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A Deeper Look at Pokemon VGC Strategies from Berlin

How trainers become the very best
by rawmeatcowboy
01 May 2019
GN Version 5.0

The Europe International Championships took place this past weekend in Berlin, Germany, with Pokémon video game players from around the world ready to battle for Championship Points, cash prizes, and bragging rights. The season's third International Championships, it delivered perhaps the biggest shift in strategies of the 2019 Video Game Championship (VGC) Series Season.

The Moon Series format—used at February's Oceania International Championships—added Z-Moves to the more limited Sun Series format that kicked off the season. Now the Ultra Series format used at the Europe International Championships also permits both Primal Reversion and Mega Evolution. The only other time both of those were allowed was in 2016, when competitors packed their teams with arguably the most powerful Pokémon we'd seen in any season. While players have noticed some similarities to 2016, the Ultra Series format adds new tools to what players used at that year's Pokémon World Championships, Most notable are Z-Crystals and a bunch of Pokémon that have since been discovered, including Incineroar, Tapu Fini, Stakataka, Nihilego, Lunala and the powerful Ultra Necrozma. All of those new Pokémon ended up making a big impact this past weekend.

Full feature here