When XY came out, I started to take interest in what has become the "official battle format" for a longer while already: Double battles
Last year even travelled across 2 borders to go to the german nationals just to see how that goes. And now I barely ever find myself thinking of "single battles", "OU" and all that, when training my pokemon or making teams. Instead doubles is the constant in my mind in regards to competitive Pokemon battles.
The major problem I have with this format however became evident really quick: since nothing besides the standard OP/event-legends is banned, some very OP Pokemon are allowed (Kangaskhan&Co.), and are therefore bound to show up on your opponents team most of the time (often the whole team is made up of them LOL)
But just as I got tired of these faces again past weekend from doing the 30 battles you get when taking part in the International Wifi Competition, Pokémon came up with an interesting twist!
For the upcoming Season 11 on Battlespot (from July 14th), the "special"-format will be double battles, but banning all Pokemon that managed to get into the top12 in Battle-spot doubles for the past 4 seasons.
Here is a picture of what that looks like:
For me this looks so refreshing right now XD And I'm looking forward to doing some Battle-spot soon.
But this makes me wonder.. will the teams and strategies get more creative through this, or does it just mean everyone will use "the next in line", like Megagross/Hydreigon/Suicune etc.?
And how likely is it that the official VGC-format would some year use a similar usage-based banlist? I'd certainly be even more interested in it then...but tbh I can't imagine them having the official VGC be one where several new Megas aren't allowed (since we'll probably get a new bunch of them with XZYZ early 2016)...or heck where something as iconic (and overrated /gets shot) as Charizard isn't allowed. Perhaps only for Masters category or something?
What do you guys think? Would you be more interested or less interested in VGC if it included a banlist like the Battlespot-special?
And how does this logic for banning OP pokes compare to the Smogon ban-voting shenanigans? Personally I'm excited to see some official attempts at making battles more interesting.
Also general "is doubles even the better format to use for official battles?"-topic, in case anyone has any arguments about that.
(Am I even posting this in the most appropriate subforum? I mean I'd be interested in general what people think of VGCs format rather than just those who are already invested in it, but it is about VGC and doubles so where else would it go lol.)
Last year even travelled across 2 borders to go to the german nationals just to see how that goes. And now I barely ever find myself thinking of "single battles", "OU" and all that, when training my pokemon or making teams. Instead doubles is the constant in my mind in regards to competitive Pokemon battles.
The major problem I have with this format however became evident really quick: since nothing besides the standard OP/event-legends is banned, some very OP Pokemon are allowed (Kangaskhan&Co.), and are therefore bound to show up on your opponents team most of the time (often the whole team is made up of them LOL)
But just as I got tired of these faces again past weekend from doing the 30 battles you get when taking part in the International Wifi Competition, Pokémon came up with an interesting twist!
For the upcoming Season 11 on Battlespot (from July 14th), the "special"-format will be double battles, but banning all Pokemon that managed to get into the top12 in Battle-spot doubles for the past 4 seasons.
Here is a picture of what that looks like:
For me this looks so refreshing right now XD And I'm looking forward to doing some Battle-spot soon.
But this makes me wonder.. will the teams and strategies get more creative through this, or does it just mean everyone will use "the next in line", like Megagross/Hydreigon/Suicune etc.?
And how likely is it that the official VGC-format would some year use a similar usage-based banlist? I'd certainly be even more interested in it then...but tbh I can't imagine them having the official VGC be one where several new Megas aren't allowed (since we'll probably get a new bunch of them with XZYZ early 2016)...or heck where something as iconic (and overrated /gets shot) as Charizard isn't allowed. Perhaps only for Masters category or something?
What do you guys think? Would you be more interested or less interested in VGC if it included a banlist like the Battlespot-special?
And how does this logic for banning OP pokes compare to the Smogon ban-voting shenanigans? Personally I'm excited to see some official attempts at making battles more interesting.
Also general "is doubles even the better format to use for official battles?"-topic, in case anyone has any arguments about that.
(Am I even posting this in the most appropriate subforum? I mean I'd be interested in general what people think of VGCs format rather than just those who are already invested in it, but it is about VGC and doubles so where else would it go lol.)