The World Cup of Pokémon 2025 - Introduction

[Irpachuza]

I was able to join late to the party, but so did my beloved homecountry Argentina, and the very cool Portuguese that let me live on the cool af pastel-de-nata-land. Here are the avis I made for them! Shout-outs to the Argentina players for directly joining in on the spriting fun!

Argentina

M - (Pokemonranger-Gen6) by kyledove, edits by Irpachuza, recolor by HSBT
F - (Dancer-Gen7) by kyledove, edits by JustFranco and Irpachuza
M Glastrier by HSBT, edits by Irpachuza
F Glastrier recolor by HSBT
Riolus by Joshr691 (deviant), edits by Irpachuza

Portugal

M - (Leon) by Brumirage, recolor and edits by Irpachuza
F - (Leaf-masters2) by kyledove, recolor by Irpachuza
F Moltres-Galar by Brumirage, recolored by Irpachuza

As always, thanks Marty Clem Kalalokki sharpclaw deetah RADU Turtleye_ kyledove for the amazing teamwork and another tour finished! Thanks casters for the nice comments at the Smogon Livestream n.n
Vamos Argentinaaaaaaa, força Portugal!!! Let it be an amazing WCOP!

 

[Turtleye_]

Its that time again where we post the team avatars! This year I had the opportunity to work on 4 teams in total (Not like I had a choice for some of them smh).

Team Africa

Phoebe by Brumirage, Blue by kyledove, edits by me
Giratina made by me

Team Canada

Adaman by kyledove, Ghost Miku by Flamibane, edits by me
Miku's Bax was made by me, and Adaman's Bax is an edit from last year's

Team India

Skyla by Grapo, Morty by kyledove, edits by me.
Skyla's Samurott by yours truly, Morty's Samurott resized by Clem

Team Netherlands

Made by me!

The sprite team did a fantastic job again, glad to have been part of it! Good luck to all teams involved, and I hope the Dutchies win

 

[deetah]

Hello all and happy World Cup 2025! This was a really fun iteration to sprite for and I think all of the artists did an amazing job. Super excited to showcase what I had the pleasure of working on. But first, special thanks to my fellow artists Clem, sharpclaw, Irpachuza, RADU, Turtleye_, Altthiel, Brumirage, and kyledove. Big thanks to Marty for handling the uploading, Star for compiling team lists, and Kalalokki for overseeing the process and handling the reveals stream.

Here's what I worked on for this year!

Europe

This pairing was really fun to work on. Lily had the idea to incorporate Ceruledge's ombre gradient somehow on the trainer sprites, and I thought that would look sick, so here we are!

M - (Ethan-Masters) by Brumirage, recolor by me
F - (Selene-Masters) by kyledove, recolor by me
Ceruledge by Clem, edits by me

China

I've been wanting to work on doing more completely custom Pokemon sprites from scratch, so when China requested a custom Ho-Oh sprite for their female avatar, I was excited to jump at the opportunity. I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

M - (Red-Masters) by kyledove, recolor and edits by me
F - (May-E) by kyledove
F Ho-Oh by me

Germany

Continuing my trend of working with Germany, these are probably once again my favorite pairing from the tournament. Germany requested a custom Urshifu pose with it kicking in the air based on a card from the TCG, and I have to say I think it came out sick. The beer & effects took a lot of effort to get clean and polished, but I'm super happy with how they turned out!

M - (Swimmer-Gen6) by kyledove, recolor and edits by me
F - (BattleGirl-Gen6) by kyledove, recolor and edits by me
F Urshifu by me
Special thanks to Clem, RADU, and Turtleye_ for help on the Urshifu and the effects

Brazil

Finally, I did get to help out Brazil with one of their avatars. I enjoyed getting to test out a few recolors on this May sprite!

F - (May-Masters2) by kyledove, recolor by me
Quaquaval edits by Clem

Best of luck to all the teams in the tournament, and we appreciate all your continued support :)

 

[Eoward]

Thx for ur job RADU

I'll take the liberty of mentioning destroyingpotato for the initial ideas, I know he'll be pleased! Good job guys!

 

[Amaranth]

it's time for another thrilling Round One Stats Post (with a sprinkle of Qualifier Stats too)

* The most notable historical statistic is a very unflattering one: Portugal's 6-24 campaign is tied for the worst ever, matching the 20% winrate of the "legendary" Brazil 4-16 from 2013. I genuinely did not believe that record could ever be touched. Good job...?

* In contrast, Chile confirmed themselves with another positive campaign, and now hold the third highest Round 1 winrate among active teams - US West 57.56%; US Northeast 55.09%; Chile 55.00%. (The defunct ISGME and US East also have higher Round 1 winrates).

* The five-year playoff streak of US Midwest was broken; as Europe and Oceania also failed to make playoffs, this now leaves US West as the only team to make playoffs in all three of 2023-24-25, the longest active playoff streak by default. (They did not make playoffs in 2022.)

* Africa (18-12), Chile (17-13), and China (16-14) have put up their best campaigns yet. They join India as the only "new" teams (first R1 in 2020+) to have managed to advance past Round 1 (though Chile already achieved this last year, and China is pending a tiebreaker)
* Africa's record even beats out the Round 1s of the now-defunct "Afrabs" teams of years past - they never went beyond 14-10.

* US Midwest (13-17), Belgium (13-17), United Kingdom (10-20) have put up their worst campaigns yet. While the sample size is small for Belgium, the other two are notable low points - this is the worst performance in 8 years of US Midwest, and the worst Round 1 out of 14 attempts from team UK (though they'd been relegated before). UK has also joined the 200 Round 1 Losses Club this tournament, alongside France and Germany.

* Brazil and Italy have entered the 200 Round 1 Wins Club, now sitting at all-time records of 203-195 and 202-195 respectively. I believe this is also the first time in history Italy's cumulative R1 record has flipped positive, finally overcoming their early bottom feeder years (2009-2015 with no playoff appearances). Canada also entered the club, though their all-time record sits at a less impressive 206-241.

* Netherlands, Argentina, and Portugal all had their first Round 1 qualifications ever. This was especially long overdue for Argentina, after five years of falling in qualifiers with many close calls.
* This makes the situation of team Austria especially sad: they are the team who, by FAR, have the most qualifying attempts with no successes (8). Argentina used to be a close second, but now their closest neighbor is Venezuela (4).

* Spain is only the third team, after 2023 Brazil and 2023+2025 Asia, to fail qualification despite being a former champion. Their situation is especially notable as the fall from 1st to 21st+ took only two years (the shortest possible time) - it took nine for Brazil and fifteen for Asia. Granted, qualifiers didn't exist for many of these nine/fifteen years.

* Greece's failure to even form a team is the only such case for a team of their status: every other team that has previously played in R1 and would still be allowed to exist with the modern ruleset does, in fact, exist. The stat doesn't look much better even extending it to qualifier teams: of all qualifier teams that have ever existed in the past, only Switzerland, Pakistan, and Turkey failed to form this year.

* Africa and China are already on their best campaigns ever. Chile and India already made playoffs last year. A semifinal appearance for any of them would be the first ever top 4 by a "new" team.
* Germany are the only other team in contention to have never won the trophy before, having previously fallen in the 2016 and 2021 finals. Winning would catapult them up from #13 in the all-time playoffs rankings to #5, as they would overtake a slew of teams with a single trophy but less overall final appearances.
* Italy, Brazil, France, and US Northeast all have one past trophy. A win would make any of them climb up the trophy rankings from their current spots (#6-9 in all-time results) to #5, overtaking Spain (who also has one trophy, but better playoff results overall).
* An US West win would give them their third trophy, finally overtaking the dynasties of 3-time winners Asia (05-06-08) and Oceania (09-10-11). They would be 2nd in the trophy list just behind the defunct US East.
* 2025 is a potential 1st playoff appearance for China; a 1st playoff appearance for Africa; a potential 2nd playoff appearance for India; a 2nd playoff appearance for Chile; a 6th playoff appearance for US Northeast; a 7th playoff appearance for Italy; an 8th playoff appearance for Brazil; a potential 10th playoff appearance for France; a potential 11th playoff appearance for Germany; a 14th playoff appearance for US West

* In any two consecutive years of WCoP, the top 8 has always shared at least 4 teams with the previous edition. This year will be no exception as US West, Italy, US Northeast, and Chile have confirmed their top 8 spots from last year. Should India win their tiebreaker match, this will be the first year since 2019 where two consecutive top 8s share five or more teams.

that's all i got, glhf in playoffs

 

[Amaranth]

A quick post-playoffs update:

* Italy is now a 2-time World Cup of Pokémon Champion. They overtake Spain to 5th place in the all-time result rankings (they previously had the same number of 1st, 2nd, and top 4 finishes, but Spain had more top 8s).
* They are the first repeat champion since 2019, when US West won their second title. Every winner between 2020 and 2024 was a first-time winner - including Italy's own first trophy in 2020.
* This makes Italy the clear best team in the last 6 years of World Cups (2020-2025): 2 wins (nobody else has more than 1), 3 finals (only Europe has 2 - both losses), 4 playoff appearances (only US Midwest has 5). This is especially noteworthy as Italy had *zero* final appearances before this stretch.
* Italy 2024-2025 also joins a short list of teams to have managed back-to-back finals: US East 12-13-14-15-16-17; Asia 05-06-08 (there was no tournament in 07); Oceania 09-10-11; US West 11-12; US West 18-19; and now Italy 24-25

* US West joins Europe in having the dubious honor of having the most finals lost (3 - 2011, 2018, 2025). This tournament still marks their best placement since their last win in 2019.

* Chile is the second team ever to have fought out of qualifiers and eventually reached a top 4 finish, after Latin America (2017-2019). India joins them in the club as the only teams to have ever made multiple top 8s after escaping qualifiers. (UK only made one top 8 after making it back up from qualifiers, and after their 2025 campaigns, Brazil and Africa could also achieve this feat.)


Congratulations to the winners and to everyone else who achieved notable results this year :)