Author Topic: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon  (Read 9789 times)

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Offline JusDBerube

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The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« on: September 05, 2012, 08:33:27 PM »

The complexities of Pokémon never cease to amaze.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/editorial/31518

There are millions of Pokémon players in the world, but only a small percentage of those people truly take that hobby to the competitive level. I’ve tried several times over the years to create a Pokémon team that can stand up to the best of them. Unfortunately, I’ve found there are several high barriers to entry in the competitive world of Pokémon. With the official Pokémon Video Game Championships coming to a close a few weeks ago, and Pokémon Black 2 and Pokémon White 2 releasing this October, I feel now is a great time to inform people about the challenges current competitive players face.

I’ve identified six main barriers to entry in competitive Pokémon:

1. General Game Knowledge

Before even getting started with a competitive team a player needs to know a lot about the game of Pokémon. This includes knowledge of Pokémon types, moves, strengths, and weaknesses, to name a few. This first step may already seem overwhelming to some, but it gets worse: knowledge of how the Pokémon games calculate stats, damage, special effects and more is critical. To put it bluntly, a competitive Pokémon player needs to do a ton of homework and really know how the game works, even at the unseen level.

2. Metagame Knowledge

Once a competitor knows the intricacies of the game, he then needs to decide on what rule set he is going to play under. There are many unofficial, though surprisingly standard, tiers of play and rules the Pokémon community has agreed upon. There are also official rules the Pokémon Company International sets up for their yearly tournaments. After a player determines which rules he would like to play under, it becomes necessary to study the metagame to know what Pokémon, strategies, and techniques are successful.

3. Team Testing

With all that out of the way, it’s time to make a team, right? Well, sort of. Due to the time necessary to properly train and test a team in the actual Pokémon games, it’s best to test any team a player creates in an online battle simulator first. These battle simulators are fan-made tools for testing teams, strategies, and more, and are not found in the games themselves. There are a few of these unofficial simulators out there, and I’ve personally found them an invaluable tool in tweaking a possible team for true competitive play.

4. Pokémon Acquiring

So you have a team tested and ready to go. Great job, but now comes the most difficult step of the entire process. The player needs to catch each Pokémon for his team with the correct natures, abilities, and Individual Values (IVs). IVs, for those not in the know, are randomly assigned numbers between 0 and 31 given to each stat a Pokémon has. IVs are calculated when a Pokémon is encountered. Just think of IVs like rolling dice to create a new character in a pen-and-paper RPG. Just like characters of the same type in tabletop games, Pokémon of the same species can have different stats.

It should be noted that actually obtaining Pokémon with the wanted IVs can be an extremely difficult and time consuming task, especially for those trying it for the first time. Some Pokémon can be bred for the right stats, and some players do that. Others will manipulate the random number generator (RNG) in the games to give Pokémon the right stats. RNG manipulation is done with the aid of a computer program that can tell a player the exact date, time, and year to start the Pokémon game, since a creature captured at the exact right time will have the desired stats. This technique technically isn’t cheating since it can be done without using a cheating device that changes the game code, but I’ve personally found it extremely tedious and time consuming to pull off correctly.

One final way to obtain Pokémon with good IVs is to get in with a good competitive online community. I’ve found that cloning Pokémon has become an acceptable standard by most members of these communities, and as a result many good characters are out there for trade or barter. The only risk here is that Pokémon a player receives from a trade may be unknowingly hacked, and therefore banned, from an official tournament. No matter how you slice it, obtaining these great Pokémon is going to be a difficult task.

5. Pokémon Training

The final step in the entire team creation process is training a team properly. Doing so isn’t very difficult, but I’m sure many players don’t know the finer points. Every time a Pokémon defeats another Pokémon, until a certain point, they get a boost to a specific stat. These boosts are known as Effort Values (EVs). In fact, feeding Pokémon vitamins increases EVs as well. During this process, players have to know what Pokémon to defeat, and how many, to effectively spread the EV stat boots to the desired stats, as they have an upper limit.

6. Shifting Metagame

When all these steps are completed, a competitive team is ready to use. It’s a long process, however there is one ever-changing barrier to entry: the shifting metagame. Approximately every two years, a new main series Pokémon game is released that can add new moves, alter old moves, change old obtainable moves for characters, and introduce new Pokémon and Pokémon forms. These changes can, sadly, render an already existing team useless.

-

I’ve found these barriers to entry to be extremely frustrating, and I wish they weren’t as high because Pokémon can be an extremely fun game when playing against others. As I get older, I really don’t have the time necessary to play at a competitive level, but I have the utmost respect for those who go the extra miles necessary to win. With that said, I want to congratulate all the winners of the Pokémon Video Game Championships. You’ve all worked harder than most understand is necessary to succeed at Pokémon. I just wish the competitive side of the game were more easily accessible so more people can enjoy it.


Offline Nbz

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2012, 09:06:11 PM »
As someone who has played in the Competitive scene for over 4 years now, I can completely understand how difficult it is to even begin the learn about the Metagame and understand all the intricacies, let alone put aside time to dedicate towards it. The way the majority of players get around this is by using what one calls "Legal Hacks." Essentially, these are computer generated Pokemon made within the legal bounds of the game, for example, a Pokemon cannot have over 510 total EVs or more than 31 IVs in a given stat. It is a measure that all the top players use, and I can say without any doubt that 90% of people who competed in the VGCs and did well used Legal Hacks. I know for a fact that the American dude who has won on multiple occasions will have used PokeSav to generate his whole team, but has made them in such a way that they can easily pass all the hack checks given by the VGC staff. He isn't necessarily cheating by doing this, because the Pokemon are all legal within the constraints of the game, he just simply saved himself a lot of time, and instead was able to use that time to gain valuable Metagame experience. The sad fact of the matter is that if you want to compete on the world stage, training isn't the way to go.

Offline JusDBerube

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2012, 09:22:23 PM »
Thanks for commenting Nbz. I know many players do use these legal hacks, but I for one don't like the idea of hacking at all. It's just upsetting that in order to compete in these games a player basically has to cheat in some way to be competitive.

Offline roykoopa64

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2012, 09:28:29 PM »
Great article! This is exactly why I never even attempted to get into competitive battling, despite my love for all the Pokemon games (of which I have beaten the story mode for every generation). I think I would have more fun battling someone who plays the game at the same level as me.
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Offline TJ Spyke

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2012, 09:31:23 PM »
You can consider it legal hacking, but it's still cheating. You can't call yourself a true competitor if you do it. At the bare minimum, it violates the spirit of the game.
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Offline Oblivion

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2012, 11:47:49 PM »
Then you would have to say that everyone is cheating because almost EVERYONE does it. Hell, I hone my skills on "Pokemon Online" and Smogon, both of which have programs that allow me to create a team with ease and use them in the program to fight people all over the world. That's how everyone plays. If you don't like it, deal with it. That's how the meta game has been since 2004. Perhaps even earlier.

Offline TJ Spyke

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #6 on: September 06, 2012, 01:05:19 AM »
Don't use hyperbole, it negates your whole argument. Those who do it are violating the spirit of the game and are purely lazy. If you don't want to put in the work to create your team, level them up the right way, etc., then find another game. I would love for Nintendo to find a way to detect people who did this, then ban them so the true competitors can have it.
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Offline Caterkiller

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2012, 02:01:29 AM »
If anyone needs help breeding Pokemon with super high IV's just let me know.


I love the process of breeding a new pokemon to near perfection. It may take about 2-3 hours per pokemon but it's not so bad at all. I get all my Pokemon with their great IV's and nature through good old fashioned hard work. It doesn't bother me that most people don't do it that way, but i'll never stoop to that level. I enjoy the journey/rage inducing process.
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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2012, 02:10:00 AM »
Don't use hyperbole, it negates your whole argument. Those who do it are violating the spirit of the game and are purely lazy. If you don't want to put in the work to create your team, level them up the right way, etc., then find another game. I would love for Nintendo to find a way to detect people who did this, then ban them so the true competitors can have it.


You obviously didn't understand what I said. Read that website and educate yourself.
http://pokemon-online.eu/

Offline S-U-P-E-R

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2012, 07:46:41 AM »
I'm on board with the no-grinding crew. I couldn't imagine having to level up in Street Fighter or StarCraft or something before being able to play the 'real' metagame. I think this would be a good opportunity for Nintendo to introduce something like a 'tournament' mode in Pokemon where you can just create max stat Pokemon willy-nilly for use in player matches only, instead of forcing competitive players to run or circumvent some hamster wheel grinding deathmarch.

Maybe a LoL player would like to comment? :faust:

Don't use hyperbole

I'm not sure you know what hyperbole is

Offline ejamer

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #10 on: September 06, 2012, 08:50:39 AM »
... And that's why I take steroids non-banned and/or non-detectable performance enhancing drugs.


Not really a fan of the "it's not wrong if you don't get caught" morality, but it's pervasive in competitive culture (whether that means sports or video games or business). Props to anyone who competes the "old school" way by playing the game without hacks. What they accomplish by playing the game is far more impressive to me than people who play the system.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2012, 11:43:01 AM by ejamer »
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Offline TJ Spyke

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #11 on: September 06, 2012, 09:19:24 AM »
I'm on board with the no-grinding crew. I couldn't imagine having to level up in Street Fighter or StarCraft or something before being able to play the 'real' metagame. I think this would be a good opportunity for Nintendo to introduce something like a 'tournament' mode in Pokemon where you can just create max stat Pokemon willy-nilly for use in player matches only, instead of forcing competitive players to run or circumvent some hamster wheel grinding deathmarch.

Maybe a LoL player would like to comment? :faust:

Don't use hyperbole

I'm not sure you know what hyperbole is

RPGs and fighting games are different, thought I would point that out.

And I know what hyperbole is. And if even 1 person doesn't do this "legal hacking", then he is wrong in saying that everyone does it.

Oblivion, I understand what you said. It sounds like you did not say what you meant though
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Offline S-U-P-E-R

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #12 on: September 06, 2012, 10:08:18 AM »
RPGs and fighting games are different, thought I would point that out.
Cool story, but the game stops being LevelQuest the second you step into a tournament and becomes a head to head strategy game. Unless there are some tournaments I don't know about, where people compete to see who grinds the best.

Consider this perspective: time spent grinding would be better spent developing strategies, playing practice games, and doing whatever it takes to actually get better at the game. If you don't, you're doing yourself a huge disservice. If you chain yourself to your own perceived "true" "spirit of the game" and spend all your time grinding or restricting yourself to gimped Pokemon, the competition is going to pass you by because they're playing by the actual rules and not some made-up self-imposed rules.

That's how everyone plays. If you don't like it, deal with it.

Offline Oblivion

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #13 on: September 06, 2012, 12:48:51 PM »
TJ, I don't want to get into an English usage argument with you. Sorry to let you down, but a high majority of competitive players use some sort of legal hacks for tourneys that require a game cartridge. If you find that to be "against the spirit of the game" more power to you. But you want to ban people who use it? Good luck, because then you'd have hardly anyone to play against. SUPER is totally right. PokeSav and programs like it were intended to cut down the time doing things that are a waste of time.


And when they aren't playing in tourneys, they use online simulators. Do you think that online simulators are "against the spirit of the game" too?

Offline Ceric

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #14 on: September 06, 2012, 01:58:14 PM »
I'm going to assume there is a catch and train style gameplay tournament as well.  Like Magic has the Sealed deck games.
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Offline Oblivion

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #15 on: September 06, 2012, 02:15:12 PM »
Nope. Not at all.

Offline Ceric

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #16 on: September 06, 2012, 02:35:11 PM »
Really, that's an honest shame.
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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #17 on: September 06, 2012, 03:56:25 PM »
I like the competitive scene, but I've only gone as far as #3. I made a brief foray into #4 and #5, but it was so soul crushingly tedious that I stopped. I suppose I'm more into "theorymoning." I like to understand the complex mechanics and strategies, and figure out what a balanced team might look like, what the advantages and disadvantages of movesets and builds are, etc.

But for some reason, the actual battling isn't that fun to me. Even on battle simulators like Shoddy Battle, where there's no busywork required, I don't find it all that stimulating.

And don't get me started on legit training. I have a life to live, I can't spend that much time hatching dozens of the same pokemon just to get good IVs. I have no problem with legal hacks. It's not as if it takes skill to ride up and down route 3 on a bike for a few hundred hours. Knowledge is the only differentiator between a good build and a bad one, and legal hacks just eliminate the RNG bullshit that you would otherwise have to endure.

Also, the analogy to steroids is really stupid. The whole reason it's a LEGAL hack is that it doesn't give you any advantage over your opponent. Steroids give an unfair advantage. They are not the same.

Also lol @ calling breeding "work." You know, the other day I spent hours flipping a coin until it landed on heads 100 times in a row. When I did it, I felt so accomplished because I worked so hard doing it!  ::)
Seriously, like SUPER said, the real "work" being done is formulating strategies and getting used to the flow of a battle, predicting an opponent's moves, etc. Both competitors are doing that regardless of where their pokemon came from or how long they spent creating them.

I don't like being preached at just because I don't want to spend the amount of time equivalent of a part time job doing repetitive, tedious ****. I play games to have fun. If you find the breeding/training process fun, then more power to you. But don't whine at other people who don't feel the same and tell them that they aren't allowed to play unless they slog through the same boring dreck.

Offline ejamer

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #18 on: September 06, 2012, 04:34:56 PM »
...
Also, the analogy to steroids is really stupid. The whole reason it's a LEGAL hack is that it doesn't give you any advantage over your opponent. Steroids give an unfair advantage. They are not the same.
..[size=78%].[/size]

So if hacking doesn't give any advantage, why does it happen? Why do so many people who want to play and compete bother with hacking? The only reasonable answer I can see is that it does provide an advantage over people who don't hack their stats. (By your own admission, the time saved does matter to you. Heck. I could be in the Olympics for something if I picked and practised a sport for 3-5 hours every day. But I have a job and family and life so that doesn't happen - instead I play recreational sports and just have fun.)

You can try to throw away the steroids analogy if you want, but what is the difference between beefing up your Pokemon team through legal hacks and using the most advanced medicine currently available to beef up your body? They are both an attempt to reduce the amount of time spent preparing for battle, they both take place outside of the actual competition, and neither (directly) decides the result since skill is more important to winning than pure strength. Why do you draw such a strong distinction between the two? I'm asking seriously, not patronizing.


I'm also curious about this term: "legal hacking". What makes it legal? Are there rules in place explicitly saying that you are allowed to hack Pokemon as long as they meet expected limitations? Or is it just that there is no way to easily test the data and discover that hacking has occurred?  The term and descriptions provided so far certainly make it sound like a euphemism for "undetectable hacking" rather than being supported by any rules that condone or support hacking. Would you be ok to announce to the judges/organizers of a competition that you were playing with a team of hacked Pokemon? (Maybe people do that all the time, maybe not. I'm a complete noob to the topic so have to ask.)


And one final note: I'm not condemning anyone in this post or in my previous post. If you took offence, then maybe you'd better look at yourself to figure out why.
« Last Edit: September 06, 2012, 04:38:50 PM by ejamer »
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Offline S-U-P-E-R

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #19 on: September 06, 2012, 05:37:06 PM »
So if hacking doesn't give any advantage, why does it happen? Why do so many people who want to play and compete bother with hacking?
It saves time. Lots and lots of time. That's the only reason.
 
I'm going to assume there is a catch and train style gameplay tournament as well.  Like Magic has the Sealed deck games.
I'm trying to imagine the logistics of running a tournament like this and my head exploded. It sounds like it would take tens of hours...
« Last Edit: September 06, 2012, 05:53:55 PM by S-U-P-E-R »

Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #20 on: September 06, 2012, 07:51:15 PM »
Let me just say off the bat that I'm sorry that my last post was so rude and angry. I get caught up in the debate and I get very belligerent. : / Thank you for responding calmly... if this were any other forum, my opponent would have exploded right back at me. Thanks for being the better man. :)

Anyway, SUPER covered your first question pretty well. Time is valuable.

As for the steroid analogy, think of it this way. Athletes who use steroids end up being able to perform better in a match of their sport. I'm not an expert on anabolic steroids and their biological effects, but from what I understand, they increase protein production and synthesis in your body. Protein is the building block of muscle, and after working out, your tired, broken down muscles are flooded with protein to rebuild them. Because of their effects, steroids allow athletes' muscles to rebuild more quickly, and to gain more muscle mass in less time. This means that steroid using athletes are simply stronger and more muscular than their peers. Also, as steroids are based on testosterone, they increase the agressiveness of the athletes (AKA roid rage), which is also beneficial in the context of a sports match.

In pokemon, both the (legal) hackers and the legit trainers' pokemon end up in the same place. They both have the same IVs, EVs, Nature, Moveset, etc. If these two pokemon were to face each other, the legit one has just as much of a chance against the hacked one as it would against a legit one. The ONLY difference is the amount of time spent on them. And that's completely irrelevant to the outcome of the match.

In short, the difference is that steroids enhance performance (which got them their apt name: performance enhancing drugs). Hacking does not enhance performance, it saves time. If I may try my hand at an analogy, hacking is like a sports team taking an airplane to their match, and breeding/training is taking the horse and buggy.

Ok, so let me define two terms here for clarity's sake:

A "legal" pokemon is one whose stats are allowed within the confines of a game. Serebii/Bulbapedia/Smogon etc. have charts that show the maximum stats a pokemon can achieve through in-game means. Any pokemon whose stats are within that range is legal.

A "legit" pokemon is one that was actually obtained within the confines of the game - no AR, no pokesav, etc.

All legit pokemon are legal, but not all legal pokemon are legit. The entire point of a legal pokemon is that it's supposed to be indistinguishable from a legal one. An ILLEGAL hack, on the other hand, is a pokemon that could not possibly be made within the limits of the game (ie an Arceus with 999 in all stats, or with moves it can't learn). I don't support illegal hacks, because that really is an unfair advantage.

As far as your last statement, I wasn't really aiming the "preaching" comment at you, but there's a few people in this thread, and many, many more elsewhere *COUGHGAMEFAQSCOUGH* who do that, and it does kinda piss me off when people get all high and mighty over the morals and ethics of A VIDEO GAME.

Offline Ceric

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #21 on: September 06, 2012, 08:02:26 PM »
So if hacking doesn't give any advantage, why does it happen? Why do so many people who want to play and compete bother with hacking?
It saves time. Lots and lots of time. That's the only reason.
 
I'm going to assume there is a catch and train style gameplay tournament as well.  Like Magic has the Sealed deck games.
I'm trying to imagine the logistics of running a tournament like this and my head exploded. It sounds like it would take tens of hours...
You start it at the beginning of the event and finish last.  I guess in the current iteration this would work well because you really need special areas that where made with this in mind.
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Offline yoshi1001

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #22 on: September 06, 2012, 09:39:07 PM »
They could restrict everyone to rental Pokemon, but that would also limit customization, and personally I wouldn't want it to become the only form of competitive play.


One issue you could have mentioned (which ties into the others on various levels), is that unlike the Pokemon TCG, VG organized play has been limited to the upper levels (regionals and higher) for the most part. The lack of lower-level organized play is largely due to the technical hurdles (which have gotten smaller, but are still significant) involved in holding such events on a regular basis.
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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #23 on: December 09, 2012, 01:07:19 PM »
As a person interested in getting into competitive play, I stumbled onto this article which gave me a decent bit of information I was lacking (as the last time I had played was original Gold). However, as I read through the comments, I saw people attempting to legitimatize using external programs to create Pokemon so as to save time. While I can see and accept their point regarding the end result being the same, I feel that these people have failed to look at one very important paragraph in the Pokemon VG Rules:



2.1. External Devices
The use of external devices to modify or create items or Pokémon in a player’s party is expressly
forbidden. Players found to have Pokémon or items that have been tampered with will be disqualified
from competition, regardless of whether the Pokémon or items belong to that player or were traded for.
Players should only have Pokémon that they have raised themselves and items that they have received
through normal game play. It is always the player’s responsibility to have legal Pokémon and items
during the competition.


This information is publicly made available at Pokemon's official site. No matter how you swing it, using programs to create Pokemon (even within their statistical limits) is cheating, as defined in the rules of the game.

Offline Oblivion

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Re: The High Barriers to Entry in Competitive Pokémon
« Reply #24 on: December 09, 2012, 05:46:59 PM »
Guess what? Everyone does it. It's just like using performance enhancing drugs with baseball.