Surprise Stories at the US Video Game National Championships

The 2016 US Pokémon Video Game National Championships revealed an unexpected depth to the current Championship Series metagame, with more interesting teams and Pokémon than many players and spectators planned for. And despite a narrower selection of winning combinations than their TCG counterparts, the video game competitors put on a rousing display of inventive gameplay. After fifteen rounds of best-of-three play and a 12-player Top Cut in the Masters Division, Chase Lybbert has been crowned the National Champion at the 2016 US Pokémon Video Game Masters Division National Championships. Carson St. Denis and Enzo Reci took home impressive victories in the Senior and Junior Divisions, and Trainers have earned their Travel Awards and invitations to the 2016 World Championships in San Francisco.

With so many rounds of intense Pokémon battles in the books, the puzzle of the 2016 Video Game National Championships is now clearer. We'll break down the teams used at the top tables of the 2016 National Championships and take a look at a Pokémon that proved to be a surprise star in Columbus. Remember that you can check out the teams from the Top Cut in each of the Masters, Senior, andJunior Divisions.

Metagame Musings
Leading into Nationals we'd seen teams based around two pairings of restricted Pokémon having the most success. Teams using Groudon and Xerneas dominated early in the season, and teams using Kyogre and Groudon started breaking away from the pack of other restricted Pokémon pairings during the run of May tournaments. As many players had predicted (including 2015 Champion Toler Webb in our interview), teams doubling up on the power of Primal Reversion were much less common in Columbus than they were at tournaments in the spring. The Groudon and Xerneas teams picked up the slack, not only coming away with a victory in two of the three age divisions, but also boasting the most representation in Masters Division Day 2 play by far.

Trainers in North America have favored Groudon and Xerneas over other pairings more so than any other region all season. That's not to say no other type of team was successful in Columbus. Both of the other popular pairings Trainers have used to try to topple Groudon and Xerneas over the course of the season made it to the semi-finals (Rayquaza with Kyogre, which also won the Senior Division title, and the aforementioned Groudon with Kyogre). But Groudon and Xerneas came out on top against its supposed counters in both of these showdowns, leading to one of the first 2016 Video Game National Championship finals that featured a mirror match between two teams using Groudon and Xerneas.