Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

League Leader Needs help for VGC

WinkWinkNudgeNudge

WinkWinkNudgeNudge

New Member
Help! I need a crash course in VGC. Now that our league will be earning rewards for VGC play I think that I will have to learn enough about it to guide new players, resolve disputes, establish guidelines, etc. I think I have an idea about where to start:

1. Buy a DS o DSi
2. Buy a Pokemon Platinum Game
3. Decide if I should use walk throughs or strategy guides
4. Have my son show me how to do a wireless battle with another DS

Then in no particular order:
Build a team
Figure out how to identify a "hacked" pokemon
Find out about "banned" pokemon
Find out if I care about banned pokemon
Track WiFi promos
What are cheat codes and are they cheating as far as league battles are concerned?
What about ActionReplay which as I understand a cheat code library as well as a cheat code entry device?

My total experience with the game is about 5 hours spent on emerald playing while my son (who couldn't read at the time watched). Once he learned how to read the attack names that was the last I saw of it.

What's your advice for DS challanged league leaders. I may be a minority but I have to get up to speed quickly. Thanks in advance for your advice and links to useful resources.
 
Don't get a DSi. The lower slot for GBA games is missing, so you couldn't get full use out of the Pokemon games.

Wireless battles are easy, just go talk to the person on the far right of the second floor of any Pokemon Center, and make sure that the rules you're using are the same.

Sorry, can't help you much with the rest.
 
IDK about other areas, but at our league the thing I worry about most is hacked games and pokemon. The kids have all been playing with Action Replay forever. I remember most of them playing games at TCG states and regionals in years past with the AR actually inserted right then and there. A lot of the kids seem to find that a "natural" way to play casually. I don't think that many, if any, kids at our league actually have "clean" games at this point. In my mind this is going to be the #1 problem at leagues & I have no idea how it's going to be handled.
 
I'm sure POP will have some guidelines for you and your players. Becoming an absolute master at the video game would take a lot of time and effort - you might consider taking the "if you think someone is cheating, let me know" approach. You can write down a Pokemon's stats and moves, do some research on it after league, and come back. Research could be as easy as just asking some Pokemon experts on here, or figuring out how to use the stat calculators. It wouldn't be immediate gratification, but there would still be a resolution, even if delayed.

As far as your other concerns:
Banned Pokemon would probably be on a list. (And if Groudon is banned, all Groudon would be banned. Not tricky.)
WiFi promos: Usually something attainable using Move Tutors (characters in the game who teach moves).
Cheat codes don't exist in the game - just if they use a device to tamper with their game (like the aforementioned Action Replay).

You could sit down with a couple regular players and watch them play, or have them walk you through a match. There's nothing wrong with knowing how the game plays though, and who knows...something in the game might appeal to longer play.
 
vanderbilt_grad said:
IDK about other areas, but at our league the thing I worry about most is hacked games and pokemon. The kids have all been playing with Action Replay forever. I remember most of them playing games at TCG states and regionals in years past with the AR actually inserted right then and there. A lot of the kids seem to find that a "natural" way to play casually. I don't think that many, if any, kids at our league actually have "clean" games at this point. In my mind this is going to be the #1 problem at leagues & I have no idea how it's going to be handled.
Click to expand...

Just flat out do not let them in the door wiht the device.
It will reduce the problem and anyone found cheating will not be allow to claim the battles for points for said point of time. I do not take cheating lightly and it really can mess up peoples games. There was one guy who had everything cheated and when the Darkrai Member Pass came out he could not use it cause his games save was messed up and the event thought it had already had happened.

Games can be marked cheated by Pokemon with Moves they should not know, Over Powered to a point they should not be, Over ammount of rare items (AKA 99x Master Balls or Rare Candies)
Hacked AR Pokemon are always weaker then fully hand trained Pokemon.
I remember the hardest thing doing was explaining to the kids mom about why he could not enter, because his team was cheated.
 
It puts butts in chairs. If ppl are there, they'll (generally) buy stuff.
 
bullados said:
It puts butts in chairs. If ppl are there, they'll (generally) buy stuff.
Click to expand...

^QFT^
More business means better sales. If they are there to play the video game, they are sure to get hungry and buy some food. And also, sense TCG is also going on at the same time, your new crowd of video game players may be interested in trying it out, and that is when the store owner can get an easy TCG sale.
(You here for the Video game? If you are interested, we have starter TCG decks for $X.XX if you want to try that out)
 
Hacked pokemon are usually easy to spot by the stats and natures. I have been playing the games since red and blue, and have used the AR AND GS game modifiers to see what exactly can be modified or "hacked". a pokemons stats have a base value, and the nature and personality will show which two stats on a pokemon will have the most improvement while being raised. hacked level 100's have weak stats compared to one that has been EFFORT VALUED raised. Also, pokemon that are the most common "hacked" will be in a masterball, and in the persons game "bag" they have "99" or higher of tm's and 999 berries. Legandary pokemon are the most common hacked pokemon, so seeing where the pokemon was caught will tell you right away if it is hacked. traded hacked pokemon cat level 100 can still be EFFORT VALUE trained, thus showing that it was not raised from original game mechanics. hope this helps- and i look forward to maybe battling you some day
 
Benzo said:
Hacked pokemon are usually easy to spot by the stats and natures. I have been playing the games since red and blue, and have used the AR AND GS game modifiers to see what exactly can be modified or "hacked". a pokemons stats have a base value, and the nature and personality will show which two stats on a pokemon will have the most improvement while being raised. hacked level 100's have weak stats compared to one that has been EFFORT VALUED raised. Also, pokemon that are the most common "hacked" will be in a masterball, and in the persons game "bag" they have "99" or higher of tm's and 999 berries. Legandary pokemon are the most common hacked pokemon, so seeing where the pokemon was caught will tell you right away if it is hacked. traded hacked pokemon cat level 100 can still be EFFORT VALUE trained, thus showing that it was not raised from original game mechanics. hope this helps- and i look forward to maybe battling you some day
Click to expand...

A lot of this is not true. If you are worried about hacks, there are a few ways to tell.

1 stater Pokemon only come in Pokeballs,
2 a Pokemon's caught location. Zapdos can't be found on route 212, unless its roaming I think.
3 Check the Pokemon ability and see if it matches,
4 any stat about normal. No Pokemon can get 999 in ANY stat. The 510 EV gap is hard to tell without using PBR. No Pokemon can have 255 EVs in all stats.
5 Check attack. Vaporeon can't get Flamethrower, unless you're me anyway.
6 Checking Pokemon IDs. Zapdos can't have the same ID as your Pearl Trainer.
7 Check the Pokedex.

Those are just some ways to check a game for hacks. And Hacked level 100 are no weaker then normal 100. They can be given EVs as well.

But hacking should not be a problem. I mean, if there are kids, it just to show who has the most Masterballs and the most legendarys. We all hacked our games at one point in time just to show a friend up. You should not have to worry about hard hacks. I don't think AR can do anything like ROM hacking. You'll be fine.
 
You can use the action replay to get any pokemon you want, with any stats you want, at any location you want. You can change the base rules of battles like making your attacks always automatically KO your opponents (though I have no idea how this would work in match battle). Really what you can do with the AR is silly.

But the point I was trying to make in my post is that every single kid in our league has had hacked games. Every single one. Even my own kids hacked their games, mostly with relitively innocent stuff like extra Candy and Masterballs, but still.

To deal with such an enviornment you would need to #1 be and expert on spotting hacking & #2 have an education program on why hacked games aren't allowed & #3 deal with all the emotions that this would generate since most of them would have to start their games over to get an unhacked team put together. The classic "What do you mean I have to start over! I would loose my level 100 Charizard and he's my favorite!"

More power to the folks who can do all that and deal with the fallout. I know more than I like about hacking but I'm also 100% positive that I wouldn't be able to catch some well done hacks. I'm also sure that there are folks who would be better at #2 & 3 than I would be.

I think that VG leagues are a great idea. I just worry that they aren't as compatable with the TCG leagues as the higher ups seem to assume. You need very different technical skillsets to deal with a TCG league and a VG league, though people managemet should be roughly the same in both. Some leagues are going to have people for both, but a lot will not ... and I fear it leading to many an unhappy situation.
 
vanderbilt_grad said:
To deal with such an enviornment you would need to #1 be and expert on spotting hacking & #2 have an education program on why hacked games aren't allowed & #3 deal with all the emotions that this would generate since most of them would have to start their games over to get an unhacked team put together. The classic "What do you mean I have to start over! I would loose my level 100 Charizard and he's my favorite!"

More power to the folks who can do all that and deal with the fallout. I know more than I like about hacking but I'm also 100% positive that I wouldn't be able to catch some well done hacks. I'm also sure that there are folks who would be better at #2 & 3 than I would be.

I think that VG leagues are a great idea. I just worry that they aren't as compatable with the TCG leagues as the higher ups seem to assume. You need very different technical skillsets to deal with a TCG league and a VG league, though people managemet should be roughly the same in both. Some leagues are going to have people for both, but a lot will not ... and I fear it leading to many an unhappy situation.
Click to expand...
There has always been a group of VGC only player at our league and it has been blessed with two hack spotters. I doubt that we could catch a well made hack, but we have the knowledge and tools to do it.
Most of the kids who had to restart understood what we where talking about sicne we always told them that if they cheated then they could not enter any future tourneys unless they reset.

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:

vaporeon said:
A lot of this is not true. If you are worried about hacks, there are a few ways to tell.

1 stater Pokemon only come in Pokeballs,
2 a Pokemon's caught location. Zapdos can't be found on route 212, unless its roaming I think.
3 Check the Pokemon ability and see if it matches,
4 any stat about normal. No Pokemon can get 999 in ANY stat. The 510 EV gap is hard to tell without using PBR. No Pokemon can have 255 EVs in all stats.
5 Check attack. Vaporeon can't get Flamethrower, unless you're me anyway.
6 Checking Pokemon IDs. Zapdos can't have the same ID as your Pearl Trainer.
7 Check the Pokedex.

Those are just some ways to check a game for hacks. And Hacked level 100 are no weaker then normal 100. They can be given EVs as well.

But hacking should not be a problem. I mean, if there are kids, it just to show who has the most Masterballs and the most legendarys. We all hacked our games at one point in time just to show a friend up. You should not have to worry about hard hacks. I don't think AR can do anything like ROM hacking. You'll be fine.
Click to expand...
Most kids do not know how to do that, I thank God for that.
That requires more then the AR to cheat those and requires the same thing to check it.
 
Last edited:
Jran Sakarra said:
There has always been a group of VGC only player at our league and it has been blessed with two hack spotters. I doubt that we could catch a well made hack, but we have the knowledge and tools to do it.
Most of the kids who had to restart understood what we where talking about sicne we always told them that if they cheated then they could not enter any future tourneys unless they reset.

Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:


Most kids do not know how to do that, I thank God for that.
That requires more then the AR to cheat those and requires the same thing to check it.
Click to expand...

Yeahm thats what I'm talking about. If they have a AR in there game and try to battle with itm they can't play. AR, as far as I know can't make a pokemon with any stats you want. Its just kids that want Pikachu, Charizard and a buttload of Rare Candies and Masterballs. He shoulod have no problems with hard hacks. Even if a Pokemon have 999 in each stat, just put the Pokemon in a box and it goes away.
 
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