The Victory Road October Challenge (2025), an unofficial Video Game Championships (VGC) grassroots tournament hosting high-level trainers, featured 168 trainers battling for a prize of $570 USD. The event was won by Matthew Henry; continue reading for more information on every high-placing team from this event!
The event ran from 11-12 October 2025 and used the Regulation Set H ruleset, banning the use of all Paradox and Legendary Pokémon. To stay on top of announcements for future Victory Road events, make sure to visit their account on X (formerly Twitter)!
The following list shows each player who made it to Top Cut; the teams they used, which you can click or tap to see more information, such as each Pokémon's moves or ability; and any prize money earned in USD. Any team or rental code shown below can be used in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's in-person events while Regulation Set H is running from 1 September to 30 November 2025.
Results
# | Rewards | Trainers | Pokémon |
1st | $570 | Matthew Henry | |
2nd | $285 | Juan Manuel Odriozola | |
Top 4 | $140 | Lorenzo Silvestrini | |
Rikuto Takemoto | |||
Top 8 | $70 | Lucas Mester-Christensen | |
Yosuke Takayanagi | |||
Hiroto Hayasaki | |||
Sebastiano Trinchitelli | |||
Top 9 (Top Cut) | — | Hsuan-Chih Kuo |
Top Pokémon
As seen in the usage statistics of the previous Victory Road September Challenge #2, rain teams are continuing to take a huge hit, with Basculegion, Archaludon, and Pelipper all seeing massive drops in usage between Day 1 and Day 2 of this event. This can partially be attributed to the huge amount of success that Alolan Ninetales has seen in recent events, having won the 2026 Belo Horizonte and Milwaukee Regionals as well as the 2026 Grand Challenge II. Since Ninetales is able to reset the current weather condition with its ability Snow Warning, opposing teams centered around the rain weather condition have to spend additional resources in order to keep their team at full power. A battle between two teams with opposing weather conditions is often colloquially referred to as a "weather war".Trick Room teams are also seeing more success, with Porygon2 and both Ursaluna forms seeing an increase in usage.
# | Pokémon | Day 1 | Day 2 | | # | Pokémon | Day 1 | Day 2 | ||
#1 | Gholdengo | 52.1% | ▲ 54% | #9 | Archaludon | 22.2% | ▼ 13% | |||
#2 | Incineroar | 50.3% | ▼ 46% | #10 | Ursaluna | 21.6% | ▲ 33% | |||
#3 | Rillaboom | 34.7% | ▲ 50% | #11 | Amoonguss | 19.8% | ▼ 13% | |||
#4 | Sneasler | 29.3% | ▼ 21% | #12 | Annihilape | 18.6% | ▲ 21% | |||
#5 | Dragonite | 28.1% | ▲ 38% | #13 | Pelipper | 18.0% | ▼ 13% | |||
#6 | Ursaluna (Bloodmoon) | 28.1% | ▲ 33% | #14 | Volcarona | 15.6% | ▲ 25% | |||
#7 | Ninetales (Alolan) | 25.1% | ▲ 54% | #15 | Kingambit | 12.6% | ▲ 25% | |||
#8 | Basculegion (Male) | 22.8% | ▼ 17% | #16 | Porygon2 | 9.6% | ▲ 17% | |||
