US Snatches Pokemon World Championship from Japan

[oneshotfinchy]

I love how so many people who read and commented on a story about this are talking down to Pokemon so much.

 

[Damura]

There's an incredibly deep and strategic game beneath the surface

They're all kids...

You've obviously never played any of the new ones.

Didn't the adults get a go? Too old? What? No one over 12 may enter?

 

[twm1709]

Good thing this kid won. Hope he gets money out of this 'cause you can tell he needs it badly to buy food just by looking at him jk

 

[Terminate421]

There's an incredibly deep and strategic game beneath the surface

They're all kids...

You've obviously never played any of the new ones.

Didn't the adults get a go? Too old? What? No one over 12 may enter?

Yeah there were adults there. Sorry, I thought you assumed every single player was a child.
Anyways, yeah there were a few adults there.

 

[Terminate421]

can someone please tell me in detail why nobody used a team that you would actually play the game with? I mean seriously, My little brother owns pokémon platinum with all 3 starters, Giritina,haunter and I think he ported over a blaziken and he could probably beat them

Because when playing the game against the computer, all you want is a team of six sweepers (fast, hard-hitting guys). In the competitive game, six sweepers is a quick way to losing because players can predict and outthink you in a way that the AI never can.

you know way more about this than a grown man should

Wow, thats....low.

There's a difference between intended towards children and primarily advertised. Hell, alot of Nintendo games are primarily advertised towards children, like Mario Galaxy 2. Is that for children too?

Pokemon is no exception, its advertised towards children alot but isn't fully intended. (Thats why I still play at 16 years old)

 

[John Funk]

can someone please tell me in detail why nobody used a team that you would actually play the game with? I mean seriously, My little brother owns pokémon platinum with all 3 starters, Giritina,haunter and I think he ported over a blaziken and he could probably beat them

Because when playing the game against the computer, all you want is a team of six sweepers (fast, hard-hitting guys). In the competitive game, six sweepers is a quick way to losing because players can predict and outthink you in a way that the AI never can.

you know way more about this than a grown man should

I spent three months working at the official Pokemon store in New York City. You pick things up.

 

[Caliostro]

It was more complex than you make out even in the first generation, though I think it's evolved slightly more since.

Put it this way: If you went into that tournament with 6 level hundreds and tried to Fire Blast and Hyrdo Pump your way to victory, you would take down one 'mon at the very most. There's actually quite a deep meta-game behind it all.

I played a lot of red/green/blue and it was always first person to hit won. Even in "rock/paper/scissor" situations, all you had to do was not use the elemental based attacks and for the most part it was a won match anyways. Then you had "king cheap" which was Hunter or whatever the fuck his name was. The biggest of the ghosts. Also, if I remember correctly, Jigglypuff. He didn't take any melee damage and was resistant to most elements, if hypnosis/sleep worked it was over. Remember beating and being beaten by Hunter alone against completely different teams of pokemons. If Hunter was first, and sleep worked, it was over. Sleep -> beat up. It rarely mattered what the other guy was using.

Turn-based fighting is rarely interesting, unless things changed dramatically... yeah. "Competitive" videogames (and sports in the sense that we see today) honestly makes me kind of sad. It's subverting the original intent of these things (fun, enjoyment, etc) and turning it into a business. Look at the Olympics. The Olympics were a celebration of the common man achieving the otherwise unachievable. Now it's all about guys that spend their entire lives doing nothing but that, so they can beat other guys who do nothing but that, in what amounts to an international dick-measuring competition.

Still, taking these things for what they are then, a measure of skill, but turn based combat makes me sad. I just don't see the whole "skill" part present anywhere. Maybe it's me, maybe I'm the Roger Ebert here looking at videogames saying "how is this art!?", but I just don't see it. Starcraft, despite not being my thing, I can understand the technical prowess involved in it. Fuck me, Korean Starcraft competitions are fucking INSANE. They study everything to the precise millimeter. Every action is accounted for, every order carefully calculated before hand. Street Fighter competitions can be amazing. Hell, most people here probably heard the name Daigo connected to one of the most amazing videogaming moments in history [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7cW2nMf1gk&playnext=1&videos=Yb3sU3ziCj4]. Counter Strike competitions, I get. Turn based combat... I don't. Not for multiplayer.

You're free to love it, to me it feels like people who can't play a match in real time. Shrugs. To each his own I guess. That's why there are different games.

Perhaps you should do research before going off on something you have no idea about. Even in John's article he hinted at the depth of the games. Why is it sad? When is the last time you went to a world championship, for ANY type of game or sport?

I never went to a hotdog eating contest, it doesn't make it any more of an "awesome competition"!

Hey, you're free to think that this is the greatest thing since grated cheese. To me it only inspired facepalming.

 

[itf cho]

The woman talking over it sounds bored out of her skull, she sounds like shes about to fall asleep.

Well, she probably considers herself a serious journalist and was po'd she had to cover this bit of fluff. Your next assignment... a Magic of the Gathering tournament, followed up by the Rock'em Sock'em Robots revival con.

 

[tlozoot]

It was more complex than you make out even in the first generation, though I think it's evolved slightly more since.

Put it this way: If you went into that tournament with 6 level hundreds and tried to Fire Blast and Hyrdo Pump your way to victory, you would take down one 'mon at the very most. There's actually quite a deep meta-game behind it all.

I played a lot of red/green/blue and it was always first person to hit won. Even in "rock/paper/scissor" situations, all you had to do was not use the elemental based attacks and for the most part it was a won match anyways. Then you had "king cheap" which was Hunter or whatever the fuck his name was. The biggest of the ghosts. Also, if I remember correctly, Jigglypuff. He didn't take any melee damage and was resistant to most elements, if hypnosis/sleep worked it was over. Remember beating and being beaten by Hunter alone against completely different teams of pokemons. If Hunter was first, and sleep worked, it was over. Sleep -> beat up. It rarely mattered what the other guy was using.

Turn-based fighting is rarely interesting, unless things changed dramatically... yeah. "Competitive" videogames (and sports in the sense that we see today) honestly makes me kind of sad. It's subverting the original intent of these things (fun, enjoyment, etc) and turning it into a business. Look at the Olympics. The Olympics were a celebration of the common man achieving the otherwise unachievable. Now it's all about guys that spend their entire lives doing nothing but that, so they can beat other guys who do nothing but that, in what amounts to an international dick-measuring competition.

Still, taking these things for what they are then, a measure of skill, but turn based combat makes me sad. I just don't see the whole "skill" part present anywhere. Maybe it's me, maybe I'm the Roger Ebert here looking at videogames saying "how is this art!?", but I just don't see it. Starcraft, despite not being my thing, I can understand the technical prowess involved in it. Fuck me, Korean Starcraft competitions are fucking INSANE. They study everything to the precise millimeter. Every action is accounted for, every order carefully calculated before hand. Street Fighter competitions can be amazing. Hell, most people here probably heard the name Daigo connected to one of the most amazing videogaming moments in history [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7cW2nMf1gk&playnext=1&videos=Yb3sU3ziCj4]. Counter Strike competitions, I get. Turn based combat... I don't. Not for multiplayer.

You're free to love it, to me it feels like people who can't play a match in real time. Shrugs. To each his own I guess. That's why there are different games.

Perhaps you should do research before going off on something you have no idea about. Even in John's article he hinted at the depth of the games. Why is it sad? When is the last time you went to a world championship, for ANY type of game or sport?

I never went to a hotdog eating contest, it doesn't make it any more of an "awesome competition"!

Hey, you're free to think that this is the greatest thing since grated cheese. To me it only inspired facepalming.

You're free to believe that it's nothing but a crutch for those who can't take the heat of battling in real time, but you're rather missing the point of turn based games. I'd say the battling is but a tiny percentage of the whole thing. To get to that level of competeition you need to cross breed carefully researched movesets onto a good pokemon with the correct base stats, then you need to re-breed the pokemon for the ideal genetic stats, and then you need to raise the pokemon in the right way so it fosters the correct stats. Then there's the actual battling, which I imagine is quite tactical at high play. I know this and I only played pokemon casually a few years ago - everything I said above was simply from reading up on the subject and becomming informed enough to warrant entering this discussion. In the single player, yes, all you need to do is use a powerful move over and over again, but in competition you'd get steam rolled for that.

Call it 'inspired face-palming' if you wish, but I'd argue that this is only because you seem completely ignorant of how the game actually plays. In that regard you are like Roger Ebert - basing your opinion on a something that hasn't been relevent for over a decade.

As for the whole sports thing - some people enjoy competition. I don't all that much personally, and as such I don't dabble in Pokemon competetively at all, but at least I know what I'm talking about when I enter a topic of discussion.

 

[bloempje]

I just started playing pokemon platinum (one of the newest games) a few weeks ago, it being a few years since I last played a pokémon game, and I must say, after having become more experienced with RPG's over the years and trying to get to know the mechanics of the pokémon games, i was surprised by the depth of the game. it seems like a kidsgame, but as the post of tlozoots points out correctly, there's a lot of 'rpgesque' stuff to be done; training and breeding in the right way, grinding for certain items, getting the moves right, getting certain pokémon, making a strong team, etc...
I used to play the games when I was a kid but ofcourse had no idea how complicated the game was, and I'm amused to find that, next to the nostalgia, I can enjoy the game in a way you can enjoy for instance oblivion or even World of Warcraft (it basically comes down to the same thing, yet without the extensive pve, endgame pokemon is just basically pvp, ingame battles aren't really challenging ever).

 

[Gildedtongue]

They may have stolen hot dog swallowing from the U.S. but we have bested them at cardboard crack!

 

[Kelethor]

The woman talking over it sounds bored out of her skull, she sounds like shes about to fall asleep.

There are so many chances to make Yugioh abridged references so ill make one.

"I challenge you to a childrens card game!"

Wait, why can they just beat the shit out of other people? I mean, they have invisible guns, right? Should be a lot simpler.

Its amazing what some people can make a sport out of, but, if they can do well at it, and, come out on top...dosnt matter what it is, deserves applause!

Except I would probably rather die than have thousands of strangers look at me wearing a Pokemon hat, with a dancing over-sized Pikachu next to me and a bunch of kids.

Your mother plays pokemon in hell!

That being said, It takes a great deal of self control to keep me from shouting out "NEEEEEERDS!", mostly because I know if I had any skill in pokemon I would join this type of thing.

 

[Florion]

CANADA YEAHHH!!! <3 I didn't know this existed, but now that I do, I am SO PROUD that a Canadian won something. :3

 

[Danpascooch]

The difference is that in Japan, when you're geeky, its socially acceptable as long as you persue your interests with a noble passion. In America, you have to fight tooth-and-nail, because the more you get into something, the more it makes you a social minority. And America doesn't like minorities.

QFT

too many people are embarrassed about things they like here.

 

[Atmos Duality]

There is definitely more to Pokemon's gameplay and vs metagame than the most would believe.
The game requires a high degree of skill for a turn-based game, an increasing rarity in today's impatient gaming market.

Whether you love or hate Pokemon, to call the versus battles "childish at best" would be like comparing Chess to a game of chance, and only proves just how ignorant you really are.

I'm curious what the new world champ used; not to copy it, but to see how well he predicted the metagame.

 

[RelexCryo]

Yay Ray! Way to represent America!