Pokémon VGC Analysis on Pokémon Global Link
The Pokémon Global Link has long been a great resource for VGC players due to its wealth of data on both International Challenges and the Battle Spot Doubles ladder. Today, the Global Link expanded into new ground, posting an analysis of the top Pokémon used in the February International Challenge. The article goes over the top threats from February and some of their most common items, moves, and counters during the last International Challenge. Competitive video game strategy content straight from The Pokémon Company International is pretty rare with little published since Worlds, so it’s a pleasant surprise to see an article of this size. The article doesn’t go quite as deep into specific strategic decisions as an article here might, instead seeming to be aimed at being accessible to players of all levels of experience. With signups for the next International Challenge starting soon, hopefully the Pokemon Global Link article will get more players trying to learn more about competitive Pokémon and the official format of the Video Game Championships.
The Pokémon Company International has also started posting battle videos from top players in online competitions on the official Pokémon YouTube channel, which currently has battles from the Battle of Hoenn and Generation Showdown online tournaments.
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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17 Responses to Pokémon VGC Analysis on Pokémon Global Link
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Hi Scott
You would think so, but you would also be wrong.
I would, however, be very interested in what people think about the PGL article. I am personally pretty excited to see this sort of content on one of Pokemon’s official websites, and would appreciate people spreading the word if they like this sort of content.
Wow, such an earnest analysis. Is this article exclusive to English Pokémon Global Link Site?
English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian. I believe it should automatically direct you to the correct language if you’ve been on the PGL on whatever you’re browsing with before. If not, if you go to the PGL in the one of those languages there’ll be a link in the news section.
It’s an intersting article. Probably the best attepmpt I’ve seen so far from the official sites that try to give some sort of analysis or display of knowledge about the competitive game that we play.
One thing in particular that bugged me about the article was the inconsistancies about displaying some of the moves we see on these top Pokemon.
Kangaskhan, Landorus, and Bisharp mention 4 moves, but Slyveon Talonflame and Aegislash mention 3.
Kangaskhan randomly has mention of Ice Punch, dispite that being the 8th most used move on it at 15%.
However, Aegislash omits having Flash Cannon mentioned, which was 78% used.
If your going to talk about each of the pokemon, at least give each one some fair treatment in how much you cover about them. Unless they REALLY don’t have more than 3 moves that are commonly used on them. But even then you could just comment on how their last move is a “wild card” where people use a wide variety of things that fit their needs.
The information seems pretty cursory. These are all basically things we can gather from typical play or even from looking at battlespot usage. I thought the article would feature cool pokemon or strategies that did well in the IC or weird upticks in underused pokemon usage. This IC wasn’t competitive so a lot of people used underused or typically gimmicky strats. I wished they had focused on the best or most popular of those sort of pokemon
The problem with stuff like this is that they have to connect with casual players who don’t give a crap about EVs, IVs and Natures as well as people like those on NB. Thus, they couldn’t really go in-depth about different builds and stiff (I doubt that most of the GF people don’t know what EVs and IVs are).
It’s really cool to see the PGL to write an article like this even if the information is a bit rudimentary; seems like they have been trying really hard to promote the competitive aspect of Pokemon to its audience lately.
Definitely a move that I am very supportive of, as I see more and more people who grew up with Pokemon in their childhood complain of the easiness of the in-game aspect of recent games (and yet can’t let it go because of nostalgia factors).
Battling Genwunners on Battle Spot is the funniest thing.
I’m liking the direction the GL has been taking lately with VGC. they’ve also been releasing battle videos of fights between high-level trainers during the Battle of Hoenn. Not gonna lie, these analyses aren’t bad. I wonder who the workers at the PGL are making them.
I think people from this community are generally gonna miss whom the article is targeting. Of course it’s going to seem overly fundamental if you’re already aware of Nuggetbridge or any competitive channel.
This is a step in the right direction for getting the competitive scene out there. I would definitely appreciate it if they consistently uploaded battle videos to their channel, even just from higher ranking matches on the BS ladder. Articles like this are a nice start though. As mentioned already they should work for some consistency between the spread of mons they choose to showcase.
I noticed that there is a translation error in the Spanish version where they state that super power is a flying type move. How would I report this?
There is no senior division in this competition. Is that correct?
I believe it’s customary to put the seniors with the masters for these competitions.
It’s Seniors and Juniors together and the Masters seperate.
My money’s on Juniors and Masters together, with Seniors in their own category. Just because /someone/ has to say it.
I think it’s an interesting article, even though it should be more in-depth and it doesn’t explain things that much. But I understand it’s their first time doing something like this and I believe they’ll do better next times.
It’s a really big thing, promoting the competitive scene that much. Makes me happy.