Hello Hat Lovers!

Here’s a preview for the upcoming BC Invitational. This is a local tournament happening on June 13th open to anyone who has won a top cut match in a BC Premiere Challenge this season; thus players needed to make either the Top 4 in a 17+ person tournament, or the finals in a smaller tournament. The finalists of this invitiational will receive travel stipends towards US Nationals. First place will receive a stipend of $350, while second place will receive $100. In this preview, we’re going to introduce you to the players from British Columbia, and say a bit about who will be attending.

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I guess as an author for this site now I’m obligated to open like this, so greetings hat lovers!

This is the team I used for much of January. The team revolved around the use of Mega Gardevoir and Rage Powder Volcarona, with Imprison being tech’d onto Gardevoir to lock down Sylveon and some variants of Salamence. I thought the team concept was fun overall, because Gardevoir and bulky Volcarona are quite rare and it gave me an advantage over unprepared opponents. The only tournament I took this team to was a NuggetBridge Live, where I entered Top Cut as the #1 seed before losing in Top 8.

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Hey there Hat Lovers,

I wouldn’t consider myself an elite player by any means, but I do think the topic of today’s article is something I can weigh in on. Since my two articles on maximizing your EVs (Developing Speed Tiers and Bulking Up), I’ve been wanting to add a disclaimer of sorts. A recent topic on the Nuggetbridge.com forums has inspired me to finally sit down and write this thing.

Doing well at VGC requires a combination of skills. First and foremost is an understanding of the game and the Pokemon you expect to play against. After that comes the ability to build a coherent team that accomplishes your goal of winning games. Last is the subtle development of player skill through experience; this impacts your success at all levels of play. Individual player skill is also something that increases as you have an understanding of the game, and is able to develop better when you have a coherent team and have the option of making winning decisions every game.

The most important part of your development as a player is to take these steps in order. It is really damaging for a player to avoid playing because they don’t understand how to do well. Today I’ll argue that the most important thing you can do is to just play, but hopefully I can guide players in how to learn better from their testing experience.

1. Developing a base understanding (studying)

2. Building a team

3. Gaining experience

4. Conclusion

For your development as a player, it’s best to take these steps in order. It is really damaging for a player to avoid playing because they don’t understand how to do well. (more…)

Hey there Hat Lovers,

VGC with Hats has another author to get excited about! Joining the VGC with Hats crew is Raphael “Rapha” Bagara, a local player from BC. Despite a short VGC career, Rapha is the proud owner of a toque, and has started 2015 with 158 Championship Points in a very competitive area for Premier Challenges, filling his Best Finish Limit with a 2nd, 4th, 4th, 4th and 16th. He also has 40 Championship Points from bubbling out of Oregon Regionals at 9th place, for a Top 16 finish.

Despite often settling on the same team, Max and I usually take a different approach to VGC with Hats. Max tends to write about his testing results, while I like to post about concepts in my approach to the game. With a third author, the content on this blog can only improve as a new perspective is brought to the front page.

Plus, he uses Togekiss.
#TogekissNation

Cheers,

The VGC with Hats team

p.s. There is an Azumarill in Rapha’s box that hasn’t seen battle since 2014