Pokemon Video Game Tournament 2009

[DarkestLight]

Yes, it has been announced. Info is on pokemon.com...but I got so excited I'm just gonna transcribe it here..

Pokémon Video Game World Championships

http://www.go-pokemon.com/op/common/img/logos/large/OP_VGC09_Lrg.png
Pokémon Trainers around the globe, prepare for battle!


The Pokémon Platinum Version video game is coming to Nintendo DS™ on March 22nd, and this spring Pokémon Trainers around the globe will battle for a chance to win it all at the 2009 Pokémon Video Game World Championships!
For Pokémon Trainers, it could not possibly get more exciting than this. Pokémon Video Game Regional Tournaments will be held this spring throughout the United States and Europe, and the competition is guaranteed to be intense. Trainers tough enough to qualify will earn an invitation and travel award to participate in the Pokémon Video Game National Championships held in St. Louis, Missouri on June 27th and 28th.
Pokémon Trainers who have the skill to qualify at the National level will earn an invitation and travel award to the ultimate stage—the Pokémon Video Game World Championships! This prestigious event will take place in San Diego, California on August 14th and 15th.
Detailed rules will be announced in the coming weeks, but for now we can reveal that Pokémon Trainers will compete using the 2-on-2 Double Cup format, with no Pokémon allowed to exceed level 50. Stay tuned for more information about which Pokémon will be restricted.
The competition will take place exclusively using Pokémon Platinum Version, so be sure to pick up the game when it is released on March 22nd. With new adventures, never-before-seen Formes of powerful Pokémon, and expanded online options, Pokémon Platinum Version has plenty of new surprises for Pokémon fans.
The Pokémon Video Game World Championships will showcase the world's best Pokémon Trainers and their prized Pokémon. When the competition begins, will you be prepared for battle?
To participate in the Pokémon Video Game Championships, you'll need to bring your own copy of Pokémon Platinum Version. Stay tuned for more information.

Discuss :o. I'm damn sure going this year. I..need to think up a new doubles format, I truly hate Doubles.

[mr_pikachu]

Thanks for the heads-up, DL! I hope our recent doubles tournament helped you find those facets of your team that need to be improved. ^^

I might have to take a shot, myself, although I'll need to do some serious team rebuilding before... whenever my local regional tourney is. There's no way I'll make it to Worlds with my experience level, but it'd be cool if, by some miracle, I qualified for Nationals in a weak region or something.

[DarkestLight]

>> I need to improve that whole team. C_c was railing me for a while >> But yes. I'm excited for another NYC one. I gotta get a new team ready for importation to Platinum. Shall be exciting.

[classy_cat18]

I'm not willing to embarrass myself. Compared to those who spend days just breeding the perfect Lucario, I'm just a humble, casual player.

Invest in defensive moves, DL. Your team will get much better with just that.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

It's great that they still do things like this. But no, you won't see me there. I checked pokemon.fi to see if we have any tournaments, but found nothing. I don't actually care if they leave Finland out, other than that I could say I wasn't even able to participate anyway then.

Hm, you need to bring your own copy of Pokemon Platinum for the tournament? Now I don't know about compatibility, but does that mean the people in Germany, for instance, have to buy the English version? Have I understood correctly, don't they have the games in German language in Germany?

[DarkestLight]

No, whatever region you live in, you'll need to have the Pokemon Platinum for that region. So the European sector would need the European version (so any of those languages that exist in Europe would be fine, as long as it was released in Europe and not America)

[Phoenixsong]

If there's a tournament in my region, I'll probably go. I had a blast at JAA, and now that I actually know what the hell I'm doing I might stand a chance of doing at least a little better than I did last time. Don't know that I have enough confidence in my abilities to say I'd actually be able to win, but I'd probably be able to avoid making retarded mistakes in the first round of the finals again (kill the thing with Imprison first next time, idiot).

The one thing that really annoys me is the stupid level restriction. They aren't using auto-level, presumably because they don't want to have to worry about hassling with friend codes, which I guess I can understand, but... why not just be like JAA and let the levels go up to 100? The level 50 thing means that you can't use Dragonite unless you got one at the event (lucky I got two of them then, huh) and can't use Tyranitar at all (that may not actually be a problem, because I'm pretty sure I remember seeing what's intended to be the official rules/banlist somewhere and Tyranitar isn't allowed according to that, iirc). And it also means that certain moves are unobtainable, like Close Combat on Gallade, Extremespeed on Lucario or Leaf Blade on Leafeon... ugh. A lot of my competitive Pokémon are just over level 50, too, so I'd have to train brand new ones that stay under the level requirement. Admittedly I'm a rather lazy competitive trainer and I usually settle for decent eggs/catches rather than "spend days breeding the perfect Lucario", as classy put it, but that doesn't make having to start over any less irritating.

I mean, I guess it's something I can get over and deal with, but it just seems unnecessary, restrictive and annoying. :/

I also wonder if Platinum is compatible with PBR (if it isn't, I guess they'll release a patch for it the way they did with Ranch? but then they probably would've done that in Japan by now, and I haven't heard anything about it, so it's either compatible or they aren't planning on any compatibility at all), because battling on big-screen TVs in 3D at JAA was awesome. And I might be remembering this wrong because it's been a while since I've ventured into that area of PBR, but doesn't the DS-to-DS battle have autolevel? It must not, otherwise they'd probably just let us use that instead of imposing the silly restriction.

I actually tried writing the Pokémon.com mailbag a few times, asking whether or not there was a reason for the restriction, but they never answered the question. Maybe if I try again now that a tournament has actually been announced, I can get an explanation. If they've got a good reason for it then fine, I'll stop whining, but I want to know what that reason is.

On the bright side, no autolevel means that you could actually use FEAR Pokémon and guarantee that they're at the lowest level possible for maximum evil. Granted, something tells me that FEAR doesn't work as well in doubles as it would in singles, but I may actually just give it a try to be irritating. ;P

[DarkestLight]

If there's a tournament in my region, I'll probably go. I had a blast at JAA, and now that I actually know what the hell I'm doing I might stand a chance of doing at least a little better than I did last time. Don't know that I have enough confidence in my abilities to say I'd actually be able to win, but I'd probably be able to avoid making retarded mistakes in the first round of the finals again (kill the thing with Imprison first next time, idiot).

I envy you, as I could not get to compete in JAA

The one thing that really annoys me is the stupid level restriction. They aren't using auto-level, presumably because they don't want to have to worry about hassling with friend codes, which I guess I can understand, but... why not just be like JAA and let the levels go up to 100?

Because some lazy competitive trainers (me) don't like raising Pokemon to lvl 100. Its annoying-and time consuming. But yeah, they also don't want someone having all sorts of overpowered moves killing players off.

The level 50 thing means that you can't use Dragonite unless you got one at the event (lucky I got two of them then, huh) and can't use Tyranitar at all (that may not actually be a problem, because I'm pretty sure I remember seeing what's intended to be the official rules/banlist somewhere and Tyranitar isn't allowed according to that, iirc). And it also means that certain moves are unobtainable, like Close Combat on Gallade, Extremespeed on Lucario or Leaf Blade on Leafeon... ugh.

That does suck. I thought I was going to be screwed with Metagross til I realized I could keep it as Metang and learn Meteor Mash at lvl 50.

A lot of my competitive Pokémon are just over level 50, too, so I'd have to train brand new ones that stay under the level requirement. Admittedly I'm a rather lazy competitive trainer and I usually settle for decent eggs/catches rather than "spend days breeding the perfect Lucario", as classy put it, but that doesn't make having to start over any less irritating.

{Yeah, especailly when we just going to make the same Pokemon essentialy. Sometimes its better I'm hoping to get a better IV for Attack in a few choices of mine, sick of getting 2..

I mean, I guess it's something I can get over and deal with, but it just seems unnecessary, restrictive and annoying. :/

I also wonder if Platinum is compatible with PBR (if it isn't, I guess they'll release a patch for it the way they did with Ranch? but then they probably would've done that in Japan by now, and I haven't heard anything about it, so it's either compatible or they aren't planning on any compatibility at all), because battling on big-screen TVs in 3D at JAA was awesome. And I might be remembering this wrong because it's been a while since I've ventured into that area of PBR, but doesn't the DS-to-DS battle have autolevel? It must not, otherwise they'd probably just let us use that instead of imposing the silly restriction.

No. It does have autolevel. I'm pretty sure it does. Lemme go check...
I'm pretty sure it auto levels to lvl 50....

I actually tried writing the Pokémon.com mailbag a few times, asking whether or not there was a reason for the restriction, but they never answered the question. Maybe if I try again now that a tournament has actually been announced, I can get an explanation. If they've got a good reason for it then fine, I'll stop whining, but I want to know what that reason is.

On the bright side, no autolevel means that you could actually use FEAR Pokémon and guarantee that they're at the lowest level possible for maximum evil. Granted, something tells me that FEAR doesn't work as well in doubles as it would in singles, but I may actually just give it a try to be irritating. ;P

o.O I do not know this term FEAR. Explain plzkthx?

O wow, Didn't let me post cause I added it in the quote. Nver knew that.

[Phoenixsong]

I'm lazy too, and I'd rather not raise things to level 100, but given that that's easier to do in DPPt than it was in RSE I'd be willing to put up with it in favor of fewer restrictions.

As for FEAR, well, that stands for one of two things. The technical version is Focus Sash Endeavor Quick Attack Rattata; the more "colorful" version is Fucking Evil Annoying Rodent. Either way, it describes a very gimmicky strategy that involves the things listed in the first acronym. You take a Rattata at a very low level, preferably 1, teach it Endeavor and Quick Attack and let it hold a Focus Sash. The idea is that it's so horrifically weak compared to all of your opponent's huge, EV-trained killers that any attack they could possibly use will kill it... but Rattata will survive the hit with its Focus Sash. Rattata uses Endeavor to bring the opponent down to 1 HP. On the next turn, Rattata uses Quick Attack to pick off the last 1 HP, scoring a very irritating KO. This can also be done with any other Pokémon that learns Endeavor and a priority move, and technically they don't have to be unevolved or level 1 (you could also do this with a Swellow, for example), but I believe Rattata was the first Pokémon to do it and so the trick is named after it.

Of course, as I said it's an awfully gimmicky ploy, and there are a million things that can go wrong: Sandstorm and Hail kill it before it can use Quick Attack, neither Endeavor nor Quick Attack hits ghosts, the opponent might have a priority move and use it before Rattata's Quick Attack, it generally isn't worth wasting a slot on your team for a gimmick like this... still, if you use it against an opponent who doesn't know about FEAR you might be able to catch them off-guard, and even if Sandstorm or something kills Rattata before it can Quick Attack, most of the time you can get off Endeavor, at the very least. And even if they don't actually attack Rattata when you use Endeavor, you can still get the opponent down to about 12 HP, which is around Rattata's max HP at level 1--not too bad for setting up for your next Pokémon.

Now that I think about it, though, I do definitely think that FEAR is a bad idea for a doubles tournament. Doubles adds even more things that can go wrong (Fake Out is pretty common in doubles and comes to mind), and if you make it past the first round then people are going to know to expect it. They'll know most of what to expect about the rest of your team, too, but FEAR is so ridiculously easy to counter.

...hm, you might be able to get away with it under Trick Room, but that's about it.

[Negrek]

The level restriction is most likely because it allows for certain strategies--lv. 1 smeargle was popular at last year's tournament, and one player used a variant for sandstorm, the lv. 1 cubone.

As of this year, one Japanese finalist was playing a trick room team but chose to use a team of level forty-nines instead of level fifties, to ensure that his team would be slower even than other trick room teams.

Also, it means that they can keep the list of banned pokémon shorter because some pokémon, such as Lugia and Mewtwo, are already eliminated by their level.

[Phoenixsong]

Level 100 open would still allow for the use of level 1 Pokémon, though. The banlist maybe, although I personally wouldn't care about its length. Again, if the list I saw a preview of somewhere or other is accurate, they explicitly went out of their way to say that Tyranitar is banned, and Tyranitar would be autobanned by the level limit anyway.

And you could still use Lugia at level 50.

I wouldn't know about what was popular anywhere because aside from assuming that most of the people were from Smogon or someplace popular, I wouldn't know where to look for a report on that or anything. Do they give reports on Bulbapedia or something?

[Negrek]

Navel Rock Lugia was lv. 50 or something? In any case, most people probably prefer lv. 50 because it doesn't take as long to train up to that point. I'm not interested in raising a bunch of crap to lv. 100 myself. It also makes battles go faster because attacks do more damage at lv. 50 than at lv. 100.

In any case, most coverage of the battling was done by Smogon. There are some Japanese Youtube channels that covered the preliminary tournaments and so on as well. Japan's been running qualifiers for this year's tourney since October, and they get a tournament in every prefecture, plus a second-chance qualifier that happened... just recently, I think. It's kind of unfair. ;-;

Anyway, if you're interested in more information about last year's/this year's trends and so forth, this thread (http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46969) is of interest.

[Phoenixsong]

Shadow Lugia is level 50, remember? Now Ho-Oh you could never use, but Lugia? Sure. Unless XD Lugia is taboo or something, you'd just use that if Lugia weren't banned outright.

Yeah, as I said I'd rather not have to train to 100 either. I'm just annoyed at having to retrain a few things that otherwise would've been just fine for doubles and I don't like feeling restricted, even if some of those restrictions wouldn't apply to me. It's just principle, I guess.

EDIT: Found the rules I mentioned earlier. (http://pokenav.net/rules.php#lv50s) I'm not sure where Pokénav got them so feel free to take them with a grain of salt, but if they're right then this is what you can expect to have to conform to. Goes into a bit more detail than the simple banlist in that Smogon thread.

[DarkestLight]

I'm also a Smogoner (really a lurker, but yeah, I read their analysis and OU/UU Tier analyses to understand how the metagame shifts) and yeah, it seems that rule list is mirroring 2008's tourney.

Anyway, I know that gimmick now. I never knew the proper name of it, but that acronymn suits it just fine. Didn't see it at the Qualifiers in NY, nor did DVergle appear. It really was Rain Dance based teams (I believe the winner last year used that).

Japan gets so many Tournaments its really unfair -.- They also really support Doubles...and we're just catching up. But I dunno. I can't get into doubles...

[Roses are Red]

I might have to compete in one if it's around me for the fun of it. I don't even know what Pokemon are in Platinum but I really want to mirror a completely odd team I have in the fanfic I write (fakemon would be traded for something real). And, just checking, only one that isn't available is Slowpoke. I must find me a Slowpoke now as I don't have Pearl or Diamond (Pearl was lost with my old DS ;-; ). I'll probably lose really bad.

Now here's a question - when do the regional qualifying ones take place? Or will they release that information at a later time?

[Phoenixsong]

They haven't released that info yet, but I imagine they will in the next few weeks.

I really like doubles--it was how I first got into competitive battling. But I'm not very good with it because, again, no one stateside takes it seriously and there are very few people to play against (competent people, anyway--I'm all for casual battling and whatever but if I want to play competitive doubles then I want to play competitive doubles, not singles-team-of-ubers/favorite-pokemon-forced-onto-the-field-two-at-a-time). Pretty much no incentive to practice. :/

[DarkestLight]

Well PS. I'll take you on seriously, if you want (for practice). I need to create and stabilize a good Doubles Team. I'm working on training a few choice guys right now-but I got a Doubles Team ready to go whenever.

However. "favorites-forced-onto-the-field-two-at-a-time would...be Doubles persay, or do you mean you need to be facing a (competent) synergy as well?