Although they have never been a truly dominant pokemon, respectable at best in League competition, trainers defeated by the Vespiquen have often appealed to League authorities to invalidate the match, on the grounds that the opponent used multiple pokemon. For although there are many combination pokemon, they can claim at least to share a body, something which can not be said of the bees who do most of Vespiquen's fighting, and are united only when kept inside its honeycomb.
The appeals are invariably denied, and the rationale cited today is that Vespiquen can fit in a single pokeball, but even before modern pokeballs the argument fell on deaf ears. It is the height of absurdity to consider the six Combee larva which fight its battles to be individual pokemon – they make Kangaskhan joeys look like brave and independent warriors - and therefore to consider Vespiquen trainers of being guilty of using seven pokemon at once.
Yet the very fact of these appeals speaks to the unavoidable fact that Vespiquen in battle bear more resemblance to Ransei warlords than to most pokemon, for they command their armies of six to attack, defend, and heal, while staying on the sidelines. Some have attributed this to arrogance and others to weakness, but only a few of Vespiquen's own trainers have realized it is strategy. Yet it is one of the oldest of stratagems, and given Vespiquen's reputation, also one of the most successful.
For when opponents watch Vespiquen's bees and its honeycomb, they soon forget to pay attention to the Vespiquen itself. And this is often said opponents' undoing, for although Vespiquen make their bees do much of the work for them, they are capable pokemon in their own right and have not forgotten how to battle.