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The Pokémon Players Cup III hasn’t even concluded yet and Play Pokémon is already announcing the Pokémon Players Cup IV, which will begin in April and go through July.

The Pokémon Players Cup IV will be the next big online tournament for Pokémon VGC, Pokémon TCG and Pokkén Tournament DX players. The tournament includes big changes to the format as well as a $45,000 prize pool.

Format changes

The first three Pokémon Players Cup tournaments took place in a bracket format after initial qualification. In the Pokémon Players Cup IV, players will play up to nine Swiss rounds to qualify for the Region Finals.

In the Swiss tournament, players will play against others without getting eliminated. No one will play the same opponent twice, but may not play every available opponent either. The 16 players with the best results from the Swiss rounds will advance to the Region Finals, which will be in a seeded double-elimination format.

How to qualify

Players interested in competing in the Pokémon Players Cup IV will need to qualify in their respective games. All players must be born in 2004 or before, have a valid Play! Pokémon account and live in a competing region.

Those interested in competing in Pokémon Sword and Shield VGC or the Pokémon TCG Online must have a Play Pokémon account and set their preferences to “Yes! I want to participate in all available Play! Pokémon Programs.”

From here, players will compete in open qualifiers to earn a spot at the region qualifiers. The Pokémon VGC open qualifiers will take place in Pokémon Sword and Shield. Pokémon TCG players will get “tournament keys” which they can use to compete and earn points towards qualifying. Pokkén Tournament DX players can simply register for region qualifiers.

Eligible players will then receive an email and must register for their preferred game’s region qualifiers using RK9 Labs. The Region Qualifiers will take place on June 19.