About VGC In Scarlet & Violet
Game Mechanics
From the 2023 season through the majority of the 2026 season, VGC was played in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet utilizing the terastal mechanic. This allowed one Pokemon per team to change its typing once per battle. This mechanic was used as both an offensive and defensive tool to great effect, allowing Pokemon to change their typing matchups or output extra damage with attacks matching their new typing.
Event Format
Official events were all held using a double battle format where you have a team of six and select four to bring to each battle. All events utilized a best of three format where players face off in a Swiss style tournament in order to qualify for the single elimination Top Cut bracket.
The Open Teamsheet Era
New to real life VGC events for Scarlet & Violet was the addition of open teamsheets (or OTS). In this format, each player is provided with a sheet detailing their opponent's team, including Pokemon abilities, their held items, all of their moves, and there tera type.
The open teamsheet era leveled the playing field a lot between established and newer players, but also allowed for a ton of data collection. Since teamsheets were released publicly after a tournament, we can get a snapshot of the meta during a particular event and even see trends between events.
World Champions
Though comprised of four seasons, three World Champions were crowned in the Scarlet & Violet era due to the end of the 2026 season being held in Pokemon Champions. The winners were Shohei Kimura (2023), Luca Ceribelli (2024), and Giovanni Cischke (2025).