2014 International Challenge — May
The first International Challenge of the VGC ’14 season has been officially announced and with it comes news that the Top 128 players in North America and Europe in each age division will receive Championship Points for their efforts. As there is no guarantee that there will be another International Challenge before the World Championships, it will be an incredibly important part of players’ seasons as they chase that elusive Worlds invite. This will especially be the case for European players who will not receive Premier Challenges until next season at the earliest making this their only chance of breaking ties between players who end up at the same number of points after Nationals.
The International Challenge is an online ladder-based tournament. You will be able to play up to 20 battles per day (which if past tournaments are any indication, will roll unplayed games over to the next day though we make no guarantees) from 00:00 UTC on Friday May 16th, 2014(5:00 PM PDT on Thursday, May 15th ) to 23:59 UTC on Sunday May 18th, 2014 (4:59 PM UTC on Sunday May 18th).
To register, you’ll need to have an account on Pokemon.com and register your game with the Global Link. Your game must be attached to the same account that has the player ID you use to play in Regionals, Nationals, and other events in the Play! Pokémon program if you want to receive Championship Points. You will be able to participate if you are one of the first 50,000 players to register on the Global Link for the event between 00:00 UTC on Thursday May 8th, 2014 (5:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 7th) and 23:59 UTC on Thursday, May 15th, 2014 (4:59 PM PDT on Thursday, May 15th).
The tournament will use the Standard ruleset and should prove to be the most competitive tournament yet with thousands of players worldwide playing to prove themselves and increase their chances at a World Championship invite! All participants who play at least one match and don’t get disqualified will receive an Enigma Berry. Championship Points will be awarded as follows:
| Placement | Points |
| 1 | 10 |
| 2–8 | 8 |
| 9–16 | 4 |
| 17–64 | 2 |
| 65–128 | 1 |
With the Special Ladder on Battle Spot switching from Standard to Inverse Battles on May 12th, this will be the only chance afterwards that we know of to practice with other players online in-game under the same ruleset you’ll be using at the National and World Championships.
About the Author
Firestorm is one of the co-founders of Nugget Bridge and the Community Manager for eSports Tournament Platform Battlefy. He has been playing Pokémon since 1999, competitively since 2007, and attending tournaments since 2010. He lives in Vancouver, Canada with a degree in Interactive Art & Technology + Communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @rushanshekar.
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Will 3 hours be enough to get 30 games done today night?
Well, I finished awful. Got up to a 1748 rating, wanted to sit on it, but for reasons I don’t comprehend I decided to go on with it, finishing somewhere in the realm of 1670. I had fun nonetheless, and having a team without as much Kangaskhan coverage as I would like (ran out of time to breed my planned team) turned out fairly well. Seeing as I won’t be using this team in the future, might as well put it here.
I missed a Will-O-Wisp and Play Rough and you missed a Will-O-Wisp near the end, but the game was mostly decided by that point. I should have just used Overheat on the first turn instead. Oh well. GG.
A lot more than I’d use pursuit actually. Stops those that abuse protect in their tracks and finished them off, mainly those people who decide to protect on the weakened pokemon to kill with the other one. Quick guard is debatable … I might remove it, but I might now. I’ve found some use for it (abusing quickguard to annoy talonflame / sableye / prankster users ) while my other pokemon taunted or got rid of them.
I made a derp though and forgot azumarill wasn’t weak to steel lol.
So from this I learned that I would probably benefit from switching azumarill.
I found next to no use for safety goggles on rotom (though will probably keep it, rage powder is still a thing right?)
Char X is fine till it gets paraylzed
Aerodactyl works well most of the time, but I rarely find myself using tailwind anymore and should probably change it to something else…
I’m terrible and send out the wrong leads expecting them to lead with something else (mainly kangas)
Most of my games I did pretty well but lost around 8mins left of the match, so I just need to practice and be more cautious.
I also forgot that raichu got a +10 to speed.
I’m looking for team advice, but I’m adamant about keeping the following as is: rotom w, char x (but maybe switch megas?). Char X never has problems unless it gets paraylzed. Is a mixed set viable?
Currently on 25-13 and probably around 1670ish. Why is it I can beat the higher rated players 4-0 but when I play against a lower ranked player I end up losing some….not enough brain food I think
Time to tank another 22 battles before closing time
Edit: Is there a Jose 12 around here from across the pond in the US? If so gg, I think 4-1 flatters me really.
I’ve never been good at sitting and grinding out games in these International Challenges, so I’m ending having completed 34 (36) games.
I don’t know if I’m the only one, maybe not looking at Lati’s post above, but even though we’ve even had a National – I still don’t feel settled or prepared for this format. There’s always something that can open up your team. Maybe now, it is more about reading the trends and adjusting teams so that your weaknesses are the kinds of teams out of fashion.
Even Friday night I didn’t have a team I was happy with, so I won a few games on Showdown with some things put together and decided to enter the IC with them. This meant that I didn’t battle on Friday at all (where apparently there were a lot of free points up for grabs from inexperienced players).
I did all my games on Saturday – not doing too well when the Asians were online, but winning most when they’d gone to bed – getting Flinched three turns in a row isn’t fun, but I guess stuff like this happens over a stretch of so many games.
I was disconnected on a few times, and most of the time I was given a win, but unfortunately two of the disconnections I wasn’t awarded a win for (or a loss)… but compared to last year it is hard to complain.
Didn’t really play anyone notable either apart from my annual pairing with Ben (K.).
Yeah, that was me. I guess I pretty much first turn, when you KOed my Scrafty switch-in. Still pretty good game, but I think it looks a lot closer than it actually was.
Maybe try out Bicho’s team then. (Link: External)
After starting with a 15 win streak on the first day, my opponents got a lot more skilled the next days. I guess that’s because casual players lose interest after being beaten quite often. Right now I’m sittung at ~1750 and have about five games left. Maybe I’ll try to reach 1800+, but that probably won’t happen. I really enjoy playing Lajo’s team, but I think I bring Trevenant not often enough. Still, so few teams are prepared for trickroom that some games are easy wins just because their pokemon rely on the speed advantage. I managed to play around Bisharp (and to a lesser extent Wigglytuff), but opposing trick room variants with Mawile and Aegislash give me hard times. Sometimes I wish for Scrafty to have Ice Punch, Quick Guard, Detect and Stone Edge as well, but that’s unfortunately impossible.
Since many people here mentioned hax, yeah I had some too, but honestly it never really hurt me. I hit pretty much every important WoW and Play Rough/Rock Slide. Flinches happen, but on both sides, so on the whole I’d say it ran quite well for me. The only member on my team that was exposed to much hax was Scrafty, which luckily has a Lum Berry that cured every random status from Ice Beam, Fire Blast, TBolt etc.
Oh, my probably most hilarious loss was to an Assist Meowstic Round Team. He had Mega Gardevoir which took out my Mawile with Destiny Bond and then he proceeded to faint my pokemon with priority Pixilate boosted Round from Sylveon. I played poorly, but that team was just too funny to be mad about it.
Yeah I keep getting put against people with like -30…
edit: checked the team, it might work well but I prefer to use pokemon I like (childish I know)
I have a quick question: I’m using Scarf Gardevoir and a Bisharp OHKO’d me with sucker punch (he didnt have any boost) O.O how?!
If you’re not running HP, LO Sucker can KO ~50% of the time, Choice Band is always a OHKO.
Might have been banded? I’d run the calcs but I’m at work and showdown is blocked on the net
I think he has choice band.
252+ Atk Choice Band Bisharp Sucker Punch vs. 4 HP / 0 Def Gardevoir: 154-183 (106.9 – 127%) — guaranteed OHKO
Why do people insist on using destiny bond? Are you incapable of winning without it or…
It’s a genuine question, especially when it’s 1:1 and you either kill it or time stall
This is why scarf gardevoir sucks.
I was on 3-1 after the first day (GMT time zone, and finished work late, then had to meet partner). Saturday I celebrated my birthday with friends, had a great day, but by time it was over, I wasnt in the mood to play Pokemon (it was around midnight, and I had been drinking). So means I had to get most of my games done today, started playing recently so I only played 16 games (9-7, not the best…) but already I have a headache and feel like I am making really stupid mistakes. I really want to know how some of you guys/girls seem to be able to grind out 20 games in a row and still seem able to concentrate!
I am having to take a break. Hopefully I will get to around 40 games before it finishes.
Gardevoir looks much cuter with some specs on
Ended up at 1701 (assuming I lost 20 points after my last loss) with a 36-20 record after 56 matches played. Didn’t play too many notable players, but I did win against Nickscor, lose against styrofoameon, and got disconnected on by someone who looked suspiciously like Ray…
Thoughts on my team:
All in all there weren’t too many things I’d change, though if I could play again I might have swapped out Bisharp and Rotom for Aegislash and Hydreigon.
Currently 17-16 (mega aggron whyyy), I seem to lose in rows and win in rows.
Highest streak was 6 (lol), and other wins were in streaks of 3. After 13 battles, I started to have lose streaks of 3+ (though shortly after I had a win streak of 6). So all in all, I think I did pretty decently for myself.
Well, Phillip (age 7) didn’t make it to 60 games, but I think he’s done. He finished with more wins than losses, which is great, but it really stinks that the juniors and seniors are mixed. I guess there are probably not enough juniors playing to get matched up with easily. I almost had to lock myself in another room to keep from coaching him, as that wouldn’t be fair to him or his opponent. Once when I was watching, after he chose his move I yelled,
“No! Phillip, you left your aegislash in blade form!”
“Uh, yeah. That’s why amoongus is using rage powder.”
“Oh, that’s actually pretty brilliant.”
“No, Mom, it’s called strategy, and I got strategy for dayssss.”
Some other of my favorites I overheard:
“What’s that Mega Kang? You thought you’d fake out my garchomp? WRONG MOVE SUCKA! Should’ve went for my Charizard! You’re looking a little chilly, by the way. Why don’t you warm up with some OVERHEAT!!!!”
“What. The. Heck??? Lucky son of a gun. Is it this guy’s birthday or something? Did he ask Santa for hax for Christmas? OH COME ON! 2 crits in a row? This game hates me!”
(He got in a bit of trouble at regionals for his mouth, so we have to work on limiting the smack talk before Nationals!) :-/
Currently 33-14, i’m tired but i want to finish the 60 battles
Posting here because I’m asking for advice about my team.
Every battle I’ve won on this competition, I’ve saved, these are the teams I used (under the spoiler )
And counts of how many times I bought x pokemon
Brought Aerodactyl: 9/20
Brought Rotom W: 12/20
Brought Mienshao: 14/20
Brought Charizard X: All (lol)/20
Brought Azumarill: 4/20
Brought Scizor: 15/20
So replacements for Azumarill I’m guessing? I’m thinking Gardevoir but I’m not sure.
Was a good game, kinda close but it was all uphill when I couldn’t directly take your Aegi on. Even if the luck didn’t happen I would have to play the predict the kings shield game with you eventually so you would have most likely won it.
I also played against versus some others and when I thought a name looked NBish I did take note and check. Can’t remember who I saw, but hope they were good games.
I’ve ended up around 1680ish. I had too high expectations after getting a much higher rating in the friendly. I think peaked around 1720 earlier on, but wobbled around 1700s anyway so with the team and current concentration I couldn’t do too much better. Also really helpful in finding out how deadly mega gyrados is, really took me off guard and even facing it repeatedly I realized I had no counters!
As I said I would. I played a few more games this morning.
After having a couple of battles where Blastoise had to be super clutch in an end game where it needed to hit through paralysis twice in a 1v1. And a battle where I was saved by +6 evade moody smeargle (that somehow got hit by Swagger through that, and hit itself twice as a result)… I think I’d be silly to continue further.
Final Record: 41W-12L Rating 1873 or 1874
The team I was using was my Smeargle Blastoise team again. With a few minor changes, as you may have noticed with me using Encore in a few vids.
Nicknames for this tourney:
Blastoise: Deluge40Days
Smeargle: SilentSelene
Garchomp: R Trilithon
Venusaur: Green Storm
Rotom-H: Akiba Summer
Scizor: MetalFatigue
Ended up 42-18 or 41-19, forget the final numbers thanks to a disconnect right before my final match which should be a win (that or heavy drinking). Need to do a postmortem of my team, how are people putting together the battle box images like Werford has in his post?
online competitions > to competitions participation records > competition entry history > battle box
Pokemon GL -> Profile > Online competititions > Competition entry history > Battle Box
When my Rock Slide double misses I nearly break my DS. Honestly how does this keep happening?
I’m at 14-16 and can’t seem to even my score without something like that happening. Double Miss, horrible crit that prevents a much needed KO or something, etc etc. I’m basically ready to call it before I either have a heart attack or break something.
Don’t get me wrong. When my team works it seriously puts in work, it’s just getting to that point without being foiled.
I thought I had one more battle to go, but the game is saying that I have participated in the maximum number of battles for the day (I had over 30 to finish today). I ended on a really rough stretch where I faced six people with a rating above 1794 and I only won two of them. I think my final rating is going to be around 1720.
I saved a bunch of battles, but I probably need to re-watch them so I can share the best ones. I had one crazy game where I missed Overheat three times with my Rotom-H and still won because the first two Overheat misses actually helped me.
Here is a list of all the people I battled. Let me know if you see your name.
Couple of things:
1) I felt accomplished just hitting past 1750 with roughly a 3W/1L ratio over about 40 games, and you guys talk about near 1900 and nearly 5W/1L ratios? I’m so insignificant. q_q
Still carrying on with my Mega Gardevoir team. If I can land 1800, I won’t even need to finish all 60 games. 1800 is the goal for me.
2) Has anyone noticed the relatively large amount of bulky Modest Char Y? They’re surviving my Mienshao’s Rock Slide now. He was my main way of dealing with Char Y. Oh lawdy! D:>
3) Whoever dissed Verlisify on the 11th page, stop it. He’s a clearly amazing player and all us haters do is either make fun of his dog collar or slander his good strats all day. Not even Worlds champions can match his furry swag. I’m gonna get a dog and name it D2-V2.
…too much sarcasm? >_>
Gonna add to this post to address this.
If you’re using the excuse “It REALLY works when it works but dem hax keep me at a bad W/L ratio”, then the team just doesn’t work well enough. Consistency is key, and if you don’t have that, the team needs rethinking, because it’s not consistently good.
Sweet, thanks for that info. That certainly is buried in the depths of those menus.
Going into this, I wasn’t horribly confident in this team. I felt exactly the same when I went to the Long Beach Regionals, but managed to go 7-2 and sneak into (then get crushed in) the top 32 so maybe my lack of confidence in a team is a good sign? Here is my lackluster squad that helped me score a 41-19 record:
Team thoughts:
I feel like this team is decent, but I see no simple fixes to help improve it. Probably going to have to tear it apart and build a new team instead.
A few notes on the EV spreads: