The Silph Arena's eighth and final Global Cup of the Season begins on August 1st! With it comes a last chance to prove your skill and increase your global and local season ranking before Season One concludes! The Mirror Cup provides a special chance to reflect on the diverse challenges competitors have conquered in the first season of the Silph Arena. Here's what you need to know:

What Is the Mirror Cup?

Each month the Silph Arena holds a month-long Cup - a 'themed' PvP tournament - that provides tens of thousands of trainers around the world a specially-designed competitive challenge and a chance to prove they're the very best. The Silph Arena is the world's largest global network for ranked Pokemon GOTM tournament play.

During the Cup (August 1st - 31st), local Silph League communities host and record a special tournament using the free Silph.gg tools. Wins and losses in this local tournament affect your player rank on local and global leaderboards, earn you the Mirror Cup trophy for your Trophy Case, and can help you progress towards higher Player Tiers!

For the first time in the Arena, the Mirror Cup provides tournament organizers a chance to select and host any Arena Cup from Season 1 (plus the Season 1 Regional Invitational rules). Communities can host as many different Cups during the Mirror Cup as they desire, but remember, only one Mirror Cup will grant a competitor extra weighted rank and all Mirror Cup tournaments will grant only the Mirror Cup Badge!

Find a local tournament near you on the Tournament Map!

Mirror Cup Rules

The Mirror Cup has a few special rules (designed to provide added challenge and fun) that differ from standard PvP combat in Pokemon GO:

Communities may pick any Season 1 Cup's theme for their Mirror Cup. When creating their tournament, they will be prompted to pick from the following themes (and their accompanying rulesets): Boulder Cup, Twilight Cup, Tempest Cup, Kingdom Cup, Nightmare Cup, Rainbow Cup, Jungle Cup, or Season 1 Regionals

Competitors will bring a team of 6 Pokemon (and register them before the tournament begins). All battle parties used must be comprised of these 6 Pokemon.

No new species bans have been implemented in any past Cup ruleset. All new Pokemon will be permitted, assuming they would have qualified under the past Cup rules.

Matches are played in Great League: only Pokemon up to 1500 CP are permitted in the Cup.

Only one of each Pokemon species is permitted on your team of 6. (No species duplicates - even in Boulder Cup!)

of each Pokemon species is permitted on your team of 6. (No species duplicates - even in Boulder Cup!) Arena Rules will be followed in all other particulars.

How to Compete

Registration for the August Cup will become available to local community leaders on July 18th - but Mirror Cups cannot begin until August 1st and must be concluded by August 31st. Find a Cup tournament near you via the Tournament Map!

Frequently Asked Questions

Community Leader Questions:

If my community hosts multiple Mirror Cups, Do they all need to use the same theme?

No. Each Mirror Cup your community hosts can use a different past Cup theme - and themes can also be repeated. Feel free to host multiple Cups and revisit whichever metas from past months your community is most excited about!

How Do I Host a Mirror Cup Tournament in My Community?

Simply log in to Silph.gg with an authorized Community Leader account and create a Cup tournament on your community management page. You will be given an RSVP url to share with your community and, on the day of the tournament, a join code to confirm your tournament's registrants. For a guide to setting up your tournament on Silph.gg, click here.

How Do I Become Authorized to Host Tournaments on Silph.gg?

All Silph League Discord community admins simply need to add themselves as 'Tournament Admins' via the Discord @SilphRoad bot:

On Discord, use the @SilphRoad add-tournament-admin @username#0000 command in your #silph-league channel. (You may need to log out of Silph.gg and back in again!)

Telegram channel and group admins are automatically authorized on Silph.gg.

Can I host multiple Mirror Cups in my community in August?

Yes. However, only one Cup each month will have significant impact on each participant's Global Ranking. Participants may choose at the start of a Cup if they want their performance in that specific Cup to receive extra weight in rank calculations compared to other tournaments of that Cup's type.

Does the Mirror Cup have to be hosted on a specific date?

Any date between August 1 and August 31, 2019 is a valid date to hold your community's Mirror Cup. The tournament registration page will not allow registering your Cup for an invalid date or time - so as long as you are able to create your tournament on Silph.gg, you will know it is set for a valid date. Remember , it must be concluded by the end of August 31st to count for rank!

I am a community leader of a Facebook Group (or other platform like Slack, Line, etc). How do I host the Mirror Cup for my community?

The Arena team is working to enable non-Discord/Telegram communities to host the Cup. Stay tuned for news on this front!

Participant Questions:

How Do I Join a Mirror Cup Tournament in My Community?

Find a local Cup being hosted by a community near you via the Tournament Map and read the event details on the event's RSVP page!

How Important Are Monthly Cups for My Player Rank?

Very. The vast majority of player rank in the Arena is derived from performance in the global, standardized Cups. (This is because Cups allow the Arena to observe the same controlled competitive scenarios for each player!)

Why is the Mirror Cup (and all non-Cup ranked tournaments) played in Great League?

Great League (max 1500cp) provides a diverse, new playing field with many options for creative, competitive teams. It also allows more casual players to join tournaments at meetups without being completely unable to compete with level 40 trainers who often sport the same level 40 Legendary Pokemon. Great League also marks immediately irrelevant much of the amassed arsenal of those who manipulate their GPS location ('spoof') to circumvent in-game mechanic limiters and acquire unnatural advantages.

Where can I learn more about global player ranking?

More resources will be coming soon - but in the meantime, you may give the following page a read:

About the 2019 Competitive Season »