Hello friends. It's been an open secret ever since London was announced, but now it's time to make it absolutely official to the world: VGC has lost me for the time being. I will not be competing in the official Championships for an indefinite amount of time. If that's all you wanted to see, you can leave and party hard now. That's the tl;dr.
For those who still want to read up on the details, unfortunately I need to start with a disclaimer. I still remember how my good pal Adib went just a little overboard expressing his opinion on Twitter and then got harsh reactions by the usual mob for it. Not much later, he deleted his Twitter. If these two events are connected or not, I can just speculate right now, but for sure as hell it reminds me to make one thing clear before I start my rant: you are free people, so you are free to make whatever the fuck you want out of this circuit. I am free to disapprove of any of your decisions but I am not telling you what to do. Note the difference.
All right, where do I even start...let's try my personal expectations. In the first night of Worlds, it became apparent to me that I've been playing the circuit in the wrong way in the past: I fully committed on day 2, failed, and then I couldn't afford the easily achieved day 1 anymore. Thus, my plan for 2017 became to just go for day 1 and then actually use it. Then, the new season structure was revealed. Now, day 1 requires pretty much the same commitment that day 2 required before. And to make things worse, the most important tournament of the season happens only 2 weeks after the game for it is even released, which really is just nothing but a fucking joke become reality. So yes, there you go, I disapprove of people's decisions to go play in that particular tournament but I have no right to stop them. It's your own decision to play in an event that is just wrong for the integrity of the circuit, it's your own decision to be addicted to drugs or -- more fittingly right here -- gambling, it's your own decision to end your life at the floor of a nice and high bridge, you name it. None of my business. I respect your decisions and I respectfully disagree with them.
Okay, so I never was going to play London because reasons. Then what about the rest? Dortmund Regionals is one I considered for a while, but even if I would have gone there, I would have likely regretted it with any result that's not reaching the grand final. Technically, this bloated events requires investment equal to or higher than the Nationals we knew, but it's just a puny Regional and a first place in it isn't even close to giving you the first half of your invite anymore. They could have easily done it in one day -- then I could just get there in the morning, leave at night, easy. No accomodation costs, no additional stress organizing the whole trip with others etc. I decided it's not worth the effort, and chances are it would have to happen many more times and to places way farther away from my home. I may have been fine with doing the triple Nats marathon 2 years in a row, but I'm not fine with doing an indefinite and vaguely defined Regionals marathon throughout the whole year. And we can extend this dicussion to the augmentation of Midseason Showdowns. I'd rather just have them get axed and move the CP bar to 400 at max, really. It's bullshit to be compelled to accumulate 4 MSS results when only between 1 and 0 of them will be held within 2 hours of your place.
So what's then left is local and online. In these, I might stay around still. The former aren't as draining and the latter are very well draining but entirely free to enter (and you can chill with a nice fucking beer and music while you play, you know, haha). While my local scene doesn't entirely agree with the new circuit as well, they're still supporting it to the extent of fully participating in it, and well, that's fine for the sake of keeping the local scene alive, at least. My intention of quitting the competition is to tell TPCi they've fucked up, not to kill my local scene.
But naturally, TPCi will only see the few hundred participants at their major events -- not the vast majority that has decided to stay away from them.
Having played and loved this game and all the shit around it, it certainly wasn't an easy decision, and for the same reason there's also no way I can make any final decision right now. If I will in fact vanish forever, I will not tell you on some big ass Internet post but just vanish silently. No one quits with a bang, ever. I'll follow in that tradition, so yeah, I'm still alive, still getting Sun/Moon, you can still talk to me and shit, no big deal. I'll just be a casual for the time being. Literally all I want is to have a good time.
The 2016 season was right at the limit for me. It was fun, not denying that and no regrets whatsoever, but it was also draining. I don't know how many of you are aware or not, but I'm your typical introvert in that sense. I do enjoy getting out of my dark chambers every now and then, but I can't be out all the fucking time, I need to recharge. This new circuit won't let me recharge. Instead, Pokémon VGC now has become a "full-time job that you can't make a living with". (Because I haven't mentioned it yet, obligatory shoutouts to the random Fridays that them kids have to play Truant ツ and us adults have to take leave every time. We are not freaking America, we don't have a fourth of July that's as sacred as Christmas, it isn't as easy.) Better focus on the work that actually pays my life, you know, and if then there some day still is enough energy left, I may choose to return.
About the running season, the only thing that can save it for me is Amigo hosting a surprise German Nats with adequate CP next Spring/Summer, just like it always was. If that happens, there's a good chance I'm trying to get that desired invite. If that doesn't happen, it's really unlikely you'll see me hell-knows-where soon. And whatever happens next season and later, that I will decide when it's time. I can only hope TPCi eventually learn from mistakes, but we all have learned the hard way that expecting such progress is foolish. That being said, I will put my conclusive words for today in Portuguese because Portuguese is an awesome language for awesome people. Have a good one.
Tornem-se homens e respeitem os desejos da TPCi.
PS: Holy moly, that prospect of someone going 7-0 in Swiss and then not seeing a single CP for it is not from this world. I have made such a good decision and still they find new ways to confirm me. This is the best slapstick reality ever.
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