Competitive Pokemon's Greatest Debate.

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Pokemon is a rare game where the Competitive scene has 2 different popular rulesets

The official Competitive Doubles ruleset, and the Grassroots, community run Competitive Singles ruleset created by the Smogon fan community.

Why does Pokemon have these 2 different communities that co-exist? And what are the pros and cons of each?

Let's explore this concept.

Footage used:

[jimothycool]

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[DkKobaADV]

The best compromise is clearly to add 1v1 to 2v2 to make 3v3.

[Sketch_XR]

It can not be understated how valuable still being able to play old generations in a competitive environment is. Smogon is doing the Lords work by preserving those formats.

[chickenpig]

Rotation battles are clearly superior to both of these formats only played by ruffians and hooligans. The ability to rotate your Pokémon provides a deeper level to this complex game that simple minded cavemen cannot understand.

[dastardlydwarf]

They both have the most important part of Pokemon, absolute bullshit that makes you never wanna play again.

[chess_fella]

Competitive Jimothy Cool is a unique case in the world of YouTube.

[snare]

I’ve never seen a 2v2 furret tour so I know my answer

[shoogles_]

Of course the real ones know Rotation Battles are where it's at.

[maxbeancounter]

Competitive pokemon is a unique case in the world of esports

[mayac]

My main thing is that VGC is way better as an actual spectator sport. I know it's rare and uncommon but games in Smogon singles can, at a moment's notice turn into an endless switchfest. That's absolute poison for viewership. I know some people love the intricate chess match at play during switchfests but I just can't stomach it personally.

[TourFaint]

Nintendo's decision to make the competitive format completely different that the one of the actual single player game everyone played and knows is bizzare. If they want doubles to be the format for competetive, why is the *ENTIRE REST OF THE GAME* 6v6 singles

[felipesilva]

Why do Pokémon games ask if I want to teach my pokemon helping hand if 99.99% of In game battles are singles?

[wormsblink]

From a competition logistics standpoint, you just can’t have 100+ turn Pokémon battles that take hours.

That’s why VGC is doubles format and only bring 4 Pokémon instead of 6v6 doubles. The game lengths are short enough for the tournament operations to be manageable, but the options are complex enough that there is skill.

You can shorten the singles game length down to 15-30 minutes by playing 3v3, but at that point team building is too limited. It becomes even more rock-paper-scissors and luck based.

[Corescos]

Open team sheets are an odd case. It was only as of Gen 9 I think that open team sheet rules became a thing, but I think there’s a lot of good that comes from it. The access of information leads to a higher skill cap and a lower skill floor, letting anyone enter and not get screwed over. It also makes high-level play more interesting, in my opinion, since it’s not necessarily about what item or move or ability an opponent brought, it’s about how they use them. I think that open team sheets, especially with terastallization, is far more fair to the majority of players than not. I think hidden moves are a great part of singles, but cheese in doubles feels very bad to play and play against.

[arson]

1v1 has always felt like the more natural format because the vast majority of the battles in the actual games are 1v1.

[sebasu]

I would say I am primarily a VGC player but I also love singles content creators like Jimothy, Pokeaim, Blunder, etc. I feel like the community is at its best when both sides can appreciate each other. Hopefully people can stop going at each others throats and just enjoy pokemon. Thankfully we are safe from Iron Muggulis in both game modes 🙏

[easyleg]

A video about triples would be pretty heat tbh

[francescganau]

Smogon 6v6 will always be my bread and butter ❤️ I started with Pokemon Online gen 4 back in 2010 and haven’tstopped. I especially love how old gen metagames keep being played and evolve still now. The magic of discovering how good Aerodactyl can be in Gen 3 or reviving Megas in gen 7 is always a blast. Thank you, Smogon and Showdown!

[T____W____]

One thing that’s got to be disputed is that Gen 3 was the genesis of actual strategy in Pokemon. Sets, strats, and metas all existed even back in Red/Blue. Competitive Pokemon was played by adults in the 90s and they strategized oversets and teams. In RBY you had TonyBro + Mewtwo, and in GSC you had Baton Pass teams and stall teams. There were also sims way back too. And fan made banlist. (Meetwo, Mes, Lucia used to be the only banned Pokemon. Then they banned evasion, and went from thee. I know it’s not the point of the video, but there’s been strategy for over 25 yearsz

[MegaStunfiskandHat]

the real competitive format is for 2 people to play through an entire game as a nuzlocke then battle with the teams they have at the end