What Champions does differently.
If you played Scarlet/Violet VGC, half of what you know still applies and half of it is wrong. Here's the half that changed — the rules, the math, the economy, the clock.
- Level 50. 31 IVs. No grinding.
- 66 Stat Points total (max 32/stat). 1 SP ≈ 8 EVs.
- Doubles only. Bring 6, pick 4. Open team lists.
- Replica Teams, not rentals — 10-char team codes in-game.
- 7-min player clock, 45-sec turn, 20-min game cap.
- Reg M-A: no restricteds, no paradoxes, no treasures.
1Fixed Level 50 · perfect IVs · no grinding
Every Pokémon enters battle at Level 50 with 31 IVs across the board. You don't farm them. You don't hatch for them. You don't soft-reset for a 6IV Ditto.
If you come from Scarlet/Violet HOME transfers, forget the IV anxiety — Champions normalizes the baseline so skill expression sits on team composition, Stat Points, and piloting.
2Stat Points replace EVs · hard 66 cap
No EV spreads. You allocate Stat Points: up to 32 per stat, up to 66 total across all six. Each SP adds 1 point to the final stat at Lv 50, so 32 SP in a stat lines up with the old 252-EV ceiling — but the 66 total is the squeeze. You can't 252/252/4 out of every problem.
The HOME transfer rule: first SP costs 4 EVs, each additional SP costs 8 EVs. 252 EVs → 32 SP (capped). Old spreads compress into a much narrower budget, so re-math anything you shipped in VGC.
3Doubles-only · Bring-6, Pick-4 · open team lists
Every Champions battle is 2v2. Singles does not exist as a competitive format here.
In tournaments, you bring six, your opponent sees the full list in Team Preview, and you lock in four before the match. The other two stay in the box. Open team lists mean you prep for the sight of their Pokémon, not the surprise.
4No Rentals · Replica Teams only
Champions does not have the old "Rental Team" mechanic from S/V. What it has instead is Replica Teams — pre-built team codes that let you apply a complete competitive squad to your account, ready to play.
You create or find a Replica code in-game under Training → Create teams using a team ID. Each team has its own 10-character code. ChampDex's Replica Teams page pulls live tournament teams so you can skip the blank-slate block.
5Battle timers — fast and unforgiving
Team Preview: 90 seconds. Each turn: 45 seconds. Each player has a 7-minute total clock for the whole match. Overall game cap: 20 minutes. If your player-clock drains, you lose on timeout; if the 20-minute cap hits, the match is scored a draw.
Pull your leads fast, don't stare at damage calcs during the turn — trust your prep.
6Victory Points (VP) · the economy that gates everything
Victory Points are Champions' progression currency. Adding a Stat Point costs VP. Buying a Tera Type costs VP. Learning new moves costs VP. Applying a Replica Team costs VP in bulk. Training Tickets waive VP costs.
You earn VP from ranked play, events, and completing competitions. If you're new, don't dump it all on one Pokémon — spread VP across a core of 10-12 mons you're willing to swap into teams.
7Regulation M-A · the current legal pool
Champions launched under Regulation M-A. The legal roster is ~186 base species plus their official Mega Evolutions — no box legendaries, no Paradox Pokémon, no Treasures of Ruin, no restricted transfers. If you remember Flutter Mane or Koraidon from S/V, they are not in Champions yet.
ChampDex filters everything — Dex, Builder search, Calc, meta rankings — through the current Reg M-A legality list pulled straight from Serebii's Champions page. If it shows up on-site, it's legal.