Pokemon GO Tournaments | The Silph Arena (2024)

As you compete in accredited tournaments in the Silph Arena your performance affects your global player rank. Increasing your rank can unlock new player tiers, earn you prestigious positions on the global leaderboard, and even qualify you for an invitation to exclusive tournaments on the path to becoming a world champion.

This resource will answer common questions and explain the mechanics of player rank.

Expect Adjustments & Improvements! The Silph Arena is in a constant state of improvement - so adjustments and improvements should be expected as we trailblaze together. ❤

The Basics: Player Rank 101

You begin your journey in the Silph Arena at the first player tier: Trainer. Competing in ranked tournaments hosted by Silph League communities will provide you an opportunity to gain (or lose) player rank. As you battle with opponents, the Arena learns more about your skill level. Perform well and you will soon be on your way to greatness!

Player Tiers

After beginning as a Trainer tier competitor, you can climb up through Rival, Challenger, Ace, and more. These will appear on your Travelers Card, on global, national, and community leaderboards, and beside your name when attending Tournaments. The progress bar indicates how close you are to climbing to the next tier. Player tiers and ranks will remain intact for the entire season and will be reset when the new season begins in 2022. Competitors will be rewarded for their final Season player tier when the season concludes.

Waves

Every two months the Arena hosts a wave, a two month period with a different themed Cup each month. Open Great League will be available through each wave, in addition to selected themed GBL Cups that will be available as they’re live in the Pokémon GO^TM app. Themed Cups have unique rules and are designed to be hosted and played by local communities. Throughout the Wave, you will have 40 ranked rounds that will contribute towards your rank (see Ranked Tournaments).

Ranked Tournaments

Each Wave you may compete in as many ranked tournaments as you wish in the Arena, however only your first 40 rounds will contribute to your rank. These rounds are consumed in chronological order of when the first round of the tournament began, and regardless if you finished the Tournament or not, the total number of rounds played in that tournament will be deducted from your allowance. All ranked rounds will have the same impact towards your ranking no matter the order they have been played.

Example: you will be able to play 5 seven-rounders and one five-rounder, or 10 four-rounders, or even play 6 seven-rounders where the first 5 rounds of the last one will count towards your rank. You choose! But remember that you will need to keep track of your round allocation.

Cup Trophies

Competing in a Cup tournament that successfully concludes all matchups will earn each competitor a digital collectible trophy for your Trophy Case! You can view your Cup trophies on your Travelers Card at sil.ph/username. If you win a tournament, i.e. score (or tie with) the highest win count in the tournament, and it successfully qualifies for rank, you will receive a special gold-tier trophy variant. Earning the second-highest win count will earn a silver-tier trophy, while landing in the top half of the tournament will award a bronze-tier trophy. Winning very large tournaments can earn even higher trophy tiers - but these are very rare!

How Match Outcomes Impact Your Rank

When you compete in a tournament, the Arena software (silph.gg) will assign you opponents whom you will battle three times each. The Arena analyzes these data points on each competitor and their matchups and with this data constantly computes the global and national rankings! Winning matchups increases your player rank and losing them costs rank.

Three Battles Per Opponent

Unlike the common Best of 3 format, opponents in the 2023 Season always get three opportunities to battle each other. Each battle is a chance to prove your strength as a competitor. A close match (e.g. losing one battle and winning two) reveals a more even matchup than sweeping victories.

A competitor may opt to concede this third match if they wish (at no ranking penalty). In the eyes of the Arena an 0-2 match is the same as an 0-3 match - and both affect player rank the exact same way as a simple 'Loss' from Season 1. But that competitor only stands to gain by playing the third match for one extra chance to prove the match was close!

All match victories increase your player rank - and every battle counts!

Opponent Strength

The strength of your opponent affects your potential rank gain or loss in each matchup. If a low-tier competitor defeats a highly-skilled player, the Arena learns that the low-tier competitor is actually much more skilled than expected and their player tier and rank will ascend more quickly than from victories with less-skilled opponents.

Tournament Bracket & Tie-breaking

The winner of the most battles (of the three in each matchup) is marked victor of the matchup in a tournament, and the winner of the most matchups will be crowned the tournament winner!

When ties occur for the highest match wins in a tournament, all top-scoring competitors will receive the highest level trophy awarded for their Trophy Case and are co-victors in the eyes of the Arena. For the sake of local event prizes and glory, however, Tournament organizers may elect to hold additional tie-breaking rounds or to use the provided competitor's total battle wins, and, as a secondary tie-breaker the Buchholz score (which displays the sum of each player's opponents' match wins). Both numbers are displayed in the tournament point results table.

The Competitive Season: The Path to World Champion

The 2023 Competitive Season begins January 2023 and will feature multiple monthly Cups and Waves. At the last stretch of the Season, the strongest competitors will receive a coveted spot at the Continental Championships held in July and August. At the end of the Season, the top Continental representatives will come together to see who deserves the title of World Champion!

Opting Out of Rank

Some competitors may wish to participate in local Arena tournaments but do not wish to appear on leaderboards or have personal Arena Stats displayed on their Travelers Card. Others may be disqualified from global rank eligibility due to having falsified or manipulated their GPS location ('spoofing') or other violations of League rules.

These competitors should select the Opt Out of Rank option from the site navigation and permanently de-rank their account in the Arena.

Unranked players will not appear in global or local leaderboards. They can still, however, be able to earn trophies for their Trophy Case and even win local tournaments.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section will be updated periodically with questions frequently asked about player rank.

Competitor Questions

Are larger tournaments better for my rank?

In previous seasons playing larger tournaments would give more opportunities to compete and battle against other players, increasing your rank if the results were positive. As of the 2023 Season , competitors will have a set number of ranked rounds each Wave that will count the same no matter the order or the size of the Tournament.

What happens if I leave a Tournament early?

As long as it qualifies for rank, once a Tournament you are registered for begins it will allocate and use the total number of rounds it has generated without taking into account if you have played some or all of the rounds. Cases where a player might be 'holding the Cup hostage' or where you have been improperly removed should be reported with evidence to the Arena team through the Infraction Reporting form.

Can I use all my rounds in just one month of the wave?

As a Wave runs throughout two months you will be able to play all of your rounds between both months, the first one, or the second one as it better suits your schedule and playstyle without any ranking penalties. However, keep in mind that you will need to play and finish both Themed Cups to get both trophies and that they are only available one month each.

What happens to my rank if I play an unranked player?

Your rank gains and losses are handled exactly the same as playing against ranked players.

Tournament Organizer Questions

What happens if I forget to mark our tournament 'Concluded' before the end of the month?

Tournaments auto-conclude at the end of month if a Tournament Organizer forgets to mark them 'Concluded.' However, if not all match results are reported in by that time, the tournament will not qualify for rank.

Do communities have to accept known cheaters or unranked players at a tournament?

Community leaders do not have to admit competitors who violate their own community's rules. Cups or ranked tournaments are not required to be open invite (though this is strongly encouraged in the spirit of the Arena). However, officials may not bar competitors based on race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, or other similar attributes. Additionally, officials may not exclude or include competitors or groups of competitors in any attempt to manipulate or influence match or tournament outcomes, player rank, or leaderboards. Evidence of discrimination, attempts at match-fixing, or any other violations are taken very seriously and all evidence and information should be submitted via the Report Misconduct form to be reviewed by the Arena Team.

If you have evidence of a competitor or League community intentionally violating, abusing, or manipulating Arena rules and protocol, all evidence and information should be submitted via the Report Misconduct form to be reviewed by the Arena Team.