I guess if I'm being really charitable, if you're 12 or whatever, and you don't know about the bots, it probably is weird to get super weak and super strong opponents every other match. you do something against bots and it works great! and then suddenly you have someone who seems to be predicting what you're going to do.
Yup, that's the exact problem with putting bots in a ranked mode. It reinforces bad strategies for beginners and since they work 50% of the time it makes them more likely to think the matchmaking is broken / my opponent is cheating somehow instead of what they are doing just doesn't work.
it's not really a problem tho. u only getting bots up to greatball (as far as i know) and on paper only kids should legit struggle to climb out of that rank
also vgc is actually a hard game so the learning curve is pretty steep. and nothing will help u besides putting in the effort/time to improve
I think the one about speed makes the most sense. If you've played the older mainline games and constantly overleveled you probably didn't need to think much about speed bc it's fine to take a hit in those.
A lot of these reviews just seem like a mismatch in expectations and maybe indicate a partial failure in marketing/ reaching too wide an audience ?
When I was still in pokeball tier I fought someone with the first six pokemons and midway I thought: "against another bot, uh?", but then he surrendered
Most likely they thought it gave your move +1 priority, because that's how I thought it worked for the longest time. They used a neutral-priority move, Quick Claw activated, then they got hit by Sucker Punch anyway.
Bu..but, when I'm giving it to my overleveled pokemon it always make the first move. - Them probably
In all seriousness, these complainers just needs to accept that VGC is just a different ball game and them bulldozing mainline games being 20 levels above everything doesn't mean shit here.
The hilarious thing is that I guarantee that a lot of these reviews are from people who have spent the last decade plus complaining that the mainline games are too easy 😭
Because that's what they've learnt to parrot. I would bet my life that these players have never used a status move to gain advantage as the fight goes on.
Will o wisp? Man that does no dmg at all, trash move
I don't think that's completely true. Online and offline can provide different type of difficulties. There are plenty of single player games which are considered difficult.
Even in Pokemon itself players have created challenges like ironmon just to play game in hard mode
The original few generations are difficult in different ways from VGC. The first few games are more about resource acquisition if you don't want to grind, knowing what specific Pokemon you need to acquire for matchups because learnsets and the pokedex were way more restrictive, and then going and catching those. Stuff like Johto Kadabra/Alakazam with three elemental punches is a single player optimization that makes no sense in competitive, it presents a different style of challenge.
These players really need to play Radical Red to get a reality check. I don't think I've ever been tested more in a NPC format game. They really make you learn the game.
I had a Meowscarada which stayed with me until the end, I forgot what was the final team I had. I do remember a level 5 granbull with all fang moves in the wild, and also a Mudsdale which was insanely tanky. Saved so many of my games
I managed to get a friend who didn’t play Pokémon to try out reborn, he managed to do like 16 badges before losing interest (it’s a long game to be fair), set mode no items too.
But he’s an adult that is capable of learning independently so who knows with these reviewers
I think they perceive it like in the main games’ story campaign: very easy, opponents rarely switch out, the game prompts you what the opponent will use next, you are the only one with effort points (so you tend to go first even with much slower Pokémon), NPCs rave about how great you are, practically anything will work.
That’s the big issue with actual skill testing games. StarCraft 2 lost its lead in esports back in the day to League of Legends because the 1v1 ranked made it so you had nothing to blame but your own skill.
In League, you have up to 4 others to blame. In gacha games, you can blame their credit card. In Champions, you get good or get railed. The Dunning-Krueger effect is real.
Totally agree with your post, but Pokemon does have a couple ego buffers for those who cant confront their faults! You can always blame RNG (dont worry about how you could have improved your odds) or if youre really desperate you can blame your opponent for making a move so stupid that you couldn't predict it 😂
It’s been so long since we last had a Battle Frontier that I’ll bet the majority of people playing Pokémon games today started after the Battle Frontier was discontinued.
And for the record, Generation VII had the Battle Tree, which functioned much like the Battle Tower, but that was about it. (It did provide a greater challenge than the rest of the game though.)
To be fair, I don't think Grass' immunity to "powder" moves is communicated in an obvious way, and it doesn't spit out any kind of fail message in this situation, so they could just have not known better.
I've had a few rounds in Master Ball where my opponent led Incineroar against my Oranguru, saw that Oranguru had Inner Focus which prevented the att drop, then proceeded to Fake Out my Oranguru anyway.
I really wish this game would have something like Battle Tower. Not only do I miss how fun that mode was, but it would also be such a great tool to teach casuals and newbies the intricacies and meta of competitive.
The way they introduce your character to the other gym leaders in the tutorial, I half thought for a moment there was going to be something like that, it's such a perfect setup for it, you're a gym leader and all the AI battles you face are challengers to your gym. Make your way up from being a regular gym leader to being an Elite Four member.... but no. Instead, those characters are a nothingburger. Wasted opportunity.
Yeah. I'm sure they could add something that's like a weekly challenge of say a gauntlet like the battle subway, NPCs with different difficulties or being a gym, have random trainer's that challenge you and a sort of career mode type gameplay where you are trying to become the gym leader and then maybe lead up to championship
Right now if we get this kind of thing the pool of Mon and item sucks enough that you'll be fighting the same shitty ass team after a few tries anyways lol Every other npc team will just be snealser chomp etc
I'll give them about 8-9 months or about 4-5 more addition of mons before I start complaining wanting this as an update
I only really got into competitive pokemon with this game and even I'm nearly at UB1. These people sound like they're just expecting to win every time like their games and AI opponents. I mean actual people that have played competitive in other places before this game hit the market are most likely who they are going up against while they're probably treating it like Pokemon Emerald.
It could be people expecting it to be like the mainline games where their team is incredible and strong and awesome but they don’t realize they didn’t do any of the stuff required to make their pokemon PVP GOOD. I doubt a single person in that list even knows what an EV IS
You'd be surprised, heck even I played Pokemon just ignoring stat boosting moves and held items until I few years back when I discovered Pokemon Showdown and learned about all that juicy competitive world of Pokemon. Most people are either used to the Ai trainers from the games where they just spam the hardest hitting move or have only played Pokemon Go and thing its like that.
It’s honestly entertaining to read most of them. Like you can tell how butthurt they are when they write it. These people are so entitled they don’t even stop think about it they just get mad and blame anything that isn’t their skill level lol
You can tell most of the 1* reviews are from people thinking they are playing against the AI from normal pokemon games. They dont even realize they are against real humans
As funny as these are, it just goes to show the massive skill divide in the player base and how poorly the games teach you how to play.
If all you've ever done is play the mainline games without touching competitive then your experience of pokemon is spamming stab moves on your starter and winning.
There's a tutorial that teaches the importance of speed and yet a common point on the one star reviews is always being outsped and losing as a result. At some point it's not the the tutorials fault
I mean in a sense… it’s the result of the tutorial being much more over-simplified than what the game actually has. The main reasons why that reviewer gets outsped, for instance, is likely to do with either not knowing speed tiers or not investing enough speed EVs, which is hard to teach specifically in the tutorial since it ultimately requires knowledge of the state of the game.
Gamers dont play tutorials. I would know because I have a friend who treats me as the tutorial for him. He would just ask me things that were in the tutorial for games instead of playing it himself
I feel like there needs to be a more gradual on-ramp than the provided tutorials. Something like a simple singe-player campaign that gives you harder and harder CPU opponents while gradually building up your resources for ranked mode would go a long way for getting complete noobs into the game
I mean, it sounds like they didnt even play the tutorial. You cant complain about your opponent always attack first when the tutorial tells you how its decided.
yeah, as someone who is not really into competitive pokemon and haven't kept up with the newer generations. When watching guides on how to team build, it felt soo complicated that I realised this is a hobby i have to either invest very large amount of time towards so that i can match the general playerbase. So i did what a normal human being usually do, give up
It also shows the divide between casual and competitive players. Casual players literally do not know any mechanic in the games other than basic type matchups, which prior to the games outright telling what moves are super effective or ineffective also was largely unknown to most casual players. This stems from the mainline games requiring literally nothing but being higher level than the AI opponents so the vast majority of players haven't actually improved at all skill-wise from when they started.
They do not what any stat does, physical-special split, weather dynamics, priority mechanics, abilities, item effects, field effects, type-passives, stat change dynamics, positioning, pivoting, EVs, IVs, or really anything. If there were to be any npc trainer in any game with even the most basic of strategies, it would immediately filter out at least 80% of the playerbase if we're being very generous.
This is what bothers me most about the mainline games. The doubles combat system is soooo good. ... You barely have double battles in the mainline games and even then like most of the systems that go into making a good VGC team are completely irrelevant for a playthrough.
While I think the expectations of some for single player content in Champions are completely missplaced, a short single player tutorial campaign (akin to how Yugioh Master Duel handled it) would certainly help. Pokemon much unlike Yugioh even has a low enough skill floor that newcomers would actually be kinda prepped for ladder with that.
I agree - I think the game would really benefit from something like a battle tower mode that coaches newer players through what's "common meta knowledge" for people on this sub, or maybe runs them through some counters to very popular pokemon (both from the perspective of "they have charizard, what do you do" and "you have charizard, what should you watch out for"). Ironically, maybe something similar to the solo challenges in the TCG app, where they clearly went in with the expectation that most players wouldn't know/remember the rules.
That's be dope, I was hoping this game would be like, a comprehensive onboarding to all things Pokemon battles, like a Pokemon Stadium or Colosseum on steroids that was more than just a battle sim.
Alas, Nintendo doesn't actually give a shit when it comes to these things any more, and I think they really missed out on a lot of revenue and customer base by making Champions a sweat simulator.
To be fair it is kind of true, the game should have a low ladder and releasing champions into the poke ball tier every season is a mistake. Just look at hearthstone, there is 20 whole tiers for player to grind before they reach "masterball", and previous "masterball" players get sent to a higher tier.
Though realistically since you get a bonus when starting out Masterball players will climb rly quickly
For the 2nd, its important to consider that the „real“ ladder is in Masterball. Legends rank was far more like challenger in league or top 500 in overwatch
Back in SV Master Ball players would drop down to Ultra Ball rank, which was way better. At least the new players who joined on mobile launch wouldn't get matched up with players who have been grinding this game for months.
Tell me you beat single player Pokemon games by over leveling bad match ups without telling me you beat single player Pokemon games by over leveling bad match ups
Wow just wow how old are these people do people not know about priority moves are the 3rd one was just funny cause it’s definitely someone who just grinds levels to win battles, also the mega one is pretty funny as well cause you can have counter for mega’s. The quick claw one is confusing is it just based on luck cause it usually works for me.
Overall it sounds like these people don’t know how competitive games are and not saying this is true but only have attacking moves and no status moves. It also sounds like they don’t boost their Pokemon stats up with the training and don’t know what priority moves are
But one complaint I do have for this game is that it takes so long for communication or wtv also I do I get the same Pokemon in every team over and over again part like Incineroar.
I just wish we could see more Pokemon that people enjoy using
So I absolutely love these 1* review posts, they are hilarious and new ones catch me by surprise every time!
The Mega one really got me too in this set because of how super silly it is.
I am NOT good at this game, I am mid to mediocre at best but I still win games and megas are not the issue.
Are they strong? Well of course, they're upgraded versions of the base mons.
Are they invincible? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck no.
I'm giggling a little while writing this because of how super silly that specific review is and how much they've missed this point of this very competitive game.
I'm getting better every day, learning what strategies work for my play style, learning how people swap and protect. When I predict a swap it is the BEST feeling, and when I fuck it up whatever that just means I need to do better next time.
Reminds me of The Boondocks when Charlie Murphy is losing to Riley, "GAME'S CHEATIN', TURN THE GAME OFF" then he proceeds to shoot the console.
They need to implement what pocket tcg does and have step-up battles vs NPC's for minor rewards. This way new players can actually learn and feel like they have a chance when they go up against the same teams over and over. They'd need to cover all the mechanics (terrains, weather, priority, trick room, stall, setup, etc.)
Casual battles already exist, and ranked has, you won't believe this: ranks! So players "outside the restricted vgc circle" will already rarely run into expert players unless they are A) smurfing or B) coincidentally also just starting out.
The people complaining here are mostly those who don't actually understand the mechanics of the game or have never fought a battle against another human and think it's the same as battling NPCs. This game simply isn't for them.
You are getting downvoted but you are right. In master ball I see people do funny stuff like being gym leaders, themes, etc because they hit their goal and cant demote. Or you see someone who is good enough at the game that they could get to Master Ball 2 or higher if they played meta but they are actually in master ball 3/4 because they are committed to making their favorite pokemon work.
Meanwhile in casual battles every single team is just the exact same teams copy pasted from ultra ball players frustrated about how they cant reach masters so they just battle out in casual
Because the rank up system rewards win streaks and doesn’t punish losing streaks, if you just click buttons and have like a 40% win rate, you’ll hit MB eventually when you string a 4-5 game win streak together
So yeah, hitting master ball is more or less expected
I wouldn’t. I don’t even have a problem with this - it’s clearly a skill issue.
But let’s not pretend casual is a place for actual casual players who just wanna bring their favorite mons. You’re gonna run into people just starting off their days running their meta team and warming up. They’re gonna play exactly how they would in ranked.
Yeah imo, an actual casual mode requires measures that minimize the effects of people optimizing everything.
A random battle mode like in Showdown would be perfect for this since your goal is to work with what you get, and will even potentially give players a feel for how each Pokemon plays.
As a mobile player who has never played mainline games and new to this subreddit.
I reached master ball tier in singles.. Struggling a bit there tbh. But it's okay ig. Learning new stuff . Getting annoyed sometimes.. But don't think it's that hard as those people be saying atleast below ultra ball tier, move type and Pokemon type, speed knowledge alone helps a lot I believe..
Haha they are obviously just bad, this is the first time I play, I did play some in SV, but not a lot. I reached MB last season in Champions. I have an extremely good time and it’s for sure the best competitive game so far imo.
Honestly this was the biggest revelation for me. As someone who didn’t play Pokemon since DPPt came out, I thought I could just pick Champions up and steam roll like I did in ‘07. Got absolutely decked for weeks in ultra ball, which was humbling. Changed my mindset completely from “I know Pokémon pffft” to “I am dogshit at the game, I need to learn”. Reaching Masterball is the game’s way of saying “you passed the tutorial”.
The last 3 were real fans that just have never played online and the 4th one has a bit of a point some mega are stupidly strong and the 6th one found out about how it pairs people. The 5th one is mad at luck
This is nothing but a skill issue, I hadn't play any mainline pokemon games since the first 2 gens (RBY, GSC) but one day YouTube suggested Wolfe Glick's channel and he helped me understand the competitive scene.Fast forward to today I'm currently oscillating between master ball 3 and 4. I thought I was doing bad but apparently I'm doing better than most people lol
I can understand their frustrations, but I do not agree with the way they decide to express it (delusional takes, insults, etc).
Competitive Pokemon is very, very hard. There are literally 1 million different combinations of moves and choices to make for a battle. Not knowing everything makes for an extremely bad experience. I myself have never touched competitive pokemon until Champions, but I have had an interest for a long time and only ever watched VGC youtubers. So I do have some advantage over those who don’t have any knowledge. Yet, when I started playing, I lost to the weirdest strategies. I didn’t know about Armor Tail blocking priority moves, why Whimsicott always went first, Trick Room went last, etc. I have lost every match where I didn’t understand a certain mechanic. And I lost a lot. I didn’t really “git gud” until I just kept playing and playing and learning and remembering. Now I think about my every move and every move my opponent can make and then overthink it and expect my opponent to know I’ll do the opposite to trick him and then I just make the same play anyways. lol.
On top of that, the competitive Pokemon community is one of the most toxic ones I’ve ever encountered. Literally almost no one is useful when newbies ask questions. They make fun of you because you don’t know something and then make sarcastic remarks when you’re trying to learn. I can see why newcomers are deterred after both in-game and community experiences.
My point is, if you don’t have the patience to learn a very hard competitive game, then it’s just not for you.
I’ll admit it. I’m one of the hackers. I change everything about my Pokemon. Their natures, stat points, even their movesets. And to make matters even worse, I use damage calculators to optimize all of those things and type matchup tools to ensure the teams I build don’t have overwhelming weaknesses that can’t be overcome. I’m the problem.
they started with pokemon go and no actual games, that’s what i’m seeing from it and it makes sense, pokemon got a WHOLE lot of ppl who didn’t play the games or watch the anime into it, i have friends at work who are so good at Go have shinys legendsries everything but when they saw me play champions at work they were shocked they had to know what type was weak against another for battles yet they’ve been playing GO for 10 years, so i think those are the type of ppl leaving the reviews 😭
Man the unhinged elitism in some of these comments is fucking hilarious.
But also yeah, I can see why tourists and normies feel like it's unfair. The game basically forces ranked onto you, Switch players had months to get teams in order before mobile release, and the game is literally just sweaty from open to close.
A lot of normies probably felt like it'd be more like Pokemon Colosseum, with lots of fun challenges and content, not only ranked battle sweat festival.
That being said, it's not like there's a Pokedex or any sort of in game compendium or dex to see Pokemon base stats, which would really help people learn. The entire game is just.....if you were already sweaty about Pokemon, you'll do just fine, if not, well, you suck and the only way to learn anything is to fail repeatedly trying to get points in ranked mode so you can maybe recruit a permanent mon. Being a free player is absolutely CBT if you're not already highly invested in the franchise at this point.
It's almost like the game was explicitly made to be a competitive online battling simulator specifically for the purpose of them unshackling future mainline games from "the formula," as they've stated many, many, many times.
And gosh you know I'm just so surprised that a completely f2p pvp game with essentially zero actual monetization beyond a $5/mo subscription that only applies to the most committed players doesn't have as much fun single player content as a paid single player game.
It's totally fine to not be into competitive pokemon. But "wow, the competitive game I put no time or thought into feels so unfair :(" is just such ostrich-tier behaviour.
These people have the COD mindset where they are entitled to stomp on noobs for eternity but the dastardly game keeps putting them against “sweats”. No the player themselves isn’t a sweat, god forbid effort is looked up to, they are just effortlessly gifted!
I think most of these people would benefit from playing showdown or at least ANY pokemon media before they got into champions, it’s clear none of these reviewers have played a pokemon game .
This is the skill issue special edition I was waiting for.
Anyone reading this, post a batch with people who only knew the mainline games and somehow missed this is a battles only competitive game. Aka; Oblivious edition
only the last one gets my sympathy because i swear every time i win i already know im losing the next one and if i go on a streak i know my losing streak bout to be much longer.
The saddest part is that this game is so far the most clear on battle mechanics when it comes to looking at abilities or throwing up information about stat changes, or arena changes like weather or terrain. There's like an explanation for everything
It cracks me when I read up to the guy who got stuck in beginner tier That’s literally impossible when the game throws bot at you which are pretty much free rank ups By stronger opponents he must’ve meant someone who has a brain lol
The only issue I have with the game is the network error issue one, I have speed internet (200Mbps+) still i get this 4 or 5 times a day, sometimes during the selection of pokemon and when the match starts
Reminds me of when Hearthstone was new, and I read a review saying that the "final boss" was too hard to beat. Turns out they meant the final tutorial stage.
Anyway, my experience with champions has been a bit opposite. I have never played pvp in any cartridge game before champions, just on Showdown. and my suprise was how... low the skill level is in the low tiers. Sure every once in a while I meet someone in pokeball or superball who clearly just started, or just started ranking back up, but most of the time I get hit with at least one resisted move per match, see someone set up twice in front of what is clearly a two hit KO after the first hit, or switch for no reason worsening their position per match at those tiers.
I am not even running a very good team. Just a sand team cobbled together from what I have (T-tar, excadrill, incin, sinistcha, rotom-w, and aerodactyl). I am not a good player by any stretch of the imagination. I used to be good only in random monotype battles a while ago.
These are actually the target audiences, the whole idea was to make vgc more accessible by releasing it in mobile aswell. So specifically looking at the 3rd review it's on the game that they didn't explain everything properly, for any noob who has played any mainline game it should be obvious but if you view it as fresh new game a customer decided to try, it's pretty terrible. Like imagine other lesser known strategy game not at all explaining many of its core mechanics.
I like how so many people say the game helps the 'opponent'. Bitch you ARE the opponent, the game doesn't know who you are and fuck with you specifically
Surely that is why my best friend's Mega Tyranitar never gets to use a single move against my Gallade...
Yes I understand "Gallade shit"
The people posting these reviews should really read what Pokemon do. Maybe if a Pokemon is sweeping your team, go check their page out on the wiki. Maybe if a move is one-shotting your fav, go check the move out on the wiki. Maybe if you keep losing, you should practice and learn what your Pokemon are capable of, because everything in the game can at least do something , even if perhaps suboptimally.
"Mega Evolve and you win" is killing my braincells faster than inhaling paint fumes.
I feel like most of the people complaining are younger people who have probably only played the modern games and never played on Showdown or similar.
They’re expecting that type advantage always wins because that’s how the mainline games work 9/10 times. E.g. you have a Sylveon vs the dragon type gym leader and you sweep them 5-0. Not so much in competitive doubles.
As someone who's very bad at the game and hamstrings themselves with generally slow Pokemon and bad Pokemon like Watchog and Slurpuff and Liepard and Furfrou and what have you, I can at least take solace in the fact I'm not these guys lol
I'm pretty new to the game too, but I don't know what these reviews were smoking, like, there's literally videos and websites explaining the mechanics of the game and giving you guides and builds, which it takes a couple of minutes of reading/watching to learn, it's like they refuse to learn and adapt to their loses, lol.
-Nah, it must be the game that is full of bugs and hackers.
But TBF is a game where the difference between a totally new player who just saw the game in the store and wanted to try and a player who at least has some notions cause he played 20 years ago is abismal. It's not beginner friendly, and would for sure benefit from a few more tutorials where the game tries to explain you complex stuff and not only "Sun makes fire happy and water sad".
So0meone
So he wins against bots and then loses against every single real person he faces lol
RockDoveEnthusiast
this was my favorite too. lol.
also, "my opponent always attacks first!"
I guess if I'm being really charitable, if you're 12 or whatever, and you don't know about the bots, it probably is weird to get super weak and super strong opponents every other match. you do something against bots and it works great! and then suddenly you have someone who seems to be predicting what you're going to do.
Blacksoul07
Yup, that's the exact problem with putting bots in a ranked mode. It reinforces bad strategies for beginners and since they work 50% of the time it makes them more likely to think the matchmaking is broken / my opponent is cheating somehow instead of what they are doing just doesn't work.
Comrade_Lystro
The bots just need to go, or at least be transparent that they are there. They are so unsatisfying to face
Neet91
it's not really a problem tho. u only getting bots up to greatball (as far as i know) and on paper only kids should legit struggle to climb out of that rank
also vgc is actually a hard game so the learning curve is pretty steep. and nothing will help u besides putting in the effort/time to improve
Neet91
come on man. 12 year olds don't take their time to put in 1 star and leave a comment xD
it's either pokemon tourists or people that only played the main games and never played vs a real person.
tobsecret
I think the one about speed makes the most sense. If you've played the older mainline games and constantly overleveled you probably didn't need to think much about speed bc it's fine to take a hit in those.
A lot of these reviews just seem like a mismatch in expectations and maybe indicate a partial failure in marketing/ reaching too wide an audience ?
Royal_F_Flush
When I was still in pokeball tier I fought someone with the first six pokemons and midway I thought: "against another bot, uh?", but then he surrendered
AcornAnomaly
I'm actually doing singles with the starter team I picked at the beginning when Champions first came out, for shits and giggles.
It's hilarious how many fights that a Sashed Aggron with Metal Burst has won for me that I should've lost.
dokutarodokutaro
I was more concerned about the person that said they lost 27 times in a row 😬
Tantrum2u
That does make me question, what are the people with 100% loss rates doing…
Whacky_One
Playing worse than bots apparently.
Aukyron
Wait when you battle sometimes you're paired with AI? I hate that kind of stuff where you don't know.
yungxehanort
“My Quick Claw doesn’t work like it should” LOL
ZombieAladdin
When I was reading that review, I wanted to know how they thought Quick Claw should work. All of the time?
ThomasWinwood
Most likely they thought it gave your move +1 priority, because that's how I thought it worked for the longest time. They used a neutral-priority move, Quick Claw activated, then they got hit by Sucker Punch anyway.
thetrueluna01
Turns out I misunderstood the Quick Claw as well.
RazarTuk
Yeah, Quick Claw is a 20% chance of moving first within your priority bracket
MrFluffleBuns
Yawning-Kitty0916
the should read
Gullible_Star_9184
Bu..but, when I'm giving it to my overleveled pokemon it always make the first move. - Them probably
In all seriousness, these complainers just needs to accept that VGC is just a different ball game and them bulldozing mainline games being 20 levels above everything doesn't mean shit here.
Koolmees99
"As if I'm some kind of noob"
Well buddy, I have some news for you...
Jimnymebob
The hilarious thing is that I guarantee that a lot of these reviews are from people who have spent the last decade plus complaining that the mainline games are too easy 😭
Bartendur
Because that's what they've learnt to parrot. I would bet my life that these players have never used a status move to gain advantage as the fight goes on.
Will o wisp? Man that does no dmg at all, trash move
Huge_Doubt1238
Yeah 😂 an 80+ level starter and rest all Victory road mons in late 40s
Missingno1990
It's like I've always said. "If you want a harder game you'd play online. What you want is a the perception of difficulty".
badassboy1
I don't think that's completely true. Online and offline can provide different type of difficulties. There are plenty of single player games which are considered difficult.
Even in Pokemon itself players have created challenges like ironmon just to play game in hard mode
eXAt88
Yeah lots of the fan games and rom hacks are certainly difficult, although it’s a different kind of difficulty from online.
Every Reborn / Rejuvenation boss fight is incredibly difficult (and unfair) because of the extensive terrain effects in those games for instance.
daswef3
The original few generations are difficult in different ways from VGC. The first few games are more about resource acquisition if you don't want to grind, knowing what specific Pokemon you need to acquire for matchups because learnsets and the pokedex were way more restrictive, and then going and catching those. Stuff like Johto Kadabra/Alakazam with three elemental punches is a single player optimization that makes no sense in competitive, it presents a different style of challenge.
Pendragon_Puma
To be fair the mainline games are insanely easy, playing against real people is always different
grapesssszz
Well that’s correct
Astral_Paradox
QUICK CLAW LMFAO
dmvHotline
I love the one with a "perfect strategy" but they cant figure out how to counter megas.
A_Generic_NPC_
Literally was about to comment on this. Like, do they not know they can ALSO use Megas......?
twitchy1989
What are the odds they have literally 0 items on their team because they never visited the vp items shop....? 😂
GoldenWhite2408
Technically also kinda impossible it turns out
I went to have a look
You literally start off with a few mega stones (Useless ones yes cause ofc)
And 6-7 items at the start of the game U don't buy them
U fcking start with them straight up
Guess what 2 of the item are...
Sash AND scarf...
Like the literal anti mega items yes
Put scarf of on any decent fcking Mon and 80% of the mega roster is dead even if u don't use a mega
Or sash counter alternative strat ...
Bro got serve skill issue
A_Generic_NPC_
Very, very high xD
Sudden-General-5257
Yeah they definitely don't have realise they can get mega stones too lol
Equivalent_Adagio_85
poltergeist failed on two pokemon in a same match while i was climbing after the reset lmao, so yeah.
Blacksoul07
I would love to see this person's "perfect strategy" lmao
Bartendur
The 6 pokemon with the hughest BST possible and the 4 strongest attacks on each one, duh.
Protect? What's that?
thetrueluna01
I know it's Typhlosion with Fire Blast, Eruption, Flamethrower and Flame Wheel. 🤣
niemir2
Group up, and HIT IT TILL IT DIES!
bxzby
SAO ABRIDGED REFERENCE?!?!
Lightning_Winter
Lead Blastoise and pelliper and go for helping hand water spout turn 1. Surely nothing can go wrong
ZombieAladdin
They think they’re intentionally counter-proof, it sounds like. They can’t imagine overcoming them even without Mega Evolving on your own.
Prestigious_Wheel24
Do they think the battling works like in the anime or something
Particular_Web3215
What getting babied by the main games does to people:
Wonderful_Bug_5422
These players really need to play Radical Red to get a reality check. I don't think I've ever been tested more in a NPC format game. They really make you learn the game.
hiruhiko
Radical red was fun , i played it a long time ago
Wonderful_Bug_5422
I had a Meowscarada which stayed with me until the end, I forgot what was the final team I had. I do remember a level 5 granbull with all fang moves in the wild, and also a Mudsdale which was insanely tanky. Saved so many of my games
eXAt88
I managed to get a friend who didn’t play Pokémon to try out reborn, he managed to do like 16 badges before losing interest (it’s a long game to be fair), set mode no items too.
But he’s an adult that is capable of learning independently so who knows with these reviewers
daswef3
Even in FireRed LeafGreen I saw tons of people making posts online about struggling with those.
ZombieAladdin
I think they perceive it like in the main games’ story campaign: very easy, opponents rarely switch out, the game prompts you what the opponent will use next, you are the only one with effort points (so you tend to go first even with much slower Pokémon), NPCs rave about how great you are, practically anything will work.
Groundzer0es
More like they've been playing the mainline games with their over levelled starter mon and thought that was how it should be even in PvP.
Yawning-Kitty0916
3: its called speed order
Forward-Explorer-687
Speed order?what's that Jk,,Tail wind makes the fastest Pokemon to go first while trick room makes the slowest Pokemon goes first
Tofuku74
Mobile players when they can't spend money to make up for their own inability to play games.
LOR_Fei
That’s the big issue with actual skill testing games. StarCraft 2 lost its lead in esports back in the day to League of Legends because the 1v1 ranked made it so you had nothing to blame but your own skill.
In League, you have up to 4 others to blame. In gacha games, you can blame their credit card. In Champions, you get good or get railed. The Dunning-Krueger effect is real.
Ace_Emerald
Totally agree with your post, but Pokemon does have a couple ego buffers for those who cant confront their faults! You can always blame RNG (dont worry about how you could have improved your odds) or if youre really desperate you can blame your opponent for making a move so stupid that you couldn't predict it 😂
MonkadinMage
Listen, I can accept my loss with grace, but I'm still gonna be a little salty about getting got by Steel Wing mega staraptor in CTBo1. 😭
LOR_Fei
Oh, absolutely
Altruistic_Aioli_304
Dont hate the player, hate the gand.
Death2291
I wonder what people were thinking when they first picked up the game. Like did they think they were going to face the npcs like they do in the games.
The_Hentai_Dealer397
“youve been warned….”
EmmaShosha
they would absolutely not survive battle frontier in emerald 😭😭😭
ZombieAladdin
It’s been so long since we last had a Battle Frontier that I’ll bet the majority of people playing Pokémon games today started after the Battle Frontier was discontinued.
eXAt88
Didn’t at least up till Gen 7 have some equivalent? Idk about 8 and 9 I haven’t played those gens
Current_Database_728
8 had a normal old Battle Tower and 9 had the Indigo Disc DLC
ZombieAladdin
And for the record, Generation VII had the Battle Tree, which functioned much like the Battle Tower, but that was about it. (It did provide a greater challenge than the rest of the game though.)
Inner-Waltz4306
I just had a guy spam rage powder against mu whimsicot and M-Meganium, im assuming he's one of these😂
silverthundr
To be fair, I don't think Grass' immunity to "powder" moves is communicated in an obvious way, and it doesn't spit out any kind of fail message in this situation, so they could just have not known better.
Inner-Waltz4306
Yea ig u r right. Someone should make a PSA on the sub regarding this😂
GoldenWhite2408
That's a new gen thing tbf Think we only got that post gen 7
So like prankster dark types People can just get culture shocked
Friend definitely got burnt by that prankster dark type lol
Otherwise he's already in UB1 in a few days
Especially when the game text doesn't say they're immune
But they avoid Which is dumb as fck
syjte
I've had a few rounds in Master Ball where my opponent led Incineroar against my Oranguru, saw that Oranguru had Inner Focus which prevented the att drop, then proceeded to Fake Out my Oranguru anyway.
theFlaccolantern
I really wish this game would have something like Battle Tower. Not only do I miss how fun that mode was, but it would also be such a great tool to teach casuals and newbies the intricacies and meta of competitive.
The way they introduce your character to the other gym leaders in the tutorial, I half thought for a moment there was going to be something like that, it's such a perfect setup for it, you're a gym leader and all the AI battles you face are challengers to your gym. Make your way up from being a regular gym leader to being an Elite Four member.... but no. Instead, those characters are a nothingburger. Wasted opportunity.
Beginning_Lettuce10
Yeah. I'm sure they could add something that's like a weekly challenge of say a gauntlet like the battle subway, NPCs with different difficulties or being a gym, have random trainer's that challenge you and a sort of career mode type gameplay where you are trying to become the gym leader and then maybe lead up to championship
GoldenWhite2408
Probably future updates
Right now if we get this kind of thing the pool of Mon and item sucks enough that you'll be fighting the same shitty ass team after a few tries anyways lol Every other npc team will just be snealser chomp etc
I'll give them about 8-9 months or about 4-5 more addition of mons before I start complaining wanting this as an update
lookinlikethis
I only really got into competitive pokemon with this game and even I'm nearly at UB1. These people sound like they're just expecting to win every time like their games and AI opponents. I mean actual people that have played competitive in other places before this game hit the market are most likely who they are going up against while they're probably treating it like Pokemon Emerald.
Theprincerivera
It could be people expecting it to be like the mainline games where their team is incredible and strong and awesome but they don’t realize they didn’t do any of the stuff required to make their pokemon PVP GOOD. I doubt a single person in that list even knows what an EV IS
atomicboy47
Heck I doubt they even know what coverage moves are.
shetla_the_boomer
there's so many that don't even know what stab is
kolakoala44
Does the tutorial not explain stab?
Whacky_One
You think these people paid attention to the tutorial??
kolakoala44
I mean I didn’t but I’ve been playing for years
InfinityBababooey
These people don't know what stats, Iv's and Ev's are
atomicboy47
You'd be surprised, heck even I played Pokemon just ignoring stat boosting moves and held items until I few years back when I discovered Pokemon Showdown and learned about all that juicy competitive world of Pokemon. Most people are either used to the Ai trainers from the games where they just spam the hardest hitting move or have only played Pokemon Go and thing its like that.
digitalghost-dev
Don’t really need to know what IVs are anymore.
mattoyaki
It’s honestly entertaining to read most of them. Like you can tell how butthurt they are when they write it. These people are so entitled they don’t even stop think about it they just get mad and blame anything that isn’t their skill level lol
A_Generic_NPC_
Likely the same people who fill the ranks of Bronze in League/Overwatch/Valorant lol. "Ah I lost, must be the hackers!!!!"
StarGaurdianBard
You can tell most of the 1* reviews are from people thinking they are playing against the AI from normal pokemon games. They dont even realize they are against real humans
BlakeK87
These people would not have survived a single turn against peak Miraidon.
DavidAshleyParkerrr
Me, who got the win that took him to Masters, after watching a Miraidon forefeit, when facing my Torterra and Hatterene under Trick Room 👀
SokkaHaikuBot
by BlakeK87:
These people would not
Have survived a single turn
Against peak Miraidon.
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
Gordahnculous
Good bot
Kae04
As funny as these are, it just goes to show the massive skill divide in the player base and how poorly the games teach you how to play.
If all you've ever done is play the mainline games without touching competitive then your experience of pokemon is spamming stab moves on your starter and winning.
Sir--Kappa
There's a tutorial that teaches the importance of speed and yet a common point on the one star reviews is always being outsped and losing as a result. At some point it's not the the tutorials fault
Comrade_Lystro
I mean in a sense… it’s the result of the tutorial being much more over-simplified than what the game actually has. The main reasons why that reviewer gets outsped, for instance, is likely to do with either not knowing speed tiers or not investing enough speed EVs, which is hard to teach specifically in the tutorial since it ultimately requires knowledge of the state of the game.
Sofruz
Gamers dont play tutorials. I would know because I have a friend who treats me as the tutorial for him. He would just ask me things that were in the tutorial for games instead of playing it himself
code_isLife
The tutorial is waaaay too simple for what VGC is.
I stand by the idea that the user base is going to dwindle because Nintendo is not properly onboarding their majority casual user-base
Specific_Mobile_8094
I feel like there needs to be a more gradual on-ramp than the provided tutorials.
Something like a simple singe-player campaign that gives you harder and harder CPU opponents while gradually building up your resources for ranked mode would go a long way for getting complete noobs into the game
Sofruz
I mean, it sounds like they didnt even play the tutorial. You cant complain about your opponent always attack first when the tutorial tells you how its decided.
Whacky_One
No offense, but the game isn't really for casuals, it is to hopefully bring in more try hards and sweats.
Realistic-Yam-6912
yeah, as someone who is not really into competitive pokemon and haven't kept up with the newer generations. When watching guides on how to team build, it felt soo complicated that I realised this is a hobby i have to either invest very large amount of time towards so that i can match the general playerbase. So i did what a normal human being usually do, give up
Disastrous_Lake_6394
Invest a very large amount of time to create a team in Champions? You literally pick a pokemon and change everything on a slider….
Happy_Cry286
It also shows the divide between casual and competitive players. Casual players literally do not know any mechanic in the games other than basic type matchups, which prior to the games outright telling what moves are super effective or ineffective also was largely unknown to most casual players. This stems from the mainline games requiring literally nothing but being higher level than the AI opponents so the vast majority of players haven't actually improved at all skill-wise from when they started.
They do not what any stat does, physical-special split, weather dynamics, priority mechanics, abilities, item effects, field effects, type-passives, stat change dynamics, positioning, pivoting, EVs, IVs, or really anything. If there were to be any npc trainer in any game with even the most basic of strategies, it would immediately filter out at least 80% of the playerbase if we're being very generous.
DivineRedFlash
Tbf I think these reviews are made by people who don't play the mainline game and think: this is a children's game so it must be easy.
4ny3ody
This is what bothers me most about the mainline games.
The doubles combat system is soooo good.
... You barely have double battles in the mainline games and even then like most of the systems that go into making a good VGC team are completely irrelevant for a playthrough.
While I think the expectations of some for single player content in Champions are completely missplaced, a short single player tutorial campaign (akin to how Yugioh Master Duel handled it) would certainly help. Pokemon much unlike Yugioh even has a low enough skill floor that newcomers would actually be kinda prepped for ladder with that.
amlethulnar
I agree - I think the game would really benefit from something like a battle tower mode that coaches newer players through what's "common meta knowledge" for people on this sub, or maybe runs them through some counters to very popular pokemon (both from the perspective of "they have charizard, what do you do" and "you have charizard, what should you watch out for"). Ironically, maybe something similar to the solo challenges in the TCG app, where they clearly went in with the expectation that most players wouldn't know/remember the rules.
Namingwayz
That's be dope, I was hoping this game would be like, a comprehensive onboarding to all things Pokemon battles, like a Pokemon Stadium or Colosseum on steroids that was more than just a battle sim.
Alas, Nintendo doesn't actually give a shit when it comes to these things any more, and I think they really missed out on a lot of revenue and customer base by making Champions a sweat simulator.
MintXanis
To be fair it is kind of true, the game should have a low ladder and releasing champions into the poke ball tier every season is a mistake. Just look at hearthstone, there is 20 whole tiers for player to grind before they reach "masterball", and previous "masterball" players get sent to a higher tier.
D4RKEVA
I agree with your first point
Though realistically since you get a bonus when starting out Masterball players will climb rly quickly
For the 2nd, its important to consider that the „real“ ladder is in Masterball. Legends rank was far more like challenger in league or top 500 in overwatch
MCuri3
Back in SV Master Ball players would drop down to Ultra Ball rank, which was way better. At least the new players who joined on mobile launch wouldn't get matched up with players who have been grinding this game for months.
nogue2k
You can go from PokeBall to ultra ball with 8 wins when the season resets, it's fine
MisterRai
"you've been warned"
Oh no, what will he do?
mrlolloran
Tell me you beat single player Pokemon games by over leveling bad match ups without telling me you beat single player Pokemon games by over leveling bad match ups
No-Mongoose-5671
Wow just wow how old are these people do people not know about priority moves are the 3rd one was just funny cause it’s definitely someone who just grinds levels to win battles, also the mega one is pretty funny as well cause you can have counter for mega’s. The quick claw one is confusing is it just based on luck cause it usually works for me.
Overall it sounds like these people don’t know how competitive games are and not saying this is true but only have attacking moves and no status moves. It also sounds like they don’t boost their Pokemon stats up with the training and don’t know what priority moves are
But one complaint I do have for this game is that it takes so long for communication or wtv also I do I get the same Pokemon in every team over and over again part like Incineroar.
I just wish we could see more Pokemon that people enjoy using
Leoszite
Yea, the megas complaint had my sides in orbit. The only problem I've had is that there are to many cutscenes in the beginning. Just let me play!
slylock215
So I absolutely love these 1* review posts, they are hilarious and new ones catch me by surprise every time!
The Mega one really got me too in this set because of how super silly it is.
I am NOT good at this game, I am mid to mediocre at best but I still win games and megas are not the issue.
Are they strong? Well of course, they're upgraded versions of the base mons.
Are they invincible? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck no.
I'm giggling a little while writing this because of how super silly that specific review is and how much they've missed this point of this very competitive game.
I'm getting better every day, learning what strategies work for my play style, learning how people swap and protect. When I predict a swap it is the BEST feeling, and when I fuck it up whatever that just means I need to do better next time.
Reminds me of The Boondocks when Charlie Murphy is losing to Riley, "GAME'S CHEATIN', TURN THE GAME OFF" then he proceeds to shoot the console.
7SaberFormsMastered
Hardcore agree
kakeji6167
That’s why the game needs more fun game modes,like rental teams and casual battles.
Players outside the restricted vgc circle are blown away by expert players.Of course they’re gonna react bad and post nosense lol
Sweet_Transition_541
They need to implement what pocket tcg does and have step-up battles vs NPC's for minor rewards. This way new players can actually learn and feel like they have a chance when they go up against the same teams over and over. They'd need to cover all the mechanics (terrains, weather, priority, trick room, stall, setup, etc.)
Hatsjekidee
Casual battles already exist, and ranked has, you won't believe this: ranks! So players "outside the restricted vgc circle" will already rarely run into expert players unless they are A) smurfing or B) coincidentally also just starting out.
The people complaining here are mostly those who don't actually understand the mechanics of the game or have never fought a battle against another human and think it's the same as battling NPCs. This game simply isn't for them.
Theprincerivera
Casual isn’t casual. It’s warmup sweat.
StarGaurdianBard
You are getting downvoted but you are right. In master ball I see people do funny stuff like being gym leaders, themes, etc because they hit their goal and cant demote. Or you see someone who is good enough at the game that they could get to Master Ball 2 or higher if they played meta but they are actually in master ball 3/4 because they are committed to making their favorite pokemon work.
Meanwhile in casual battles every single team is just the exact same teams copy pasted from ultra ball players frustrated about how they cant reach masters so they just battle out in casual
Wonderful_Bug_5422
lmao i remembee getting absolutely obliterated 6 times in a row in casual. i gave up playing casual
The_walking_Kled
is it hard to reach masterball? felt pretty easy if u get ur hands on some strong pokemons.
runner5678
Because the rank up system rewards win streaks and doesn’t punish losing streaks, if you just click buttons and have like a 40% win rate, you’ll hit MB eventually when you string a 4-5 game win streak together
So yeah, hitting master ball is more or less expected
Thalia_All_Along
how on earth would you make a system where no good players are allowed?
Theprincerivera
I wouldn’t. I don’t even have a problem with this - it’s clearly a skill issue.
But let’s not pretend casual is a place for actual casual players who just wanna bring their favorite mons. You’re gonna run into people just starting off their days running their meta team and warming up. They’re gonna play exactly how they would in ranked.
Comrade_Lystro
Yeah imo, an actual casual mode requires measures that minimize the effects of people optimizing everything.
A random battle mode like in Showdown would be perfect for this since your goal is to work with what you get, and will even potentially give players a feel for how each Pokemon plays.
A_Generic_NPC_
Or even by literally any player in Poke Ball tier, for that last guy lol
Missingno1990
That's why there are tiers. They're playing in the tier that reflects their skill level.
The problem is that they're unwilling to accept they're shite at the game and improve.
Fr1tzOS
There really are some dumb people in the world, who can’t deal with anything that isn’t spoonfed to them.
“I’m bad at the game and haven’t bothered to understand it, therefore the game is rubbish!”.
DistanceActive8421
As a mobile player who has never played mainline games and new to this subreddit.
I reached master ball tier in singles.. Struggling a bit there tbh. But it's okay ig. Learning new stuff . Getting annoyed sometimes.. But don't think it's that hard as those people be saying atleast below ultra ball tier, move type and Pokemon type, speed knowledge alone helps a lot I believe..
angusrocker22
Lol everyone wants reviews on the Nintendo eshop and this is the exact reason why there shouldn't be reviews on Nintendo eshop.
SupaHotFaya1
Haha they are obviously just bad, this is the first time I play, I did play some in SV, but not a lot. I reached MB last season in Champions.
I have an extremely good time and it’s for sure the best competitive game so far imo.
KATEKI3797
I'm really enjoying Master Class as a beginner
midatlantik
Honestly this was the biggest revelation for me. As someone who didn’t play Pokemon since DPPt came out, I thought I could just pick Champions up and steam roll like I did in ‘07. Got absolutely decked for weeks in ultra ball, which was humbling. Changed my mindset completely from “I know Pokémon pffft” to “I am dogshit at the game, I need to learn”. Reaching Masterball is the game’s way of saying “you passed the tutorial”.
VarietyHot4660
The first 3 were just baby’s
The last 3 were real fans that just have never played online and the 4th one has a bit of a point some mega are stupidly strong and the 6th one found out about how it pairs people. The 5th one is mad at luck
sad_developer123
This is nothing but a skill issue, I hadn't play any mainline pokemon games since the first 2 gens (RBY, GSC) but one day YouTube suggested Wolfe Glick's channel and he helped me understand the competitive scene.Fast forward to today I'm currently oscillating between master ball 3 and 4. I thought I was doing bad but apparently I'm doing better than most people lol
External_Orange_1188
I can understand their frustrations, but I do not agree with the way they decide to express it (delusional takes, insults, etc).
Competitive Pokemon is very, very hard. There are literally 1 million different combinations of moves and choices to make for a battle. Not knowing everything makes for an extremely bad experience. I myself have never touched competitive pokemon until Champions, but I have had an interest for a long time and only ever watched VGC youtubers. So I do have some advantage over those who don’t have any knowledge. Yet, when I started playing, I lost to the weirdest strategies. I didn’t know about Armor Tail blocking priority moves, why Whimsicott always went first, Trick Room went last, etc. I have lost every match where I didn’t understand a certain mechanic. And I lost a lot. I didn’t really “git gud” until I just kept playing and playing and learning and remembering. Now I think about my every move and every move my opponent can make and then overthink it and expect my opponent to know I’ll do the opposite to trick him and then I just make the same play anyways. lol.
On top of that, the competitive Pokemon community is one of the most toxic ones I’ve ever encountered. Literally almost no one is useful when newbies ask questions. They make fun of you because you don’t know something and then make sarcastic remarks when you’re trying to learn. I can see why newcomers are deterred after both in-game and community experiences.
My point is, if you don’t have the patience to learn a very hard competitive game, then it’s just not for you.
Linear_Logic
I’ll admit it. I’m one of the hackers. I change everything about my Pokemon. Their natures, stat points, even their movesets. And to make matters even worse, I use damage calculators to optimize all of those things and type matchup tools to ensure the teams I build don’t have overwhelming weaknesses that can’t be overcome. I’m the problem.
Affectionate-Fig8012
they started with pokemon go and no actual games, that’s what i’m seeing from it and it makes sense, pokemon got a WHOLE lot of ppl who didn’t play the games or watch the anime into it, i have friends at work who are so good at Go have shinys legendsries everything but when they saw me play champions at work they were shocked they had to know what type was weak against another for battles yet they’ve been playing GO for 10 years, so i think those are the type of ppl leaving the reviews 😭
Namingwayz
Man the unhinged elitism in some of these comments is fucking hilarious.
But also yeah, I can see why tourists and normies feel like it's unfair. The game basically forces ranked onto you, Switch players had months to get teams in order before mobile release, and the game is literally just sweaty from open to close.
A lot of normies probably felt like it'd be more like Pokemon Colosseum, with lots of fun challenges and content, not only ranked battle sweat festival.
That being said, it's not like there's a Pokedex or any sort of in game compendium or dex to see Pokemon base stats, which would really help people learn. The entire game is just.....if you were already sweaty about Pokemon, you'll do just fine, if not, well, you suck and the only way to learn anything is to fail repeatedly trying to get points in ranked mode so you can maybe recruit a permanent mon. Being a free player is absolutely CBT if you're not already highly invested in the franchise at this point.
MonkadinMage
It's almost like the game was explicitly made to be a competitive online battling simulator specifically for the purpose of them unshackling future mainline games from "the formula," as they've stated many, many, many times.
And gosh you know I'm just so surprised that a completely f2p pvp game with essentially zero actual monetization beyond a $5/mo subscription that only applies to the most committed players doesn't have as much fun single player content as a paid single player game.
It's totally fine to not be into competitive pokemon. But "wow, the competitive game I put no time or thought into feels so unfair :(" is just such ostrich-tier behaviour.
BoxLongjumping1067
Skill issue lol
Techno0113
"The system is bound to choose stronger opponents the more you win"
Yeah thats how ranked systems normally work lol
eXAt88
These people have the COD mindset where they are entitled to stomp on noobs for eternity but the dastardly game keeps putting them against “sweats”. No the player themselves isn’t a sweat, god forbid effort is looked up to, they are just effortlessly gifted!
Chemical_Baker7907
How long are we going to give these complaining people out attention? Because that's probably what they want...
Shusui60
"you've been warned" my brother in Arceus 😭
Tandran
50 matches in beginner tier with bots spamming scary face? 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
PromptNo6756
I think most of these people would benefit from playing showdown or at least ANY pokemon media before they got into champions, it’s clear none of these reviewers have played a pokemon game .
Old_Raspberry4944
Raging is normal. It's the putting your mind to work after each defeat to counter every possible enemy that makes it worth it.
Havoc_KL
do they just.... not watch or consume ANY media? like there are so many guides n stuff
ZohomEtirho
This is the skill issue special edition I was waiting for.
Anyone reading this, post a batch with people who only knew the mainline games and somehow missed this is a battles only competitive game. Aka; Oblivious edition
BigSto
only the last one gets my sympathy because i swear every time i win i already know im losing the next one and if i go on a streak i know my losing streak bout to be much longer.
AdRoutine825
"pokemon is easy " people when they play against anything with a beat
N1ceAndSqueezy
“As if I’m some type of noob”
Sorry bro….
Hazardousblue04
All I’m seeing in these reviews are people don’t understand speed tiers
hobskhan
Okay, I I'm thinking people just don't realize how competitive PVP can be.
I see this in RTS a lot. So you mastered all the campaigns, and can win an AI skirmish on the highest difficulty?
Prepare to get absolutely destroyed in Ranked (until your Elo eventually settles out).
scruffyJJ561
The saddest part is that this game is so far the most clear on battle mechanics when it comes to looking at abilities or throwing up information about stat changes, or arena changes like weather or terrain. There's like an explanation for everything
silverskarr
Now i see why i lost only once from pokeball rank to master ball 4. To be fair I’m at best a master ball rank 3 and I’m ok with that haha
Chungusboo
It cracks me when I read up to the guy who got stuck in beginner tier
That’s literally impossible when the game throws bot at you which are pretty much free rank ups
By stronger opponents he must’ve meant someone who has a brain lol
New-Marketing-5097
The only issue I have with the game is the network error issue one, I have speed internet (200Mbps+) still i get this 4 or 5 times a day, sometimes during the selection of pokemon and when the match starts
Strange_Option5935
"Opponents keep attacking" 🤦
Alex_D_Water_Law
Tbf to somebody who has never played this game could be really complex
Ff7hero
The next time you want to complain about bots, remember the guy who apparently went at best 0/13 against them.
Thundermikee
Reminds me of when Hearthstone was new, and I read a review saying that the "final boss" was too hard to beat. Turns out they meant the final tutorial stage.
Anyway, my experience with champions has been a bit opposite. I have never played pvp in any cartridge game before champions, just on Showdown. and my suprise was how... low the skill level is in the low tiers. Sure every once in a while I meet someone in pokeball or superball who clearly just started, or just started ranking back up, but most of the time I get hit with at least one resisted move per match, see someone set up twice in front of what is clearly a two hit KO after the first hit, or switch for no reason worsening their position per match at those tiers.
I am not even running a very good team. Just a sand team cobbled together from what I have (T-tar, excadrill, incin, sinistcha, rotom-w, and aerodactyl). I am not a good player by any stretch of the imagination. I used to be good only in random monotype battles a while ago.
Old-Ad3504
the game not having an effective way of teaching the depth of competitive pokemon to new players is a real issue. dont see the point of this post
binkysnightmare
I gotta look back and see how clear the advertising is that this is a competitive game.. or do people just not pay attention and download because free
Adventurous_Menu626
Say you are bad at the game without acknowledging you are bad at the game...
not saying everyone who loses is bad we all get messed up by rng.
HirataTite
Well, the wide open access to not usual competitive players is not going so well as I expected.
At the end will remain the experienced ones only, which is bad because…loosing 27 times in a row???? Wtf
some_one_445
These are actually the target audiences, the whole idea was to make vgc more accessible by releasing it in mobile aswell. So specifically looking at the 3rd review it's on the game that they didn't explain everything properly, for any noob who has played any mainline game it should be obvious but if you view it as fresh new game a customer decided to try, it's pretty terrible. Like imagine other lesser known strategy game not at all explaining many of its core mechanics.
DysfunktualCJ
I like how so many people say the game helps the 'opponent'. Bitch you ARE the opponent, the game doesn't know who you are and fuck with you specifically
Q_X_R
"Mega Evolve and you win"
Surely that is why my best friend's Mega Tyranitar never gets to use a single move against my Gallade...
Yes I understand "Gallade shit"
The people posting these reviews should really read what Pokemon do. Maybe if a Pokemon is sweeping your team, go check their page out on the wiki. Maybe if a move is one-shotting your fav, go check the move out on the wiki. Maybe if you keep losing, you should practice and learn what your Pokemon are capable of, because everything in the game can at least do something , even if perhaps suboptimally.
"Mega Evolve and you win" is killing my braincells faster than inhaling paint fumes.
PwassonPaner
I wish you could respond to reviews😭
Thetryhard93
These are actually hilarious
RGSF150
Always fun looking at the 1-star reviews. Personally, the game is at least a 4-star.
Fun_Neat_8050
Hahahaha let's point at them laugh
Klutzy_Ebb75
They showing their noob side
Fit_Egg8281
The 5th review almost had me on their side until they brought up the Quick Claw lol
Timmpah
When I look for 1 star reviews nothing shows up on the mobile game...
N1ceAndSqueezy
I feel like most of the people complaining are younger people who have probably only played the modern games and never played on Showdown or similar.
They’re expecting that type advantage always wins because that’s how the mainline games work 9/10 times. E.g. you have a Sylveon vs the dragon type gym leader and you sweep them 5-0. Not so much in competitive doubles.
Forry_Tree
As someone who's very bad at the game and hamstrings themselves with generally slow Pokemon and bad Pokemon like Watchog and Slurpuff and Liepard and Furfrou and what have you, I can at least take solace in the fact I'm not these guys lol
Devmsyer
This has motivated me to leave a good review.
reejanthespiritpro
Ts mad funny
Lioreuz
This one permanently going back to face bots and lose to every real person lmao
No-Seaweed-2829
I'm pretty new to the game too, but I don't know what these reviews were smoking, like, there's literally videos and websites explaining the mechanics of the game and giving you guides and builds, which it takes a couple of minutes of reading/watching to learn, it's like they refuse to learn and adapt to their loses, lol.
InfusedMarshan
have people played pokemon before. not only tht have you all played competitive???
Lipantof
Lmaoooo
Little_Day_3832
I’ve had some frustrating losses but damn 🤣🤣
Forward-Explorer-687
I used casual to test out my team and fine tuning them after two or three casual battles
Kastila1
-Am I bad?
-Nah, it must be the game that is full of bugs and hackers.
But TBF is a game where the difference between a totally new player who just saw the game in the store and wanted to try and a player who at least has some notions cause he played 20 years ago is abismal. It's not beginner friendly, and would for sure benefit from a few more tutorials where the game tries to explain you complex stuff and not only "Sun makes fire happy and water sad".
Myrtle_is_hungry
If I was a dev I’d honestly get really frustrated at these like you can’t seriously give a game 1/5 because you’re bad at it I’m dead