Pokemon Masters: World Cup

[Balthazar007]

Competition! Mystery! Fun!

Hello again everyone,

I've been trying my hardest to think up a new Pokemon RP, but one that would require minimal upkeep. Finally, I think I've found the answer!

In this RP, you would all play the part of a Master Class Pokemon trainer. Maybe they won a league, or maybe they are well renowned for some other reason. Whatever the case, they are a force to be reckoned with. They have been invited to participate in a new Pokemon League in a new region.

They are allowed to bring Six Pokemon with them, but there are a few caveats. First, they may only have one Legendary Pokemon on their team (if any). Second, they may only have one Pseudo-Legendary OR one Mythical Pokemon on their team (if any). Third, they cannot have two of the same Pokemon on their team, and the same Pokemon species cannot be chosen by more than two trainers. Fourth, and most importantly, the grand total of all their Pokemon's base stats must not exceed 3,000 (you can look this up on any Pokemon's bulbapedia page). These requirements should help ensure that teams are diverse.

Just like World Cup Soccer, there are three main stages to this League's challenge. First, there are the qualifying rounds, where the 32 Pokemon masters must face off against other trainers to gather 'qualification points'; 16 trainers will make it out of this round. Second, there are the group stages; each group will have four trainers, and only two trainers from each group will proceed. Third, the remaining 8 will participate in a knock out style tournament.

Also, between each stage, you may venture around the region and collect more Pokemon, to add to your reserves. This is useful if you weren't able to start off with a Pokemon due to too many others having registered the same one. Also, stages two and three of the tournament will allow Pokemon parties totaling up to 3250 and 3500 respectively.

And finally, you may be thinking, "32 trainers is a lot of users. Shouldn't that number be less?". Well, just because we start off with 32 trainers, doesn't mean we need to have 32 actual players. I will allow everyone to register one main character (who's Pokemon will always be at level 100) and multiple side characters (who's Pokemon will always be at level 90). And I myself will have side characters (who's Pokemon will always be at level 90). This will ensure that our main characters/protagonists have an advantage. At the same time though, this does not mean battling a side character is a guaranteed win; you'll have to stay on your game. If you wish to battle one of your own side characters, you can, but I have to control them in Pokemon Showdown.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Pokemon battles in this RP will be settled in Pokemon Showdown. We will RP the beginning of the battle here (till participants are ready). Then the participants will go to Pokemon Showdown to battle their Pokemon for an actual result. And finally, participants will return to the RP to dramatize the ending of the battle according to the final result.

It would be nice if a large number of people were interested in this RP, somewhere between four and sixteen, BUT I will move forward with a minimum of three interested individuals.

NOTE: There will also be an exciting story line behind this all, a mystery to be solved if you will, but I'd rather not focus on that for right now. For right now, I want to know who all is interested in the league, as it is integral to the plot.

Any questions? Concerns? Suggestions?

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1zfzp-A-z_UnSIJZ9dDQoKAbcjnvF3gLm60QvVmoz3w4/edit?usp=sharing

[Balthazar007]

(Accidental Post)

[Balthazar007]

Bump!

I've completely updated the concept of this RP. Are there any takers now?

[DocTachyon]

Very interested. If I elect to not have a Legendary, may I take two pseudos?

[Balthazar007]

Very interested. If I elect to not have a Legendary, may I take two pseudos?

@DocTachyon

You're "bending" the rules here. (Get it). But sure, if you elect to not have any legendary or mythical Pokemon, I'll allow two pseudo-legendaries. Keep the 3000 point base stat maximum in mind though.

[Chev]

I'm interested. I always love a good story xD

*Ponders what will be on his future team*

[Balthazar007]

I'm interested. I always love a good story xD

*Ponders what will be on his future team*

@Chev

Cool. I just need one more person to say they are interested before I start making this a reality.

[Tenma Tendo]

@Balthazar007 I'm interested, but I'm not very competitive when it comes to Pokémon, so I'm a little worried about the Showdown aspect of the rp. Would it still be alright for me to join?

[King Cosmos]

@Balthazar007 I'm tentatively interested as well, but like Tenma I'm a little worried about the showdown aspect. I'm concerned that we will be somewhat forced, or at least encouraged, to create a team that is 'meta' rather than one we want to make in order to avoid being eliminated in a battle.

[Balthazar007]

@Balthazar007 I'm interested, but I'm not very competitive when it comes to Pokémon, so I'm a little worried about the Showdown aspect of the rp. Would it still be alright for me to join?

@Tenma Tendo

@Balthazar007 I'm tentatively interested as well, but like Tenma I'm a little worried about the showdown aspect. I'm concerned that we will be somewhat forced, or at least encouraged, to create a team that is 'meta' rather than one we want to make in order to avoid being eliminated in a battle.

@King Cosmos

I understand your concerns, but I feel that Showdown is the fairest option to sort out battle results. I don't want to impilment a dice rolling system (too much luck involved instead of skill). And I don't want to just RP battle the whole thing, as that can degrade into aurguments that I want no part of. Showdown is (at the least) fair and true to the games.

I did impliment the 3000 base stat total for your party of six though. This should address the concern of people just picking a bunch of tanky Pokemon.

In the end however, the league play is truly just a plot device, not the point of the whole thing. If your character gets eliminated from the tournament, it doesn't mean they are out of the story. They can still participate in the plot. They may even be able to focus on more important things if they get knocked out of the tournament.

I hope you both decide to stay, but this is enough support for this RP to get started on it. I'll have something posted by tomorrow morning.

[GarlandChaos]

I'm interested! Figured you'd like another player in case someone bows out.

[King Cosmos]

The use of Pokemon Showdown is fine. I get that its a good resource and fully scripted battles are a lot harder to do; I guess it just comes down to what people choose for their teams.

However, I'm also a little concerned about the allowance of Legendary and Mythical Pokemon on our teams as well.

I know these characters are supposed to be masters and the best of the best, so having some extraordinary Pokemon can be expected like the Frontier Brain who had an Articuno or the guy from the Sinnoh league with Darkrai and Latios, but not having any restrictions seems a bit strange. At the moment there is nothing stopping me from adding Arceus (Mythical) and Mega-Rayquaza (Legendary) on my team, which is both kind of overpowered and also really weird that any trainer could capture such supremely powerful beings.

I'm not sure why you are equating Mythical Pokemon with Psuedo-legendaries either.

Aside from that, I'm wondering what the rules are on Z-moves or Mega-evolutions? Are we allowed both on the same team? Neither? Or should we just pick one or the other? I'd personally prefer the latter.

[Sketcher]

Interested! :D Showdown Pokemon RP sounds pretty fun, since we don't have to argue about who wins something. Is there a tier limit? And if we're doing a large tourney, it might not be very practical to set a limit to how many people can have a non-legendary/mythical pokémon.

EDIT: Maybe a wise limit would be to allow everything in OU and disallow legendaries/Mythicals from Ubers?

[Balthazar007]

@Sketcher@King Cosmos@GarlandDaHero@Tenma Tendo@Chev@DocTachyon

Alright, I've taken everything you all have said into consideration, and here are my final rulings on bans/party restrictions. I'll start with a picture that summarizes all the rules, but details can be found below.



1st: No Mega Evolutions or Z-Moves allowed in round one. In round two, I will allow Z-Moves. Of course, showdown (as in the games) will only allow you to use a Z-Move once in the battle (for those that might not know). In the knockout rounds, I will allow both a Z-move and a Mega Evolution (and you must mega evolve via the item during battle, you cannot choose the already Mega-Evolved Pokemon).

2nd: In the qualifying rounds, Ubers and OUs are banned. Those that make it into round two (the group stages) can then "reveal" their OU Pokemon; after those trainers have "revealed" their one OU Pokemon, then trainers that didn't make it into the group stages (but are still in the region) may then "reveal" their OU Pokemon. And finally, those that make it into the knock out rounds may "reveal" their one Uber Pokemon; again, those that didn't make it, may then "reveal" their Uber Pokemon.

Okay, before I continue, let me explain why I kept saying "reveal". The reason why I use this term is because, we're assuming that these trainers already had these Pokemon (either tucked away in a Ball, or "on-call" with some sort of psychic connection, which I'm sure would be the case with more celestial Pokemon such as Arceus). BUT I don't want everyone calling dibs on these Pokemon now. I want to reward those that are doing well in the tournament with first choice (really the main incentive to do well in the tournament).

That being said, you DON'T have to use your OU or Uber Pokemon in the tournament if you don't wanna, and you don't even need to have one at all. Why not use your OU or Uber Pokemon in the tournament? Simple, those Pokemon use up a lot of your base stat limit for your party, but they could come in handy outside the tournament, in the hidden plot of this RP.

3rd: Once a Legendary or Mythical Pokemon is claimed, nobody else can claim them.

4th: I want to see some unique team combinations. As such, no Pokemon in your party can be from the same tier in Pokemon Showdown besides the PU tier. Also, once a character's party is approved, nobody else can create a party that shares three of the same Pokemon. And finally, you can't have two of the same Pokemon in your party.

On a side note: The grand prize for this tournament is a Master Ball, the renowned title of "Grand Master", a fancy priceless medallion, a wish from Jirachi, and LOTS of money (What's a lot of money in the Pokemon world? Ya'll tell me. LOL). There will be runner up prizes, but that's all just for flavor anyways. I'm only adding this so that you can give your trainer a motivation for participating in this tournament. Oh yeah, since I'm using Jirachi as a reward, no one can put Jirachi on their team (sorry Jirachi fans).

I figured that I would get all this out in the open so that everyone can start working on their teams while I work in the actual thread. I can approve teams separately from your characters (so that you have a better chance of getting the Pokemon that you want).

And if you are reading all this for the first time. This RP is open for applications until I hit a max of eight to ten definitively confirmed users. I want to start off strong with the expectation that people will drop out as the tournament progresses, but I won't complain if everyone sticks it out to the end. In my experience however, this never/rarely happens.

[King Cosmos]

What's a lot of money in the Pokemon world? Ya'll tell me. LOL

@Balthazar007

Enough to buy a bicycle.

[Sketcher]

That's... so many rules o.o

[King Cosmos]

@Balthazar007 I still don't like the idea of allowing the higher tier Legendary and Mythical Pokemon. It's not a balancing issue, it just seems weird to use those Pokemon, mostly because I'm still thinking of this RP as being set in the anime world where those kinds of Pokemon tend to be literal Gods. It's clear this is set in a world closer to the games however, so if no-one else feels the same it's fine with me.

I just want people to have a really good explanation for how they caught Arceus because that it not a small accomplishment.

So, the rule about not using more than one Pokemon from the same tier is interesting and I appreciate the attempt to add diversity to the teams. However, it doesn't seem like Smogon or Showdown use the borderline tiers anymore and if you exclude Little Cup that leaves only six tiers including Uber and OU, which are banned in the first couple of rounds. Can you link what resource you are using that has the borderline tiers for Gen VII?

Everything else seems fine.

[Balthazar007]

That's... so many rules o.o

@Sketcher

It is! Lol. I'll consolidate it to make it easier to understand though. That was just my mind being let loose in paragraph form.

@Balthazar007 I still don't like the idea of allowing the higher tier Legendary and Mythical Pokemon. It's not a balancing issue, it just seems weird to use those Pokemon, mostly because I'm still thinking of this RP as being set in the anime world where those kinds of Pokemon tend to be literal Gods. It's clear this is set in a world closer to the games however, so if no-one else feels the same it's fine with me.

I just want people to have a really good explanation for how they caught Arceus because that it not a small accomplishment.

So, the rule about not using more than one Pokemon from the same tier is interesting and I appreciate the attempt to add diversity to the teams. However, it doesn't seem like Smogon or Showdown use the borderline tiers anymore and if you exclude Little Cup that leaves only six tiers including Uber and OU, which are banned in the first couple of rounds. Can you link what resource you are using that has the borderline tiers for Gen VII?

Everything else seems fine.

@King Cosmos

So if you read the first sub-paragraph to rule 3, you'll see where I was going with the whole Arceus/legendary problem. Instead of having caught Pokemon like that and carrying them around in a Pokeball, it's actually that your character gained the Pokemon's trust somehow, and they have gained some sort of special ability or item that allows them to call upon that Pokemon for help. I hope that makes sense.

As for your second question (the tier list that I'm using), simply go to the team builder page on Pokemon Showdown. Start building a team in the "Anything Goes" format. There you will find the tiers that I'm using.

[Edit: Actually, ya'll can use multiple Pokemon from the PU tier.]

[King Cosmos]

As for your second question (the tier list that I'm using), simply go to the team builder page on Pokemon Showdown. Start building a team in the "Anything Goes" format. There you will find the tiers that I'm using.

@Balthazar007

Ok, fair enough. Though the BL in those cases stands for banlist rather than borderline, which was throwing me off. Smogon does have all of these tiers in that case.

So just for clarification, I know you said that we must mega-evolve during the battle but how does that affect the tier of a Pokemon? For example Gengar-Mega is in the Uber tier, while regular Gengar is UU tier; so is a Gengar holding Gengarite considered Uber or UU?

[Balthazar007]

<Snipped quote by Balthazar007>

Ok, fair enough. Though the BL in those cases stands for banlist rather than borderline, which was throwing me off. Smogon does have all of these tiers in that case.

So just for clarification, I know you said that we must mega-evolve during the battle but how does that affect the tier of a Pokemon? For example Gengar-Mega is in the Uber tier, while regular Gengar is UU tier; so is a Gengar holding Gengarite considered Uber or UU?

@King Cosmos

Good question, I'm going with Uber.