The World Cup of Pokémon 2024 - Introduction

[ken]

The World Cup of Pokémon 2024

logo by Iyarito
Hosted by ken and SparksBlade
with help from Celever, Concept Everything, Eledyr, Mathy, Tuthur, & Vertigo​

It's a new year with a new format, an expanded main event, and I think it's safe to say we'll have more games on the third week Sunday than ever before. With a whopping 50 pools for the main event and an ever expanding roster of total teams across the world, Spain will certainly have their work cut out for them to defend their title. With the reintroduction of some oldgens and Ubers and UU, rosters may look a little different this year, so keep your eyes peeled for what can only be described as mass chaos in the final hours of both qualifiers and the main stage pools.

Countries and regions across the world are rushing to align themselves to keep the Americans from returning to even the semifinals. After nearly missing relegation last year, will Team Northeast come back and make it the playoffs? Will Team West repeat their performance in pools only to be knocked out in quarterfinals again? Will "Joy Bangla" see repeated use as a rallying cry across regions? Will Oceania, who had a great run last year, better their performance and perhaps take it all home or will we see another team make a run through qualifiers and take home the trophy? Keep watching and remember:

FIGHT FOR YOUR COUNTRY!!!

Threads:

• Captain signups
• Qualifying player signups
• Qualifying rounds
• Player signups
• WCOP 2023

WCOP 2024 Teams:

RETURNING TEAMS:

• Belgium
• Europe
• France
• Germany
• India
• Italy
• Oceania
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• US Midwest
• US Northeast
• US South
• US West

QUALIFYING TEAMS (assuming those currently with captain signups have full rosters):

• Africa
• Argentina
• Asia
• Austria
• Bangladesh
• Brazil
• Canada
• Chile
• China
• Greece
• LatAm
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• South Korea
• Switzerland
• Venezuela

 

[Luigi]

começa essa porra logo antes do time todo quitar

 

[Drifting]

We’re so bloody back.

 

[zioziotrip]

hello if you are from the midwest and are interested in playing for wcop this yr, dm me or either manager on discord.

we will be hosting tryouts for new players but if you have good replays, teams, tour experiences, etc. i would also appreciate looking over them. Cheers

 

[Charmflash]

official announcement

After Captains had been selected and announced for WCOP 2024, non-captain members of Team Austria reached out to the TD team to inquire why they were not included, which resulted from Charmflash alerting me that Austria had insufficient interest and could not form a team due to multiple players expressing interest in not playing this year and his cocaptain expressing an interest to quit Pokemon altogether.

However, the claim about not being able to field enough players was directly countered by other members of Team Austria, as they provided a full roster of eligible players still interested in participating in the tournament, whereas Charmflash had ignored a ping in Team Austria’s Discord as well as DMs from players questioning why they weren’t selected until he was approached about this by me today. Because he unilaterally withdrew the team without consulting the rest of the players who were still interested in competing, we are hereby banning Charmflash from competing in WCOP 2024, as well as banning him from managing official team tournaments in the future for the impropriety exhibited by neglecting to consult his team prior to saying they’d be withdrawing. Further, Team Austria will be allowed to compete in WCOP 2024.

"However, the claim about not being able to field enough players was directly countered by other members of Team Austria, as they provided a full roster of eligible players still interested in participating in the tournament"

This is a strong statement given that many of those players are only here to fil out the necessary roster requirement and have explicitly expressed that they do not want to play. Team Austria has exactly 8 players who have expressed any interest at all in playing world cup. Those players are MJ, Liones, Drachenkeule, Mangosteak, Tr1x, Rofna, Sieeefmon and myself. The rest are a bunch of draft players who are just in it because they need more people to form a team and some of them have explicitly stated that they do not wish to play.

It didnt make a whole lot of sense to me to form the already hardly competitive team when 3 of our few veteran players (austriangeorge, astoria, sawkasm) decided they do not want to play this year. Speaking of not making any sense it makes 0 sense to call a team half composed of 1-post draft mains "established" in the "world cup of pokemon". We earned this title by winning one round against Team Pakistan back in 2021 with a different team in a different format after which we got shamoned by Canada. If you want to let Austria have some fun and get some experience in qualifiers by pulling up with random people they asked to join from other communities by all means, but jailing players away from the continental team in this situation is nonsense. I have chosen to play for Austria over Europe of my own free accord before but for that to happen Austria needs to have a semblence of a chance not a roster filled with people who havent played on smogon before or arent planning of playing whatsoever.

"Charmflash had ignored a ping in Team Austria’s Discord as well as DMs from players questioning why they weren’t selected until he was approached about this by me today"

No I fucking didnt. The only person I didnt respond to was Tr1x because I initially didnt think hed necessarily be able to make the team at all. The only ping in the completely desolate Austria server was also today, I saw it at the same time as your message ken

 

[Theia]

snip

I'm sure this whole situation with dropping a full roster of people who want to play WCoP with no communication to them has nothing at all to do with you wanting to abandon the team to play for the Europe super team or otherwise make thinly veiled threats to sabotage it.

 

[Charmflash]

I'm sure this whole situation with dropping a full roster of people who want to play WCoP with no communication to them has nothing at all to do with you wanting to abandon the team to play for the Europe super team or otherwise make thinly veiled threats to sabotage it.
View attachment 627295

Again, not a threat. I genuinely was of the opinion that Austria was not going to be forming without Astoria and myself drumming up and motivating the gang.

For context, this message is right before the logs Theia posted.

 

[Dave]

Heatflash with another resume padder.

1. First user to cancer for two teams (the wolfpack and bigs) in a singular SPL season
2. Kamikaze'd after Star was named tournament director. Surprised we didn't see a protest to his Head TD promotion....(one I woulda supported!)
3. Attempted to rally multiple SPL managers to boycott the SPL playoffs (lasted 14 minutes)
4. Has absolutely zero shame, ditching his own countrymen for the great conglomeration of Europe, just to be thwarted by the Tournament Directors. And the kicker is, Larry is from Austria and woulda ran the sheet with you.

Can't wait to see what the 2nd half of 2024 has in store for the Heatflash Chronicles

Edit: Also, it's 2024. Let's change the tagline to

Fight for your country, countries, or continent!

 

[weirdo faye]

Wtb caramel popcorn 69euro per bucket pm plz

 

[Sapientia]

As a bavarian I am basically fluent in the austrian language and volunteer to fill in if they do Not have enough players.

I am also very good in SV OU. I even took empoleon621 to three games in round 1 of the Official Smogon Tournament while maintaining a strong rating of 1200 on the ladder.

 

[The BW OU Savior]

I recognize the power of Team Italy and i fully support them.
Let's go Italia, Numero Uno

 

[elednb]

First of all, glad to hear that my dear alpine friends are still able to compete for WCOP!

Regarding the current situation, it's a real bummer that Astoria left just before qualifier signups started, but that's still no excuse for taking the piss out of a potentially motivated team. As I already stated in the WCOP discord channel, if Switzerland is capable of putting a team together - consisting mostly of new or inexperienced players - then surely, Austria is as well. And while it sucks when established team members decide not to participate, this offers a chance for new players to step up. Take it on and embrace it.

WCOP is something special, don't treat it like any other ordinary tour that happens around here.

 

[Drachenkeule]

official announcement

After Captains had been selected and announced for WCOP 2024, non-captain members of Team Austria reached out to the TD team to inquire why they were not included, which resulted from Charmflash alerting me that Austria had insufficient interest and could not form a team due to multiple players expressing interest in not playing this year and his cocaptain expressing an interest to quit Pokemon altogether.

However, the claim about not being able to field enough players was directly countered by other members of Team Austria, as they provided a full roster of eligible players still interested in participating in the tournament, whereas Charmflash had ignored a ping in Team Austria’s Discord as well as DMs from players questioning why they weren’t selected until he was approached about this by me today. Because he unilaterally withdrew the team without consulting the rest of the players who were still interested in competing, we are hereby banning Charmflash from competing in WCOP 2024, as well as banning him from managing official team tournaments in the future for the impropriety exhibited by neglecting to consult his team prior to saying they’d be withdrawing. Further, Team Austria will be allowed to compete in WCOP 2024.

"However, the claim about not being able to field enough players was directly countered by other members of Team Austria, as they provided a full roster of eligible players still interested in participating in the tournament"

This is a strong statement given that many of those players are only here to fil out the necessary roster requirement and have explicitly expressed that they do not want to play. Team Austria has exactly 8 players who have expressed any interest at all in playing world cup. Those players are MJ, Liones, Drachenkeule, Mangosteak, Tr1x, Rofna, Sieeefmon and myself. The rest are a bunch of draft players who are just in it because they need more people to form a team and some of them have explicitly stated that they do not wish to play.

It didnt make a whole lot of sense to me to form the already hardly competitive team when 3 of our few veteran players (austriangeorge, astoria, sawkasm) decided they do not want to play this year. Speaking of not making any sense it makes 0 sense to call a team half composed of 1-post draft mains "established" in the "world cup of pokemon". We earned this title by winning one round against Team Pakistan back in 2021 with a different team in a different format after which we got shamoned by Canada. If you want to let Austria have some fun and get some experience in qualifiers by pulling up with random people they asked to join from other communities by all means, but jailing players away from the continental team in this situation is nonsense. I have chosen to play for Austria over Europe of my own free accord before but for that to happen Austria needs to have a semblence of a chance not a roster filled with people who havent played on smogon before or arent planning of playing whatsoever.

"Charmflash had ignored a ping in Team Austria’s Discord as well as DMs from players questioning why they weren’t selected until he was approached about this by me today"

No I fucking didnt. The only person I didnt respond to was Tr1x because I initially didnt think hed necessarily be able to make the team at all. The only ping in the completely desolate Austria server was also today, I saw it at the same time as your message ken

I asked you on Friday last week how many players do we have, because I could potentially ask a lot of players per pm, who are not really established and also kind of shy but motivated. You basically said nothing and I only got the answer from the tds in an official post out of nowhere that Austria will not participate in WCOP 2024, one day before the deadline for preliminary rooster. I know it is an unfortunate situation that many established players didn´t want to participate in WCOP but we still got the chance to have a lineup with new motivated players and your job as signed up manager should try to force a team and not give up and say nothing to your teammates. It felt like that you gave up without really trying to get a new and maybe strong new Team Austria, in exchange for playing/managing Team Europe which is kind of sad.

 

[RoiDadadou]

I asked you on Friday last week how many players do we have, because I could potentially ask a lot of players per pm, who are not really established and also kind of shy but motivated. You basically said nothing and I only got the answer from the tds in an official post out of nowhere that Austria will not participate in WCOP 2024, one day before the deadline for preliminary rooster. I know it is an unfortunate situation that many established players didn´t want to participate in WCOP but we still got the chance to have a lineup with new motivated players and your job as signed up manager should try to force a team and not give up and say nothing to your teammates. It felt like that you gave up without really trying to get a new and maybe strong new Team Austria, in exchange for playing/managing Team Europe which is kind of sad.

Full support on here, I'd like to remind folks that BE also had almost no established players last year (only 8 players in total, subs only there for decorum, and some titular slots playing their first tour ever) and proceeded to qualify and maintain in the main event, barely missing out on the R1 tiebreaker.

Burying a team because you "feel" like it'd be a waste is simply shameful, and should be regarded as such. You did not want to play, Charm? Then you did not have to, you could have just stayed out of the tour instead of scheming. Good thing you're now forced to.

Just, coming back on what we can see from the messages between Theia and Charm, if it's a reality that betraying your country - while being of course more subtle about it than Flash here - and making it so it does not form, can allow you to play for a continental team, then there's, again, a clear problem with the overarching global structure of said teams, that needs to be addressed. Don't delete cont teams, fix them. Make more rules if need be to not destroy them, a more complex structure is always better than a unfair one.

 

[Charmflash]

I asked you on Friday last week how many players do we have, because I could potentially ask a lot of players per pm, who are not really established and also kind of shy but motivated. You basically said nothing and I only got the answer from the tds in an official post out of nowhere that Austria will not participate in WCOP 2024, one day before the deadline for preliminary rooster. I know it is an unfortunate situation that many established players didn´t want to participate in WCOP but we still got the chance to have a lineup with new motivated players and your job as signed up manager should try to force a team and not give up and say nothing to your teammates. It felt like that you gave up without really trying to get a new and maybe strong new Team Austria, in exchange for playing/managing Team Europe which is kind of sad.

!remindme 4 weeks

 

[Posho]

Team Austria bonding and thriving off the hatred they share for their asshole "captain" would be one of the most heartwarming things to witness on the site. Even if we are rivals in these qualifiers, I will be praying for your success

 

[Zoyotte]

They are literally not playing this year you forgot the most important thing there (i just forgot the administrative decision and just read the few posts there wooops)

Team Austria bonding and thriving off the hatred they share for their asshole "captain" would be one of the most heartwarming things to witness on the site. Even if we are rivals in these qualifiers, I will be praying for your success

 

[RoiDadadou]

By the way, just to stop the fuel right now and focus on this thread.

Wishing good luck to Zoyotte, Lokifan and Hats from Africa, hope you guys will do okay.
Same for my bois Luigi, Thiago Nunes and Skyiew, I pray for Brazil's rising up again.
Special S/O to my brothers Mister McLovin and Vileman, I believe in Chile supremacy

With this year's format, there's a clear shot for all of your teams to qualify. I'll be by your side, comrades.

 

[Tobes]

Charmflash: I've decided I'm quitting pokemon
also Charmflash: I've decided the entire country of Austria except me is quitting pokemon

 

[Niko]

If you don't have any strong connection/sense of patriottism towards your country, put aside your ego and just don't signup as a manager, don't get involved in the team and don't sabotate their possibility of partecipating in WCoP for your personal interest. And now you should stop answering when you know what you did and have some shame for this behaviour , it's really bottom of what i've seen in WCoP so far. Hope further punishments will come, for once it'd be super deserved.

 

[The BW OU Savior]

HE IS THE DIEGO COSTA OF AUSTRIA WHAT A RAT

 

[Charmflash]

If you don't have any strong connection/sense of patriottism towards your country, put aside your ego and just don't signup as a manager, don't get involved in the team and don't sabotate their possibility of partecipating in WCoP for your personal interest. And now you should stop answering when you know what you did and have some shame for this behaviour , it's really bottom of what i've seen in WCoP so far. Hope further punishments will come, for once it'd be super deserved.

U dont have to / cant tell me what 2 do. You people need to internalize that there were 2 messages in the server over the last 2 weeks and nobody on that team wanted to play SV, bringing those 7 disinterested players and 7 draft mains with 1 post half of whom dont want to play whatsoever is not a world cup of pokemon team which is the reason why I didnt want to captain that. Im replying to you knowing the bad faith you bring but maybe others can find this information useful.

Again, Ive chosen Austria over Europe in the past I dont care about joining the best team but I do care about joining a motivated team where all the members want to play and contribute and ideally it isnt half the team's first experience on smogon.

 

[Eternal Spirit]

You care so much about what people think of you every time... LOL

You should experiment not doing shit week over week instead of trying to justify yourself, your attitudes or your choices so much. Its not about telling you what to do by the way, its just a common sense. Social management is relevant, you know. Good luck Austria!

 

[weirdo faye]

I actually don't know charmflash well except that he used to be called za meowdo back then the last time I was active.

Definitely griefing other Austrian players who want to play wcop by speaking on behalf of them without their permission that austra wont be playing is a bit scummy.

The part about betraying ur own country so he can play for Europe can't tell if some people here are for real or just trolling but...bro just wna win, anything wrong with that lol? Those other Austrians probably aren't his friends or family so why should he care? If I was him and the goal was to win as long as I wasn't griefing anyone I'd pick the stronger side obviously kek

Try saying this whole fight for ur country, omg ur betraying ur own country shtick when conscription for 2 yrs is mandatory for males in my country singapore. See how u feel after the 2 yrs. Lots of my guy friends are less than happy about it. I think conscription is mandatory too in South Korea, should try asking those in wcop their thoughts about this whole thing

This betraying ur country thing just feels so corny and lame to esp when the context is pokemon kekw

 

[ken]

this is Pokémon not the army