Pokémon Worlds 2024 Recap: Pachirisu, Wolfey, Passports and Luca Ceribelli

[@cecilily]

Incineroar appears at 2:02 Incineroar mentioned at 12:17

[@LuckyBones77]

was gonna say ‘pin this comment’ before realizing it was you 😂

[@beardlessdragon]

Thank you for the trigger warnings

[@Olivotec]

Thank you so much for telling my story, I’ll remember this worlds for my whole life. I know for sure I somehow made my mom proud ❤

[@cecilily]

@Olivotec You definitely did, alongside all the Brazilian Pokémon fans out there! Keep up with the amazing work 💛

[@SunniestAutumn]

That very low res picture of Wolfey in the thumbnail is wild.

[@cecilily]

Another version of this thumbnail had an even LOWER resolution but I decided to not go too far 😅

[@Rebateman]

​@@cecililyYou could do a three thumbnail test with a high res wolfey, current thumbnail, and lower res.

[@dougdoug2469]

​@@cecililyI kinda live for low res Wolfey tho lol

[@teddypixels441]

I'm a former VGC competitor, and the barrier that tripped me up the most was the lack of local game stores that hosted tournaments. To qualify for the big games you need to get CP but you couldn't get CP without going to an in-person event when I was still playing. I live in a big city, and there are tons of game stores, but all of them STILL prioritize TCG games (not just Pokémon) which is wild to me. Luckily we can play in online tournaments that give out rewards now, but it doesn't feel quite the same. I miss the community aspect of meeting up to play with a group of people you want to get better with together. I miss my VGC friends 😢

[@atropa.belladonna]

Yeah this is definitely the biggest barrier for me too, just nowhere close that I can attend tournaments...

[@sanfran216]

sometimes you have to be the change you want to see in the game. Playing where we are was okay, but we've had vgc competitors step up, become judges, find and reach out to venues. and get more CP for the serious players in the past year. Unsure how things will pan out this year with the qualification changes though.

[@damascar3639]

As an italian interested in VCG since 2016, Luca's story is ... magical. And it's not only HIS story. It's the story of a community, that cheered every year for an italian to finally come back to the peak of the pokemon world to show Arash's victory in 2013 wasn't just a fluke, and it's not just the US and Japan who are relevant when it comes to pokemon. It's a story of getting closer and closer every year but failing to pass top 16, top 8 , even top 4 last year , losing in a quarter final match that wasnt even officially streamed , that the italian community managed to watch thanks to someone filming the whole match with their phone from one of the screen displaying it in the venue. It's the story of being up at 5am because yeah the final broadcasted at that hour here ( and preparing ourselves spiritually for more years already announced of the WC being held on the west coast so more crazy timezone shenanigans yaaaay) It might sound silly, but seeing it happen on stream , it's probably a memory i'll hold dear for a long time

[@ms1-Alex]

Cydonia’s interview of Luca and Arash is very interesting

[@loromono]

Omg thank you very much Cecilily for dedicating some minutes of your video to me. I honestly feel honoured ❤️

[@cecilily]

Of course!! I would've loved to have dedicated more time to it, but it was such a defining moment of the tournament for me that I couldn't let it go unregistered. Super happy that you watched it 💛

[@imbowen9498]

Viva Chile! 🏳️‍🌈❤

[@liamspencer6057]

I completely agree that a huge barrier is the meta. It does make interesting games and approaches. But it is completely at odds with what people like about Pokemon. I started online a few months ago with the goal of attaining Master Rank with my favourites (eeveelutions) and it was SO hard 😭 I can’t see myself enjoying making teams out of chess pieces and not factoring in which Pokemon I like

[@InuyashaTT]

well i mean tbf i believe people were doing like, an eeveelution month in vgc, and i know someone who either reached master rank or got #1 with them. i always say. the weirder your picks, the better you have to be at competitive. granted, even with perfectly meta picks, youll lose if youre not that good (me lmao. im trying to be train), so non-meta requires extra strategy because you cant just walk in and do it. you have to properly calc your evs, see what you need, and cover what youre weakest to. you can even avoid certain things bc people arent using certain pokemon, too... so it gets more complicated than just the "meta" being strong pokemon. i have a bunch of notes (and i need to continue doing that) so that i can remember different strategies. even if the pokemon were weak, there will always be a "meta" because that just means people start to play around what other people are doing (see: wolfeys clefairy metronome tournament iirc. or the one with all the youtubers) its just something that happens naturally... which leads me to how excited i am for regulation H because no legends, no restricted, no paradox, just vibes ! rillaboom is still here though ☹️

[@zorubark]

Something that helps me is that trying out a pokémon for their utility makes me feel like I got to know them more, many pokémon I didnt like became a cool little guy! I never liked Diggersby, but using Swords Dance Huge Power made me go "you go big guy! You can do it! Youre strong, youre powerful, you show them! So proud of them"

[@TwiliPaladin]

Oddly enough, I've been working on a team to solve this very problem. My hope is to at least get top 5 at Worlds with it next year or the year after.

[@jeanmarcvgc]

One of the accessibility stories around worlds that went under the radar is one that says a lot about the true nature of the community: the story of the Hawaiian locals. Qualifying for them is borderline impossible. While they do have a local scene, anyone who went to worlds would know how painful it is for them to attend any majors out there. And they have to do it for every major that they're hoping to get to, not once in a season. They weren't even given a fair shot at competing at their home worlds. It's not like they don't have players good enough to compete, they just aren't given the chance. If that already didn't feel bad enough, most of them wouldn't be able to attend as spectators either because of the fact that spectator passes were given out as a lottery, and most of them lost. It would've been the case until members of the community gave away their spare spectator passes to local members of the Hawaiian community so that they could at least have the chance to experience their home worlds as spectators. I will admit that I'm biased because I was one of the people behind coordinating it along with one of the locals, but it still impressed me how over 30 people were able to attend because of the community's generosity.

[@cariandi]

I'm just a very casual pokemon player, but I started watching Wolfey's videos earlier this year for some edutainment while I hatched shinies. This must be why youtube recommended one of your videos to me. I am so glad that it did. This is only the second that I have watched, but your highlighting of history and human experiences has been so wonderful to hear. You truly have something special here, and I look forward to what the future may bring :) Thank you for sharing these folks' stories with us.

[@osiahene]

If The Pokémon Company promoted VGC in game trailers, it would do wonders for competitive Pokémon awareness. Smogon grew through grassroots efforts like online tournaments and KZbin content, primarily because Pokémon Showdown is more accessible. Rental codes are a good start for newer players but the fact that players were using generated Pokémon at Worlds speaks to a more fundamental issue.

[@SventFulgur]

Or make the game have more double battles since it's THE competitive format, and it makes more of the moves in the game useful overall. They've done it before with Coliseum and Gale of Darkness and those games are cult classics

[@Emilyyyyisconfused]

I only knew bit and pieces of Olivo's story before watching this, it got me crying for the first time in awhile 😭

[@Olivotec]

❤

[@LassyReal]

If anybody is wondering, Wolfe Glick the VGC 2016 Pokémon Champion will appear at this time mark, 0:54 Wolfe Glick mentioned at 1:58 . Sejun Park and his legendary Pachirisu mentioned AND appeared at THIS exact time mark, 4:56

[@Cruschrirus]

I know someone already commented on it but, the low res wolfy looks like a ghost overlooking the thumbnail

[@filidro]

I would have never thought of seeing cecily talking about Luca Ceribelli and saying that italian's channel will interview him (probably talking about Cydonia)(who litteraly uploud an interview on youtube 8 hours ago). Those are the connections pokemon can make.

[@Luizgxa21]

Cecilily, como podem todos os seus vídeos serem tão perfeitos? Eu amo muito a sua abordagem dos tópicos e adoro assistir vc crescendo! Até assisti a live da final por sua causa(e eu odeio lives). Tu é uma potência e um orgulho S2 De um fã BR que deseja o mundo pra ti :3

[@cecilily]

Obrigada de coração!

[@nateahara]

21:40 IRON GENDER THE NON-BINARY POKEMON I had to replay that a few times over xDD Normally I don’t really care for competitive video games in general, but this video was really interesting! Hearing about the human stories behind the game makes it much easier to connect with rather than just a game of numbers and polygons on the screen. I’m glad I found this channel, keep up the great work! Much love from a trans man in Ireland

[@iguessthisismyworkaccountl8437]

i shoulod have named my iron valient that, i just named it agender

[@HoodlumCallum]

Thank you for the recap 🙏🙏

[@1Henrink]

I don't know if there is a worst competitive game to get into officially. Form the price of all games/dlcs, consoles, etc, to the time constraint to build a team. You told even more barriers

[@TheMoonestOne]

Personally, I find tcg way more overwhelming in that regard. Sure, someone could say that the "winning deck is very cheap", but no one plays TCG competitively owning only 60 cards. They have a ton. Also, you've put console in the mix, but it's not like pokemon doesn't sell (scarlet and violet is the third best selling game of the franchise). So the "average pokemon fan" already have the game + console. The main problem money wise is the dlc, sure.

[@1Henrink]

@@TheMoonestOne I am mainly talking about video games, otherwise I think Warhammer 40k would win. With a 60 card deck, that you can build a meta deck, and start playing. If it's not Yu-Gi-Oh, it usually has a rotation, so not all cards are possibilities. I didn't say that Pokemon don't sell, even if you had the newest Pokemon game, the barrier to get the other meta Pokemon (if they are legal) not only in price, but in knowledge on how to obtain them is HUGE.

[@soopakoopa6461]

I honestly really don't get the "time constraints" argument anymore, as it makes even less sense as time goes on. Between mints, exp candies, hyper training with the lower level requirement (now 50, the minimum level your pokemon has to be anyway), ability capsules and patches... The only thing you could ever actually struggle with is hard trick room, but I do just that and can still get a fresh team ready to go in an afternoon. And that's despite having full time job, too.

[@1Henrink]

@@soopakoopa6461, I really think you are comparing only to previous iterations of Pokemon, that yes it's easier, but it's not easier than other competitive games that you can, you know, just play the game. Most every other competitive game does not require ANY prep work.

[@TheMoonestOne]

@@1Henrink Inaccessibility is a pain indeed (for that reason and others that Urshifu is awful for the game), but since you mentioned console/game, I really thought you were talking about money in general, and both SV and SwSh sold a lot, so I don't think this specifically was a problem for the past few years, since the average pokemon player has access to the games/console. But yeah, if we're talking about esports in general, I agree VGC has a lot of steps besides the battles. At the same time, it's not like Pokemon Unite or Pokemon Go is bigger than VGC, and they're f2p. Maybe Pokemon Go could be considered bigger? From the numbers I saw, they're pretty much the same.

[@bathilra5364]

Strong players try to win with their favorites the strongest try to win with their least favorite

[@SrLhama9]

Strongest just use standard-meta-balance-boring teams lol

[@bathilra5364]

@@SrLhama9 ehh I blame that on the format needing you to use strong options without much room for experimentation. Reg h is super good at letting us explore different options for teams to use and ways to make things synergies together where as in reg g not using urshifu or a broken restricted was a crazy handicap leaving many Pokemon that filled the same roles out classed.

[@mysticdigital5936]

I remember trying to get into competitive back in Gen 6. I didnt reslly go far beyond making a viable team, though they lacked much synergy as it was mostly Pokemon I *liked* (blasphemy I know). Still, I'll always enjoy looking back on all that breeding in Pokemon X. The main thing for me in competitive Pokemon and other competitive games in general, is that you *have* to play Meta to win most of the time. And I simply dont find enjoyment in making the same strong team as everyone else. I like what Pokemon I like and enjoy experimenting, not just making whatever is the most meta. That's why I'm just a *flithy* casual I suppose. But that Pachirisu is iconic!

[@LuckyBones77]

The poketuber PM7 has talked about some mechanical/technical limitations to accessibility that I think are worth discussing. Maybe Wolfey has said similar stuff, but I don’t watch him as often 😅 PM7 has shown up in Wolfey’s videos (iirc the video on the randomizer tournament hosted by Jan I think) so I hope you don’t mind the lowkey promo lmao Anywho, firstly, there’s the lack of an official battle simulator. The only part of the breeding/grinding for a play team that involves skill is determining HOW to spread the stats. Fighting with RNG is nothing but a time sink, and if you’re simply unlucky, it can take so long that it limits competitors to people who are already career-level pokemon players. That’s a steep obstacle to entry that is very easily fixed. The other mechanical issue is one you mentioned in the video- there isn’t much space in official tournaments for non-meta team choices. PM7 himself used to play in fan tournaments limited to Smogon’s PU tier, so, very specifically all of the underdogs. I’ve actually watched in-person unofficial tournaments hosted by gaming stores with tiered team selection, and they are SUCH a good time!!! Obviously, World Champ level events are where the money is at, for TPC itself, but it’d be so cool to see that heightened creativity celebrated in an official capacity… and obviously even cooler if there could be a payout. I don’t see it happening anytime soon, but if power creep continues to worsen and team selection becomes any more stale, it might gain some traction to liven up the format. Sorry for that absolute essay, but thanks so much for the wonderful video and your insight as always! Please know that your sociological/cultural grounding in these videos is just as important and impressive as your geeky knowledge and your storytelling. Your content has highkey made me more aware of the politics and issues in latin america- in a gentle and patient way that I really appreciate but might not deserve lol

[@JayEyedWolf]

I was going to leave a comment about this too. The tool used for planning teams and practicing (Smogon) is unofficial. Building a team with in-game mechanics is time-consuming and _expensive_ if you need even one additional game. Some strategies are completely inaccessible to new players (at least in a tourney-legal way) due to the long history of Gift and Event Pokémon with unique features and Abilities. I know my interest in participating in competitive Pokémon died as soon as I realized how much grinding it took-- I have neither the time nor the patience, so working at the pace I could put forth would leave me eternally behind. I'd rather be chronically bad at SSB than try to build a good team for Pokémon competitive. TPC probably wants it to stay that way while boosting the popularity of VGC, though, honestly. They want VGC to make its own money _and_ promote and sell the mainline games. If it made it possible for people to compete without buying several games (or trading with people who own those games), that's money down the drain in the company's eyes, no matter how much it would boost VGC interest. It's hard to have a conversation around this topic without touching on that, and how much (or little) TPC is actually motivated by passion for the games and enthusiasm for the skill of its competitors.

[@LuckyBones77]

@@JayEyedWolf Agreed on all fronts! I lowkey think the whole world of eSports is classist by nature, but Pokemon has some egregious examples. I’m fully aware that, in all things, TPC will go for the most money off of the least investment, like any other company that large and successful. Re: getting an official simulator, we’ve already had a case of someone being disqualified from an official tournament for having a hacked Pokemon (even though its stats, ability, and moves were all within possible parameters). And there’s still prevalent speculation about how many other hacked Pokemon might be in competitors’ teams. Push comes to shove, TPC might be monetarily incentivized to create a battle simulator, or possibly just do it to save face. Don’t get me wrong, it would probably be its own game (like the Pokemon Stadium/Colloseum games), or expensive DLC for whatever relevant gen. If they did, make one, at least the time investment would be limited to actually practicing battling, finally. As for the other types of tournaments/tiered tournaments- yeah, they’re a long shot, I won’t deny that. My thoughts on that are basically daydreams. But I can see a day, given the forever-narrowing of viable Pokemon, where TPC might have reason to diversify to keep the format fresh. Sorry if any of that sounds defensive, I just hope it’s clear that I have no illusions in regards to how TPC operates. I think the majority of VGC’s current accessibility and inclusion can be attributed to the legwork done by its fans, and not TPC.

[@tobigrantlbart]

To be fair, I really think that people mix up Pokémon the competitive game and fun single player Pokémon the creature collector RPG. And it happens on both sides. I mean people from Smogon often say people should just play another tier where their favourite is viable, forgetting that they don't play for winning, they play for fun. Meanwhile the casual players forget that people playing don't play their favourite Pokémon. I play one of the nichest metas (NFE Smogon Singles) and I genuienly love Piloswine. I always loved the Swinub line. I remember getting a Mammoswine themed TGC deck as a kid and ever since then I wanted to a Mammoswine whenever possibly. Piloswine is also one of the consistently good NFE mons in most generations. (The meta leaders are discussing ban action against right now ans I am like: Nooo don't take my boy away TT) Also playing VGC, Smogon Singles or whatever can create favourites

[@fedrikrose2277]

I am Italian and I am happy about Luca being crowned the world champion. Regarding accessibility I want to bring light to something else which is bullying and stigmatisation. This is something that I don't think is known outside of Italy, but after becoming world Champion Luca and being celebrated by his fellow Italians, he has also received insults and negative comments from other country folks who basically bullied him for being a competitive gamer. If that's how people react around someone for enjoying their hobby then that someone will feel discouraged in continuing it.

[@cecilily]

Do you think you can forward somewhere where I can read more about this?

[@LuisQuartz]

I remember feeling discouraged when I found out about Natures and IVs as a kid and realized my Swampert and other favorite Pokémon were never going to have the "best" stats. The biggest hurdle is definitely having to travel to the US to participate. I did use to have a Visa but it expired ages ago. I doubt I'll ever attend a Pokémon Worlds.

[@Zenbateau]

I was like you when I found that out years ago, and ofc the Meta is still a huge issue to deal with, but that's one thing I love aout recent versions of the game: never has it been easier to give your adventure companions perfect IVs, nature, and even reset their EVs. Obviously it is still not as perfect as some ROMhacks where you can basically find characters, in the same spot, being like "hey so I can make your Pokemons anything you want", there's still the issue of access to certain moves for example. But I love the fact that I can now get a Gengar (that's also a cool thing, exchange has never been easier and you can find exchange only evolutions in the wild more than ever), spend some time with them in the game, and when the time comes make it a somewhat viable Pokemon to have some fun online battles. That's the one thing imo that the Pokemon Company made better and better over the years, it made me feel more motivated to have "real" viable Pokemons, and not have to rely on Showdown. It is far from perfect again, but I do find it more accessible and fun now. I still get my ass kicked most of the time, but sometimes I win with my favs, and it feels great

[@LuisQuartz]

@@Zenbateau It's definitely gotten a lot better with the newer generations. I think if they added like a Rusty Bottle Cap or something to set IVs to 0 it'd be as accessible as it could get. Well, that and maybe some way to change a Pokémon's Hidden Power type too, like how you can change their Tera type.

[@NickDe3]

I think the Terra Type gimmick did a lot to make the game easier to play with your favorites. It did a lot to balance out the meta and make every pokemon have an option to make it stronger especially those held back by their typing or even stats thanks to the power boost of double STAB.

[@hamiltonics]

Because it's hard. So fucking hard. And it's even harder when you don't know how and where to study the game and the pros just talk about teambuilding and ev's which is the LEAST part that a beginner should be tackling. We don't even know what the fundamentals of the game are yet.

[@Altra_duck]

Teambuilding is one of the fundamentals though, it's literally half of the game. And while you don't need to know precise numbers at the start, evs are really important to teambuilding, and they get talked about so much because they're easily the hardest part of the game to master. Figuring out what pokemon are meta so you can prepare for them can be a bit of an issue, but there are youtubers like Moxie Boosted who talk about those things and the meta is usually just whatever has been getting good results at tournaments, since everyone starts using those strategies whenever they see them win (you can also just go on showdown and play the game to learn what people are using, maybe with a borrowed team). There will always be some out there pokemon and teams people use, but that's how the game evolves

[@berryNtoast32]

I think Pokémon has the logistical capacity to feature a shorter, secondary tournament season with a different format, like Little Cup, mono-type, or something!

[@ZeBanded]

i am very proud of starting the spread of low res wolfe

[@misamisaa4547]

Meanwhile I watch your & Wolfie's videos on competitions just 'cuz I love the way you two explain things & tell stories 😅You personally could repeat the most borring lectures I had in college & I'd be hooked :3

[@bryanmora2047]

THANK YOU Cecilily, for giving visibility to these wonderful stories, specially when the queer community is involved. I literally have shed so many joy tears watching your videos, your perspectives have made me feel seen, accompanied and validated being a queer latino boy whose love for pokemon has only increased with time. Please don't stop doing what you do. I, and surely much more queer kids around the world, thank you deeply. Sending lots of love from Costa Rica!! 💕

[@alenzomii3061]

COMO ASSIM VC É BRASILEIRA??? meu deus estou em choque, parabéns pelo conteúdo, muito incredible

[@jmh8817]

When I got into Pokemon VGC I was surprised by how small the scene was. The world's largest media franchise has a smaller competitive scene than Magic the Gathering, Starcraft, etc. did 20 years ago, and that's kinda wild. It makes sense when you explain it though, Pokemon is that big precisely because it's much more than just the competitive aspect. For those other games, the competitive aspect of the game is a much larger slice of the pie.

[@ectocandy3037]

One of the things I love about the Pokemon TCG is that it features a lot of Pokemon that aren't very powerful in competitive VGC, or sometimes even in the games in general. Some of the most powerful Pokemon cards of the past feature Claydol, Octillery, Garbodor, Dedenne, and the entire Inteleon line. At this year's worlds, we saw Lumineon, Squawkabilly, Drifloon, Snorlax, and at one point even Bidoof get a chance to shine. And soon, Bouffalant, Fan Rotom, Noctowl, Ledian, and the Galvantula line will enter the worldwide metagame with powerful cards. That said, it's not exactly a win-with-your-favorites situation at Worlds. The strongest decks still tend to feature legendaries, popular Pokemon, or other Pokemon that the Pokemon Company wants to feature. For example, this year's Worlds Top 8 in the Masters Division was 4 decks built around Regidrago and 4 decks built around different Paradox Pokemon. Our favorite girl Ogerpon really exemplifies this. On her debut, Ogerpon got a card for each of her masks. Since her Hearthflame Mask dominates in the VGC metagame, it got by far the worst card. Since her Teal Mask is her signature mask, it got by far the best card. The other two masks were somewhere in the middle, both being powerful in the right situation, but nothing that was likely to win Worlds.

[@Zenbateau]

Such a great video, thank you! An old issue I have about the official competitive scene, and I KNOW it's an old one and I hope I don't pass as a grumpy old man, but it is the fact that VGC is the only official format and singles isn't anymore. If we're talking about making the competitive scene closer to the anime and games to feel more inviting, why abandon the format that is the most common in them (ok I don't really follow the anime, you have every right to correct me if double battles are now the main way trainers battle in it). Sure, S/V had its last DLC being a mirror of the VGC competitive scene, and that's really cool, it was challenging and made casual players like me rethink their strategies (I do know things about competitive playing but I'm still mostly a casual player who has fun on Showdown with a 99% lose rate). But it's also been 9 generations of mostly single battles, especially against the elite four, with doubles being little challenges along the way. It kind of felt like a slap in the face when the focus became only on VGC, a format you were barely introduced to ingame. I believe it is also a big factor in making casual player less interested in the competitive scene, even as spectators. But I might just be an old man yelling at clouds, and I'm absolutely not saying VGC is worse than singles in any way, it's just a very different beast.

[@thomascowling466]

I've been playing singles for over 5 years now and have been wanting to get into doubles, though even with plenty experience and game knowledge I struggle to get into it. I think its because my favourite part of the game is team building; in singles it is easy enough to build a good enough team with a few off meta picks as long as you build well enough around them. It feels like its so restrictive sometimes in doubles though. The appeal of doubles to me is getting to use everything that is in the game, but it simply isn't like that.

[@mmpsp693]

Yet another banger much, so many great stories and takes. Much love from a fellow huehue. Also, you should join bluesky!

[@cecilily]

@cecilily.bsky.social 👀

[@clairestarsword]

Olivo's story is heartbreaking, I hope he's doing fine and still got to enjoy some of the event. But this is something that does keep me away from a lot of large-scale competitive events, there's such a big focus on nationalities and yet you know certain countries face way more roadblocks to get there than others, so hyping up that a country has way more champions than the others just doesn't feel fair, and at times even a bit insensitive, though largely because people are just not thinking of the context. I feel the world has a long way to go in terms of equality and accessibility before we can truly enjoy a global event of people competing as pure fun and test of their skills. As for Pokémon specifically, i do only care for Pachirisu of everything I've heard of VGC yeah lol, to each their own but I'm always shocked that some people can't at least see where casual fans are coming from, and getting mad at them wanting a series to conform to its own sayings. I didn't play SV, but doesn't even the Blueberry Academy DLC, despite pushing for competitive play, still has a plot where a character gets too into competitive team building and has to remember their love for the creatures? The thematic dissonance is just too big. If it was a case of just like, non evolved Pokémon or Pokémon of early routes not being viable you could argue it's fine, and these ones are too against the flow of the gameplay, but the meta is just like, 20 or so species, it's too little of the roster, it's not playing to the series' strengths at all. And the roster keeps growing, so it's a problem that snowballs, and also make it increasingly harder to review the existing species and do adjustments. I do feel competitive still has a chance to make it big just because it's Pokémon, but they have a lot of work to do to make it interesting for a general public.

[@iguessthisismyworkaccountl8437]

honestly yeah, it also dosen't help that some Pokémon are just...bad, either they have bad typing's, move sets that's don't work with their abilities, awful stat distribution, or just don't work well in doubles. I feel like the next mainline game should take some time really balancing the pokemon, so that everything at least works as intended, that way we don't end up with stuff like galvantula having compound eyes but not really benefiting from them since its lowest accuracy move is thunder. i also think lower power tournaments or events could be nice, little league is fanmade but it allows cute and otherwise weak pokemon shine in their own format, i thing regulation H is also a step in the right direction, removing super powerful pokemon from the equation to create some more team diversity (even if ursaluna bloodmoon should probably have been not allowed).

[@whybother3486]

2:25 it's not 30k, it's 30k just on the official pokemon youtube but even with costreams and twitch yeah I'm amazed at how small the viewership is

[@featherglacier6822]

I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who went into the elite four with an unevolved starter lol I liked Floragatos yo-yo too much and simply didn’t evolve them (beat the whole game with them, dlc and all) but my favorite pokemon is also Masquerain and while I view it I don’t play competitive myself so it was just second nature to keep it at what I liked best!

[@carlwins1958]

loved the video , I watched the wolfe stream match of worlds and has so hyped watching him win , and was bummed when I saw he lost , but I remember the speech he said on stream , on how competitive pokemon has taught him about failure , like the game will literally tell you , your not good enough , I am pokemon tcg player and a little bit of vgc , but watching a fellow latino win the TCG Championship was so hype , keep up the videos

[@123971]

vc é muito boa pra contar histórias !!! feliz por ter uma poketuber brasileira como vc pra toda a comunidade internacional

[@showdown_on_youtube]

Competitive Pokemon is ultimately a strategy game as opposed to live action games like DOTA/Valorant, so it's a pretty unique gaming niche. Also, the appeal of Pokemon is really in the single player RPG aspect of the gameplay. Gamefreak hasn't really promoted the competitive aspect of Pokemon all that much, unlike in other games where the PVP aspect is a much more salient aspect of the game.

[@ophiuchus_kin]

Sweet Mew... Poor Olivo, at least he had a good time at the event, bittersweet as it was

[@wigglekib]

one way in which pokemon vgc is less accessible than a lot of other games is also in the amount of prep and money needed, youtuber im a blisy has some videos about just how much time and money it takes to build some of the VGC teams and as someone who's been to regionals for splatoon where all i had to do was show up, it's very different to pokemon where u have to hunt down and fully train and set up every individual mon u want to use, meanwhile for something like overwatch or LoL players just show up and pick their hero with zero prep required

[@thepokemonqueen]

I think one of the main barriers is the fact that the game itself doesn't even communicate things like EVs/IVs to the player in a clear way. even in the newer games I doubt a new player could guess what "ok" "great" "best" etc means in terms of the stat's actual numeric value, or know which pokemon they "should" focus on. it wasn't until recently that I was able to wrap my head around EVs etc thanks to people like pkmncast creating tera raid builds to help people take down the raid bosses, but I still don't understand how to create a synergised team, what to do against specific opponents etc. there's also things like, how do I qualify for irl tournaments? where do they take place? how long do I have to qualify for things like nationals? the websites aren't very clear on things like this (idk if that's just a me thing). I'd love to do competitive pokemon but it's difficult to figure out how to go about everything

[@phoenixrising1992]

I would have shown up to watch Pokemon world's but unfortunately work got in the way. I just got a bit of what happened on Twitter, and more importantly, I got the news of The Return of The King, Pachirisu! Edit: From what I understand, if you want people to access a country for sporting events, then the Pokemon Company might need to consider having The Netherlands and Belguim co-hosting. Both nations did so already for the football/soccer tournament Euro 2000, so it can be done. I could have misunderstood the whole thing though. The Brazil should be allowed into the tournament without any issue. If any nation denied Brazil access into any football world cup, it would be seen as insane!

[@GinGrayTonic]

yeah I know him, but I'm Italian and we are literally 1/3 of all world views of world streaming, so we are such an exception tbh

[@oskartholen7081]

Well, I do believe that a big reason as why competitive VGC isn't so big is because until quite recently the game´s where only on handheld, and could not offer an very exciting viewer experience - Since the first Nintendo Switch version from what I can recall the interest in VGC and the viewership has gone up a lot right? (correct me if i´m mistaken) well this is at least the case for me, I had a huge problem enjoying watching the tournaments for handheld and keeping my interest longer than the base game (if even that) almost never happened, and now I am full into everything competitive pokemon! and Cant wait to pick up a switch for the purpose of diving into competitive VGC longing for a day where I can get probably quite crushed in a regional tournament. Its exciting to watch now and it has been a gateway for me to understand the depth of the gameplay. However I do hope they adjust this for the future and improve it further as I want to be able to see more of the games, following a player for them to just lose and get knocked out of stream felt horribly - and a proper spectating client would be preferable as I want insight into what both players doing and not just the one who´s screen is being recorded, that would also help in understanding what movesets and pokemon the players have access to for each battle as I regularly forgot that after the breakdown or I missed the breakdown and went in very confused. This comes down to personal preference more than anything else, but I would prefer competitive play to be done in a format without legendaries and restricted, I find the format in Regulation H to be so much more fun, and potential for diversity even if everyone on showdown seemingly plays with that damn Torkoal! I have had success with plenty of teams featuring my favorite pokemon, it at least decreases the gap between meta pokemon and fun off meta picks in my opinion and I feel as if this format is more varied when not every team needs to include urshifu - For me having the small children taming huge godelike pokemons is not what pokemon is about, it should be a epic mythical one of a kind creature and not one that every kid in the world can get hold of in my opinion. I don't like it out of a gameplay balance standpoint or a storytelling/game feel standpoint - I VOTE NO LEGENDARIES EVER IN VGC XD. But ultimately I believe the future for competitive pokemon is bright and I can´t wait to attend a event once my financial situation allows the travel!

[@Filloax]

I literally just finished watching an interview of him (and the previous IT wc) in my italian pokemon channel of reference, good timing lol

[@cecilily]

Which channel was it? :)

[@Filloax]

@@cecilily Cydonia, it's the one that did the worlds co-streaming here in Italy

[@cecilily]

Ohh, it's out already! My italian is not any good, but hopefully the subtitles will help

[@Filloax]

@@cecilily Oh also, the co-streaming I mentioned had like 2000-3000ish more viewers, and maybe other countries too, to add to your count at the start of the vid I mean, its not like the point is any different with 8k viewers as opposed to 2k, but still

[@Onigob]

banger video, can't wait to see you win worlds!

[@cecilily]

I'm a LONG WAY from that 😅

[@ophiuchus_kin]

You know, I get, I too was crest fallen when the ideal man for a lot of masc loving nerds went from undefeated to not getting there...

[@gustavosales9337]

Incinerior is mentioned at 12:17 And BRAZIL is mentioned at 16:30

[@mnm1273]

I feel like Italy winning was really quite important for the 2006 World Cup, especially because if France had won the headbutt would have been forgiven faster.

[@frankryuhou3065]

Thanks for being the voice of queer Pokémon fans. Thanks for being the voice of Latinamerican Pokémon fans. Thanks for the amazing content that you provide us in each video, the effort and the love that you pour in each one of them is so noticeable.

[@cecilily]

Hey!! Thanks so much!

[@iguessthisismyworkaccountl8437]

Honestly even though I'm not very good at competitive, regulation H is honestly kind of fun, since I don't NEED any legendaries or mythicals to do well, and even Pokémon who may be a bit weaker are still useful, that a part of accessibility that's rarely mentioned, lots of the best Pokémon competitively are one of a kind and locked to DLCS so if you're like me and don't plan to buy them (I'm waiting till christmas) then your kind of boned competitively in most formats, at least the last formats of each game let you use box legendries which everyone should be able to get ahold of. Sucks the next online tournament is in a format that does empathize those mons, I have a probably legit shiny landorus so hopefully I can scramble something up, heck i can probbably rework my regulation H team since ursaluna is still strong. in any case here is what I would do to buff my favorite Pokémon: Torterra , give it a new form that's grass fire, and give it a signature move called twin eruption that created sun and grass on hit, and also hits both opponents, and also gains benefits that would apply to grass or fire moves (including stab twice) and its only downside is that's its a 60 power move and it cant be used twice in a row. oh and like, give galvantula move low accuracy special moves to make compound eyes more useful, that's is really.

[@Aurryuken]

Seu contéudo é o que me deu vontade de descobrir mais sobre Pokémon competitivo. Video incrìvel.

[@cecilily]

Muito obrigada!! ✨️✨️

[@atropa.belladonna]

I love competitive pokemon, I only wish I could bring more of my favourites. I hope less overpowered pokemon are added and that some of the bad ones are buffed/gain new evolutions

[@ChillBear11]

This isn't really related to the video but it's important. Patrat is cute it is underrated. (Not Watchog though)

[@MrQuinnPlayss]

this just motivated me more great idea for a video

[@AirbenderAndi]

This sentiment is part of why I haven't gotten into competitive battling and just stay casual - I'm not interested in following a narrow meta with pokemon I don't even like! I'd rather just beat the game with my faves and do some raids and shiny hunting post-game

[@marktreerng]

Incredibly interesting video. This video makes me far more interested even, but off Twitter you miss a lot of this, and the streams have a lot of downtime. Olivo's story is heartbreaking

[@cesito6425]

former vgc competitor here. reg h got me wanting to go to a big tournament again and i couldnt find myself more disappointed when i saw the prize to just sign in to a regional is 60 euros. with no events on my country, i just dont find a good reason to even try to pay that entry fee, let alone every other necesity i'd need in the trip. as you say at the start of the video, pokemon is the literal richest franchise of the world. they make far more than enough money to make regionals and specials more common, accessible tournaments. i do remember paying 10 euros to enter a regional back in 2015 and there is no reason why the prize should now be 6x higher. obviously pokemon is a difficult game to enter competitively, but even if you get to overcome those barriers you may find yourself unable to compete for completely non-pokemon related reasons, if that makes sense.

[@GravityTheGhost]

10:17 >and Spindas I've been called out 🤣

[@M4NT15B0Y]

YES ITS ABOUT COMMUNITYY IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT COMMUNITY GRAHGGGGG

[@WhiteRaven696]

I can't speak for others, but I can speak for me. Watching any kind of competition is beyond boring. If I'm not participating myself, I don't care enough to watch others do it. Why spectate when I can go elsewhere and do it myself? Applies to sports, activities and VGC.

[@Turial55]

Diego apparently beat Jeudy Azzarelli multiple times on the Showdown ladder in the days leading up to the tournament with the Imprison/Trick Room Calyrex. Jeudy has a funny video on twitter about it 😂

[@cecilily]

That's what I was referencing at the end, haha

[@dabsflirtatiously5917]

The trigger warning for the Karen quote got me💀

[@UmbreonLibris]

I hope The Pokémon Company is listening to you!

[@cecilily]

Fingers crossed!

[@abrarkadabrar7829]

This is such a wholesome channel. Despite whatever controversy rears its head, your take on everything is so brimming with positivity and hope and respect and wholesomeness regarding all that you talk about. Even the jabs at Wolfey are hilarious and I know you mean well. I probably subbed a few videos back but now I can proudly announce I'm here to stay. Peace ❤️

[@tisha2932]

I'm surprised you didn't talk about Fernando Cifuentes (a Chilean) winning in the TCG Masters division, especially with an anti-meta deck

[@cecilily]

I did see that and I found it so cool that Boric had him in the presidential office - but since I don't know a lot about TCG I tried to stay a bit more VGC focused for this one. There are as many stories as there are competitors, and I unfortunately can't share them all :(

[@chrispat3638]

Thank you for this video! You inspired me to make more videos in my main channel. I also love that you talked about Diego Ferreira as a bonus fifth story at the end. He is such an icon and is equally as inspiring. Keep up the great quality of your videos! ❤

[@andreachavez8088]

Hey great video, I know it is not your area of expertise but I would like some stories of worlds about the pokemon cards

[@gaelcalloch3200]

Ogerpon is awesome!

[@willowknight3956]

For me I dislike how extremely RNG reliant the game can be. It doesn't feel like fun seeing my favorite competitor whiff over and over or win because of a lucky strike. That and as someone mentioned: competing runs opposite of what most love about pokemon. It's not like the anime where you can use your favorite mons and win. It's extremely discouraging to want to use your favorite mon and everyone going "It's terrible, you aren't going to get anywhere" and when you do use it you get crushed.

[@RemindMeToCheck]

Amazing channel. I love how it's full of... love. And queerness. 26:50 - ❤🏳‍🌈

[@theredrexy]

this is a nice video! where did you get the picture of Luca?

[@hypphen]

this is why i just play smogon

[@jjmblue7]

I don't pay too much attention to VGC, but does Nintendo host official tournaments for anything but Ubers? I feel like official tourneys for OU, UU, RU, NU, and/or Baby Cups like different weight classes in boxing would definitely go a long way to opening up VGC.

[@luminessupremacy]

Problem is, those tiers aren't official. There are only a few categories aknowledged by TPC (regular pokémon, paradoxes, legendaries [the official title for what the community calls "minor legendaries"] and restricted legendaries [the official tities for what the community calls "major legendaries", they are called like this because when they are allowed, you can only use up to one or two of them in your team, depending on the format]). Also, it's not true that the always use the same format. The pokémon allowed change every few months. For exaple, from 1st of this month to January 1st, all the legendaries (both normal and restricted) and paradoxes are banned

[@jjmblue7]

@@luminessupremacy And what exactly is preventing Nintendo from changing this up to include tiers similar to those with their own rulesets?

[@afropenguin]

I think you hit it write on the head at the start, the meta and branding are just so unaligned. Maybe something like a "bad pokemon" requiremnt for teams would help bring it more inline, and help spread out the meta more (like the limit on mythical but in reverse).

[@iguessthisismyworkaccountl8437]

honestly i think more Pokémon should be restricted, there no reason urshifu and ogrepon should be allowed on a team with calyrex and or miraidon. I think there should be blanket restrictions on legendaries, all legendary or adjacent pokemon are limited to 1 per team.

[@RaxiazRedux]

Do I hear a Bomberman 64's title credits?

[@cecilily]

Sorry, I don't think so :( When?

[@LudonarrativeConsonance]

Bluntly, I think competitive is a prestige thing for TPC/Nintendo/Who the fuck is controlling the purse in this fucked up corporation oroubouros seemingly designed to confuse people. Like obviously they think it's COOL that they have a fancy world cup, but they don't really care because it's not driving revenue. Like, every mainline game is going to make a billion dollars anyway, and that's nothing compared to what they make selling plushies. If TPC wanted to invest in pokemon they should obviously start by making the mainline games playable. I love competitive and was super hyped when my boy won worlds, but the most overwhelming problem with the latest generation has been graphics and performance, followed by an empty-feeling world and a total decline in their ability to make good cities which is more of a failure in game design. So if their assessment is that they don't need to invest in making *good games* to drive sales, there's no way they invest more than the million dollars they probably spend every year on competitive. Honestly the relatively large scholarships they pay/paid (idk if they still do that, last time I checked it was half a million total but that was pre covid) to winners are impressive in their own right. If they DID want to increase competitive's popularity they'd have to do a combination of marketing it like a sport (celebrity endorsements, advertisements in times square, put it on sports streaming/cable, put worlds day 2 in a small stadium) and actually making competitive accessible to people - right now, they seem to be more fond of forcing people to get a DLC to get competitive mons and items, egg moves are still a thing IIRC, bottle caps and mints are still very annoying to grind, EV training is still super annoying, etc. Their fight against genning is also incredibly counter-productive. Oh yeah and more online events, which are way more accessible. And maybe not making online play locked behind a subscription service, when every other successful pvp game is either subscription or pay to play or just fully ftp. Oh, and right now pokemon turns just take FOREVER to process, like if you use shell smash rather than "Your attack, special attack and speed were raised sharply and your defense and special defence dropped!" you get a message for each thing. Abilities should also just have the lil pop up happen while the text at the bottom does. Oh, and demistify EVs/IVs/Natures. And have abilities actually spell out what they do, *water bubble*. Diversity is an issue, but there's just no way to balance the game both for singleplayer 6v6 singles AND multiplayer 4v4 doubles. Then again, the game isn't balanced for singleplayer 6v6 singles either, so it might be possible, but I fear completely erasing the concept of shitmons would be almost impossible. Dexit being reversed could help with that, a lot of people just literally don't have their favourites in the game. And I know GF hates this idea, but banlists. Smogon's metas are always considerably more diverse than TPC's thanks to banlists. Regarding geographical inaccessibility, Worlds is always held in the West Coast/Hawaii, and rarely Japan/The rest of the US, because most players are American, Canadian, South Korean and Japanese. Western Europe is the one other place with a bunch of players - and London did host a single Worlds. I could also see them simping for China a bit and setting one in Beijing or Tianjin. Not Shangai that place is waaay too humid for human survival. I suppose if you held it in Italy or something latin americans would be way less discriminated, and frankly we're the only country to win twice that's not the us/japan so we objectively deserve one, but we'd just be more racist against black people. Which a lot of latin americans are anyway. Even if geographical distance wasn't an issue, countries in the Walled World are easier and more prestigious to hold a tournament in. Security is also less of an issue. I guess I could see Chile's Santiago? But that's so far away from everywhere else lol. Or of course the monkey's paw could curl and we get Dubai 2027... Just a quick thought.

[@ThePolan]

We want more livestreams

[@o_lontra]

Amei que te sigo no tt e o yt sugeriu o video! Ahazoooou

[@mini_redd2497]

Cecilily, whats your twitch? I can't find it :(

[@cecilily]

The livestreams are on KZbin! You can find on my channel's VOD section :)

[@CAPAE]

What song is used beginning at 15:42?

[@cecilily]

It's the Pokemon Theme, from the Let's Go games :)

[@CAPAE]

@@cecilily Thank you so much! I liked the video, and appreciate your response.

[@andrewoliver7095]

VGC is honestly pretty boring in my opinion. It takes legit skill and I have huge respect for the players, but for those who want to get into competitive pokemon but dislike the sameness of VGC, I would highly recommend certain Smogon tiers, especially gen 3, which is an incredible tier in which people often use, and win with, their favorites. A major gen 3 tournament was just won with a Slaking. That's epic. Also, the Smogon scene in general is WAY more accessible than VGC. Most tournaments take place online. No visa madness, no expensive and stressful plane flights. And there's way more diversity. There are so many different tiers for every generation. Literally no matter what you like, there is something for you on Smogon. I honestly hope people leave VGC because so much of what Game Freak and the pokemon company does is a middle finger to fans, and they do not deserve our support.

[@potatopotayto8332]

i love pachirisu

[@cecilily]

omg me too!

[@SeaSlug]

It's not more popular because the games and format keeps changing Doubles is not everyone's cup of tea and game freak killed 6v6 singles because of the 20min battle timer No vs recorder to save your matches and share moments also hurts No spectator mode online also makes it way harder to live stream tournaments

[@zariygo]

Sadly there's a whole story left out that only if you're italian could know. The reaction of the general public to Luca's win. After the news hit the italian mainstream media, a shit load of idiots started to make fun of Luca's win and shame him for playing pokemon. I admire how Luca decided not to reply to the shitheads that called him out, but it was horrible seeing expecially from people that constantly like to praise how great italy is and how smart and better italians are compared to the others.

[@cecilily]

I'm really sorry to hear. I have some close italian friends and I myself have received messages about the italian scene being more hostile than average. This is definitely a topic I might want to cover in the future.

[@zariygo]

@@cecilily yeah, and it's so wierd considering that the average italian never lose a chance to exalt how better they are compared to other. This has happen with yugioh too last month when the European Championship have been won by another italian and it faced a similar situation.

[@shadowvampwolf]

its not as monitisable as stuff like league of legends or vallorant

[@PixieDiamondDew]

I hate USA arrogance

[@iguessthisismyworkaccountl8437]

dont we all

[@giovanni8532]

🇮🇹

[@damianporter942]

maybe people would care more about competitve pokemon if half the top 20 teams werent using basically the same team as each other with maybe 2 different pokemon. which of course happens because the entire format is just... not made well. Its horribly unbalanced and every meta they introduce really does seem to have certain "best" mons.