What We Learned: 2013 Winter Regionals and International Challenge January Edition
During every Pokemon event, we learn a little bit about the game of Pokémon and the community that surrounds it that is worth reflecting on. This Masters-centric column will appear following major events and highlight important trends and moments during the previous weekend’s events.
Another set of Regionals has come and gone, and this time it came with a Wi-Fi tournament! With 130 Championship points available over the past week and a half or so for North American players, this will have been the single most impactful weekend on our standings other than the weekend of Nationals. With both tournaments now in the rear view mirror we’ve seen some slight changes in Pokemon trends and some clarity in the Championship Points picture with Winter Regionals tacked on to the standings. We also unfortunately saw some flaws in the current tournament system (at least as far as Wi-Fi tournaments go), though it says a lot about how far things have come that we have two consecutive weeks of meaningful Pokemon to complain about in January after not even having the rules at this point in 2011.
It would seem almost all the players agree they had a largely positive experience at Regionals even if there were a couple things that needed attention. I think the proximity of that good experience and the Wi-Fi tournament that followed it probably reminded us exactly how much we prefer the real life events to the internet ones right now, both in terms of this game being much more enjoyable with other people and the game being much more fun when all you have to focus on is, you know, trying to win at Pokemon rather than micromanaging your opponents’ moods in hopes they won’t disconnect. I know I’m not the only one who’s a little irritated at my own Regionals performance, but I think in spite of falling short of our goals there most of us would still say we had a good experience, whereas in the Wi-Fi tournament… I’m not sure even the people who end up in the 8-10 CP range will have actually have had a good time considering the stress that tends to come with hoping you don’t get disconnected on or lose a game to an improbable chain of events and have to grind your points back amid a chain of disconnections.
On the bright side, we did get to see a bit more of our international competition, which is a big bonus of the Wi-Fi tournaments, and Regionals had several pretty fantastic stories… so I’ll be mostly sticking to those.
The People’s Champions
Some part of being a competitor makes it difficult to enjoy other people winning events you participate in, but I think especially with a week or so between the tournament and now it is easier to step back and appreciate that many of the final rounds during this set of tournaments contained players who haven’t had a whole lot of super deep runs but who are people the community tends to be rooting for. While he was probably the favorite going in, Nightblade7000 finally getting that Regional win we’ve been predicting him to pick up for what at least seems like years now in Virginia to follow his Apex win is both impressive and deserved. I commented during the last Wi-Fi tournament that the two names on top were people who were pretty good representatives of the good guys in the community, and while they swapped positions (at different Regionals) it was cool to see them both follow it up with Regionals success, with R_Inanimate winning Oregon and Biosci making it to the finals in California before losing to Noobly9730. Like Ben, FonicFrog is another player we’ve kind of been expecting to win something forever, and even I was pretty happy to see him win Missouri and get a reward for being a consistently strong player forever, even if he did climb over my Pokemon’s bloody corpses to get there. It is a reality of competition that none of us are going to win every time, but I think for most of us those wounds were a little softer this time given some of the people who did end up near the top.
Weather Wars Part 912312312
While I feel like we’ve sort of regressed to the metagame we had last summer except with somehow even more Thunder Wave, one thing that seemed to pick up a lot on the simulators was an increased prevalence of Sand teams, particularly those featuring Excadrill. This definitely continued through to Regionals, with Excadrill winning, I think, three times, but the trend didn’t seem to hold true as much with the Wi-Fi tournament where Rain was still overwhelmingly more popular. I think Sand is a pretty natural metagame response to the omnipresence of Pokemon like Thundurus, and most of the successful Rain teams that are left have much more dedicated responses to Thundurus and other Pokemon that disrupt Rain’s sweeping than they used to, which is evidenced by Pokemon like the Lum Berry Kingdra Zach used to win in Florida. Sand and Rain having more even representation in the metagame seems like a more reasonable way for the metagame to settle than with either of them having vastly greater representation than the other — since then that weather’s counters would spike in usage and the metagame would shift — so I’m curious if we won’t wind up seeing pretty stable amounts of Rain and Sand for most of the rest of this year given the amount of development this metagame has already seen due to basically being the same thing we used last year.
Not Again!
While there weren’t a whole lot of BW2 changes that shifted the metagame in a big way for this set of Regionals, the return of Amoonguss can be at least partially attributed to it picking up Regenerator from BW2. Amoonguss’ use was probably much lower even in BW1 than it should have been for what it does, so I don’t think it is too surprising a number of high profile players have adopted it now that it was improved by having an ability that increases its longevity and stops it from trolling itself by blocking its own Spores with accidental Poison and Paralysis from Effect Spore. I have noticed fewer and fewer players using Lum Berry and almost zero using Chesto Berry lately, and almost all of the people using Lum are using it with Swagger and are likely remove it themselves, so I’d expect the Amoonguss trend to continue. The metagame is pretty favorable to it, especially in the Wi-Fi events where Rain is more popular.
Nuggets of Wisdom
One trend I both loved and hated was something I had heard several other people mention experiencing as well: this site had a pretty obvious impact on the metagame and the players in many of the fields during this set of Regionals. There were several teams we saw at a variety of Regionals inspired by teams we’ve published here, most notably Huy’s and Ray’s but with plenty of tricks inspired by other players like Wolfe and even some foreign players like huuuryu. There were also many, many more people in the fields of these Regionals who we didn’t know very well who mentioned reading the stuff we have here, and I think the middle and upper middle of the field at most events was much better than it had been in most of the previous events because of that. As a competitor, this gets me a little nervous since I’m kind of helping people beat me here, but I want to take a moment and appreciate the other side of this.
There’s probably too many reasons to count as to why we started this project last summer, but other than trying to cut down on the cliquishness of VGC at the time and creating a place where most of the hardcore types could gather, our biggest goal was trying to get a freer flow of information relating to VGC to help other players get better and grow the game. We felt like while the best players in the US and Europe were as good as the best players anywhere, our middle of the road players are a lot worse than some other countries’ middle of the road players (specifically Japan’s) and we wanted to try to provide a resource where people could learn to become better players to try to bring up the bar for some of our less hardcore players a little. While we’ve been making little steps, I think the two tournaments this article is focusing on were probably the first two big events where I felt like we were making meaningful progress, with many players in the Regionals field having been inspired by stuff on our site and then with the competition in the International Challenge being tighter between countries than I think it would have been otherwise. It’s still cool to me that I run into people who have read my articles and it is cool to me when some of the newer players mention that stuff they learned here is helping them win matches in premier tournaments. We still have a long way to go, but it’s nice to feel like we’re starting to make a difference.
Dr. Crowsack
Seriously, does this guy even play Pokemon anymore?
While the Championship Points picture is looking a little more developed three (and once we get standings from the more recent Wi-Fi tournament, four) events into the season, I think people trying to plot how many points they’re going to need to get into Worlds should be keeping people like Crow and other very skilled players with few CP right now like sandman in mind. We had a lot of hypothetical “What if the Nationals winner doesn’t make it with 400 CP!” arguments when the system was first announced, but it is fairly obvious that is not going to happen and at the very least a top 2 finish at Nationals will ensure a Worlds invite. For the most part I agree with people who like to point out that it is pretty unlikely someone with 0 CP or close to it will actually get one of those spots, but there’s a few cases like those two where it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see them get into Worlds off one event. Crow will probably still be my prediction for Nationals… as long as I get to publish the article after pre-registration is over because I can’t trust him anymore.
Why Most Worlds Contending Players Hate Wi-Fi Tournaments
I enjoy Pokemon as a game. Really, I do, and I think I’d have to to have put up with some of the stuff I have to be writing this right now. I have accepted the unnecessary and game-changing luck elements, I have accepted the best player doesn’t always win, and normally I even kind of enjoy the probability management of the game even though each game seems a little more improbable than the last.
I think the best explanation, then, for why I tend to want to lob my 3DS out the nearest window during the Wi-Fi tournaments — a stance it seems almost every other player in the top 40 CP or so shares — is that these tournaments are no longer even about playing Pokemon. I know I am going to come off as entitled when I write this, but it isn’t really a viable option for those of us who are putting a serious effort toward qualifying for Worlds to just have fun and hope things work out. There are a lot of very good players competing for very few slots, and things aren’t going to work out for any of us on the CP front unless we make them work out for us. At Regionals and Nationals, that comes down to trying to win more Pokemon battles than our competitors, and while the right player isn’t going to win every match and some people’s schedules might be tougher than others or whatever, at least we’re all getting our fair shake there. We get the chance to try.
We aren’t inherently given that opportunity in Wi-Fi tournaments. I have written before that I thought TPCI took the only reasonable stance they could have during the first Wi-Fi tournament: DCing was incredibly prevalent among higher rated players and it was ruining the tournament for everyone, so the best way to start cutting down on that was to hit the biggest offenders. The problem with that moving forward is that I would expect TPCI to be at least as harsh this time, if not more so, but for the most part those players near the top learned their lesson from the first time and have drastically lower DC rates than before… but that doesn’t inherently mean anything, because a bad run of opponents or bits of spotty internet in matches that the players might have won anyway are all it is going to take for people not to get CP, which is precious even in small quantities with so few opportunities to acquire it.
In a Regional, my first and only priority when I am playing is winning at Pokemon. In a Wi-Fi tournament, playing Pokemon is almost never my primary concern. Instead my concerns are things such as: Is there anything that could be wind up messing with my Wi-Fi? Is my opponent a known disconnector or likely to be a disconnector based on his rating/team, and do I want to take the point loss and run if so to try to avoid getting disqualified for something I have no control over? Is my DC rate too high and have I wasted my weekend on something that isn’t going to count for anything? These tournaments tend to involve stressing over factors almost completely outside of our control rather than just having fun playing Pokemon or even just competing.
This situation is made even worse with International competition because everyone doesn’t have the same thing to lose. Other than Korea, countries that aren’t using CP have nothing to gain or lose but pride here and are thus not nearly as influenced by the threat of a disqualification as the North American and European players are, leading to really frustrating situations that has probably led into a lot of the stereotyping and general xenophobia these tournaments have created, since most of the countries we tend to get mad at don’t have National tournaments (Mexico and South American countries tend to be the most frequent scapegoats). I think TPCI was right that the higher rated players were the primary offenders before, and I do think a majority of the people they hit either were DCing or had massive internet issues, but I am concerned that with the way things have shifted that group isn’t going to wind up being the offenders so much anymore, because they adapted after last time to try to get their CP, and instead wind up as one of the primary groups of victims of the system as the people with the most to lose from a system we’re all incredibly paranoid about.
Beastly Byes
One of the conceptual changes to VGC this year I thought was really cleverly conceived was adding byes to Regionals in order to increase the sense of progression throughout the season and reward consistent success. The only other occurrence of byes we had previously was the horribly imbalanced 2012 Nationals bye system, and while the Regionals byes are only half as strong as those were, they are still very powerful. I think whether or not people think they’re too powerful or just right depends largely on whether or not they have one, but the impact of the first round bye and, more importantly, the round 1 100% opponent’s win percentage that came with it was pretty obvious during Regionals last weekend. Almost all (possibly literally all?) of the people who cut at X-2 regardless of Regional had the win percentage boost from the byes. I feel like the byes would be balanced better if the cut was slightly bigger, but I like the idea of rewarding consistency with a bonus so I do like them a lot in that regard. I’m biased, obviously, since my bye probably gifted me 40 CP last weekend, but I think it was a good addition and that it should stay next year… as long as we expand the top cut a little, because expecting a new player to go 7-1 to make the cut when all I had to do was go 5-2 seems more than a little unfair.
The Almost Top Cut
Related to the problem of byes: Regionals are getting pretty sizable again, and an eight person top cut usually leaves some people out in the cold who don’t deserve to be. I think the best and most obvious example of why this is a problem we will ever get is the situation we were presented with in Virginia. The top 8 there had a bunch of really strong players that would have stacked up favorably to any other Regional’s top cut… but that would have had a really tough go against the 8 players who finished below them, I think. I don’t mean to take anything away from any of the players who did cut at Virginia, but with it notoriously being the most difficult region it is hard to find a better example of why doubling the top cut slots would improve the tournaments with Ray, OneEyedWonderWeasel, Wolfe, ryuzaki, and kinderlew all finishing in the 9-16 range. I know time is a concern, but finishing top 16 in a Regional as tough as that one should be netting players a birth in the top cut and I feel like the bottom 8 would probably have taken at least half of the t16 matches. When you consider that Nightblade7000 won the tournament with the same Swiss record as all of those players I just mentioned, it is hard to find a lot of justice in the current situation, as great as it is that Ben got his win. I’m sure I sound quite ungrateful writing this since having a top cut at Regionals at all was a fantastic new addition this year, but we need one more little step in the right direction…
Also, bonus shout out to Nic Freda who I didn’t realize was in 17th in Virginia until I double-checked the top 16 to write this! No wonder he sounded like he knew what he was talking about…
I’m Not Even Blocking The Aisle, Guy
This isn’t the sort of thing I usually include here, but it happened at enough stops that I wanted to say something brief here (also, I promised some people I would do this): what the heck happened to the staff this time? It certainly wasn’t everyone — there were a decent amount of staff members at every event that helped make the experience better for all of us — but I don’t think I’ve seen this many separate stories of staff rudeness since Journey Across America (no one has called us a bunch of Nugget Bridge cheaters yet, thankfully… and if you’ve been around long enough to know what I’m referencing here, you should probably go check on your elementary school aged children). Honestly, I feel like TPCI is usually exceptionally good with this sort of thing, to the point that part of why so many of us noted having bad experiences with staff this time is that we expect things to be good every time, but I know in Missouri there was a staff member who genuinely seemed to enjoy yelling at us as though we were children at every opportunity and there were plenty of other complaints in our feedback thread. If he works again next year we might have to see if we can get him an official Nugget Bridge hall monitor badge and/or whistle because he was trying really hard to earn one from someone.
The Other Threepeat
I’d like to close on a ridiculous note: Zach. The way people perceive Pokemon is always a little funny to me, because I don’t think I go more than an hour at any event without someone complaining about luck and how the results don’t mean anything and other assorted excuses that I try desperately not to listen to. I know I’ve written a couple times in this article already that Pokemon doesn’t always wind up with the right player winning, but over a bigger sample like, say, Swiss and then a Top Cut, it does so with pretty startling regularity, and the amount of frequent winners we’ve had the past couple of years proves that. While we’ve talked up Wolfe, Ray, Cybertron, and even OneEyedWonderWeasel’s consistent success at Worlds/Nationals the past few years a few times, how about Zach winning three straight Regionals (2012 Wisconsin, 2013 Ft. Wayne, 2013 Florida)? With the small cuts (and no cut in 2012) and best-of-one Swiss I feel like Regionals are among the hardest tournament to consistently finish extremely high in just because the opportunity to lose to the format is staggering, but Zach has managed to pull off a really amazing streak here and is easily in 1st place overall for CP because of it. Congratulations to him on a crazy run. No one is safe yet, but I think he’s the only player who doesn’t already have an invite I feel pretty safe penciling into Worlds.
Photo Credit: Robbie M. (Biff). See more of his event coverage on his YouTube channel.
About the Author
Scott started playing VGC in 2011. He finished 17th at US Nationals, then lost in the final round of 2011 Worlds LCQ. He finished 10th in the 2012 World Championships and qualified for Worlds again in 2013 after going into US Nationals second in CP. Instead of playing, he commentated at US Nationals and the World Championships in 2013 and 2014. Follow him on Twitter @NBNostrom!
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