The Official 3DS Buzz Pokemon Online Tournament

Introduction

Greetings, fellow 3DS Buzz members. Welcome to the official 3DS Buzz Pokemon Online Tournament.

Following the popularity and success of Aivant's 4th and 5th Gen. Pokemon tournaments, I figured it would be a great idea to hold an online Pokemon tournament using the 'Pokemon Online' battle simulator, so as to open up entry to anyone with a computer and internet access. All that is needed is to download the Pokemon Online battle simulator (which can be found here), and you're on your way to creating your Pokemon dream team.

The Bracket

This is the tournament bracket. If you have forgotten how the tournament is to be held, reference the rules and tournament procedure below. Also, try to record if possible.



How the Tournament Will be Held

This is an OU-tier Pokemon tournament. For those who are unfamiliar with the terminology, there are various tiers into which Pokemon are placed depending on their overall power and usefulness in battle, ranging from Neverused, to Rarelyused, Underused, to Overused, and finally to Uber. Essentially, this tournament will allow you to use any Pokemon in the Overused tier and under in your team. We will be using Smogon's tier system for this tournament, which can be found here.

The tournament itself will be held in usual tournament fashion. You will be required to battle three times against the person in your bracket; the person with the most wins will move on to the next round, while the loser will be removed from the tournament.

If the number of participants is large enough, the loser may be able to continue to battle other losers in a separate tier for a lower position. While it is unlikely we will have enough contestants to do this, it would still be cool nonetheless.

Rules


The breaking of any of these rules will result in an automatic disqualification.

- You may not have any Pokemon in the Uber tier in your team.
- You may not have two of the same Pokemon in your team.
- You may not cause more than two of your opponent's Pokemon to sleep at the same time.
- You may not use any moves or items that lowers the opponent's accuracy, or raise your Pokemon's evasiveness.
- You may not use OHKO moves.
- You may not use the ability "Moody"
- You may not use the abilities "Drizzle" and "Swift Swim" in conjunction.

Other than those rules, everything else is fair game. For a more in-depth description of these rules, you may view the official Smogon document here.

Tips and Tricks

These aren't rules, but they are guidelines to help you improve your competitive edge:

- Don't be afraid to switch Pokemon. Many beginning trainers simply send out one Pokemon and never recall it until it dies. This is not always the best strategy. Sometimes it is better than you lose a turn and save the life of one of your Pokemon than simply let it die.

- A strong defense can be just as good or better than a strong offense. Too many times I've seen teams completely composed of offensive Pokemon which ultimately get slaughtered by a team who employs a bit more strategy.

- Stat boosts are very important. I know as a beginning trainer I largely ignored stat-boosting moves, but they really give your Pokemon an edge in battle. Often times one or two stat boosts is all the difference needed to knock out a Pokemon which previously would've survived a hit and healed.

- Test your team out against others online. I cannot stress this enough; your team will have weaknesses that you don't foresee, and if you go into the tournament without having tested your team beforehand, you'll likely find out the hard way what you should work on.

- Develop a loose strategy with your Pokemon team to use in battle, but don't require too many variables to match up in order for it to succeed. From personal experience, you can't simply expect to utilize upon Pokemon's elemental weaknesses to win a battle (not that you shouldn't do so if the opportunity presents itself); rather, always have a few strategies in place which you can utilize to win in case you can't find any holes in the enemy's defenses. However, at the same time don't make said strategies too situational. After a battle or two, your opponent will have discovered your strategy, and will attempt to foil it at all costs. Thus, don't make your strategy too detailed, since they often prove easier to foil than simpler strategies. Finally, always have a back-up plan in case something goes wrong. I can't tell you how many times I've lost due to a lucky critical hit.

For more battling tips, check out Smogon; one of the largest Pokemon battling communities with a whole database full of battle strategies and analyses on individual Pokemon. Alternately, if you want to see a real Pokemon battle in action, check out some of the more popular Pokemon battlers on youtube. You'd be surprised how much you can pick up from watching others who are more knowledgeable on the subject. My personal favorite is Xenon3120, but there are many more out there to choose from.

Anyway, enjoy the tournament! It's set to start on the 21st of July; we'll need at least eight participants for this to go forward.

You know I am in this!

That's strange. What happens when you try and download it?

Wonder Guard can only be on Shedninja anyway, if you've used Pokemon Online before, it doesn't let you choose any ability, only ones that the pokemon can have
--- merged ---
Oh, and The Aivantinators is In!

Wonder Guard is allowed. It's certainly an interesting ability, but not nearly as broken as others such as moody, since it's quite easy to get around it if you come prepared.

As to moves that raise evasiveness, those aren't allowed either. I'll update the rules to be more specific.

Me and Yotta were kinda experimenting with this yesterday, And I personally think that we could just use the Pokemon online server, just a different channel that isn't as crowded. I think we might just have to enforce the rules by reporting if someone was breaking the rules

Why only 3-on-3?

I'll play 3-on-3 for practice, but I think 6-on-6 is better for the tournament, as it requires more thought and strategy. Of course, if a lot of people only want 3-on-3, then I'll change it, but for now I think I'll stick to regular 6-on-6.

Wait, 3-on-3? Okay, give me a moment to edit my team a bit, and I'll be there.