Official TPCI Pokemon Tournament 2009 | Congrats to all who participated!!

[BlueCookies]

Don't worry, I was able to get 70 straight wins on Pbr against japanese players. Trust me, we have advantage this year.

Wow, that's comforting. Thanks for taking the time to let us know.

I bred my own Pokemon and lost critical matches against OmegaDonut when one of my Pokemon could have had better IVs in a crucial stat. I didn't have the time or access to anything that could have improved my situation, while people like Sidd and Alakapimp can Pokesav anything they want in a few minutes. I don't approve of the use of external devices and agree that Alakapimp should have been disqualified as he used a Pokemon that was obviously hacked. As for using singles 6v6 as the standard format, I would much rather see a return of Stadium mode 3v3 which involves much more strategizing and takes much less time to execute, at least until when Nintendo adds an option to remove animations from link battles which would make it more feasible to have 6v6 battles. It is also horribly arrogant in my opinion to think that Smogon is the be all end all of competitive 6v6 battling, stuff like Calm Mind Suicune as a random example of a standard set is hardly groundbreaking stuff by any means. Other competitors at VGC came up with their teams completely without any input from Smogon, myself included.

The same thing happened to me last year at worlds, before rng, where I would have won if my Snorlax had higher than the teens for its SpDef IV. As for the rest of your post, I 100% agree with. Nintendo really needs to pick sides. It's not so much the incident itself, which is what I was arguing with the whole draw incident, but how Nintendo is bending their own written rules. It's a hacked Pokemon, it's against the rules, if you're caught with one, you should be DQ'd. If you explode with your last Pokemon, you should get the loss, exactly as the rules say. If Nintendo wants to allow hacks, make it public. If they want to get rid of self-ko clause, let us know, as it can affect so many battles if it's not present.

Jumpman, as for the singles issue, I would side with 5k and IPL on this. 6v6 isn't feasible. Especially since stall is common, and a very good type of team, matches can take hours since it's being played on the ds with animations. For this reason, I think stadium mode should be used for singles, since it allows for much faster battles, allowing the tournament to proceed at a good pace. However, this would require the use of PBR, which costs Nintendo more money as they need to suply TVs, wiis, and PBRs. So, doubles as they have it now is probably the best option. However, this brings me to my suggestion for how to run the tournaments, especially the regional qualifiers. They didn't utilize the benefits of swiss at nationals this year. What they should do is allow everyone who shows up to compete. Hold a swiss tournament with a number of rounds that depends on how many show up. 7-9 should be a good number(assuming my next suggestion doesn't happen, if it did this number should be lower), making sure the best make it through, unlike this year where everything was based on luck. Some Locations had it 10x better than others. Compare seattle to philly, where in seattle it was slightly less than a 50% you got chosen, where in philly it was about a 20% chance, while also having many more good players in that tournament(although, none of them ended up being chosen despite the large number of them x_x). Also, those living in the southwest area could travel to multiple tournaments without having to drive "too" far. Not to take away from IPL's success, or to make Chris Tsai feel bad, but getting selected in two tournaments and getting knocked out in each before the top 4, and then in IPL's case, winning the next tournament, doesn't send the US's best players to the world championships(This example would work better if IPL was only average, or slightly below average, so hopefully you guys understand the point I'm trying to make). This brings me to my next suggestion, though it probably won't work as well as my swiss suggestion. Have a tournament for each state, and only allow players from that state to compete. The top 8 or so would qualify for the stage before nationals, where they could hold about 10 different tournaments with 5 states for each tournament(just a rough idea), and the top whatever from those tournaments would then make it to nationals. This would allow many more good players to represent our country in worlds, because everyone would have a chance to compete, and with multiple stages eliminating players we would weed out those who just got lucky and don't belong.

Hey IPL--

We were both wrong. Scarfed Metagross doesn't outspeed Naive Azelf, and doesn't get beat by it. It ties it. I can't remember exactly, but the fact that my Metagross won the speed tie might've made a difference in our last match.

Does nobody have a video of the Finals matches? I'm trying to remember some of the details for my warstory, and failing.

Well, it should definitely be Jolly, since it allows you to outspeed up to max speed Jolteon. Consider using Jolly at worlds if you use the same team. And congrats on getting revenge on IPL for the title of national champ.

 

[POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN]

If they were to do something like your second suggestion about each state, they would be silly because Montana and Alasaka don't really deserve their own tournament. I think a lot more regional tournaments would be the way to go(if they were to keep the regional tournament idea at all), since it would draw from the surrounding areas, similar to this year's stops. Only thing I could change about the locations would be two in the NYC/New england area to alleviate the mass crowds at one stop, and potentially a stop near Georgia or Florida to hit the southeast. Maybe one near Michigan or Minnesota.


Plus, a tournament in every state would be very expensive. Pokemon sells great everywhere, but that doesn't mean they'll blow it all on fan tournaments, they are a business after all.

 

[drcossack]

Now on to the hacking debate. I think a big problem is detecting hacking. It sounds like Nintendo had no way of detecting legal hacks that were done properly. If that's the case, it's a tough situation. It is not fair to the people that spent all the extra time breeding for multiple flawless iv's and whatnot only to have someone hack the same thing in a matter of seconds. I don't like idea of legal hacks being fair game. The people that devote themselves to getting the best ivs and putting all the time into their pokemon should have an advantage. Think of it like sports, if you don't put time into training and practice you sholdn't be rewarded by being on equal footing with someone who worked there ass off, natural talent aside (I was gonna use a steroids metaphor but I don't think it fits exactly). Basically Nintendo needs to get their shit together and be able to detect hacks with legal stats too. If that's not an option outline exactly what is and isn't legal so we don't waste our time. How Alaka wasn't dq'd is beyond me. He had illegal stats and was caught which is clearly against the rules. I'll leave it at that.

While I'll agree with the hacking thing, I have a different view on it.

I've been playing since RBY, and hacking was done then too - I've been on both ends of it, but that's a story for another time. It wasn't as advanced as it is now, and Nintendo's checks weren't either (IIRC, during the Stadium Tour back in 2000, they didn't exist.) "Location met" and "level met" didn't exist either, so it was entirely possible for someone to catch a level 2 Mewtwo right outside of Pallet Town, Candy it to level 100, etc. I was one of those hackers, but I never gave myself 999 in any stat.

Fast forward to Gen 4, about a decade later. We have Pokesav and the AR, which can do what the Gameshark could, as well as so much more. We can get our SID, our EV's, IV's, and, in Pokesav, create Pokemon that mirror those ID #'s. We're also able to give them any move we want, but that's not something new either (it was possible in RBY as well.) The point is, Nintendo, Gamefreak, and TPCi have gotten smarter over the years, and the hacking community had to as well.

Don't get me wrong, I understand where you're coming from. I'm not saying you're wrong either. I'm in the same boat as you, I hate the story mode of Pokemon, but I go through it time after time because of the competitive aspects of the game.

Ultimately, as I said above, I don't see the problem with legal hacks - keyword here being LEGAL. Breeding (in most cases) and PRNG abuse (for Legendaries, etc) can do the same exact thing that Pokesav does. The only difference is the time each one takes. Full teams of Pokesav'd Pokemon can be edited, the AR code made, and added to your AR. That takes 10-20 minutes. Since you can check things as often as you want and edit again later, you can screw up as often as you want. With Breeding and PRNG, the margin for error and possibility of screwing up is there. If you do it wrong, you won't get the IV's you want.

Either way, no matter how you choose to play, whether it be breeding/PRNG'ing for Pokemon or making legal hacks, one thing that can't be created is the player's skill. I have more than 30 legally hacked Pokemon for multiple rulesets. My VGC and Standard teams are duplicates, with levels adjusted for both, and I have about a dozen Pokemon for Ubers. They are the same exact Pokemon you will see me use on Shoddy. Either way, I've gotten very comfortable with those teams and it shows when I battle. Pokesav CANNOT create the knowledge and experience necessary to do that. While it can serve as a springboard, ultimately, it's the player who has to battle repeatedly to gain the experience and knowledge to find out what works and what doesn't.

 

[Wichu]

the spread was actually 31/31/31/21/31/31, which is a perfectly getable emerald spread, if you go through wifi you'll see a ton of metagrosses just like that

All the Emerald spreads are 'perfectly gettable'; I could easily get myself a hex-flawless Pokémon if I wanted.

But anyway, congrats to OmegaDonut :) I know I'm a bit late, but better late than never, right?

Well, I guess I should start fixing up my brother's team. I don't think it will make a major difference if I post it here; he doesn't want to drastically change it anyway. I'll probably post it in the RMT section later.

But yeah, which format are the Worlds matches going to be in? Best of 3, PBR, or just normal matches? It would probably be better for my brother if it was one of the first two, as it means he can see if his opponent is using a TR/Hail team, and adjust accordingly (they're the two he has trouble with).

 

[Voltron]

While I'll agree with the hacking thing, I have a different view on it.

I've been playing since RBY, and hacking was done then too - I've been on both ends of it, but that's a story for another time. It wasn't as advanced as it is now, and Nintendo's checks weren't either (IIRC, during the Stadium Tour back in 2000, they didn't exist.) "Location met" and "level met" didn't exist either, so it was entirely possible for someone to catch a level 2 Mewtwo right outside of Pallet Town, Candy it to level 100, etc. I was one of those hackers, but I never gave myself 999 in any stat.

Fast forward to Gen 4, about a decade later. We have Pokesav and the AR, which can do what the Gameshark could, as well as so much more. We can get our SID, our EV's, IV's, and, in Pokesav, create Pokemon that mirror those ID #'s. We're also able to give them any move we want, but that's not something new either (it was possible in RBY as well.) The point is, Nintendo, Gamefreak, and TPCi have gotten smarter over the years, and the hacking community had to as well.

Don't get me wrong, I understand where you're coming from. I'm not saying you're wrong either. I'm in the same boat as you, I hate the story mode of Pokemon, but I go through it time after time because of the competitive aspects of the game.

Ultimately, as I said above, I don't see the problem with legal hacks - keyword here being LEGAL. Breeding (in most cases) and PRNG abuse (for Legendaries, etc) can do the same exact thing that Pokesav does. The only difference is the time each one takes. Full teams of Pokesav'd Pokemon can be edited, the AR code made, and added to your AR. That takes 10-20 minutes. Since you can check things as often as you want and edit again later, you can screw up as often as you want. With Breeding and PRNG, the margin for error and possibility of screwing up is there. If you do it wrong, you won't get the IV's you want.

Either way, no matter how you choose to play, whether it be breeding/PRNG'ing for Pokemon or making legal hacks, one thing that can't be created is the player's skill. I have more than 30 legally hacked Pokemon for multiple rulesets. My VGC and Standard teams are duplicates, with levels adjusted for both, and I have about a dozen Pokemon for Ubers. They are the same exact Pokemon you will see me use on Shoddy. Either way, I've gotten very comfortable with those teams and it shows when I battle. Pokesav CANNOT create the knowledge and experience necessary to do that. While it can serve as a springboard, ultimately, it's the player who has to battle repeatedly to gain the experience and knowledge to find out what works and what doesn't.

I completely understand your stance we just have a difference of opinions on legal hacks. Really I would be fine will allowing legal hacks as long as it allowing in the official rules, which for nationals were:

The using of external devices to alter the Pokémon in a player's party is expressly forbidden. Random checks will be performed throughout the tournament to determine whether or not an external device has been used to modify a player's party. Players found to have Pokémon that have been tampered with will be disqualified from the event, regardless of whether the player tampered with his or her game or received a Pokémon or item that was tampered with by someone else. It is the player’s responsibility to ensure the legality of their Pokémon. Event officials have the final decision regarding the legality of a Pokémon.

Under these rules legal hacks were not allowed, but this was not enforced. The inconsistency on the rules cannot be allowed. Say a player breed their team and lost a crucial chance to out speed due to a lower speed iv than a player who pokesav'd there team. Now that would make it much more beneficial to use pokesav to save time and have better results. However now you run the risk of getting dq'd on the chance that nintendo can detect and enforces this rule. It's almost a no win situation except for breeding all flawless ivs which takes a lot of time and effort. Nintendo NEEDS to be firm in what the policy is so that players are either rewarded for putting in more time or everyone can save time with legal hacks. Consistancy is what I want most and I think it's one thing we can all agree on.

 

[mattj]

What happened to talking about how fun Nationals were and getting prepped for Worlds?

 

[Jumpman16]

I don't really want to get involved in your argument with FiveKRrunner, but Pokemon is second all time best selling series, with Mario's games being first. It's still a very high selling game series though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises

I'm not even going to click that before saying I guarantee it does not account for the fact that several Nintendo consoles have been packaged with Mario franchise games. Last time I checked, in February of this year, Pokémon Red, Blue and Green have sold 20 million copies all time worldwide, with Yellow selling 8 million.

So I "cheated" and at the very top your link says "sold or shipped". Yeah. I do my research before posting stats or factual statements like that...

 

[Captain K.]

With the advent of PRNG abuse, there's no real difference between a hacked pokemon and an unhacked one with all 31 stats. Takes the spirit out of the game, in my opinion.

The only way around it that I see is to go to a "rental" format like the Battle Frontier. Instead of using your own cart you would use one of Nintendo's with preset Pokemon on it. Choose your team out of 20 or so pokemon with whatever items they have available.

 

[TeeJay]

The difference between Pokesav and PRNG is the time investment. It takes me 30 minutes to put together a Pokesav team. It takes me dozens of hours to put together a VGC team (with PRNG) without the use of Pokesav or AR.

PRNG abuse still takes a considerable amount of time unless you are really good at hitting delays and frame offsets. EV training takes a few hours per Pokemon. Shuffling items/pokemon around games can take a lot of time as well (ugh trading animations).

At the end of the day the hack check won't be able to detect pokemon modified by Pokesav, if you know what you're doing. Which is why discussion on this is banned. It is very hard to draw a line in the grey area of "time-saving hacking."

TPCi's rules very explicitly state that external devices are grounds for immediate DQ, even if you received the pokemon from someone else.

If you are dumb enough to get caught in a manner that 100% proves an external device was used you have shit upon all of the hard work and time investment that other people put into their teams and deserve to be thrown out. This does not detract from your skill as a player. It is everything to do with following the rules and spirit of the game.

Everybody is busy. Everyone has a life. Yet they still find time for Pokemon.

 

[viperGTS]

If they were to do something like your second suggestion about each state, they would be silly because Montana and Alasaka don't really deserve their own tournament. I think a lot more regional tournaments would be the way to go(if they were to keep the regional tournament idea at all), since it would draw from the surrounding areas, similar to this year's stops. Only thing I could change about the locations would be two in the NYC/New england area to alleviate the mass crowds at one stop, and potentially a stop near Georgia or Florida to hit the southeast. Maybe one near Michigan or Minnesota.


Plus, a tournament in every state would be very expensive. Pokemon sells great everywhere, but that doesn't mean they'll blow it all on fan tournaments, they are a business after all.

Are you forgetting about LA? lol if NYC gets one LA should too since those were the locations of the 2008 VGS.

 

[Pokérob]

Well I'll leave you honey bunchers to your huge discussions and send my luck to all those that speak english going to the worlds. I hope you guys can beat the Japanese.

If not, relax, next year will have shoddy battle 2. Then, you watch us explode into their world. ;)

 

[Caelum]

Overall, your entire rant is pretty hypocritical. Alot of similar criticisms could be thrown at Smogon too. How many people put in hard work on the site only to get some "hacked up pixels" in the form of a badge? In return though, chaos gets to sit on the heaps of money that he collects off of the site. What's more is that in the grand scheme of things, they were tricked into writing articles for a metagame that no one but Smogon cares about. While Smogon had people wasting their time on countless 1v1 analysis revamps, people could've been writing them for a pertinent metagame. A metagame, that if Smogon put the effort into studying, would yield more publicity via the VGC than it could ever hope for. You can bet that Omegadonut spent his time formulating a team for a tournament that mattered. He has a Wii, DSi, trophies, trips, Pokemon goodies, the possibility of winning even more, and the official title of National Pokemon Champion. What do Smogon tournament winners have to show for what they've done? How many players have been promised t-shirts and Pokemon XD for winning Smogon tours and Official Smogon tournaments, only to never receive them?

Firstly, I don't see how Jump's "rant" was hypocritical in the slightest. You failed to demonstrate how any part of Jump's involvement makes his claims against the VGC somehow invalid. Something being a "WIP" doesn't shield it from criticism, that's absurd.

I have to wonder though, what are you even doing on this websites? You freely admit you disagree with Smogon's philosophy; you think its practices are hypocritical; you think we are concerned about metagame that nobody cares about; and you somehow think its some conspiracy waged by chaos against naive people like myself who contribute to the site for "badge" (yeah, that's obviously why I did it). So, why do you even continue to come here if you disagree with Smogon at the most fundamental of levels?

 

[deadguydrew]

Thumbs down for a poorly thought out rant on 5k's part. It started strong, but the entire last paragraph ruins it. I mean to begin with, when you compete on a website you understand that you are not dealing with an official entity, and thus they aren't subject to the same restrictions and demands of an organized league like the tournaments. Also the badges are notches in ones belt, and are not the reason that people do these things. People contribute to smogon for the same reason they would compete in a national tournament for no tangible benefit other than "bragging rights." No offense to the website owners, but I doubt this website pulls in a penny of net profit, but I could be incorrect. This entire last portion of the rant smacks of someone who is unhappy with site, or members of the site, and has no real relationship, or even rebuttal to Jump's post.

 

[Steven718]

Wait what, sorry if I read this wrong but the pokemon you enter -must- be level 50? How did people get things like Heatran in? Or others that evolve at 55 etc..

 

[VashTheStampede]

Whats uncalled for is the situation you put yourself in...

Yes, because it was completely his fault that he received that Pokemon from a friend who AR EV'd it? Because nobody else on Smogon does this, right? Still, I get where you guys are coming from, but please do understand that THIS WAS NOT PIMPS FAULT, merely a mistake on the traders part.

It was certainly heartbreaking when myself, BlueCookies & last year's winner from the NY regional had to watch from the sidelines in Philadelphia as inexperienced teams took to the field, so hopefully TPCi understands that impact.

Sorry I suck. :( I heard Ethan got mopped up like 2-3 in the Prelims (Yellow Block, too..). Sucks, I wanted revenge! xD

Did anyone get those awesome Rayquaza/Pikachu hats for sale at StLouis?

I wanted to buy one, but by the time I got there all of them had been sold out.

NO! This is what I was most disappointed about! I didn't even know there was a shop until AFTER the last day, and they were all sold out ffs! NOBODY EVEN TOLD ME! I wanted at least a damn shirt! Or 5. What they SHOULD have done was had a sign at the ENTRANCE of the Convention Center that said "Pokemon Merch at room 123" or whatever it was. But no, instead they put it alllllll the way in the back where nobody could find it. -_- (Or just us, I guess)

I have a normal non-goofy pose marriland photo!! yay~

I apologize that I did not get to properly meet you. :( But hey, you got Marriland out of his famous pose! The ONLY ONLINE PHOTO TO DATE WITH ANOTHER HUMAN WHERE HE WAS ALLOWED TO DO HIS POSE BUT DIDN'T! This actually IS a big deal. No sarcasm. =D

Firstly, I don't see how Jump's "rant" was hypocritical in the slightest. You failed to demonstrate how any part of Jump's involvement makes his claims against the VGC somehow invalid. Something being a "WIP" doesn't shield it from criticism, that's absurd.

I have to wonder though, what are you even doing on this websites? You freely admit you disagree with Smogon's philosophy; you think its practices are hypocritical; you think we are concerned about metagame that nobody cares about; and you somehow think its some conspiracy waged by chaos against naive people like myself who contribute to the site for "badge" (yeah, that's obviously why I did it). So, why do you even continue to come here if you disagree with Smogon at the most fundamental of levels?

Well, TBH, I do feel the same way as he does, just not 100%. I'll just skip down to your last comment though:

I come here because there are a lot of cool people to be found and to trade with. You can look at my Shoddy Stats and anything, if they are even still there. I think my last 3-5 games were 6v6 Clefable Metranome games. Somebody was like "Hey, somebody wanna do this for fun? Here's how it works:" So I was like yea why not, ya know? It's a game, your supposed to have fun and find friends, IMO. Winning is also an objective, obviously, but there are times when winning needs to take a backseat. If you let that get in the way of bonds you build here, then IMO you aren't worth the time of most people. And yes, I know there are quite a few people here that really don't care about anything besides getting what is necessary for themselves and that's that.

Not saying that I do not participate in any Smogon things. I was an active Sub and Practice participant in the Mono-color Tournament, I am active in WiFi and Giveaways (as in, I give a lot of free stuff away, even if it is not my own - Case in point, Tangerines stuff, etc etc, but I won't lie: I pick up some things too). That is one of the big ways I came across cool people, like Pimp, Invictus, LatiosMaster, and a ton others.

Basically, I come here to trade, make friends, and help new people get decent things so they hopefully stay longer, and find what suits their own needs here on Smogon. People find their own little niche's on sites about what they want to do: Some people want to be mods, some want to be the best breeders, the list goes on. But we both (all) know this, so I don't need to go into detail. :)

@Mosquito + RandomVGC: Can you PM me on this or the other site please? I would like to talk to you about some things. Different things for each of you, but still...

@Jumpman: TBH you scare me. Last time I said anything to you during one of your rants or posts, it ended up getting me 5 Infract points from you, Tenchi, and another. So I will steer clear of you, simply for the fear factor. I'll go as far as to comment and say you make some valid points, and some not-so-valid points. For one of your arguments, we are hoping the Petition makes some leeway to help us in our cause to settle some of both the major and minor issues about the VGC on the whole. Let's hope, right?

@Petition: Could somebody please repost the link to it? I would like to add it to my Sig, thank you!

EDIT:

Wait what, sorry if I read this wrong but the pokemon you enter -must- be level 50? How did people get things like Heatran in?

They must be Level 50 or lower. Heatran can be caught at L50 in Platinum, and Regigigas at L1.

 

[drug_duck]

The limit was 50 so you could use Pokémon from level 1 up to level 50. Heatran is eligible because it can be caught in Platinum at level 50.
Dragonite is allowed as well because there was a distribution of event Dragonites in the US and Japan. Also, Tyranitar was banned because it can only be legally obtained at level 55.

edit:
Vash was faster (hopefully he won't be using any Scarves at Worlds, haha)

 

[VashTheStampede]

The limit was 50 so you could use Pokémon from level 1 up to level 50. Heatran is eligible because it can be caught in Platinum at level 50.
Dragonite is allowed as well because there was a distribution of event Dragonites in the US and Japan. Also, Tyranitar was banned because it can only be legally obtained at level 55.

Beaten. :)

But I was posting because I wanted to know if you had any links handy from Youtube vids (Or RMTs) from any of they European VGC tournaments? I would like to study up on everybody's strategy from around the world. I'm not doing so to just counter your guys' teams, but basically to overall improve my own strategy, and change things around better so it can do and counter more things. Zerowing actually gave me a brilliant idea in our Battle, and I plan to learn from that one.

EDIT: Haha your edit. :P I almost used one at the Nationals, but I wasn't comfortable at the time with the strategy. Ironically enough, Batpig and I believe Omega used somewhat what I was going to use. :P

 

[Expert Evan]

Regarding VGC petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/443903092

It only has 116 signatures last I checked, so far away from the 1000 needed.

I was hoping someone with a laptop in Nashville and St. Louis would go around promoting the petition but I'm afraid that among us competitive players were are among the silent majority that cannot be heard.

I plan to attend Worlds as a spectator and hopefully I can get an opportunity to meet the TPCi organizers and express my thoughts about the whole random drawing method as the main thing.

 

[drug_duck]

Beaten. :)

But I was posting because I wanted to know if you had any links handy from Youtube vids (Or RMTs) from any of they European VGC tournaments? I would like to study up on everybody's strategy from around the world. I'm not doing so to just counter your guys' teams, but basically to overall improve my own strategy, and change things around better so it can do and counter more things. Zerowing actually gave me a brilliant idea in our Battle, and I plan to learn from that one.

EDIT: Haha your edit. :P I almost used one at the Nationals, but I wasn't comfortable at the time with the strategy. Ironically enough, Batpig and I believe Omega used somewhat what I was going to use. :P

Sent you a PM.

 

[Zog]

So judging by what Sidd did at St Louis, you're allowed to change teams in between swiss rounds? No written teamsheets?

Anyway, my precious Rocky Road the Regirock's attending San Diego with Shoe (not as part of his team, mind). It'll be pretty cool to have him go on holiday lol.

 

[VashTheStampede]

So judging by what Sidd did at St Louis, you're allowed to change teams in between swiss rounds? No written teamsheets?

Anyway, my precious Rocky Road the Regirock's attending San Diego with Shoe (not as part of his team, mind). It'll be pretty cool to have him go on holiday lol.

TBH, you had to use any 4 of the same 6 members. He just had them linked up in a manner that out of the 6, they could perform any of his mentioned tactics. That's all. Quite smart, huh?

@Evan: Thank you. I didn't have a laptop, so no go for me. :( I MIGHT when I go to Worlds (see if I can borrow my ex-GF's again) but there is no guarantee. This way, we can tackle the problem from 2 different ends. I don't want to sound "egotistical," but I do think I had one of the better methods mentioned. All I did was add an extra step, to where everybody has to do a perliminary match before they get put into the lottery, this way the crop of players would drastically improve. :)

 

[Huy]

So judging by what Sidd did at St Louis, you're allowed to change teams in between swiss rounds? No written teamsheets?

Anyway, my precious Rocky Road the Regirock's attending San Diego with Shoe (not as part of his team, mind). It'll be pretty cool to have him go on holiday lol.

You're only allowed to use the one team on the team information sheet. Sidd decided to just switch his team completely because the staff was being lax about it. The staff took our carts and team information sheets after the first day to ensure that no one could change teams for the finals, however.

 

[BlueCookies]

Yes, because it was completely his fault that he received that Pokemon from a friend who AR EV'd it? Because nobody else on Smogon does this, right? Still, I get where you guys are coming from, but please do understand that THIS WAS NOT PIMPS FAULT, merely a mistake on the traders part.

That's not the point, because his Pokemon was clearly altered with an external device, and the rules clearly state it's not allowed. If they are going to allow legal hacks, they need to make it public so everyone can do it, and if they don't allow them they need to enforce it. I don't know if this happened for nationals, but I'm willing to bet it did, because at regionals Syberia hacked his whole team. Therefore, it's most likely that he did it again, and not just hacking evs, he probably hacked every single pokemon. And actually, it's quite the opposite. It is Pimp's fault, not the hackers. Pimp knew the rules, he knew the possible consequences of being DQ'd, and he took the risk of trading for something hacked. It's also Nintendo's fault, because they need to enforce their rules. As I said before, if they aren't going to enforce self-ko clause or no hacks, they need to take them out of their written rules because they make a big difference on matches.

 

[POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN]

Are you forgetting about LA? lol if NYC gets one LA should too since those were the locations of the 2008 VGS.

Maybe California getting two would be an option for Pokemon USA then, since we have approximately 40 million people in our state(which equals about to 14% of the nation's population, give or take a percentage point). Maybe a combination of last year's and this year's, with LA and San Fran getting stops. Though some other people might complain about our having two stops to go to that are within reasonable distance. :P

 

[Expert Evan]

For those that weren't following JAA back in 2006, here were all the regular locations of JAA 3 years ago which took place at each different location from February through July not particularly in the same order:

Albuquerque
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
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