have the same answer as you.
At the end of the round, the 8 highest scoring trainers will advance to the Top 8.
Top 8 – The Hunt for Bidoof
We’ve constructed a very special online Escape Room where trainers must explore in order to locate evidence and prove that their “friend” has in fact been stealing from their Friendly Local Game Store. Will you be the first to locate that prized PSA 10 Bidoof?
The 4 trainers whose teams find all three pieces of evidence and leave the room quickest will advance to the Top 4.
Top 4 – Puzzle Grids
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 4 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.
The 2 trainers whose teams score the highest will advance to the finals.
The Final – Rescue Teams
Your “friend” from Top 8 is back again, and not content with robbing your local game store, they’ve now been stealing Pokémon from, well, everywhere. The finalist will compete in this special Kahoot! challenge to identify and retrieve the missing Pokémon. Knowledge of the TCG, VG, web-based short series, and mobile games will help you in your search.
The trainer whose team scores the highest in the final will be crowned the 2021 Winter Professor Cup champion!
Good luck to all Professors competing in the 2021 Winter Professor Cup Top 16! See you in the event Discord server at 11 a.m. UTC!
Prizes | |
| Champion: |
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| Finalist: |
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| Semifinalist: |
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| Quarterfinalist: |
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| Other prizes: | TBC |