Battling at the VGC: Your Thoughts and Advice

[Linkachu]

On July 1st, my region will be holding its first ever Pokemon VGC Nationals tournament in Toronto. The second I heard this news it was pretty much a sealed deal that I'd be attending.

I'm really excited to be going, but I'm also a bit unsure of how to approach it. What Pokemon should I be watching out for? Which types of strategies dominate the competition? Should I use my Sandstorm team? How many people are allowed to register before registrations are cut off? And so on. Those are just a few of my thoughts/concerns. My actual team planning can be done on the Clinic board, but my other questions don't belong there.

Until now I've mostly ignored in-depth VGC-related news because Canada was never involved, so this will be my first ever experience attending the event. For that reason I'd be incredibly grateful if any of you who've attended a VGC event, especially a VGC 12 event, could share with me some of your impressions, knowledge, and VGC double battling advice. Any helpful website links you guys could share would be heavily appreciated too.

If you're someone who's in a similar position as me, feel free to chime in with your own VGC-related questions. I don't mind this topic being used as a general "VGC Reflections" discussion either. The more people share, the more comfortable I'll likely feel with the event overall anyways. ~~

 

[KoL]

You know there's a board called "The Doctor's Clinic" you could have posted in for team help.

Drizzle teams are this year's "nubstompers," so if you aren't prepared for a team containing Politoed, an army of Swift Swimmers and probably a Kami Trio member or two, you'll probably do rather badly.

Other, specific things I've encountered frequently are:

- Sandstorm teams, usually abusing Garchomp's Sand Veil alongside Tyranitar and a bunch of other Pokemon.
- Tailwind Zapdos.
- Dragon Gem Draco Meteor Latios.
- Prankster Thundurus will either be terrorizing you with priority Thunder Wave and Taunt, or tearing you to pieces with Thunderbolt or Hidden Power Flying/Ice
- Bulky Hitmontop with Fake Out.
- Metagross tends to be common across the board.
- Wash Rotom I've seen many times, and most of them have Choice Specs.
- Trick Room isn't quite as common this year, but it's always something to be wary of.
- Hax is both your best friend and worst enemy in this. Luck plays a HUGE factor in most VGC tournaments, and you'll want to reduce the odds of yourself getting haxed out as much as you possibly can. This means avoiding the use of inaccurate moves as often as possible basically, since there's little you can do about critical hits and the like.
- A lot of people RNG for VGC tournaments, so if you're up against a team that features a lot of the aforementioned, it's safe to assume everything on the team has maxed IVs in all stats (except Trick Room, which usually maxes everything bar Speed, which is left with 0 IVs.)

Above all else, have a good time. Although I couldn't attend VGC this year, I was able to attend last year and I greatly enjoyed it, mostly because I used a team I slapped together at the last minute and was quite amazed at how well it worked.

 

[NidoRich]

Luck is one of the most important things to account for in a battle in VGC as it can turn the tide in your favour or against you. But yeah, echo what KoL has said.

Having fun is the most important thing to do during these tournaments because there can only be 1 winner so have fun no matter what. It's true that I was upset at when I got eliminated in possibly one of the worst ways (emotionaly) being knocked out in the top8....losing to hax as well, without the bad luck I faced I would be writing this saying I'll be on my way to worlds and that I'll see you there Katie but alas the luck was not in my favor (Although a few people have said I got lucky).

I would say to be wary of all the KoL has said as well as Sableye too. It is an underated pokemon that can surprise you and wreck a team. It has Prankster, access to Taunt, Will-O-Wisp, rain and sun and a whole lot of other things including Fake Out and Recover meaning it can tank hits as it is weak to nothing. There is no surprise I used it but had I not made a few mistakes then I would probably be regarded as a better battler.

The main point is still to have fun! I went to both VGC events in the UK and France with my Nidoking so I would say to take the things you enjoy using but that is down to self preference

 

[Linkachu]

You know there's a board called "The Doctor's Clinic" you could have posted in for team help.

As I mentioned in my post, this isn't all about specific team help. It's also about the VGC event in general.

Thanks for the quick replies! I can't read them now, but I'll be sure to do so once I'm home. ^^

 

[KoL]

Another thing I forgot to mention regarding luck is there is a chance you might get drawn against someone ridiculously good very early on. Match ups generally haven't been kind to me throughout Gen V, as I've usually ended up facing an extremely good player very early on in tournaments, with (thankfully) mixed results.

 

[Linkachu]

Alrighty, I finally had the chance to read through both of your replies. Thanks muchly for all of the great tips and advice. I'm not necessarily gunning for a grand win at this thing but I at least want to get through a couple of battles. That said, if I was haxed out due to poor luck I wouldn't be too upset over it. Shit happens. I just want to have fun and experience the event. ^^

I'm still wondering something that you guys may be able to answer:

How many people are allowed to register before registrations are cut off?

I'd hate to get there and discover that all of the entry spots had already been filled, but I'm not quite sure how that process even works. Pokemon.com has yet to update with details regarding registrations at the Canadian National Event (just the registration time frame). How do registrations typically work in your regions?

 

[KoL]

The cutoff number's usually pretty huge, at least 256. As long as you get there well in advance you should be OK.

 

[Magpie]

So excited that you're going to a VGC :3

They're such good fun, even battling aside. One of my favourite things is when you're in line for battle and talking to random people. In between all my matches in VGC Birmingham, I'd be stood waiting to go into the next round and get talking to the guy who was going to be my opponent. They were all really nice people, and it helps you relax when you know you're going up against someone who's friendly and just like you.

My biggest tip would be to just relax. Go in to win and all that, but remember that it's the experience too. I find I always do better when I'm taking myself less seriously.

As for the cutoff, I was pretty close to the back of the line in Birmingham. They just kind of did a thing where the line close at half eight (it had opened for registration at eight). Everyone in the line got registered, but no one new could join.

Oh my goodness, have fun and take photos and have fun and take photos

Wash Rotom kicks ass.

And just in case, if you want any RNG help or anything, just poke me