Ninahaza
You'll always be a part of me
WARNING: the story gets deep and all touchy/mushy towards the end.
hi everyone.
alright i will try to make this short and enjoyable. so as some of you know saturday was a huge haxy day for alot of people and i was one of those who got it bad, but dont worry this story isnt of me ranting on about how unlucky i am, when i came up with the title "CRITICAL HIT, "the luck factor". a Nationals war-story [with pictures ofcourse]" i was going to rant about my unlucky day but as you read on you will find out how the title took a completely different meaning. so sit back, take a deep breath, clear your mind and allow me to take you on a journey into my weekend.
thursday june 24.
i arrive in indianapolis around 7pm and already i am feeling excited. i take a moment to realize that i am here. i made it, a few of you will remeber for the longest time my nationals status was that i couldnt attend. but here i was, i made it baby. so i get to my hotel, drop my stuff down and immediately hook up my laptop to let everyone know i was in indiana. then i get a message from godudette that everyone is at TGI's friday and the dumbass i am i decide to go to sleep instead. i cant believe i missed out on the funnest tgi friday'ssession.
friday june 25th
i wake up, take my shower and brush my teeth and put on my awsome costum made "TOUCHED HIS NUTS YOU SHOULDNT HAVE" hoodie. i go downstairs for my free breakfast. as i was eating someone approuched me and said hi, and that he recognized my name "ninahaza", it was Enfuergo and we chatted it up [friday when he was nice, although i wasnt aware of the enfuergo situation and based on how he talked to me during the weekend he was just as much of a nice guy on sunday. maybe people just dont know how to say mean things to me]. off to the covention center
these next pictures are taken from the "more vgc pictures" thread :)
alright at the convention center were the first smogonite person i meet is...HUY, and i mistake him for duy, here is what the conversation was like
ninahaza - wassap, you must be duy
Huy - no i am huy, duy is up there with the rest of the group
Ninahaza - o ok, sorry [FACEPALM]
so i go join the group further up inline
so here i was faced with a group of people i only knew by thier smogon name, great i now had to introduce myself and start putting a face to everyname :(. why cant everyone just wear something with thier username on it like articuno, greysong and myself.
alright fast forward to the LCQ,
the group split up and those who came to compete in the LCQ join the line
and those of us cool enough to have already qualified join the sideline and got ready to cheer for the smogonites and just have a good time.
and you know me and pictures, we are like one so below are pictures of the competitors battling for fame and glory
and now some pictures of everyone just having fun at the LCQ
alright so here we have the who has the best "game face" contest between fishy and dubulous. but i think they were just mad because they were eliminated :(
omegadonut, mattj, myself and greysong knew it was instant picture time. when you have 4 good things/people in 1 space its instant picture time
even though i had already qualified for nationals, i never backdown from a challange and this newb[on the left side not in picture] found out just cause its a LCQ people only day, if you ask for a beating, ninahaza will brake the law to make it happen.
the ha's and i be rocking it where ever we go. we cant help it.
Omega after making it into the finalist round, he was waiting for the rest to make it and decided to come chill with us.
what can i say, Masha is great and i have forgiven her %100.
alright so i had already met Xerograde's mom in phoenix but the 2nd time meant we had to get a picture. i told her she had very talented sons since her younger son ended up coming in 2nd for nationals and xerograde won the phoenix event. she is funny and just fun to talk to.
we were all compering phones to see who had the worst phone. when i pulled out my old ass razer-phone, it was an auto win. no joke we were actually comparing phones lol.
after i felt that i had enough fun i joined for the group photo
after that i went to my hotel to be a loner for the rest of the day. i had fun it was a great friday
SATURDAY june 26th.
alright so i get up early, shower, etc etc. then head to get a very fast breakfast where i met enfuergo again, we were both excited about competing that day in the nationals. we then rushed down to the convention center were we broke off because i had to fill out my team info sheet. i filled out two sheets because i wasnt sure wether to use my phoenix team [smeargle scarfed with trickroom palkia] or my toxic team. when i reached the registration desk with two team sheets, i fliped a coin [low flip] to let fate decide my team and the toxic team won.
THE TEAM.
giratina AKA Nightmare
sassy nature [sitrus berry] [bulky EV spread]
-toxic
-shadow force
-protect
-rest
Cresselia
sassy nature [chesto berry] [bulky EV spread]
-Toxic
-psychic
-protect
-rest
good stall lead. can take multiple hits and toxic away then rest up,counters explosion leads and fake out fighting type leads. dont wanna go into much detail but thats the main thing.
the back-ups
Blissey
calm nature [chople berry] [bulky SPD EV spread]
-toxic
-icy wind
-softboil
-protect
kyogre AKA Storm
modest nature [choice scarf] [scarfogre EV spread]
-waterspout
-thunder
-ice beam
-protect
blissey was just another toxic stall pokemon but kyogre was my solution to steel type troubles and physical sweepers. i faced metagross, bronzong TTar and even groudon and can i just say thank you God that i did not make kyogre a calm mind stall ogre.
the bench pokemon [dont feel like getting into detail]
standard timid sweeper palkia with haban.
also standard lead top from zerowing's team.
with top i can have a scarogre + top lead with a standard sweeper palkia in the back, then blissey because i would have eliminated all blissey treats with 3 attackers.
ALRIGHT so after everyone is registered we all make a nice huddle of people as Nick comes out to let us know about the swiss format.
again these pictures are taken from the "more VGC pictures" thread on the official pokemon website. yep i was on the pokemon website...WIN
then the pairings go up and we all rush to see who we are facing for round 1 of the 7 swiss rounds where you need 5 wins to make it to top 16 forsure.
ANNNNNDDDDD I GET FISH. great i have to face fish round one. just great.
Round 1 vs fish
i forgot fish's leads but it wasnt anything that countered my leads so i wasnt worried. but immediatley from the start he gets the upper hand and never looses it.
at this point i was getting my ass kicked pretty bad. fish showed me how fierce he can be and had no mercy. he had a crit on me [beginning my haxless nationals journey, every one got crits on me and deagle even got some FREEZE hax action on me] but it wasnt needed as he was winning very easly
i end up loosing my first battle and this loss was the only solid loss i had that day. [you will find out]
ROUND 2 [record so far 0-1]
pictures from the pokemon website
Playing well requires good Pokémon and some luck, but it also demands intense concentration and sound decision-making.
[thats me upper left side with my round 2 oppponent]
i faced an unkown guy here [let me know if you are on smogon]. but he led a standard kyogre+ludicolo lead. i would end up out predicting and toxic stalling all his pokemon to death. and i almost hit the 20 minutes time limit. gg
ROUND 3 [record so far 1-1]
Ninahaza vs Jrank
i will just copy and paste Jranks discription of our battle here because he covers it pretty well. also this was my least haxy battle of the day. just 1 crit i believe.
Jrank - "Round 3-vs Ninahaza
I really don’t remember much early-game, but it was down to my full health Palkia and ScarfOgre locked into Blizzard vs his 1HP Ogre and my bane. He had Blissey, and was able to stall me out. I hate that pink blob now. This match took almost the full 20 minutes.
Loss 1-0"
no pic ::(
ROUND 4 [Record so far 2-1]
Ninahaza vs Deagle
alright this was a battle for the ages vs deagle. allow me to recall to the best of my ability
Round 1-
Ninahaza-he leads abomasnow and mewtwo so i know he is going to double blizzard. i switch kyogre in to change the weather and cresselia toxic his abomasnow.
Deagle-he double blizzards and cress takes some damage but kyogre eats it up like a champ
round 2-
Ninahaza-i switch giratina back in and go for a toxic on his mewtwo
Deagle- deagle predicts the toxic on mewtwo and switches it out for toxicroak who is imune to toxic. nice one deagle, he then blizzards on his abomasnow and gets a FREEZE on my giratina.
round 3-
Ninahaza- giratina would never defrost and was eventually killed off but i KO his toxicroak with a phsychic from cresselia and deagle let me have it, like who carries a phsychic on cresselia :). he wasnt alone on P.O when testing this team the phsychic caught a few people by suprise.
Deagle-cant remember what he did [blizzard most likely].
FAST FORWARD TO FINAL ROUND of deagle vs Ninahaza-
alright so it was Deagles scarfed dialga [locked into dragon pulse] and his mewtwo [toxic up and has 1 more turn before it dies]
vs
Ninahaza's lone blissey :0.
merriland was over with us watching because we were the last ones and time was running out. merriland knew i had it in the bag and gave me a smile + a nod and deagle and i also knew i had it won, i was smiling and deagle was worried. here is the situation
SITUATION-his two remaining pokemon had been double teaming me for about 2 turns now abd blissey was eating up thier special attcks like nothing, we were deep into the final turn and his dialga had already attacked so it came down to mewtwo vs blissey. blissey had enough health to almost take a crit from mewtwo, his mewtwo uses blizzard and deagle, myself and merriland all held our breaths for a possibility of 3 scenarios and i think we were so close to the time limit that merriland was even gonna call it after this turn. like really we had seconds left on the clock
SCENARIO 1-his mewtwo's blizzard misses my blissey, mewtwo dies to toxic and i softboil and PP stall dailga for the win. ninahaza wins
SCENARIO 2-his mewtwo's blizzard hits blissey and blissey just softboils, mewtwo dies to toxic and i pp stall dialga. ninahaza wins
SCENARIO 3-his mewtwo's blizzard hits and blissey takes the hit but gets frozen. his mewtwo would still die but i had a feeling if he got a freeze merriland would call it in his favor. deagle wins
SCENARIO 4-his mewtwo's blizzard gets a critical hit and blissey faints, deagle wins.
so the odds were 2-2, 50%-50% but the chances of both a freeze or crit were low and with no hail up my chances of a miss was good.
WINNING SCENARIO- Foe's mewtwo uses blizzard, merriland, deagle and ninahaza all hold thier breaths in excitement and prayer............. its a CRITICAL HIT, blissey faints. Deagle wins :(
but taking nothing away from deagle, he too would later be haxed upon and many know he is a skilled player.
ROUND 5 [record so far 2-2]
Ninahza vs Mattj
alright i come into this one feeling very cheated out of a victory. although it was a 50-50 chance, my scenarios had the higher chances of happening because of crit and freeze hax chances being very low in comperason.
matjj lead shiftry and groudon with gengar and ho-oh in the back.
i went with my ussual giratina cresselia lead.
i wont bore you with the details but here are the last two turns where he had gengar and groudon out and a almost half health shiftry in the back, i had very high health blissey and half health kyogre out with cresselia in the back. so 3v3
TRUN 1-
Ninahaza - i use softboil on blissey and something on kyogre [forgot :(]
mattJ - he protects with his groudon and his gengar takes a hit from kyogre, gengar holds on with a focus sash, gengar EXPLODES....naaaoooowwwww. kyogre faints, blissey faints [my blissey was SPD bulk. nothing big invested in DEF except EV's] and gengar faints.
TURN 2
Ninahaza - its now down to almost full health cresselia vs groudon and shiftry. if i wanted a stall situation i wanted cresselia to be the last one standing instead of blissey this time because groudon had earthquake [cresselia lavitates] and dragon claw, so i am glad i choose to save cresselia for last in this battle. i predict a fake out and protect
Mattj-he fakes out on shiftry and dragon claws on groudon but i protected.
background story before final turn i put a smile on my face because i know mattJ has played into my hands and i had this one in the bag. you see i like to plan ahead in battles and here was the plan i did, phase 1 "i will protect on cresselia and give him a chance to explode next turn that is too Good to turn down mwhahahaha". phase 2 "ok i still have my chesto on cresselia and i know cresselia can take an explosion from metagross so shiftry's explosion should be cake. his groudon is faster than i but i dont have to worry because it would have protected, once i take the explosion damge i will simple rest up and chesto activates then i only have to stall a groudon who cant even use earthquake on me while it dies to toxic in maybe 4-5 turns, its perfect MWAHAHAHAHA.
TURN 3-
Ninahaza -i use rest expecting Mattj not to trun down this awsome chance to explode whiles i cant protect
Mattj- mattJ protects on groudon and explodes on shiftry, YES HE FELL FOR IT, its over i win........but wait.........CRITICAL HIT cresselia faints.
WTF NOT AGAIN, NOT FUCKING AGAIN, i am loosing a 2nd time to critical hit on the deciding turn when i fucking had this battle in the bag again. &^%$ING CRITICAL HIT EXPLOSION WTF.
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA this is the 2nd battle in a row i am loosing when i had it in the bag and my opponent gets a crit on the deciding turn. can God send a crit my way at a more crucial point in the game. whyyyyy deagle and mattJ and God whhyyyy screw me like this.
MattJ straight off the bat starts apologizing, he kept apologizing to me the whole weekend so Mattj if you are reading this please you won and thats that. congratz on making top 16 and getting an invite and i hope to meet you next year at nationals :). you are as cool to me after that battle as you were cool to me before it.
ROUND 6 [record is now 2-3]
so i am pissed as hell about to erupt on the inside. i swear if it wasnt for my great control over my emotions......wow i just was so heartbroken. of my 3 losses so far only the one againts fish was solid. the record should be 4-1 not 2-3.
Ninahaza vs clarinetist87.
clarinetist87 leads bronzong and TTar with diagla and lvl 1 smeargle in the back
Ninahaza goes with his giratina vs cresselia leads. with blissey and scarogre in back.
TURN 1-
clarinetist87- he sees my cresselia and predicts a trick room set-up and since his team is a trickroom team he double protects so that i can safely set up trickroom....BIG MISTAKE
Ninahaza- i switch in kyogre to change the weather from TTar's sandstorm to rain and vanish on my giratina.
TURN 2-
clarinetist87 - he realizes what a huge mistake he has made. he switches TTar for dialga and tries to set up TR on brongzong
Ninahaza - i water spout on kyogre bringing his dialga down abit and doing ALOT of damage to bronzong, he then gets very upset and tells me thats too much damage my kyogre did to his bronzong and that he will call a hack check. i dont say anything.
anyways my giratina comes on for the shadow force on his bronzong killing it and ruining his chances at setting up TR.
TURN 3 -
clarinetist87 - he calls merriland over and asks for a hack check and merrilands says ok after the battle, so this is my second battle that merriland gets to watch me. anyways he brings TTar in and changes the weather. then he starts of the turn by protecting on TTar something on dialga
Ninahaza- marriland had already checked my SS so i knew i wasnt hacking and marriland knew as well but there was nothing he could do, he has to to recheck me again. anyways i start the turn off by water spouting again taking out his dialga and toxic on TTar but its protected.
TURN 4 -
ok no need to go on, he brings his lvl 1 smeargle out but with a scarfogre out and sandtorm on the field i wasnt worried. i win this one with ease
ROUND 7 [record is tied at 3-3]
alright so this was for the winning record, my opponent and i had a record of 3-3 and had 1 more battle to go home atleast with a winning record. a slight chance at still getting into the top 16 only feuled us more to win this. and this battle was on the big screen. i also recorded it just incase it was my last battle at nationals vgc. watch it on youtube
I HIGHLY advice you guys to watch this battle because it shows you the kinks/bolts of my team and reveals 2 of my 3 stall tactics in my arsenal. also its ENTERTAINING AS HECK to watch:).
-ninahaza vs Jeremy Day for a winning record
-part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY_SiK9JsVU
-part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXyU59Uag9A
aright so i ended up winning and leaving with a winning record of 4-3, [still think it should have been 6-1] crucial timed hax sux yo because regular hax leaves you feeling unlucky whiles crucial timed hax just leaves you feeling cheated.
AFTER PARTY of saturday
alright after hearing about all the good players that didnt make it due to a hax heavy day and my own hax experiances i was feeling really down and was ready to have some fun to cheer me up, and you guys delivered. i had so much fun that day it was incredible. here is just a few pictures to show you like 10% of the fun i had.
so after the senior portion of nationals was over and the top 16 had been decided we went and got some pizza and drinks, came back into the freeplay game room and got our munch on as well as battled each other. thats DM losing to fishy who had a CK clone team haha
then the group went to the marriot across the street where we hoged the elevaters, we turned away like 3 people because we were full. what a bunch of jerks we were. and then after that we came down and took this picture before entering the champions bar to watch Ghana vs USA play
watching the U.S loose to Ghana. funny thing here is that the original people at my table knew i was from Ghana, i was born in Burundi but grew up and spent my time in Ghana so was i supporting Ghana over the U.S? guess the world [except for DM who idk if he still remebers] will never know
After the U.S lost to Ghana and after having a blast playing darts [Got a free lesson from DM and turned out to be good at throwing darts. but it turned out that fishy was even better at darts] and playing arcade basketball we headed to other Marriot hotel where the fun just kept rolling
when we Got to fishy's room i found a nice chair and just crashed. i actually fell asleep and Mingot took the oppurtunity to snag a picture. see when i build a pokemon team i really get involved, i had a toxic/rest stall team and later that day i myself used rest, you gotta be one with your team yo.
anyways it didnt last long before EVAN AND DM RUDELY woke me up with thier awsome guitar jaming session. too much fun followed after that.
we then went to TGI friday's. so here we all are laughing it up and recalling the day and events. we were later joined by skarm and rory. o and by the way thats ET in the back, he deosnt say much but ET you are one cool guy
AND THAT ENDS SATURDAY june 26th, 2010.
Sunday june 27th [its a short day, its almost over bear with me]
i make it to the convention center just in time for the top 16 battles. i meet xerograde again and thats his little brother to the right. both great battlers and i hope to see you again next year buddy :).
FAST-FORWARD - its the top 4 battles. Deagle vs Alaka and TR_Jessie vs wesley
due to a power-outage they moved the players to the left side and the players had to restart the battle. here we are watching and cheering for alaka. here is a funny quote from MattJ
After the top 4 were down we all went to find spots and get ready to watch the grand finale
here we all are cheering for Alaka :)
THE GOODBYES :(
the Nationals event was over, the champions crowned and here we were all saying our goodbyes :( to those who were about to leave like me. we also snaged last pictures
YES my MR T face, i was hoping i made it atleast in one picture and looks like godudette was the lucky one to get the face. i pitty the fuu who doesnt know how awsome it was to meet godudette :).
although i wish i got one with fishy too :(. next year
Chaos + Ninahaza = win. that is all
after that i said my goodbye and was out the door to go catch my flight.
at the aiport i met IPL and got to say goodbye to him aswell :). we talked abit then we got this picture, way to sneak bunny fingers on me IPL, i wont forget this next time we take a picture together :).
then i caught my flight bact to seattle and to the real world :(.
LAST THAUGHTS [warning incoming DEEPNESS/MUSHYNESS]
as i said at the beginning of the warstory i was originally going to just rage about how unlucky i was and such a haxy weekend, pretty much tell everyone a bitter tale when i came up with the bitter title "CRITICAL HIT, "the luck factor". a Nationals war-story [with pictures ofcourse]". but the title took a different meaning and here is how
so on my long ass flight back to seattle i decided to write on paper my battles that i had at nationals just incase i decided to write a warstory i would have the battles recorded down. then after that i had to come up with a title that fit such a haxy unlucky event, thus the title "CRITICAL HIT, "the luck factor". a Nationals war-story was born, it was perfect.
then i started looking outside the window and recalling this whole event from the start. i was there from day one at the seattle regional stop and that was the only event i knew forsure i could attend so i had to get a PAID trip to nationals or my journey would end there, and as many of you know i didnt even get an invite let alone a paid trip. my journey was over and i headed back into the real world were it stayed like that untill a week later i find out i can Go to another regional stop and have 1 last chance at making my nationals dream come true, it was too close to the california stop so i picked my date and place, PHOENIX BABY.
a week later i was in Phoenix and i knew this was it, my last chance at nationals do or die, i end up getting pretty far [top 16]. i had my invite and there was hope, but right when i got home i recieve the bad news, i cant go to nationals due to schedule conflicts and money issues. my journey once more was over and this time i knew that was it, its over. for the longest time some of you will remeber that my national attendance status was that i couldnt go.......then about half way before nationals i get good news again, i can go YEAH BABY.
to top it off i end up having one of the best weekends of my life, that could have easly not happened. i mean i had so much fun, i met smogonites that made me feel like i knew you guys for years. finally i could put faces and experiences behind the usernames, thats when i realized how infact lucky i was and the title of my warstory took on a completely different meaning. nationals weekend was a "CRITICAL HIT" in my book and just getting the chance to be there and experience it, have all that fun and meet you guys i knew that "THE LUCK FACTOR" was simple, i had luck all over me to have been able to make it to nationals and experience it, meet you guys. i wasnt unlucky i was very lucky and i am gratefull for that. anyways i will end my Final Thaughts with a qoute from DM that rings true
"Other people can say what they want about online communities, but until you become a dedicated member of one, you just will really never understand what it truly means."-DoomMallet.
A SPECIAL THANK YOU
there are alot of people that need to be thanked for making all this happen and just made it a fun time and you know who you are but in the interest of time [its 3:30 am :(]. i will thank just 2 people because they derserve a SPECIAL thank you
Omegadonut- about a week before nationals i posted that i need a scarfogre perfect IV's and stuff and omegadonut did not hasitate to let me know he had my back. then when we were finally trading for it i wasted his time by being really slow but he never said a word. then at the nationals event when i was torn between recording the battles and taking pictures omegadonut decided to make my life easier and offered to do the battle recording. that was awsome because i hate picking between the 2. lastly omega your kyogre owned every steeltype that came my way, everytime a steel type came my way and got owned i would say "thank you omegadonut" so allow me to say it one last time thank you omegadonut.
Boomguy- boomguy you rock. they way you took the time out of your schedule to help me make a nationals team everyday for the last 2 weeks before nationals just left me speechless. you had patience, you answered all my questions, you helped me make all my potential teams then put in the time to help me test them both on P.O and via WiFi, then just to make sure the team was awsome you would do research on little things to help better a team that wasnt even yours. after i had my team you spent your BP to get me moves, helped me trade back and forth i mean cammon. you rock Boomguy and i am very thankfull.
Thank you all for just making nationals a rocking experience.
hi everyone.
alright i will try to make this short and enjoyable. so as some of you know saturday was a huge haxy day for alot of people and i was one of those who got it bad, but dont worry this story isnt of me ranting on about how unlucky i am, when i came up with the title "CRITICAL HIT, "the luck factor". a Nationals war-story [with pictures ofcourse]" i was going to rant about my unlucky day but as you read on you will find out how the title took a completely different meaning. so sit back, take a deep breath, clear your mind and allow me to take you on a journey into my weekend.
thursday june 24.
i arrive in indianapolis around 7pm and already i am feeling excited. i take a moment to realize that i am here. i made it, a few of you will remeber for the longest time my nationals status was that i couldnt attend. but here i was, i made it baby. so i get to my hotel, drop my stuff down and immediately hook up my laptop to let everyone know i was in indiana. then i get a message from godudette that everyone is at TGI's friday and the dumbass i am i decide to go to sleep instead. i cant believe i missed out on the funnest tgi friday'ssession.
friday june 25th
i wake up, take my shower and brush my teeth and put on my awsome costum made "TOUCHED HIS NUTS YOU SHOULDNT HAVE" hoodie. i go downstairs for my free breakfast. as i was eating someone approuched me and said hi, and that he recognized my name "ninahaza", it was Enfuergo and we chatted it up [friday when he was nice, although i wasnt aware of the enfuergo situation and based on how he talked to me during the weekend he was just as much of a nice guy on sunday. maybe people just dont know how to say mean things to me]. off to the covention center
these next pictures are taken from the "more vgc pictures" thread :)
alright at the convention center were the first smogonite person i meet is...HUY, and i mistake him for duy, here is what the conversation was like
ninahaza - wassap, you must be duy
Huy - no i am huy, duy is up there with the rest of the group
Ninahaza - o ok, sorry [FACEPALM]
so i go join the group further up inline
so here i was faced with a group of people i only knew by thier smogon name, great i now had to introduce myself and start putting a face to everyname :(. why cant everyone just wear something with thier username on it like articuno, greysong and myself.
alright fast forward to the LCQ,
the group split up and those who came to compete in the LCQ join the line
and those of us cool enough to have already qualified join the sideline and got ready to cheer for the smogonites and just have a good time.
and you know me and pictures, we are like one so below are pictures of the competitors battling for fame and glory
and now some pictures of everyone just having fun at the LCQ
alright so here we have the who has the best "game face" contest between fishy and dubulous. but i think they were just mad because they were eliminated :(
omegadonut, mattj, myself and greysong knew it was instant picture time. when you have 4 good things/people in 1 space its instant picture time
even though i had already qualified for nationals, i never backdown from a challange and this newb[on the left side not in picture] found out just cause its a LCQ people only day, if you ask for a beating, ninahaza will brake the law to make it happen.
the ha's and i be rocking it where ever we go. we cant help it.
Omega after making it into the finalist round, he was waiting for the rest to make it and decided to come chill with us.
what can i say, Masha is great and i have forgiven her %100.
alright so i had already met Xerograde's mom in phoenix but the 2nd time meant we had to get a picture. i told her she had very talented sons since her younger son ended up coming in 2nd for nationals and xerograde won the phoenix event. she is funny and just fun to talk to.
we were all compering phones to see who had the worst phone. when i pulled out my old ass razer-phone, it was an auto win. no joke we were actually comparing phones lol.
after i felt that i had enough fun i joined for the group photo
after that i went to my hotel to be a loner for the rest of the day. i had fun it was a great friday
SATURDAY june 26th.
alright so i get up early, shower, etc etc. then head to get a very fast breakfast where i met enfuergo again, we were both excited about competing that day in the nationals. we then rushed down to the convention center were we broke off because i had to fill out my team info sheet. i filled out two sheets because i wasnt sure wether to use my phoenix team [smeargle scarfed with trickroom palkia] or my toxic team. when i reached the registration desk with two team sheets, i fliped a coin [low flip] to let fate decide my team and the toxic team won.
THE TEAM.
giratina AKA Nightmare
sassy nature [sitrus berry] [bulky EV spread]
-toxic
-shadow force
-protect
-rest
Cresselia
sassy nature [chesto berry] [bulky EV spread]
-Toxic
-psychic
-protect
-rest
good stall lead. can take multiple hits and toxic away then rest up,counters explosion leads and fake out fighting type leads. dont wanna go into much detail but thats the main thing.
the back-ups
Blissey
calm nature [chople berry] [bulky SPD EV spread]
-toxic
-icy wind
-softboil
-protect
kyogre AKA Storm
modest nature [choice scarf] [scarfogre EV spread]
-waterspout
-thunder
-ice beam
-protect
blissey was just another toxic stall pokemon but kyogre was my solution to steel type troubles and physical sweepers. i faced metagross, bronzong TTar and even groudon and can i just say thank you God that i did not make kyogre a calm mind stall ogre.
the bench pokemon [dont feel like getting into detail]
with top i can have a scarogre + top lead with a standard sweeper palkia in the back, then blissey because i would have eliminated all blissey treats with 3 attackers.
ALRIGHT so after everyone is registered we all make a nice huddle of people as Nick comes out to let us know about the swiss format.
again these pictures are taken from the "more VGC pictures" thread on the official pokemon website. yep i was on the pokemon website...WIN
then the pairings go up and we all rush to see who we are facing for round 1 of the 7 swiss rounds where you need 5 wins to make it to top 16 forsure.
ANNNNNDDDDD I GET FISH. great i have to face fish round one. just great.
Round 1 vs fish
i forgot fish's leads but it wasnt anything that countered my leads so i wasnt worried. but immediatley from the start he gets the upper hand and never looses it.
at this point i was getting my ass kicked pretty bad. fish showed me how fierce he can be and had no mercy. he had a crit on me [beginning my haxless nationals journey, every one got crits on me and deagle even got some FREEZE hax action on me] but it wasnt needed as he was winning very easly
i end up loosing my first battle and this loss was the only solid loss i had that day. [you will find out]
ROUND 2 [record so far 0-1]
pictures from the pokemon website
Playing well requires good Pokémon and some luck, but it also demands intense concentration and sound decision-making.
[thats me upper left side with my round 2 oppponent]
i faced an unkown guy here [let me know if you are on smogon]. but he led a standard kyogre+ludicolo lead. i would end up out predicting and toxic stalling all his pokemon to death. and i almost hit the 20 minutes time limit. gg
ROUND 3 [record so far 1-1]
Ninahaza vs Jrank
i will just copy and paste Jranks discription of our battle here because he covers it pretty well. also this was my least haxy battle of the day. just 1 crit i believe.
Jrank - "Round 3-vs Ninahaza
I really don’t remember much early-game, but it was down to my full health Palkia and ScarfOgre locked into Blizzard vs his 1HP Ogre and my bane. He had Blissey, and was able to stall me out. I hate that pink blob now. This match took almost the full 20 minutes.
Loss 1-0"
no pic ::(
ROUND 4 [Record so far 2-1]
Ninahaza vs Deagle
alright this was a battle for the ages vs deagle. allow me to recall to the best of my ability
Round 1-
Ninahaza-he leads abomasnow and mewtwo so i know he is going to double blizzard. i switch kyogre in to change the weather and cresselia toxic his abomasnow.
Deagle-he double blizzards and cress takes some damage but kyogre eats it up like a champ
round 2-
Ninahaza-i switch giratina back in and go for a toxic on his mewtwo
Deagle- deagle predicts the toxic on mewtwo and switches it out for toxicroak who is imune to toxic. nice one deagle, he then blizzards on his abomasnow and gets a FREEZE on my giratina.
round 3-
Ninahaza- giratina would never defrost and was eventually killed off but i KO his toxicroak with a phsychic from cresselia and deagle let me have it, like who carries a phsychic on cresselia :). he wasnt alone on P.O when testing this team the phsychic caught a few people by suprise.
Deagle-cant remember what he did [blizzard most likely].
FAST FORWARD TO FINAL ROUND of deagle vs Ninahaza-
alright so it was Deagles scarfed dialga [locked into dragon pulse] and his mewtwo [toxic up and has 1 more turn before it dies]
vs
Ninahaza's lone blissey :0.
merriland was over with us watching because we were the last ones and time was running out. merriland knew i had it in the bag and gave me a smile + a nod and deagle and i also knew i had it won, i was smiling and deagle was worried. here is the situation
SITUATION-his two remaining pokemon had been double teaming me for about 2 turns now abd blissey was eating up thier special attcks like nothing, we were deep into the final turn and his dialga had already attacked so it came down to mewtwo vs blissey. blissey had enough health to almost take a crit from mewtwo, his mewtwo uses blizzard and deagle, myself and merriland all held our breaths for a possibility of 3 scenarios and i think we were so close to the time limit that merriland was even gonna call it after this turn. like really we had seconds left on the clock
SCENARIO 1-his mewtwo's blizzard misses my blissey, mewtwo dies to toxic and i softboil and PP stall dailga for the win. ninahaza wins
SCENARIO 2-his mewtwo's blizzard hits blissey and blissey just softboils, mewtwo dies to toxic and i pp stall dialga. ninahaza wins
SCENARIO 3-his mewtwo's blizzard hits and blissey takes the hit but gets frozen. his mewtwo would still die but i had a feeling if he got a freeze merriland would call it in his favor. deagle wins
SCENARIO 4-his mewtwo's blizzard gets a critical hit and blissey faints, deagle wins.
so the odds were 2-2, 50%-50% but the chances of both a freeze or crit were low and with no hail up my chances of a miss was good.
WINNING SCENARIO- Foe's mewtwo uses blizzard, merriland, deagle and ninahaza all hold thier breaths in excitement and prayer............. its a CRITICAL HIT, blissey faints. Deagle wins :(
but taking nothing away from deagle, he too would later be haxed upon and many know he is a skilled player.
ROUND 5 [record so far 2-2]
Ninahza vs Mattj
alright i come into this one feeling very cheated out of a victory. although it was a 50-50 chance, my scenarios had the higher chances of happening because of crit and freeze hax chances being very low in comperason.
matjj lead shiftry and groudon with gengar and ho-oh in the back.
i went with my ussual giratina cresselia lead.
i wont bore you with the details but here are the last two turns where he had gengar and groudon out and a almost half health shiftry in the back, i had very high health blissey and half health kyogre out with cresselia in the back. so 3v3
TRUN 1-
Ninahaza - i use softboil on blissey and something on kyogre [forgot :(]
mattJ - he protects with his groudon and his gengar takes a hit from kyogre, gengar holds on with a focus sash, gengar EXPLODES....naaaoooowwwww. kyogre faints, blissey faints [my blissey was SPD bulk. nothing big invested in DEF except EV's] and gengar faints.
TURN 2
Ninahaza - its now down to almost full health cresselia vs groudon and shiftry. if i wanted a stall situation i wanted cresselia to be the last one standing instead of blissey this time because groudon had earthquake [cresselia lavitates] and dragon claw, so i am glad i choose to save cresselia for last in this battle. i predict a fake out and protect
Mattj-he fakes out on shiftry and dragon claws on groudon but i protected.
background story before final turn i put a smile on my face because i know mattJ has played into my hands and i had this one in the bag. you see i like to plan ahead in battles and here was the plan i did, phase 1 "i will protect on cresselia and give him a chance to explode next turn that is too Good to turn down mwhahahaha". phase 2 "ok i still have my chesto on cresselia and i know cresselia can take an explosion from metagross so shiftry's explosion should be cake. his groudon is faster than i but i dont have to worry because it would have protected, once i take the explosion damge i will simple rest up and chesto activates then i only have to stall a groudon who cant even use earthquake on me while it dies to toxic in maybe 4-5 turns, its perfect MWAHAHAHAHA.
TURN 3-
Ninahaza -i use rest expecting Mattj not to trun down this awsome chance to explode whiles i cant protect
Mattj- mattJ protects on groudon and explodes on shiftry, YES HE FELL FOR IT, its over i win........but wait.........CRITICAL HIT cresselia faints.
WTF NOT AGAIN, NOT FUCKING AGAIN, i am loosing a 2nd time to critical hit on the deciding turn when i fucking had this battle in the bag again. &^%$ING CRITICAL HIT EXPLOSION WTF.
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA this is the 2nd battle in a row i am loosing when i had it in the bag and my opponent gets a crit on the deciding turn. can God send a crit my way at a more crucial point in the game. whyyyyy deagle and mattJ and God whhyyyy screw me like this.
MattJ straight off the bat starts apologizing, he kept apologizing to me the whole weekend so Mattj if you are reading this please you won and thats that. congratz on making top 16 and getting an invite and i hope to meet you next year at nationals :). you are as cool to me after that battle as you were cool to me before it.
ROUND 6 [record is now 2-3]
so i am pissed as hell about to erupt on the inside. i swear if it wasnt for my great control over my emotions......wow i just was so heartbroken. of my 3 losses so far only the one againts fish was solid. the record should be 4-1 not 2-3.
Ninahaza vs clarinetist87.
clarinetist87 leads bronzong and TTar with diagla and lvl 1 smeargle in the back
Ninahaza goes with his giratina vs cresselia leads. with blissey and scarogre in back.
TURN 1-
clarinetist87- he sees my cresselia and predicts a trick room set-up and since his team is a trickroom team he double protects so that i can safely set up trickroom....BIG MISTAKE
Ninahaza- i switch in kyogre to change the weather from TTar's sandstorm to rain and vanish on my giratina.
TURN 2-
clarinetist87 - he realizes what a huge mistake he has made. he switches TTar for dialga and tries to set up TR on brongzong
Ninahaza - i water spout on kyogre bringing his dialga down abit and doing ALOT of damage to bronzong, he then gets very upset and tells me thats too much damage my kyogre did to his bronzong and that he will call a hack check. i dont say anything.
anyways my giratina comes on for the shadow force on his bronzong killing it and ruining his chances at setting up TR.
TURN 3 -
clarinetist87 - he calls merriland over and asks for a hack check and merrilands says ok after the battle, so this is my second battle that merriland gets to watch me. anyways he brings TTar in and changes the weather. then he starts of the turn by protecting on TTar something on dialga
Ninahaza- marriland had already checked my SS so i knew i wasnt hacking and marriland knew as well but there was nothing he could do, he has to to recheck me again. anyways i start the turn off by water spouting again taking out his dialga and toxic on TTar but its protected.
TURN 4 -
ok no need to go on, he brings his lvl 1 smeargle out but with a scarfogre out and sandtorm on the field i wasnt worried. i win this one with ease
ROUND 7 [record is tied at 3-3]
alright so this was for the winning record, my opponent and i had a record of 3-3 and had 1 more battle to go home atleast with a winning record. a slight chance at still getting into the top 16 only feuled us more to win this. and this battle was on the big screen. i also recorded it just incase it was my last battle at nationals vgc. watch it on youtube
I HIGHLY advice you guys to watch this battle because it shows you the kinks/bolts of my team and reveals 2 of my 3 stall tactics in my arsenal. also its ENTERTAINING AS HECK to watch:).
-ninahaza vs Jeremy Day for a winning record
-part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY_SiK9JsVU
-part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXyU59Uag9A
aright so i ended up winning and leaving with a winning record of 4-3, [still think it should have been 6-1] crucial timed hax sux yo because regular hax leaves you feeling unlucky whiles crucial timed hax just leaves you feeling cheated.
AFTER PARTY of saturday
alright after hearing about all the good players that didnt make it due to a hax heavy day and my own hax experiances i was feeling really down and was ready to have some fun to cheer me up, and you guys delivered. i had so much fun that day it was incredible. here is just a few pictures to show you like 10% of the fun i had.
so after the senior portion of nationals was over and the top 16 had been decided we went and got some pizza and drinks, came back into the freeplay game room and got our munch on as well as battled each other. thats DM losing to fishy who had a CK clone team haha
then the group went to the marriot across the street where we hoged the elevaters, we turned away like 3 people because we were full. what a bunch of jerks we were. and then after that we came down and took this picture before entering the champions bar to watch Ghana vs USA play
watching the U.S loose to Ghana. funny thing here is that the original people at my table knew i was from Ghana, i was born in Burundi but grew up and spent my time in Ghana so was i supporting Ghana over the U.S? guess the world [except for DM who idk if he still remebers] will never know
After the U.S lost to Ghana and after having a blast playing darts [Got a free lesson from DM and turned out to be good at throwing darts. but it turned out that fishy was even better at darts] and playing arcade basketball we headed to other Marriot hotel where the fun just kept rolling
when we Got to fishy's room i found a nice chair and just crashed. i actually fell asleep and Mingot took the oppurtunity to snag a picture. see when i build a pokemon team i really get involved, i had a toxic/rest stall team and later that day i myself used rest, you gotta be one with your team yo.
anyways it didnt last long before EVAN AND DM RUDELY woke me up with thier awsome guitar jaming session. too much fun followed after that.
we then went to TGI friday's. so here we all are laughing it up and recalling the day and events. we were later joined by skarm and rory. o and by the way thats ET in the back, he deosnt say much but ET you are one cool guy
AND THAT ENDS SATURDAY june 26th, 2010.
Sunday june 27th [its a short day, its almost over bear with me]
i make it to the convention center just in time for the top 16 battles. i meet xerograde again and thats his little brother to the right. both great battlers and i hope to see you again next year buddy :).
FAST-FORWARD - its the top 4 battles. Deagle vs Alaka and TR_Jessie vs wesley
due to a power-outage they moved the players to the left side and the players had to restart the battle. here we are watching and cheering for alaka. here is a funny quote from MattJ
HAHA that pretty much sums it.CROWD;AL-A-KA!! AL-A-KA!!
ME:deeeeeeeeeeeeegullllllllllllllll...
After the top 4 were down we all went to find spots and get ready to watch the grand finale
here we all are cheering for Alaka :)
THE GOODBYES :(
the Nationals event was over, the champions crowned and here we were all saying our goodbyes :( to those who were about to leave like me. we also snaged last pictures
YES my MR T face, i was hoping i made it atleast in one picture and looks like godudette was the lucky one to get the face. i pitty the fuu who doesnt know how awsome it was to meet godudette :).
although i wish i got one with fishy too :(. next year
Chaos + Ninahaza = win. that is all
after that i said my goodbye and was out the door to go catch my flight.
at the aiport i met IPL and got to say goodbye to him aswell :). we talked abit then we got this picture, way to sneak bunny fingers on me IPL, i wont forget this next time we take a picture together :).
then i caught my flight bact to seattle and to the real world :(.
LAST THAUGHTS [warning incoming DEEPNESS/MUSHYNESS]
as i said at the beginning of the warstory i was originally going to just rage about how unlucky i was and such a haxy weekend, pretty much tell everyone a bitter tale when i came up with the bitter title "CRITICAL HIT, "the luck factor". a Nationals war-story [with pictures ofcourse]". but the title took a different meaning and here is how
so on my long ass flight back to seattle i decided to write on paper my battles that i had at nationals just incase i decided to write a warstory i would have the battles recorded down. then after that i had to come up with a title that fit such a haxy unlucky event, thus the title "CRITICAL HIT, "the luck factor". a Nationals war-story was born, it was perfect.
then i started looking outside the window and recalling this whole event from the start. i was there from day one at the seattle regional stop and that was the only event i knew forsure i could attend so i had to get a PAID trip to nationals or my journey would end there, and as many of you know i didnt even get an invite let alone a paid trip. my journey was over and i headed back into the real world were it stayed like that untill a week later i find out i can Go to another regional stop and have 1 last chance at making my nationals dream come true, it was too close to the california stop so i picked my date and place, PHOENIX BABY.
a week later i was in Phoenix and i knew this was it, my last chance at nationals do or die, i end up getting pretty far [top 16]. i had my invite and there was hope, but right when i got home i recieve the bad news, i cant go to nationals due to schedule conflicts and money issues. my journey once more was over and this time i knew that was it, its over. for the longest time some of you will remeber that my national attendance status was that i couldnt go.......then about half way before nationals i get good news again, i can go YEAH BABY.
to top it off i end up having one of the best weekends of my life, that could have easly not happened. i mean i had so much fun, i met smogonites that made me feel like i knew you guys for years. finally i could put faces and experiences behind the usernames, thats when i realized how infact lucky i was and the title of my warstory took on a completely different meaning. nationals weekend was a "CRITICAL HIT" in my book and just getting the chance to be there and experience it, have all that fun and meet you guys i knew that "THE LUCK FACTOR" was simple, i had luck all over me to have been able to make it to nationals and experience it, meet you guys. i wasnt unlucky i was very lucky and i am gratefull for that. anyways i will end my Final Thaughts with a qoute from DM that rings true
"Other people can say what they want about online communities, but until you become a dedicated member of one, you just will really never understand what it truly means."-DoomMallet.
A SPECIAL THANK YOU
there are alot of people that need to be thanked for making all this happen and just made it a fun time and you know who you are but in the interest of time [its 3:30 am :(]. i will thank just 2 people because they derserve a SPECIAL thank you
Omegadonut- about a week before nationals i posted that i need a scarfogre perfect IV's and stuff and omegadonut did not hasitate to let me know he had my back. then when we were finally trading for it i wasted his time by being really slow but he never said a word. then at the nationals event when i was torn between recording the battles and taking pictures omegadonut decided to make my life easier and offered to do the battle recording. that was awsome because i hate picking between the 2. lastly omega your kyogre owned every steeltype that came my way, everytime a steel type came my way and got owned i would say "thank you omegadonut" so allow me to say it one last time thank you omegadonut.
Boomguy- boomguy you rock. they way you took the time out of your schedule to help me make a nationals team everyday for the last 2 weeks before nationals just left me speechless. you had patience, you answered all my questions, you helped me make all my potential teams then put in the time to help me test them both on P.O and via WiFi, then just to make sure the team was awsome you would do research on little things to help better a team that wasnt even yours. after i had my team you spent your BP to get me moves, helped me trade back and forth i mean cammon. you rock Boomguy and i am very thankfull.
Thank you all for just making nationals a rocking experience.