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![[image loading]](http://assets11.pokemon.com/assets/cms/img/op/logos/large/2011/Champ_Series_logo_VG_lrg.jpg)
Starting this topic to talk about the Pokemon esports circuit. The Video Game Championships, or VGC for short. This year each Regional has prize pools of thousands of dollars, and therefore we are a more legitimate circuit than in the past. I want to grow the game, and what better way to introduce people than on Team Liquid? I'd like to use this thread as a blog of sorts to talk about the circuit, post teams, results, and maybe player interviews to try to introduce more people to the circuit.
This weekend is an International Championship tournament in London and will be streamed on Twitch on http://www.pokemonchampionships.com/
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Preview for the European Intercontinental Championships:
Pokemon to watch out for in London:
Celesteela
One of the Ultra Beats allowed in VGC 17, Celesteela has incredible stats across the board. 97/103/101 Base stats in Hit Points, Defense, and Special Defense is an huge amount of general bulk. Celesteela has access to Leech Seed, Wide Guard, and an almost universally Base 120 damage Heavy Slam attack. Like Heatran in the past, Celesteela can and will take over games by itself. One of the best Pokemon to switch into with it's fantastic Steel/Flying typing, players will need multiple ways to deal with Celesteela. If the Celesteela player can knock out opposing Fire and Electric type Pokemon and isolate Celesteela against Pokemon that can't do enough damage through it's massive defenses, then Leech Seed will finish the game.
Oranguru
A Psychic/Normal type from Sun and Moon, Oranguru will be the most notable, and possibly most common user of the move Trick Room. Trick Room reverses the speeds of every Pokemon on the field, making slower Pokemon move first for 4 turns. Trick Room has been an ever present and always good straetgy since the beginning of VGC and what makes Oranguru so good as a Trick Room setter is it's signature move Instruct. When used, Instruct forces the target to use the last move it used. This is similar to Helping Hand, except it's like a 100% boost to damage instead of a 50% boost, also doubling any effect from the previous attack.
Torkoal and Gigalith
2 Pokemon that debuted in the 3rd and 5th generations respectively. Neither of these Pokemon have been known as very playable, but that changes in Sun and Moon. Torkoal recieves the auto-weather ability Drought, whereas Gigalith receives the auto weather ability Sand Stream. These Pokemon I have listed together as they will have the same role on many teams, as a slow Pokemon to be paired with Oranguru's Instruct in Trick Room. Gigalith's Rock Slide, used twice, has an astounding 71.6% chance to flinch at least one of the Opponent's Pokemon. Torkoal's Eruption in Sun used twice with Instruct will knock out every Pokemon in the entire format that does not resist fire. (assuming Instruct goes before the opposing attack which would mean Torkoal is at full health)
Tapus
Tapu Lele, Tapu Koko, Tapu Bulu, and Tapu Fini are all really strong Pokemon because terrain is very good. Weather wars in the past are going to be terrain wars this year, where trainers will fight for control of the field to take advantage of the boosts from their respective terrain. I expect to see Tapu Koko and Tapu Lele as the 2 more common, due to good speed, and damage boosting from their terrains.
Alolan Marowak
Marowak with it's new Fire/Ghost typing and access to it's signature item Thick Club, has proven already to be a very good Pokemon. Marowak resists the fairy typing of each of the Tapus and it's Lightningrob ability completely shuts down Tapu Koko. The all important fire typing makes Marowak an important out against Celesteela and Torkoal as well. Due to it's 45 base speed, if Marowak is fighting the Oranguru Torkoal combo, Marowak will move before Instruct in Trick Room, making the use of full powered Eruption twice impossible.
Garchomp
Everyon'e favorite Pokemon is back, and it's just as good as it always was. Garchomp's combination of speed, power, and decent defenses translate well to limited formats such as 2017. Expect to see it a lot this year on stream.
Players to watch out for:
Wolfe Glick (United States)
The current World Champion and by most accounts, the best player in the game currently. Besides being the current World Champion Wolfe had a 2nd place and a top 8 at Worlds as well. He has won 2 National Championships and a record 6 Regionals. The only tournament Wolfe has never won is an International...which didn't exist before this year making that impossible to have done. He'll be the favorite to add that to his already closed to unmatched resume. Wolfe is the kind of player that will mentally break you. His specialty is board control. As an aggro player, you are left guessing about how to attack into switches. That said, you can't put his playstyle into any sort of category. He's plays everything flawlessly and isn't afraid to bust out gimmicks at major events.
Ray Rizzo (United States)
I say Wolfe has an almost unmatched resume, because he only has one World Champiionship to his name. Ray has won 3. By far and away the best player to ever play Pokemon, Ray has taken the last few years off to focus on real life, and commentating. Who knows how seriosuly Ray will take this tournament, but he says he is playing to win. If he sticks to his word, he's the best player in the room. Perhaps there will be some amount of rust as Ray hasn't played in the last 2 years, but I would expect a good finish from him regardless.
Markus Statder (Germany)
Markus finished top 4 at this year's world championships and is the only player to go completely undefeated at a Nationals. He won German Nationals in 2014 with a 17-0 game record. Markus and Wolfe usually team build together, so it's highly likely they will bring similar teams to this International, but make no mistake, Markus and Wolfe are equal in skill. Markus is perhaps the strongest European in the game today.
Arash Ommati (Italy)
Arash is the 2013 World Champion. He also won the German National Chamionship in 2016. Arash is most known for using Grass Pokemon that put you to sleep. He won Worlds with Amoongus and Nationals with Jumpluff. Who knows, maybe he'll bust out Parasect at this tournament.
Ryousuke Kosuge (Japan)
Ryousuke is the 2013 Japanese National Champion, 2013 World runner-up, and 2014 Worlds top 8. Like Ray, Ryousuke has taken the past 2 years off to focus on job and real life things. However, he is the number 1 ranked player on Battle Spot. If practicing means anything, Ryousuke will be one of the favorites to win this championship. He's recognizable as being a huge fan of Misaka Mikoto from the Index/Railgun franchise.
Barry Anderson (UK)
The hometown favorite. Barry recently finished with a top 8 showing at the World Championships, he also has a 9th place to his name. As well as having a succesful Youtube channel, Barry is one of the more creative top players. You can always expect something interesting from him, and expect it to be played very very well.
Aaron Zheng (United States)
Perhaps the most recognizable name in the game. Aaron is internet famous for his youtube channel, World's commentary, and being a panelist on the E-3 demo of Pokemon GO. Aaron says while he loved commentating, he loves playing even more and will be going all out this season. His best finish is top 4 at Worlds in 2013, and has 2 National Championships to his name in the younger, Seniors division. One of the most consistent players you will play against, his best quality is his love for the game.
Eduardo Cunha (Portugal)
A top 4 finisher at Worlds this year, Eduardo is one the youngest top players. I'm not sure if anyone has as much fun playing the game as Eduardo. As he didn't get to attend many events last year, he did not manage to get a paid trip to Worlds, and unlike most of the top European players, he had to pay his own way and play through the grinder that was the first day at Worlds. He went 6-0 to make Day 2.
Ashton Cox (United States)
The most creative player in the game. Using a Starcraft comparison, Ashton would be Has. Ashton is known for using very bad underused Pokemon and plays them brilliantly. He knows how to find win conditions, when his opponents do not know how to find them, because they do not know what his wierd mons even do. Ashton has top 4'd a Regional Championship with Pikachu. Nothing more needs to be said.
Baris Ackos (Germany)
Yet another Worlds top 8 player from this past season attending. Baris is a model of consistency. He has also been extremely important at growing the game in Germany, being one of the original tournament organizers. I expect Baris will be at the top tables all weekend.
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Northern Ireland22207 Posts
a gen7 tournament already this weekend? it's almost as if they're asking the competitors to hack their mons in
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On December 09 2016 18:53 ahswtini wrote:
a gen7 tournament already this weekend? it's almost as if they're asking the competitors to hack their mons in
Man, this was the last thing I wanted to see on TL. Keep that drama from *that* YouTube personality out of here please, if we're going to talk about competitive Pokemon, I'd like to keep it that way.
I play singles most of the time, though I have tried Smogon ORAS doubles. VGC 2016 turned me off with the Primal spam, since I knew they would be too good for most players to pass up. Hopefully Pokemon won't make the same mistake this year. Wolfe Glick won with a Mega Rayquaza didn't he? That seemed a bit cheap.
I agree that Trick Room might get to see more usage this year considering the complaints regarding the speed tiers of the majority of the new Pokes. All that Tapu terrain spam too, especially Psychic Terrain blocking potential Fake Outs? With Mega Kangaskhan being nerfed too, could be interesting.
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Northern Ireland22207 Posts
On December 09 2016 19:47 IntoTheEmo wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2016 18:53 ahswtini wrote:
a gen7 tournament already this weekend? it's almost as if they're asking the competitors to hack their mons in Man, this was the last thing I wanted to see on TL. Keep that drama from *that* YouTube personality out of here please, if we're going to talk about competitive Pokemon, I'd like to keep it that way. I play singles most of the time, though I have tried Smogon ORAS doubles. VGC 2016 turned me off with the Primal spam, since I knew they would be too good for most players to pass up. Hopefully Pokemon won't make the same mistake this year. Wolfe Glick won with a Mega Rayquaza didn't he? That seemed a bit cheap. I agree that Trick Room might get to see more usage this year considering the complaints regarding the speed tiers of the majority of the new Pokes. All that Tapu terrain spam too, especially Psychic Terrain blocking potential Fake Outs? With Mega Kangaskhan being nerfed too, could be interesting.
i have no idea who *that* youtube personality is. i say what i wanna say, so deal with it.
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On December 09 2016 18:53 ahswtini wrote:
a gen7 tournament already this weekend? it's almost as if they're asking the competitors to hack their mons in
TL is a competitive gaming website, this is very much an anti-competitive comment. It's also not that difficult to get things completely legitly in Sun/Moon.
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It's a fair comment. UBs and legendaries can't be bred, so the best way to get one with good IVs is to raise them to lvl 100 and use bottle caps.
Unfortunately leveling to 100 is a pain in this game. I agree the tournament comes too soon.
Otherwise I'm excited to steal some OP strats for my battle tree runs.
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Northern Ireland22207 Posts
On December 09 2016 21:39 Amarillo Caballero wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2016 18:53 ahswtini wrote:
a gen7 tournament already this weekend? it's almost as if they're asking the competitors to hack their mons in TL is a competitive gaming website, this is very much an anti-competitive comment. It's also not that difficult to get things completely legitly in Sun/Moon.
it is an anti-competitive comment in what way? i'm making valid points about gamefreak/nintendo/tpc's approach to competitive pokemon. i welcome their efforts to lower the barrier of legit entry with every generation but even with two steps forward, they seem to take one step back. adding hyper training is great. imposing a lv 100 barrier to that is stupid. if they intended for lv 100 pokemon to be the competitive standard, they wouldnt have set online battling to lv 50. the exp grind to 100 is horrendous. there are no chansey bases. you can only get one lucky egg. they're using the exp scaling from gen5. rare candies still cost a ridiculous 48 BP. i'm not even going to go into how stupid the new battle tree people who have just finished the story.
reminder the game has only been out for 2 and a half weeks for europe.
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On December 09 2016 22:15 ahswtini wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2016 21:39 Amarillo Caballero wrote:On December 09 2016 18:53 ahswtini wrote:
a gen7 tournament already this weekend? it's almost as if they're asking the competitors to hack their mons in TL is a competitive gaming website, this is very much an anti-competitive comment. It's also not that difficult to get things completely legitly in Sun/Moon. it is an anti-competitive comment in what way? i'm making valid points about gamefreak/nintendo/tpc's approach to competitive pokemon. i welcome their efforts to lower the barrier of legit entry with every generation but even with two steps forward, they seem to take one step back. adding hyper training is great. imposing a lv 100 barrier to that is stupid. if they intended for lv 100 pokemon to be the competitive standard, they wouldnt have set online battling to lv 50. the exp grind to 100 is horrendous. there are no chansey bases. you can only get one lucky egg. they're using the exp scaling from gen5. rare candies still cost a ridiculous 48 BP. i'm not even going to go into how stupid the new battle tree people who have just finished the story. reminder the game has only been out for 2 and a half weeks for europe.
I mean realistically I understand it's fair, however, Competitive Pokemon discussion always turns into complaints/discussions/witch hunts about people hacking. I wanted to get people interested in something fun, especially considering how we have just mostly lost SC2. Then the very first comment is about hacking.
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Northern Ireland22207 Posts
i think porygon2 is a better trick room user than oranguru, that pokemon's just not bulky enough. at least until bank arrives and cresselia returns.
agreed with chomp, one of the few pokemon with electric immunity in a meta with tapu koko everywhere. i think incineroar might actually be good with trick room.
top8 in a recent premier tournament:
+ Show Spoiler +
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Incineroar, is really slow. If it had it's Hidden Ability Intimidate available, I agree it would be good. Porygon2 might end up being better. I just wanted to note just how strong Instruct really is.
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EPT
