The nexr season for competitve Pokemon is almost here and it brings with it a few changes. You can view these changes on the Pokemon Website by using this link ...
https://championships.pokemon.com/en-gb/about/2026-season-changes
One of the changes that will effect us at store level is the new going to time procedure, which is as follows...
Pokémon TCG End-of-Round Rule Change
During the 2025 season, when time was called in a round, competitors had +3 turns to conclude their active game. If the game did not resolve in those turns, the game was declared a draw, and the match concluded accordingly. For example, if one competitor was ahead 1-0, they were awarded a match win, but if the game score was 1-1 or 0-0, the match was a tie.
This end-of-round procedure creates complicated situations for event operations, since the +3 turns phase of a match technically has no time limit. It’s been observed that competitors play differently during overtime and stretch out their turns, making round turnover unpredictable and significantly extending round times. We’ve concluded that the overtime procedure is not achieving its intended goal with a significant percentage of matches still resulting in a draw after +3 turns. To mitigate these unintended complications, we are implementing the following rules: After time is called in a round, competitors will have an additional full turn (+1 turn) to complete their match. The active competitor will complete their turn, their opponent will then complete their turn, and if no winner is determined by that point, the game is a draw.
An “overtime clock” of 10 minutes will be instituted for this additional turn, and if play does not conclude within the allotted time, the game is a draw. The overtime clock is intentionally long compared to the average turn length with the hope that this clause will trigger only in extreme situations where slow-play penalties may already be considered and applied where appropriate.
