Nintendo UK Announces Battle Tournament 2014 + VGC National Details
Nintendo UK have announced another tournament series for UK players, this time taking place throughout March and April. Beginning on 1st March and running until 5th April, there will be a number of qualifier tournaments at various GAME stores around the country, with some events taking place in shopping centres with no specific location mentioned at the moment. There are currently no known prizes for regional tournament winners, other than an invitation to the London grand final on 26th April, although travel stipends will be available to winners to make their way there.
If you manage to win a regional tournament, you’ll get to play in the finals in London where you have a chance to win some great prizes, perhaps the most important of which is a First Round BYE at this years United Kingdom Pokémon Video Game Championships National Tournament in May for the winner and runner-up. Other prizes are a week-long trip to Tokyo, Japan for two and lots of other goodies.
United Kingdom National
Along with this announcement, Gordian Knot Games have announced that the United Kingdom National Event will take place on 24th-25th May, in Manchester, England. The venue is Event City, situated across the road from the Trafford Centre. You can discuss it on our forum thread.
UK & Ireland Pokémon Nationals
24th & 25th May, 2014
Event City
Phoenix Way,
Barton Dock Road,
Urmston,
Manchester M41 7TB
Nintendo UK Event Information
There are four divisions for this tournament, with differing prizes for each:
Ultimate Pokémon Expert – The winner of the prestigious “Ultimate Pokémon Expert” title – a category open to those aged thirteen years or older – will earn themselves a week-long trip for two to Japan, the birthplace of Pokémon. They’ll be able to immerse themselves in the Pokémon world by visiting the Pokémon Center and also explore all of the sights of Tokyo. Recommended for seasoned Pokémon players the “Ultimate Pokémon Expert” title will test your Pokémon skills to the limit. The first and second place winners in the Ultimate Pokémon Expert category will receive fast track entry to the second round of the official Play! Pokémon UK VGC event this Spring.
Junior Expert – Younger Pokémon Trainers (12 or under) itching to compete can enter the “Junior Expert” category. In this competition, a weekend trip for the whole family to Alton Towers theme park with hotel stay is up for grabs, for whoever comes out victorious. The first and second place winners in the Junior Expert age category will receive fast track entry to the second round of the UK Pokémon Video Game Championships event this Spring.
Ultimate Team – The “Ultimate Team” competition is exclusively for two family members (one aged 16 or older, and one 12 or under) who want to team up and take on other families in a four-player Double Battle. Successful teams will have the chance to win a £250 Nintendo UK Online Store voucher and a group trip for four to one of the world’s best gaming shows: EGX London 2014. This event takes place in Earls Court London, from 25th – 28th September and offers visitors the chance to play the biggest games before they are released.
Pokémon Apprentice – New enthusiasts can enter the “Pokémon Apprentice” title; where complete newcomers to Pokémon X and Pokémon Y can battle it out to receive a mega bundle of Nintendo 3DS games up to the value of £300.
Crucially, you can only enter one qualifier tournament and one division. So, you’ll have to choose whether you want the chance at single player glory and the shot at a holiday and Nationals Round One BYE, or whether you’d like to play as part of a team with a sibling to win some vouchers and a visit to a great gaming show. Lastly, there is the opportunity for newer players who aren’t confident of winning one of the tougher tournaments to enter the Apprentice event.
Entering a Tournament
Sadly, the entry process of the qualifiers is not great. Think back to the early VGC Days in Europe, in 2009, or if you’ve been around as long as some of us (me), the Battle Master event in 2004 — where you can only gain entry to the tournament via a random selection process. You can enter at this link. You’ll need to enter some of your personal information and choose which division you are entering, along with choosing two qualifier tournaments you can attend. You will receive an e-mail no later than two days prior to the event stating whether you have gained entry or not and only one of your two choices can be the event you go to, which will again, be randomly selected by Nintendo UK based on popularity of each event. I assume a lot of players will miss out, so best to enter the two you can definitely make as soon as possible and get training.
Tournament Rules and Format
All tournaments (bar the team-tournament) will use the official Pokémon Video Game Championships 2014 season rules, opting for the Flat Battle and infrared process used at the previous Nintendo UK events. Tournaments will be single-elimination format, with each qualifier having a maximum of 16 participants, thus four rounds of battles to determine the winner. The team tournament will use a more specialised set of rules with players using pre-set Pokémon and borrowed consoles from Nintendo.
List of Qualifiers
- Bullring, Birmingham – 1st March
- GAME Churchill Square, Brighton – 1st March
- GAME Murraygate, Dundee – 2nd March
- Intu Eldon Square, Newcastle – 8th March
- GAME Hamleys, London – 8th March
- GAME St. David’s Centre, Cardiff – 8th March
- WestQuay, Southampton – 15th March
- GAME Meadowhall, Sheffield – 15th March
- GAME Castle Street, Banbury – 15th March
- Bluewater, Kent – 22nd March
- GAME Back Of The Inns, Norwich – 22nd March
- GAME Victoria Centre, Nottingham – 22nd March
- Intu Trafford Centre, Manchester – 29th March
- GAME Westfield Stratford City, London – 29th March
- Intu Braehead, Glasgow – 5th April
- GAME Cribbs Causeway, Bristol – 5th April
About the Author
Havak has competed in the VGC series since 2009 when it was first introduced to Europe, qualifying for the World Championships in 2011. Since 2009, he has also been a big influence in the United Kingdom's competitive scene by helping run local tournaments.
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What on earth did I just watch? I don’t want to be the grumpy old man or whatever, but I hope that final wasn’t too representative of the standard of the tournament.
If they do something like this again, they need to have a serious re-think about how they do the qualifying stages.
Unfortunately, I think most of the better well-known players were placed into pretty much the same group, through the random draw.
Yeah, I don’t want to sound disrespectful or above people, but the finalists didn’t seem to have the best ability. Not a single switch in the whole match? There were also opportunities to probably KO the Meowstic earlier rather than the paralysis (which did work out in the end with two fully paralysis’). Even though Oli won, he was letting his DDTar and Garchomp get paralysed and burned respectively, which just doesn’t compute with me. Firing off random Stone Edge’s repeatedly was also a strange play, it was if his only hope was scoring a critical hit or something. Maybe he didn’t have Protect or Dragon Claw, but that in itself is strange for Chomp.
What were the full names of the two finalists and do they have Nugget Bridge accounts? How did everyone else do?
Does anyone have a full list of the groups or any other images?
Also, I totally agree with Eden on the format. While it is still better than Single Elimation, the chance that you get through with a loss is very slim. I was speaking to Marti a lot in the run up to the event and helping with her team. We were discussing the format and it played out exactly how I thought it would with the tie-breakers. Ah well.
Bah, I should’ve remembered to note down the names whilst I wasn’t busy. Sorry guys.
All the photos I took during the event External
Last one in the album is a list of all the names and groupings (External).
I had a very good day, lost in the quarter finals to one of the finalists – I made some assumptions from his team preview and then made far too misplays (like fake-out his low HP rotom who would obviously protect instead of his choice banded Garchomp who was already locked into a move).
I thought that was really strange too, then he used Outrage (so likely didnt pack Dragon Claw) just before his Garchomp died,
If we didn’t have the lottery system……
Cheers Pokegenics!
Looked like a great event
http://nuggetbridge.com/forums/topic/5880-the-bear-necessities-a-pokemon-battle-tournament-uk-team/
I’ve written up something about my team. I don’t think it’s front page worthy anymore but if you guys think otherwise I’ll make a more suitable write up. I’m just glad I tried something different in the metagame to reasonable success. Thanks to everyone on Nugget Bridge that recognised me and spoke to me yesterday; it was great meeting some of you and having a tournament match with Mikeabbo (who himself had a strong, original team build) and I honestly had an excellent Pokemon themed day!
Edit- The winner has mentioned on Facebook that he brought the wrong Garchomp, and that was why he was firing off Stone Edges and used Outrage near the end.
Hi guys, I’m Lee Watson (the guy that doesn’t like weakness policy any more). I might do a write-up of the tournament to stick in the forums and explain some of the more questionable decisions I made (which will hopefully help people think a little higher of me after how I played). Above all else though, the community was great on the day, which makes me want to get more involved and work on my game. Thanks for a great day to everyone involved.
Ah okay, having the wrong Garchomp makes sense now haha.
Congrats on making the final Lee, are you going to Nationals to make use of your bye?
Thanks. Still working on getting the time off work, so with a bit of luck I’ll be able to attend.
Congrats on winning the finals Lee – enjoy your trip to Japan!
I really enjoyed the event; it was such a great day and well worth travelling there from the other side of the country! Unfortunately I got eliminated just short of the quarter finals (possibly due to a crit); for anyone that’s interested I’ve done a quick report of my own which you can find here:
http://nuggetbridge.com/forums/topic/5890-a-first-try-at-vgc-a-nintendo-uk-battle-tournament-team/
I was actually second place, but I was in Japan a couple of months ago so the loss doesn’t sting as much.
It was a fun day and jhonny vegas was a laugh, had some good battles, met xenoblade and lost
I may not be able to make it to the vgc in manchester next month, so if this is considered the spring, and we had a winter one in december, are we to expect something in the summer similar to this? Or do you guys think worlds will overshadow us a bit?
Also, does anyone know how to claim travel costs back?
We should be getting emails soon about compensation, I asked at the event
Spoke to one of the organisers on the Saturday about it he said we would be ‘receiving cheques’ in the post dependant on our locations.
It did sound a little BS to me I will chase it up if I don’t hear anything back by the end of this week.
I don’t remember giving my address out at any point….I think when I won the qualifier I only gave my email address and phone number…
I emailed yesterday and heard nothing. Also not best pleased how the last email we recieved had everyones email addresses for everyone to see.
I got a email today saying :
But yes, me neither, i dont remember giving my address. Maybe they will ask during this week.
Oli – the winner – here. I understand what people have been saying regarding the level of play of the Finals. Let me assure you that I was disappointed with the way the Finals went, and I’m sorry if you feel as though it was not the Final you wanted to see. As someone has already mentioned, unfortunately I had two identical Garchomp in my box, except for their movesets, and I picked the wrong one. I knew from the start that it wasn’t going to be able to do anything, so I left it in and wasn’t bothered when it got burned. I also wasn’t worried about Meowstic fainting, because all I wanted it to do was set up screens and safeguard. Nothing else. It was designed to support my Tyranitar and Mawile, which it did by allowing T-tar to live a hit from Venusaur. I was hoping to get a safeguard off, but obviously for two turns my Meowstic was paralyzed. Please elaborate on any switches you think I should have made during the battle, or any plays at all that you think I could have made differently. The only one I could think of was to Crunch the Charizard at the end, rather than Rock Slide. I think you’l find the match seemed to play out in a way that didn’t leave much room for switches, but I’d love to be convinced otherwise.
All in all, this was my FIRST EVER competitive event going in. I think I battled well during the group stages; I wish some of those battles were available, because I feel as though they better represent the standard of play at the event. I hope to go to Nationals and perform well, because to be honest, it’s a bit of a bummer to work for months team-building and testing, spend an entire day in difficult battles and win the final, all while trying to get more into the Pokemon community only to find that Moderators on this site aren’t impressed, and that clearly something was wrong with the selection process. It probably should have been best-of-three. I am confident I would have found it easier to win, given I wouldn’t have been playing with only 3 Pokemon.
Anyway, I’ve just finished drafting my team report, with ALL the battle videos on it. Please judge my standard after watching those.
Thanks for joining and posting your comments dude!
but congratulations for winning your first two big events. Enjoy Japan and hopefully we’ll see you at Nationals! Looking forward to seeing the rest of your games.
Don’t take the remarks too harshly, as the fact that your Garchomp wasn’t the correct one changes most of it. However, if your Meowstic did indeed have Safeguard then I believe that was the correct first move to make as Rotom is always going to try and burn you. If you weren’t bothered about losing your Garchomp, perhaps you shouldn’t have brought it to the game at all? Either way, not letting it get burned would have been a more productive way of playing the game. 252+ SpA Hydro Pump from Rotom-W (which I doubt this Rotom had) can only do 65.7% damage to 4 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp maximum, and when Light Screen is up, this maximum is reduced to 32.6% obviously meaning that Garchomp survives two Hydro Pumps (one without Light Screen up and one with) 100% of the time. Garchomp then achieves three attacking turns minimum (actually four or five if you played it the way I suggest), which can be a game changer from a Pokémon with 130 base Atk even if it isn’t the ideal selection it could have been.
From here, if you’d gone with those two moves (Safeguard followed by Light Screen), you could have easily decided to opt for Mawile to switch in on the predicted Shadow Ball from Meowstic. Even though it opted to go for Light Screen (which in no way harms your team other than the somewhat random Psychic’s you were throwing out while at risk from moves like Swagger and Thunder Wave). Just because you felt like Meowstic’s job was done, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have been useful later, or there could have been a situation where just having it in the back meant you won 1-0 in the end… Rotom-W was also in KO range for Mega Mawile’s Play Rough.
You’ll get a lot better at the game by viewing this website and playing more often
Also, we’re not saying you aren’t a good player, as winning two tournaments proves you are. The last thing we want to do is alienate players who are trying to get into the community, so just brush this aside and get involved!
Havak, I was under the impression that you couldn’t see moveset whilst choosing teams, so if he believed that he’d brought his Doubles Garchomp, then why wouldn’t he go for it as the best way to counter his opponent’s team? Also from the video it seems his Meowstic was in for quite a few turns, enough for the Safeguard to run out, and it looks like he’s going for it before he gets Double para’d.
As well as that, my guess from running a similar Ttar would be that the screens were pretty necessary to keep it alive long enough to set up and then sweep. Also who the heck runs Shadow Ball on a Meowstic?
He’d played more than just this one game and Garchomp is a great Pokémon. So, I am just guessing that he tried to use it earlier on in the tournament in one of the other seven or so games he played. Either way, you can always view the Summary of your Pokémon at the selection process.
My point is that he could have had a non-burned Garchomp and a Mawile (switched in for Meowstic) on the field that would both likely take three to four turns to KO and avoid any status moves. Rotom-W would die from a single Play Rough and the game would play out from there. Meowstic would also have the opportunity to set up Safeguard later to avoid the likes of Sleep Powder Venusaur if it were still around and wouldn’t be paralysed at all in the first place.
Assuming he had Protect on Tyranitar, later in the match he could have got himself in a situation of Protect Tryanitar + Safeguard Meowstic, followed by Light Screen anyway to allow the Dragon Dance and sweep. Obviously lots of possibilities and it’s much easier to judge after watching the full game, even if in the end it didn’t matter as he won. But it could have all gone downhill from Tyranitar getting fully paralysed which would have never happened if Mewostic would have used Safeguard earlier. This kind of play is minimizing the risk of losing to bad luck, which while it wasn’t an issue in the end, it sure could have been.
I agree with what you are saying, and maybe I should have conserved my Meowstic until later on. I switched the Garchomp in just before the final, where I was previosuly running Amoonguss, because I found myself never actually bringing Amoonguss in the first place. I simply assumed it would be useless and left it in. For the record, it had Stone Edge, Outrage, Fire Fang and Earthquake. I also assumed that I’d be able to set up a safeguard, which didn’t work out. I could have played the first half of the game differently, though. Rest assured, I have kicked myself over all the games that I played and moves that I could have made differently.
Not heard anything back yet. I will be giving them a call today.
Just received an email which says the following:
“We are currently working on reimbursing you for your travel expenses. Payments will be sent by cheque so firstly we will need to ask you for your postal address and please also clearly indicate to whom you would like your cheque made out to.”
I’m assuming it won’t be much longer until everyone else receives this too.
Just got mine eariler. I paid £58 for my train ticket to London from Leicester they are giving me £45 in return.
Hi Mike, I was your compeition in the Manchester semi final. (Damian). Been away for a month and only just pulled my finger out to register for NuggetBridge. Will send you our battle this weekend, if you’re still after it. Sounds like London was good fun. Hopefully you can make VGC.
anyone got thier cheque yet? :/
I haven’t got mine, been at least a fortnight since I replied as well
I sent an e-mail tot hem yesterday and haven’t got a reply back yet, regarding this.
At least it’s not just my post going randomly missing.