Contest: Win a Copy of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire have finally been released worldwide and our friends at Nintendo of Canada have been kind enough to provide us with a digital copy of each game again. As we have for the past two years, we’re going to celebrate the release of the new game with a giveaway! Like our previous contests, we’ll have three ways of entering: Twitter, Facebook, and our ever insightful forums. Much like the European Smash Bros. 3DS and Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Demo contests we held during the fall, these codes are region locked. In this case, they are for North America so you must own a 3DS from North America to win.
Forum Entry
Simply respond to the comment thread for this article with a quick post about your introduction to the Pokémon Championship Series. Did someone tell you about it? Did you find out about it on Google? How was your first event? Let us know how you got involved with the scene!
Our comments section and forums are linked so you only need to reply once on either location and it will automatically sync. Only your first post will count though you’re free to reply to other players to discuss your experiences! One entry will be randomly chosen from the thread and that player will win their choice of Pokémon Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire.
Social Media Entry
The other copy of Pokémon Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire will be given away on Facebook and Twitter in a random draw. Enter both to increase your chance of winning!
Simply follow @nuggetbridge and retweet the following tweet to be entered into the draw.
Want a copy of Pokémon #OmegaRuby or #AlphaSapphire? Follow @nuggetbridge & retweet this for a chance to win! http://t.co/MHfAJ2S5lU #NBoras
— Nugget Bridge (@nuggetbridge) December 3, 2014
Like Nugget Bridge and post an image in the comments for the contest post with your favourite Pokémon item you own — whether that’s a game, a plush, a card, or whatever else! If you’ve got a story to go with it, be sure to include that too!
Contest End
The contest will end at 11:59 PM on Sunday, December 7th, 2014 in Pacific Standard Time. One winner will be chosen randomly from all entries received in the comments thread for this article. Another winner will be chosen randomly from all entries received on either Facebook or Twitter. The winners will be contacted on Monday, December 8th, 2014.
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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I was a singles player until I started watching videos from Worlds 2013, and I thought the format looked really fun so I decided to try it out. First CP event was just this year, a Premier Challenge back in May. I found out about the event on here and at the time it was the largest PC ever. I made it to the finals without Kingdra ever missing an attack all day (or maybe it did, I don’t remember). Then in the finals Smeargle did Smeargle things lol
I had heard about VGC over the years via the Pokemon website and watching the 2013 Worlds and US Nationals finals but quickly forgot about it after each instance. After watching the Washington Regional’s livestream this year I decided to give it a try on Battle Spot and in the May International Challenge and had an above average record on both. It was too late in the season to give the circuit a try so I’m considering the 2015 circuit my rookie year! I’ve already attended a few events and hope I can go to more
My first event was at the 2009 Seattle regional. My mom actually told me about it. I was unsure at first but then I learned there was a free shiny Milotic being given away. I made a team and managed to get picked to compete through the lottery. I got through the first few rounds, got through the quarter and semi finals. The final round was really fun due to the fact that I was facing another trick room team. I managed to win the fight and my first regional. I really enjoy being in tournaments even though I really haven’t done so well. I now plan to get my kids into Pokémon and have them come with me though that is farther in the future. Well that is all I really have to say.
I first heard about VGC from my friend who had recently attended the 2014 Virginia Regionals. He was telling me how he went 6-2 and beat Cybertron 4-0 round one with Cryogonal, and after that I looked into the format and soon built my first team. It’s been a blast ever since!
My friend introduced me to Pokemon Showdown in the fall of ’14, and I found the VGC and Nuggetbridge from there. I’ve stuck since, and hope to go to Kansas Regionals and NA Nationals this year!
I got into the competitive series when Pokemon Black and White came out. I remember watching Ray Rizzo in Worlds and that’s what truly inspired me. The first Pokemon event I was actually able to participate in was this year at Ft. Wayne Regionals. Didn’t do as well as I had hoped but nonetheless it was a valuable learning experience and hopefully I’ll be able to attend next year!
I saw some section about VGC 2010 in some strategy guide, so I decided to compete in VGC 2011. My first event was the Atlanta regional tournament and I lost r1.
I discovered it on a video of the APEX 2013 finals between Cybertron and Ben7000 and that really peaked my interest so i blatantly copied the Aarons team (With Metagross instead of Scizor). From there I started to ladder on showdown only to find out 5 months later that Australia would be getting its first batch of “Regionals”
I never looked back
I had stopped playing Pokemon for about 5 or 6 years until White/Black came out. Started playing again and renewed my passion for the game. Never had considered playing on a competitive level, since I had absolutely no concept of RNG and even certain game mechanics. First event was Winter St. Charles regional 2013 where I met DaWoblefet, who seemed like a pretty cool guy. I went 3-3 before I had to drop due to time constraints in real life stuff. Think I had Thundurus, Jellicent, Gastrodon, Conkeldurr, other 2 I forgot. Decided to take it a bit more seriously this year and did OK for what I consider my first real year playing competitively in VGC.
I first saw shofu doing some VGC last December and really got hooked on it. I missed out this season but I hope to be prepared to go to as many events as I can next season.
I have played pokemon since Red and Blue but always just for fun. I had heard a little bit about EV training but not a lot. During the White/Black time period I decided to look up how to EV train. Through that I stumbled across NuggetBridge and Smogon. I used these two sites to learn how to EV train, plan spreads, RNG for shinies, and a number of other pokemon skills. I also saw articles about Nationals and Worlds. After reading a few I decided it would be really cool to participate in one. This past summer I attended Nationals in Indianapolis and had a blast!
I found out about it on Google by accident in 2009, I went to my first tournament with flygon and magmortar and thought nothing could stop me. Unfortunately, nothing got the change to stop me but the lottery system -_-
I was playing on the pokemon emerald battle frontier and was looking to find more challenging battles when I stumbled upon VGC.
I was introduced to the series when I saw the National Championship on Twitch. I knew that there was a competitive community, but I didn’t know there was an official one, so that’s when I decided to start playing.
I was going to pokemon tcg league and a guy told me about vgc regionals.
I played pokemon starting with emerald, then put it on hiatus until soulsilver. Once again, I paused pokemon in my life, then bought X and Y. That was around the time when I found nuggetbridge and showdown, as well as some youtubers. That’s when my competitve pokemon battling begin. I still have not been able to attend a tournament, but I’m planning to in the future.
Heeeey.
I’ve been playing various competitive Singles format since around 2005-6. It was inevitable that in the discussion boards I participate in, the topic about the officially sanctioned format will come up. “Doubles, huh. Not really my thing.” was what I told myself for a while.
Come late 2013, it was a really funny story… I was just having fun with my friends in a multi battle during a birthday party. All of us were using mostly competitive singles mons… but all the matches I was in, I was completely destroyed. I lost to things like simple Gliscor-Aegislash combinations, while I had things like Skarmory who was pretty much dead weight. I couldn’t take losing to guys who aren’t as dedicated to Pokemon as I was. Even though it was matches for fun, it was the strange fuel which drove me to engage in the doubles metagame… VGC14. The start of my engagement in the sanctioned format. All because of a silly match where I felt I shouldn’t have been losing.
Personally, starting to play VGC was one of the best decisions I could have ever made in my Pokemon life.
Well, I was looking through Pokemon Showdown and I though to look through VGC. Then I decided to go to the Nugget Bridge website. I was looking through the articles and found win a game of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire and I decided to enter so I can win one for my friend. I never win any giveaways or contest so I don’t think I’ll win but I’ll give it a shot.
Oh boy, I found out about VGC through Smogon!
I played UU for a while before finding my way to the VGC subforum where I read all kinds of wonderful stories filled with friendship and Pokemon. I decided I must obtain this friendship, so I went to the Seattle regional in 2009, made it through the lottery, and had a great time. I still have my wristband from that, it has Jynx on it!
Never looked back.
I got into VGC just by hearing that there was a championship for Pokemon. I did some research and found out about VGC and started playing.
Started picking up doubles after watching the world championships in 2013.. Played on showdown until xy came about and from there I immediately transitioned onto the online ladder on battle spot.. As my area doesn’t have much competitions, i attended only two but managed to snag a top 4 finish in one of them.. Also managed to achieve a high ranking(think it was top in Canada) on the ladder in one of the online competitions(those that let you play 20 games a day). Have not stopped ever since. Although I’m enlisted in the army now and have less time to play, I’m still all about it and I’m planning my team in anticipation of vgc15 rules currently.
First learned about competitive Pokemon by playing with a friend and having that competition drive growth between us until we found Smogon and started ripping sets. Then found out from a friend that there was a Pokemon Regionals in Seattle and thought it’d be fun. Got some fun interviews at the event, including an interview with 2014
dreamboatUS National Champ Evan Falco!… who was eliminated by “some punk running prankster double attract.” Oh man… I waited in line with a player from Spokane’s SPF and was all “look at my double genies, I’m gonna disquake!” and thought I was at least gonna do decent. Then we got paired up with the people next to us in line and I was like… “oh… well… I’ve just told you everything about my team… and… ok…” I thought Terrakion’s base speed was higher than the genies for whatever reason, and never realized his Terrakion was scarfed… I lost in round 1. So swag.I’ve really gotten back into VGC because they started tacking VGC events onto TCG events. I picked up TCG in 2012ish because there were more consistent events that I could play in. Super stoked to have VGC events to play in. I love the VGC community and really think it’s the most friendly and inviting community in competitive gaming. Y’all are awesome.
Originally started out as a singles player on smogon but wanted to be more involved with a community. After already having experience plAying the tcg I figured it was a smooth transition and have been hooked ever since!
I started playing Pokemon on an imported copy of green before they were released in the US. Shortly after I ended up getting copies of the games. Been playing off and on ever since.
I started breeding for folks and battling through GaiaOnline in 2007, though mostly breeding.
In 2008 I began following the VGC and TGC tournament scene through a variety of different web sites, working a lot from theory and posted information about teams and setups. Then I started battling more and more competitively, but nothing really major. I made it to Philadelphia regionals in 2012 but was not in time for registration. My first time competing in an actual event was Kansas Regionals earlier this year where I went 3-3 and dropped.
I met a bunch of nice folks, and a couple of real pricks. (Like a guy who said don’t bother using HP ice against his Mega Venasaur when he knew full well that Jolteon was choice locked into HP ice with me having just Jolteon and Gardevoir left on my team.. But meh, I would have likely stayed longer if it wasn’t for that prick)
Between college and work and my lack of a vehicle actually participating in many events is a difficult task.
On a side note, I would like everyone to know that while your friends and family may or may not like Pokemon as a whole, taking them to these events can also be fun for them. As my wife spent the entire time at KS regionals talking to this older doctor gentleman and helped him understand more about Pokemon, which also helped him become a bit closer to his 7 year old son who was also participating.
The staff at the KS regional were also quite friendly and welcoming to everyone. Which is a lot better than having judges get mad about being called to make a ruling.
So even though one might not be participating, having a friendly attitude and willingness to share or talk about Pokemon (even if you are like my wife and don’t particularly like Pokemon in the first place) it can lead to good things happening for others.
I will admit one last thing. In general the people and staff at larger scale Pokemon events and tournaments are a much better and nicer group of folks than those one would generally find at a MtG tournament, which is good for the game, players, event staff, nonparticipants and even the companies involved. Maintaining a friendly atmosphere and welcoming public image is always a good thing, and not all gaming tournaments are as welcoming to either new players, new faces, or those who are not participating.
I distinctly remember helping my daughter get into competitive VGC before I took the plunge myself. A lot of reading of the “Beginners” section here a couple years ago, and getting some help from the now-fairly-absent FizzyStardust (since I knew him from the TCG side of things). I remember thanking Duy and Huy and a few of the other people in NB shirts at the last Queen Mary regionals, where my daughter top cut for the first and last time.
…and now here we are a couple years later, and my daughter’s not playing competitively any more… but her annoying kid brother is mopping up locally.
I learned about the Video Game Championships thanks to HeartGold and SoulSilver having a blurb in the in-box materials, as well as built-in option for battling with the format. It was right around the time that I got back into Pokemon (after skipping all of 3rd gen and all of 4th gen up to HGSS being rereleased). Smogon also had a bit of material on their forums and their front page on VGC. Next thing I know, I’m attending my first regional in Colorado Springs, spring of 2012. From then on, I’m hooked.
Back when I was in 4th grade (or 3rd?), one of my friends told me about the Pokemon 10th Anniversary (that counts as a VGC, right?), and told me he’s going to participate in the tournament (and I wanted a Celebi, so might as well go!), so I traded about 4 of my level 100 Pokemon to him. I watched my friend participate and I actually really liked spectating and loved how people actually brought teams that didn’t have 6 op legendary Pokemon, so after this, I’ve always wanted to go to another Pokemon tournament and use one of my teams in them.
I wasn’t able to go to a tournament until 2010 in San Jose. I didn’t really know anything about doubles, and I was pretty much coming from a completely singles background. I was surprised to get to round 4, where I met one of my friends from online. He completely deztroyed me in the round tho. He’s helped me a lot in team building and is one of the reasons I was able to go to the tournament with a marginally good team, so I was happy to lose to him. Someone also wrote a warstory on smogon with me in it, which was cool <3.
After this, I thought I’d go to more tournaments and hopefully meet more people there, and I’m glad to say I met some pretty amazing people over the the years. Ever since then, I’ve gone to every single regional in NorCal, and it’s been a blast!
I first went to JAA as a Pokemon-obsessed 6 year old since they were hosting it at a local mall. upon discovering these news articles,
http://www.theaggie.org/2010/05/27/davis-home-to-its-own-ash-ketchum/
http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_13055085
I eagerly began my yearly trip to NorCal regionals after a few years of taking a break from pokemon. I was determined to meet the legendary HUEY HA and began to expand my VGC experience on smogon, frequently playingon PO (rip).
I’ve been catching ’em all since 1998. Saw the videos for the 2013 Worlds online, and was hooked!
A friend introduced me to Smogon around the time of BW’s Japanese release. After a couple months, I started wondering what sort of live tournaments there were, found the VGC section of the site, decided I liked doubles better, and went to my first regional in spring 2011.