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
- Aaron Zheng (Cybertron)
- Blake Hopper (Mrbopper)
- Collin Heier (TheBattleRoom)
- Gavin Michaels (kingofmars)
- Wolfe Glick (Wolfey)
Germany
About the Author
Cybertron 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.
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81 Responses to VGC ’14 USA vs Germany International Friendly
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I really like the picks on both sides. Well, except for how the all-high school cast on Team USA’s side reminds me that I’m probably too old to keep playing this game much longer haha. I’m sure we’re going to see some great sets. Good luck to all the players! Since it’ll be the weekend before US Nats, I hope each USA player either doesn’t mind revealing their Nats team or has a backup team they don’t mind showing to everyone. I’d hate for USA to lose just because they were holding back.
I’m also interested in seeing how Justin does at commentary right now. People are saying that he’s really enthusiastic and eager to learn, but results are what matter. Hopefully Justin can prove that TPCi picking him wasn’t a disaster.
My most anticipated World Cup Game followed by this a few days later. Heck yea I’m pumped.
Begins USA chant*
Come on Germany show em who’s boss! Lajo FTW!
Remember that time when TheBattleRoom wasn’t initially drafted for NPA, then was picked up around week 3 and went undefeated, 6-0? Don’t underestimate this guy.
I unfortunately have to work so I’ll have to catch the past broadcast when I get home that night, I’m super excited. Coming from MTG where is a lot of streaming and commentated coverage, anytime there is an event with great commentary from Scott and the rest of the group I get really pumped to watch. The teams look great, the lack of Ray and Omari sucks as I really enjoyed watching them play from previous regionals coverage.. but I think we’ll do just fine! As a big fan of TheBattleRoom and Bopper I’m really excited to see them play especially at Nats the following weekend!
Go USA!
To go back a few posts, I think the roster debates are some of why the 5v5 format is fun instead of 7v7 like last year. The US is one of those countries where if we play with bigger rosters — probably bigger than 7 to get an edge on Germany — the US has a big advantage because there are a lot of similarly skilled players to choose from, which makes the decision tough in a smaller format like this. The US could go to 9 or 11 pretty easily without really losing anything, which I don’t think is really true for any other country but Japan. This isn’t especially surprising given that the entire NA circuit is pretty much just the US and about a dozen relevant Canadians, and that the US simply has more players. With 5 players on the roster, or probably even 7, Germany may have the better roster, and I think things are definitely more interesting for this match than most of the ones last year. This will matter more when we do more of these and countries less deep than Germany and the US are competing — I think the friendlies will be a lot more competitive in this format, which will make them more fun.
I commented on IRC a while ago that the “best Pokemon country” tends to get tied to format more than any objective measure, and similarly the results of these events are tied to the number of players a lot. If it’s 1v1, Korea is probably the best country, and even Canada has a shot! If it’s 3v3 or 5v5 almost all of the VGC playing countries are pretty competitive, though obviously countries with a smaller group of elite players like Italy become much scarier in that type of format. I think at 7v7, it’s hard to imagine anyone being a serious threat to the US or Japan other than Germany because the other countries kind of run out of star players. At 9v9 or 11v11, it’s really just the US and Japan, and much beyond that Japan is probably a mile ahead. 5v5 creates fun problems, I think. I’m excited to see how this one plays out!
It’s also probably worth noting I’m sure Ray would have played if he was available, but he isn’t.
Well best of luck to you guys. I just felt that Team USA could have had a stronger line up similar to Germany. It’s also difficult for you to tell who truly the best players are since US Nationals hasn’t occurred. Some of the players on the top 16 in CP probably won’t be after Nats.
Yeah I really can’t compete in this because I have more important irl stuff going on (which is also why I haven’t been online at all the past few weeks except for the World Cup US games), so I’m sorry to everyone who wanted to watch me play in this! Despite the US team missing myself, Enosh, and whoever else you guys want to see, it’s still a good team of 5 players and hopefully you guys will be entertained
Although I imagine you might not see the best out of Team USA due to nationals being a week after, I’m sure it will still be a really good and close match.
LETS GO USA!!!!!!
This is awesome! Is it too late to register for teams? Also is this nuggetbridge comp or legit run by nintendo? But srsly first year h
Sorry about above post accidently posted that lol. Anyway what I said was first year here and wow!
Oh cool, Collin and Blake :D. But yeah gl team America! Also wanted to say that it is stupid for people to be giving this to Germany just from the rosters, I actually think our team is stronger :P.
Where’s ray
2 posts above you.
Actually, I have two PC wins, just as a correction. I didn’t share it too much. Still really hype for this tournament and the players are definitely very good!
Oops, you’re right on that one, my apologies!
I’m surprised no one has said “‘MERICUH!!!”
On the flipside I am actually looking forward to the matches. As nationals event is coming up, it will get people in the mood and prepared and hyped for all the Pokemon goodness that will come about.
Good luck all… but my money is on the EU team as I’m from Europe :3
Germany vs US toinght on World Cup, and in Pokemon on Sunday! Best of luck mates 🙂
Clearly Ray Rizzo is banned and he’s just being very humble about it.
This is tomorrow! We have a lot of freedom with matchups so are there any particular ones you guys want to see? We’ll probably do Wolfe vs. Markus for one of them.
This is tomorrow! We have a lot of freedom with matchups so are there any particular ones you guys want to see? We’ll probably do Wolfe vs. Markus for one of them.
Was literally about to say this match up on Twitter to you. Do this one; it has the potential to be both very entertaining and good. Other than that, whatever. Maybe you vs Billa would be good, but the one that really stands out (and the one you recognized): Wolfe vs Markus.
I think something like this would be fine:
Cybertron vs Yoshi
Wolfey vs Lajo
kingofmars vs drug duck
TheBattleRoom vs Billa
Mrbopper vs Porengan
Definitely, the Aaron vs Markus would be THE match; also Wolfe vs Markus would be awesome too, and Aaron vs Lajo. Whatever, best of luck, guys, it will be fun for sure.
Betting… I’m from Europe, and I would say I’m going with the German squad… but I truly have admiration and esteem for Aaron and Wolfe. Ahh, difficult to decide…
would love to see cybertron playing vs drug_duck!
Wolfey vs Yoshi for sure
Taking stream setups into consideration, this will be the line-up in order:
As for the matchups, Markus said he would rather not play Wolfe, so I respected his request. I also didn’t pair myself up with Markus because we both have good stream setups, which is important to consider for the audience and the casters. With that in mind, I think we still ended up with some really exciting matches, as….
I’m going to do everything I can to make sure this tournament runs as smoothly as possible. I’d really like to step it up a notch from the Gen. 5 ones and make sure that we get the best games possible while not wasting anyone’s time. To do so, I’m making sure that all the participants come into an IRC room 15 minutes before start time to register each other’s friend codes and test our individual stream setups. That way, we’ll all be good to go once it’s our turn and downtime should be very minimal. Without the terrible Gen. 5 Wi-FI and with slightly improved streaming, this should be an incredibly exciting and entertaining tournament. Don’t forget to support all the players, and more importantly, the casters as this is a huge opportunity for them to practice and show the world what they have to offer!
I need to talk to Evan now that he’s actually going to be around, but casters are gonna meet up around an hour before, so we’d probably really like to start on time. I would appreciate if players already had friend codes entered before it was their turn so we could transition quickly between matches.
It’ll likely be Duy+Justin on two matches, Evan+me on two matches, and Justin+me once if anyone is curious. I will figure out order for sure now that I have player matches after I talk to other casters.
Please be respectful to the new casters as this is practice for them and to Evan as he gets used to XY. I expect we’ll put on a good show, but it’s practice for us.
We need a pre show with Vegas odds, experts picks, nationwide polls, and scouting reports
They should do like an analysis half an hour before of players and there match ups.
Must say that commentary was great, Justin was great on commentary and that’s something that has to be said. Props where props are due, I say.
Loved both teams and typing this on the final match, may the best man win for their country