2022 VGC North American International Championships Recap

The VGC North American International Championships returned to Columbus, Ohio after a two-year-long hiatus to crown three final international champions of the season ahead of the World Championships in London this August. James Evans was crowned champion in the Masters Division with an impressive win over Brazil’s (and one of Latin America’s best players) Gabriel Agati Madeira, with Abel Ashby and Christopher Han taking home the titles in the Junior and Senior Divisions, respectively.

Evans’ win was an emotional one as he popped off and gave an impassioned post-game interview after his solid 2-0 victory in the final match. This is the former Senior World Champion’s second international championship win, with this being his first since aging up to the Master’s Division.

Capping off his season with a Top 4 finish at the Milwaukee Regional Championships just the weekend before, an International Championships win and over 1400 Championship Points to his name, Evans looks to carry this momentum into London later this summer where he is poised to be one of North America’s biggest threats heading into the World Championships.

Speaking of North America’s best, let’s examine the rest of the field and recap the weekend that was the 2022 VGC North American International Championships.

Results and Teams (Top 8)

A Truly International Affair

Despite this being the North America region’s home major event, there were plenty of notable invading players that made their mark on the tournament field.

The story of the success of Chinese players this year in VGC continues on through the amazing performances of Peng Chongjung, Zhang Zhe, Si Dawei and Tang Shiliang. Having four representatives in the Top 12 is nothing short of historic for the Chinese player-base, and this story will continue on into London through Peng and Zhang (and six other qualified players); two regional champions this season that have become paragons of consistency since the regional circuit returned in 2022.

One of the coolest stories from this season is the rise of many incredible Chinese players. I've been so impressed by @aotobj98 @ChongjunVGC @HupuMetapod @tsltang0508 among more, who I know will have a great performance soon.

(also, thanks for all the fun teams for RtR!)

加油! https://t.co/52TkuBKVPz

— Aaron "Cybertron" Zheng (@CybertronVGC) June 27, 2022

Other standout performances from non-US competitors include Latin America’s sole Day Two representative Gabriel Agati Madeira (2^nd) from Brazil, Taran Birdee (8^th) from the United Kingdom, Masayoshi Kuroo (16^th) from Japan, Eric Rios (10^th) and Guillermo Castilla (29^th) from Spain, Oliver Eskolin (18^th) and Lauri Halonen (21^st) from Finland among many others.

Ultimately it was North America that came out on top with James Evans’ win and some of North America’s finest in Justin Burns (3^rd), Joseph Ugarte (4^th) and James Baek (7^th) rounding out the rest of the Top 8 cut. These names are for sure ones to keep eyes on, along with the rest of the strong North American delegation that will be present at the World Championships.

A Diverse, Yet Familiar Metagame

This late into VGC’s Series 12 metagame, players have (mostly) figured out which restricted Pokémon go well together as well as which other Pokémon support them the best. Calyrex (both Ice Rider and Shadow Rider forme), Zacian, Kyogre, Groudon, Lunala and Palkia made up 95% of the team compositions present in Day Two at Columbus with the pairing of Zacian and Kyogre being by far the most popular.

Caly/Zacian/Ogre/Lunala/Palkia made up 61/64 (95%) restricteds to cut NAIC with the last 3 being two reshiram and 1 yveltal

these same 6 restricteds only made up 52/64 (81%) of the top 32 in Japanese Nationals

— Chase (@tikichase) June 27, 2022

These seven restricted Pokémon of course aren’t the end all be all as even some oddball picks like Reshiram, Yveltal and Dialga slid into the top placements. The important thing to note here is that while most of the “best” restricted pairings and teams have been pretty much solved by this point, each style of team has unique techs to suit the needs and playstyles of each player.

The best examples being the plethora of Zacian/Kyogre teams that opted for competing Grass-types (Kartana, Rillaboom, Amoonguss), different Electric-types (Thundurus, Zapdos, Regieleki), or even the most player-specific techs like Kyle Livinghouse’s Mimikyu, Si Dawei’s Celesteela or Thomas Gravouille’s Shedinja.

There are some non-restricted Pokémon that stand out as fundamental glue to hold teams together. The top five of these Pokémon being Incineroar, Rillaboom, Thundurus, Grimmsnarl and Gastrodon respectively. Each of these Pokémon have a defined role in the metagame and can fit nicely onto almost any team composition.

From Incineroar and Rillaboom’s Fake Out and pivoting, to Gastrodon’s Storm Drain helping to combat Kyogre, to Thundurus’ insanely strong Max Airstreams and offensive support to Grimmsnarl’s near endless bag of Prankster-enabled support moves, these Pokémon will most certainly be reappearing until the final match-ups of the season, and it remains to be seen if even these Pokémon can innovate further in their own way.

Now it remains to be seen if these same trends will carry over to the World Championships, as it was just last month that we saw Dialga and Eternatus stun the West with a Top 4 finish at the Japan National Championships (with Umbreon and Salamence adding to an equally surprising supporting cast).

The 2022 World Championships remain as the long awaited final trial to end what has ultimately been a three-year long season and saga for the current era of Pokémon.  For the VGC side of things, this year is shaping up to be one full of surprises with a historically exciting penultimate tournament to set the tone for competitive Generation 8’s first and final World Championships.

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Images from The Official Pokémon YouTube Channel, Pokémon, Victory Road