Pokemon VGC 2013 News

[Regis_Neo]

http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/op_2013_playpokemon_season_vg-2012-08-30/

Probably got lost in the TCG news, but PUI also came out with a bit of TCG news as well. Pretty much everything that's been rumored about is true, 3 Regional dates, more use of Championships (how considering there's Regionals, Nats, Worlds, and nothing I dunno), etc etc. I think the most interest takeaway is this tidbit personally:

Video Game players can earn byes at Regional Championships by participating in GBU Wi-Fi tournaments. Top-ranked players from regularly scheduled GBU International Wi-Fi tournaments will earn a huge advantage against the other competition at Regional Championships, beginning with the Winter Regional in January. In order to be eligible to earn byes, players must have a fully activated Pokémon Trainer Club account with a Player ID, and have accepted all applicable terms of use. Click here for information on how to upgrade your account.

Definitely an incentive to hit up the GBU, as a free bye can be pretty useful. I believe somewhere I read Fall Regionals will use BW carts, but Winter and Spring will progress to BW2, so definitely something else to keep in mind depending on what Regional you're going to. So sharpen up those teams, VGC is just around the corner!

 

[Team Rocket Elite]

Potentially they can give out CP for GBU tournament wins as well. Handing out Byes for GBU wins sounds nice until you realize people will disconnect even more when there's an actual prize on the line. Hopefully, they'll do something to address that. Fall Regionals use BW games and disallow BW2 moves and abilities. Winter and Spring will use BW2 and naturally allow BW2 stuff.

CP based Worlds Invites is a nice gesture but its usefulness will depend on its implementation. As I understand it, in the TCG last year, ratings invites don't pass down if someone already qualified via another means like high finish at a Nationals. Last year, the people with the largest amount of CP were the people who already won an invite through their Nationals performance because they got a large amount of CP from the Nationals. A similar thing may occur this year.

 

[Regis_Neo]

Potentially they can give out CP for GBU tournament wins as well. Handing out Byes for GBU wins sounds nice until you realize people will disconnect even more when there's an actual prize on the line. Hopefully, they'll do something to address that. Fall Regionals use BW games and disallow BW2 moves and abilities. Winter and Spring will use BW2 and naturally allow BW2 stuff.

CP based Worlds Invites is a nice gesture but its usefulness will depend on its implementation. As I understand it, in the TCG last year, ratings invites don't pass down if someone already qualified via another means like high finish at a Nationals. Last year, the people with the largest amount of CP were the people who already won an invite through their Nationals performance because they got a large amount of CP from the Nationals. A similar thing may occur this year.

Actually, reading the rules from some of the other GBU tournaments like the upcoming Autumn Friendly (specifically the rules section), they will punish people who d/c:

Once you are matched with an opponent, do not turn off the power or disconnect until the match is completed and the results have uploaded. Turning off the power or disconnecting before a match is completed may result in penalties.

If you absolutely must forfeit a match, choose the Run command on your turn and then select the option to forfeit. Forfeiting a match counts as a loss. Please avoid forfeiting as much as possible by only playing matches when you have enough time to finish the match.

Players who behave inappropriately or attempt to obstruct the competition may be penalized.

Players with a significant number of disconnects may be removed from the final Rankings. Read the "Once you have an opponent, finish the match!" section carefully, follow the rules, and avoid disconnecting during a match. Play matches using a stable Wi-Fi Internet connection, and fully charge your system before beginning a match.

If a player is found to be behaving in a way not befitting a Pokémon Trainer at any time, he or she may be disqualified from participating in all current and future competitions.

Now granted it's not a perfect system (as some people probably try to play on bad wifi connections), but it's a start and it shows that they know how d/cs can influence results by not recording losses. So obviously, if you have someone undefeated with many d/cs as well, kinda obvious as to what the intent was and can be punishable by baring players from future tournaments.

 

[vaporeon]

I may start playing in those. Here's to hoping I can do well enough in them to earn a bye.

 

[Team Rocket Elite]

That rule has been in place since the start of the Wi-Fi tournaments. A lot of people disconnect anyways. You do get removed from the final ranking if you have a high disconnect ratio. This isn't perfect since some well known disconnectors make the final ranking anyways. Also, you can get removed from the ranking if you constantly get disconnected on since the system doesn't seem to know which side disconnected. While I'm sure they know disconnections is a problem, they may not be able to do anything about it. With that said, BW2 is supposed to support temp banning a player after a disconnect. This might fix the problem but we'll have to wait for the first BW2 Wi-fi tournament to find out for certain.