Shellnuts
Rustiest Player Around
Nintendo Cup 2000 Resource Hub:
Approved by Kris
Approved by Kris
Since the format is being added to Pokemon Showdown imminently, I put together this thread for the format.
Introduction and Some History:
Nintendo Cup 2000 is the oldest official format in GSC, initially being played in an exhibition game at Spaceworld 2000. There were then eight televised tournaments played in Tokyo, Miyagi, Osaka. Kochi, Shimane, Ishikawa, Yamagata, Kumamoto, Hokkaido, and Aichi, with the winners of those tournaments playing in a final tournament (source). The finals were played on January 14, 2001, where Yuki Sato’s Reversal Heracross brought the game back from being 3 to 1 (link to a VHS recording of the finals and here is a link to a higher quality recording of just the battle itself) being watched on television by thousands. Ever since the official tournament back in 2001, the format has been played ever since, with many tournaments on a Japanese simulator, Gym Leaders Castle, being played until today with up to 178 participants in one tournament (source). Suffice it to say, the format is very popular and has been ever since its inception.
How Nintendo Cup 2000 is different from Overused:
Nintendo Cup 2000 and GSC Overused are radically different formats, while the top metagame threats are the same in both formats and they share the same clauses, in every other aspect the format plays completely differently.
As players of BSS (Battle Stadium Singles or Battle Spot Singles) can attest to, building teams in a “Bring 6 Choose 3” format differs significantly from building in 6v6 formats since your team must allow for you to change which combination of Pokemon you are choosing without a significant decrease in performance. This is very different from building in 6v6 formats such as Overused where Pokemon can specialize more into specific roles, and takes a lot of experience to get used to. Furthermore, the 3v3 nature of the format means surprising move choices have much more impact and can outright win games and winning consistently can come down to being able to balance flexibility in which three you choose with unpredictable move choices.
The next major difference in building teams for Nintendo Cup 2000 comes in the form of a unique rule specific to Nintendo Cup formats and some Stadium formats, the levels system. This rule forces all Pokemon to be between levels 50 and 55 (inclusive) and limits the combined level total of the three Pokemon which are chosen to be at most 155. In practice, this means that your Pokemon are all at level 50 with 5 levels to distribute amongst your 3 Pokemon going into battle. This change means you are locked out of using specific Pokemon without investing levels into them, for example, to use Tyranitar, it must be at level 55, since Pupitar only evolves into Tyranitar at level 55. How the levels are distributed amongst your Pokemon changes how your Pokemon operate in a team significantly, with a level 55 Pokemon being approximately 20% bulkier than its level 50 counterpart, due to the approximately 10% increase in both Health as well as Defense or Special Defense stacking, while only doing 10% more damage per hit.
Teambuilding in Nintendo Cup 2000 further diverges from GSC Overused with the additions of Team Preview, Event Moves Clause, and Item Clause. With the addition of Team Preview, both players can see what possible combinations of Pokemon their opponent could bring and choose their three Pokemon accordingly, this lowers the variance of the format significantly from what it would be otherwise and makes Pokemon that rely on their opponent not bringing a hard counter much worse, helping stabilize the format. Event Moves Clause prevents moves only available from events from being used, which mainly affects Snorlax and Vaporeon as they no longer have access to Lovely Kiss and Growth respectively which can affect the viability of some Pokemon however it should not be too problematic. Item Clause is one of the most important changes in rulesets from GSC Overused since it puts a limit on how widespread Leftovers is. Leftovers are one of the most defining parts of the GSC Overused metagame, and by limiting its distribution, offensive play becomes far more impactful.
The last important change to touch on is the use of moves from Pokemon Crystal. Officially, when the format was first played, moves from Pokemon Crystal were banned (source)—likely because Pokemon Crystal released mid-way through the tournament (the tournament this format was initially played in went from November 3, 2000, which was a holiday to December 23, 2000, and Pokemon Crystal released December 14, 2000)—however since then, moves from Pokemon Crystal are usually allowed in tournaments played in Japan (they also usually play on Pokemon Stadium 2 instead of on cartridge as far as I am aware). Due to policy reasons, the default option has them disabled, however, by challenging a player through a command (see below) you will be able to challenge a player with them enabled (when the format is added to Pokemon Showdown). The disabling of these moves change some key Pokemon dramatically—most notably Marowak cannot gain Swords Dance through an Egg move, Eevee and its evolutions cannot learn Baton Pass, Cloyster no longer learns Spikes, and the lack of the Move Tutor in Gold and Silver heavily limits the distribution of Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, and Flamethrower.
/challenge USERNAME, gen2nintendocup2000 @@@ ! Nintendo Cup 2000 Move Legality
How to use the command:
In any place you can type on Pokemon Showdown, you can type the command given above, replace USERNAME with the username of the player you are challenging, and press Enter to send a request for a match with moves from Pokemon Crystal allowed. Two common places this can be done are in chatrooms or private messages (in private messages you do not need to type USERNAME since it knows who you are referring to by default based on who you are talking to), as shown in this image.
How to use the command:
In any place you can type on Pokemon Showdown, you can type the command given above, replace USERNAME with the username of the player you are challenging, and press Enter to send a request for a match with moves from Pokemon Crystal allowed. Two common places this can be done are in chatrooms or private messages (in private messages you do not need to type USERNAME since it knows who you are referring to by default based on who you are talking to), as shown in this image.
Overall, the changes given above make for a much faster-paced metagame than GSC Overused. The quick pace of these games makes Spikes less important while moves such as Explosion, Self-Destruct, Perish Song, and Destiny Bond, which allows for the user to perform one-for-one trades or guarantee a single Knockout, become more central to the metagame as the benefits of a single Knockout are felt much more strongly due to the limited number of Pokemon on each side. In Overused, a predicted switch may grant the user initiative however in this format it may win the game outright from the first turn, making each decision feel more dramatic and impactful.
Viability Rankings (with Crystal moves allowed):
As mentioned previously, ever since the original tournament was played, the format is usually played on Pokemon Stadium 2 with moves from Pokemon Crystal allowed. This means, to my knowledge a tier list for Nintendo Cup 2000 as it originally was played does not exist. However, there are many resources available in Japanese for Pokemon Crystal, such as this viability ranking by Chio which I will be presenting in this guide.
S tier:
S- tier:
A+ tier:
A tier:
A- Tier:
B+ tier:
B tier:
B- tier:
When nominating Viability Rankings changes, be sure to meet the following requirements;
- There's proper evidence to support your claim. Replays and calculations are very helpful here. Theories are ok but demonstrating it in a game is best.
- You've played the metagame and can demonstrate your knowledge of the subject when constructing your point.
TL;DR, post intelligently.
Resources
This will expand as more resources are produced or found.
Pokemon Battle Historia
A Japanese website dedicated to Gen 1-2 run by Gold, centred on Nintendo's official formats, which are how they're played over there. They have their own analyses and VR from Gold's point of view.
Gym Leader's Castle Game Discussion Wiki
A Japanese website focused on exploring the Nintendo Cup 2000 metagame, with viability rankings, strategies, and team analyses.
Differences Between GSC Overused and Poke Cup
A thread by Chio that covers the differences in strategies between GSC Overused and Poke Cup, which is what Nintendo Cup 2000 is called on Pokemon Stadium 2 (they are for the most part the same with some minor mechanical changes).
Sample Teams
Here is a list of sample teams for Nintendo Cup 2000, found here, and translated to PokePaste at this link by myself.
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