>The Pokémon Company recently conducted an internal interview with Game Freak director Junichi Masuda and Pokémon battle director Shigeki Morimoto, during which the two developers shared their thoughts on various aspects of Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, the last pair of games released in the series.

>“At a recent Pokémon tournament in Japan, Kangaskhan and Garchomp were used quite a lot, so I wouldn’t deny that those seem a bit too prominent,” Masuda says. “But for now, it appears to me that the players seem to have a good grip on strategies to counter one another, so I think we’ve achieved an adequate sense of balance.”

>Speaking with regard to the competitive Pokémon community, both Morimoto and Masuda feel that competitive Japanese players are still stronger than their western counterparts.

“I don’t know the definitive reason, but I think that one reason might be that there’s a closer community among players in Japan and it’s easier to communicate about Pokémon,” Masuda shares. “It’s possible to exchange information and opinions through various social networks, which leads to even more opportunities to practice battling.”

We really suck that much compared to Japan?

sauce: http://www.siliconera.com/2014/07/04/game-freak-popular-pokemon-used-competitive-battles/