Tournament Rules

These terms apply to every tournament on Palworld Card Game Online, including prized events. By registering you agree to them. Event-specific details (date, prize, format) are on the event page.

Eligibility

Prized events require a signed-in account so entrants can be verified and the prize delivered. One account per person — entering an event with more than one account is grounds for disqualification, as is playing on behalf of someone else. Casual play, practice, and unprized events never require an account.

Reserving and confirming a seat

Register first, then finish 5 games AFTER registering for that event. Games against the AI, a friend, or a public table count if they finish after registration and before the event starts. Games finished before registration do not count. This applies to all upcoming events, including September. Existing confirmations are preserved; nobody loses an already-earned confirmation because of this rule update. Confirmation is automatic once the requirement is met. Confirmed entrants must still check in. If the field is full, qualified players are waitlisted in confirmation order; registration alone does not guarantee a seat. Guaranteed qualifier seats retain their reserved priority. Leaving and registering again resets your five-game window.

Decks and the deck lock

Bring any legal 50-card deck. You can change your list freely after registering, up until the deck lock — 5 minutes before the event starts — after which your list is final. The lock is deliberately late: it exists only so nobody is caught mid-edit when the round fires, not to hide the field, so you can keep tuning right up to game time. Once decks lock your seat locks too: you can no longer leave the event (so a misclick can't cost you your place, and nobody can swap lists by re-entering). You may still JOIN after the lock, you just can't change your deck afterwards.

Check-in and no-shows

Scheduled events use CHECK-IN so nobody is paired against an empty seat. Check-in opens 2 hours before the event and closes 5 minutes before it starts — be here and press Check in within that window. A few minutes before the round, seating is settled: anyone who has not checked in is released, and if the event has a waitlist the present waitlisters are promoted into the freed seats, so you know you are in before round 1 pairs. Once a round pairs, be at your board — your game is already live and your turn clock is running. You have 10 minutes from the pairing to open your game; if you never turn up within that window you lose by no-show and are DROPPED from the event (you will not be paired again), because entrants who showed up should not be left waiting on — or handed another dead game against — someone who is not coming. If NEITHER player turns up, it is a DOUBLE LOSS and both are dropped — in an elimination round neither advances, in Swiss both take a loss. Note this only applies to a genuine no-show: once you have opened your game you have shown up, so a reconnect or a short break does not drop you from the event, and simply losing a game you actually played never does — you are paired again next round.

Round time limit

Rounds are timed (the length is shown on the event page — typically 25 minutes for a single game, 45 for a best-of-three). When the clock reaches zero, time is CALLED: the player whose turn it is finishes that turn, then 3 more turns are played, and then the game ends and whoever has the most life remaining wins. If life is level the game is a DRAW — unless BOTH players are absent, in which case it is a double loss rather than a draw. In a top-cut or single-elimination round a draw is not possible — play continues in sudden death until the next change in life decides it, because somebody has to advance. Organizers can extend a round or call time early if an event needs it. Note: this time-limit procedure is our house rule — the official comprehensive rules do not define one.

Rounds advance automatically

You do not report results and you do not need to refresh: the moment every game in a round is finished, the next round is paired automatically. When you are paired, an "Enter your match" button appears at the top of the event page (and, if you allow notifications, your device pings you) — you must CLICK it to open your game. Your turn clock starts as soon as you are paired, so enter promptly; if BOTH players never enter, the game is a double loss (see check-in and no-shows). Keep the event page open between rounds. Some organizers run rounds manually instead; the event page says which.

Spectating

Games are open to spectators. Anyone can watch any live game in progress from the event page — including other entrants and people without an account — and there is no broadcast delay. Hands stay hidden from spectators exactly as they are from your opponent, but everything played to the board is public. Assume your games are being watched; if you are in contention, so is your deck.

Conduct

Play your own games, don't stall, and don't collude on results. Exploiting a bug instead of reporting it is disqualifying. Organizers may void a game, disqualify an entrant, or force-resolve a round where necessary to keep an event running.

Prizes

The advertised prize goes to the event winner. Winners must contact the organizer (via our Discord) within 72 hours of the final to arrange delivery; unclaimed prizes may be forfeited or re-awarded. Prizes are shipped at our expense to supported regions — if we cannot ship to your address, we will arrange a reasonable equivalent where possible. No cash alternative. You are responsible for any taxes or import duties that apply where you live.

Standings and tiebreakers (Swiss events)

Swiss standings follow the Bushiroad Floor Rules (3.2.1.2), using the recommended order for territories outside Japan. Match points come first: 3 for a win, 3 for a bye, 1 for a DRAW, 0 for a loss. A drawn match counts as a round played for both fighters, so it feeds the tiebreakers below like any other. Fighters level on points are separated by, in order: Opponent Match Win % (the average of your opponents' match win percentages, with any bye round excluded), then Opponent's Opponent Match Win %, then head-to-head if the two of you played each other. A match win percentage is your points divided by (rounds x 3), rounded down to two decimals and never counted lower than 0.33. If everything above is still level and you never met, we break the tie by registration order rather than a coin flip, so that final standings are reproducible.

Pairings and byes

Round 1 is paired at RANDOM — there is no seeding by sign-up order, so who you open against is luck of the draw. From round 2 on, a Swiss event pairs down the standings: you are matched with the highest-placed fighter you have not already played, and a rematch only happens when no fresh opponent is left. If the field is odd, the bye goes to the lowest-placed active fighter who has not already had one, and counts as a match win. Swiss runs for ceil(log2(field)) rounds. A single-elimination event likewise draws its first-round bracket at random. The ONE exception is a Swiss event's top cut: the elimination bracket after the Swiss rounds IS seeded, by Swiss standings, so the fighter who topped the Swiss is rewarded with the protected bracket position.

Disputes and changes

Organizer decisions are final. We may cancel, reschedule, or adjust the format of an event — including for insufficient entrants — and will announce any change in our Discord as early as we can.

Fair-play monitoring

We keep normal server-side match records and use them to investigate suspected duplicate accounts, collusion, or abuse around prized events.

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