Changes announced for the 2025 Play! Pokémon season

A lot of Play! Pokémon changes just got announced! Here’s an overview – any potentially incorrect changes have been bolded:

Document updates

These are briefly summarized at https://pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/play-pokemon-rules-and-regulations-updated-for-q3-2024 , so please read that, but some specific notes:

Standards of Conduct

No changes other than updating the last reviewed date

Tournament Rules Handbook

• Elo-based ratings and rankings will once again be used, as Championship Point tiebreakers (e.g. for Travel Awards).
• Document has been corrected to state that Age-Modified Swiss will be used when there are less than 6 Juniors, Seniors, or both.
• TCG League Challenges are now stated to use the TCG Single Day structure, which has a top cut if enough players are present in a division – it is currently unknown if this change is accurate. This has been fixed – TCG League Challenges are still Swiss-only.
  • Until the confusion is cleared up regarding what mode TCG League Challenges should be run in, TPCi has communicated that Play! Tools will accept either TCG League Challenge or TCG One Day Championship.
• Asymmetrical cut is now standard for two-day events (Regionals and up) – see the table in section 4.6.3.3 for full details.
• TCG Standard format is still inaccurately listed as having regulation mark E legal. This has been fixed.
• Tardiness is now directly listed as a Procedural Error penalty. This codifies what has been done at major events: Match Loss after 10 minutes and dropping the player.

League Rules Handbook

• References to Pokémon Organized Play were changed to Play! Pokémon, the program’s name since August 2010.
• Clarification that the League cycle is July through June.
• Change that a player’s full last name is no longer needed in League reporting – just first name, last initial, player ID, and year of birth are required.
• Note that address change requests go under manual review and will not change immediately on request.
• Clarification that misuse of League materials includes any promotional materials including playmats, not just promo cards.
• Change that League sessions cannot be held anywhere other than the store location (previously allowed for other locations that weren’t Leagues themselves).
• TCG League Challenges still listed as Swiss-only here, contradictory to the Tournament Rules Handbook update.
• VG League Challenge structure added, and now mandates best-of-three – like with the TCG League Challenge change, unsure if this is on purpose. This has been corrected – Challenges can be best-of-one or best-of-three.
• VG League Challenge also states the event series is “GO Challenge/Cup”, which is undoubtedly inaccurate. This has been fixed.
• As with Challenges, VG League Cups also now state a mandated best-of-three structure – again, accuracy of this is unknown. This has been corrected – Cups can be best-of-one or best-of-three.
• Clarification that new Prerelease reservations will overwrite previous submissions for that set.
• European Economic Area and UK added to Early Release Program.
• Polish language support link added.

Other changes (from Pokemon.com)

• Premier Points (assuming this is Elo ranking) will be used as a Championship Point tiebreaker for rankings.
• Round 1 byes will not be given for Worlds 2025.
• Regional/Special Event/International BFL changed from 6 to 5, and International CP decreased from original announcement – see table at https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/championship-series/2025/international-championships for new values. (do note that “when tournament series with different Championship Point scales are included in the same Best Finish Limit, the highest point totals are counted instead of the highest placements”)
• Cash prize information was changed on the original 2025 page, but not the event pages, so unknown which is accurate. If the change is accurate, cash prizes have increased for TCG and VGC Junior/Senior divisions at Internationals, and cash prizes have decreased for TCG and VGC Masters division at Regionals. This change was made in error.

Event announcements

NOTE: The location of LAIC within Expo Center Norte has potentially changed from Pavilhão Azul to Vermelho Hall 1 – this was changed in the article from June, but the International Championships page on Pokemon.com still lists Pavilhão Azul, so it is unknown if this is accurate. This appears to have been inaccurate.

Regional Championships and Special Events

Perth, AU (Dec 7–8)
Birmingham, UK (Jan 18–19)
Rio de Janeiro, BR (Jan 18–19)
Mérida, MX (Feb 8–9)
Vancouver, CA (Mar 7–9)
Fortaleza, BR (Mar 8–9)
Stockholm, SE (Mar 22–23)
Brisbane, AU (Mar 29–30)
Monterrey, MX (Apr 19–20)
Seville, ES (Apr 26–27) (Special Event)
Milwaukee, US (May 2–4)
Santiago, CL (May 17–18)
Utrecht, NL (May 17–18) (Special Event)

Game-specific updates

VGC

Eight Global Challenges announced for VGC, four of which (September, October, December, and May) to be Grand Challenges open only to those in TPCi regions, with the other four (January, February, March, and April) being open to all regions (incl. Asia).

UNITE

• Championship Point qualifications for UNITE will now be team-based, as opposed to cumulative earned by all five players.
• In-person tournaments for UNITE will now take place at LAIC, with some changes to EUIC and NAIC:
  • LAIC: 32-team open bracket, $25,000 pool
  • EUIC: 32-team open group stage, followed by single-elimination, $50,000 pool
  • NAIC: 64-team open group stage, followed by single-elimination, $50,000 pool