What to bring
The essential is your console with Pokémon Champions, charged and with its charger, and with the game and system updated to the latest version before play starts. If you want to use a controller, it has to be official and wired, and only if the organizer allows it; Joy-Con stay attached to the console. Headphones also have to be wired and plugged into the console, with the cable visible.
You can take notes during the match, including during Team Preview, but you start each round with a blank sheet: no type charts and no notes from earlier rounds. You can keep a lucky charm on the table, but no food or drinks.
How each round starts
You sit across from your opponent and connect your console to the organizer's network: at tournaments Pokémon Champions is only played over the internet. Your wired connection settings have to be on Automatic and, during matches, your console in Airplane Mode, as the handbook requires.
One player creates a room in Private Battles, picks the correct ruleset and shares the Room ID; the other joins and both check they're paired with the right opponent. Once connected you exchange lists, play the best-of-three and report the result when it's over. You can't stall between games.
The timers in each game
Rounds don't have an overall time limit: the handbook wants every match to reach its natural end. What there is are the game's own limits, applied automatically at Championship Series events.
| Limit | Time |
|---|---|
| Team Preview | 90 seconds |
| Choosing a move | 45 seconds |
| Your Time | 7 minutes |
| Game | 20 minutes |
Ties, disconnections and forfeiting
If a match is still unresolved after the last game, the first thing checked is whether either player was late or away without a judge's permission: that player loses the match. If not, a table in the handbook decides it from the games won and tied, and if needed a Sudden Death game is played: a new game won by whoever has more Pokémon left than their opponent at the end of a turn.
If someone disconnects, call a judge straight away. If they're back within two turns, the game goes on; if not, the judges decide whether to void it, replay it or award it. To forfeit, the only valid way is to select Run in the game, and intentional draws are banned.
The penalties
From least to most serious: a verbal caution, a warning (which is recorded), a game loss, a match loss and disqualification. Three situations the handbook penalizes and that are easy to avoid: a team that doesn't match the list, being late to your table and not having the game or the console up to date.
Our take for your first Regional: arrive early, check for updates the night before and, whenever you have a question at the table, call a judge: that's what the handbook asks, including when you don't understand your opponent's list. And if you want to arrive with the numbers for your key matchups done, the damage calculator shows how much each of your Pokémon can take.
