After beating all the Gym Leaders, conquering Victory Road, and completing your Pokedex, you yearn for more things to do with your latest Pokemon game. You look for the next challenge after becoming the very best in your own right, now is the time to get into the competitive scene. If need a Pokemon VGC Introduction and don't know where to start competitive Pokemon, we'll tell you about The Pokemon Video Game Championships (or VGC for short). This is where you test your Pokemon's skills, stats, and moves against other players worldwide to see if you really are the Pokemon Champion you claim to be.
Although Pokemon VGC may not be as popular as other esports that are currently running like VALORANT, League of Legends, Smash Brothers, or Tekken, it has a growing community that supports each other despite being less known than its Pokemon game counterparts like Pokemon GO, Pokemon UNITE, or even Pokemon TCG.
In this guide, we'll let you in on the basics, where competitive Pokemon battling happens, and where to dip your foot before you take a dive head-on.
Competitive Pokemon Battles
If you don't know where to start competitive Pokemon battling, there are two places that Trainers who have been on the scene would look into. Of course, there would be the official circuit which is supported by The Pokemon Company Inc (TPCI) itself, and the other being a community-run competition of which most trainers would seek to be a part.
The Video Game Championships (VGC)
As mentioned earlier, Pokemon VGC is the official tournament that is sponsored and endorsed by The Pokemon Company Inc. Being the best of the best in this circuit would merit you being a part of The Pokemon World Championships in a grandiose venue held somewhere either in Japan, US, or Europe (based on previous events) together with the other competitive Pokemon tournaments for TCG, GO, and UNITE.
The ruleset for Pokemon VGC typically changes every year as to the patches and the new generation being introduced with the latest Pokemon games but it retains the following rules for all trainers: a team of six Pokemon can be played by each trainer but can only bring out four Pokemon into any given battle.
To strike a balance in the official competitive circuit of Pokemon battling, VGC is divided into three different divisions based on the trainer's age: Junior, Senior, and Master. A trainer's age division is set at the start of the season depending on the birth year of the trainer and does not change over the course of the season. Those that are expected to change divisions will take effect the year after. This specific formatting is made so that trainers will get to compete against those that are of the same age and skill level in the course of a format's lifespan.
Current Age Division are as follows:
- Junior Division: Trainers born in 2010 or later
- Senior Division: Trainers born in 2006, 2007, 2008, or 2009
- Master Division: Trainers born in 2005 or earlier
Smogon
The most sought-after community-run tournament in the VGC scene is Smogon. This tournament circuit may not be officially endorsed and sponsored by The Pokemon Company Inc but is recognized by the community as a highly competitive competition. Competing in this tournament circuit will not yield you Championship Points to merit a chance to get into the Pokemon World Championships but it will get you the experience that you need alongside the knowledge that you will get from competing in the scene. Most likely, the trainers that you will encounter in this circuit will be the same as those that you will meet in Pokemon VGC.
Unlike Pokemon VGC, Smogon has a different format where it is not the age that filters the trainers, its format consists of the popularity of the different Pokemon that are used in the battle.
Smogon Formats:
- Ubers: The Uber tier is based on the Pokemon's raw power. Pokemon in this tier is recognized that they are too powerful to participate in the standard metagame and are all segregated to the Uber tier. One fun thing about this particular tier is that no Pokemon is banned to compete at this level but that creates a possibility that you are competing in a Pokemon free-for-all extravaganza.
- Overused (OU): The Overused tier is made up of Pokemon that are often used by trainers in Smogon. Considering that these Pokemon are always present in competitions, they are known to be part of the current meta due to their combination of stats, moves, and skills that prove to be pretty useful in the circuit. All Pokemon present in the OU tier may participate in the OU metagame.
- Borderline (BL): Those that are in the Borderline tier are not used too often enough to be a part of the OU tier but have this chance to bring imbalance to the game. A Pokemon that belongs to the BL tier isn't weaker against OU tier Pokemon, but they typically require support from the other Pokemon in the team or are just simply outpowered and outclassed by other Pokemon.
- Underused (UU): Pokemon in the Underused tier are just simply not used as often enough. They are basically underutilized in the OU tier and are not game-breaking in the UU metagame since their stats, moves, and skills can't quite make the cut. In this specific tier, Pokemon that are above the UU tier are banned.
- Rarely Used (RU): Rarely used tier is essentially the Pokemon that are not used in the UU tier. Pokemon placed in the UU tier and higher are banned from the RU tier, as well as those in RU that are game-breaking are banned from this tier. This specific format came about after the release of Pokemon Black & White due to the sheer number of Pokemon that are essentially rarely used in the competitive scene.
- Never Used (NU): The Never Used tier are Pokemon that lack qualities that would allow them to operate effectively, even in the UU tier and the RU tier. With their combination of poor stats, moves, and abilities, only NU tier Pokemon are specifically allowed to compete in this format.
- Perfectly Useless (PU): The Perfectly Useless or PU tier is Smogon's lowest usage-based tier. All Pokemon that are not in the NU tier by usage and are not banned to Ubers, PU, NU, RU, or UU can be used in this specific tier.
Starting in the Competitive Scene
There is still a lot to learn about competitive Pokemon battling and now that you know where to compete, how do you even begin? Every new Trainer that will embark on this journey needs to accomplish a few things to kick-start their adventure to be the very best.
Securing a Player ID
All Trainers seeking to compete in the Pokemon VGC need to acquire a Player ID Number via Club Pokemon. This will allow you to rack up Championship Points and allow you to participate in the Premiere Challenges, Midseason Showdowns, or Regional Championships. Accomplishing this step is relatively easy as you just need to log in and request for your Player ID Number.
Research like a Pokemon Professor Would
After you've successfully obtained your Player ID Number, it's time to research as a Pokemon Professor would. The VGC meta changes ever so frequently so reading new materials from credible sources would be more than helpful for Trainers beginning in the VGC scene.
Time to storm Twitter
The Pokemon community, specifically the VGC community, is really more of Twitter people. Try to find notable trainers from previous Pokemon VGC competitions and see what their insights are with the current meta of the game. For starters, you can look at the accounts of renowned Trainers like Justin Bradley and Vincent Basstress for extensive research.
Pokemon Showdown
Pokemon Showdown is a great place to source great information through the experience of battling and communicating with other trainers in the chatroom. In Pokemon Showdown, you can practice with the different Pokemon compositions that you have in mind without having the need to spend countless hours trying to catch, breed, and train your own set of Pokemon.
Final Tips
Knowing the basics and having a good amount of resource materials for you to be caught up with the meta and scene of VGC, you are most likely ready to start battling competitively. We hope that this Pokemon VGC Introduction helped shed light on your questions about where to start competitive Pokemon. Remember that the game is ever-changing and will always have its ways to keep the challenge up for all Trainers.
Make sure your team is primed and ready for the upcoming Ranked Battle Series in-game. If you're still on the lookout for the best Pokemon to match up for this endeavor, make sure you check out our list of powerful attack Pokemon and support Pokemon to get the best match-ups against your competitors.
We'll share more tips and tricks for competitive Pokemon battling as well as the latest news, events, and updates on Pokemon so make sure that you check in every once in a while.
Best of luck, Trainers!
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