Last week we brought you a team report from a qualifier event leading up to 2014 Pokémon Asia Cup, but today we’ll be talking a little more about what it is! Asia’s qualification system for the Pokémon World Championships is quite different from North America, Europe, and even Australia. Only Japan and Korea have any way of qualifying outside the Last Chance Qualifier and they are done through varying means that change from year-to-year. One thing that hasn’t changed is that there has really only been one large tournament a year for them to qualify through. The 2014 Pokémon Asia Cup will not change that because it is an unofficial grassroots tournament series. However, what it will do is allow players from Asia, including countries outside Japan and Korea, more large competitive tournaments to play in!
There are eight countries involved in the 2014 Pokémon Asia Cup:
- Japan
- South Korea
- Singapore
- Malaysia
- Indonesia
- Philippines
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan
Each country held its own qualification tournaments in January and determined their top eight players to send to stage two of the tournament. This month, they will play in a 40 person online tournament to determine who will represent their countries in the final stage of the 2014 Pokémon Asia Cup at the end of March. There will be five swiss rounds followed by a top 8 cut. A total of 12 players will move to the final stage of the tournament: the top ranking player from each country and the six top ranking players who didn’t get a country-based invite.
We’ll be working to get more team reports and videos from these events for you all so keep an eye on the site and our YouTube channel!
Japan
Japanese players will seed 16 players into the final stage of the tournament. Eight of these players will be determined using an online qualifier held by R_Justice and livestreamed on his twitcast channel. The other eight will be determined using the Battle Road Gloria local tournament series.
Battle Road Gloria Schedule
| Level | Date | City | # of Qualifiers | Capacity |
| Regional | Saturday, January 18th | Tokyo | 4 | 113 |
| Regional | Saturday, February 1st | Hiroshima | 2 | 80 |
| Regional | Saturday, February 9th | Fukuoka | 2 | 80 |
| Regional | Saturday, February 23rd | Osaka | 2 | 90 |
| Regional | Saturday, March 8th | Ishikawa | 2 | 72 |
| Regional | Saturday, March 15th | Miyagi | 2 | 64 |
| Last Chance Qualifier | Saturday, March 22nd | Osaka | 6 | 130 |
| National | Sunday, March 23rd | Osaka | - | 20 + 110 |
The online qualifier will happen on Sunday, March 2nd, 2014. So far 56 players have registered for the online tournament with a cap of 128 set.
Korea Qualification Method
South Korea will seed four players into the final stage of the 2014 Pokémon Asia Cup using an online tournament. The schedule is as follows and the top four players will move on:
- Top 64: February 8th to 14th
- Top 32: February 15th to 21st
- Top 16: February 22nd to 28th
- Top 8: March 1st to 7th
- Top 4: March 8th to 14th
- Finals: March 15th to 28th
Finals
The 16 Japanese players, 4 Korean players, and 12 players from the other countries involved will play in a 32 person swiss tournament with 4 to 5 rounds. The top four players will move on to an elimination bracket. This is scheduled to happen most likely on March 29th and/or March 30th, 2014. The games will all be best of 3 and the winner will be considered the 2014 Asian Champion!
Still confused about the flow? Hopefully this chart from 1hko log helps!
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