Hello, I am Jose Mena (@jocan3mena) from Costa Rica, and I’ve been a software developer as well as a Pokémon VGC fan (though not really a player) since many years ago. One of my hobbies is playing with data and web tools, which ended up becoming a project called VGC Teams Replays. This tool will become a part of the Trainer Tower website, and allows you to look at trending teams used on Showdown based on sample battle replays.

Report Data

These reports are created biweekly, and you will be able to switch between data sets using the drop-down menu at the top. Each data set consists of a sample of battle replays extracted from Pokémon Showdown over 2 weeks and is parsed to get the following information for the report:

Usage: Number of times a Pokémon team was used in a battle replay.

Win: Number of times a player using the Pokémon team won the battle in a replay.

Users: Number of different users that have played using the Pokémon team in the replays.

Win ratio*: Ratio of number of wins respective to the number of times a Pokémon team was used (x = win/usage).

Usage ratio*: Ratio of the number of times a Pokemon team was used respective to the total number of teams included in the report (x = usage/total # of teams)

Relevance*: Score calculated based on the popularity of the Pokémon team (number of users) and the win ratio. For instance, a team tested by a high number of users with a high win ratio will have a high Relevance score.

* Data only visible on desktop view (PC or tablet).

Interacting with the Report

You can play with the report in different ways when looking for strategies or when teambuilding:

Search by Pokémon: If interested in one or more Pokemon, you can use the search bar by typing the names of the Pokémon (or their partial names) separated by spaces. For instance, by typing “Corvi Draco”, you will find teams that include Corviknight and Dracovish.

Sorting: Each column in the report is sortable by clicking on the column name.

Replays*: By clicking on this option, you will see links to the battle replays in Showdown for the specific team. Battles are separated by wins and loses for that specific Pokémon team.

Data*: This data consists of moves, Abilities, and items for each Pokémon, extracted from the battle replays where that team won the battle. Please note that this data is parsed based on what you can actually see during the replay (which is why EV spreads or items/Abilities which are not seen during the battle will not be extracted). For each Pokémon stat, it will indicate the percentage and number of times an specific move/item/Ability was used out of the total. For instance, the below information shows that, for Arcanine, the move “Snarl” was used 5 times out of the 15 times an Arcanine attacked in the winning replays.

The data also includes information on leads used in the battles.

* In mobile version, tap the row of the Pokemon team that you want to check in order to see the options.

How to get the most of it

Players new to VGC will have access to a huge number of teams and options to explore. You can start by grabbing some of the most popular teams, since these are teams which have already been tested by many users, and the report will give you complete information regarding move sets, Abilities, items, and leads. You will also have a big list of links to battle replays, where you can see strategies and how those teams are actually being used. When building your team, there are other online resources such as Pokémon Showdown’s teambuilder and Pikalytics which will help you to complement data for specific Pokemon, such as EV spreads.

Take into consideration that creating a team based on this report only represents the start of your competitive journey, as the best way to get better is to practice a lot with the team by yourself and being able to identify improvements and tweaks to counteract weaknesses.

Experienced players can also take advantage of the reports, as they provide good insight into how the meta changes across time. You can also take some ideas that could help you during your teambuilding process as well as look for specific Pokémon usage.

Feel free to provide any feedback to us about this tool! If you want to report issues or suggest improvements, you can let us know on Github.