It was only last year that my raid group was able to get any sort of tournament going, and they did, for a brief stint of three tournaments starting with a "practice" one. Those, however, were online tournaments, which were held wherever we are or were conveniently located - in my case being at home - and due to Silph Arena's restrictions. Now that things have simmered down slightly and the Silph Arena has allowed in-person tournaments once again, my raid group jumped on the chance to hold them, and so they did today.
Today's format of choice was the Great League, which had become the choice format for the world championship series for Pokémon Go. Even so, it was not completely "open", as a "restricted list" of 25 species was in place, with a maximum of 3 Pokémon on a team of 6 being composed of species from this list; the rest is as open as open can be. This also mirrors the Great League format implemented for the first Cycle of the current Factions season, which had ended a while ago, so to some extent, this may be a good practice for that.
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| During the first round. |
For the number of participants and their composition, 15 Trainers competed, though one dropped out before the fourth round (who would have likely received a bye anyway as that Trainer had not won up to that point); a few others showed interest and/or registered teams but did not attend due to certain circumstances. Most everyone in the tournament were from my raid group, but there were a few others from faraway places, making the tournament feel special even though it is not in the grand scheme of the Silph Arena.
As to how I did, I managed to end up in the middle of the pack, being eighth overall. I won two matches and lost two, ranking third among those with similar results. Interestingly, those two victories came in the first two matches, where I won against a high-ranking guest Ace (who ended up third overall) and just eked out a win against a fellow group member. Had I won another battle in the third match - which strangely was against my PvP "mentor" - I would have been set up for the "grand final" match against another guest Ace.
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| The valiant competitors. (I'm wearing my Journeys custom shirt.) |
Such a personal outcome for a tournament is the first time that has ever happened, for any form of a Pokémon game. Furthermore, in all matches, I managed to win at least one battle, a show of consistency that was ultimately praised. And though I did not win the tournament, I did win a side contest for "Dex arithmetic", guessing a Pokémon by its National Dex number given out by an equation. Lo and behold, the clue given was "five fives", which could only be for the one and only Pikachu. The heavens aligned in that regard.
While I can't speak of this consistency repeating for specialty formats such as those of the Silph Arena and the Go Battle League, I might just be able to make things work for the "open" Great League, with or without restrictions such as the above. I also may or may not be capable for Factions, but I could happily take up the offer to be part of one team for that purpose. Nevertheless, this could be a nice prelude for the upcoming season of the Silph Arena, which will start soon enough and will become the real test for everyone in our group.
One year ago: You Made Me a...
Two years ago: Let's Play and Pokémon
Three years ago: Pokémon and Music Games, Revisited
Four years ago: (Late and Great) Local Ex-Raid, 9/3/2018
Five years ago: Bandai Pokémon XY Swing - Pikachu
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