~ Estimated Reading Time: 9 min ~
I figure I should weigh in on the low-content issues first: don't expect it to get better than this by much. No doubt is the exact size they landed on influenced by shoddy budgets. But I've read an interview or two, and the developers have continuously used tight-lipped phrasing; seasons will cycle content in and out. This is probably inherent to Pokemon's engine. When you can only fit 20 moves and 12 types into the same team, it's already difficult to cover for every basic option on a single team. Try going into teambuilder, and making something that covers all 35 or so Meta-threats; it'll take you a few weeks. And while I doubt, if they are considering rebalancing existing Pokemon, I'm not sure a 100+ equally viable units could co-exist. When you build to account for fifteen cores, but match against the other forty-five; the variability in your win/loss rate skyrockets. And if you just raw-dumped all 1000 Pokemon into the game right now, the best amongst them would invalidate everything currently in play. If you're like me - overjoyed I've squeezed a few wins out of Mega Audino - you should take advantage of the lower power level by running some favs. It's a big part of the early-meta culture; developing memories you'll look back on fondly of the garbage you were able to get away with. And from what it seems to me, the current pool is genuinely well-balanced (with a few exceptions)! This is of course ignoring the way fans could resolve these issues on their own: creating fan-tiers, if only they were supplied with weaker Pokemon. But that speaks to larger industry-issues with lack of trust in players, I think.
What we should all remain skeptical to, though, is the manipulative structure of Champions. It is possible to find enjoyment within an evil ass confinement; the first few hours where everyone was using their shitty starter Pokemon were adorable! For a moment, it felt like it had one-upped Showdown - by acknowledging that the catching phase - using suboptimal Pokemon in-between training up new ones - were a meaningful element of the experience. It brought back memories of using Pokemon with bad IVs on Link Battles in X & Y, cuz I was too stubborn to learn how to breed. And I expected it to last longer within my friend-group...but everyone got pumped with starter tickets, epic freemium currencies through one-time tutorials and starter packs. They even let you take your malnourished, neglected, horrible children out of the Pokemon Home kennel. Easing in beginner players, while focusing its monetization on leeching from the long-term competitive playerbase...we loooooove live service!!
But, I think even moreso than this predictable exploitation, am I frustrated with the framing. Flourishes of a narrative express this singular concept: that your ULTIMATE GOAL to be the POKEMON MASTER is to climb the ranks. The ranked ladder is the centerpiece of the UI - it is the game, because competitive games are about getting closer to the top, right?
The top of what?
Part of the enduring appeal of Pokemon as a franchise is that it's a social series. Trading and battling are a key part of this - Pokemon gave us reasons to start hanging out. Competition in of itself is also a unifying subject. The big-money nature of VGC under TPC does have genuine positives - it's one of the only modern competitive games to have locals. Pokemon players meet people through their game way more than the structuring of other competitive games allow. Ranked Ladders meanwhile, in reaction to the general toxic state of online gamers, have blocked out all communication. Whenever I grind out a ladder in just about any game, I can't help but think there's something odd about how in removing all social elements, they don't systemically feel different from singleplayer experiences anymore. Just perpendicular hamster wheels of faceless players fighting eachother. But is that really something completely out of company's control?
Part of the reason for the toxicity of ranked ladders is how they've been mired with artificial stakes. ELO - the gradual progression of who you're matched against as you yourself win - while necessary as an invisible parameter, has become one of these tools. Every time you win a game in Pokemon Champions, you get to watch your bar go up, slot machine-esque gradual sound effects as it builds up to your newly earnt placement. Accompanied by freemium currency as a reward, even! But I don't know if that would stick out to me as much, if not for how shallow the actual ranked gameplay of Champions is.
So, what's made me hate Champions just as much as you all? It's their choice to make the ladder mandatorily being Best of 1. Not even an optional "rematch?" button on the side! Pokemon is all about obscuring information - them not knowing who will attack first, or what spicy coverage moves they could have that could potentially alter your game-plan. But it's also about mix-up; "this is a bad play, but my opponent expects the good play" tactics being fundamental. Because of this, rematches allow you to gain familiarity with your opponent's mindset, and then take advantage of what you know about the cards they've already played. That's where VGC is at its absolute best. So, inversely: not only is it at its least skill-expressive here, but also, it has never had more tension placed on wins and losses. High-stress volatility against people you know nothing about: and you won't even ever get to know them through their gameplay.
A particularly cynical choice is that you're given less freemium currency when you lose. The only way you can get back that lost progress is through spending money, so in a sense, to lose in Champions is to lose money. Even beyond that, people are easily strung by digital possessions even of no monetary equivalent. You can lose to the guy that's one of five people in the world that still run Low Kick on their Kingambit, and get to watch yourself get demoted as a bonus. Naturally, there are people who are going to get frustrated by this. Much more than they would've in a game with no gacha, and much less than in a game where the wins were defined by skill. Maybe they'll never want to give competitive Pokemon a chance after that first impression...or maybe they'll blame themselves. Maybe they'll suck up the misery, and keep rolling the slot machine for those wins. And that's how you get a loyal, bitter, bitter customer.
And so I reached the top, and I looked down from the plateau. And I thought there was nothing, but the snow that melted in my palms revealed the ultimate treasure.
2000 VP and a Meganium profile picture
And soon, those melted too
I could've ended the review there, but I have some extra, petty thoughts. I don't even know if playing the sharing opinions game is too useful for the broader narrative of this review (but im doing it anyways): I like playing OU more than VGC. Like, a lot more. But there's also no denying that I may be on the wrong side of recent history; Doubles has genuinely gotten a lot better - Scarlet and Violet undeniably being its best seasons by far. All the while singles is falling out of critical favour. Us singles players have been dealing with something more existential than quality, though: that our beloved Smogon is becoming fanfiction. Despite VGC having never been more balanced, Pokemon designed for doubles have never been more polarizing for the specific structure of OU (with fourteen non-Legendary Gen 9 Pokemon needing to be banned). The only way you could possibly fix it is by constructing an entirely separate stat pool for 6v6. It'd make no sense when you consider that Pokemon's PvP up to this point had been a fork of a singleplayer jrpg for babies to make stats that complicated, so Champions kind of has a unique position here...that it has chosen not to take.
But even if you ported my beloved Showdown OU directly into Champions right now, I don't even know if it'd be fun! My ideal match of OU goes for about 50 turns, I'd say. With the necessary grace of fighting someone who makes decisions relatively fast - or at least if I'm playing against a friend who can I can yell at and throw shit from my desk at during the slow bits. Those matches generally take 15-20 minutes, which is actually a similar run-time to a full match of in-game VGC - even though that gamemode usually only lasts 7-10 turns. In-game's animations of not just Pokemon's attacks, but UI and UX timings would take so long, OU straight up hasn't functioned in the Switch Era's current mandated 20-minute time limits. And seeing as this is their serious take on a Competitive Pokemon: The Game, I think it's fair to say that OU isn't really a real thing anymore. It's a fan-game with fan-rules, not a simulator.
It is also stagnant. I was genuinely shocked to see that a shoddy fan-server estimating what Pokemon would be in Champions - not even hosted on the official Showdown URL - had a player-count rivaling the actual site's peaks. For better or worse, VGC has distracted any potential new interest in Smogon Singles at best, and is actively redirecting existing players too. And lots of people prefer it that way, I'm not gonna opinion-shame. Many people genuinely prefer the drafting-oriented struggle of VGC over Singles, and I can see the appeal! But there is something....awkward about this shift. By letting primary hands in organization shift from Smogon to The Pokemon Company, we, as a community have indivertibly given up on Grassroots in favour of corporate-ownership. And I think disappointments like Champions may almost be a natural result of that.
I also think that the people using Champions as a springboard to a larger competitive experience probably don't need to be told any of this. There is rare purposefulness to be found in the VGC scene, and you do have the potential to find your place in it. If I were giving any advice to the countless people who will stick with Champions: try and enter some online tournaments. There's a bunch you can join every day. Even if you value none of the social qualities I'm preaching (or just have too much anxiety to) tournament chats are rather opt-in. You'll run some best of 3s, learn significantly faster than you would on ladder, and feel a legitimate competitive drive that isn't being pushed and pulled by jangling keys. I don't think it's overdramatic to say it could change your life.
But, to the rest of you: you don't have to follow the enshittification if it bothers you, ya know!! People used to get on my ass for still playing Melee when it had so many sequels, but now I look at people who get stuck in new-game depression. More often than not: I think that most gamers move on too quickly! There's a learned helplessness in games communities whenever companies follow-up their multiplayer franchises with a subpar app, and I don't know if we have to accept that!! Playing Champions actually made me feel some regrets for the missed opportunities; Scarlet and Violet was such a good meta, but I barely played it! So, I got the little Champions launch group chat I'm in to play some VGC 2023 with me on Showdown. I missed you, Ogerpon!!!! And there will always be someone who is having more joy than I am, making Snorlax go boom in Gen 1 OU. It's up to us to decide if the games we're playing are "alive" or "dead", "real" or "fake".