Victory Road came to a rest after the VR Unite Open, but we’re back!
We are happy to present our partnership with GGtoor to provide you the first, among many weeklies, Pokémon Unite tours, with the first one starting on September 18th, 2021 at 17:00 UTC.
This online event will be free-to-enter for everyone and will feature $500 in cash prizes for the winning team. Find all info and the sign-ups below and don’t miss your chance at becoming a pro of UNITE!
Tournament format
- Matches will be played using Pokémon UNITE for the Nintendo Switch. The game is free to play and you will NOT need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to download it from the Nintendo eShop.
- The tournament is free to join and is open to players worldwide.
- Competitors will form squads of 5 players each. A backup player will be allowed for all teams, but is not mandatory.
- Teams that will have 4 or fewer players during the tournament will not be allowed to play.
- All squads will face each other on a single-elimination bracket until only the winning team is left.
- All rounds will be played as a best-of-3 set of games (Bo3). The grand final will be played as a best-of-5 set (Bo5).
- All Pokémon available through normal gameplay as of September 1, 2021 are allowed.
- This means that there are 23 playable Pokémon for this tournament. Check the list here.
- All players are allowed to use a Battle Item and up to three Hold Items on their builds. We’re aware of the disparities this may cause between players who have invested money into the game and those who have not, but there’s no feasible way to limit or restrict this feature for now. We will keep this in mind moving forward in the future.
- For any issues arising during the tournament, please report to the staff on Battlefy by clicking on the red ‘Report Match Issue’ button.
Schedule
- Sign-ups: until Sept 18 @ 16:30 UTC
- Tournament: Sept 18 @ 17:00 UTC onwards
- 10 am PT / 1 pm ET (United States)
- 18:00 BST / 19:00 CEST (Europe)
- 02:00 (+1) JST/KST (Japan and Korea)
- 01:00 (+1) GMT+8 (Philippines / Singapore)
- 03:00 (+1) AEST (Australia)
- Match check in: If one of the teams don’t report activity in the battlefy chatroom in the first 5 minutes after the round start, they will receive a round lose.
The schedule is subject to modifications. Expect each round to last 40~60 min.
Creating a squad
Players may only join the tournament in squads of 5 or 6 players. Five players are needed to play any given round, but all teams are welcome to fit an extra player as a substitute. If any team drops below five players, they will automatically lose their round and thus will be out of the tournament.
Players interested on joining that do not have a squad may join our Discord server and/or GGtoor’s Discord Server. We have created a specific room for solo players to meet with each other and form a team — #form-your-squad.
Tiebreakers and disputes
- The winner of each individual game is automatically determined by the software depending on each team’s score.
- In case of a tie within a game, the software will award the win for that game to the team having scored the first point in the match.
- Please screenshot the results of each game you play while showing both teams’ scores and each individual player’s numbers. This will be used for reference for any disputes.
- Should a disconnection happen, as the game does not have a spectator mode nor does it have a pause button, the games must continue. However, on the event that the affected team requests for a remake of the match, and the offended team accepts, a remake will be played and the same Pokémon chosen must be used again. The offended team can decline a rematch.
Streaming
Players competing in the tournament are more than welcome to stream their runs. When signing up for the event, you will be asked for any potential streams so we can boost you through our socials!
Unfortunately, the current release of Pokémon Unite has not unlocked its spectator mode feature, however, teams reaching the Top 8 that have access to a capture card will be asked to stream to Victory Road for casted tournament gameplay.
That said, for this to come into fruition, selected Top Cut matches for the official stream MUST HAVE AT LEAST 1 PLAYER from the participating teams to provide live footage to the organizers.
Likewise, we strongly suggest putting #VRClash and #GGtoor in the title or on your Tweets about the tournament.
Important Note: By regisering for this event, you agree that we may live re-broadcast your live stream from our designated Twitch channels and add commentary on any gameplay during the course of the event, as well as create VODs of this Content, which we may choose to make available on our official YouTube channels and other platforms, so others may marvel at your awesome plays (or epic fails!)
Match hosting
Matches will be hosted (i.e created on the game) by the captain of each team as follows:
- Game 1: captain of team A (appearing on the left side on the Battlefy match screen).
- Game 2: captain of team B (appearing on the right side on the Battlefy match screen).
- Game 3: coin flip by a staff member on the Battlefy chat for the match. If your match goes to a third game, you need to call a staff member on your Battlefy room to do this (click on the red button saying ‘Report Match Issue’).
In the best-of-5 set of the finals, games 1 and 3 will be hosted by team A, and games 2 and 4 by team B. The final game 5 will be decided on a coin flip.
Similarly, teams must switch sides every game. On the lobby creation screen where all 10 players are placed, the team hosting the game must be up, and the other team down. The player creating the lobby must be on the upper left slot, as follows:
Creating a private lobby
To create a private lobby for all 10 players, the captain in charge for the game will have to:
- Click on “Unite Battle” from the main menu of the game and select “Standard” using L/R.
- Select the purple menu on the right side of the screen that indicates the type of match (Ranked, Random or Friendly).
- Choose “Friendly Match”. This will prompt a screen with 10 player slots.
- Click on any free slot to open the menu of friends. You can either:
- Add opposing players as friends on the game (in game player IDs are provided on the Battlefy match room)
- Click on “Invite other friends” to share the lobby ID.
- Invite your other players as well as the opposing players. Make sure everyone is paired with its teammates. You can change positions by clicking on any player and moving it around.
Here’s a step-by-step video on how to do it:
Prizes
With the total Prize Pool of $500 in USD, the following breakdown will be as follows:
- Champion: $250 in USD
- 2nd place: $150 in USD
- 3rd and 4th place: $50 in USD each
Prizes will be delivered to the Team Manager through PayPal within a week after the event has concluded.
Funds for Cash prize winners will be sent via PayPal. For winnings to be disbursed, along with any other information that had originally been required to register, the team manager or captain who registered the team that wins prizing (Top 4) will be also be required to provide full Legal Name, Physical Mailing Address, and email address associated with the PayPal account where funds are to be sent. This is GGtoor’s corporate policy, which was created to follow the legal advice given by their attorneys, to make sure the Company is in compliance with all tax, accounting, and regulatory requirements that may apply.
By participating in this event, all players who were registered by that manager or captain also agree that is not GGtoor or Victory Road’s responsibility to divide those funds among the team members; all funds shall be sent in full to the captain or manager. Any fees charged by PayPal will be deducted from the amount sent.
Other rules
(Opponent) No show rules
- For each round, if your opponent hasn’t shown up for 5 minutes, you get a match win.
- If your opponent hasn’t shown up for 10 minutes, you win the round.
Bug abusing rules
While we are aware of the actual bugs (I.E. Crustle, Blastoise…), intentionally abusing these can be sanctioned with disqualification.
Disconnection rules
Due to the nature of the game, and unfortunately have no way to spectate or manually pause the game, we will follow the following:
- Should it happen within the loading screen, continue the match as usual.
- If a disconnection happen, any resolution will be disputed should both teams agree to remake the game.
The tournament organize is in no way responsible for the players’ connection. Keep in mind that we’re opening the tournament for everyone so ping issues should be expected.
24-Team tournament rules
If the event does not have at least 24 active teams participating and checked in, the event might be postponed to a later date.
- Should it happen, it will be announced at least a day prior.
Join the tournament!
To join the tournament, please follow these steps:
- Pick one player from your squad who will act as “team captain”.
- The captain must join the tournament on Battlefy and follow sign up instructions over there. The captain must also join Victory Road Unite’s Discord server and GGtoor’s Discord server.
- Once the captain has created a team on Battlefy, they will get a link to share with the rest of the squad.
- All players of the squad must join on Battlefy using the link provided by their captain. It is the captain’s responsibility to make sure the team is correctly registered. Any teams that have begun registering but do not have a team of at least 5 members on Battlefy when sign-ups close will not be allowed to play. You can change members until sign-ups close.
Please keep in mind all information on the tournament is subject to changes. In case of disparities between this page and Battlefy, the information on this page will prevail.
