Pokémon VGC / Competitive Pokémon

About

Pokémon Video Game Championship (shortened to VGC by the Pokémon fanbase) refers to the official competition series and battle format for Pokémon. Competitive Pokémon in the VGC is generally defined by the use of the Doubles battle format, six-Pokémon teams, four Pokémon per battle, use of the Item Clause (meaning that two or more Pokémon in the team cannot hold the same item) and restrictions on mythical and Legendary Pokémon. Competitive Pokémon has attracted a significant online following, with sizable communities on Reddit and YouTube, as well as unofficial hubs on Smogon and the battle simulator Pokémon Showdown.

History

World Championships History

The first-ever Pokémon World Championship event was run by Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro, on August 2002 in Seattle, WA, and focused solely on the trading card game. Eventually, Wizards transferred the right of the trading card game to Nintendo. Nintendo resumed the World Championship in 2004.^[1]

The first four World Championships held by Nintendo focused on the trading card game. In 2009, Play! Pokémon introduced the Video Game Championship format.^[2] The VGC operates multiple regional tournaments a year. Placings at these events proffer a certain amount of "points" to a player, and the accumulation of these points determines whether a player qualifies for the annual World Championships, which usually take place in the summer.

Tournaments are usually played on the most recent Pokémon release, and each mainline title from Pokémon Platinum onwards has been used as a season's competitive Pokémon game.^[3] On May 5th, 2020, YouTuber and competitive player Wolfe Glick posted a video detailing every Pokémon that won at the Pokémon World Championships (shown below).

Online Presence

Pokemon VGC is very popular among the competitive Pokémon player base, and numerous online communities dedicated to discussing competitive Pokémon have appeared. On Reddit, popular competitive Pokémon hubs include /r/competitivepokemon^[4] and /r/stunfisk.^[5]

On YouTube, several very popular accounts are dedicated to the play, discussion, and history of competitive Pokémon. These include WolfeyVGC^[9] (1.06 million subscribers as of August 10th, 2023), temp6t (833,000 subscribers)^[10] and False Swipe Gaming, which goes over the histories of Pokémon in competitive play and has 444,000 subscribers as of August 10th, 2023 (example video shown below).^[11]

Smogon University

Smogon ^[6] is another popular hub to discuss and play competitive Pokémon, though it's separate from VGC. Smogon considers simulated battles on Pokémon Showdown,^[7] a battle simulator website, and the popular format there finds teams of 6 playing in singles competition. However, Smogon and Pokémon Showdown have been used by VGC players to experiment with teams.^[8]

Related Memes

Se-jun Park's Pachirisu

Se Jun Park's Pachirisu refers to the Pokémon Pachirisu used by competitive Pokémon player Se-jun Park to help him win the 2014 Pokémon World Championships. Because Pachirisu is generally considered an unremarkable competitive Pokémon and is aesthetically less threatening than other popular Pokémon in the VGC, its aid in Se-jun Park's victory led to fan art, memes and widespread celebration in the competitive Pokémon community and in Park's home country of Korea. In particular, a moment from the finals match when Pachirisu survives two devastating attacks from its opponents, Tyranitar and Salamence, has inspired fan art and memes.

Notable Competitive Pokémon

Notable and infamous staple Pokémon of competitive play in recent years include Dondozo, Dracovish, Maushold, Gholdengo, Annihilape, Palafin, Garchomp, Tyranitar and Salamence, to name a few. The meta of competitive Pokémon will often shift to elevate some Pokémon over others.

Search Interest

External References