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Published on June 23rd, 2014 | by Cybertron

81

VGC ’14 USA vs Germany International Friendly

Three days after the FIFA World Cup match between the United States of America and Germany, the two countries will face off in a friendly exhibition Pokémon tournament this Sunday. While previous International Friendlies featured seven members per team, this one will cut down to five members to save time for viewers, commentators, and players alike. Germany dominated the European circuit this season, earning 15 out of the 34 European invites and 7 out of the 17 paid trips. Their star-studded roster, lead by two time Worlds Competitor and 2014 Germany National Champion Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37), features five players who have all qualified for the 2014 World Championships as they seek  to solidify Germany’s dominating strength in the VGC scene. The United States roster, lead by Aaron Zheng (Cybertron), features both familiar and new faces to international competition who are all currently in contention for a invite to the 2014 World Championships.  This friendly will not only feature excellent matches but will also put the spotlight on multiple American players who are expected to do well at US Nationals the following weekend.

The entire battle will be streamed on our Twitch channel for spectators to watch beginning at 10:00 AM Pacific / 1:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM Central Europe on Sunday, June 29th, 2014. Commentary will be provided by the cast you’ll see featured at the US National Championships and the 2014 World Championships this summer, brought to you by Scott Glaza (Scott), Evan Latt (plaid), Duy Ha (Duy), and  Justin Flynn (TheJustinFlynn). The first team to three wins will win the friendly, but all five sets will be played out. Match-ups will be determined the day of.

Roster

USA

  1. Aaron Zheng (Cybertron)
  2. Blake Hopper (Mrbopper)
  3. Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom)
  4. Gavin Michaels (kingofmars)
  5. Wolfe Glick (Wolfey)

Germany

  1. Markus Stadter (13Yoshi37)
  2. Christoph Kugler (drug duck)
  3. Baris Akcos (Billa)
  4. Lajos Kowalewski (Lajo)
  5. Nemanja Sandic (Porengan)


About the Author

is a five time Worlds qualifier ('08, '11, '12, '13, '14), a three-time Regional Champion, and a two-time National Champion. Aaron also placed 3rd at the 2013 Pokemon World Championships. He is sponsored by CLASH Tournaments and aims to promote competitive VGC through his YouTube channel, CybertronProductions. Aaron is currently a senior at Trinity School NYC.



81 Responses to VGC ’14 USA vs Germany International Friendly

  1. Maestro says:

    Just like during the soccer match, we’ll have a split house (my wife grew up in Germany) . . . 
     
    Well, I grew up in Virginia . . . Go USA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. Pd0nZ says:

    The only thing that really stands out to me with the rosters is that it is severely lacking in Ray Rizzo, lol. But that could simply be a matter of him not wanting to play, availability, etc. Besides, the 5 US players make a solid lineup. I’m not as familiar with the German team, but know that Markus and Billa are good players and have had good seasons, and I do recognize the other players names at least, so I know they are bringing a solid team to this. So, after we kick the ball around for 90 minutes on Thursday and end in a scoreless draw (please?), this 2nd team competition between the US and Germany should make for some good viewing, especially as we make final preparations for Nationals. Thanks for getting this together Aaron and Markus. It should be fun to watch. 

  3. KLVkboom says:

    Darn, right when I saw the title I thought it would’ve asked for sign-ups. Would’ve liked to battle it out with Yoshi since I didn’t get to meet him in the Bisafan finals, or even Drug Duck for a rematch :p

    Anyways, it’ll be really amazing to watch a battle between Wolfey and Yoshi. I would assume these two know the ins and outs of each other’s playstyles and the mind games would be great to see.

  4. Dim says:

    Collin and Blake 🙂 Really looking forward to watching this, both teams are very strong. I’m a sucker for good commentary over a Pokemon match, and I’ll be at Collin’s house at the time, so I don’t think I can avoid the hype!

  5. Legacy says:

    Two of the best players in the US aren’t in Team USA. (Ray and BadIntent) Awesome. Germany is gunna wreck USA calling it now.

  6. Fears says:

    Welp… I guess team Germany is going to win :\

  7. Biosci says:

    No national pride at all smh
     
    Really looking forward to this, always nice to get some quality streamed matches. Hopefully no potato cams this time

  8. Scott says:

    don’t worry kids i’ll get you some tissues that are made in America
     
     
     
     
     
    I’m excited to be doing one of these again, finally. Thanks to my handy delegate Coobertron and also Yoshi for putting this together, and sorry to the community in general for not trying harder to get more of these going on NB this season. I’ll try and make sure we’re better about making these happen for the rest of this season and next.
     
    I would like to encourage everyone to be respectful about the commentary for this one. I had Aaron put this together for a reason — we need the test run — so keep in mind it is practice for us and we will probably have some gaffs. I think, though, you will be surprised at how good the new guys are. I know I have been so far.
     
    Good luck to both sides — glad we’ve gotten to the point where I don’t have to try to both play in and cast these!

  9. Bopper says:

    You guys aren’t supporting us very well! Very excited to see how this goes, everybody in USA is either top 16 or someone who was in a friendly in the past. This is gonna be a blast.

  10. kingofmars says:

    Every player on the German team is older than anyone on the American side, I think this is the first time it’s appropriate to refer to a group of 19 year olds as geriatric.
     
    Good luck to the German side, considering that you can’t lose 10 games this time, it’s bound to go better than the last time we had an international friendly with Europe!

  11. Eiganjo says:

    Guess I’ll have to multitask in between watching this and the Netherlands – Mexico game.
    Fortunatly this happens during the second half so I don’t have to miss everything just yet :P
    Good luck to both teams though :P

  12. Xenoblade Hero says:

    Very strong lineups – despite what people are saying about the American half I think the correct players who have had the best seasons/contributed well to the metagame development have been chosen. It’s hard to tell exactly where everyone stands with Nationals yet to happen but I expect to see a strong performance nontheless.

    German half I know more about. I know that drug duck started off with a bad season but with his excellent performance in Italy I look forward to seeing what he brings to the table. Fond memories of Porengan’s performance at Germany Nats come to mind too and I’m very interested in his team. Everyone else has had consistently good performances at events and I can safely say both sides are very evenly matched. I’ll have to find the time to watch the tournament and spread the word about it!

  13. ZzamanN says:

    Where is Ray?

  14. Kingthing says:

    Just wondering will there be other ones don’t get me wrong exited for this but we have players from other countries that want an international friendly, do we also have an international cup?

  15. feathers says:

    ray retired from pokemon and now works at epcot selling turkey legs and dip n dots.
     
    i’ll be tuning in, i’ve heard nothing but good feedback from scott about jflynn since my skeptical post and i would love to see the commentators in action before nationals. it’s always fun to watch the players too of course, great lineup on both sides

  16. Gonzo says:

    I really like the picks on both teams and I’m sure we’ll see great battles! I wish good luck to both teams, but I’m sort of biased towards my neighbours ;) Dominate the friendly and then dominate Worlds, Germans!

    I’m sure we all want the best commentary during both US Nats and Worlds, so don’t forget to give feedback Duy and Justin! I’m pretty confident about Evan/Scott duo’s performance, but for Duy/Justin pair isn’t as seasoned commentating as the other two. Fingers crossed!

  17. R Inanimate says:

    Remember guys, there’s no benefit this time for either side if you guys somehow manage to cause a draw for this one.

  18. bombe32 says:

    Are the matches Bo1 or Bo3?

  19. rapha says:

    Nice lineup. Really hope I can catch the stream for this

  20. Gonzo says:

    Are the matches Bo1 or Bo3?

    All previous friendlies were Bo3, so I assume it will stay that way as well.

  21. melevin9 says:

    Can we get a collective national anthem sing-off before the first match commences?

  22. Bjart says:

    Really excited for this one because I’m sure the players will put up a great show, I’m (of course) hoping for a German victory.
    I think questions like “where is ray?” are a bit pointless to be honest, there surely are reasons for him not to play. Also there are so many more good players on both sides, it is impossible to include everyone.
    I don’t really have a match that I would like to see more than the res, the pairings should just be based on who can stream and who cannot (or just with potato cams/bad internet like me :D)

  23. Hibiki says:

    Japanese Nationals in the morning, USA vs. Germany in the evening. Sunday will be great.

  24. Cybertron says:

    Some roster explanations: none of the top 3 in NA CP currently were able to play for various reasons. Ray’s studying for a really important exam, Enosh is out of the country by Sunday, and BadIntent hasn’t been online since March. As for the selections, Gavin and Wolfe have obviously been two of America’s top players for years and are both doing quite well this season. I chose TheBattleRoom and Mrbopper based off my observations from the recent weeks: both are currently in the Top 16 in NA CP, and both have won 2 Premier Challenges. (fun fact, the only other player in the T16 that has done this is Zach). They’re two of the hottest players going into US Nationals right now and are very close to earning their first Worlds invite. 
     

    Two of the best players in the US aren’t in Team USA. (Ray and BadIntent) Awesome. Germany is gunna wreck USA calling it now.

    I’m disappointed in this post and attitude. It obviously stinks not having either of those two players, but I believe I made strong selections. I’m not even sure I’d choose BadIntent if he were around given the fact he hasn’t touched the game in months afaik given his internet hiatus. and a lot can happen when you don’t play for that long. We have three US National Champions and past Worlds Qualifiers in me/Wolfe/Gavin, and two of the best American VGC ’14 players going into Nationals this year. I think we’ll be fine.

  25. harvest says:

    If you want to play against French team (german, spain or USA..) pm me 🙂
    it’s also possible with belgium team

  26. seasicknesss says:

    Have faith in ‘merica, their roster is a lot deeper than people are giving them credit for. Most of the predictions / opinions are probably based on the recent hype of the European nationals circuit and the lack of front forum coverage of the US premier challenges. Not to detract anything from the European team because their team is pretty stacked as well. Excited to watch how this plays out. Double excited for a chance to see the quirkier players of both teams bring hipster mons and anti-meta goodness.

  27. deathwreaker says:

    Having played against Bopper and BattleRoom myself, I can testify to their prowess in the game. Both of them have utterly destroyed me in specific instances, and read me like a book (especially Bopper in the Richland Hills PC finals).

    I think the overall selection is really good; looking forward to see how these players perform against the Germans. I will say, that I am most looking forward to watching Wolfe Glick play as he is one of my personal favorite players to watch.

    Best of luck to everyone on Sunday!

  28. Abaris says:

    Definitely multitasking for watching this friendly and Netherlands vs Mexico (but I may drop the last one ’cause Netherlands 2stronk)
    I really want to go USA due to the impressive lack of support and the strong team, but I’m feeling like Germany will not only win this friendly, but the World Cup, and maybe the world itself.
     

  29. Hibiki says:

    Rooting for Team USA, you can do this!

  30. JohnnyPt says:

    Really want Germany to win because Europe, although they 4-0’d us in football
    I think this is a really good idea you should make this more often and with other countries maybe even some kind of cup.
    Good luck, ill be watching

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