GS Cup Announced as Pokémon’s 2016 Ruleset
Today, Pokémon announced the ruleset we’ll see in place for the 2016 World Championships as well as all events after January 1st, 2016. The GS Cup ruleset is one that should be familiar to anyone who played in 2010 as well as those who played in the Generation Showdown tournament late last year.
If you’d like an analysis on the format, make sure you check out the first part of this great guide at Pokémon’s strategy site. Don’t forget to also check out the stats from the Generation Showdown for ideas or cool teams from 2010 for inspiration.
Simplified Ruleset – 2016
- All matches are played in the Doubles format.
- Time Limit: 90 seconds for Team Preview, 45 seconds for each turn, 15 minutes for the match for all tournaments at Regionals-level or higher.
- Players choose 4 of their 6 registered Pokémon after team preview.
- Pentagon Rule: All Pokémon must have the blue pentagon on their stats page indicating they were caught, bred, or received as an official gift in Pokémon X, Y, Omega Ruby, or Alpha Sapphire.
- Species Clause: No two Pokémon on your team can share the same Pokédex number.
- Item Clause: No two Pokémon on your team can hold the same held item.
- The following items are banned:
- Soul Dew
- The following Pokémon are banned (all forms):
- Mew
- Celebi
- Jirachi
- Deoxys
- Phione
- Manaphy
- Darkrai
- Shaymin
- Arceus
- Victini
- Keldeo
- Meloetta
- Genesect
- Diancie
- Hoopa
- You may have up to two of the following Pokémon in your Battle Box:
- Mewtwo
- Lugia
- Ho-oh
- Kyogre
- Groudon
- Rayquaza
- Dialga
- Palkia
- Giratina
- Reshiram
- Zekrom
- Kyurem
- Xerneas
- Yveltal
- Zygarde
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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196 Responses to GS Cup Announced as Pokémon’s 2016 Ruleset
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Pokemon will still be leveled down to 50 when playing via normal rules. Unlike flat rules though, those below 50 will also be leveled up to 50, so no more level 1 Aron/Smeargle gimmicks.
One of the teams I’ve been testing uses a lv49 primal to improve the odds of weather control and have TR speed advantage. I’m not too happy about that kind of thing being unusable at PCs or Euro Regionals.
yeah so im gonna take all 6 pokemon to every fight and just forfeit the battle before the “last” turn so noone can check if i brought 6 or what
this is a serious question
how are you going to check the items of the pokemon (like soul dew latias/os) and/or double items in a team (double choice band or whatever) in a tournament without software if i have an exact copy of said team in my battlebox but with the items written on the teamsheets? its gonna be the nb major semifinals all over again plus the problem with the move changing during tournaments still persists in europe
The heart of the issue here is human vs. in-game-settings enforcement. Human enforcement will be accomplished by random checks and player reporting, along with general vigilance by the tournament staff. For example, if your opponent brings out a Latios holding Soul Dew which sweeps your team – call a judge to confirm and enforce the subsequent penalty. Another example may be if your opponent brings 6 Pokémon to battle – you will see on your own screen that they have 6 colored Pokéballs in the top right corner instead of 4. Simply raise your hand for a Judge to issue the penalty (a likely game-loss for the opponent).
Worth noting is that the entire TCG industry operates events through human enforcement of the rules. This isn’t ideal for a video game but it is the best option currently available.
And regionals and up will have tournament software
TOs will need to explain very clearly that only 4 Pokemon are to be selected. I can easily see this happening with casual players at PCs. Innocent mistakes will result in losses due to lack of explanation at smaller events. A regame (which hasn’t been suggested, but is a nice guy thing to offer) isn’t a great idea since a person can repick the back two they bring based on what the starters were.
I’m cautiously optimistic……and suuuuuuper salty over the Deoxys ban.
Well, looks like they screwed up PCs and online play, then.
I hope to god they get the format right online.
Was going to quote your other post, but this address more of the issue. If we have access to software (say, were at Regionals and there’s a PC the night before) Since it’s easier to enforce these rules with software (time out on team preview will pick 4, levels leveled down correctly, under 50 stays under 50 which might matter latter in the year when we all start using level 49 Kyogre to underspeed level 50 Groudon), will software take precedence over normal battle using PSS? I guess what I’m asking is if we have access to software, can we use it?
So does this mean that we won’t be able to ladder on BS with the new rules? I’m confuuuuuused.
Are all these new Ubers everyone’s collecting only going to be useable at PCs and Regionals/Worlds?
Another thing to remember about this is that level 49 Primals do not have access to certain moves because they are level 49; in particular, Groudon cannot use Eruption or Fissure, while Kyogre cannot use Water Spout, Hydro Pump, Double-Edge, or Sheer Cold. This would definitely need to be reflected in the rules for tethered events.
No EU Regionals use tournament software so will present an extra challenge.
have you thought about increasing the ingame timer at nationals to 20/25 minutes? because those animations take a lot of time.
I’m honestly frustrated in the direction that the game has been going in.
I started in 2010, a similar format to this. However, there were a few key differences.
1) Restricted Pokemon match up: If my restricted Pokemon had a poor match up, I’d be in a disadvantage and have a higher probability of losing just by the nature of the situation. In a best of three this is fixed to some extent, because I could now change which two restricted Pokemon I brought.
2) Possible Combinations:
i) Right now under the assumption that we bring the two restricted Pokemon each game, we have four choose two combinations. That means only six combinations. Following the selection of four there is another four choose two in determining leads. That means that there is a total of thirty-six combinations. Going three restricted Pokemon, there three choose two twice, leaving with nine combinations. That is fifty-four combinations total. And another thirty-six by bringing four restricted Pokemon. What this means is by being able to bring more restricted Pokemon to team preview we add at least 50% more options in team selection. (36, 54 or 36 team preview combinations vs only 36 team preview options)
ii) This is further restricted if you include an additional mega to your team. You go from those thirty-six to being locked to three Pokemon of yours, and then three choose one. You go to three team combinations with eighteen team preview selection combinations. (Adding a mega brings you down to 18)
3) Item Selection: Right now with the introduction of Red Orb, Blue Orb, Geomancy and Kangaskhanite. We see Groudon always using Red Orb, Kyogre always using Blue Orb, Xerneas using Power Herb, and Kangaskhan using Kangaskhanite. So many Pokemon are locked into items, and we’re less encouraged to use items such as Choice Specs, Choice Band, Choice Scarf, Iron Ball, Macho Brace, resist berries. Now if I pick a Pokemon I have to use a certain item with it and there is very little flexibility.
2011 restricting the Pokedex was something we all didn’t like. 2012 and 2013 lifting that restriction was amazing, and now we had team preview so having a poor match up from team selection became less likely, and with six choose four we had fifteen combinations (90 total). We traded the option of Choice Specs and Choice Band for Gems. Team match up didn’t determine the match, team preview was an amazing turn, and there was sufficient item selection between offensive and defensive play.
2014. Similar problem as 2011 with the restricted Pokedex. Megas were interesting in regards to team combinations. If you have one mega then you go five choose three, with ten combinations (60 total). This lowered the amount of choices in team preview by 33% which is unfortunate. The option of double mega was two times four choose three, getting eight combinations (48 total). If at least one of the megas was something usable as a non-mega then you sometimes go up to two times five choose three, which actually doubles to 120 options. So on average I’ll say that the introduction of megas had only a slightly negative effect in terms of team combinations. However, taking away gems, and forcing mega evolutions to hold mega stones (and making mega evolutions so much better than the non-mega counterparts) ruined a lot of item diversity. Additionally, the mega match up was an interesting thing, as certain megas have better match ups against specific megas, and they were something locked in prior to team preview that couldn’t be changed, so I didn’t like that. Other things that were introduced in this gen are things I didn’t like either, but that’s for another time.
And now we are going into 2016. And we really suddenly regressed.
The value of team preview was great, there were so many options prior to turn one which ensured that almost every game would be different.
Match ups were addressed over the past few years until the introduction of megas, where megas brought back the problem that we can lock ourselves into negative match ups that we can’t do anything about.
Unfortunately item selection went down though.
Going into January, the value of team preview is diminished. Poor match ups will determine the result of match ups more frequently (rather than good play). And item selection goes down as Pokemon are locked into their roles more and more.