My 2026 VGC Journey

As the 2025 circuit is 4 months away from being over after Pokemon Anaheim Worlds, I've come to a decision that I will be serious in achieving my Worlds Invite 2026. I've been playing Pokemon for 10 years now and within those 10 years I've been doing teambuilding by myself, practice battling by myself, damage calcs by myself, but at least when it hit 2018, I started to have a few friends to help me out.

My blueprint to achieve my Worlds Invite 2026 will be my guide to success and being consistent at major events.

My Blueprint:

1. Coaching sessions once a week, and when closer to a major event to do last minute practice with my coach

2. Pick 5 teams to try out and test them out in Bo3's on Showdown. I'm doing this because other people will try to use those teams and it'll give me insight to better read my opponent on what they'll do.

3. I pick a team that I want to try out and give myself 2 to 3 hours of testing. If there's something I don't like, I'll change what needs to be changed and if the team still doesn't work out for me, I'll go on to the next team to try out.

4. During my Showdown Bo3 battles, I will have a journal purely for VGC and write down notes about my opponent's team such as if one of their mons surprisingly happens to be faster than one of my mons or one of their mons happen to survive my STAB attack on 3 HP; I will write that down so I don't forget. (Because remember, VGC is an information game mixed with Chess)

5. The important step: *DO NOT PROCRASTINATE WHEN IT COMES THE DAY BEFORE A MAJOR EVENT* I don't want to be scrambling when I have to put my Pokemon in and the moves and items and Tera typing because I know I'll make a mistake in mistyping something lol

6. Eating right. Eating right will have a good effect on my brain performance, so eating things like apples, a salmon salad, protein bars, etc. is good for the mind. A lot of brain power craves nourishment!

With my 2026 VGC journey, I'm planning on going to 5-6 regionals, 2 internationals, and a few special events. I'll be using locals as practice. If TPCi is gonna stick with the top 75 players for NA for 2026 circuit, then it'll be quite a journey for me lol. A major thing I won't be doing is if I happen to have a bad run at a major event, I won't be dropping out of the tournament. If I'm paying $70 to compete in a tournament, you best believe at that point, I'll have a good time playing with the other players.