To Be the Very Best: A VGC Room Intro

VGC and our PS Room

Hello, Serapis here and today I'm going to be telling you all about the Pokémon Showdown! VGC room. First though, I feel that I should go into what VGC is for those of you who don't know. VGC stands for Video Game Championships and is the format of the official Pokémon tournament circuit hosted by The Pokémon Company International (TPCI) every year. VGC players attend real-life competitions of varying sizes to try and obtain CP, or Championship Points. Gathering enough CP can qualify you for paid trips, stipends and even an invite to the Pokémon World Championships.

The smallest VGC tournaments are local Premier Challenges, the winners of which receive 40 CP. Above the PCs, as they're called, there are the Regional Championships. As much larger events, the Regional winners receive 120 CP. Next after Regionals are Nationals, which are massive competitions spanning multiple days. The winner recieves the title of National Champion and a whopping 600 CP. Finally, each VGC season concludes with the Pokémon World Championships, which is an invite-only tournament for the VGC season's best-preforming players.

Now, with that out of the way, let's dive into the VGC room. Most notably, the VGC room is the only PS! room that is constantly set to moderated chat +. In other words, you need to be a Voice or higher if you wish to contribute to the discussion. This was implemented because the VGC room was having issues with spammers. Requiring Voice has drastically decreased the amount of spam in the room.

So, knowing this, you decide you want to become a VGC room Voice. Well, it's very easy. All you really need to do is PM one of the VGC room Moderators and request, politely, to be roomvoiced, as all of the Moderators will be happy to do so, and you don't have to worry about losing your ranks as long as you are a responsible user. However, before you begin chatting, there are several individuals you should know.

Nugget Bridge

Nugget Bridge, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is the main website for competitive VGC. It has articles, event reports, strategy guides and more. It also hosts its own tournament circuit, the Nugget Bridge Invitational, which is a great way to get involved with VGC if you are unable to attend live tournaments due to your location. Nugget Bridge also runs the VGC room, and pretty much all of the VGC room staff are also involved with Nugget Bridge in some capacity. So, with that out of the way, let's introduce you to some of the VGC room's higher-ups!

The Who's Who of the VGC Room

nostrom (Scott Glaza): Scott is a co-founder of Nugget Bridge and one of the VGC room Owners. You might have seen him before if you've watched VGC replays on YouTube, seeing as he commentates VGC matches. In fact, Scott was even selected to be one of the two commentators for the final US National Championship match and the final World Championship match. While it's rare to see him in the VGC room, it's still good to know who he is.
makiri (Paul Hornak): Paul is a Nugget Bridge co-founder, co-creator, and administrator. He is also responsible for organizing the Nugget Bridge Invitational. Besides that, he is another one of the VGC room Owners and a more common sight there than Scott. While he is often busy, he's still a very friendly and approachable guy.
firestorm (Rushan Shekar): Rushan is another VGC room Owner as well as a Nugget Bridge administrator and co-founder. A longstanding member of the VGC community, he is usually the one who handles VGC news. He posted all of the placings at VGC Regionals, and reported Pokémon usage data from these same events. He is also very involved with all of the articles on the site; he handles the review of article ideas before they are published.

Getting Involved

The easiest way to get involved with the VGC community is to ask to be Voice in the VGC room or to make a Nugget Bridge account. When it comes to attending actual events, The Pokémon Company has an event locator that you can access here. Premier Challenges are a great place to start as they tend to be located to you than Regional Championships. If you attend some events and wish to see where you stand compared to others, there are also online international rankings which you can find here.

If you're interested in learning about VGC strategy and rules, there are several good YouTube resources. Aaron "Cybertron" Zheng runs a successful Youtube channel dedicated to VGC here, and Alex Ogloza, the US 2014 National Champion, has his own VGC channel here. If you prefer watching battles live, both of them have their own Twitch channels here and here.

With all that in mind, thanks for reading and I hope to see you in the VGC room or at a live event! Good luck to you all on your own journey to become the very best, like no one ever was!

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