Hello Hat Lovers!
I won the first BC Premiere Challenge of 2016. This was the first VGC 2016 tournament in BC so I didn’t know what to expect people to be playing. I decided to go with a team of Groudon, Xerneas, Kangaskhan, Salamence, Talonflame and Smeargle. The team is very strong and I’ve been playing with it for the last month so I figured I’d get a good finish from it.
Hey there Hat Lovers,
Today’s topic is something that’s rattled around in my head for a long time now. I’ve been playing Pokemon competitively since 2011, first in the Trading Card Game and then in the Video Game. While I’d played sports as a kid, most of them were team sports. As such, I hadn’t competed in competitions amongst individuals very much, and certainly not at a competitive level. Moreover, sports and “E-sports” are two very different things, and even amongst the E-sports, Pokemon is a totally different beast.
I think my time playing the TCG has also given me a pretty unique perspective on the nature of competitive Pokemon, and becoming a Tournament Organizer developed that perspective even further. As such, I have a very firm opinion on the nature of individual-based competitions, particularly for games of logic and reason. These opinions have been formed from both a player’s perspective, and from an organizer’s perspective as an outsider looking in. Today, I’ll reflect on what I’ve learned about the nature of Pokemon, tournament play, attitude, sportsmanship, and player-awareness.
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
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.
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.
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:
VGC with Hats 