Reports

Published on May 9th, 2013 | by Magic

46

Versus the World: An International Challenge – April Report

Greetings! I’m James Bunkley, and after lurking for months, I decided to finally step out of my shell.  I’ve been playing in the Video Game Championships since 2010,  when I entered the rain-infested metagame with a Hail team.  While I’ve done well in several grassroots tournaments and the Global Battle Union (placing in the Top 4 in the United States for three consecutive seasons), I’ve only gone 6-2 at the past couple of regionals due to a couple of oversights and some bad luck. Disheartened by my X-2 performance at Athens, I decided to buckle down during the April International Challenge. I achieved a respectable 1831 ranking, putting me in 8th place amongst my North American peers and 24th place overall.

The Team

Bring out the pitchforks, for it’s a balanced Sand team! Although Regionals are over for the year, I’ve noticed that players on other forums are still asking for help on their Sand teams for the June International Challenge and local tournaments, so hopefully this will serve as a decent blueprint. While I’ve tested out ParaSpam, SandRoom, and offensive Sand, balanced Sand is the team I’ve had the most success with. I had to make several tough decisions, but for the most part, I made the right calls.

A final note: In my analysis, I may refer to “less experienced” players. I’m not trying to look down on the little guy; we’ve all been there (I had a 20% win ratio against other players back in Generation I).  However, inexperienced players do make up a good chunk of GBU competitions, and they have to be taken into account.

TwiSparkle (Cresselia) (F) @ Expert Belt
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 180 HP / 4 Def / 248 SAtk / 4 SDef / 72 Spd
Modest Nature
– Icy Wind
– Psyshock
– Hidden Power [Fire]
– Helping Hand

Cresselia’s the queen of VGC for a reason; I can’t imagine building a serious team without her.  While purely offensive Cresselia aren’t too common, the moveset itself is fairly standard for an offensive variant.  Icy Wind provides valuable speed control and still has enough power to 2HKO Garchomp and Landorus formes — 2HKOing the latter even through Yache Berry. Psyshock provides a solid STAB attack which has a small chance to OHKO max HP Hitmontop and was chosen over Psychic simply for the obnoxious Amoonguss. Hidden Power Fire is the main reason I considered offensive Cresselia, as it has just enough juice to OHKO max HP Scizor and 2HKOs Ferrothorn. The last slot is the most variable, with options ranging from an unexpected Protect to Trick Room. I chose Helping Hand in order to nab unexpected KOs and to boost Excadrill’s Earthquake. The Expert Belt and Special Attack EVs enable Cresselia to land the aforementioned KOs, while the Speed allows Cresselia to outspeed Jolly Garchomp after an Icy Wind.

There are several other options I considered. Ice Beam is normally eschewed for Icy Wind on offensive Cresselia, but the extra power can come in handy. For instance,  it can OHKO 36 HP / 196 SDef Garchomp popularized by Ray, 2HKO offensive Thundurus and Tornadus, and even has a 69.5% chance to 2HKO bulky 172 HP / 252 SDef Thundurus if it lacks a Sitrus Berry.  Eventually, I decided that the speed control would be more useful. Initially, I considered Trick Room over Helping Hand to reverse opposing Trick Rooms, but in practice, this was normally a small bump to Trick Room teams. Finally, Psychic Gem is an option over Expert Belt to OHKO Hitmontop and possibly Amoonguss, but I figured OHKOing Scizor would be more important. Speaking of which…

Finn (Scizor) @ Steel Gem
Trait: Technician
EVs: 204 HP / 252 Atk / 52 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Swords Dance
– Bullet Punch
– Bug Bite
– Protect

Before the tournament, I had a dilemma: I loved Metagross, but despised Meteor Mash.  If you’re using Metagross, Meteor Mash is a necessary evil in my opinion since it hits Cresselia and Scrafty hard, and Iron Head is not an acceptable alternative due to its significantly lower base power. (Game Freak, please make a physical counterpart to Flash Cannon in Generation VI.) In every regional except 2011, I used Metagross as my obligatory Steel-type because Scizor had inferior base stats, a smaller movepool, and a tendency to roll over and die to surprise Fire attacks. However, as the tournament approached, I decided to try out Scizor since its STAB attacks had more consistency. Although my team had trouble with Scrafty, I decided to use Swords Dance over Acrobatics because I heard the Swords Dance variant was able to create “win conditions”. I found out that Swords Dance Scizor was darn good, and the most popular variant among “strong players” in the April International Challenge for a reason.

The moveset itself is self-explanatory. A Swords Dance, Steel-Gem boosted Bullet Punch is absurdly strong: it has a 62.5% chance of OHKOing the bulky 36 HP Garchomp and even has a small chance of OHKOing 4 Spe Landorus-T after Intimidate! Even without a Swords Dance, a Steel Gem-boosted Bullet Punch is still useful for OHKOing Terrakion and max HP Abomasnow. While Bug Bite has poor coverage with Bullet Punch, I still appreciated the ability to 2HKO Sitrus Cresselia (a pest to all VGC players) and have a shot at OHKOing max HP Scrafty after a Swords Dance. The Speed EVs enable Scizor to outrun 4 HP Hitmontop and Metagross and Speed tie with Rotom-A after an Icy Wind. Since Scizor’s lack of bulk can be a bit frustrating, I considered a bulkier Scizor after the tournament ended,  but that’s for another time.

Discord (Tyranitar) @ Dark Gem
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 224 Atk / 20 Def / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Crunch
– Rock Slide
– Low Kick
– Protect

This Tyranitar set is as uncreative as you can get, with one exception: the Dark Gem. I disliked Chople Berry because it only seemed to come in handy during Tyranitar mirrors, and searched for another item. Fellow Georgia Tech student Harrison Saylor (Crow) recommended a Focus Sash, but after some testing, I disliked it since Tyranitar was rarely OHKOed and always seemed to take a bit of damage before facing a fatal hit. I decided to test out Dark Gem after seeing a few people use it, and was impressed. It gives Tyranitar enough power to OHKO some Trick Room setters such as Chandelure and Jellicent, and KOs Cresselia without triggering its Sitrus Berry after it takes some damage. It also allows Tyranitar to OHKO max HP Chandelure after an Intimidate, which was useful since I saw some Japanese players pairing Intimidate Scrafty with Chandelure. I only missed the Chople Berry when facing opposing Tyranitar, so I’ll probably stick with the Gem in future tournaments.

The HP and Defense EVs allow Tyranitar to survive Metagross’ Meteor Mash, while the Speed is for mirror matches. I considered Fire Punch for Scizor and Ferrothorn, but I didn’t feel like giving up either of the STAB attacks and Low Kick had superior coverage. Besides, Scizor outspeeds Tyranitar anyway and both it and Ferrothorn inflict massive damage.  Otherwise, this is a bog standard Tyranitar, so there’s nothing else to say.

NEPTR (Rotom-Wash) @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 236 HP / 4 Def / 76 SAtk / 180 SDef / 12 Spd
Calm Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Hydro Pump
– Thunder Wave
– Protect

I’ll be honest:  I prefer bulky Thundurus. I was worried about opposing sand teams and Mamoswine, so I decided to gamble with Rotom-W’s Hydro Pump. In the International Challenge, I only faced a couple of sand teams and Mamoswine, so I probably could have gotten away with Thundurus. That being said, the little washing machine that could performed its job well and Hydro Pump didn’t miss too often.

This moveset is a little different from most specially defensive Rotom-W. While Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave are standard, Hydro Pump is normally eschewed for a Hidden Power. However, I needed to hit opposing Excadrill, Volcarona, and Mamoswine hard. While Gastrodon was a nuisance, I decided that I couldn’t run Hidden Power Grass in fear of one Pokémon, and Rotom-W could only annoy Dragons with Hidden Power Ice before falling victim to a couple of Draco Meteors. Protect occupied the last slot. I refused to use Will-O-Wisp due to its shoddy accuracy (even though burn is underrated) and didn’t feel confident enough to use Pain Split.

The EVs allow Rotom-W to survive a Timid Dragon Gem Latios’ Draco Meteor, while the Special Attack EVs allow it to OHKO Volcarona most of the time. Again, the 12 Speed EVs are for mirror matches.

RainbowDsh (Latios) (M) @ Dragon Gem
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 248 SAtk / 4 SDef / 248 Spd
Timid Nature
– Draco Meteor
– Psyshock
– Hidden Power [Fire]
– Protect

Sadly, this is the team member I was the least happy with. To be honest, it was a “filler” member. At first glance, Latios seems like a perfect fit for the team: it’s fast, powerful, and resists most of my team members’ weaknesses. However, it’s also horribly predictable since it normally spams Draco Meteor, and basically has to switch out afterwards. Plus, while its HP and Defense are decent, I often found myself wishing for something physically bulkier. Even with all of my quibbles, Latios was a strong member of the team, easily allowing me to gain momentum against less experienced players.

The moveset and EVs are pretty basic. Draco Meteor is a nuke that’s useful for dealing with threats such as Gastrodon (even though it doesn’t normally OHKO), while Psyshock was once again chosen for more damage against Amoonguss. I was very skeptical of Hidden Power Fire because I was paranoid about speed ties against opposing Latios. However, I only had two Latios mirror matches, and my Latios managed to outspeed one of them while the other was Scarfed, so I ended up worrying for no reason. Besides, luring in and OHKOing Scizor is priceless.

Mondo Mole (Excadrill) @ Ground Gem
Trait: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– X-Scissor
– Protect

Although Garchomp is more popular in the GBU, Excadrill is the star of serious sand teams nowadays. It wrecks in-game and it’s a wrecking ball here.  The moveset is, once again, standard! Man, who saw that coming? I used to use Magnet Rise in the third slot to take on Garchomp and Scarf Landorus-T one-on-one, but it never came in handy. So, I decided to use X-Scissor because I saw other people doing it it’s always nice to hit Cresselia, Latios, and Hydreigon for solid damage even without a Life Orb boost. It’s a bit frail for a Steel-type, despite its array of resistances, but its sheer power makes up for it.

Synergy

“Holy Mole-y!”

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These two Pokémon encompass my all-important “fast mode”. I would normally lead with Tyranitar and Latios, then shuffle in Excadrill and overwhelm lower-ranked players with my two blistering fast Pokémon. This pair wasn’t as effective as I imagined because even inexperienced players carried several Ground resists, but they got the job done. They also shared decent defensive synergy since they resist every common spread attack except Blizzard together, although neither are too bulky on the physical side.

“TwiDash”

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(NB staff, you can thank me for all the brony traffic I’m generating later.)

I led with this couple against opposing Intimidate users that were expecting Tyranitar or Excadrill as well as against annoying bulky Pokémon such as Gastrodon and bulky Thundurus. Thanks to Helping Hand, Latios’ Draco Meteor could demolish Pokémon specifically EVed to survive it, and I could fire off boosted Meteors once Latios’ Gem was used up. Both of these Pokémon also lured in and destroyed Scizor easily.

“Disharmony”

+

This was a solid lead combo that put immediate offensive pressure on the opponent in the form of Latios while simultaneously setting up sand.  Latios also resists four of Tyranitar’s weaknesses while Tyranitar resists several of Latios’ and has super-effective Rock attacks for Ice-types.

“Spamquake”

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An oldie but a goodie. If these two were still around in the late game, Excadrill could fire off Helping Hand-boosted Earthquakes to destroy the opposing team with Cresselia’s help. So simple, yet so effective.

“Tricksters”

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I planned to use this lead against textbook Trick Room teams that led with a Fake Out or Follow Me user and a Trick Room setter. Against Fake Out users, Tyranitar and Scizor would use Crunch and Swords Dance respectively.  If Scizor got Faked Out, the TR setter would be dead or barely alive and could be picked off by a Steel Gem Bullet Punch next turn. If Tyranitar got Faked Out, Scizor could OHKO the Fake Out user with a boosted Bullet Punch while Tyranitar picked off the TR user. Against Follow Me users, I would simply use Rock Slide to fish for a flinch and Swords Dance, then follow up with Bullet Punch and Crunch next turn to hopefully eliminate the opposing duo. In reality, most of my opponents were more savvy, so this lead didn’t see as much use as I expected.

Threats

Where do I begin? It hit every Pokémon on my team except for Rotom-W for super-effective damage, and could use Quiver Dance to flat-out sweep my team. (Thankfully, I didn’t see any TopMoth leads.)  Fortunately, Tyranitar and Rotom-W could take a hit and OHKO it in return with Rock Slide and Hydro Pump respectively. Excadrill could outspeed it in sand and OHKO it with Rock Slide as long as it didn’t hold a Charti Berry, which actually led to my demise in a couple of battles.

While not as large of a threat, Chandelure could still hit most of my team super-effectively while setting up the dreaded Trick Room. To rub salt in my wound, people loved to pair this up with Scrafty, another troublesome Pokémon. Fortunately, the same checks to Chandelure came to the rescue; Tyranitar and Rotom-W could switch in and OHKO it, while Excadrill outsped it as long as Trick Room was absent.

Once again, Scrafty hit most of my team super-effectively while neutering my physical attackers. To make matters worse, it’s bulky enough to normally live through Latios’ Draco Meteor and my other special Pokémon couldn’t do a lot to it. I took out this gangsta with Scizor or by nabbing a surprise OHKO with a Helping Hand and Gem-boosted Draco Meteor from Latios.

Even though this slug used to be one of my in-game partners in Platinum, I’ve grown to hate it. It screws over my sand users, and is bulky enough to live Draco Meteors once again. Double-boosted Meteors and Swords Dance Scizor came to the rescue once again.

Common Opposing Team Archetypes

Random

Over half of the teams (52.6% to be exact) I faced seemed to be composed of “random” Pokémon with little synergy. Some of the teams were in-game teams, while others had very basic strategies such as Gyarados paired with a Lightningrod user or paraflinching. In order to end these matches quickly and decisively, it was important to seize control of the battle with Latios and Excadrill as soon as possible.

Goodstuffs

The most popular competitive teams I faced were simple Goodstuffs teams. In addition to the Top 10 most popular Pokémon, these teams also loved to include Landorus-T and Scrafty. Overall, it’s hard to rate matchups against Goodstuffs since it can be so varied; however, I felt I had a handle on most of the common Pokémon, so these matches basically came down to skill.

Rain

Rain was by far the most popular weather team (excluding Tyranitar on Goodstuffs teams). While a well-built rain team can be frightening, most of the teams I faced were mostly focused on Surf spam. Fortunately, I had two Water resists on the team: Latios could drop Meteors with ease, while Rotom-W could paralyze everything in sight. Also, Cresselia could take a few hits while Tyranitar could change the weather, so I wasn’t worried about basic rain teams.

Trick Room

Trick Room is an eternal thorn in my side, and sure enough, some players attempted to twist the dimensions. I didn’t carry any really slow Pokémon or Trick Room users of my own so I had to inflict as much damage as possible on Turn 1. Dark Gem Tyranitar really helped out. The matches then turned into a waiting game, where I had to strategically Protect and try to get a couple of hits in or die. Once Trick Room ran out, I then had to quickly take control of the match so I would be in a good position even if Trick Room was set up again. This was probably my hardest matchup.

Sand

Fortunately, sand wasn’t too popular. Cresselia could hit most sand users hard with Icy Wind and roast Excadrill with Hidden Power Fire, while Rotom-W could drown the opposition with Hydro Pump. Once the opposing team was weakened, my own Excadrill could sweep in the late-game.

Sample Battle Videos

These were back-to-back battles that gave me a run for my money.

#90-96664-11726: VS ぽよん

This is an example of how I faced Trick Room teams and the always obnoxious Ferrothorn. Some solid predictions here.

#87-57354-25439: VS Cybertron

This is my second battle against Cybertron in an International Challenge; we faced each other with nearly identical Goodstuffs teams during the first International Challenge, and he won after a Cresselia stall war. I felt kind of bad because I already knew some of his Pokémon from Battle Videos (which is why I switched Scizor out of Hidden Power Fire Turn 1 and went for a double-boosted Meteor on Cresselia Turn 2), but I figured I may as well use the knowledge to my advantage. Despite the final score, he put a lot of pressure on me and could have easily turned the battle around with a bit of Swagger luck.

Statistics

Here’s a fun section for fellow stat nerds.

• Opposing team Breakdown: Random (52.6%); Goodstuffs (32.9%); Rain (9.2%); Trick Room (3.9%); Other (1.4%)
• Opposing country breakdown: Japan (42.1%); United States (14.5%); Unknown (14.5%); France (6.6%); UK (3.9%); Germany (2.6%); Australia, Costa Rica, Peru, Italy, Chile, China, Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala (15.8%)
• Win Ratio (in completed battles): 86.8%
• Disconnects: 8
• Peak Score: 1847
• Biggest Rating Loss: 28 points (1847 -> 1819)
• Longest Winning Streak: 16 (Battles 53-68)
• Longest Losing Streak: 1 (Multiple battles)
• Lowest Rated Player I Lost To:  BSTS (MagmaBSTS), 1440
• Highest Rated Player I Won Against: MrZheng (Cybertron), 1818
• Lowest Rated Opponent: Kirito, 1240
• Highest Rated Opponent: Cybertron, 1818
• Average Opponent Rating: 1506, standard deviation of 76.8
• Number of trainers with less than six items on their Pokémon: 6

Miscellaneous Notes

• “Interesting” moves and Pokémon I saw included: Fly, Body Slam, and Flash Cannon Hydreigon, Micle Berry Guillotine Haxorus (Micle Berry doesn’t affect the accuracy of OHKO moves), and Rowap Berry Milotic.
• The most frustrating opponent I faced used a Trick Room team with a Minimize Chansey. After setting up Trick Room with Cofagrigus, my opponent used Guard Split on Chansey, then tried to set up Minimizes while trapping my Pokémon with Gothitelle. Fortunately, my Tyranitar was able to take out the Gothitelle, and I eventually hit the +6 evade Chansey.
• Cradily isn’t bad, as I faced a player that abused Storm Drain while boosting Cradily’s defenses. Fortunately, I managed to take it out with a (critical) double-boosted Draco Meteor.
• The Top 10 Pokémon remained the same as the last International Challenge for Masters, with Cresselia still at #1 and Latios, Scizor, and Kingdra still in the same positions. Whether this means the metagame has stabilized or grown stale is up to you, but one thing’s for certain:  Make sure you have a plan against rain!

General Advice for GBU Tournaments

Scott already wrote up an excellent article on Wi-Fi tournaments, so this should be seen as a supplement.

Similar to the Battle Subway, winning in the Global Battle Union is all about consistency. You’ll be playing for countless battles against players of all skill levels, and you really don’t want to have your Rating drop by 30 points due to luck. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Use high-accuracy moves. While moves such as Meteor Mash can be rationalized in some cases, all GBU tournaments are best-of-1 matches against mostly inexperienced players, so you’ll be kicking yourself when you lose games you “should” have won due to a Meteor Mash or Hydro Pump miss. I’m not saying you have to stick to 100% accurate moves, but try to limit the amount of inaccurate moves. I ran several 90% accurate moves and Hydro Pump, and ended up regretting it at times. Since you’ll be playing so many games, you really don’t want to gamble.
• Have a fast mode, but don’t build your team with it in mind. Despite all my talk of inexperienced players, you shouldn’t have problems with them most of the time. However, they can catch you off guard with unexpected moves and are more prone to use luck-based moves and items such as OHKO moves and BrightPowder, so you’ll want to end the matches quickly. Rain by far has the best fast mode due to their nimble and powerful Swift Swimmers, while Sand has powerful Earthquake users to end the battle. Keep in mind that your fast mode doesn’t have to be limited to fast Pokémon; for instance, basic Trick Room strategies can destroy unprepared teams. The key is just to hit hard and fast. Don’t dwell too much on this, though; you should be primarily worried about beating seasoned players who will give you a run for your money!
• Keep foreign trends in mind. Back in my GBU Rating mode days, I mostly faced Japanese players, so I had to keep their trends in mind while battling. Keep in mind that you’ll be facing plenty of Japanese and some Korean players in these tournaments, so picking up on a couple of their trends will go a long way.
• Don’t multitask; pay attention to your game. Unlike Regionals, where your attention is simply on Pokémon, there will be a million things to distract you at home. Don’t get sidetracked by your other electronics; focus on the game. I almost lost two games due to carelessness. The first time, my opponent had a paralyzed Amoonguss and Hitmontop, and I kept paraflinching with Rock Slides. I worked on a document for a little while, and the time limit ran out in the meantime, so my Pokémon performed random moves and I lost control of the battle. In another battle, I didn’t notice my opponent’s Electivire had an Air Balloon, so I wasted my time Earthquaking with Excadrill. I barely managed to win both battles, but learned a valuable lesson: Always focus on your matches!
• Know when to fold it. I’ve noticed that several players, such as myself, have had final Ratings lower than their peak scores. As you can see above, my peak score was 1847, so I would have tied with ryuzaki for 6th place among North American players and landed in 13th place overall if I had known when to quit. If your goal is to get a high Rating, just know when to put the game down when you feel you’re at your limit so that you won’t kick yourself after losing later matches. There’s no shame in taking a break or stopping early for the day.

GBU Events: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Potential

In which I wax philosophical about Pokémon.

At the moment, TPCi seems to be experimenting with online tournaments due to the low amount of Championship Points (CP) on the line for North American and European players.  As a result, some players see GBU tournaments as “Regionals lite” or just a way to let off steam. Personally, I see a lot of potential in online tournaments. I won’t lie:  Regionals are more fun since you can socialize with other fans and can simply focus on playing the game. They are also much more rewarding. However, it’s important to remember that there are plenty of roadblocks that prevent players from attending Regionals. I’ve talked to multiple players that have had to travel for hours to Regionals, and even faced someone who drove seven hours from New Orleans at the recent Athens Regional. I’m sure there are more than a few Junior and Senior parents that are disgruntled over the fact that Regionals take place on Sundays, while college-aged Masters have to deal with finals right after Spring Regionals. Finally, those of us who can only attend one Regional a year are at a severe disadvantage now that CP is a deciding factor in Worlds.

This is where GBU tournaments can pick up the slack. While some areas still lack reliable Internet access, they provide an equalizer. Distance is no longer a concern because players can play from their homes or local Wi-Fi areas. Time is less of an issue since GBU tournaments take place over several days. Fatigue would also be less of an issue, since some players would no longer have to drive for hours before the tournament. It also provides a way for nervous beginners or socially awkward players to ease their way into competition, as playing online can be less nerve-wracking than facing a big-name player in real life. The GBU is also very competitive at high levels. Hop on for a quick Doubles match in Rating mode and I guarantee you’ll keep running into standard teams. Eventually, I could see Wi-Fi tournaments as a supplement to Regionals as long as a “best of X” limit is instated in order to balance things out.

Unfortunately, we’re not there yet.

The Issues

The biggest issue of all are the dreaded disconnects. While disconnects have drastically fallen due to TPCi’s changes and the one-hour “time out” period introduced in Black/White 2, they still exist. There are unintentional disconnects, but there will always be players that drop games in order to save their Ranking, and the current Rating system supposedly allows a few disconnects to go through. This needs to be stamped out for good.

Of course, it’s hard to blame high-rated players from disconnecting due to the atrocious Rating system. Although the Rating mode of the GBU states that players will be paired up against those with a similar Ranking, anyone who’s actually played on the GBU will tell you that this isn’t the case; no matter what your Ranking, you’ll constantly be paired up against players in the 1500s. If you win these battles after a certain point, you’ll only receive a little boost; this is understandable, although spending over 10 minutes for 2-3 points is rather absurd. The real problem comes when you lose, as you can receive up to a 30-point loss and be forced to spend over an hour catching up. There are plenty of reasons you might lose to a lower-ranked player: What if they’re a good player that just started out? What if you have a poor matchup? What if your opponent simply gets lucky? Unfortunately, the Rating system doesn’t take these factors into account, and your Rating will take a massive hit even if you’ve been consistently winning. The current Rating system also rewards those with more time on their hands; while everyone plays the same number of matches in Swiss rounds, the number of matches on the GBU are restricted only by the player’s time. This means that when comparing two players of equal skill, the player with more time will likely have the higher Rating, making time a problem.

Finally, it’s also silly that some players are playing for points on the line in International Challenges while others don’t have this pressure, especially since Japanese players have Japan-only GBU tournaments. (Yes, I realize that tournament structures across the world are different). While some players are fighting tooth and nail for points, others simply view the tournaments as upgraded Friendly battles. I realize that not everyone attends Regionals in order to win, but at least the players that play for fun can’t “steal” your wins with disconnects. (This applies to  players in all countries – I’ve seen disconnectors from around the world.)

The Solution

Of course, only a couple of tweaks are needed in order to turn GBU tournaments into more “legitimate” qualification events for Western players.  First of all, CP should be removed from International Challenges. These tournaments should only be for bragging rights and there should be separate Play! Pokémon tournaments for Western players based on region. Ideally, they should be structured like Regionals, with Swiss rounds and a best-of-3 Top Cut, in order to minimize the discrepancies involved between real-life and online play. Obviously, the amount of CP should be increased as well. Disconnects are still a sticky business since there will always be legitimate connection problems, but the current system that allows players to get away with several disconnections should be abolished. Of course, TPCi can only do so much; we as players have to respect each other as well!

I’m not naive; setting up proper online tournaments will obviously be a lot more complicated than the basic plan listed above. However, I feel that just an online Swiss-style format instead of a Ranking system would make GBU tournaments more respectable because it would turn from “Who has more time to kill?” to “Who has more skill?”.

Closing

If you actually read my wall of text, thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end! I probably won’t be able to make Nationals due to money issues this year (though I’ll try), but I’ll be participating in the June International Challenge to show I’m not a one-hit wonder. Have fun, and good luck in all of your matches!

About the Author

Magic has been playing VGC since 2010. Although he's done well in online venues such as the Global Battle Union and ShoddyBattle, he's still honing his skills in Regional VGC events. When he's not playing Pokémon, he's trying to get out of Georgia Tech.

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