No More Johns? – A Mini-Treatise on Consistency and Efficiency
With VGC 2014 in our rear view mirror and the inevitable rule changes for the VGC 2015 season coming up, we can now view this year’s season with optimistic criticism in earnest retrospect. Many areas of debate have arose about the improvement of next year’s system, and we have learned a lot about the current metagame as well, as outlined in Scott’s most recent “What We Learned” article. However, I imagine a majority of older players would single out this year’s metagame as different compared to previous metagames. While some older players did retain consistency (such as reigning World Champion Se Jun Park), many simply could not rely on their intuition to provide the same amount of consistency as before. As one player stated: “I felt like I really made a good meta call. I did so well in practice, but somehow botched it at LCQ.” It’s really not a player being “washed up”, or somehow inferior to his or her former glory, as many people seem to like to claim. I believe the rotation in Worlds qualifiers is due to a change in the way that VGC is now played competitively. This change isn’t simply system-based, but has its roots in several factors. However, before we continue, I would like to start with a small excerpt from an IRC chatlog to you that summarizes much of the attitude toward this season:
16:22 Dark51: sounds like a lot of johns
16:23 Fatum: i feel like this is some kind of format of johns
John – an excuse, coined by the Super Smash Bros. community. Popular Phrase: No Johns.
It’s important to realize that one critical part of the jump competitively to the 6th generation is the largely expanded playerbase. This is, in itself, the result of several in-game changes and a few factors that are more relevant to the players themselves. The aforementioned technical changes eliminate barriers to entry for newer players. Not only is EV training easier than ever before with Super Training and Hordes, but breeding perfect Pokémon is much more convenient with the changes to Destiny Knot’s IV inheritance function. In previous generations, getting perfect Pokémon took extensive time or a basic understanding of the RNG, but neither is required to prepare a team competitively in the 6th generation games. By eliminating important barriers to entry for competition, TPCi created a huge growth in the number of attendees at events, and now seems to be actively encouraging new players to take part in competition.
It is also fairly interesting to note that on April 6th, Nintendo announced that 12 million copies of Pokémon X and Y had been sold worldwide, making them the fastest-selling Pokémon games in the franchise. Lifetime sales of games such as Diamond and Pearl (the Pokémon games with the most sales in their lifespans) reached about 17.63 million units worldwide. It’s not implausible to assume that XY sales could have taken off so drastically in just several months in anticipation of the Pokémon World Championships and in preparation for the Fall Regionals later this year. With the VGC community growing so rapidly, it’s not surprising that this fledgling e-sport has begun to blossom. However, we may have to recognize that the game that we play is a highly volatile game. The more numerous the entrants in a tournament, the more likely that “hax” and luck-based events will occur. In a tournament setting, the number of matches compounds the probability of being affected by luck negatively. For example, if a player were to use a move with 90% accuracy three or so times per match, and they play five rounds, then theoretically the probability of not missing at all is only about 59%. One missed move could ultimately lead to a loss for the match. Some top-notch players, like Adib Alam (honchkro13), realized the importance of move efficiency and maximized accuracy in return for a little less power this past season. Adib states in his second place Nationals article,
“Being virtually immune to sleep and not having to worry about my attacks missing minimized the RNG against me and maximized my chances of making top cut, as I was much less likely now to lose matches and miss top cut because an attack missed, which happens to many players at these tournaments. While my team isn’t exactly a powerhouse, it still hits hard enough to the point where I didn’t really miss having stronger but less accurate moves.”
An increased variety in move choices is another side effect of increased tournament attendance. A large number of players allows for many highly unique styles of teambuilding. Some teambuilders may stray from the norm completely, and others may seek to use strategies that will catch the opponent off guard and possibly allow them to take a win. Because of this unpredictability, we have seen strategies that we had previously believed to be unviable or unusable in an actual competitive scene make top cut. Together, these factors undoubtedly affect the consistency and performance of specific players. Prediction becomes much more risky. As I mentioned before, because each Pokémon VGC battle has many volatile factors, the numerous-players model can really affect someone’s battling record over time. Resorting to Johns instead of identifying the cause of a lost match is a human tendency of myself and others, and it’s not hard to go on tilt after an unfortunate loss. Among high-level, consistent players, however, I have noticed that they tend to not make excuses and instead improve from every loss after realizing what they could have done differently.
Another aspect that must be stressed in the VGC community is that there are no implications from Player A beating Player B. It’s fairly common to hear things like: “Oh, X beat Y, so X must be a better player than Y!” There are so many factors to take into consideration during every high-level match, and there is simply no way to deem a win or a loss to be “inferiority” versus “superiority”. In our game, it’s not impossible for the oldest, most polished players to be defeated by rookies. There is no massive mechanical skillset requirement that separates the new players from the experienced. VGC is all about understanding the metagame and making the most efficient plays in different environments. Practice is learning the way that people think and play from the context of many battles.
In VGC, the end pretty much justifies the means. If someone makes top cut or does well with a team, we can change our perception of the player or their strategy based on their success. The metagame is developed by trial and error. Discrediting the strategy or player’s finish as a result of complete “luck” does us no good in understanding the optimal way to play our game.
Also, if I’ve learned one thing about not making Johns, it is to never attach one’s own ego to one’s performance. Doing so inevitably results in a lot more salt and a lot more complaining. Hypothetical conjectures in hindsight have no bearing on what actually happened, so there’s really no point in bringing up “Oh, I could have done this and won” because, well, clearly you didn’t.
Finally, the most crucial part to playing Pokémon is realizing that we’re playing a game. We’re all here to have fun and make lifelong friends in the growing community. VGC is becoming more popular and will only continue to expand in the coming years. What can we do, as players, to respond to this change? We can set examples for newer players, welcome them, and teach them. But first and foremost, we, as the collective community and as individual players, must stress: No Johns.
Related Posts
New Mechanics Introduced in VGC 2016 →
VGC ’16 Pokémon Speed Tiers →
Hyper Offense Analysis – BadIntent’s Evil Thoughts →
Greener Grassy Terrain: A More Balanced Future For VGC? →
21 Responses to No More Johns? – A Mini-Treatise on Consistency and Efficiency
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Love the shout out to the Smash community and this mindset really needs to catch on. Stop whining over every crit, miss or fully paralyzed. Great read.
I’ve always found it slightly baffling when people (at live events) apologize for a random paralyze, freeze, or crit. I’ve been on the receiving end of several of these apologies, and my response is to shrug and say “That’s Pokemon”.
Yep, if you want a game that is all skill Smash is a great example. Pokemon has so many aspects of luck from damage rolls to speed ties.
I think the way people word things are dumb sometimes.
“I ONLY lost because of “blank” “
like cool, thanks for completely diminishing the efforts of other person.
You know…I read this whole article and I still do not know what a John is.
It is used in this article over and over again, but never really explained.
* at least in enough detail for someone to follow *
I still have a problem when people group the pokemon community together…namely this comment :
“We’re all here to have fun and make lifelong friends in the growing community”
As many people should know…when you attend and have entered a pokemon competition…you honestly can not enjoy yourself, unless you are good at the game.
I have seen/heard from so many entrants, over the years, that delude themselves into believing they are having fun losing at yearly events.
Mind you, at most VGC events, all you need is the game and a handheld to enter…it continues to surprises me when I see the same people traveling every year to compete with this mentality.
To the second point, the whole lifelong friends deal…now that intentional draws are illegal, pokemon hold items are not the only tool at your disposal.
Tournament entrants can take notes during matches…they also can keep these notes after the match concludes.
Lets say your “friend” loses a match and was able to take notes on their opponent’s pokemon attacks, abilities, and hold items.
Oh the next round posting are up…wait, did you play them in a previous round…let me hold on to your notes.
Victory is all about advantage…the more information you have prior to starting your match the higher chance you have at having fun !!
A little luck is one of the reasons I enjoy spectating Pokemon so much. Mind games are interesting and seeing how someone reacts to a turn of bad luck is super fascinating. Do they get frustrated and crack, or do they keep their cool and play their way out of it.
I had to google what John meant because I didn’t understand right away.
“a John is an excuse for a player’s underperformance in a Smash Bros. game, such as not using the correct attack, having a poor controller, or narrowly losing a match, among others. It can be considered roughly equivalent to the word “excuse”.
Anyways with any competitions and stuff, losing is not fun at all, I understand that, but I feel that when you go to these events part of the fun is the atmosphere and environment you are in. They look like mini-conventions. People might not have losing, but it sure is fun to go an event to something you enjoy doing in your spare time and talk, shop and just spend time with people who do the same.
Funny that the article is using the term “Johns”.
Apparently if you aren’t winning or aren’t sufficiently good at the game, you need to “stop having fun” unless you’re deluded. Good to know.
The last thing you should be telling people who are losing at all or aren’t as good as they could be is that they shouldn’t or are ridiculous for still having fun if that’s the case. Encourage people who are losing or winning, the point is to avoid making excuses about them. People who make less excuses for losses and put themselves down less are much more likely to have fun whether they win OR lose.
NB exists for “grouping the community together”. You’re effectively telling >99% of the community that they’ve wasted the time and effort they’ve invested because they were never “good” enough (which is really a fairly subjective word). When I read “it continues to surprises me when I see the same people traveling every year to compete with this mentality”, I died a little inside. You do remember this is a game, right? Sure, we want to be at the top, but the reality is that only several people will make it. If everyone went to events solely to enjoy “fun” from being “good”, we wouldn’t have the community we have today. Well, if someone plays this game making friends just to win and always insecure with each loss, his/her life really does need some cheaper thrills. Don’t sacrifice so much for this game: it’s not like we’re getting a ton of money or something from winning. Ask any veteran: what matters most is the community and friends.
Also, I’m confused about your credentials. You claim to know that true fun comes from being “good”, yet I don’t remember you as significant as you say. Who are you, and most importantly, who do you think you are? o.O
Break has never been a very good user so I recommend just not responding to his posts. I can’t believe that all this time I haven’t even been having fun at the 4-6 major tournaments I attend every year! I never knew, I must have been blinded by my multiple losses and terrible records in general. Those pesky “friends” I’ve made that I talk to every day have sure worked hard to boost my tournament win percentage, I don’t know why I keep them around because that’s all they’re good for!
No Johns for bad posts. Remember you reflect who are are online in real life!
Accuracy is essential, nothing worse than Draco Meteor missing. You just having to expect the worst when playing Poke, you have to prepare to hit yourself in confusion or paralysis a turn. The best players play with this mindset so they can plan the next attack as best as possible to ensure victory.
The UK players always go out and have a drink after the event, I’m sure you all do the same and hang out. Sometimes you’ve played really well other times your mate has done really well. If it was not for the conversation and banter we wouldn’t play the game at all. It’s all about the Bants!
A couple things:
You mentioned running high accuracy moves, but sometimes I feel like its better to run slightly more risky moves. I think it really depends on where you expect to end up. My average preformance probably isn’t enough to make the top cut, but of course pokemon is a game with variance due to luck. Ideally my strategy would be to trade just enough consistancy for power to maximize my chances of making the top cut, even if it means increasing the chances of losing every game. Granted, in Adib’s case, he might be better off minimizing luck and maximizing consistancy.
Secondly, I have no problem with people saying “If I had done x I would have won”. Its even better if you do that with your opponent after the battle. When I played chess seriously as a kid I would go over the game with my opponent and see exactly why s/he made every move s/he did, and I’d explain my moves, so that we could realize our mistakes and understand our opponent’s thought process. That’s a big part of getting better. So realizing that you made a mistake and that “x” would have won you the game is a good thing in my mind, since it means you’re realizing that you did make a mistake, and hopefully you wont make it again. Now, thinking or saying “well, if X hadn’t missed, then I would have won”, while a perfectly understanable reaction to heated game, doesn’t actually help you improve, and is thus less of something to talk about.
In the words of Shofu, popular youtube battler
“If you don’t like the accuarcy, use water gun”
Scald yo
lol yes scald would be the better option, but i think water gun was just used to make a point
Wise article, I am on board with the No Johns thing, I have played Pokemon since Red and Blue and through the years I have realised that the outcome of the battle is do with you and you only, you choose how is your team, you choose its moves, you are the master of the puppets and once I embraced that I have enjoyed battling some of the best players around even if I lose. Also don’t confuse John with toilet as I have heard that saying a few times lol 🙂
I probably John too much to myself. Didn’t even realise it was considered a thing, better cut it out.
As a new player, I think this article spreads a great message. The only way I’ve been able to get my teeth into VGC playing is by learning from my (initially constant) mistakes instead of making excuses. It’s no surprise to me that the best players seem to have no ego whatsoever- mindset appears to be everything. I see great players like Alex Ogloza facing down what they consider to be a ‘better’ team (eg. vs Ray Rizzo at US nats) and staying positive, playing their team as well as they can. I also see some brilliant critical thinking, the Adib Alam example being excellent- if I have 90% accuracy, I can count on missing 10%, and in the long run this effects performance.
The right ‘mentality’ is also exemplified by Zog, a player who instantly incited my jealousy through his twin abilities to throw together a team the night before a tournament and do well, and his ability to play well drunk. Anyone who ever wants to ‘John’ with the old ‘better team, team that was strong against mine’ excuses can sit down- it’s as much how you play as what you play, if not more, and I’ve learned that throwing together a team you like and getting stuck in is better than getting hung up on the ‘perfect’ team and never practicing (there’s obviously a balance, but apparently as long as you have a lum berry garchomp on you you’re set).
Although I’ve been very sparing with my examples here, I’d like to say that if you’ve written a VGC ’14 article or report on here this past year, I’ve almost certainly read it and every single one has left me impressed by the smart thinking, positive attitude and community spirit you all have!
Well said. I have been competing since 2009 with varying levels of success, and have come to equate VGC to poker. While the more knowledgeable or skilled player might not always win every match/hand the better players will consistently rise above competition.
HP Water Rotom-W is the pinnacle of consistency.
EDIT: For the love of God, please don’t use that set. It’s garbage.