A brand new Pokemon game was just announced, and it's probably the biggest announcement in over a decade. I'm here to break down why Pokemon Champions will forever change the series.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The Pokemon Company just announced that they are working on a game that is still in development
00:04that I think is going to change the way that Pokemon operates forever.
00:08Now, when I say that it'll change Pokemon forever,
00:10you're probably thinking that I'm only talking about competitive Pokemon.
00:13But actually, I think that this game is going to forever change not only competitive Pokemon,
00:17but the single player experience as well.
00:20Every year on Pokemon Day, there is some kind of broadcast normally announcing
00:24upcoming titles and things that the Pokemon Company is working on.
00:27This year is the 29th anniversary, and many people were really eager and excited for Pokemon
00:31Day because there's basically been almost no news, not only about Generation 10,
00:35but also about the upcoming game Pokemon Legends ZA.
00:38Going into the broadcast, myself and I would guess most of the fandom were expecting that
00:43these two games would be the focal point. However, what we were not expecting was the
00:46release of a new title called Pokemon Champions.
00:50This title was frankly completely unexpected, which is funny,
00:53especially because it could end up being one of the most impactful Pokemon titles of all time.
00:57So what is Pokemon Champions?
00:59Well, we don't know that much about it, but we have a good general idea.
01:03Effectively, as best that I can tell, this is a modern Pokemon battle simulator.
01:08One of the first questions that you might have is like, why does a battle simulator matter?
01:13Maybe you're somebody who just plays the single player campaign and you're like,
01:16yeah, I mean, I don't really care about battling, so it doesn't matter to me.
01:19You're about to click off this video, but you shouldn't because it actually does matter to you.
01:22Pokemon Champions appears to be a game entirely focused around battling.
01:26This isn't technically like a brand new idea from Pokemon,
01:29given that we did have like Battle Revolution and Pokemon Stadium many years ago,
01:32but it is certainly a new idea, at least in modern times.
01:35That being said, I think that Pokemon Champions is going to be very, very different.
01:39It's also new and exciting because it's doing something that has never been possible before,
01:43which is allowing players to battle on their phones as well as on their Switches.
01:47As far as I can tell, there seems to be cross compatibility,
01:49but again, it's still pretty early.
01:51I would bet that there's cross compatibility though.
01:53Okay, but if you don't care about Pokemon battles, then again, why does this matter?
01:57I think in order to answer this, we should think about,
01:59why would Game Freak want to do this in the first place?
02:02Obviously, I don't work at Game Freak, and so I don't have like access to their,
02:05you know, official reasoning or whatever, but I have given this a fair bit of thought,
02:08and there's some things that I realized after thinking about it more that didn't
02:11stand out to me as obvious at first.
02:13Right now, the way that Pokemon games are set up,
02:15the single player experience and the competitive player experience are closely tied together.
02:19Whenever they introduce a new mechanic, such as Terrestrialization, Dynamax, Z-Moves, Mega Evolution,
02:25these mechanics need to be fun for the single player,
02:27but they also have to be balanced around the competitive players.
02:30This balance is especially important because after a game's initial release window,
02:34after the initial hype has kind of died down,
02:36most of the marketing the game gets will be from some sort of competitive battles,
02:40often through Pokemon's own world championships and the other events in the circuit.
02:44So, if a game is balanced really badly,
02:46that ends up actually making the Pokemon company look bad and lazy, and they don't want that.
02:50But, as I'm sure many of you know,
02:52most people who play through the game don't care at all about the competitive experience.
02:56So the game is basically forced to be optimized around something that only a very,
02:59very small percentage of players who actually play it will, you know, experience.
03:03Beyond just balancing issues though, the competitive battles and the single player
03:06experience being, you know, tied together in the same game,
03:09actually really limits what you can do with the single player experience.
03:12For example, I played through Legends Arceus when it first released,
03:16and I had a great time with that game.
03:17I really enjoyed that you could catch Pokemon, like, outside of battle.
03:20I thought that was really neat.
03:22And a bunch of the other mechanical changes they liked as well.
03:24I didn't love strong and agile style.
03:28I didn't love everything, but in many ways,
03:30it felt much more like a modern video game than kind of an updated Pokemon game.
03:35However, as you may recall, that game doesn't have player versus player battles,
03:38because the battle system was optimized around making the single player gameplay
03:42fun to experience rather than being something that would actually
03:45work if you were to play against your friends.
03:47So imagine Game Freak had found a new style of allowing players to experience
03:50the single player gameplay, and everybody loved it,
03:53and it was pretty much just strict upgrade,
03:54but it didn't work with the official competitive format.
03:57What would you do then?
03:58Well, if your new system didn't work with competitive battles,
04:01that would kind of put you in a tough situation, right?
04:04Like, of course, you could just cut competitive battles from the game,
04:06but that would be really bad for a number of reasons.
04:08I think people would not be happy with that.
04:11I'm biased, of course, but I think even other players enjoy battling their friends.
04:15It would also be bad from a marketing angle.
04:17So you would reach the conclusion that you want to include
04:19player versus player battles in your game,
04:21but you wouldn't use a different system for the player versus player battles
04:24than you would for the player versus the environment battles, right?
04:27And so you wouldn't actually be able to update your system,
04:30even if you found something better.
04:32Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the single player experience
04:34and the competitive player experience are actually pretty different,
04:37and they kind of require different things to be optimized and to feel good.
04:40And by separating these out into different games,
04:43the Pokemon company is then able to have two different systems
04:45that they can work around to make the best that they can be,
04:48and they're able to make changes independently
04:50without them being directly tied to each other
04:52while still having them be connected enough
04:53because you can send Pokemon between the games.
04:56Again, feel free to take this all with a grain of salt.
04:58This is just why I think they might have done this
05:00and why I think it actually might make sense
05:02and why I think it might actually be a good thing.
05:04If I can be honest, when I saw the trailer,
05:05initially, I was actually pretty nervous
05:07because I was like, oh, this is a big change.
05:09This is going to change things in a big way.
05:11But the more I thought about it,
05:12the more I realized that this actually could give Game Freak
05:14more control to make the game better.
05:16And of course, there's no guarantee that it will be better,
05:18but I do see the reasoning behind why they would give this a shot.
05:21So let's talk about impact.
05:22And again, just a reminder, there isn't that much actual information out,
05:25so this is my best guess based on what I think is likely to happen
05:28and what is likely to come from these games.
05:30But it could be totally off base, so don't take it as fact.
05:32This is just what I think.
05:34I think that it is almost certain
05:35that official competitive Pokémon tournaments
05:37will take place in Pokémon Champions,
05:40perhaps indefinitely, depending on how they go.
05:42The reason I think this is because, I mean,
05:44this is a game totally built around battling.
05:46And so to not have your official tournaments
05:49use the battling simulator, to me, seems like a missed opportunity.
05:52And also, why are you doing it if that's the case?
05:55And I think this could be a really good thing.
05:57Just speaking personally for a second,
05:59on the one hand, this is kind of scary
06:00because this would be like a big change for competitive players.
06:03Like we always have played in the newest mainline game.
06:04And so moving to a game that could exist in parallel to the mainline games,
06:09there's room for that to not go great for us, right?
06:11But at the same time, I think that having a dedicated environment
06:13just for battling could also lead to better rule sets,
06:17maybe actual balance patches,
06:18because right now we don't get balance patches ever.
06:21Like when a Pokémon is broken at the moment,
06:23it's just like, deal with it and find other Pokémon that can beat it.
06:26And so perhaps it would be easier to fine-tune Pokémon
06:29that are over-performing,
06:31like a certain Fire-type starter Pokémon,
06:34in an environment where it doesn't affect every single player
06:36who's just playing through the game with their beloved kitten or whatever.
06:39Another upside of moving to a simulator is that,
06:41I mean, we don't know exactly how it's going to work,
06:43but it is very likely that the way in which you get Pokémon in-game
06:47is going to be different.
06:48If the entire focus of the simulator is just to battle with your Pokémon,
06:52then it is likely that getting good Pokémon to battle with
06:54will be easier than it is in the mainline games.
06:57And maybe this is far-fetched,
06:58but I think that it is not crazy to think that
07:01if the Pokémon company is making their own battle simulator,
07:04that they are looking at the success of the existing Pokémon battle simulator
07:08that is unofficial, that being Pokémon Showdown.
07:10I'm sure the Pokémon company isn't thrilled about Pokémon Showdown,
07:13but at the same time,
07:14it can't be denied just the impact that it's had.
07:16And frankly, it is the easiest way to battle against your friends
07:18or other strangers online,
07:20because it's so easy to just boot it up,
07:22you know, put in the Pokémon you want to use or play random battles
07:25and start battling.
07:26So it's possible that, of course,
07:27it's still a grind to get your Pokémon in Pokémon Champions,
07:30but personally, I doubt it.
07:31And if this is the case,
07:32where you can kind of, you know,
07:34just pick the Pokémon you want to use
07:35and not have to go through the trouble of breeding for the right Ivies,
07:37giving them the right Eevees,
07:39you know, knocking out wild Pokémon to get the TRs that you want,
07:43I don't like that mechanic,
07:44then I think it can really lower the barrier to entry
07:46to a lot of players who would be interested in playing competitively,
07:49but are daunted by the idea of, you know,
07:51going through all the trouble to get their team in game
07:53when they don't even know if it'll be good.
07:54In theory, a battle simulator could also add features
07:57that don't currently exist in any mainline game,
07:59such as the ability to intentionally lower one of your Ivies,
08:02which can be a real cause for headaches at the moment,
08:04especially when you're dealing with legendary Pokémon.
08:06This is not an exaggeration.
08:07When I was preparing for Worlds,
08:08I needed to get a Calyrex Shadow,
08:10and it took me over nine hours to get the Calyrex,
08:13and I got lucky.
08:14That's just to get one Pokémon,
08:15and I'm lucky that I had the time to do that,
08:17but, like, not everybody does.
08:19Right now, we just don't know enough to say
08:20whether or not the battle simulator
08:22will just let you, like, pick the Pokémon you want to use
08:24and, you know, put in all the details
08:25and, like, yeah, just be done with it right then and there.
08:28It very well could still be some kind of, you know, process.
08:30Maybe you need to use resources that you get.
08:32We don't know anything, right?
08:34But it is very likely, in my opinion,
08:35that it'll be much faster,
08:36and therefore it'll be much easier
08:38to get new people to give competitive a shot,
08:40which, as somebody who really cares
08:41about the growth of competitive Pokémon,
08:43I think is a good thing.
08:44One last thing that I want to say about accessibility
08:46is that it seems like, from what they've said,
08:48you can connect Pokémon Champions to Pokémon Home,
08:50so it seems all but confirmed
08:52that you'll be able to transfer in Pokémon
08:53that you've used in other Pokémon games
08:55and then be able to battle with them in Pokémon Champions.
08:57So if you have a Pokémon that's been your beloved partner
09:00since, you know, Ruby and Sapphire,
09:02you'll still be able to battle with them in tournaments
09:04and against other players in Pokémon Champions.
09:06I suspect that this game has been in development for a little bit,
09:09but there is a more recent release
09:10that has had really resounding success
09:12that could, in theory, have influenced this title as well.
09:15I don't know for sure.
09:16Maybe it influenced its development.
09:18Maybe it didn't.
09:18But regardless, I think it can tell us something
09:20about how this will perform.
09:22I am talking about Pokémon TCG Pocket.
09:24For those of you who don't know,
09:25Pokémon TCG Pocket is a mobile app,
09:27which is effectively a simplified version
09:29of the Pokémon trading card game.
09:31Rather than having six prizes to choose from,
09:33you have three prizes,
09:34the Pokémon overall are a lot weaker,
09:36and the games are overall a lot faster.
09:38From what I can tell,
09:39Pokémon TCG Pocket appears to have been a resounding success,
09:42and I think it's working really well
09:44as a bridge between general Pokémon fans
09:46and people who are actually competing
09:47in trading card game tournaments.
09:49The trading card game is also at an all-time high right now
09:51in terms of popularity,
09:52and I don't think that's necessarily
09:54because it's seeing the benefits of TCG Pocket just yet,
09:57but I also don't imagine that it's hurting.
09:58If Pokémon Champions is good,
10:00and it's easy to play,
10:01and it's easy to kind of pick up and get into,
10:03even if you don't have a background
10:04already in competitive battling,
10:06I think that it could spike
10:07competitive Pokémon's popularity in ways that like,
10:10I mean, I can't even really articulate
10:12because I can't even really fathom them.
10:14Part of the reason why I'm so excited for this game
10:16is because I think it's filling a need
10:18that we've had for a really long time.
10:20Back not that long ago,
10:21during like sun and moon,
10:22I'm talking like 2017 to 2019,
10:25competitive Pokémon,
10:26especially official competitive Pokémon, VGC,
10:28was not popular.
10:30Basically, most videos would cap out
10:31around like 10,000 views on YouTube,
10:33and if you got 10,000 views,
10:35you're like, I did it.
10:36Like that's everybody who cares about competitive Pokémon.
10:38Good job, me.
10:39And part of the reason why competitive Pokémon
10:41was struggling so much during sun and moon
10:42is because there was no bridge.
10:44Pokémon as a franchise is extremely popular.
10:46I mean, it's the highest earning media franchise
10:48in the world,
10:49but all these people playing Pokémon
10:50had no idea that competitive Pokémon
10:52was even a thing.
10:54And in many ways,
10:54it was actually kind of hard to find information.
10:56Like there was nothing mentioned
10:57in the original games about it,
10:59and the official competitive format
11:00uses all double battles,
11:01whereas the single player experience
11:03is almost entirely single battles.
11:05So even though you had this huge existing player base,
11:07and you had this, you know,
11:08established competitive scene with tournament,
11:10with prize money,
11:10with all these wonderful things about it,
11:12with broadcasts,
11:12there wasn't really a clear way
11:14to get people who cared about Pokémon
11:16to care about the competitive scene.
11:18With Pokémon champions,
11:19that could totally change.
11:20Especially if traditional player versus player
11:22Pokémon battles are taken
11:23out of the mainline Pokémon games,
11:24and instead put directly into Pokémon champions.
11:27In the battle footage that they showed of the game,
11:29it was a double battle,
11:30which again is the same format
11:31that we use in the official competitive format.
11:33Now, while we're on the topic of popularity,
11:35there is actually something
11:36that I'm pretty worried about
11:37and pretty concerned about
11:38when I think about this game
11:40and the impact that it could have.
11:41Pokémon tournaments at the moment
11:42have exploded in popularity.
11:44For context,
11:45tournaments used to struggle
11:46to get a hundred entrants,
11:47and the tournament that I just went to last weekend
11:49had over a thousand.
11:50And that's a good thing, right?
11:51The game is growing,
11:52people are interested,
11:53but there are some logistical problems.
11:55The structure the tournaments use
11:57has had to change twice
11:58in the last two years already
11:59because the amount of players interested in playing
12:01has grown so much
12:02that the old tournament structures,
12:04which were built for fewer players,
12:05couldn't handle them.
12:06And tournaments at the moment
12:07are selling out in seconds,
12:09meaning that lots of people
12:10who would love to play just can't play.
12:12And of course you might think,
12:13well, just open more slots.
12:14Come on, it's not that hard.
12:16But the problem is that the Pokémon company
12:17is running these huge tournaments
12:19and they've booked venues
12:20sometimes years in advance.
12:22And if the game suddenly spikes in popularity,
12:24which currently it is already doing
12:26without this game,
12:27they aren't able to just, you know,
12:28quickly change venue sizes or change venues.
12:31My suspicion is that the Pokémon company
12:32is several years ahead
12:33of where they would have liked to be
12:34in a best case scenario,
12:35and that's actually causing some problems.
12:37That being said, I mean,
12:38there's nothing really that we can do about this.
12:40Like, I mean, none of the fans can do anything.
12:42None of us creators can do anything about it.
12:44We kind of just have to hope that,
12:45you know, the Pokémon company finds solutions.
12:47But yeah, like for this tournament
12:49that I was at this past weekend,
12:50one of my best friends tried to sign up,
12:52was there the minute that registration opened
12:54and didn't get a slot.
12:55And there were over a thousand slots
12:57and he didn't get in in the first minute.
12:58So it's not necessarily something
13:00that is, you know, cause for panic.
13:01But if the game really does explode,
13:03if we see even something similar to TCG Pocket
13:06and the impact that that's had,
13:07I think that it can become very difficult
13:09for people who want to play to actually play.
13:11Now, the trailer for Pokémon Champions
13:13didn't really show off that much specific information.
13:16It gave us a really good general feel
13:17for what the game would be,
13:18but it didn't have many specifics in it,
13:20which is why I've, you know,
13:21really tried to preface a lot of this
13:22by saying this is my speculation.
13:23That being said,
13:24there was something extremely interesting
13:26that they did make sure to show off.
13:27And that was that there were two different
13:30generational mechanics present in the same battle.
13:33In the trailer, we see Charizard Mega evolve
13:35to Charizard X,
13:36and we see Dendozo on the opposite side,
13:38to Rastalize.
13:39This is very, very interesting.
13:41And frankly, I wouldn't say
13:43that this isn't really speculation,
13:44because if you couldn't have battles
13:45with both Rastalization and Mega Evolution,
13:47I don't think that they would show it in the trailer.
13:49So, we can assume
13:51that there will be multiple generational mechanics
13:53present in these battles,
13:54or at least that they have the option
13:55sometimes to use these generational mechanics
13:57in the same battles together.
13:58This is another advantage of having a game
14:00solely dedicated to just battling,
14:02where they're able to bring in older mechanics
14:04without it affecting the single player experience.
14:06I think it is somewhat likely
14:07that the other central mechanics
14:09of Z-Moves and Dynamax also make a return as well,
14:12though again, it's just speculation.
14:13I think that this is a really, really cool concept.
14:16This is a huge advantage
14:17of having a game just dedicated to battling,
14:19where there could be some rulesets
14:21where it's just Mega Evolution,
14:22or some rulesets where it's just Rastalization,
14:24or some where it's Megas and Rastalization.
14:27But the other advantage in theory
14:28is that they're actually able
14:29to mess with the numbers a little bit
14:30and fine tune all of these mechanics
14:32to be somewhat comparable in power.
14:34In a vacuum, Dynamax was the strongest mechanic
14:36because it doubled your HP
14:37and gave you a huge boost to your power,
14:39but maybe in this simulator,
14:40they could change it to be, I don't know,
14:42a 30% increase to your HP
14:43and a 20% increase to your power,
14:45just throwing out random numbers, right?
14:46Something that gets it more in line
14:47with the Mega Evolution.
14:49It's possible that multiple Pokemon on your team
14:51can be affected by multiple of these mechanics,
14:53but it's also possible
14:54that you would have to choose each battle,
14:55whether you're gonna Mega Evolve,
14:56whether you're gonna Rastalize, Dynamax,
14:58or use a Z-Move,
14:59or that you can mix and match.
15:00I think that this really opens up
15:02some interesting gameplay,
15:03and with all these different mechanics
15:04and all the different combinations,
15:06I think it could keep the game really fresh,
15:07having access to all these different tools
15:09that you would never have all of them
15:10in one mainline game,
15:12when they are balanced correctly.
15:14And when you think about rotating in Pokemon
15:15and rotating in mechanics
15:16and out mechanics and out Pokemon,
15:18maybe you ban Legendaries for one season,
15:20maybe you only have Z-Moves for one season, whatever,
15:23I think the game could stay really fresh
15:24for a really long time,
15:26even if there aren't new Pokemon being added.
15:28Of course, there was one line in the trailer
15:29that is kind of related to this,
15:31which is that they said that not all Pokemon
15:33would be available in this game,
15:34at least at first.
15:35There might be some people
15:36who are concerned about this,
15:37like, yeah, not all Pokemon
15:38are gonna be in the game,
15:39at release at least,
15:40but I don't think this is inherently a problem.
15:42Counterintuitively,
15:43having more Pokemon present
15:45in a competitive format
15:46actually decreases diversity,
15:47because when you get certain Pokemon
15:49that are just so strong,
15:50they end up crowding out
15:51a lot of the weaker Pokemon.
15:52For example, Pokemon like Scrafty and Hitmontop,
15:54who used to be really effective Pokemon,
15:56have basically seen zero usage
15:58once Incineroar was released.
15:59And there's actually a lot of Pokemon
16:01that having Incineroar in a game
16:02just kind of crowds out.
16:03I'm sure that eventually most Pokemon
16:05will be added to Pokemon champions.
16:07I mean, I'm not sure,
16:08but I would suspect.
16:09But I think it's actually a good thing
16:10if Game Freak considers
16:11curating the rule sets
16:12to make them more interesting
16:13for competitive players,
16:14rather than just being like,
16:16here's every Pokemon,
16:17enjoy Landorus, enjoy Incineroar,
16:19enjoy Calyrex.
16:20If you're upset about not every Pokemon
16:21being in the game, I totally get it.
16:22I understand people
16:23wanna use their favorites.
16:24But for me personally,
16:25I think that the idea
16:26that they are willing
16:27to not just put every Pokemon in
16:29is actually a good thing,
16:30at least for enjoying competitive play.
16:32I'm sure also just like the mainline games,
16:33that they will always be adding
16:34more Pokemon in,
16:35so that by the time
16:37it's been out for a little bit,
16:38I'm sure a vast majority
16:39of the Pokemon will be present.
16:40But again, that is speculation.
16:41Perhaps the only Pokemon legal
16:42will be electric types
16:43and we'll have to play
16:44a really weird format.
16:45One big elephant in the room
16:47is monetization.
16:48And this is one
16:48that I think is interesting.
16:50But unfortunately,
16:50I don't really have
16:51anything to say, I think.
16:52It is likely that the game
16:54will try and make money,
16:54whether that's through
16:55a one-time purchase,
16:56whether it's through
16:57Nintendo's online features,
16:59which I'm pretty sure
17:00you'll have to pay for that.
17:01I can't imagine otherwise.
17:03Whether it's through,
17:04maybe you have to,
17:05maybe you have to,
17:05like, I don't know,
17:06buy the ability
17:07to make your Pokemon stronger.
17:09I don't know, right?
17:10I think it is likely that the game
17:11will be monetized in some way.
17:12And I have no idea
17:13whether or not that
17:14will feel predatory,
17:14whether or not that will feel,
17:16you know, exploitative.
17:18I don't imagine that
17:18it will be pay to win.
17:19Personally, it might be
17:20pay to save time
17:21in a worst case scenario.
17:23But I do think that generally,
17:24it seems like people have felt
17:25that the monetization policies
17:27in Pokemon's mobile games
17:28are not the worst out there.
17:30Like, I know TCG Pocket,
17:31there's a lot of ways
17:32that you can effectively
17:33pay for play for free.
17:34And with Pokemon Unite,
17:35which is the other big example
17:36that I'm familiar with,
17:37I think a lot of the game
17:38you can accomplish via grinding.
17:39Like, of course,
17:40it will take a little bit more time,
17:41but I don't think it's
17:42like a crazy example.
17:44And a lot of the purchases
17:45that you can make
17:45are for cosmetics.
17:47It would be really funny
17:48if, you know,
17:48we had cosmetics for Pokemon
17:50in official battles.
17:51I'm not sure if that will happen.
17:52I really, I really have no idea.
17:54What I will say is that
17:55I am tentatively optimistic about this.
17:56I'm sure that you will have to pay
17:58some for it,
17:59but I also don't really mind,
18:00like I would pay
18:01for a Pokemon game anyway.
18:02That's my opinion.
18:03I kind of have,
18:04I have some faith
18:05that they won't have
18:06super predatory monetization practices,
18:08but we have no information about this.
18:10So like with the other ones,
18:11I felt like I had educated guesses with this.
18:13I've got nothing.
18:14So, you know, we'll have to see.
18:16The last thing that I want to talk about
18:17before we wrap up here
18:18is the impact that this could have.
18:20Obviously, a lot of this video
18:21has been speculative, right?
18:22And I don't normally like
18:23speculative content,
18:24but because this is
18:25such a monumental announcement,
18:26I felt like I should talk
18:27a little bit and try to give
18:28what I hope has been,
18:30you know, level headed,
18:31realistic expectations
18:32based on what we know right now
18:34very well could be off the mark.
18:35This is just my best guess
18:36at being reasonable,
18:37but I want to take a second
18:38and kind of talk about
18:39what this could mean.
18:40Of course, it's possible the game flops
18:42and nobody plays it
18:43and it's just kind of
18:44a flash in the pan.
18:45But I think that this could be
18:46a real turning point
18:47for Pokemon going forward.
18:48In a perfect scenario,
18:49I think it is totally possible
18:50that the existence of this game
18:52not only makes competitive play
18:54drastically better,
18:55but also makes the single player
18:56experience better as well.
18:58More than that,
18:58I think that this game
18:59could be a really, really good
19:01and needed gateway
19:02to introduce people
19:03to how wonderful it is
19:04to battle with competitive Pokemon.
19:06Speaking personally,
19:07Pokemon tournaments
19:08have just straight up changed my life.
19:10Even before I was doing YouTube,
19:11getting to meet
19:12so many incredible people
19:13traveling around the world.
19:14It's not an exaggeration to say that it,
19:16I mean, it really did change my life.
19:17And I don't think
19:18that I'm the only one.
19:19I think many of us
19:19who play competitively
19:20feel similarly about the impact
19:22that this game has had.
19:23Part of the reason
19:24why I feel so motivated
19:25to make YouTube videos
19:25in the first place
19:26is because I feel like
19:27I was so lucky
19:28to have this chance
19:29to have these incredible experiences.
19:31And I want other people
19:32to at least know
19:33that they're out there
19:34if they're interested.
19:35So for me,
19:35I think that this game
19:36is a really, really great thing.
19:37And I think that it could really help
19:39to introduce more people
19:40to this world,
19:41which I love so dearly.
19:43Also, it's just really crazy
19:44to see how far this scene has grown.
19:46When I first started playing,
19:47there were like 350 people
19:48who played competitive Pokemon global.
19:50Like that was it.
19:51That was the entire global player base.
19:53And now, I mean,
19:54it could be in the hundreds of thousands
19:56who are playing
19:56in some way, shape or form.
19:57A game like this existing
19:58back when I first started
19:59would have been unthinkable.
20:01Like if you came in
20:01and you were like,
20:02hey guys,
20:02Pokemon's going to make a battle simulator.
20:04You would have been laughed out the door.
20:06So it's really cool
20:06to be living in a time where,
20:08yeah, I mean,
20:08it's not a joke anymore.
20:10Like it's coming.
20:10It's happening.
20:11I'm trying to have level expectations.
20:13We don't know very much about this
20:14beyond the fact that it's coming.
20:15There's lots of things
20:16that could change.
20:17It could be bad.
20:17And yet, despite that,
20:19this feels like one of those moments
20:20where at least for me,
20:22this is a game
20:22that could actually
20:23legitimately change my life.
20:24Like this could be a
20:25before Pokemon champions
20:26and after Pokemon champions
20:28kind of thing.
20:28So I don't know.
20:29I'm excited.
20:30I'm optimistic.
20:30I'm hopeful.
20:31And I guess I can just say
20:32I'm really, really eager
20:34to see what they come out with
20:35and to learn more information.
20:36That's most of what I wanted to say.
20:38The last thing that I will say
20:39is this is my wolfy prediction.
20:40OK, this is now,
20:41I saved this till the end
20:42because it's purely speculative.
20:46OK, this is I'm putting
20:47my tinfoil hat on
20:47and this feels a little less grounded
20:49than everything else that I've said.
20:50But here's my thought.
20:51OK, here's my prediction.
20:52Normally, there's a new Pokemon game
20:54every three years.
20:55However, during the direct today,
20:56they didn't say anything
20:57about Generation 10,
20:58which means effectively
21:00we can expect Scarlet and Violet
21:01to last for at least one year
21:03longer than it would normally
21:04running for four years
21:05rather than three.
21:06The problem is they are quickly
21:08running out of formats
21:09to do with Scarlet and Violet.
21:10So my tinfoil hat theory
21:12is that we're going to play
21:13one more world championships
21:14in Scarlet and Violet.
21:16And then in the fourth year,
21:17before Generation 10 comes out,
21:18Pokemon champions will come out
21:20and then we'll play
21:21one world championship
21:22in Pokemon champions
21:23before Generation 10,
21:24maybe two, depending
21:25on when it comes out.
21:26That's my theory.
21:27Anyway, thanks for watching.
21:28I know this was a different
21:28kind of video than I normally do,
21:30but I wanted to talk
21:30about Pokemon champions
21:31because I just think
21:32it's so monumental.
21:33Thanks for watching.
21:34See you next week.
21:34Back to regularly scheduled,
21:36more edited content.
21:37Bye bye.