May 25, 2023: Last Chance to Compete! - Factions World Championship and King of the Hill

FACTIONS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

QUALIFIED FACTIONS

Get ready for the biggest event from one of the most successful team-based PVP formats ever created! Eight Factions* from each region (APAC, EMEA, NA, and LATAM) will first compete in a Round Robin group stage, then a single-elimination bracket, to determine the Season 2 Factions World Champions!

Factions were invited based on the criteria previously announced. Four Factions from each region qualified by winning a Cycle in Emerald Tier. If multiple Cycles were won by the same team, those invites cascaded to Factions with the best record through Season 2 based on overall Points and Wins (only cycles in Emerald counted, with no relegations throughout the whole season).

Three additional invites were sent to Factions that played in Emerald Tier during Cycle 4 with the best overall record from the last 2 Cycles, that were also never relegated during Season 2. This was based on a previously announced formula, found here.

Finally, one invite was sent to eeach Diamond champion from Cycle 4.

The following Factions are invited to Season 2 Factions Worlds:

APAC	NA	EMEA	LATAM
Delhi Darmanitans	PoGoats	EU Emperors	Infinity GO White
Hkers HANK	The Body Slammers	Snovertappers	MagnisPvP
Tassie Timburrs	Ann Arbor Arbok	Wasted Potential	Infinity GO Black
Milk Tea Pui Pui	Stadium Elite	Guerilla Garbodors	Aztec League
Born From Ashes	North East Battlers	Les Mangemorts	ELIT4 – PvP
The Metal Raptors	Elite TMS	LesFrenchevaliers	Hydra Esports
Indian Titans Elite	Muddy Water	Tea & Pizza	TeamBK
Your Bag Is Full	Chicago Stars	Team Utrecht	Raising Forest Team

* Due to a honest mistake and a miscommunication about the fix, we have decided to expand Worlds to 32 teams. One additional Factions will be invited from each region, for a total of eight teams per region.

We’re all human here at the Silph Arena, except for the bots that work as Refs (kidding, we love you!). While we try our best to avoid errors, sometimes things get missed, but we always try our best to make things right.

In the end, we’ve always done what we thought was best for the Arena with the goal was always to make things better for the PvP Community.

GROUPS

Qualified Factions have been seeded into eight groups of four for the Round Robin group stage. Each group has one team from each Region, with seeding adjusted as needed to assure no Factions from the same Region face each other in the group phase. The top seed in each group was filled by an Emerald Cycle winner;  sorted by total Emerald tier points in Season 2, with Emerald tier total wins as a tiebreaker.

The remaining 24 teams were then sorted by points/wins earned in Emerald in Season 2. Starting from the bottom of this list, we assigned Factions to lobbies in a reverse snake format, so the team with the lowest number of Emerald points was assigned to Group 1. In the case that this format placed two teams from the same region in the same group, the next available team would be placed and the conflicting Faction bumped to the next group. In some cases, this may have caused multiple skips for certain teams until a non-conflicting spot was reached.

Assignments continued in reverse-snake order until all teams were assigned.

The Groups were seeded as follows:

Group 1	Infinity GO White	Milk Tea Pui Pui	Ann Arbor Arbok	Team Utrecht
Group 2	EU Emperors	Your Bag Is Full	Chicago Stars	ELIT4 – PvP
Group 3	MagnisPvP	Stadium Elite	Born From Ashes	LesFrenchevaliers
Group 4	Snovertappers	The Metal Raptors	Elite TMS	Raising Forest Team
Group 5	Wasted Potential	Indian Titans Elite	Muddy Water	Hydra Esports
Group 6	PoGoats	TeamBK	Guerilla Garbodors	Tassie Timburrs
Group 7	Hkers HANK	Aztec League	Tea & Pizza	North East Battlers
Group 8	The Body Slammers	Infinity GO Black	Delhi Darmanitans	Les Mangemorts

PLAYERS

Every team will be allowed to add one new player that never played for their Faction during Season 2. Every team will be allowed to add up to two players that were part of the team at some point of Season 2. These players must have played a match while on the Faction in order for their time to be reflected on their Travelers Card, if they were on the team and never played, they are inelegible for this slot as there is no record they were actually on the team. There won’t be any exceptions, in order to keep the integrity of the competition, we want Factions to stick with their rosters and make the last effort to be crowned as the best Faction in the world!

Also, each Faction will be allowed two emergency substitutions during the Worlds competition (group and single-elimination stages combined).

NEW RULES & COORDINATION

All Faction members competing in Worlds are required join the Silph Arena Tournaments Discord server, and all coordination will be done in channels specifically created for the occasion, not in DMs or on other servers. Strict time limits to coordinate, battle, avoid slow play, and more will be implemented. We will enforce a rule for any “Show 8, Ban 2” formats requiring competitors to select the 2 bans within the first 24 hours after teams are revealed to keep the spirit of Factions: time to analyze, strategize and scrim.

METAS

Metas will be announced in the first few days of June. We want to make sure our metas will deliver not only a fun challenge, but also a balanced one, as well as to see if Niantic makes any new changes to PvP. What can you expect? Great and Ultra league will be open, with a Show 8, Ban 2 format and some reworking of the current Great League tiers. Master League will keep almost the same format, with some changes based on what we saw during Cycle 4. One Field meta will be progressive, with additions and bans each week, the other will be a great way to close this adventure.

DATES

In order to comply with the August 1st deadline, Worlds will start Monday, June 12, and will run until Saturday, July 29, when the Grand Finals will be played live!

FACTIONS KING OF THE HILL

All teams not invited to Worlds will have the chance to compete one last time in the King of the Hill. Up to 256 teams will be able to join this battle royale, with only a single team emerging as the one and only King of the Hill.

QUALIFIED FACTIONS

All Factions are qualified for this event, however priority will be given to teams that played in Iron or above during Cycle 4. Unfilled spots will be granted first to Open tier champions, then any team that RSVPs first.

FORMAT

The King of the Hill will use a single elimination bracket With half of the teams will be removed from the bracket each week, you playing for your survival! Only one team will be left standing when the dust settles.

PLAYERS

Every team will be allowed to add one new player that never played for their Faction during Season 2. Every team will be allowed to add up to two players that were part of the team at some point of Season 2. There won’t be any exceptions, in order to keep the integrity of the competition, we want Factions to stick with their rosters and make the last effort to be crowned as the best Faction in the world!

Also, each Faction will be allowed two emergency substitutions during the King of the Hill competition.

METAS

Metas for the King of the Hill will be announced in the first few days of June. We apologize for the short notice, but with our tight schedule plus potential Niantic shenanigans, we are doing the best we can to deliver a last chance for Factions to compete.

DATES

King of the Hill requires eight weeks to be completed, so it will start on Monday, June 5th, one week before Worlds.