World Cup of Pokémon: Introduction and History

Introduction

The World Cup of Pokémon (WCoP) is a major OU team tournament that sees the best singles players in the world battle it out across six different generations in a bid to win one of Smogon's oldest prizes: the prestigious blue trophy . As in true World Cup fashion, teams are determined geographically and players must form together to bring glory to their respective regions. Sixteen teams, each consisting of ten starters, will compete across SM OU and the five most recent old gens (ORAS, BW2, DPP, ADV, GSC) to determine the world's greatest region of Pokémon players. This year, reigning champions US East are looking to become the first team to win four World Cup trophies. Will they be able to accomplish this incredible feat? Only time will tell.

Format

The expected teams in this year's edition are Africa and Middle East, Asia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Oceania, Spain, UK, US Central, US East, US West, and the winner of the pre-tournament tiebreak between 2016's last placed team, US Metro, and the team looking to win back their place in the tournament, Latin America. Other regions may also be eligible depending on the number of sign-ups. Players must include their region in their sign-up post in order to be eligible to play in this tournament.

After the sign-up period is over, team captains will submit their rosters to the host. Teams will consist of ten starters (five SM, one ORAS, one BW2, one DPP, one ADV, and one GSC) and five substitutes. The tiers of the starting players will be locked for the entirety of Round 1.

Round 1 will be played with round robin pools. There will be forty pools in total, each featuring four players from different teams. Of these forty pools will be twenty SM OU pools, four ORAS OU, four BW2 OU, four DPP OU, four ADV OU, and four GSC OU. Players will face each member of their pool only once, thereby resulting in a total of three games for each of a team's ten starting players and a total of thirty games for each team as a collective unit. The cumulative number of wins from these games will then be used to determine the overall standings for the round, with the eight highest-placed teams advancing to playoffs.

Playoffs will be a seeded single-elimination knockout bracket where teams face one another directly. Each series in playoffs will be a 10 v. 10 affair featuring five SM OU battles and a battle from each of the included old gens. In the case of a tie, both teams will elect three players to face off in a Bo3 tiebreak. The tiers of the tiebreak will be SM OU and a tier of each team's choosing. Series will have one-week deadlines with extensions unlikely to be given. This format will continue for the remainder of the tournament, and the last team standing will be declared champions.

History

A lot has happened in this prestigious tournament since it began roughly 12 years ago. Initially starting as a fun tournament consisting only of the then-standard metagame ADV OU, World Cup has since evolved into arguably the biggest event in the Smogon calendar. Below is a brief rundown of the major events that have transpired in this time.

The first World Cup, hosted by Jackal, was held all the way back in 2005. The tournament was a much smaller affair then than what it is today, with each team consisting merely of four players. These players battled it out in a knockout bracket to determine who would become the first ever champions. Team trophies had not yet been introduced, so the incentive came solely from pride in one's region. Due to server changes, very little of the inaugural edition's history remains, but we do know that it was Asia who emerged triumphant, claiming a first win for the region that would go on to become arguably World Cup's greatest ever dynasty.

2006 saw a significant expansion of the tournament. The number of starters was increased from four to eight, and teams were put into a traditional eight-team knockout bracket in which players faced off in 8 v. 8 fashion. Tiebreaks were decided by one-off games between team-selected representatives from each side. Defending champions Asia made light work of South America in Round 1 before brushing aside US West in Semis. Their final opponents US Central needed the long route and had to fight through tiebreaks against both Canada and US East to progress to the ultimate round. Asia went into the final having only lost one game, but Central proved to be much sterner opposition than anyone they had previously faced and took the series to 3-3 with two games remaining. A third tiebreak wasn't to be, however, as MoP and goofball saw out the remaining two games to successfully retain Asia's title of world champions.

A shift in generations meant that World Cup didn't return again until 2008, but the growth of the tournament showed no signs of stopping, as the field increased to twelve teams. The hosts decided to shake up the rules for this year and experiment with a more individual-based format. Instead of competing in groups, players were made to compete as individuals whose performances would earn points for their respective teams. Round 1 introduced round robin pools to the tournament where the top two players from each would advance to a knockout bracket. Due to the nature of the format, it was entirely possible for a team to build an unassailable lead long before the final round. This is exactly what Asia would do, producing a terrific display that saw them crowned champions with two rounds to spare. The individual bracket concluded with a round robin final between Fade_Away, FivekRunner, and GG. With the outcome of the team portion of the tournament already decided, the individual final garnered little interest and went unplayed. Despite this, the story of the event was, and always will be, Asia's incredible achievement of winning three consecutive World Cups.

Unsurprisingly, the previous format was deemed unsuccessful and was dropped for 2009. The initial round robin pools did prove to be popular, though, and they returned for the revamped tournament as a result of it. From these pools, the top eight point-earning teams would advance to a more familiar eight-team bracket, reminiscent of the format played in 2006. The field increased once again, this time to fourteen, which meant three-time champions Asia faced their toughest challenge yet. They advanced from pools as #4 seed, with four American teams (West, Central, Metro, and South), UK, Canada, and Oceania making up the rest of Top 8. With a close 5-3 victory over Canada in Round 2 and a tie-break win in against US West in Semis, the stage was set for Asia to win a fourth consecutive trophy. But what people did not realize at the time was that not only was Asia's reign at the top about to end, but also that it was going to be ended by World Cup's next great dynasty. With wins against US Central and US Metro in playoffs, Oceania had already announced themselves on the world stage. However, it wasn't until finals that they truly established themselves as a major force. With just two games remaining and the score at 4-2 in favor of Asia, Oceania rebounded and leveled the series courtesy of wins from Stallion and Earthworm. After sending the series to the tournament's first ever finals tie-break, Earthworm solidified his status as an all-time great by defeating Asia's 7-0 star player husk and thereby winning the tournament for Oceania.

The stakes were raised in 2010 when it was announced that the winning team would receive trophies to acknowledge their accomplishment. The same format was kept from the previous year, with the only exception being the expansion to sixteen teams. Asia's fading dominance brought a new hope to aspiring teams looking to go the distance. Among these was the newly-formed Indian Subcontinent and Greater Middle East team (ISGME), a formation that included a large array of successful players such as Aldaron and husk. Defending champions Oceania were finding life difficult and could only tie with Canada and US East for eighth place in the opening round. In the tiebreak, Earthworm once again proved his worth by defeating both Gouki and Stone_Cold to put his team through to the second round where they would face daunting opposition in the form of #1 seed US West. Despite their Round 1 struggle, a narrow victory over the Americans followed up by a one-sided encounter against an otherwise formidable Latin America side resulted in Oceania reaching their second consecutive final. By virtue of defeating US Metro and UK in playoffs, it was World Cup debutants ISGME who had earned the right to face the repeat finalists on the grand stage. But with the blue trophy on the line, the mighty newcomers failed to repeat their earlier form, and panamaxis's victory against Lady Bug and his infamous hail stall team secured a second consecutive championship for Oceania.

2011 brought no change in format but did bring a change in generation. The DPP era was over, and the much-anticipated BW era was in full swing. Last year's runners-up ISGME disbanded and, along with US South, were replaced by Benelux and Mexico. Controversy ensued when Latin America failed to qualify for Round 2 despite boasting one of the strongest win-loss records. This is because the system in place rewarded points acquired from pool placing over win-loss records, much to the ire of LA. There was no such struggle for defending champions Oceania as they breezed through pools with an impressive 16-8 record. Round 2 did prove to be more difficult for the #1 seed, however, as they required a tiebreak victory from panamaxis to knock off a spirited Brazil. Canada, who then boasted superstars such as Gouki and Krack, followed a strong Round 1 showing with a comfortable win over perennial quarterfinalists Europe but came up short in Top 4 when they faced the much-improved US West. The other side of the bracket marked a return to form for Oceania as they thrashed France 7-1 to reach a third consecutive final. In the closing series, first-time finalists US West took the tournament favorites to another tiebreak. There, in what is considered by many to be the most memorable game in World Cup history, Philip7086 shocked the entire community by bringing a highly gimmicky Aron team in hope of vanquishing the legendary Earthworm. Unfortunately for West, this decision did not pay off, and Earthworm claimed yet another tiebreak win to complete the three-peat for Oceania.

The point system controversy from 2011 resulted in a slight change to the format for 2012. Taking over from hosting legend Jackal, Bloo and Iconic announced that overall win-loss record would be the determining factor for a team's placings in standings, and points earned in pools were only to be used to settle seeding ties. In Round 1, Oceania came back from a weak start to reaffirm their status as top dogs by qualifying for the second round, although it was a fierce France side that claimed #1 seed, producing a record-breaking 18-6 display. A five-way tiebreak was needed to determine the 6th, 7th, and 8th spots, with US West, Asia, and Brazil beating out Canada and US Metro to take the final three places. Upsets were the story of Round 2, as not only did #1 seed France crumble against Brazil, but in what many agree was the shock of the tournament, Lamppost defeated panamaxis to earn a tiebreak victory for US East at the expense of three-time champions Oceania. Latin America and US West's victories over Asia and Spain, respectively, set up a meeting between the two sides in semis. Amidst a lot of bad blood and questionable behavior, Rewer's successful Pursuit of Bloo's Mienshao was not enough to prevent the stylish superstar from picking up the victory that secured a second consecutive final for the west coast representatives. In the tournament's first and only all-American final, US West gained redemption for their 2011 final loss to Oceania by taming their east coast adversaries US East, with Bloo once again claiming the decisive victory.

World Cup's new host, M Dragon, only brought in small changes to the format for 2013, the two most notable of which being the replacement of the now-defunct BW1 tier with BW2 and the expansion to a seventeen-team field. With Oceania's reign over, it was left up to US West to continue the tradition of achieving consecutive victories. But despite their victory in the battle of the coasts, West weren't the team to go into 2013 as favorites. Instead, it was their beaten rivals US East who had the community buzzing. A large amount of individual success for a number of their players meant that the 2012 runners-up now boasted arguably the strongest squad in the competition. East successfully battled their way through Round 1 pools, but shockingly, defending champions US West faltered and could only muster a 9th place finish. Debutants Africa and Middle East (Afrabs) claimed the final playoffs spot, but their hopes of advancing further were dashed in Round 2 by a new-look Germany team. Germany themselves were eliminated in the following round by US East, who had earned their place in semis by defeating France in Round 2. A revitalized Asia completed the other side of the bracket, thanks to wins against US Metro and Latin America. Up to this point, US East hadn't dropped more than two games in any of their series, and finals would prove to be no different as BKC's decisive win over the undefeated Adam (then known as Yusuke) saw the Americans blitz through as 6-2 winners. The tradition of retaining was gone, but the blue trophy was kept on American soil.

Prior to the start of the 2014 World Cup, Spain's Malekith campaigned to turn World Cup into a multi-gen tournament. After some deliberation, the Tournament Directors agreed to the change and replaced three of the new XY slots with slots for each of BW2, DPP, and ADV. Due to group complications caused by this, the field was reduced to the more traditional number of sixteen. Any new team looking to join the fray would have to first defeat the last place team from the previous year in a Bo3 playoff to earn the 16th spot in the tournament. In Round 1, US East showed no signs of slowing down as they took top seed with a record-equaling 18-6 performance. West and Metro both exceeded expectations and completed an all-American top 3, while former powerhouses Latin America and Oceania failed to make the cut altogether. US East and US West both advanced to the semis with Round 2 wins over Canada and Asia, respectively, but US Metro fell to a well-organized Brazil team. Coming off a 5-3 victory over Germany, Spain faced the unenviable task of taking on US East in Semis. East, who still had not lost more than two games in a knockout round since 2012, continued their dominance by claiming a 7-1 win over Spain. The much anticipated all-American final did not happen, though, as Brazil upset US West 5-3 to reach their first ever final. Seizing this opportunity, Brazil defied all odds and took a 4-3 lead into the last game. There, in what is believed to be the most viewed battle in the history of Smogtours, Sogeking defeated CTC in BW2 OU to end the reign of East and claim a historic first win for Brazil.

The transition to full multi-gen was made complete in 2015 when RBY and GSC were added to the tournament. To account for the inclusion of all six generations, the number of starters per team was increased to 10. This allowed for a 50-50 split between current gen (five ORAS) and old gens slots (one for each of BW2, DPP, ADV, GSC, and RBY). Brazil hoped to make up for the loss of star player Sogeking by recruiting RBY and GSC legend Tiba to their ranks, but despite him winning all three of his pool games, the defending champions could not repeat the success of 2014 and were eliminated in the first round. European teams proved to be the standout performers in pools as France, Spain, and Germany took the top three spots, but late wins by US Central and US East, in addition to US West claiming the 5th spot, meant that the United States would also be well represented in playoffs. The expected highlight of Round 2 turned out to be a one-sided affair as France once again struggled to live up to expectations and were beaten 7-1 by a rejuvenated US East. US West joined their rivals in the next round by defeating an Oceania team inspired by the return of the likes of Earthworm and panamaxis, while European giants Germany and Spain each won their fixtures to set up a meeting in semis. With a convincing 7-3 win over West for US East and a tiebreak win over Germany for Spain, World Cup 2015 culminated in the first ever US v. Europe final. Unfortunately for neutrals (and for Spain), idiotfrommars's GSC OU win completed a clean sweep for East as they reclaimed their title by storming through the final without dropping so much as a single game.

2016 started with drama pertaining to new eligibility rules. When it was announced that eligibility would be determined solely by IP, many teams protested and called for a change in the decision. The concept remained unchanged, but a "grandfather clause" was added to allow teams to keep players who represented them in previous editions of the tournament. Soon after, even more drama came about when new applicants Greece defeated Latin America in a pre-tournament playoff to qualify at their expense. Led by respected veterans Astamatitos and Fear, Greece went on to exceed all expectations by qualifying from Round 1 as #2 seed. The US rivalry continued in Round 2 as East once again got the better of West. Greece's underdog story was ended by a determined Spain, while Italy continued their run of form by defeating Afrabs after a tiebreak. #1 seed Germany recovered from a 0-4 deficit to defeat Asia in Round 2 before defeating a resolute Italy 7-5 (after tiebreak) in semis. The other semifinal was also won on a 2-1 tiebreak as US East fought past Spain in a repeat of the 2015 final. Germany and US East proceeded to trade blows in the final before eventually tying at 5-5. bro fist's ORAS win gave US East the lead in the tie-break before -Tsunami- wrapped things up by claiming a huge GSC win over Germany's 7-0 megalodon Conflict. As a result, East became back-to-back winners, three-time overall winners, and the only team to ever reach five consecutive finals.

You've always been one of the biggest advocates of World Cup as a tournament. What makes this such a special event to you?

While national pride can sometimes be exaggerated, there is a certain je ne sais quoi to playing for your country that no other tournament can replicate. Some disregard this because they're too cool to care about online Pokémon tournaments and prefer to win at all costs—that's their prerogative but I would never pass up on that and think that spirit very much exists within the majority of the teams participating. The pride of the European teams especially is inspiring. There's a reason the World Cup is beloved by the entire world and while we aren't quite on the same scale of international football/soccer (or "footsoccer"), having our own version of it is still amazing to me. New players establishing themselves while representing their country is one of the things that makes Pokémon great. Of course American pride might not be the wisest thing right now but you get the idea.

Your team, US East, have won three of the past four World Cups. What do you believe has been the key to your success?

We always have several hard workers who put their best effort forth so we can all succeed. Of course this is partially driven by wanting the trophy and good records and generally wanting to win but there's also the fact that we're a tight-knit group and want each other to succeed. It's a real team environment, unlike some past WCoP teams that had frightening rosters but didn't go too far because of ego clashes. That's not to say it's all sunshine and roses, that'd just be weird and unrealistic, but we handle most anything like normal people... usually.

How do you feel US East compare to past dynasties such as Asia and Oceania?

I wasn't around for the Asia dynasty so I can't personally comment on experience against them but they had several of the best players ever. When several of them re-assembled for WCoP 2015, everyone got scared, and for good reason. I did experience Oceania though— if there's ever any Pokémon team that seemed unbeatable, it was them led by prime Earthworm/panamaxis/babidi-Heist. I didn't see the Asia greats pre-2010 though so my perspective is somewhat limited— however Earthworm is the one player I'd truly take to beat anyone, for what that's worth. I think East definitely has had big star power for a while and I suppose the two years with gr8astard were the pinnacle of that. Five straight finals is also kind of insane. It's always really hard to compare different eras of Pokémon (Veteran In Love vs. EW vs. McMeghan and all that) especially because there's often bias involved depending on who one wants to be better and even the numbers are hard to crunch because of the major differences in the times... so I'll say I think we're deserving of being up there with those two.

Once again, you go into the tournament as the favorites. Are you feeling confident?

I'm always confident going into a tournament. Whether it was warranted or not depends on the performance (and this doesn't just mean winning) but I always think "no worries we got this" except for that moment last year when FlamingVictini brought SubCM Cobalion against stall with us on the brink of elimination which is the one time I truly thought we were done for. I don't want to anger the Pokémon gods in all their cruelty but if we do our best there's no reason we can't go all the way again. I like this blue trophy too much to let it go, it was the first one I ever got.

Any opposition, be it team or player, you have your eye on this year?

Spain are always dangerous and Poek has quickly put himself on the map since he first showed up in last year's World Cup. Other players like Axel10 and Trosko have also shown themselves to be very, very good, while they've always got their reliable, dangerous veterans—M Dragon, SoulWind, Malekith, reiku. There are no weak spots in the Spanish roster.

France are eternally threatening as well. Last year I thought they'd at least make semis since their already intimidating roster added the terrifying ORAS duo of Mounts and GeeMick, as well as Peasounay in RBY, but they didn't even qualify. Sometimes Pokémon is weird like that. However they're never a team you want to play. Despite losing RBY, this could be the year they go deep.

Wherever reyscarface ends up is going to be scary. He's been solid in recent years but never have I seen him as dedicated as he is in SM OU.

As a long-term participant and former winner of the tournament, what do you feel World Cup offers that other major tournaments don't?

This tournament is kinda special to me. It was my first competition on Smogon, so it brings me a lot of memories. I just played at random Brazilian tournaments at the time (2010), never took any tourney seriously, and was just an average player using lots of gimmicks. After playing in a major tournament like WCoP I realized how things on Smogon were different: it was in a level totally above anything I had played so far. I got a bad record and this would keep some people down, but the team environment was SO fun that I couldn't wait for the next WCoP. Most part of the team was already of friends of mine, but it was the first time we spent so much time discussing this game and actually trying to win. It was totally different from the usual Pokémon talk we had like laughing at dumb stuff in the ladder. Being part of that made me think "I want to become a better player to stay on this team and actually have a decent record next time." That's when I think I REALLY started to play competitive Pokémon, and it was the tourney I most wanted to win.

Despite that, I also like WCoP a lot because I actually wanna win for my country. I never tried to play for other teams and I don't try to make super teams or anything. Actually I'm the only Brazilian who has been on the team since it started and will be on the squad this year as well! I just want to fight along my fellow monkeys and win with them. Mostly because of Brazilian pride and my closest friends on Pokémon are Brazilians, so playing with them is always fun. At the beginning it was to prove that Brazilians can be really good at this game as well, since at the time there were lots of people who thought Brazilians were a bunch of trolls who didn't know how to play at all, but I think this already changed.

In 2013, Brazil struggled and ended up in last place. In 2014, you steered them all the way to the trophy. Can you describe the feeling of that experience?

The feeling was REALLY good for so many reasons. Our 2013 run is like something we like to forget. Being honest: at the time I knew we wouldn't make playoffs, but didn't think we would do such a bad performance. The best players we had in BW once (pi face, Mosh, Rurushu, Quantum Mechanics, Blue Star, and... maybe myself?) were retired or just didn't like the changes from the old BW and weren't playing the tier for real. Traitors like sogeking and Tamahome went to LA that year, and all we had was a bunch of players from the Brazilian community who didn't have experience on Smogon. I chose like 80% of the team based on tryouts, and that's not a good way to decide a squad (and the tryouts were already bad enough). Our best hope in BW that year was elodin/papai noel, and he went 0-3 in a tough group.

In 2014 we decided to change things a bit. First thing was getting Tamahome and sogeking back to the team. Then we started to build a relationship with some of the new players, playing with them in other tourneys, and encouraging them to play on Smogon things. This way I got to know players like Destiny Device and KratosMana, who were really important in our run. We started working together for some time and getting familiar with our team environment. Then we ran some tryouts just to fill the last slots during the end of the signups. So we were preparing ourselves to win the tournament for quite some time that year.

What I'm trying to say with all this story is: it was really good to see that our changes and hard work paid off, even if we had some disappointments with some people on the team. It was also cool to be the first COUNTRY (not region) to win the blue trophy and a personal achievement I had. Games like the last matches from Round 1, Hill vs. dice and sogeking vs. CTC will always be in my memory. We also proved that we just had a terrible year and could put our shit together to being back as the strongest team.

These past couple of years, Brazil have been unable to reproduce their championship form. What do you think has been the cause of this decline?

FREE SOGEKING

Jokes aside, not having a strong BW player is really bad. Like I said above, our player base at the end of BW2 was really poor and no one really tried to get better at it besides sogeking. Other problem is that Tiba and I got really busy with real life stuff AND we lost interest in GSC/RBY. That was REALLY bad for our team, since everyone trusts us so much in those tiers. Tiba didn't even want to GSC last year (I wasn't inclined to play anything as well so I ended up as a sub) and that made us change lots of things in our lineup which ended up with poor performances in tiers we should have a good record. In ORAS we got new players with not so much experience in big tournaments and veterans like Destiny Device were just not interested in playing Pokémon like years ago. With all of that combined we had bad team choices, misplays, chokes, and everything else. Yeah, we need to put our shit together like in 2014. (Freeing sogeking would help btw)

On paper, Brazil seem to have one of the strongest teams this year. Do you believe you deserve to be ranked as one of the favorites?

If we put our best performance we're one of the favorites in the multi-gen format for sure. We have some strong names for every tier (besides BW) and so far everyone is interested in giving our best shot this year. I trust my monkeys a lot, so let's see if everything goes well for us until the WCoP time!

Lastly, any lesser known team or player you expect to make a big impact this year?

I don't know so many new good names for SM so I don't see any team surprising us this year so far. BUT I hope Canada and Oceania become as strong as they were in 2011, since I like some people in both teams. The good players I saw this gen were already good in ORAS, so I'll just say that I'm rooting for my Brazilian underdogs to get their moment to shine in this year's WCoP (especially lighthouses and Century Express—give your best, buddies!).

Conclusion

World Cup season is always one of the most entertaining periods on Smogon, and with this being the first year to include SM OU, 2017's tournament promises to be the most exciting edition yet. Along with the spectacle of the best of both past and present competing for the top prize, there's also plenty of room for newcomers to join in, too. Many of the game's all-time greats first made their names in World Cup, so regardless of your standings in the community, don't hesitate to sign up and try out, as World Cup has proven countless times that it's a great opportunity for people to establish themselves here on Smogon.

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