Coming as a shock for the aggressive Pokémon group, the three-time ‘again to again to again’ Pokémon VGC World Champion Ray Rizzo introduced The Pokémon Firm had “un-qualified” him—and plenty of different gamers who received their day one Worlds invitations—due to the bug-ridden video games that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are.
Rizzo, together with a horde of disgruntled Asian gamers, shared their frustrations on-line. Rizzo talked about he might want to compete once more for a spot at Worlds, and that the qualification system TPC has in place is “an absolute shit-show.”
Raymond Rizzo made historical past when he received the 2012 World Championship held in Hawaii, changing into the three-time and solely multi-time Pokémon World Champion, after profitable the 2010 World Championship within the Senior Division, and the 2011 World Championship within the Masters Division.
Since then, Ray took his time with aggressive Pokémon rather less severely, solely competing for a few years after 2012 earlier than he retired from the scene.
Quick ahead to 2023, and Rizzo has actively begun his hunt for a Worlds invite to the 2023 Pokémon World Championship to be held in Yokohama, Japan, a hunt which he succeeded in… till it was taken away on Could 17.
Why Ray Rizzo and others must qualify once more
Not like The Pokémon Firm Worldwide, which handles the aggressive circuit in North America, South America, and Europe, The Pokémon Firm doesn’t have quite a lot of in-person tournaments for the aggressive circuits of the assorted Asian international locations it handles. Japan is essentially the most notable considered one of them since Asia’s strongest gamers are sometimes Japanese.
The best way the Japanese aggressive circuit for Pokémon works is generally by means of on-line tournaments.
The start of the Japanese circuit began off with the World Problem, a web based competitors anybody on the planet with a replica of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet might participate in. Getting a excessive sufficient ranking within the GC would award the participant with a specific amount of Championship Factors, and the upper their ranking, the extra CP they might be awarded, which is one thing that mattered extra to gamers within the western circuit.
However for Japanese gamers, the primary purpose was to get a prime 150 placement within the World Problem, which might safe them a spot at Japan Nationals, an important occasion for gamers to earn their Worlds invitations. Since there are a complete of three World Challenges, this may result in a complete of 450 gamers ultimately competing at Japan Nationals.
This additionally meant Japanese gamers had three completely different possibilities to qualify for Japan Nationals.
Japan Nationals itself was divided into two levels. Stage One was virtually similar to how the World Challenges labored with gamers competing in a best-of-one closed crew sheet ladder-style match, which completed over the course of the earlier week.
Out of the 450 gamers, the highest 64 gamers would qualify for Stage Two of Japan Nationals. Not solely that, however these 64 gamers would additionally get their Day One invite to the 2023 Pokémon World Championship.
Rizzo did handle to complete among the many prime 64 gamers, and he was thrilled to have secured his spot on this 12 months’s World Championship together with Stage Two of Japan Nationals.
Stage Two for Japan Nationals would lastly be an in-person match relatively than a web based one. That being stated, the match would nonetheless be a closed crew sheet, together with adopting a double-elimination fashion. The gamers that safe a prime 8 placement for stage two would go on to safe essentially the most coveted prize: a Day Two invite to Worlds.
Sadly, neither Rizzo nor every other Japanese participant that received a prime 64 placement in Stage One had an opportunity to compete within the authentic model of Stage Two of Japan Nationals they have been promised, and allegedly this was due to The Pokémon Firm’s try to repair the state of affairs with Japan Nationals.
Since Stage One in every of Japan Nationals was all on-line, there was quite a lot of noise stirred up by Japanese gamers in regards to the neverending bugs and disconnections that Scarlet and Violet continually show, making it in order that a complete nation’s Worlds invitations got here down as to if or not gamers have been lucky sufficient to not encounter a disconnect or a game-defining bug throughout a match that was of no fault of their very own.
This difficulty was not solely of Japanese gamers however was additionally echoed by the East Asian international locations which have practically similar aggressive Scarlet and Violet circuits.
To treatment this, The Pokémon Firm has now launched one other stage of the match between Stage One and Stage Two. Among the many 450 gamers that certified for Stage One in every of Japan Nationals, the 386 gamers that initially didn’t qualify for Stage Two will now compete within the middleman spherical added in between the 2 levels.
On this center spherical, one other bunch of prime 64 gamers will probably be added to the competing group, making the full taking part in area for Stage Two now include 128 gamers.
The issue with this treatment is gamers like Rizzo who had already secured their Day One Worlds invite have gotten it revoked to no fault of their very own and should compete in Stage Two simply to safe their Day One invite as soon as once more.
Rizzo left lower than happy with end result
Since Rizzo will not be within the prime 64 group anymore after the brand new center stage of Japan Nationals takes place, he should compete in Stage Two to as soon as once more get into the highest 64 from a gaggle of 128 gamers. From there, if he and every other participant is on the lookout for a Day Two invite, they might want to carry out their finest to earn a prime eight placement within the remaining stage of the Scarlet and Violet Japan Nationals.
With Stage Two of Japan Nationals nonetheless being double elimination, now with a playerbase that has doubled in measurement, a displeased Rizzo noted in his YouTube video that “now [your Worlds invite] comes down to 3 video games of best-of-one closed crew sheet.”
The three-time Pokémon VGC champ continued: “Who is aware of who you get paired towards, you possibly can simply get unfortunate with pairings, you possibly can get unfortunate as a result of Pokémon is only a naturally luck-filled recreation, or you possibly can simply play some, you recognize, typical best-of-one closed crew sheet that you simply would possibly usually discover.”
Dot Esports has reached out to Rizzo for remark.
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