Frequently Asked Questions

Lost Zone Team League (LZTL) is a competitive Pokémon TCG team league. Teams of 5 players compete weekly in seeded 1v1 best-of-3 matches. Individual player ratings (PR), team standings, and full season records are tracked through the league app at lostzoneleague.com.

A season runs a set number of rounds in a round-robin format — every team plays every other team once. Each round spans one full week. After all regular season rounds are complete, the top 4 teams by total points advance to playoffs.

Points are awarded per completed seed match: • +1 per game won in the best-of-3 • +1 for winning the seed match overall Example: A 2–1 win earns the winner 3 points (2 games + 1 match win), the loser earns 1 point. When all 5 seed matches in a weekly team matchup are complete, the team with more total points earns a +3 matchup bonus. A tie gives each team +1.

Monday — Matchups revealed. Contact your opponent as early as possible. Tuesday 11:59 PM ET — Substitute request deadline. Wednesday 11:59 PM ET — Match scheduling (date, time, format) deadline. Sunday 11:59 PM ET — All matches must be completed.

A PR Sync applies all pending PR changes from completed matches to player ratings. It is run by a league admin at the end of each round. After the sync, all team seeds are automatically reordered by True PR. You can see your pending delta on your match detail page before the sync runs.

A DQ is issued by an admin when a player fails to respond or complete their match without arranging a substitute. The DQ'd player receives a 0-2 loss for record purposes; the opposing player receives a 2-0 win. Neither player's PR is affected. Repeated DQs may result in suspension or removal from the league.

Email admin@lostzoneleague.com or use the "Contact League Admin" link in the footer of any page on the site.

Visit lostzoneleague.com/how-to-play for complete match rules, deadline details, and league procedures. The Code of Conduct is at lostzoneleague.com/code-of-conduct.

Click "Get Started" on the homepage. Use the PR Calculator to estimate your starting rating from your recent tournament history, then create an account. Once registered, you appear on the Free Agents list where captains can recruit you.

PR is your individual competitive rating, similar to an ELO system. It ranges from 100 (minimum) to 600 (maximum). Every completed match adjusts your PR based on the result and the rating gap between you and your opponent. Beating a higher-rated opponent earns more PR than beating a lower-rated one.

True PR is your raw calculated rating and can technically exceed 600 or fall below 100. Displayed PR is your True PR clamped to the 100–600 range. Teams use Displayed PR for budget calculations and seeding.

Each team assigns players seeds 1 through 5, ordered by PR from highest (Seed 1) to lowest (Seed 5). Each week you face the opposing team's player at the same seed — Seed 1 vs Seed 1, Seed 2 vs Seed 2, and so on.

All matches are best of 3 games using the Pokémon TCG. Players agree on a format: Online (TCGLive), Webcam, or In-Person. The format is logged on the match detail page.

Open your match detail page and click the Schedule card. Set a date, time, and format that works for both players. The scheduling deadline is Wednesday 11:59 PM Eastern. Contact your opponent as soon as matchups are revealed on Monday.

Document your contact attempts, notify both captains, and report to a league admin with evidence. Your opponent will receive a DQ loss (0-2) and you receive a DQ win (2-0). Neither player's PR is affected.

Submit a Substitute Request on your match detail page before Tuesday 11:59 PM Eastern. Your substitute must be a free agent with equal or lower PR than you. A captain or admin must approve the request before the match is played.

Yes. On your match detail page, tap the Deck card to select your Primary and Secondary Pokémon for the match. This is optional but encouraged for league records.

Go to lostzoneleague.com/profile and click "Edit Profile." You can update your display name, time zone, Discord username, TCGLive username, profile photo, email, and password from this screen.

All new players start at 100 PR by default. If you have recent tournament history, use the PR Calculator at lostzoneleague.com/pr-calculator to estimate a starting rating based on your Regional, Cup, Challenge, and Local finishes.

As captain you: • Recruit players from the free agent pool within your PR budget • Communicate weekly matchup schedules to your players • Ensure all matches are scheduled and completed on time • Handle substitute and drop/replace requests • Maintain your team's name, logo, and about section on the site

Each team has a combined PR cap of 2,000. Each playing member costs what their Displayed PR was on the day you rostered them, and the sum of those five costs cannot exceed the cap. PR your players earn after joining does not count against the budget, so winning games can never lock you out of filling a seat. Non-playing members (coaches or non-playing co-captains) do not count toward the cap at all.

Go to Admin > Team Builder. Find your team and use the "Add free agent" dropdown to select an available player. Adding them must keep your roster within the 2,000 PR cap, counted at what each player cost on the day you rostered them.

Yes. From your team's profile page while logged in as captain, click "Replace" next to any playing member and select a free agent as their replacement. Budget rules apply — the new player's PR cannot push you over the 2,000 cap. Dropping a player frees up whatever they cost when you rostered them, not their current PR. Changes take effect immediately.

Substitute requests appear directly on the match detail page. As captain, you'll see Approve and Deny buttons inline on the pending sub card. Approved subs swap the player out of the seed match; PR changes from the match apply to the substitute.

Yes. In Admin > Team Builder, use the role selector on any roster member to set them as Co-Captain. Co-captains can approve substitutes, edit the team name and about section, and help manage the roster.

Seeds are automatically ordered by True PR descending — Seed 1 is your highest-rated player, Seed 5 is your lowest. You can trigger a manual re-sort from the Admin panel using "Sort Seeds." Seeds also reorder automatically after every PR Sync.

When a new season is created, all existing team rosters are automatically carried forward as the starting point. You can then make any changes you need without rebuilding from scratch.

A free agent is a registered player who is not currently on any team's active roster. You remain a free agent until a captain adds you to their team.

Once you create an account, your name, PR, and time zone appear on the Free Agents page at lostzoneleague.com/free-agents. Make sure your profile is complete so captains can evaluate your fit.

Not in the regular weekly matches. However, you can serve as a substitute player for a rostered player if your PR is equal to or lower than theirs and a captain or admin approves the request.

Your PR only changes from playing matches. If you sub in for a player and the match result is synced, your PR updates. Otherwise it stays the same until you join a team and play.

There is no hard deadline, but teams typically fill rosters before a season starts. If you register after a season begins, you may need to wait for an open roster spot or for a new season.

You stay on the free agent list indefinitely. Reaching out directly to team captains is the fastest way to get rostered — don't wait to be found.

Yes. If a captain removes you from the roster you immediately return to free agent status and are available for any team to recruit.

A tournament is a standalone event you enter as an individual, not as part of your team. You are paired against other individuals rather than the opposing team's player at your seed. Every event runs Swiss rounds first and then cuts to single elimination. Tournaments run entirely on the site: pairings, round timers, check-in, result reporting, match chat, and judge calls are all handled at lostzoneleague.com/tournaments.

No. Tournament results never touch your league PR, your True PR, your seed, or your team's PR budget. You can enter an event and play opponents well above your rating with no risk to your league standing. Your team roster is completely unaffected by anything that happens in a tournament.

No. Tournaments are league-wide and open to everyone with an active account — rostered players, captains, co-captains, and free agents alike. You enter as an individual, so it makes no difference whether you are on a roster, which team you play for, or what your seed is. Being a free agent is not a limitation here the way it is in the weekly matches: free agents enter on exactly the same footing as everyone else and can win the whole event. It is also a genuinely good way to get noticed if you are looking to get rostered, since captains can see how you performed.

The structure is set automatically from how many players actually show up, not from how many registered: • 7-16 players: 4 Swiss rounds, Top 4 cut • 17-32 players: 5 Swiss rounds, Top 8 cut • 33-64 players: 6 Swiss rounds, Top 8 cut • 65-128 players: 7 Swiss rounds, Top 8 cut • 129-256 players: 8 Swiss rounds, Top 8 cut An organizer can override the round count or cut size for a specific event. Whatever applies is shown on the tournament's Details tab before you register.

Go to lostzoneleague.com/tournaments. Upcoming and live events are listed with their date, current player count, and round structure. Open the event you want and press Register Now. There is no fee and no approval step — you are in immediately. The Details tab shows the format, round length, check-in window, cut structure, and decklist deadline before you commit.

Yes, both, but they are different actions at different points in the event. Before the tournament starts, an Unregister button on the tournament page removes you completely, as if you had never signed up. Your decklist goes with you and you do not appear in the final records. Once the event is live you can no longer unregister, but you can drop, which withdraws you from all remaining rounds. Dropping is the right call if something comes up mid-event — it is much better than simply disappearing, because an opponent paired against an absent player has to sit through the check-in window for a win they should not have had to wait for. Dropped players stay listed in the standings with the record they earned, and their results still count toward their former opponents' tiebreakers. That is standard tournament practice and it is deliberate: removing a dropped player's results would unfairly distort the tiebreakers of everyone who played them.

Most events require one, and the tournament page tells you which. Press Submit Decklist and you get two options: export your list from Pokémon TCG Live and paste it straight in, or pick a deck you have already saved in your deck wallet. Pasted lists are parsed and validated automatically, so you find out immediately whether the list came back valid and, if not, which cards caused the problem.

Yes, as many times as you like, but it has to be done before Round 1 begins. Right up until that moment you can resubmit freely — swap a few cards, paste a completely different list, or switch to a different deck from your wallet. Only the most recent version counts, so there is no penalty for changing your mind late. The moment the tournament starts, decklists lock. The version you had submitted at that instant is snapshotted and becomes the list on record for the entire event, including the top cut. It cannot be edited afterward, by you or by a judge. The practical advice: submit something workable as soon as you register, even if you are still testing. A rough list on file that you refine later is far safer than an empty slot you plan to fill at the last minute, because an unsubmitted list when the round-1 lock hits can cost you your entry.

It depends on the settings for that specific tournament. Open decklists are a per-event option the organizer turns on or off when they create the event, so it is not a fixed league-wide rule and it can differ from one tournament to the next. When open decklists are enabled, you can pull up your opponent's registered list from inside your match page and they can pull up yours. Both sides get the same access — it is never one-way. This changes how a match plays out, since you can count their outs and play around specific cards, so it is worth checking before you sit down. When the setting is off, lists stay private and are visible only to you and to judges. Either way, the tournament's Details tab states which applies before you register, so you always know what you are signing up for.

Pairings post the moment a round begins, on the tournament's Pairings tab. Every table shows both players, their current records, and the decks they registered. Your own match has a direct shortcut from the banner at the top of the page. When you are in a live event, a bar also appears at the top of every page on the site with the current round, a running timer, and a link straight to your match.

Wins are worth 3 match points and ties are worth 1. Standings update continuously as results come in, with the cut line drawn in so you can see where you stand relative to making Top 4 or Top 8. Ties in match points are broken first on your opponents' win percentage, then on your opponents' opponents' win percentage.

At the start of every round both players must check in on their match page. This is the one part of the event on a hard clock. Your match page shows who has checked in and a countdown to the automatic loss. If you do not check in before it expires you take the loss for the round; if neither player checks in, both take the loss. The window is set per event and is usually five minutes. Check in as soon as pairings go up, even if you need a minute before you are ready to play — checking in early costs you nothing.

Every match has its own chat on the match page, so you never need to leave the site. Use it to trade in-game names, send the invite, and sort out who goes first. The chat also doubles as the match record — check-ins, reported games, and confirmations are written into the same thread as system notes, so if anything is disputed later there is a clear timeline of what happened and when.

Press Request A Judge on your match page for anything that needs a ruling: a disconnection, a rules question, an opponent who has gone quiet, or a misclick you cannot undo. Your request is logged in the match thread and the button switches to Judge Requested so you can confirm it went through. Every open request lands in a judge queue visible to the whole admin team, oldest first. A judge can join your match, read the full history, talk to both players, and record the result directly if it comes to that. Everything a judge does is written into the match thread so both players can see it.

Report each game as it finishes using the Win, Loss, and Tie buttons on your match page. Reporting only opens once both players have checked in. When the deciding game is reported your opponent is asked to confirm, and if they do not act the result auto-confirms shortly afterward — a slow or absent opponent cannot leave your match hanging. Once confirmed, standings update and the result is final.

Standard Pokémon end-of-game turns apply. You do not stop playing the moment time is called. When time runs out, the player whose turn is in progress finishes their turn. If no winner is determined by that turn ending, the result is a tie. The match result then follows from the games: in a best-of-1 a tied game is a tied match, worth 1 match point to each player. In a best-of-3, whoever is ahead on games won takes the match, and if the players are level on games it is a tie. Cut rounds are untimed by default precisely so this does not come up — they have to be played to a decision.

A bye is a free round. If an odd number of players are active when a round is paired, somebody has to sit out, and that player receives a bye instead of a match. The bye goes to the lowest-ranked player who has not already had one. Prior byes are tracked across the whole event, so the same player will not be handed a second one while anyone else is still without. Only if every remaining player has already had a bye does it fall to the lowest-ranked player overall. A bye counts as a win and is worth the full 3 match points, so it does not cost you anything in the standings. It is excluded from the win percentage used for tiebreakers, which matters for the people you are paired against later: a bye neither inflates nor deflates your opponents' tiebreakers, so nobody is rewarded or punished for having faced a player who got one. If you receive a bye you have nothing to do that round. There is no check-in and no result to report — just wait for the next pairings to post.