Hey there Hat Lovers,
Check out the ICPA Youtube channel to see Max and Mark commentate a Best of 3 between the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and Simon Fraser University!
Part 1
Player Flaws and the Anatomy of Poor Results
Hello hat lovers!
This topic will be more rambly than usual, and some aspects of it will be less Pokemon specific. I wanted to highlight some flaws I thought people had when it came to approaching the game. I had meant to write this a lot sooner but didn’t quite know how to structure the post, so the tangents I go off of will be informal, but I figured it was the best way I could simply spew out my thoughts on this kind of topic.
Also, all of the examples here will be related to the VGC 2015 format and not 2016, because I’m not overly familiar with the new format just yet. 2015 is also the more developed meta game which makes it easier for me to determine what is actually effective instead of more creative ideas people have but have fairly untested success.
Early VGC 2016 Metagame Primer
Hello Hat Lovers!
Before we officially start the 2016 format I’m going to look at some of the top Pokemon in the early VGC 2016 metagame. This is meant to be a guide for anyone unfamiliar with the format to help bring them up to speed with the most common threats in the metagame.
Restricted Pokemon:
The biggest part about figuring out the format so far is understanding how the restricted Pokemon interact with it. We only get two restricted Pokemon per team so a big aspect of team-building will be figuring out what combinations of restricted Pokemon are good.
I think almost all of the restricted Pokemon are usable, but since we only get to use two per team the most powerful ones will make it harder to justify using the rest. Here are the four restricted Pokemon that are currently the most used and will likely stay at the top throughout the season:
Fire Miss: A VGC 2015 Season Review
Hello hat lovers!
I’m Demitri, or as I go by online, kingdjk. For the most part, I had a successful season last year, and I really only used one team with slight variations for the entirety of VGC ’15 (barring Worlds, where I made a pretty large change). I really love the team, and it has results behind it, so I thought a season report about it would be fun for me to write, and interesting for you guys to read. With the format finally coming to an end, I’d really like to share my experiences with it and my thoughts on the format. I finished in top 8 at Oregon Regionals, top 16 at Nationals, and went 3-3 at day one of Worlds.
Original Team Building Process
Original Pranksters: Liepard, Tornadus, and friends in VGC 2016
Hey there Hat Lovers,
Today I’ll be talking a bit about some of the new kids on the block. VGC 2016 has a very different dynamic from previous formats in how important it is to control weather, and how important it is to prevent setup sweeps. This article will go over these Pokemon in detail and talk about a few gems that may be hiding in the rough (or are just bad… I dunno). Not all of these Pokemon actually have the Prankster ability, but they’re Pranksters in spirit. I’ll also talk a bit about how Pokemon like Thundurus can adapt to the new heavy-hitting format.
While I never played seriously until about 2014-on, I’ve been paying attention to the game since 2011, and so I’ve seen Pranksters succeed in every format since their introduction. Hopefully that experience will be good for something (like an article)! I’ll also include their usage stats from the Generation Showdown on 3ds.pokemon-gl.com.
VGC with Hats 