VGC in Ruins of Alph - Statistics

[pkmnmasterjim]

Recently, a vgc format was hosted for the first time ever in ROA as the “Community Choice ladder” format. Personally I enjoyed playing it very much; in fact, I had suggested this exact thing years ago.

The purpose of this post is to assess, based on numbers provided by www.smogon.com/stats/, how “successful” (that is, how popular) the inclusion of vgc2013 in ROA was, and then (hopefully) convince the administrators to continue hosting old vgc ladders.

As you can see in the diagrams below, in the past twelve months, it was by far the most played format in the “Community Choice Ladder” category, almost doubling the total games played in the second most popular, and was surpassed only in some months by the “Rotational UU/Ubers” ladder.

Comparison of total games played in the Community Choice ladder between March 2024 and February 2025.

Comparison of total games played in all ROA ladders between March 2024 and February 2025.

CONCLUSION
Obviously there is considerable demand for old vgc formats on pokemon showdown, and therefore the staff in charge of ROA may want to consider including vgc formats regularly in the future.

Thank you for reading!

Appendix. A detailed record of the data below (source www.smogon.com/stats/):

 

[Potatoman299]

you know just what if like just a maybe the devs implemented team selection without team preview for gen 4 vgc formats

 

[Pengu]

Hey, there is actually a subform on the VGC section of the forums which I recommend using, located here.

 

[MosquitoVGC]

As a long-time VGC competitor, I would love and actively engage if "past VGC format" was implemented as a rotating ladder. Consider that we can do an entire year without ever repeating formats:

PL 2005/Orre Colosseum
JAA 2006
VGCs 2009-2018 (skipping 2012 because 2013 is an upgrade)
VGC 2019 Ultra
SwSh Series 4-5
VGC 2021 (SwSh Series 7/9)
VGC 2022 (Swh Series 12)

For every format starting with Generation IV, there's a history of ladder play connected to Smogon either through Pokémon Online or Pokémon Showdown. Sample teams and developed metagames exist for these formats. Playing these old formats provides a respite for doubles players from playing the current VGC format.

 

[Zubola]

Agree with the above posts.
In-game format players having even 1 past generation format to play at all times would truly be a blessing.

 

[SoulBadguy0408]

I'm enjoying VGC 18, so I definitely hope the possibility is here to have more past VGC formats rotate in on occasion.