How to Qualify for Worlds with Limited Time

Hello, my name is Max and I qualified for the 2024 Pokémon VGC World Championships in 5 months. I’m 32, married, have a 2-year-old son and just had our second kid in November, and work full-time as a Doctor of Physical Therapy. This season recap serves to show how I was able to qualify despite significant time constraints and advice for anyone trying to do the same.

This report is split into 2 parts. First, is my journey to Worlds in probably too much detail. Second, is my general advice and steps I would recommend people take to perform on limited time.

These points are meant to be suggestions only. Pokémon is an incredibly diverse game and there is not a correct way to be successful. This report is mostly targeted to people with limited time and busy lives, but are definitely not exclusive.

Season recap

Prologue

I have lots to say about this journey so strap in. This is told from my perspective but I feel strongly that reading this and having a vicarious experience will be valuable to other players.

Before this season, however, we have to go back a few years. In 2014, X and Y had just released. I had played doubles Pokémon vs my brother and sister all the way back in Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald. With the increased ease of getting competitive Pokémon, I played the in-game ladder as often as I could. I ran Transform Smeargle next to Mega Kangaskhan, thinking the only thing stronger than Mega Kangaskhan was a second one. One of my highest finishes to this day is with this team going 27-3 to start a Global Challenge. Despite a lot of success playing online this year, I could not go to events. I was finishing my Doctorate and unable to afford or get the time to feasibly travel. Years past and I considered doing events in Sun and Moon but just didn’t enjoy the games as much.

Sword and Shield hit and I came down with Dynamax fever. I loved this early game format. Finally, I had the opportunity to go to an event: Salt Lake City (April 2020). I had a team I was proud of that hadn’t made much noise yet. And then… the pandemic canceled everything. I would go on to use this team and place just outside the top 32 in Wolfey & aDrive’s The Champions Cup with my Coalossal team featuring Focus Sash Dragapult and a very bulky and disruptive Mow Rotom. Finally in 2022 I had some strong Regional teams, but never could put together a good in-person performance despite high ladder placement and strong concepts.

Scarlet and Violet came out a few weeks after my son was born. I tried to compete, but it is fairly hard to perform at a high level with a serious job and newborn. One thing difficult about this season was only going to one event per rotating format. After San Diego (January 2023) I had so many things I could do with my team, and Regulation Set B made many of those things mostly obsolete. After Vancouver (March 2023), I began to have doubts if I could make a push to qualify, and took a prolonged break until after Worlds 2023. Despite no in-person success to this point, I still had high confidence in my ability as a player. I sat down with my wife and we made a schedule and plan for me to go to as many events as possible this year to qualify, as this would soon become even harder with another child on the horizon. This was finally a year where I was going to commit all in. I also want to acknowledge how hard my wife worked for me to achieve this goal. My success was not possible without her and this is her qualification as much as mine. She took multiple days off work to accommodate my travel, was the best possible mother to our child, and never doubted that I could achieve my goal. I am truly very lucky to have her support.

The Teal Mask released and I had been playing Nikolaj Høj Nielsen / NikolajHoej‘s Worlds team with some changes inspired by Federico Camporesi / FedeCampo‘s run as well. I played around 500 games with this team in Regulation Set D and felt very strong with it. Sacramento Regional (October 2023) was right around the corner. It’s Tuesday before the event and I am extremely lost. I feel obligated to use some of the new Pokémon from The Teal Mask. The addition of a best-of-3 ladder in Pokémon Showdown was incredible, especially in this format. However, everything I used didn’t feel good. This day in particular was very dark for me, my wife had given me a 3-hour chunk of time to prep in the afternoon and I had left work early, but I was struggling to make any progress.

I had planned to drive an hour north to compete in my first local, but the 3 hours of extremely negative prep had shaken me a lot. I realized I need to get a team in game, and all I had was the NikolajHoej team from Worlds. I run a few sets with my old team on Showdown prior and get completely rolled by someone using Kommo-o and Psychic-Tera Type Tera Blast Tyranitar. There have been 2 times in my life where I have been beaten this badly and truly impressed by someone’s play and meta call going into an event. I’ll mention that again in a little while. I think about how I could beat this team as I drive up to the local just outside Seattle and come up with a game plan, despite doubting I’ll ever play it again. I sit down across the table from Donald Smith, a name I recognize, and I’m filled with nerves, especially considering how poorly my prep day had gone. On team preview I am delighted to see Psychic-Tera Type Tera Blast Tyranitar and Kommo-o, I test my game plan and it works. I go on to play Montana Mott in round 2 and remember very vividly his laugh when I sent out my Iron Hands the Teeny, win narrowly to start 2-0. I dodge a Heat Wave against William Fuh in round 3 and end up 3-0. I cue into someone named Zach Droegkamp, whose name sounds familiar; I see Braverius on his trainer card and feel the nerves build up again as I remember why I know his name. I manage to win and go 4-0 in Swiss at my first local. I lose a very close set vs Ryan Bailey in cut but I am happy to have earned 12 CP.

While talking to people after the event, I’m still feeling a lack of confidence in using something that wasn’t made for this format at a Regional-level event. Zach speaks up and says that if I play that well with the team, I’ll have success. It was a short sentence but it was what I needed. After a dark day on Showdown, the in-person games vs people I now consider friends, their kind words, fills me with strength like I’m in the Pokémon anime. I lock in the team of Ursaluna, Flutter Mane, Cresselia, Iron Hands, Dragonite, and Single Strike Style Urshifu and fly to California.

Sacramento Regional

Sacramento is an incredible place for a Regional. I ate something like 40 tacos in 3 days and to me that is pure joy. I can’t go in depth on every round of every event or this already long-winded report will be way longer than it needs to.

Round 1 I remember completely rolling my opponent, doing 90% to KO their Steel-Tera Type Flutter Mane with my Choice Band Dragonite’s resisted Flying-Tera Type Tera Blas.
Round 2 I narrowly lose because I didn’t have the guts to make the read I needed in game 3, which would have won me the set.
Round 3 I win game 1 handily. In game 2 my opponent gets double protects on both their Pokémon to end trick room and I narrowly lose because their Hisuian Decidueye was slower than my Cresselia and I reset Trick Room. I’m more aggressive in game 3 and am in a commanding position in Trick Room. They literally get triple Protects on both Pokémon and then crit my Ursaluna to win. I’m 1-2. I am understandably frustrated. The conversation I had with my wife at the start of the year, the hobbies I am temporarily ignoring to be here, thinking about my son. I am filled with confidence.
I don’t remember the order in which I played people rounds 4 to 8, but effectively I had extremely tough match-ups every round and played out of my mind to reach 6-2. 2 people I played at x-2 in early rounds made Day 2 of Worlds this year.
But now, it’s win and in after a very stressful day. Game 1 I make the correct call the first 2 turns. My Grass-Tera Type Flutter Mane takes 54 damage from an Amoonguss’s Pollen Puff to get KO’d and my mouth drops. I have so much bulk, there was no way I was in range. I wasn’t confident enough in the calc so I had to change my game plan. Later I look up the roll and it was 1/16 chance to KO with 54 being the highest damage roll.

I finish 6-3 and felt good to have earned CP and progressed towards the goal.

Toronto Regional

In the 2 weeks between Sacramento and Toronto, I reached out to both FedeCampo and NikolajHoej for more advice on how the team plays. Between this and a few other people I have reached out for coaching, I figured out how coaching best works for me. I also think if you can find a way to schedule back-to-back Regionals together, it’s incredibly good for both skill development and performance in a format. I dedicated my time to learning more damage calculations and continued to practice.

Toronto arrives. On my flight there I literally stared at the seat in front of me the whole time, it was a weird feeling of mental preparation mixed with meditation. I get only a few hours of sleep, arriving to my hotel around midnight. This tournament was the best I’ve played in person. Across 14 rounds between Days 1 and 2, I called leads of every single game except round 14 game 3. There were a couple times I called leads but still led poorly into them as well, but with the team I was using, this was a recipe for success.

Round 1 I play a very nice newer player. I always bring extra pens and a notebook to give out if it looks like someone wants to take notes. I gave one to them and later saw them at the Vancouver Regional as well as their name pop up often in local results. Anton, I am so happy to have been a small part in helping you get more into the game.
Round 2 I narrowly beat a well-played Annihilape.
Round 3 I play someone who is literally younger than the Dragonite I’m using (it was from Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness) and manage to win.
Round 4 I lose to someone at their first event who just completely outplayed me, was very enjoyable to play.
Round 5 is kind of a blur and I don’t remember.
Round 6 I win game 1, narrowly lost game 2 due to a Heat Wave burn, and ultimately still win game 3.
Round 7 I narrowly lose a set due to leading poorly into a lead I expected in game 3, was an incredible set.
Round 8 I play someone coming off stream who is playing the team I feared most, but managed to execute my game plans and win 2-0.
Round 9 I play an incredibly creative Trick Room team that had an insanely challenging schedule to get to 6-2 with me. Luckily, I had a very favorable match-up and managed to win 2-0 and advance to day 2.

Huge shoutout to Montana for hanging out between so many rounds and being a pal at this event!

I was pumped. I had not done this well at an event before. The hour walk back to my hotel I received so many messages from people who I had played over the last couple years, as well as huge support from family and wife. Improving on a result from 2 weeks prior felt amazing. I barely slept that night and rolled into Day 2.

Round 10 I won 2-0 extremely quickly.
Rounds 11 and 12 I played Mattie Morgan and Tang Shiliang back to back, losing in game 3 very narrowly to both of them, one on a damage roll and the other to Amoonguss sleep turns. These 2 losses were some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing Pokémon, despite losing both narrowly.
Round 13 I get revenge on my round 4 loss from yesterday, but it’s still an incredibly close set.
Round 14 I am out of top 16 contention even with a win, I lose focus a little and let myself lose 2 mons in one turn with a lead in game 2, ultimately losing the set to my opponent identifying an excellent lead for game 3.

I am happy with this 9-5 finish, but I also feel a huge sense of what could have been given how close my losses were.

San Antonio Regional

I take all of November off, didn’t play nearly at all. I prioritize being a good partner and parent, enjoying much needed rest from the game. In early December I attend multiple Seattle locals. I am rusty and the metagame has progressed from when I had last played, but I didn’t have enough time to iterate on what I was doing. I fly to San Antonio with the hopes of getting points. I didn’t have quite as much confidence in my play as Toronto between the limited time I had and the metagame shifting. I lock in the exact same 6 with no changes from Toronto and head to the venue.

Round 1 I am excited to see I am playing Giovanni Costa, a player I look up to. I look at his teamsheet and we have different takes on the same style team. I manage to win pretty convincingly 2-0, despite having to make some harder reads.
Round 2 I manage to win a close set, but I don’t remember any of the details.
Round 3 I pair into Justin Burns and I’m excited again to play someone of high caliber early in the day. I get completely crushed game 1 and then narrowly lost game 2 to an Icicle Crash flinch, without a chance to execute a plan I had come up with for game 3 just before the flinch.

Fun fact, at this point I had played half of what would be top 4 for this event. Now after 3 rounds, it was my least favorite time of the day: a lunch break. I hate stopping with so many rounds left and it shows.

I sit back down and am right below an air conditioner, my notebook pages are blowing, I’m very distracted for round 4. I click Fake Out into Inner Focus Dragonite even though it’s literally on my own team and lose game 1 immediately. I somehow manage to win but definitely was the benefactor of luck.
I lock in and play rounds 5 and 6 near flawlessly to move on to 5-1. I was so excited to be 5-1, as it means I was guaranteed points and didn’t waste the flight away from my family.
Round 7 I was inconsistent and non committal to leads and it cost me.
I win a close set round 8 and move on to another win and in.
I lose a very close win-and-in set in game 3 to my opponent gambling the game on turn 1, which ultimately my play was bad and it super paid off for them.

I cheer on Gio on my flight home, excited for him to take the win after losing round 1.

Portland Regional

A new regulation. Many strong new and old Pokémon added. For Portland (January 2024) I lock in the same 6 mons as San Antonio and show up to the venue.

I didn’t have time to iterate on anything too specific and the early Regulation Set F metagame felt extremely unstable. People had slept on Rapid Strike Style Urshifu in early Regulation Set E and didn’t want to repeat mistakes. My team felt stronger than any newer team I tried, so I continued to believe in it.

Round 1 I play a TCG player doing VGC for the first time and they should have beat me, but I managed to win.
Round 2 I play a very good player who I manage to get all of the tough reads correct, very lucky and move on to 2-0.
Round 3 I narrowly win but don’t remember too much.
Round 4 I am playing Raghav Malaviya and hear that my set may be streamed, but ultimately it is not. It was an incredible set and their Flutter Mane survives a Helping Hand-boosted Sucker Punch on 1 HP in game 3 to result in my defeat.
Between hearing I may be on stream to the intensity of the set, I show up to round 5 and get absolutely stomped.
Round 6 I’m against a very good player that I know and I lose game 1 quickly. The next moment was very memorable to me. Facing potential elimination from Day 2, I take some deep breaths and tell myself I’m going to win. I don’t really know exactly what words went through my head, but I was filled with overwhelming confidence and resolve. My heart raced. I imagine it was a similar feeling I had identified a few plays I could have made in game 1 and from this point on in Day 1, I don’t drop a game until round 9.
In the moment round 9 did not feel like a close set, I lost game 2 to a +2 Sucker Punch crit that was still a roll into my Ursaluna and played extremely aggressively game 3 to make Day 2. Looking back, my opponent made good plays and game 3 was extremely close despite me not losing a Pokémon.
In Day 2 I start off round 10 vs Alberto Lara in a match-up that was probably favorable. He played well and I did not, which rarely results in victory. This was the theme of Day 2 at Portland, I was outplayed in most sets.
Round 11 I lost game 1 and was going to lose game 2 badly, but my opponent made a bad Terastallization and left an opportunity for me to crit and win. My Iron Hands, with memories of all the events of the season, crits the Water-Tera Type Registeel and I figured out a way to win game 3.
My luck ends here. Round 12 I lose every 50/50 vs a tough Dondozo match-up and round 13 I narrowly beat a fellow Washington player to move to 9-4.
Notably I get the rematch vs Raghav and it’s another very close set, where this time their Metagross survived with 1 HP on a critical turn in game 3 and I lose.

9-5 again. This time, it was probably better than I deserved between the inconsistent plays yesterday and extremely below-average play in Day 2. I am left wondering what I can do to unlock the literal anime protagonist brain function I had after falling to 3-2 the day before.

Global Challenge I

At this point you may be wondering, why are you mentioning a Global Challenge? This Global Challenge was the peak of my season. In the buildup, I had been playing with a nearly max Special Defense Galarian Zapdos to facilitate Trick Room and operate as a bulky pivot that also punishes Incineroar and Rillaboom. Turns out, it works very well. I attended a few locals leading up to the Global Challenge (February 2024), at one point I had a streak of 4 consecutive Premier Challenge (PC) wins in a row. From the end of San Antonio until I get my invite, I was moving between 30th and 19th on the CP leaderboard for North America, which I was so excited about I think I printed out a physical copy of the list every time I hit a new number.

Begin, Global Challenge I. I start off day 1 with 2 consecutive losses due to disconnects in game-winning positions. My internet is connected and the second time I am certain my opponent rage quit and for some reason I received the loss. I had played probably 1000+ games on Sword and Shield and never once disconnected. Throughout the Global Challenge I play the best Pokémon I’ve ever played in my life, and Galarian Zapdos is doing exactly what it’s supposed to. I finish 27-12 with 4 losses from disconnects where I was still connected to the internet and about to win the game. I earned Top 128 CP. 7 out of 8 of my real losses were to different iterations of Flutter Mane + Chi-Yu leads. In this event, I got to click Helping Hand-boosted, Guts-boosted, +2 Earthquake a lot, which knocked out multiple Wellspring Mask Ogerpon from full HP. Overall I am so proud of this Global Challenge in particular, but still feel bad about how the disconnects cost me a 31-8 record, which would have had a good chance of winning the entire event.

At this point, I’m getting close to my invite. I win a PC by counterteaming a friend and subsequently get rolled by Smeargle + Muk in a Midseason Showdown (MSS) the next day, putting me at 470+/500 Championship Points. I’m ready for a break. Since San Antonio, 2 months ago, I have been on a long grind, it’s showing in my play after the peak of the Global Challenge. I’m ready for some nights where I just go to bed at the same time as my toddler and wife, instead of staying up to practice and learn or driving to evening events. Despite this burnout, I’m not ready to take a break, as I know the format changes and I want to get my invite with the teams I’ve had success with.

Vancouver Regional

This event (March 2024) is always the one I want to do the best at. Vancouver is a fun location and I can get there quickly from my home. It has also been the cursed regional for me. In 2022 I was top 25 on the Showdown ladder and ultimately went 1-3 and dropped. 2023 I played super well but remember miscounting Draco Meteors on a choice-locked Tatsugiri, where I went for a double Protect and they clicked Struggle twice to win, where if I could just get my attack off, I’d probably won. This year I have had decent success at every event I’ve gone to, and decided to set a higher goal of finishing Day 1 at 8-1. I continue to work on the Galarian Zapdos variant of my team and it just gets better with more time and practice. In the two weeks leading up to Vancouver, I’m on very high ladder for both best of 3 and best of 1, which felt extremely exciting given how limited my time was. I would run into the bathroom at work and win a set, then continue my job.

The week before, I get extra encouragement from my wife to go to the Seattle MSS for practice and to lock up my invite, so I can focus on the 8-1 goal for Vancouver. I show up and it’s an 18-person event, which half of the players would go on to make Day 2 at Vancouver, and nearly all had made Day 2 this season. This was a very hard local, but my team was working and I was playing well. I had a particularly great set vs Pranav Sharma in Swiss and also in top 8, where he had Misty Terrain Whimsicott and I still managed to win with Ursaluna. In top 4 I finally beat my friend Ryan Bailey for the first time, who always plays so consistent. In finals I get the rematch vs Alex Underhill, my Swiss round 5 loss, which I have a significant team advantage. I was cheesed and outplayed to a second-place finish, but got my Worlds invite. I was surprised at how calm I felt with the achievement. Somewhere along the season, my internal perception of the goal had shifted. I now felt I had a chance to make Day 2 of Worlds, given how close I had been to deeper runs all season. Nonetheless I’m very happy on this car ride home.

I continue to practice for Vancouver. This was some of the best prep I have ever done for an event, and it mirrored my feeling going into Toronto. The day of the event arrives and I get hard carried by my team to a measly 5-4 finish, which I had some great highs in, but ultimately just didn’t play well. The burnout from the last 2 months was really setting in. Without the pressure of an invite anymore, I wasn’t able to unlock the potential I had at Toronto or even Portland. There were so many times during this day where I clicked my moves in so fast and immediately saw a path to victory after. The Vancouver chapter ends and I do go to two more small MSS, getting Championship Points with Chimecho my beloved along the way.

Los Angeles Regional

At the end of March, I commit to taking a longer break. It was good timing. My wife had just begun to struggle with early pregnancy. It was lovely to not feel the pressure to play. Regulation Set G was announced and, at the start, I thought it would be fun. Restricted Legendary Pokémon add a level of power to the game that is interesting to build around. I casually messed around with Origin Forme Dialga leading up to the first major events. Fun fact, the only damage calc I ran was for my Dialga to survive a Choice Specs-boosted Draco Meteor from Miraidon, which everyone had written off for some reason. Indianapolis (May 2024) was a joy to watch and I began to feel excited to compete again.

Leading up to Los Angeles, I try to get more sets vs friends instead of the best-of-3 ladder. I reach out to my friend Montana who had helped make Toronto such a great event for me. We had several very close fun sets throughout the year and he had continued to place higher at each event. Do you remember earlier when I mentioned, there was 2 times this season where I was beaten badly and truly astounded by someone’s play and meta call leading into an event? This was the second. I was destroyed despite a match-up advantage and playing well. Both times this has happened, the person I played went on to win a regional (Montana and Michael Zhang), so if you want me to let you know if you’ll win the next event, my Twitter DMs are open.

I arrived in Los Angeles and feel decently prepared despite only prepping for about 12 days leading up to the Regional. The day of, there were some technical difficulties, but I found them amusing and don’t think they impacted my result at all. This was another event where I got hard carried by my team, finishing 6-3 but man I played bad. I just barely managed to win sloppy sets by making hard reads and I was still clicking fast. At the start of the season, 6-3 would have felt like success, but that was slowly being redefined for me. At times during the day, I was apathetic about playing poorly, I already had my invite and wasn’t enjoying how the format was progressing. Despite the team I was using having similar principles, I was also frustrated that I couldn’t build off the skills I had gained with what I was using most of the year. On my flight home, I was sad about my play, but very motivated to go to NAIC a few weeks later. Notably, cheering Montana on to win this Regional was one of the highlights of my season. I felt so strongly before the event he was going to at least break into top 8, it was a joy to see.

I decide to work on a different concept for NAIC (June 2024). In my head, Ice Rider Calyrex was the strongest because it can easily beat so many of the non-Restricted Pokémon with proper speed control. I began to work on the team with my friend Devin Bales, who ultimately would use it at NAIC. Somewhere in this prep, the amount of stress and work doesn’t feel worth it to go anymore. I didn’t want to repeat Los Angeles and wasn’t enjoying the format in that moment. I decided to take a break until Worlds.

2024 World Championships

This is it! This was the goal, to get here. I had done it. Except, it didn’t feel like it. I was ready to have another performance to be proud of. Much of my prep was stretched very thin leading to Worlds. I would work 5:30 am to 4:30 pm in a hospital and come home and take over parenting from my pregnant wife. After they both go to bed, I’d try to practice from 8:30 pm until hopefully no later than 10 pm. It was physically and mentally exhausting. Even worse, a lot of this prep I had poor time management, felt lost, felt burnt out. I reached out to Navjit Joshi / NJ, another Pacific Northwest player. He had been working on a similar Ice Rider Calyrex team to the one I was building around for NAIC. The combination of Electric-, Ground-, and Ice-type coverage with multiple speed control options was really strong. It was the first team I used in Regulation Set G where I was just winning all the time. We chatted up until the event with minor optimizations, where I ultimately elected to leverage into match-ups I expected to face while NJ attempted to make his match-up spread more even and tested up until the final couple days. I had pretty limited time and felt I needed to be more comfortable with what I was using, so I didn’t change much over the final 10 days.

I land in Hawaii and it feels very weird to me to be in such a desirable location to play Pokémon. The noise begins. Worlds is a crazy environment, especially in Hawaii. Walking through the streets of Waikiki felt like a Pokémon GO fest. The Pokémon Center process and experience was polarizing. The lines were long; yet, the air was filled with excitement. I felt envious at times of the people who were walking around, playing Pokémon GO, just excited to be on a fun trip that also involves Pokémon.

It’s Friday. I feel good. I feel focused and well prepared. It was hard to hold back tears walking into the venue. Hundreds of cheering staff line the entry to the hall and one of the more intense songs from HeartGold and SoulSilver is playing. I didn’t expect to feel as strong of emotions just walking in the door. I sit down and review my calc document until the tournament begins.

Round 1 I pair into a match-up I feel is favorable and play very well, ultimately losing to a crit game 1 followed by 3 consecutive full paralysis + double Protect in game 2. In both games I identified plays where I could have leveraged the bad luck and likely won even with the variance against me.
Round 2 I fail to identify my opponent’s play style and they make every critical play correct and I move to 0-2. This loss made the variance in round 1 feel so much worse.
Round 3 I win game 1 easily, then lose game 2 to my opponent cleverly leaving behind their restricted. Game 3 I have a guaranteed win and I just click so fast, knowing I had thrown before the turn even played out, 0-3 and I was out.
I win a long set in round 4 and lose a close set in round 5, electing to drop after that.

The highlight of the event for me was again a friend’s success. NJ would go on to make top 8, which I personally don’t think was a surprise having played against him this year and seeing the team adjustments he made going into the event.

For me, I was no longer just happy to be there. I wanted to feel competitive. I wanted to have a day to be proud of. This doesn’t mean winning the event, some of my losses this season were the most enjoyable sets despite the result. In Hawaii, the result was failure, I played 5 rounds of extremely below-average Pokémon and I’m still not sure all the reasons why. I am very proud of the work to get to Worlds, but wonder if some parts of my poor performance were self-fulfilled. Setting specific goals can dictate your end state of a journey and I wonder if by focusing so hard on qualifying alone, part of my ability to play afterwards was hindered. I also find it a little amusing that I broke a lot of my own rules and advice (see next section) leading up to the final event. I didn’t commit fully to many of my ideas, I didn’t have consistent confidence, my time management was subpar, I couldn’t unlock the best version of myself. These concepts are difficult to adhere to and I am just happy I was able to apply them for most of my season.

Only you can decide what success means for your season and each event. Qualifying for Worlds is a very alluring goal. Personally, I think a better goal is to be the best you can be for each individual event. This is the mindset I will have moving forward. Not only is that healthier overall, but I also believe it’s more likely to result in event success and qualifying for Worlds if you’re able to attend enough events. Thank you for reading this long winded season report, I wanted to keep as many details as possible so as to allow for people to vicariously live through my season and hopefully feel motivated to perform themselves. Feel free to reach out to me directly on twitter if you should want to hear more details or talk about the things I mention at the start.

General advice

Confidence

This is the first thing for a reason. Qualifying for Worlds is likely not a goal you can commit to without feeling confident that you can achieve it. For me, feeling confident allows me to make the plays that I may be nervous to make. Often, these are game-winning. Doubt in your ability, especially on the day of events, is very costly. If you are making a push for Worlds, you’re a good enough player to make it and you should feel confident. Let that confidence flow through you like an anime protagonist and commit fully to your success and ideas. YOU CAN QUALIFY. Would you want to try without feeling confident and committing fully?

Time management

You must manage your time well. Plan out a tentative season schedule. Set a consistent time to practice and have similar mental preparation for this practice as you would major events. For me, I found it helpful to play 9 best-of-3 sets on Pokémon Showdown like it was a Regional Day 1. Do what you would do on the event day, take notes on paper, eat your lucky snack, wear your jersey. Make this practice worth it as you will likely play similar to how you practice on the day of big events. Find consistent periods of downtime and capitalize on them. For me, this was playing 2 best-of-3 sets per day on a work bathroom break. I tried very hard to allow for mental preparation and consistency with this short practice session and found it very helpful once I had a team for an event. Time management is very hard in Pokémon. The endless possibilities of team building typically leads players to want to try many things. This can be effective practice for some, but I have learned that it is not for me.

Find something you feel comfortable with and refine it. Due to the open-ended nature of Pokémon, changing teams frequently is likely not going to result in consistent good performance when you have limited time. Once you find something strong, refinement and practice can be more important than iteration, especially in the more open formats we had last season. Almost my entire invite was a very lightly modified Regulation Set D team. Mindless laddering and learning to autopilot can be valuable skills, but often when your time is limited, it’s best to have an active mind. The “why” of the team matters very significantly in a Terastallization format. If a core concept is strong, accounts for the meta threats, and has tools to win in extreme play situations, then don’t be discouraged if you lose on ladder. Learning from losses is important and dropping teams too quickly will make it harder to have consistent practice and good time management. I’m not saying you have to use one team for the entirety of a season, although that is close to what I did.

Adding variance to the amount or type of teams you play with will likely yield more variant results. This may result in higher highs but also lower lows; my assumption is that you’re hoping to have consistent good placements as you probably can’t attend more than the minimum BFL. Finding consistency is key. This is somewhat format-specific, but in the more open formats we have had in Scarlet and Violet, many teams can find success. If you are one of the best players of what you bring, you have a play advantage over those who are using something newer and less refined. It’s okay to use something outdated if you’re a master at playing with it, again especially in more open formats.

Commit fully to your concepts. If you haven’t read the team report “Miraidon’s Big Day Out” by Aaron Traylor, pause this and go read it. This is what I mean. Aaron does a much better job of explaining it, but effectively, the unyielding belief that what you’re working on can be the best, allows the team to reach its fullest potential. This again can be hindered by changing teams frequently.

Utilize coaching

Despite what the game would lead us to believe, coaching does not always give you +1 to both your Attack and Defense. Finding value in coaching is very challenging in my opinion. This is very player-specific and so what I’m sharing is more my perception of what I think is most effective. We are very lucky to have access to most of the best players in game via a simple message on Twitter or Discord. This is not the case with most competitive hobbies. However, just because someone is a good player, doesn’t mean you will for sure find value in their coaching.

Have clear goals and expectations from the coaching session: Have specific match-ups you want prep on, have specific EV spreads you want optimized, have questions about their prep and success. Coaching has the biggest impact when you put the most into it before and after. If you go into a session relatively blind, the endless branching possibilities of Pokémon are not simply discussed in 1-hour segments. Many players will have play styles or values about the game that differ significantly from your own. Multiple perspectives can be very useful. If you know that someone who offers coaching has direct tournament experience with a team you want to use, it’s likely they will have a lot to offer you.

Collaborate

I am mostly a solo player. I am surrounded by so many lovely people in the scope of Pokémon but rarely ask them for sets or advice. This was in part due to limited time; it is hard for me to express the path I take to reach a completed or even functional team concisely. However, playing best-of-3 sets and talking through plays is something I think is very valuable even if you take an unorthodox approach to play. Don’t be afraid to send a Twitter DM or add someone on Discord if you think they would be good practice or share ideas. The worst case is they say no or don’t respond, which you can take with grace. The best case is you learn from someone else and hopefully in turn they can learn from you.

Playing the game

I have opinions. Pokémon is not a linear game and trying to think of it in linear terms without a very specific team like Perish trap is very hard with limited time (and even then, VERY CHALLENGING). I do think centralized formats can be temporarily solved for events but you likely need a large network and large amount of time to make a team have true “lines” to victory. I don’t think we have had a format in Scarlet & Violet that even comes close to this. You will need to think on your feet, or… your butt. Rather than thinking of gameplans as a “line,” I find it helpful to think of them as a path up a mountain. They are not straight, but you can plan out how you’re getting to the top, with room for adaptation. You may have to step over a log or take an unexpected fork, duck under a tree, etc. This analogy is helpful to me to avoid being too focused into a rigid gameplan.

During a game, you can develop semi-linear gameplans to lock up an endgame, but these are fluid and related to the state of the game. Before a game you can identify which Pokémon are likely the most effective to bring and obviously practice helps with finding consistent situations against the most common teams. However, being too attached to a gameplan or theoretical preparation is typically a way the best players exploit over practice and why the best players can always come up with a solution in a novel situation. This is another point towards finding a team with good tools, and mastering how it plays.
Be flexible. This goes for everything on here. What makes you confident, how you collaborate, what makes you play your best, they may change. I like to think that because Pokémon is a game with high variance, individual player ability has a level of variance to match it. This can be play or any aspect of competing in Pokémon.

Learn your opponent’s play style. Stare at them while they click their buttons or as the turn plays out. Make inferences on facial reaction and how they respond to pressure: Do they switch? Do they protect and then switch? Do they make a read? Do they look stressed? Are they locking in quickly? Mastering how you view your opponent’s state of pressure is very helpful in guiding how much pressure to apply and how they will interpret your play. If you can win this mental battle, you have an advantage in battle.
Take your time with move selection in practice and on tournament day. I try to avoid clicking through my moves and hitting cancel on Pokémon Showdown, you can’t go back in person. Even if your first instinct is correct, maybe you missed something obvious and the extra time prevents you from doing something you shouldn’t.

Being process- vs results-driven

Be process-driven over results-driven. The process of building or learning a team, practicing, winning, losing, is all a process. The process is very important to becoming a good player. Pokémon has lots of variance, you might play poorly and still win a local or even get points at a Regional. Personally, I am always happy with an average result if I played my best and was outplayed instead of getting lucky or favorable match-ups. It’s easy to celebrate a win and you should even if you won on luck, but understanding why you won or lost and also recognizing how easily the result could have changed is essential. This is both for learning a team and learning to be a better player as a whole. Be vigilant to the process, even if you are losing a lot. Reflection and learning from why you are losing will be positive even if your ladder rating is dropping or you have a poor result. You are more likely to get frustrated over a loss if you’re too focused on results alone. This feels more important than I have the words to say for it, but let your process define your skill over your results. In the end, results are important, but the process carries the most weight and dedication to the process will yield better results without the focus on results.

Reflection

It is likely that you will struggle at times in Pokémon, especially with limited time. I try to write about a page reflection after every event. A recap of what went well team-wise and what went poorly. I also write down what went well for me mentally and physically as these things can be separate from the game and improved in different ways. I always do this in the airport as I find the immediate reflection very important and hardest to remember after going back to a work week. Sometimes my reflections are extremely specific, like writing down a damage calc in a situation, to extremely general, like “take more time to click your moves.” Some form of reflection is important and also is a good way to establish your process as a player.

Recognize if you’re burnt out. There is enough time to take breaks even with the smaller number of invites. For me, Pokémon is extremely mentally fatiguing and takes a toll when I have done a lot of events or prep. Ultimately burnout leads to caring less about how you’re playing and being more reactive. When you care less, it’s very hard to find consistent success. Playing while burnt out is dangerous and should be avoided when possible. Take breaks!

Avoid having strong opinions about formats until they are done. Metagames have significant development even until the end of a format in most cases. If you decide you don’t like a format early, you are already behind those who are embracing the change as a rewarding challenge. I say this as someone who is extremely bitter towards Regulation Set G in particular despite feeling very excited for it early on, this negativity held me back a lot.

Unlocking the best version of yourself on tournament day

This is very important and saved for last on purpose. This is the hardest thing for me personally, as it took until this last season to even feel like I had a remote grasp on it for Pokémon specifically. I was a relatively high-level athlete in high school, having success with both cross country and basketball. For me, the preparation is completely different and counterintuitive. For sports I would get amped up, increase heart rate, unlock physical performance. For Pokémon, the more you can keep your emotions and physical reactions at bay, the more clearly you can think. Some instincts are very good, this is partially a combination of confidence and preparation. Just because you have an active mind, you don’t need to overthink.

Your physical wellbeing matters a lot. I will share what works for me, but this is something you need to figure out for yourself. The night before I always have miso ramen. In my head, the extra salt and electrolytes make it easier to think the next day, but I have no scientific basis to back this on. Morning of, I always try to sweat a little bit to wake up my brain, short run, 10 minutes of abs, whatever it takes for your heart rate to increase until you sweat from activity. Your brain runs on glucose so you need to eat unless you have god-tier instincts. Carbohydrates in the morning, then lots of sugar and protein during the day. For me, I eat nuts and gummies constantly during the event, before every set and sometimes between games. I never eat sugar outside of the events, so the increase in blood sugar is extremely noticeable to me. I drink a 40-ounce water bottle throughout the event, sometimes a little more. The chairs can be extremely uncomfortable and I am older than most of you, so I also take 1 or 2 children’s ibuprofen throughout the event to prevent headaches – I cannot think with a headache. This took a long time for me to figure out as it is very different from my normal diet. I am also fairly introverted. Despite genuinely enjoying meeting new people and talking to the competitors I know; it can exhaust me. Knowing when to stop socializing with people to maintain energy has been important for me to maintain stamina.
Experience is the best way to figure this out and I am truly envious of those who can unlock the best version of themselves naturally.

I think tying all the points I have said together will really help you achieve this best version. Be confident. Be flexible. Use your time well. Enjoy and embrace the challenging process. Collaborate when effective. Use the resources we are spoiled with in modern competitive Pokémon. Unlock the best physical and mental performance you can through experience supported by strong belief. Finally, love and care about the game. When you love something, giving that something the time and care it requires will yield a positive result, even if you experience failure. I believe strongly that you cannot expect a positive outcome without caring about and loving the game of Pokémon.

Closing words

Thank you for reading this long-winded season report, I wanted to keep as many details as possible so as to allow for people to vicariously live through my season and hopefully feel motivated to perform themselves. Feel free to reach out to me directly on Twitter if you should want to hear more details or talk about the things I mention!