The first tournament of the 2020 Pokémon Championship Series is set to take place from January 18 to 19 at the Dallas Regional Championships in North America, and will be the first to feature Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield.

Replacing the seventh-generation games Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon as the official competitive games for the franchise are the eighth-generation Pokémon titles Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield.

Match plays are still in a double battle format, with each player having four Pokémon from their Battle Team to begin with. The game is over when all four of the opponent’s Pokémon faints or the game’s time limit expires.



The Galar region’s Pokémon with Pokédex numbers #001–397 (from Grookey to Dragapult) may be used “provided they were caught or hatched in the game or were received at an official event or distribution.” Additionally, the use of two Pokémon with the same dex number in a team is not permitted in the tournament.

A select number of Pokémon are allowed to use their humongous form called Gigantamax in the competition, namely Butterfree, Corviknight, Drednaw, Centiskorch, Meowth, Pikachu, Eevee, Snorlax, Sandaconda, and Charizard.

The number of species allowed to perform Gigantamax “will expand periodically as the season continues, based on the availability of those Pokémon and taking into account a grace period for players to train their new Pokémon,” according to the official Play! Pokémon 2020 Video Game Rule Book.

The full broadcast schedule of other Pokémon Regional Championships for the first half of 2020 can be viewed here.

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