Jan 28, 2023: The 2023 Season: Battle Towers, Continentals, and Worlds

As Wave 1 builds in the 2023 Season, eyes focus on the challenges that lie ahead! It’s time to recap the Season roadmap and the classification methods to Continentals and the World Championship!

Season Roadmap

January through June: Ranked Tournaments and Battle Towers

Wave 1 continues in February with the Naiad and Hoenn Cups as the Season continues to progress with a new meta each month through June, plus the additional selected GO Battle League themed Cups and Open Great League. Throughout the Season, Battle Towers will be held around the globe providing opportunities for invitations to the Silph Arena World Championships to the winners, and direct qualification to Continental Championships to the runner-ups.

July and August: Continentals

Top competitors around the World will participate in one of the four Continental Championship events that will crown the very best of each continent as a Champion and provide classification to the Silph Arena World Championships.

Earning an Invitation to Compete

Competitors that have at least one trophy from the current Season in their Travelers Card can qualify for a 2023 Continentals invite via any of the following paths:

1. Battle Towers: Competitors reaching positions 2nd to 9th in a Battle Tower will automatically qualify to Continentals.
   • Competitors will qualify for a Continentals region based on their Travelers Card location and not the Battle Tower location.
2. Big In-Person Tournaments: Competitors that win an 8+ ranked in-person Monthly Cup tournament in any of the three Waves of the 2023 Season will have an invite for Continentals. In addition, competitors that win without a single match loss in a 7-round in-person Monthly Cup tournament will also earn an invite.
   • A maximum of 10 competitors of the LATAM Region, 10 competitors of the EMEA Region, 10 competitors from the APAC Region, and 15 competitors of the NA Region can qualify through this classification path.
3. National Leaderboard: Top national competitors from eligible leaderboards at the end of Wave 3 will be able to qualify to Continentals. National Leaderboard invites will cascade in the National Leaderboard, but competitors will only receive invites if they are Challenger rank or above, if there are none they will cascade to Global Rank:
   • Leaderboards where the top player is in the Trainer, Rival, and Challenger ranks will not give any invitations.
   • Leaderboards where the top player is in the Ace rank will give one invitation to the top National Competitor.
   • Leaderboards where the top player is in the Elite rank will give one invitation to the top two National Competitors.
   • Leaderboards where the top player is in the Legend rank will give one invitation to the top three National Competitors.
4. Global Rank: Top global competitors at the end of Wave 3 will earn an invite to Silph Arena Continentals until the limit of up to 128 competitors per Continental are reached. All of the previous classification paths will cascade into Global Rank.
5. Wildcards: Four Wildcard Tournaments hosted by select Remote Communities that will provide one extra invite per Continent to the winner.
   • Only competitors that did not qualify by any other means will be able to participate in Wildcard Tournaments. Competitors will sign up in a lottery that will be held to determine who will participate in these tournaments.

 

September: World Championship

Thirty-two competitors will be invited to compete in the 2023 Silph Arena World Championship. Alongside the four Continental Champions, the remaining 28 seats will be filled by eight Battle Tower winners, the Silph Arena Season 2021-2022 World Champion, and the #1 Global Rank Player that did not qualify by any other means. Eighteen places will be allocated based on performance in Continentals:

• 6 places will be allocated to the North American Continentals
• 5 places will be allocated to the Europe and Middle East Continentals
• 4 places will be allocated to the Latin American Continentals
• 3 places will be allocated to the Asia-Pacific Continentals

These places were allocated by the use of a brand new coefficient that takes into account the previous performance of competitors from each continent in previous Season’s Global Rank, World Championships, and Showdowns. Details on how the coefficient works and how it can be implemented in future Silph Arena seasons will be explained in the following weeks.

If any of the Battle Tower or Continentals winners refuse to play, or qualify by any other means, an additional opening for their respective Continental Tournament will be open. If the Silph Arena’s previous World Champion refuses to play, or classify by any other means, that opening would go to the North American Continentals as determined by the coefficient. If the #1 Global Rank Player that did not qualify by any other means would refuse to play or classified by any other means, the place would cascade following the Global Rank. In the event that less Battle Towers are held due to unforeseen circumstances, the place would cascade following the following order: North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Europe.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Continentals and Worlds be Remote or In-Person events?

The 2023 Championships, which includes the 2023 Continentals and the 2023 World Championships will be held as remote events.

When will the full details and dates of the Championship events be announced?

This article is just to provide information on the classification methods to Continentals and Worlds, the dates and format will be announced at the end or after Wave 3.

Can a Battle Tower winner participate in Continentals?

Yes, a Battle Tower winner can participate in Continentals but only if they have qualified by the National or Global Leaderboards. In the event they would be crowned Champion or end up in a position that would grant them a classification to Worlds, the invite will cascade in that very same tournament.

Why will only remote Communities be able to host Wildcards?

Since Wildcard tournaments will be remote events, it makes the most sense to have Remote Communities host them. In-person communities will have the chance to host Battle Towers throughout the 2023 Season.

Why do different Continental Championships have different numbers of competitors classifying to Worlds? Why use a coefficient?

The number of invites per continent has been varying since the first Season. This Season, to try to bring the best possible event to spectators and the highest level of competition to the players while avoiding subjectivity, we used a different approach to determine the number of invites that each Continental allots. By assigning a certain number of points to different milestones in events where top competitors have participated and the end-of-season rankings and having those milestones impact less the older the Season we have been able to come with a coefficient that rewards the regions that have had the most competitive players throughout the history of the Silph Arena. The use of a coefficient, as many sports associations do, will allow us to bring consistency to the future season invites when compared to previous and also will reward the development of the different regions.

Why is the order of cascading for Worlds NA, APAC, LATAM, and Europe?

The coefficient allows us to assign new spots that may open and that order is the one that must be followed based on the points that each Continent accumulated throughout the different Seasons. More information on the coefficient will be released in a future article.