3 Age Divisions at VGC This Year - Juniors, Seniors, and Masters

[Feathers]

Edit:
What's a buddy rule?

It's when you're able to switch battle partners if you're matched up with a 'friend'.

[Ace Emerald]

Originally Posted by Fat Human

You better start practicing now. Northeastern regional has the most amount of people to begin with and the most amount of good people. Definitely the most difficult Regional.

Also I meant that there won't be buddy rule because of how the tournament is being run.

If I practice a ton and my battling skill is 'pretty good' what sort of chance do I have of making nats?

[mattj]

Originally Posted by Fat Huy

3 age divisions

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Now I can't write a warstory about 3/1ing a 12 yo in R2. VGC isn't even going to be worth it this year.

i'm out

[KingEmpoleon]

Masters Division.

The pure joy of a little kid being defeated is now lost :/

[Cybertron]

More like the pure joy of being defeated by a little kid is now lost. :-)

The faces of some people at Regionals when they expected an easy win and got 4-0'd or 3-0'd!

[drcossack]

Originally Posted by Fat KingEmpoleon

Masters Division.

The pure joy of a little kid being defeated is now lost :/

We can still beat up on 15 year olds...and depending on your age, they might as well be little kids. :)

Originally Posted by Fat Cybertron

More like the pure joy of being defeated by a little kid is now lost. :-)

The faces of some people at Regionals when they expected an easy win and got 4-0'd or 3-0'd!

Maybe there'll be some really good 15 year olds in Masters division. You never know.

[Human]

Most 15 year old kids will be in the Seniors division unless they are going to turn 16 in 2011. Well personally I like how it is divided, but that is because us born in 1996 were given a great opportunity. We get to participate in the VGC with less competition to begin with and arguably lower quality competition, but we still have some good players which a lot of people have been mentioning the famous Aaron Zheng as a top competitor for this division, so we get to experience Nationals and probably Worlds with everyone so in that sense we don't lose much. However in the upcomming years you can see that quite a few VGC players in the Senior division, like me, Wildfire, PungentFruit, HolyChipmunk, I think jrlucario, Mosquitox216, Maestol55 and some more are going into the masters division next year so we get the level of competition of people like Aaron Zheng and JRank and all of the other people, while next year the level of competition decreases. So I'm sure for us born in 1996 we don't mind the division, but for most of those born in other years everyone loses out on quite a lot, but most of us are going to continue with pokemon either way and that means that we can catch up in the masters division with higher level competition anyways. Either way you guys can't point fingers at us if we do well and blame that we have a lower level of competition, think about this for a second.

Originally Posted by Fat JRank

Cons
If I do well, people (older Smogonites) can be all "but you didn't play against the best.
We can say the same thing about them

tl;dr
Myself and, I assume, those born in the year 1996 don't mind too much about the division, seeing we don't lose much and, arguably, gain opportunities. Others probably mind a bit because they lose out on some competition.

[RubeNCB92]

3 divisions is good for everybody

It's good for the masters because they take our very good competitors, and especially good for retired people because they will have much easier.

Friends should be happy =D

I'm Master :P

[Gazooki]

And with the creation of the Masters group, there went any hopes I had of success...

Well, at least my first round loss won't be to a random kid using Double Dragons.

[Firestorm]

Topic split for better visibility of news.

Masters should be 1993+ or something (18+) =/ Seems odd to make Seniors such a small division.

[Havak]

Yeah, Firestorm, I think it should have been 18+ as well.

Ah well, at least I won't feel bad now, like I would if I had to beat some 13-year old.

[Cybertron]

They probably wanted to match TCG, which is the exact same in terms of age divisions.

But now comes a problem! Do I play TCG or VGC at Nationals / Worlds this year, if I qualify? :(

[TheCalmSnivy]

Seniors division. I don't wanna jinx myself, but this is looking kinda easy because I haven't seen any senior mention Phoenix. HolyChipmunk we can take 1-2 in San Francisco.

[ThePokePwner]

This is great! I'm born in 1996! :D I still have to face Cybertron and Human in the North East regionals. >.< better start practicing now..

[Wichu]

Muahahaha. Although I'm in Masters, my brother is in Seniors this time (and probably next year too). Here's hoping he can get to Worlds again :)

[Huy]

Originally Posted by Fat Human

Most 15 year old kids will be in the Seniors division unless they are going to turn 16 in 2011. Well personally I like how it is divided, but that is because us born in 1996 were given a great opportunity. We get to participate in the VGC with less competition to begin with and arguably lower quality competition, but we still have some good players which a lot of people have been mentioning the famous Aaron Zheng as a top competitor for this division, so we get to experience Nationals and probably Worlds with everyone so in that sense we don't lose much. However in the upcomming years you can see that quite a few VGC players in the Senior division, like me, Wildfire, PungentFruit, HolyChipmunk, I think jrlucario, Mosquitox216, Maestol55 and some more are going into the masters division next year so we get the level of competition of people like Aaron Zheng and JRank and all of the other people, while next year the level of competition decreases. So I'm sure for us born in 1996 we don't mind the division, but for most of those born in other years everyone loses out on quite a lot, but most of us are going to continue with pokemon either way and that means that we can catch up in the masters division with higher level competition anyways. Either way you guys can't point fingers at us if we do well and blame that we have a lower level of competition, think about this for a second.




tl;dr
Myself and, I assume, those born in the year 1996 don't mind too much about the division, seeing we don't lose much and, arguably, gain opportunities. Others probably mind a bit because they lose out on some competition.

No one's pointing any fingers. If you're mature enough and aren't overly cocky, you will have our respect. Jeremy Fann fit in pefectly with us and commanded our utmost respect and we never once questioned anything about the level of competition he faced in previous years.

Anyway, I see this as a very good thing for VGC. They are obviously trying to expand and creating 3 age divisions will give more people a shot at winning. While it may dilute the playerpool for the Masters division, we have to remember that the extremely competitive players are still a huge minority when it comes to the attendance of these events.

[PungentFruit]

I'm not trying to be cocky here, but the seniors level will be too easy especialy for the hard core players from Smogon and SkarmBliss that actually know what they are doing. To do well in a Juniors regional last year, alls you had to do was RNG. If you just RNG and EV train you are almost guaranteed a spot in the top 16. I have a feeling this year's Seniors will be very like that. Yes there will be some people that sort of know what they are doing, but the majority will be straight up noobs to say the least. Now I am a senior this year, but this post is not guaranteeing me a win, I'm just declaring that there will be almost no competition.

And Human I will be in seniors one more year.

[Alakapimp]

Originally Posted by Fat drcossack

We can still beat up on 15 year olds...and depending on your age, they might as well be little kids. :)

Yeah can't wait to beat up on those 15 and 16 year olds.

I'm really glad it's not 18+, by the time you're 15/16 you're probably as far as you are going to get in developing Pokemon skills age-wise.

[JRank]

Actually, for Seniors this year (and to a minor extent, Masters) the chance of getting beaten by a random (aka non-Smogonite/Skarmblissian), will skyrocket. Think about it. We'll (Seniors) will be used to the Skarmbliss PO metagame (there's not much of one on the Smogon server :/), but since the majority of people I will play will be younger (I'll be 14 and the oldest there will be 15/16), they'll have a totally different mindset. I look at the Senior metagame the same way I would if I were going to Worlds and preparing for the Japanese. They have a totally different playstyle, and it might be difficult to adapt. (I'm pretty sure I can do it, though)

[Kinneas]

Originally Posted by Fat JRank

Actually, for Seniors this year (and to a minor extent, Masters) the chance of getting beaten by a random (aka non-Smogonite/Skarmblissian), will skyrocket. Think about it. We'll (Seniors) will be used to the Skarmbliss PO metagame (there's not much of one on the Smogon server :/), but since the majority of people I will play will be younger (I'll be 14 and the oldest there will be 15/16), they'll have a totally different mindset. I look at the Senior metagame the same way I would if I were going to Worlds and preparing for the Japanese. They have a totally different playstyle, and it might be difficult to adapt. (I'm pretty sure I can do it, though)

JRank you can just take an "attack now think later" team and steamroll them. Kill them before they kill you and you won't have to deal with random crap being slung at you. That's how regionals work at any level.

[BKC]

96
YES

[Mosquito]

Before bashing 15-year-olds, I would like to remind you that Jeremy Fan was 13 when he placed 25th at Worlds in 2010, and that Tasuku Mano was 15 when he placed 2nd at Worlds in 2009. Yeah, by the time you're around 15, you've pretty much learned much of what there is to pokemon :D

Seniors isn't going to be a breeze either, since people in the Seniors division still are better than the Juniors players and may actually EV train and such, using all attack teams. Don't try to do anything fancy, but instead make a solid team. And this game IS all luck, little skill, so really, you're still gambling in Seniors.

[Cybertron]

Something like last year's "Kyogre Hitmontop" team, I predict, would do quite well in Seniors and Juniors. I gave my 7 year old brother that team just 5 days before North East Regionals, and he somehow managed to get 3rd, and even beat Grace Arnold at Nationals. How he managed to do that was still beyond me, but the point is, unlike playing against Masters where you actually have to PREDICT, most Seniors go on for straight on attacking. If you have a well executed strategy, you should have no problem against almost any Senior other than those from Smogon and Skarmbliss.

[Smith]

damn 1995 birthday, although it will up the competitions some :) I'd rather play against real people anyways

[shuckles my hero]

Yay! I am a English senior I may make it past the first round this year.
I am liking these age groups.