The following are guidelines for running your Prerelease event and for creating a positive, consistent experience for your players. Your League is required to abide by local rules and restrictions when holding a Prerelease event. Your League may also run more than one Prerelease tournament, provided you have enough Prerelease Kits to accommodate players for each tournament.
Player Setup
Pokémon tournaments must have a minimum of 4 players. Give each player 1 Build & Battle Box. Allow about 20–30 minutes for deck building. Decks must be exactly 40 cards. Provide additional Basic Energy for players wishing to modify their deck.
Matches
When running your tournament, we recommend single-game matches as opposed to best-of-three. Games are played with 4 Prize cards rather than the usual 6. Use of Tournament Operations Manager is required. You may not use other companies’ tournament software for Pokémon events or run this tournament manually.
Failure to adhere to any Prerelease operational criteria may result in your tournament being canceled and/or disciplinary action against your League.
Upon event completion, we recommend distributing three booster packs (from the booster display box included in each kit) as a participation prize for each player.
For more information on running events, see Section 4 of the Tournament Rules Handbook.
Prizing & Fees
The booster packs contained in the booster display box are intended as prize support to be distributed to all players who completed the event. In other words, all participants would receive three additional booster packs as a participation prize at the conclusion of the tournament.
Consider ways to distribute your booster packs and Build & Battle Boxes. You can find our recommendations below, but you may also modify your prize structure as you see fit.
Each player receives:
- 1 Build & Battle Box
- 3 additional booster packs
If you are not keeping to the advised distribution and are not including the booster packs with the sale of the Build & Battle Box, please make sure it is clear in your online listing that the contents will be received via a separate purchase. Players may be accustomed to receiving the additional booster packs and may expect to have these items included in the Build & Battle Box purchase.
Additional prizing beyond the booster display box provided in your Prerelease Kits is at the Organizer’s or store’s discretion.