On topic of VGC accessibility, this an article
from Upcomer explaining why VGC is below bottom tier when it comes to Esports. According to Cybertron, the biggest reasons are the fact that the Casual game and Competitve game are completely different, and the whole IV and EV system makes an insanely higher barrier for entry.
I feel SO vindicated rn.
I’d add that casual players will also be woefully unprepared for competitive scenes, period.
Between the lack of genuine challenge at late-game such as lategame teams insising on crappy movepools, overreliance on luck-widening mechanic like Double Team, the excessive handholding to the player, the Affection mechanics not applied to competitive, etc, all of which are found in a casual playthrough, casual players are only get more and more likely to get allienated from competitive due to these issues making them thinking that competitive like VGC will be a cakewalk, only for looking impossible for them due to top tier teams sweeping them.
Despite GF’s efforts, there isn’t enough focus and tried to balance between casual and competitive without even figuring the issues found on BOTH sides.
I'll twist the knife even further.
A LOT of major battles, especially the Gym Leaders do not employ a shred of strategy whatsoever. There is zero synergy, just a bunch of mons of the same type stacked on a team pretending they won't get folded by anyone who knows their type matchups.
And don't get me wrong, this isn't recent, this has been an issue since day 1.
Just to clarify, I'll show some good and bad examples:
The good:
Didn't expect a Galarian Leader to start this off, did you?
Kabu isn't really the roadblock he's portrayed to be in-game, but you can tell there's a theme here, mainly physical debuffs with WoW and Arcanine's Intimidate. Of course, it is SwSh, so you can just D-Max and steamroll through his efforts before he can set anything up, but there are more impressive examples.
It really doesn't take a lot to make a Leader somewhat interesting. By just having the tools to cover for her most glaring weakness as an early-game leader, Viola turned into a fairly interesting battle.
But the crown jewel for the best-designed Leader battle in a strategic sense goes to Hoenn.
This battle is AMAZING.
We're looking at 4 shitmons, make no mistake, but that only make this more impressive.
Synergy is the name of the game here. Claydol gets to fire off EQs because everyone else on their team is immune to it, Light Screen and Sunny Day turn Surf into a complete non-factor. Xatu's Sun also allows Solrock to come in ready to smack unsuspecting Water-types with Solarbeam. Confuse Ray and Hypnosis allows Xatu and Lunatone to either set up with CM or use their support moves again.
The result is a frankly fun battle despite the power level being so low on Tate and Liza's side.
THIS should be the standard. Have a theme and stick to a strategy, you don't need to go full romhack with top tier mons with optimized stats, just have something to make the battle memorable.
The Bad
The problem is that most battles look like this:
Now, can you tell me one memorable thing about Platinum Maylene?
Most of her mons run her signature TM, some coverage and either a basic secondary STAB or some unremarkable move. There's nothing to set it apart from any other battle in the game. There's no need to prepare, just pick the mons on your team that have appropriate super-effective moves and that's all you need.
How are Leaders of this caliber supposed to even make one imagine there's a strategic depth to this game, let alone bridge the main game to the post-game/comp?
