Worlds 2014

[Jerichi]

>Why? I'm the opposite. I hate seeing the same ten creatures over and over again. "Oh, look: Tyranitar. Oh, look: Mega Kangaskhan. Oh, look: Zapdos." Again and again and again. I don't blame the players but the game itself, and I would be happier if Game Freak could engineer a game which rewarded players for exploring greater diversity.

Read what I said again; that's what I meant.

[Talon87]

Definitely misread that as "a few --> few" instead of "a few --> more than none". Probably missed the 'a' somehow. Apologies.

[rotomotorz]

When deciding Top Cut, everyone with a 4:2 ratio was judged on Opponent Win %, so it wasn't totally random. But at the same time, they don't control who they face so it does seem a little disappointing.

In other news everybody root for Se Jun Park and his Pachirishu!

[phoopes]

I'm watching TCG games now. Just saw the end of a Masters game and talk about fast paced and hard to follow if you don't know what's going on! I never really actually played the game when I was younger so I only know the most basic of rules. And now there's all these crazy cards and both players are moving fast and the commentators are trying to keep up with it all too... I'm kind of lost. But it's really interesting to watch something that I had never really taken an interest in before.

[Jerichi]

Yeah, the overall pace of competitive TCG is kinda wild, especially considering that TPC fazes out old sets on a regular basis. It makes it hard for newcomers to really understand.

[Talon87]

For the VGC Masters championship game, I'm inclined to root for America over South Korea, but I don't know much about Se Jun's team; and so if it's one I like more than Jeudy's, then I could swing towards rooting for Se Jun instead. *shrug* We'll have to see. I hope that they have some good, clean, fun games.

I've got the stream on in the background right now but admittedly it's hard to get excited about the TCG when I don't recognize the cards or strategies well enough to be able to discern between mundane plays and spectacular plays. I hope that I didn't miss the Masters championship game, but from phoopes' post it sounds like I may have? Or was that just Masters' quarterfinals or semifinals this morning? Either way, right now it's the Senior division's championship game. One player has meaty EX creatures like Keldeo and a blast from the past in the form of Rain Dance Deluge Blastoise. The other player has some powerful lockdown in a Trevenant which prevents the opponent from using any Item cards so long as Trevenant is the active Pokémon. (Note: Item cards, not all Trainer cards period as I first thought it meant. ^^; ) The first game ended in literally about two to three minutes since the Blastoise guy had a weak opening hand and his only non-creature, non-energy cards were Item cards whereas the Trevenant guy managed to get Trevenant out on like Turn 1 or Turn 2. The second game lasted a lot longer (it's technically still ongoing) and looks like it's going to end in the Blastoise player's favor given the stacked table right now.

[rotomotorz]

I know little about new cards or strategies but I can follow TCG all the same with just the basic knowledge of the mechanics.

>Don't know who to root for
Se Jun has a Pachirishu on his team. I don't know any other reason why not to root for him.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by rotomotorz

>Don't know who to root for
Se Jun has a Pachirishu on his team. I don't know any other reason why not to root for him.

While I'm inclined to root for novelty over tired powerhouses, the fact that he uses a Pachirisu is not the insta-win for me that it appears to be for you. I dunno. We'll see. For now, I'd prefer to see America win instead of South Korea for the simple biases of:

1. America's home, South Korea isn't.
2. South Korea already dominates most e-sports. Part of me is glad that they don't appear to dominate in Pokémon as well. And thus part of me would be a little sad if, "Oh, look: yet another e-sport has fallen to the Koreans. "

But these aren't the strongest reasons to root for one player over another. If Se Jun's team is more interesting ... if Se Jun seems to be the better sport ... if much of Se Jun's team, not just Pachirisu, is unconventional ... then these are the sorts of things that'll probably sway me towards rooting for him instead. I don't know either Se Jun or Jeudy, their names unknown to me before this weekend. All I can really grasp for in determining who I'll root for are small, readily-apparent factors.

I will say one good thing about South Korea winning though: it would be a nice boost to their program's size. Even if South Korea tends to dominate at e-sports, their Pokémon party is embarrassingly small. Only one player made it to Worlds last year? Only two made it this year? I guess I can understand if part of it is that South Korea and Japan share seats and it's the Japanese who are taking Pokémon more seriously right now (and thus dominating the sport in East Asia), but if that has nothing to do with it and it's more to do with the fact that the South Korean powers-that-be would only sponsor two young men to attend the event, then that's kind of sad for the South Korean players. And so I'd be happy for them if a Se Jun win translated to better funding for South Koreans to attend future international Pokémon tournaments. America clearly doesn't need this, especially not since we seem to hog the ball with hosting Worlds events. If there's one year where, say, Worlds is hosted in Stuttgart or Madrid and only three or four Americans are able to attend, it's easy for us to write that off as one year's tragic circumstances and to look forward to the next year when North America will surely host the tournament again. But for South Korea, who isn't likely to get to host Worlds any time soon, a South Korean win translating into better sponsorships for their top-level players would be something I could be happy about.

[Loki]

I believe South Korea's Pokemon scene is so small because they had a ban of Japanese imports for many years which was only partially lifted in 1998 and more in 2004. It still bans import of music and television, so I'm sure there's been much less exposure to Pokemon in general because of this. We can't deny that the anime is a big part of the game's experience as we were starting out. Without it, it's like losing almost all the advertising.

[rotomotorz]

After that super tense lat battle in TCG its time for VG! I all missed the chance to get an autograph from two of the games developers Oh well, its not like I had anything to sign. The retail shop didn't have a GIANT line so I got myself a Chespin keychain for my backpack and a nice T shirt.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by rotomotorz

After that super tense lat battle in TCG its time for VG! I all missed the chance to get an autograph from two of the games developers Oh well, its not like I had anything to sign.

If you find out that Nishida Atsuko is there, you should get Yuki an autograph. ;o (I wouldn't mind one either. )

Bonus points if the autograph is on the Undaunted Togekiss card.

[Talon87]

Double post. The Junior Division championship match just completed. And ...

Spoiler: show

Yamamoto Kouta is the new junior world champion! Condolences to London Swan. Poor little guy, he looked so glum there as his Rotom-W was fainted and the third battle wrapped up.

All three games had a little bit o' hax to 'em for both players. And for London, the games were plagued by his losing speed wars to a variety of threats. His Aegislash was slower than Kouta's, and that could be said to have cost him Game 3 when Kouta's Aegislash managed to KO London's with a Shadow Ball. His entire team was slower than Kouta's Garchomp, including London's very own Garchomp. This meant, amongst other things, that his non-Scarfed Salamence lost to Kouta's Garchomp in Game 1 and that his own Garchomp was struck by Kouta's first in Game 3. Smart teambuilding by Kouta to prioritize winning the speed war. Bad break for London, but he'll learn from this experience just how meaningless it is for you to hit hard if you can't get a hit off at all before dying to someone else's.

Next up is the Senior division championship game! Starts in just under seven minutes!

[rotomotorz]

Originally Posted by Talon87

If you find out that Nishida Atsuko is there, you should get Yuki an autograph. ;o (I wouldn't mind one either. )

Bonus points if the autograph is on the Undaunted Togekiss card.

It was only Masuda and someone else

[Talon87]

I was excited for the Seniors game, but it ended up being unintentionally boring since 1st place decimated 2nd place. ^^; When I first saw the UK player had brought a Staraptor, I was pretty pumped. Staraptor (who I have long loved) let me down when I tried to use him myself in VGC 2014 on Showdown, so I was hoping to see this guy prove to me that Staraptor is just as good in VGC as he is in Smogon Singles. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do this. ^^;; Staraptor did shit all in the first game (all he was good for was an Intimidate) and then used Final Gambit in the second game to remove Hydreigon. I had been hoping to see him Choice Scarf Brave Bird the ever-loving shit out of that enemy Gengar, but it never happened. Instead, the American player's Gengar was free to terrorize for most of the match in both games.

Indeed, the games finished so early that while we only had an eight-minute break between the Junior interview and the Senior match-up, we've got twenty-five minutes now between the Senior interview and the Masters match-up. ^^;

[rotomotorz]

Masters is starting soon, so tune in to see Se Jun Park and Jeudy Azzarelli. Se Jun and his Pachirishu are about to face the ultimate test. Thenstay in for the ending ceremony where I bet there might be another Mega reveal!

[phoopes]

This is the first I've been able to tune in for VGC. Just in time for Masters Finals looks like! Rooting for Jeudy and the USA.

[rotomotorz]

PACHIRISHU IS THE CHAMPION!

Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Those were some intense matches! Both of them played great but Se Jun knew that Gardevoir. and Garchomp were key to his victory and he utilized Pachirishu. to help Garchomp destroy. First game Paralysis on Scarf Tar was HUGE like the announcers said, and it really helped stop T-tar from destroying like it could have. Game two Se Jun got early momentum by. destroying Lycario early on and Pachirishu helped secure Garchomp's total victory. Se Jun knew how to win and Pachirishu helped him do it.

[Talon87]

Those were some fun games to watch! ... So long as you weren't too attached to Team Jeudy, that is. ^^; I felt bad for him and the rest of Team USA. But I found myself cheering neutrally almost immediately and leaning towards Se Jun's team more and more as the first game went on. That Pachirisu really is something, alright. For pretty much the entire second game, any of my rooting towards Jeudy was more out of sympathy than anything else. ^^; Excitement-wise, I was rooting for Se Jun to take it home. And take it home he did!

Like I wrote about earlier today, hopefully this win means that South Korea will have more representatives next year. I'd be happy for them if they did, even if that meant that America and Europe were forced to slim down their own numbers. (We had nineteen Americans and one Canadian this year representing North America. C'mon, man. I'm very happy for what that means for American players who dream of making it to Worlds, but there's no denying how America-centric that is when Japan and Korea combined had less than ten guaranteed seats.)

I would not be surprised in the slightest if this year's promotional VGC World Championships giveaway is Se Jun's Pachirisu. That thing was just too popular AND too instrumental to his victory to not be tapped, even if it's not the mega that Nintendo's PR office would like it to be. Guess we'll just have to wait and see. If they want to do the right thing, they'll release Pachirisu as the promo. It may not be something that most people's playstyles conform to, but it was the MVP of the championship for sure.

[rotomotorz]

The massive mount of cheering here for Pachirishu and Se Jun was so loud xD. Imagine what you probably heard on the stream but 100 times louder. It truly was amazing.

[Talon87]

Can't help but to notice that this year they asked the field reporter to host the awards ceremony instead of the dude from last year who gave off some pretty strong manic pedo vibes. (He was downright "cult camp counselor" scary at times ... >_<) As I understand it, though, he's a popular fixture of the VGC scene. So I'm curious: was he unable to attend this year but he'll be back next year? Or did they can him for some reason?

[Heather]

You mean I might get a Pachirisu as a promo for VGC this year? I LOVE THIS PROSPECT

[Talon87]

Was hoping we'd get a sneak peek of something from Game Freak this year the same way we did last time with the 3D footage of Lucario vs. Blaziken. Just checked back in on the silent Twitch stream ... it's gone offline. T_T So I guess that was it this year? They gave the kids their trophies and then it's show over? Sigh.

People were teasing when they showed Mega Slowbro at the opening ceremony that the Korean leak had stolen their thunder but I chastised these folks in my head, noting to myself that Game Freak very well could have decided to show off Mega Slowbro here, now, because of the Korean leak and that their original plan might have been to save Mega Slowbro for CoroCoro's September issue. But now that the show's gone and ended without anything from Masuda or Tsunekazu about future products or features, I almost wonder if they indeed had originally been meaning to unveil Mega Slowbro and Mega Audino here.

This means we still have no further word on the mysterious Pokken Fighters. -.- C'mon, Game Freak. How much longer do you plan on keeping us in the dark?

[rotomotorz]

The ending ceremony was abrupt, I expected it to be longer :/ I was hoping for some more reveals or something :/

[Red Panda]

Instant respect points for Pachirisu, and I really really want it as a promo mon.

Sad that I couldn't watch it myself, but I was out all day

EDIT: I've watched a few matches a la tumblr

HE'S AMAZING

[Heather]

Red I want links pl0x?