Nugget Bridge Invitational – Season 3
This August 2nd at 12 PM PDT the third Nugget Bridge Invitational will begin. After a long and grueling season, 32 of Nugget Bridge’s best players will square off in a live tournament to determine the Nugget Bridge Invitational Champion. Not only are the players battling for prestige, there are over $1,000 in cash and prizes to fight for.
Since this tournament is happening live, you can get in on the action by watching on Nugget Bridge’s Twitch channel. Featured commentary will be provided by Nationals and Worlds commentators Scott Glaza, Evan Latt, Duy Ha, and Justin Flynn to keep you informed and entertained.
The 32 players have all qualified via various Nugget Bridge Tournaments, so let’s take a chance to view the list of competitors and their qualification method:
Nugget Bridge Invitational 2 Finalist
Dodrio Cup Finalists
Nugget Bridge Major 3 Top 8
Nugget Bridge Circuit Top 16
- PM649
- Technoz
- R Inanimate
- Simon
- Lajo
- LPFan
- Massi
- Biosci
- Legacy
- Hibiki
- TheBattleRoom
- 13Yoshi37
- Zach
- Baz Anderson
- Boomguy
- LudiImpact
Pass Down Invites
- EmbC (pass down invite from makiri)
- emforbes (pass down invite from Scott)
- Szymoninho (pass down invite from Plusle)
Now of course the thing you are waiting for, the bracket!
How will this bracket end up shaking out? Well you can voice your opinion by entering the prediction contest. The best score after all is said and done will win a code for Pokémon Battle Trozei for the 3DS.
Start times for reference:
Pacific 12 PM
Central 2 PM
Eastern 3 PM
UK 8 PM
Central Europe 9 PM
Eastern 5 AM
About the Author
makiri started playing VGC in 2008 and has been an advocate for VGC play since then. With three Regional Championship victories and multiple other high placings, makiri is a seasoned competitor ready to impart knowledge of the game to others.
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57 Responses to Nugget Bridge Invitational – Season 3
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No, I’d say it would be even more of an issue if team changing were a thing. Not every player has an unlimited pool of mons ready to use nor the ability to optimally use a brand-new team on the fly. Thus, not being team-locked would in no way make the tournament more “balanced”/”fair”. We’re trying to “simulate a real-life tournament” because exactly those are basically what Nugget Bridge cares about the most. If you’re looking for formats that divert more from that particularly regarding team choices, we already have the NB Major and the NPA, where team changing is reasonable thanks to the time frames.
If it was really only Massi, Hibiki and I that said they would stream this would be pretty sad. I am not sure if it is because of the fact that I will be playing in worlds while this might be the large big tournament in this format for a long time for others, but I really don’t care about doing well in this one as much.
In the NBIs we had so far, people would not stay away from using fun stuff like delcatty as there was nothing on the line but having a good showing on stream. As soon as there is money on the line it seems like everyone is losing their mind over this and instead of appreciating the fact that NB is giving out essentially free money. Providing a stream if you are able to is everything I could give back for the moment so there was no second thinking about it.
I don’t really get how people would not understand what it meant to NB not to have good streams.
Again, I would love everyone to just appreciate what we get and play this like it was a live tournament with only the best players of the NB circuit battling it out.
Thanks Scott for leaving me out…
Completely agreed with the rest of your post though.
There were about 10 people who said they could stream when I posted, I wasn’t intending to name drop everyone, and certainly in addition to “Europeans”, “people named Aaron” and “people in Team Magma” are also categories of people I’ll be rooting for. The group of people who would stream didn’t include two capture cards and at least three other people who have streamed for other events, though, with several of those people essentially stating they were capable of streaming but wouldn’t.
I missed this originally, but this sort of thing is actually a pretty interesting solution.
Offering a stream considering I own a capture card was pretty much a no-brainer for me, even with loadsa dosh on the line. Of course I want the money, but if I am going for the grand prize, I need to have a consistent team and top-notch playstyle. I don’t think anyone is gonna win the whole thing simply because they managed to keep their team hidden from others.
Besides, let’s face it, just looking at the bracket I can spot a lot of R2 and R3 matches where R1 and R2 losers have friends in relevant bracket parts to tell them infos about their impending opponent. Going into Semi-Finals there’s probably someone in almost every part of the bracket who is willing to reveal infos to their friends.
I don’t think anyone is safe from being scouted even when hiding from the stream, so might as well give the viewers a good show.
Right, I am the bad guy for breaking my phone and no longer being able to stream. In fact, it is my fault that everyone else didn’t want to stream too. I started a conspiracy to undermine a stupid meaningless online pokemon tournament that I was playing in for fun. Good thing you threatened to disqualify me to keep me in line or who knows what else you would need to blame on me.
How is that different than getting an unlucky pairing against someone who happens to have a counter team? At least changing teams will allow you to make tweaks to prevent the opponent from knowing 100% what items and moves you have. I don’t think it would be too difficult to prepare a couple teams (or adjustments to a team) before going into a tournament. If someone isn’t good enough to use multiple teams we shouldn’t make it easier for them.
I think this whole scouting thing is somewhat of an issue but it is something we can work around with. For example DarkAssassin and I know each others team very well. We know items, natures, move sets. And even the ev spreads of some of our “special” pokemon. What players have to do is learn how to use their teams when they are at a disadvantage. That way when they face a team with “counters” they are better prepared.
As for the streaming, for the most part I wanted to stream the top 8 matches up to the finals because that’s when the matches get more intense. But after speaking to Makiri, I see what nugget bridge is trying to do with this online tournament. This tournament is trying to be as big as Worlds in terms of a show.
Now the last issue I wanted to talk about is this whole “removing people from the tournament” issue. I thought it was very unprofessional for Nugget Bridge to threaten some of its players for not wanting to stream. It makes the staff sound more like dictators than actual people. Yes, you guys want to grow the community but by threatening players in that form you are only making some leave. The better solution would have been to persuade players on why you wanted them to stream and how it helps the community.
Makiri did try to talk to you guys in private, you didn’t cooperate, and now it is a public issue because that’s what needed to happen to get enough cooperation for this to work. I don’t think there’s anything unprofessional about doing what we have to do to to get a decent show going given the prize structure, especially given that magically people are suddenly way more cooperative now that this is out in the open. Again, if you aren’t comfortable with it, don’t play, There are plenty of players who aren’t in this tournament who would like to play for the money and would stream.
I think it’s very unprofessional that so many players feel entitled to play for money and not contribute to the endeavor at all given the way that money was acquired to begin with. It is even less proffesional that in some cases people are pretty bluntly bsing us about their capability/willingness to stream, as though we are stupid or that this isn’t an issue. I think it’s extremely immature and naive that so many players refused to understand the importance of showing this event off given the attention and money being invested in it, and it is hardly an issue isolated to this tournament. Clearly, we’re not going to come to a complete understanding here, so we’re going to play the cards we need to get the stream rolling.
I think the players who can easily stream but won’t because of fear of team scouting over such small prizes are being ridiculous, just as ridiculous as it is to want to end a tournament if there are too many people left who can’t stream matches or whatever it was. If there’s actually a threat of this tournament not finishing, I probably won’t even be interested in playing. Players don’t want to spend hours playing a video game only for the tournament to end abruptly without finishing, and viewers even more than players won’t want to spend hours watching a tournament only for it not to finish. I doubt it happens, but if there’s actually a threat of it happening I’m not sure I’m interested in playing in this. I honestly can’t even believe that was threatened, even if it was an empty threat just to get more people to stream.
As for me, I “can” stream, but anyone who’s watched the one time I streamed knows it’s basically unwatchable. The screen goes completely blurry and back to normal and back to blurry every 10 seconds. Numerous mistakes during commentary because they can’t make out exactly what’s happening or my phone lags horrendously. Not to mention you can’t even make out what moves are being used except from animations half the time. If that’s really the kind of stream you want in early rounds I’d have to seriously question that. This tournament is completely full of the very best players, with a decent chunk of players who actually have nice phones/camcorders/capture cards/whatever. That’s exactly why I said I’m not streaming early rounds, but if I end up making it deep and my opponents can’t stream and nuggetbridge is adamant about my match being on stream, I am willing to stream.
Ugh, this whole thing makes me feel like learning how to stream just so that I am not risking the tournament ending in the case that I go deep.
LOL I didnt even consider the possiblity of scouting when makiri asked me if I could stream. I might run a few tests tonight with the default camera of my PC, but I already told you guys that I dont even know how to do so.
I am in the same boat as Fatum. I am unable to stream at all, since I will be at a hotel using their internet and will not have a camera, capture card, or anything else to stream with. I do think it is ridiculous that some people aren’t willing to stream even if they have the ability to, but I think canceling the tournament is pretty unfair as well. If we were given a warning that we wouldn’t be allowed to participate unless we could stream it would be fine as I would have just dropped out, but I have convinced my parents to push my entire families stay at a hotel from one day to another because of this tournament, and when I tell them that the tournament was canceled they will be pretty pissed at me and likely won’t let me enter tournaments like this ever again. Don’t get me wrong, spectators are a huge part of the game and if I wasn’t in the tournament I would pretty upset if there wasn’t a constant stream going on. I just dislike the fact that the decision is being made after we all accepted our invites.
Sorry for my sad story, but I just feel like this decision is poorly timed and is unfair.
Also if you can stream man up and stream for god sakes.
Not trying to clog up the thread, but I did want to say that I am in the same situation as joej, my whole weekend got changed just to be able to play in this, while many players in this, including myself will try their best to stream, I feel that canceling the whole tournament when players are doing their best isn’t the right call.
Sucks I’ll have to miss the majority of this as I’m doing my Eagle Scout Project that day, but hopefully replays will be uploaded to Youtube later! Best of luck to all participants!
So now you can add me to the list of streamers
But I need to practice when I get home tonight. What program should I use to stream with?
I think the general consensus is OBS. I know a number of people from here use it as their software of choice, so you’ll be able to get help with it quite easily if it comes to it.
Yeah, OBS is easy to learn, free, and pretty powerful overall. Definitely my recommendation.
Getting caught counterteaming/styling really, really sucks, but I think this thread moved on from the “I can’t stream because of scouting” thing.
Anyway, good luck to everyone involved, except Zach
Scott is obviously talking about me when he refers to someone who didn’t confirm the desire to stream so I’d just thought I’d address this.
Despite being the embodiment of cancer in the past few weeks or so, me being salty isnt the reason for my not wanting to stream.
I knew I wouldn’t be at my apartment at college when this takes place and I didn’t know where I’d be playing this from seeing as my internet at home is far from stable enough so I didn’t want to promise a stream and then fail to deliver. I didn’t volunteer to stream because I wasn’t sure I would able to, not because I didn’t want to be scouted.
That being said, I’ll be playing the tournament from Angel’s house where I will have access to a capture card(assuming angel isn’t a lazy bum and forgets to get the card). We will likely take turns streaming our matches provided we get that far.
Idk if someone already said this but can’t you just do the battles, save the battle codes, and then send them to whoever wants to run a main stream? I know that’s what they do on JustinFlynns twitch when he does tournaments. idk if this helps.
It is not as exciting as an actual live stream cause people would know the result of the matches by the time the battle videos are in. This is a good alternative to those who truly can’t stream.
I think some of you are being too worried here. I am sure they won’t call it off when only people who legitimately can’t stream are left. They are infuriated about people outright refusing to stream because of the scouting aspect.
It turns out that apparently I will be able to stream unless some unpredictable technical difficulties occur, so our set should be possible to watch External. @organizers – sorry for the confusion, I hope nobody hurt itself in it.
This is now over, big congrats to Baz and the rest of the top 4. Thanks to everyone who streamed and was prepared to stream, we can’t do this without you. Big thanks to everyone who uses Nugget Bridge and played in the circuit, we can’t offer prizes like this without you.
Hopefully next season is just as successful if not more. The circuit will take a break for a bit for NPA and post Worlds break, but we’ll be back SoonTM.
Thanks everyone.
Had a good time. Thanks to the players who were willing to stream especially, to Justin for coming by to commentate, and to almost everyone who played for keeping on task and keeping things going efficiently. Tournament ran pretty smoothly, we appreciate it.
Thanks to everyone that has congratulated me!
This has been a pretty crazy season for me – the Nationals didn’t really go well, so at least I feel somewhat vindicated winning this. I am definitely in the group of people that stick to/work on one team, so I have been using 4/6 this team since well before the Nationals. I guess I finally turned it into something worthwhile – either that or the metagame turned around in my favour. I will be doing a report of the team and its history after Worlds!
Again, thanks to Nugget Bridge and everyone for their support!
Here is the reality of video game tournaments: they are as much about spectators as players. The players aren’t really the ones who support events, the viewers and the community at large are. I think this game’s community has had a hard time getting their minds around that. Pokemon has certainly grown a lot again the last couple of years. Players here are benefiting from that with higher prize pools than last year because of Nugget Bridge’s viewership increasing and allowing for it, and similarly in real life stipends have certainly increased since 2012. These sort of expansions won’t continue or even be sustainable if the game at its higher levels doesn’t keep getting out there to keep people tuning in to and reading about VGC and Pokemon in general. This is why we’re pushing the streaming pretty hard here as we always do and is basically why you can’t opt out of the stream or the TVs at real life events, either. When you get spectators involved, tournaments are about more than just the players competing. For the real circuit obviously it’s an arm of marketing so there’s more to consider, but with the NB Invitational it is much simpler: it just doesn’t make sense for us to give money away if we aren’t getting anything for our viewers out of it. Especially given that, like with the real life circuit, it pretty obviously isn’t good value from a promotional perspective to give this much out for one stream. Players in tournaments, in that sense, are already getting an awful lot more than what is “fair”.
All games here are best-of-three series. Opponents can’t change teams to adapt to information gained during and between rounds. And frankly in real life, if you’re using something that bizarre, the entire tournament knows basically immediately. You aren’t going to win on a surprise if it isn’t good enough to outmaneuver opponents who know what it is.
Regardless, it doesn’t really matter. The stipulations here have been set. Players have been invited for a chance to win a sum of money they’re clearly pretty interested in competing for. That money came from the community visiting this website, and as such the stipulations of acquiring that money are tied to helping ensure that community gets a good product here. If you aren’t interested in that, you’re welcome not to participate. Those are the options.