Was there really a Pokemon Stadium "etiquette"?

[Luz de Luna Luz de Luna Luz de Luna's icon]

I remember reading that people were expected to leave the room while their opponents chose their teams in Pokemon Stadium 1 & 2 as to preserve the challenge, and that this was just the normal thing to do.

I'm mesmerized by this because it both does and doesn't make sense to me... I mean, yeah, witnessing the exact team combination Player 1 chooses puts them at a gross disadvantage by allowing Player 2 to strategize around said team, but, at the same, everyone kind of covered their bases anyway? Pretty much everyone I have ever competed against built their team by picking an Electric-type, a Water-type, a Fire-type and a Grass-type anyway, leaving only two out of six slots as wild cards.

NOW, those two choices can really make or break the game for both players, but filling them with other types has always been my experience, too, so I'm not sure having prior knowledge of them coming into the match really factors in when it's the players themselves who choose in which order their Pokemon are sent out, too.

It's certainly an interesting scenario.

Was this something you or friends ever did?

 

[Tonberry]

We never left the room, but we definitely had a rule about not looking at each other’s controllers so that we wouldn’t see what move the other person picked, since it didn’t show on-screen until the moves played out.

 

[RageBurner]

I never heard about this, but it makes sense, even if it sounds extreme. Of course, it would take a great deal of honesty do this, and that isn't the norm.

There's a pretty funny game called Screen Cheat that plays on this notion in reverse, as everyone is constantly cogzant of everyone else's location.

 

[Tonberry]

I never heard about this, but it makes sense, even if it sounds extreme. Of course, it would take a great deal of honesty do this, and that isn't the norm.

There's a pretty funny game called Screen Cheat that plays on this notion in reverse, as everyone is constantly cogzant of everyone else's location.

Man that game rocked! It’s simultaneously the birth and destroyer of friendships.

 

[RageBurner]

Man that game rocked! It’s simultaneously the birth and destroyer of friendships.

Haha yes, as are the Dokapon games, if you played those.

 

[RETRO-VETRO RETRO-VETRO]

Yeah, that etiquette was real for some people. Stadium didn’t have any privacy during team selection, so if you were playing seriously, it was kind of expected to look away or leave the room. Not everyone did it, but it was a way to keep things fair, especially when counterpicking could swing the whole match.

most teams followed the usual type spread: Electric, Water, Fire, Grass. The last two slots were where things got interesting. That’s where people threw in weird picks, status setups, or bulky tanks to mess with expectations.

Even if you saw the team, you still had to guess the lead and play around switches, so it wasn’t a guaranteed win. But yeah, knowing those last two could definitely give someone an edge.

We didn’t always leave the room, but we had a “no peeking” rule. It was more about keeping the match honest than anything else.