Pokémon's First Format: Nintendo Cup 1997

Art by Kolohe.

Introduction

Pokémon has a long, storied history of competitive formats, which have been around for virtually its entire existence. While Smogon was founded in late 2004, it was far from the first competitive Pokémon scene. In fact, even when it was founded, it was one of many competing websites, contending with sites such as Marble Palace, Azure Heights, and Purelimit. However, if we were looking back for the first commonly accepted ruleset, we would have to look to Japan, where Pokémon Red and Green were first marketed as competitive games. The first ruleset and circuit put out would be known as Nintendo Cup 1997, founded and supported by its namesake.

Ruleset

Nintendo Cup 1997 has a fairly simple ruleset:

• "Bring 6 Pick 3" format, like in modern Battle Stadium.
• Level Limit: Pokémon must be between levels 50 and 55, and the 3 Pokémon used cannot exceed 155 total.
  • This effectively gives 5 levels to distribute among a given party, allowing for some interesting teambuilding; some have compared it to Mega Evolution slots in ORAS and SM.
• Species Clause: No two Pokémon of the same species.
• Sleep Clause: No two Pokémon can be asleep, if you put multiple to sleep, you lose.
  • Unlike Smogon, Rest does count here.
• Self-KO Clause: Using Self-Destruct or Explosion with your last Pokémon is forfeit, used to resolve ties.
• Being released prior to GSC, Tradebacks are banned.

Since Nintendo Cup 1997 is played in Red and Green, in addition to RBY's usual mechanics differences, 30.1% Freeze Blizzard is also around! Additionally, since the format was played prior to Yellow's release, it is usually played without the associated learnset changes; for example, Charizard cannot use Fly, and Pinsir cannot use Bind!

Naturally, being the prototypical Pokémon ruleset, there are rules you're likely familiar with here: you have your original sleep and species clauses, and self-KO clause is enforced natively on cartridge today. However, the level limit rule is incredibly unique, likely intended to reduce the grind required to get to level 100 while resolving issues presented by the lack of Flat Rules. Keep in mind, RBY has very few "quality of life" facilities for making grinding easier outside of Vitamins. The level limit rule produces interesting teambuilder quirk. Teams commonly use four level 50 Pokémon and that are level 55, with level 55 Pokémon being seen as "aces." Thanks to their blistering Speed, Pokémon like Dugtrio, Jolteon, and Electrode are viable level 50 picks.

Nintendo Cup 1997 shows its age, especially as Pokémon has gotten increasingly competative. Freeze Clause is notably absent and wouldn't be introduced until it was ported to Stadium under "Poké Cup," Evasion and OHKO moves are allowed, and Dig and Fly are allowed despite the semi-invulnerability glitch. This naturally introduces many "degenerate" strategies, such as Double Team + Rest level 55 Lapras, but also interesting counterplay options, such as Toxic + Leech Seed Exeggutor to force them out. The differences between this format and your typical RBY OU cannot be overstated.

History

Nintendo Cup 1997 has a monumental amount of history behind it. Prior to Nintendo Cup being announced, sleep and freeze ruled the roost, and many players would use their in-game teams, often featuring HM moves and the like. This all changed on May 4th of 1997, where on 64 Mario Stadium, Nintendo's official TV program, the format was announced. Sadly, most of the episodes featuring battles appear to be lost to time. This article is an abbreviated history, so note that some areas will be left out.

RBY's earliest metagame development began on 64 Mario Stadium; Starmie, Alakazam, and Snorlax immediately saw usage, and Jynx and Exeggutor saw their first uses a month later to show that sleep and freeze were formidable. Freeze, in particular, was a very game-breaking status with its sheer strength, so Ice-types, which are immune to being frozen by Blizzard, came to the forefront. Later, at the Osaka regional tournament in July, Tauros first reared its head and obliterated the competition. It also showed up in Tokyo, though its TV appearance wasn't until September 18th, a week after Chansey's first appearance, where Tauros truly cemented its place as the Pokémon to beat. These events set the stage for the metagame going into the big national event, SpaceWorld '97.

At SpaceWorld 1997, a trade show somewhat similar to the E3 press conference, a national tournament for Nintendo Cup '97 was held. You may know of this event for the demo of Pokémon Gold and Silver, which is famous for featuring numerous scrapped Pokémon and a completely different region. During the tournament, players who placed well at the regional events would be invited to compete to see who was the strongest player in Japan. Their teams would be immortalized in the Japanese Pokémon Stadium game as challengeable opponents.

Out of these players, Toru Miyazawa would be the winner, using the following team.

It's worth noting that during this period, players did not know about DVs; those would be announced the next year, after the SpaceWorld 1997 event. In fact, even Stat Exp—Generation 1 and 2's equivalent to EVs —was not fully understood, only that trained Pokémon are superior to those caught in the wild. Additionally, with the single-use TMs and difficult-to-catch Pokémon, it was truly a privilege to have a strong team. To get a perfect team, you would need a second Game Boy, a Link Cable, and another Pokémon cartridge. Thus, the original Nintendo Cup '97 competition can be seen as a kind of evolutionary arms race. Looking at Toru Miyazawa's team, he truly won that: his Pokémon have maximum Vitamins, there is a clear understanding of type coverage and STAB moves, and he has a variety of different typings. Hell, there are even multiple Blizzard users, showing he certainly understood how powerful freeze was.

Experienced players will note the inclusion of Kangaskhan, the "second Tauros" as many call it these days. This was one of the only uses it had during the year, and it was used as an Articuno check. Unlike Tauros, Kangaskhan learns Rock Slide, and Articuno wasn't frequently used at level 55, allowing Kangaskhan to outspeed and beat it while being difficult to switch into. This is a primitive but solid example of teambuilding for Bring 6 Pick 3 formats: the overlap between Kangaskhan and Tauros is less impactful when you can simply swap them out for better matchups. This was also the first use of Electrode in the tier, which has since become a metagame mainstay for its blazing Speed, allowing it to outrun level 55 Pokémon even at level 50 and be a premier revenge killer. Its access to Explosion was the real deal-maker though, acting as a way to cut off the opponent's turn and prevent Blizzard spam or Double Team usage. Finally, Toru Miyazawa was one of very few players to use three level 55 Pokémon, which at the time was a previously unheard of team style; it has since become much more appreciated. The finals had a 10 minute time limit, which may be why only two Pokémon had Double Team.

Outside of Toru Miyazawa's 1st place finish, there were other interesting trends. Tauros was on 13 out of 15 teams, and Jolteon, Starmie, Alakazam, and Jynx were also used frequently. However, Chansey was only used once, and Snorlax had completely fallen off. Why was this? Well, in a format where sleep and freeze are quite powerful, as well as Evasion and OHKO moves are allowed, it is very easy for their bulk to be completely invalidated. It's difficult to rely on Pokémon that aim for long-term staying power if their allies are chopped down; this was a format heavily focused on Speed. However, Chansey and Snorlax have since proven themselves to be viable choices, especially Snorlax, whose devastating STAB moves can deal gigantic damage and allow it to usually win a flat one-on-one brawl. Articuno and Lapras were also common sights, with Articuno being the incarnation of a nuclear winter in a world with 30.1% Blizzard freeze and Lapras being the best switch-in to the attack available.

However, the next year, with the release of the Japanese version of Pokémon Stadium, a new competition called Nintendo Cup 1998 was created with level 30 Pokémon instead. Additionally, the pool was significantly reduced due to what is, effectively, the first "dexit": Pokémon that topped the event at SpaceWorld 1997 were virtually the only ones available, as well as a few others such as Fearow and Nidoking for type balance. It should be noted that this version of Pokémon Stadium is almost completely different from the second game, which was released internationally. Thus, RBY players often refer to the game as "Stadium Zero." Despite losing its infamous Sleep Powder and Stun Spore, Exeggutor became the undisputed king of the tier, trading hits incredibly well. In 1999, a "UU" tier was developed as Nintendo Cup 1999, where Pokémon that topped the Spaceworld 1997 event were banned, and Slowbro ended up ruling the roost. This was years before a tier without the most used Pokémon would even be conceived in the West, with Smogon's RBY UU not being created until roughly 2004. With the release of GSC, the old Nintendo Cup 1997 rules were reused under Nintendo Cup 2000 as well, which has since become a cult classic format in Japan and has even seen some play on Smogon since 2021.

Banned Pokémon
	All Pokémon that topped events during Nintendo Cup 1997 were banned from this format, in addition to Mew and Mewtwo.

With RBY's appearance on 3DS Virtual Console, Japanese players revisited the old Pokémon formats. In Japan, official formats are played far more commonly, and simulators are used less. In 2016 and 2017, Pokémon Battle Historia, an incredible website that documents old battle culture for RBY and GSC, hosted multiple "Historia Cup" tournaments replicating the Nintendo Cup 1997 formula. These tournaments still run for Nintendo Cup 2000 to this day, with the occasional RBY formats cropping up now and again. These are all played on 3DS Virtual Console, without any strings attached and usually get quite a few participants. There is also an old battle simulator called PBS (not to be confused with the ancient Porygon's Big Show) which, while outdated by today's standards, is still used to this day.

So what's good?

So with all that history, you're probably interested in what's good in the format, right? Sure you are! While by no means a definitive list, these are some examples of what works in the tier...

The undisputed queen of Nintendo Cup '97 has to be Jynx. As the fastest Pokémon with access to consistent sleep in Lovely Kiss, as well as the high freeze chance of Blizzard, Jynx is capable of dealing severe damage right out of the gate, potentially shutting off two Pokémon and then letting the rest of the team deal with the last one. However, due to its popularity, it draws in fast checks like Gengar, Tauros, and Dodrio, all of which are capable of KOing it before it gets the chance to move with extra level investment. Additionally, Lapras, which is a great Pokémon in its own right, completely stonewalls it, so Jynx certainly has targets on its back.

Speaking of Lapras, let's talk about it! At level 55, it can decimate Tauros one-on-one, as well as outspeed Victreebel and Cloyster. Lapras's bulk and 4x resistance to Ice is crucial in a format like this one. Keep in mind, Blizzard cannot freeze Ice-types, so Lapras is a fantastic Blizzard switch-in! As bulky as it is, it's also capable of running Double Team + Rest cheese to act as a wincon, but this can be quite vulnerable to PP stall at the hands of opposing Lapras, and it doesn't really need it to resort to Double Team if invested to level 55.

While it has a poor Articuno matchup that was enough to prompt Kangaskhan's usage in the original tournament, make no mistake: Tauros was busted in the 3v3 format. With Horn Drill freed, it could even partake in some debauchery itself. Tauros is often run at higher levels in order for it to claw back momentum with its revenge killing prowess more consistently, and that's simply what makes it great: you can get by with the standard, tried-and-true Body Slam / Hyper Beam / Earthquake / Blizzard here.

With Speed being a privilege as part of the Level Range Rule, some faster Pokémon rose in usage. These Pokémon have utility at even L50 thanks to their sheer stats, making them viable revenge killers or, in the case of Dugtrio, OHKO move users as well. Thus, teams using these have no need to balance their level distribution and can go all-in on Tauros and other strong "ace" picks. However, level investment on these can be viable: L52 Electrode can OHKO Jynx with Explosion, and Jolteon can get the jump on L55 Tauros with level investment and pack a serious punch.

These Pokémon are also very, very effective. While hurt by Blizzard, Exeggutor remains a formidable force for its two-for-one capabilities and ability to check Electric-types. Additionally, Leech Seed sees niche use against Double Team users, putting them on a timer should it come down to PP stall. Alakazam has no truly losing matchups in the format, but does require level investment to beat out Tauros and other Pokémon; it is usually worth the investment though, especially with Double Team + Recover if you're feeling naughty. Gengar is immune to Toxic and Wrap, which can be very helpful against many lower-ranked Pokémon, but it's also a nice makeshift Electric-type given its access to Thunderbolt. Gengar is also the fastest sleeper and has access to Explosion, allowing it to sometimes go for two-for-one like Exeggutor, albeit less consistently.

Conclusion

While the format is fraught with weirdness, given the game we play, it seems fitting that Nintendo Cup 1997 would go the way it did. Much of the early optimization of RBY originated here, from Tauros's onslaught to Jynx's reliability as a lead. The 1999 iteration of the format was even an early UU list. With it becoming playable on Pokémon Showdown under Japanese cartridge conditions, it's possible for you to experience it for yourself right now!