>>54019243I was trying to compare and contrast various video game tournaments some time ago, and the Pokemon VGC was one of them.
While I was a bit skeptical at first because of how dumb it is to have Pokemon battles into a competitive format, what I've seen in the first regulation in S&V was at least interesting. Double battles definitely make the game more viable when multiple units are on the field. Single battles sound stupid though. It's like playing Yu-Gi-Oh! but you can only summon 1 monster at a time.
There's also the fact that the VGC players have little to no differences from one another. This is the same issue that card games often have because it's just that easy to copy someone else's deck list. So why do they stand out? The skill involved relies more on their knowledge of the team they built and how they'll play around their opponent's.
Unfortunately, my praises end there.
For every regulation they announced to allow more Pokemon into the game, the more the matches become predictable and boring.
I've seen interesting team synergies during the early start of the format, but after the Paradox Pokemon became a staple, there's little to no variances with how they're built. I thought a Dondozo & Tatsugiri stall mirror was bad enough, but seeing two Fluttermanes on the field just makes me roll my eyes.
Going back to the players themselves, a lot of the biggest feats in the VGC just amounted to actual luck rather than skill. That one guy they kept putting on commercials for putting his trust in his Dragonite was all because his opponent missed the attack and him getting a crit on both enemies. This is no EVO Moment 37 where Daigo perfectly parried each frame of Chun-li's super in order to make the biggest comeback of all time.
>tl;drYou can't out-play someone in Pokemon when the game makes the calculations for you. The game is no longer fun the longer the format runs. Competitive viability solely relies on mind-games.
