International Challenge (Feb 2017)

Status
Not open for further replies.

The next Online Competition for Sun and Moon has been revealed. Seems pretty standard fare, although notably it is the first Double Battle format Online Competition for SM. Alolan Pokédex, no mythical or box art legendaries, no Mega Stones.

Also the only way to get the Mawilite and Beedrillite thus far, so definitely worth entering!
Region: International
Registration Period: February 16th 2017 - February 23rd 2017
Battle Period: February 24th 2017 - February 26th 2017
Battle Type: Double Battle
Battle Limits: 15 Battles per day
Pokémon Restrictions: Alola Pokédex Only.
Banned Pokémon: Zygarde, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, Magearna
Banned Items: Mega Stones
Entry Gift: Mawilite, Beedrillite

https://3ds-sp.pokemon-gl.com/information/4cfcca44-671b-4cce-b818-e78a9d9075e5
 
One thing worth noting, (correct me if I'm wrong) is that players may only bring THREE of their six Pokémon into battle, so that will make some strategies different.
 

Lionyx

is a Battle Simulator Administratoris a Community Leaderis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
PS Admin
One thing worth noting, (correct me if I'm wrong) is that players may only bring THREE of their six Pokémon into battle, so that will make some strategies different.
Nah, double battles are bring 6 pick 4 because international challenges are always vgc competitions
 
Last edited:
Nah, double battles are bring 6 pick 4
I am aware of VGC rules, I believe it was stated on the PGL that this is different and brings three.

Directly from the PGL:

Competition Rules
• This competition uses Double Battle format.
• Players may use only Pokémon from the Alolan Pokédex. Only the Alola Form of Pokémon with regional variants can be used.
• Zygarde, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, and Magearna cannot be used.
• Mega Stones are not allowed.
• Items are allowed, but Trainers may not have duplicate items in their Battle Team.
• Register three to six of your Lv. 1–100 Pokémon to your Battle Team.
• All Pokémon in this competition will automatically become Lv. 50 for the duration of each match.
• Three of the Pokémon you register to your Battle Team will be chosen to battle in each match.
• A 10-minute time limit for each player will automatically be enforced in-game, beginning at the start of each battle. When a player’s time limit expires, that player will lose the game.
• At the beginning of each battle, players have 90 seconds to select three Pokémon with which to battle.
• At the beginning of each turn, players have 60 seconds to select a move or change the Pokémon in battle. If a player has not made his or her selections at the end of this period, the game will automatically make selections for the player.
• Players may battle up to 15 games per day of the competition. Any unplayed games will carry over to the following day. A new day begins at 00:00 UTC.
• For additional details, please come back to check the competition’s regulations page when registration opens.
 
I am aware of VGC rules, I believe it was stated on the PGL that this is different and brings three.

Directly from the PGL:

Competition Rules
• This competition uses Double Battle format.
• Players may use only Pokémon from the Alolan Pokédex. Only the Alola Form of Pokémon with regional variants can be used.
• Zygarde, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, and Magearna cannot be used.
• Mega Stones are not allowed.
• Items are allowed, but Trainers may not have duplicate items in their Battle Team.
• Register three to six of your Lv. 1–100 Pokémon to your Battle Team.
• All Pokémon in this competition will automatically become Lv. 50 for the duration of each match.
• Three of the Pokémon you register to your Battle Team will be chosen to battle in each match.
• A 10-minute time limit for each player will automatically be enforced in-game, beginning at the start of each battle. When a player’s time limit expires, that player will lose the game.
• At the beginning of each battle, players have 90 seconds to select three Pokémon with which to battle.
• At the beginning of each turn, players have 60 seconds to select a move or change the Pokémon in battle. If a player has not made his or her selections at the end of this period, the game will automatically make selections for the player.
• Players may battle up to 15 games per day of the competition. Any unplayed games will carry over to the following day. A new day begins at 00:00 UTC.
• For additional details, please come back to check the competition’s regulations page when registration opens.

It's normal VGC rules like all the IC's.
 

Pyritie

TAMAGO
is an Artist
Yeah PGL is notoriously bad at translating the rules from japanese. They did this several times last gen as well. International challenges are always the current VGC rules.
 
Yeah that would have been odd, although I suppose it'd have changed it up a little.

What's everyone expecting to see in this competition then? I'm expecting a lot of Toxapex and Celesteela, what with being good defensive (and offensive in the latter's case) 'mons with great typing and access to Wide Guard.
 
Seems odd that this is the only way to get the mega stones, not everyone has access to online competitions? Anyways, I'll give it a go.
 
Seeing as it only mentions "must be in the Alolan Pokedex", then Pokemon transferred from earlier generations are allowed, right?

Any remarkable tutor move that is gained compared to VGC?
 
Yeah that would have been odd, although I suppose it'd have changed it up a little.

What's everyone expecting to see in this competition then? I'm expecting a lot of Toxapex and Celesteela, what with being good defensive (and offensive in the latter's case) 'mons with great typing and access to Wide Guard.
Toxapex actually isn't all that common in VGC because while its typing and defenses are great, it is incredibly lacking in damage output and can only deal a reasonable amount of damage using its Merciless ability, which would force it to give up recovery from Regenerator.

You can see the most common Pokémon on Pokémon Global Link by going to Rating Battles with the Championship rule set. From what I remember, the most popular ones are Arcanine, Garchomp, Tapu Koko, Porygon2, Tapu Lele, Alolan Muk, Kartana, Tapu Fini, Celesteela, etc. If you need help with teambuilding, you can check out CybertronProductions' or YellowboxVGC's channels and look at the state of the metagame on 13Yoshi37's. Ray Rizzo and WolfeyVGC also released a bunch of Pokémon guides as well. Good luck and have fun!
 
It's VGC 17 rules, so no transfers allowed.
While you are correct, some new moves actually are available thanks to bank. This is because some pokemon had egg moves that could only be obtained from parents not available in sun/moon. There's only three really notable new things though: fake out salazzle, heal pulse clefairy, and electroweb Vikavolt.
 
Toxapex actually isn't all that common in VGC because while its typing and defenses are great, it is incredibly lacking in damage output and can only deal a reasonable amount of damage using its Merciless ability, which would force it to give up recovery from Regenerator.

You can see the most common Pokémon on Pokémon Global Link by going to Rating Battles with the Championship rule set. From what I remember, the most popular ones are Arcanine, Garchomp, Tapu Koko, Porygon2, Tapu Lele, Alolan Muk, Kartana, Tapu Fini, Celesteela, etc. If you need help with teambuilding, you can check out CybertronProductions' or YellowboxVGC's channels and look at the state of the metagame on 13Yoshi37's. Ray Rizzo and WolfeyVGC also released a bunch of Pokémon guides as well. Good luck and have fun!
Ah fair enough, still think it'll be worth trying out though. Since there's no transfers though, I'm probably going to try and use as many Gen 7 'mons as I can, rather than effectively re-breeding ones I already have from Gen 6. I might get round to it later on for future competitions, but for know I'm going to focus on getting some good Gen 7 'mons bred.

To be a bit different, I might try out a TR team, maybe with hail at least on simulator. Sandslash-A, Crabominable and Marowak-A all seem like good fits for such a team.
 
While you are correct, some new moves actually are available thanks to bank. This is because some pokemon had egg moves that could only be obtained from parents not available in sun/moon. There's only three really notable new things though: fake out salazzle, heal pulse clefairy, and electroweb Vikavolt.

and extreme speed dragonite
 
Ah fair enough, still think it'll be worth trying out though. Since there's no transfers though, I'm probably going to try and use as many Gen 7 'mons as I can, rather than effectively re-breeding ones I already have from Gen 6. I might get round to it later on for future competitions, but for know I'm going to focus on getting some good Gen 7 'mons bred.

To be a bit different, I might try out a TR team, maybe with hail at least on simulator. Sandslash-A, Crabominable and Marowak-A all seem like good fits for such a team.
I would recommend using Alolan Sandslash in hail. It has a great move pool like EQ and Iron Head to hit hail counters hard, unfortunately you don't have the room for Swords Dance, which is one of the reasons why it's so threatening.
 
Been using Butterfree as a silly gimmicky way to respond to a lot of dedicated hard trick room teams. Inner Focus/Mental Herb Oranguru gets shut down and Porygon2 doesn't run protect most of the time so it can't block it and either switches to death fodder or accepts fate. Oranguru is pretty popular on the lower ladder. It also gets Rage Powder which can save my partner from a double attack (Running sash). Not sure if I can recommend it seriously but it's a cute little tech.
 
Went 13W-2L today with a score of about 1650. Surprisingly I never saw the AFK-Core until now, thought this would be much more popular. In general I saw a lot of interesting stuff and I´m really enjoying the tournament until now.
 
Finished 12:3 today. Didn't use Substitute once on Celesteela, but Beast Boost gave some nice KOs.
Maybe my best start yet for online tournaments.
 
I have five battles left for today, but so far I'm 7-3.

Things began rather badly, at 1-3 thanks to three basic things:
1) A weakness to Gastrodon that I didn't realize at first with my team. It did not help that when I was testing it on Showdown, I did not encounter a single Gastrodon, not even on noobish teams. Result: No Grass-type moves.
2) Comfey being surprisingly annoying... and bulky. A Comfey-Celesteela duo was unkillable to me.
3) Extreme hax from an opposing Porygon2, hitting every Blizzard and Thunder it fired, fully paralyzing my Araquanid and freezing my Porygon2. I should have won.

I know I'm using a very common team archetype, but for a first time making a competitive doubles team, I'm satisfied so far.

UPDATE: 11-4, though it wasn't very entertaining due to another haxy defeat at the hands of a Tapu Fini and accuracy drops working, and an early forfeit and disconnect in the last two battles.
 
Last edited:
I entered but I haven't won a battle because I thought I couldn't use my shinies (all from trade or transfer) or the lesser legendaries like the tapus, Shoulda thought this through (^~^')

So far my team is Raichu, Primarina, Incineroar, Decidueye, Lucario, and Lycanroc (Midnight)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top