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20 Years Late to the Party: Thoughts on Pokémon Champions and VGC Double Battles

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In 2006, I met up with a group of friends from online in New York City. We were all there for the Pokémon National Video Game Championships, and these were people I had known through the competitive Pokémon community—in some cases for years. In a time when Smogon had just begun establishing itself as the go-to hub for serious multiplayer and Pokémon Showdown had yet to even exist, I had spent many hours joyfully discussing movesets and testing out teams on older battle simulators.

This was the era of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald, and the National Championships reflected this not just in game choice but also the fact that the official format was Double Battles for the first time. As someone who cut their teeth on the unofficial Singles 6v6 format and preferred it, I had never really tried it, in contrast to everyone else who was there either participate in or spectate the tournament. Back then, those friends I met encouraged me to play Doubles, which they argued was more interesting, had the extra benefit of being officially sanctioned, and wasn’t inundated by the glut of restrictive “clauses” that characterized 6v6.

I didn’t take up their offer, and not long after, I fell off of competitive Pokémon in general. It was a lot of time to dedicate, and it just stopped being a priority for me. I would keep playing the games, and held onto dreams of making at least one competitive team per generation, but it never came to fruition. Meanwhile, a number of those friends would go on to found Nugget Bridge, a now-abandoned site dedicated to the official “VGC” Doubles Format. 

Now, literally two decades later, I’ve been playing Pokémon Champions, the new game that is specifically built to be an official competitive platform. I’ve also devoted myself to playing Doubles primarily for the first time, and I have to apologize to my old friends because it is very fun. Some of that is regardless of format, as it’s bringing up a joy and passion that sat long dormant within me. But Doubles also has a lot going for it in particular—namely the complex interactions that come with having four Pokémon on the field, as well as the speed at which it plays. I don’t know if I have it in me to do 40-minute 6v6 battles anymore.

However, I have a dilemma when it comes to battling again: I feel there is no community for me in Pokémon anymore, and it has become a very solitary hobby when that wasn’t the case in the past. Part of it is that I feel too old to interact with the greater community, and many of the people I did know are old like me and living their lives, but that’s not the only factor. Another issue is that as a player, I am neither wholly devoted to doing everything it takes to win, nor am I someone who thinks all that tryhard number crunching is antithetical to the spirit of Pokémon. 

Instead, my love comes primarily from making goofy teams and trying out unusual Pokémon while knowing that what I’m doing is suboptimal. In other words, how do I win within the parameters I’ve set for myself? The main team I’m running in Champions currently is one that includes all four weather effects—sun, rain, sand, snow—and as such constantly steps on its own toes like a Three Stooges gag. It’s a blast to play, and I’ve somehow reached Master Ball Tier using it. 

I feel that discussion in the competitive scene would primarily be about how my team idea is inherently bad (and it definitely is, IMO), whereas in the non-competitive scene I wouldn’t get the dedicated conversations that would allow me to push my team as far as it can go without betraying its core concept or cordoning it off in weaker tiers of play. Granted, this is also how the scene was 20 years ago, but I knew for sure back then that there would be at least a few like-minded folks who were willing to entertain my silly notions of how to maximize the effectiveness of a Whiscash. 

I understand that nostalgia may be the actual culprit of how I’m feeling, and I might be able to actually find that type of community I want—one that’s not entirely competitive or casual but falls somewhere in the middle. I’m also very pleased to see the biggest names in the VGC, notably Wolfe Glick, leading by example and willing to try out unusual strategies and teams while battling at the highest levels. Ultimately, I think my problem is that I’m having so much fun playing Pokémon Champions but don’t have anyone to share that joy with, who can appreciate battling in a semi-serious way.

That being said, I’m going to leave off on a goofy note: a Ninetales moveset that I’ve been using that has made a huge difference for me. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory, but do with it what you will.

Ninetales (Kanto)

  • Ability: Drought (But Flashfire is okay too)
  • 252 EVs in speed
  • Rest in defenses (I am not good at figuring out EV values, though, so I’m sure someone can figure out something better)
  • @Sitrus Berry 
  • Overheat
  • Power Swap
  • Pain Split
  • Protect

Pokémon Champions Has Me Thinking About Mega Evolutions

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Mega Meganium

Pokémon Champions is a new game focused on competitive battling, and it has included an old and beloved mechanic that’s been mostly absent for a decade or so: Mega Evolution. I’ve been thinking about why it’s still among the most popular additions to the series, and I think it has to do with the fact that it makes individual Pokémon feel special in terms of both gameplay and aesthetic.

Introduced 13 years ago in Pokémon X and Y, Mega Evolution is a temporary transformation that greatly boosts a Pokémon’s abilities in battle. It can make historically weak Pokémon stronger, while also potentially addressing some of the power creep that had afflicted the series over time. However, not every Pokémon can do it, so it can come across as bias or favoritism from the developers.

Because Mega Evolutions from the start were reserved for only a chosen few, one could not truly call it a universal game mechanic, and later generations replaced it with more all-encompassing ones. While there were some special attacks exclusive to specific Pokémon and some exceptions, pretty much everyone could perform a Z-Move (Generation 7), Dynamax (Generation 8), and Terastillize (Generation 9). However, even if they might be considered better mechanics in terms of gameplay and balance, none of them seemed to capture people’s imagination the way Mega Evolutions did. 

Ironically, I think that the aspects that make Mega Evolutions a problem are also the very things that make it appealing. The other mechanics are in many ways fairer, but having them be so fleeting or so universally applied means a cool factor is lost in the process. Z-Moves are flashy attacks but only last for one turn. Dynamax goes for three turns and just enlarges the existing 3D model, and the few who get unique Gigantamax versions are only truly differentiated in gameplay with a single unique attack (called a G-Max move). Terastillization is more enduring and has lots of depth in terms of player interaction, but it also uses generic animations with the notable exception of Terapagos. 

The exclusivity of Mega Evolutions makes them more exciting, and the anticipation over who gets one reminds me a bit of character reveals in fighting games. The fact that they get unique designs contributes to their special feel, and this specialness is expressed through significant stat upgrades and often new Abilities that enhance their specific identities. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the last truly enduring generational mechanic was Abilities from Generation 3, as they felt like further expressions of the Pokémon instead of a layer applied on top of them. Of course Gyarados can Intimidate opponents—look how scary it is!

This difference somewhat reminds me of two things. First, there are the changes in the depiction of techniques from Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel, Avatar: The Legend of Korra. In the first series, a technique like lightning bending is the exclusive domain of Fire Nation, but by the time decades have passed, it’s used by regular skilled workers in car factories. This is meant to show the march of progress and the proliferation of knowledge, but it’s not a change all fans enjoy. Rather, they prefer when characters are special in ways others can’t hope to duplicate because it emphasizes each character’s identity more. If something like Dynamaxing actually gave each Pokémon a distinctive improvement instead of just doubling HP and creating more variety in the actual Dynamax attacks, I think it would be more highly regarded.

The second is that classic player categorization of Timmy, Johnny, and Spike created by Magic: The Gathering developers in the past. Timmy gets the most joy out of attacking with powerful creatures, Johnny thinking up interesting strategies, and Spike winning and overcoming the competition. The other generational mechanics outside of Mega Evolution have clear appeal to Johnny and Spike, but not so much to Timmy. And while we might see Timmy as not as serious as the others, he’s a reminder of how much presentation can matter (and I don’t mean in terms of graphical quality, like you often see people complain about).

Nowadays, Mega Evolution is quite an old topic of discussion, but I never put in my two cents because I had fallen out of Pokémon during this time. I think the mechanic’s popularity in terms of general perception compared to its successors is a real lesson in how gameplay and aesthetics intersect. Maybe in Pokémon Winds and Waves, we’ll see something capture that spirit more successfully.