Yeah, I’ve been lagging on my warstories from this year. But it’s okay! I’m getting this one up on time! I’ll have an Indy warstory up…sometime. If anyone still cares about that. Check out my facebook for more pictures!
Thursday August 12th, 2010
What are you guys in Hawaii for?—Pokemon World Championships – Oh…
After a fairly uneventful day at home, my family gets to the airport and we get on the plane to get to Hawaii and all that jazz. By the time we got to the hotel, it was already around 9 and all I wanted to do crash and hang out with people for a bit. Little did I know that with the size of the resort, dropping off my stuff would take me a little over 30 minutes. We ride the tram back and forth between my room and lobby and my parents left Duy and I to fend for ourselves at the hotel. We make our way into the lobby to meet up with dtrain, Alaka, Ninahaza, and a whole host of other people. I play my VGC 09 tournament match with Alaka, where double Relicanth gets stomped hard. We hang out for a bit, I formally meet Rees, Kinneas, and Zog for the first time before it’s time that everyone decides to turn into bed for LCQ the next day.
Pocket Qwilfish.
Friday August 13th, 2010
Stantler? I don’t even know what it can do…
I wake up at like 5AM in order to get in line to get TTS and Andrea their stuff from the retail line. Being the awesome guy that I am, I end up barely being the first person in line. I thought it was a pretty good thing that I was the first one in line because the people behind me were planning to snatch up as much junk as possible. Soo… the store opens and they tell us “Limit 3 of each item, okay guys?” Balls. I wasted 2 hours waiting in a line that I didn’t have to wait in. People begin to trickle in slowly and our group begins to take shape. Jeremy Fan, Junior World Champion 2009, Kinneas, skarm, Ninahaza, Deagle, dtrain, and a crapload of people come in while we discuss…whatever. I don’t even remember because it was so entirely random. Pictures were taken and the LCQ line began to move.
Canada and USA Represent!
Kin 2 Win
Man, we broke the metagame real hard.
Skarm, Jeremy, and I walked into the battle room and were pleasantly surprised that Hitmontop and Blissey were chosen to represent the VGC World Championships. LCQ continues to roll as we watch our fellow players play their matches. In the end, the LCQ was dominated by the Arnold Family (Atlanta Redux) with a sprinkling of Smogoners in their. The player that caught my eye though, was T.Dom, a Japanese player that had taken out Danny Bryan (The one that beats Dubs in LCQ) and dtrain using a Lanturn. He looked familiar but I did not recognize him until skarm mentioned his name later. (Turns out he top 8’ed at Worlds last year too!)
Oh man. T.Dom is a BOSS.
Mike Liesik…doing the Marriland?
Later in the Afternoon, we end up playing some TCG and VGC battles in the open gaming room while Alaka and his brother were trying to pawn off their wares. Feeling the itch to battle, I challenged Jeremy to an 09 battle while skarm and PBB were off failing at making poffins. I used my usual Stantler/Smeargle lead in order to set up Double Relicanth.
It was a good game, both teams played hard, but Relicanth prevailed.
Team Mike, holla! Also, hands off my hubby, skarm.
I believe from here we decided to go swimming. The small group went on an excursion to find the ocean in the middle of the night but to no avail. We went on an Enlightening journey through the Tiki Torch trail which ended up at a large Buddha Statue. Thoroughly enlightened, we decided to take it easy by the pool. Not long after, a guy walks by, sees Duy and starts talking to him. He’s freaking out because he doesn’t have Pokemon for the next day, because he qualified using someone else’s team. Me being the smartass that I am makes some comment about random player Evan Falco and wondering what he was using. From the other side of the pool I heard “Hey that’s me!” Turns out Falco was running around trying to find a team to use. Skarm was generous and gave Falco a team.
ONWARD TO ENLIGHTENMENT!
Team Mike is Real Close.
The team retired to the lobby where we played some fun matches with the Japanese before we retired to get ready for the next morning.
Saturday August 14th, 2010
Aiya.. Parasectu… *random Japanese words*
Alright, so this day was almost completely devoted to Pokemon. We make our walk to the gaming area. Before I begin tournament coverage, I’m going to completely go over my team. It was very different from anything other people were using and I loved playing with it. I’ve tested bits and pieces of this team over the past few months but decided at the last minutes to put all of my favorite bits and pieces together to form this team. I liked that I had many options with items, I loved that I got to use Pokemon that are hardly ever seen, and I really enjoyed the reactions I got out of this team.
The Team:
Groudon ** Huy
@ Iron Ball/Lum Berry
Brave, 0 Speed, [252HP/252Atk/6Def]
~Earthquake
~Rock Slide
~Swords Dance
~Protect
A pretty sweet Iron Ball lead that ensures Jumpluff gets the sun off. It is pretty simple. Be slow, set up Swords Dance, rape things while their Pokemon try to take out Jumpluff.
Jumpluff ** Andrea <3
@ Yache Berry/Focus Sash/Iron Ball
Jolly, [252HP/252Speed/6SpDef]
~Sleep Powder
~Protect
~Bounce
~Encore
Jumpluff’s role is to disable things so that Groudon can get a sweep going. Sleep Powder and Encore are obvious. Bounce is there to avoid Shadow Forces, Explosions, and for general fun (<3 Andrea). Jumpluff switches out after it has disabled a couple Pokemon so that Dialga can have some fun.
Dialga ** Fishsaurus
@ Life Orb / Sitrus Berry/ Lum Berry
Quiet, 0 Speed, [252HP/252SpAtk/6Def]
~Dragon Pulse
~Trick Room
~Flamethrower
~Protect
With such a slow Groudon, and the ability to disable a ton of Pokemon with Sleep Powder and Encore, Dialga can generally come in later and set up Trick Room with ease. Life Orb is used depending on whether or not I feel like I need to hit hard with Dialga or if I need it to stay alive.
Abomasnow ** Tucker
@ Life Orb/Sitrus Berry/ Focus Sash
Quiet, [252HP, 252SpAtk,6Spdef]
~Blizzard
~Hidden Power [FIRE]
~Protect
~Grass Knot
Abomasnow is generally seen as a lead with Mewtwo in order to fake an Abomatwo lead. It is a pretty standard Abomasnow. Item choice is depending on the opponent’s team. It fires stab Blizzards and Grass Knots into opposing teams for MASSIVE DAMAGE.
Mewtwo ** Lena
@ Iron Ball
Sassy, [252HP, 42Atk, 4Def, 212Spdef]
~Trick Room
~Protect
~Selfdestruct
~Blizzard
These last two Pokemon are what I feel make my team very unique. I’ve been toying around with this Mewtwo for months and decided that I wanted to survived Water Spouts and Specs Dracos. No one expects Trick Room coming from this thing and with Iron Ball, it is slow enough to boom the turn after.
Parasect ** pearhead
@ Life Orb/ Focus Sash/ Sitrus Berry/ Yache Berry
Brave, [252HP/252Atk/6Spdef]
~Spore
~Protect
~X-Scissor
~Seed Bomb
Parasect was my MVP for Worlds 2010. With Spore under Trick Room, Parasect is deadly. It’s no slouch on the offensive end, either. Seed Bomb and X-Scissor has some very nice coverage and does massive damage to anything it hits for Super Effective. Slap a Life Orb on this baby and you’re looking at some pretty surprising damage. The best part of it is when people realize that they have no Parasect counters =)
How the Team Works Together:
I have a few modes with this team but I’m only going to go into detail about how the two modes I used the most worked:
Jumpluff, Groudon, Dialga, [Abomasnow/Parasect]
*This team is pretty simple to understand. Iron Ball Groudon is slower than most everything and lets Jumpluff play around in the sun. With Sun up, Jumpluff outspeeds everything in the game, firing off fast Sleep Powders to disable the opponent’s Pokemon. Encore is there in case anyone tries to get wise and Protect or Fake Out or Safeguard or whatever to avoid Sleep Powders. This allows Groudon an easy way to Swords Dance. With Groudon all set up, people tend to get pretty flustered and Protect/Switch a lot. I find an opening to get Dialga in to set up Trick Room so that Groudon, Parasect/Aboma, or even Dialga itself can sweep.
Mewtwo, Abomasnow, Dialga, Parasect
*No one ever expects slow Trick Room Mewtwo. The premise around this team is also pretty simple. The lead is a disguised AbomaTwo lead, that tries to force the opponent to protect/switch so that Mewtwo has an easy way to Trick Room. After Mewtwo Trick Rooms, it usually goes straight to boom as most people tend to think that they will outspeed Mewtwo in Trick Room. Turn 1 usually looks like –Mewtwo Trick Room, Aboma Blizzard—while turn 2 looks like –Mewtwo Boom, Aboma Protect. Mewtwo does massive damage or gives a free switch in to Parasect to that it can sleep things. Dialga comes in late game to reset Trick Room for Parasect or just cleans up.
The Matches
Round 1 vs. Bye
This was incredibly tough for me to swallow. I was pretty nervous before the tournament because of the team I chose to use. Delaying the start of the tournament for me left me pretty flustered. I spent the majority of the round blowing up Andrea’s phone with updates. 1-0
Round 2 vs. Atushi Makio
Cresselia, Dialga, Kyogre, Ludicolo, Togekiss
For me, this was probably the most nerve-racking match of the day. I haven’t seen what anybody was using and this would be my first time using the team. First game I went with Groudon/Pluff/Dialga/Aboma. He went with Cresselia, Dialga, Kyogre, Ludicolo. Sleep Powder wrecked everything while he let Groudon get up to +6 with Swords Dance. Trick Room came out and it was just a clean sweep for me.
Game 2, I decided I wanted to switch it up. I went with TR Mewtwo and that paid off heavily. He lead with Togekiss/Ogre. Follow me, Blizzard came from his Pokemon. This let me set up Trick Room and made it extremely easy for me. Dialga and Parasect made quick work of Ludicolo and his Dialga. 2-0
After this first match, we went on a lunch break I got some quick interviews with people about their thoughts on the day. We hung out for a good while before we returned to do battle.
Round 3 vs. Albert Bos Puig
Mewtwo, ScarfGiratina, Blissey, Abomasnow, Weavile, Palkia
Game 1
He led with Mewtwo, ScarfGira. I end up Sleep Powder Mewtwo and Giratina locks itself into Shadow Force. Jumpluff avoids the Shadow Force with Bounce while Groudon tries to set up. His Abomasnow eventually comes out and I lose Groudon. This goes back and forth for a while. This time, I chose to go with Abomasnow over Parasect and I thought it would have been okay. Until he sends out of Blissey. Eff. Blissey stalls out some of my Pokemon and not wanting to lose anytime, I hit run.
Game 2
He brings Weavile and Palkia. I bring Mewtwo and Aboma. I protect with Mewtwo to avoid the Fake Out and sees that he’s aiming a Draco at Mewtwo. This pleases me greatly. Aboma fires off a blizzard to break Sash. Next turn, I lose Aboma to a Low Kick, but Mewtwo takes the Draco handily and sets up Trick Room. Not having any other options with the SelfDestruct, he brings in Blissey to take the hit and Parasect/Dialga make quick work of the rest of his team.
Game 3
I go back to Jumpluff/Groudon but choose to use Parasect this time. First turn, he protects with Mewtwo while I fire off a Sleep Powder. Groudon Swords Dances while his Giratina SafeGuards. Thinking he’s safe, he goes for an attack with Mewtwo only to get Encored by Jumpluff. I set up Groudon, and somehow and take out Mewtwo and Giratina Slowly. His Abomasnow comes in to make quick work of my leads. It comes down to my Dialga and Parasect vs his Blissey. There was about 2 minutes left on the clock at this point and I was panicking. I managed to get the Blissey to sleep and barely managed to KO it with 5 seconds reamaining on the clock. 3-0
Round 4 vs. Takushi Morishima (AKA T. Dom)
Groudon, Rotom-C, Kyogre, Lanturn, Togekiss
Game 1
I go with my typical lead and he goes with Groudon/Rotom. He sighs when he sees my lead and knows that it’s going to be an uphill battle. Rotom-C sleeps, Groudon sets up, Dialga comes in and Trick Rooms. Groudon runs through Ogre/Rotom-C/Groudon/Lanturn under Trick Room.
Game 2
I go with the same team since I had so much success with it. He counters with Togekiss/LumOgre. He double targets Jumpluff, I waste the Lum and he takes out Pluff. A little bit of back and forth later and he gets the win.
Game 3
I switch to Trick Room Mewtwo. He goes with Togekiss/Ogre again. I survive a Water Spout and Trick Room while Togekiss and Ogre both take Blizzards. He takes a boom and Parasect/Dialga do their thing. 4-0
Round 5 vs. Isao Yoshiaka
Cresselia, Specs Dialga, Kyogre, Ludicolo
Isao and I were the lone undefeated players left on the field. These matches were fun even if it ended up in his favor. The first match came down to a lot of missed Blizzards from his Dialga and a lot of missed Sleep Powders on my end. The second match was pretty fun. He T-Waves Mewtwo and I let out a small snicker. He sees that Mewtwo isn’t attacking and he looks at me with wide eyes and asks “Tricku…Room?” I smile and he gives me a hearty approving nod and giggle. Here, I thought I had him. He switches his Ogre in while I was ready to boom and his Cresselia was sitting there not doing anything. I would have been fine if not for a FP that turn =P. It’s okay though, I thought. Until it happened 5 more times. Oh well. It was very fun and he was VERY nice about it. 4-1
Round 6 vs. Naoto Mizouchi
Kyogre, Palkia, Ludicolo, ScarfAbomasnow
Naoto was a very quiet boy, but very respectful. Game, he won with a couple of Sleep Powder misses and because I left Parasect on the bench. Game 2, I went with Trick Room Mewtwo. It catches him off guard. At the end of the match, it ends up being my 30% Dialga against his 40% Palkia. His Spacial Rend ends up missing, and my Dragon Pulse takes out Palkia. The third match, I went with TR Mewtwo and blew up right off the bat. From then on, Parasect wrecks the rest of his team with his Life Orb. At the end of the match I could hear him muttering “Aiya, Parasectu…” under his breath =] 5-1
With my favorable record and pretty amazing resistance, I end up grabbing the second seed for Sunday. We all head out and grab some dinner. Jeremy, dtrain, Rees, Kinneas and I decided to head out to the pool to check out the “Dive-In Movie.” It ended up being a movie played on a tiny screen next to the pool. We had some good times splashing around in the water discussing the full day of competition that had previously occurred. We got all pruny and decided to head for the lobby.
We hang out for a bit with skarm, kongler, and the rest of the worlds crew. The boys all ended up playing foosball and hijinx ensued. A drunk skarm pushed everyone into playing foosball and hilarity soon followed. Friendships grew strong this night. It didn’t matter that we were all competing against each other only a few hours before, none of that mattered anymore. There were no Ducks, no Smogonites, no Skarmblissers – just some friends having a good time with a computer and a foosball table.
Sunday August 15th, 2010
What’s the matter, trainer?
I couldn’t sleep anymore so I woke up bright and early. I sat in the lobby with BlueCookies and dtrain eagerly awaiting the clock to hit 9:30. We grab some breakfast and make our way towards the gaming area so I can check in. Team Japan had already arrived and picked out their seats. Alaka and I had a practice match in order to calm my nerves. I won.
I checked in and took a seat next to my opponent. We shook hands and took our places. We awaited the countdown. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Battle!
Quarterfinals vs. Wataru Onishi
Kyogre, Togekiss, Snorlax, Tyranitar
I came in knowing full well that Wataru would know the ins and outs of my team. I switched some items around to help me a bit. I put life orb on Parasect to get some key knockouts and threw Focus Sash onto Jumpluff knowing that he did not have an Abomasnow to bring. I led with the usual Groudon/Jumpluff and he went with Togekiss/Ogre. I figured he wouldn’t try to follow me so I protected with Groudon and Sleep Powdered Kyogre. He Helping Hands with Togekiss. Jumpluff uses Sleep Powder. MISS. Dang. That was my chance to waste the Lum Berry I thought it had. It hits me with Blizzard bringing me into Sash range. I try for the Sleep Powder again but get the Lum. He misses Blizzard on Pluff and Groudon gets a quick Rock Slide off. I fire off a couple more Sleep Powders before he finally gets Jumpluff down. At this point, I went to Dialga to try to get up a Trick Room for Parasect. Tyranitar uses Low Kick! It’s a critical hit! I’m left with a Parasect with no Trick Room. Good game.
Game 2, I thought I would catch him off guard with Trick Room Mewtwo. I had ev’ed both Mewtwo and Abomasnow to take HH Water Spouts and survive. If anyone is interested, check out the battle video (21-91799-89929) I was planning on getting the Trick Room off with Mewtwo, taking out the Ogre with a LO Grass Knot, but alas, it was not meant to be. Parasect losing a speed tie to Snorlax was just the last straw. I had bent and tried not to break but I could not stretch any further. I shook Wataru’s hand and he looked into my eyes and said to me “I’m sorry.”
I was not bothered by the fact that I lost the way I did. Having played this game for so long, I’ve come to accept that sometimes things just don’t go your way. Regardless, I had a great time taking this team as far as I could and my only regret was that I wasn’t able to get up on the big stage to show everyone this very quirky, but very fun team.
Just Married!
Jesus and his soon to be Wife
Canada, UK, and US YEAH!
The day chugged along as we helped BlueCookies prepare for the finals. The atmosphere in that room for the finals was electrifying. I’ve never seen a room so hyped up for a Pokemon battle before. We cheered, people fell out of chairs, people that I thought were sessile were jumping up and down out of their chairs watching the match. It was a great moment in Pokemon history and I was proud to be a part of it. We took some post tournament pictures before a couple of us had to leave to catch their flights (including champion cookies!)
Sup DSI XL.
As much of the group as we could find + Marriland
After dinner, we all met in the lobby with the usual crowd. The only difference was that this time, the Japanese were all gathered on the other side of the room. Duy and Alaka were playing Battle Factory until T.Dom and Tsuji came over to see what all of the fuss was about. Duy showed them Battle Factory and they quickly picked up on it. Duy and Alaka paired up with Ryo and T.Dom respectively in order to challenge the Battle Factory. We quickly learned that it didn’t matter if you were Japanese of America – Battle Factory is going to hax the shit out of you regardless. =P
After some fun battle factory matches, T.Dom and Tsuji pulled out their carts and challenged Team America to a multibattle. Dtrain and I obviously stepped up to their challenge and we had some of the most amazing battles I’ve ever had. We all got to use a couple of our favorite Pokemon. In the end, the might of Sunflora was no match for us (32-02800-90039). Alaka and Jeremy also got in on the action and they fared FAR better than we did. Before team Japan turned in for the night, we took one final group picture.
Wait. How did Smeargle Explosion do that much?
Striking Tsuji’s signature KAAA! pose. This is easily my favorite picture of the whole weekend. Though we’re missing some key people, this really represents what Pokemon is all about. It’s a beautiful thing when something like this can bring people from completely different cultures and backgrounds together.
The Rest of the Days
While worlds had ended, my time in Hawaii had not. I spent the next few days with my parents and dtrain exploring the rest of the island and good times were had by all. I ended up burning through a bunch of my phone minutes because I missed Andrea too much to not talk to her for a day =X But anyway, there wasn’t much happening here other than dtrain breaking like 60 laws. Like touching the turtles. And us running into TR Jessie completely at random. Nothing much, typical Hawaii.
whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa Hawaiin stop signs
Conclusion
The end of the VGC season is always a sad time for me. It signals the end of a year and is the last time that a lot of these people gather together. Through the two years that I’ve done VGC, I can safely say that the Pokemon part of it is only secondary. The best part of this is getting to be an environment with people from all over enjoying the things you love the most.
This season was especially important for me. I had to prove to the world that I was not someone that just fluked into Worlds last year and that I could do it on my own. Though I didn’t place any better than I did last year, I still feel like I’ve proven to myself and to the world that I can play Pokemon with the best of the world.
2010 VGC has brought be some of the best times I’ve ever had in my life. Nationals, Seattle, and Worlds were all events that I would never trade for anything in the world. This year, I’ve made new friends, rekindled old friendships, explored new cities, had amazing adventures, met the most amazing girl in the world (<3 Andrea), went on a crazy road trip, and met people that I’ve known for years as my “online friends.” These are experiences I will never forget. I’m thankful that TPCi puts on these events and gives me a chance to experience all of this and that they are listening enough to help make the VGC grow. Mushy Huy. I’m out.
Props:
~TPCi for listening to the VGC players wants
~Mighty Ducks of Pokemon – QUACK QUACK QUACK
~andrea for giving me the ideas for my team and telling me Weavile was retarded (also for being amazingggg <33333)
~Tyler422, OmegaDonut, and andrea for RNGing my team
~Articuno64 for exploring Parasect
~Duy for picking up the game extremely fast and giving me someone to test with
~Amazing adventures and experiences that I will never forget
~BlueCookies for WorldChamp!?
~Unity in Pokemon. USA, Japan, Europe. Skarmbliss, Smogon. When it comes down to it, though we do have our respective teams to play for, in the end, we’re all just playing for the love of Pokemon.
~Everyone for being nice and friendly, especially the Japanese
~People's reactions to my team. Wide-eyes, dropped jaws, and people falling out of their chairs <3
~The people. Oh god the people. Everyone that I've met and hung out with this year. You make it so much more amazing.
I learned how to rock a hat!
Slops:
~Lame Dive-In Movie
~Not being able to buy the Worlds 2010 banners
~Not ever being on screen
~Califa
Thursday August 12th, 2010
What are you guys in Hawaii for?—Pokemon World Championships – Oh…
After a fairly uneventful day at home, my family gets to the airport and we get on the plane to get to Hawaii and all that jazz. By the time we got to the hotel, it was already around 9 and all I wanted to do crash and hang out with people for a bit. Little did I know that with the size of the resort, dropping off my stuff would take me a little over 30 minutes. We ride the tram back and forth between my room and lobby and my parents left Duy and I to fend for ourselves at the hotel. We make our way into the lobby to meet up with dtrain, Alaka, Ninahaza, and a whole host of other people. I play my VGC 09 tournament match with Alaka, where double Relicanth gets stomped hard. We hang out for a bit, I formally meet Rees, Kinneas, and Zog for the first time before it’s time that everyone decides to turn into bed for LCQ the next day.
Pocket Qwilfish.
Friday August 13th, 2010
Stantler? I don’t even know what it can do…
I wake up at like 5AM in order to get in line to get TTS and Andrea their stuff from the retail line. Being the awesome guy that I am, I end up barely being the first person in line. I thought it was a pretty good thing that I was the first one in line because the people behind me were planning to snatch up as much junk as possible. Soo… the store opens and they tell us “Limit 3 of each item, okay guys?” Balls. I wasted 2 hours waiting in a line that I didn’t have to wait in. People begin to trickle in slowly and our group begins to take shape. Jeremy Fan, Junior World Champion 2009, Kinneas, skarm, Ninahaza, Deagle, dtrain, and a crapload of people come in while we discuss…whatever. I don’t even remember because it was so entirely random. Pictures were taken and the LCQ line began to move.
Canada and USA Represent!
Kin 2 Win
Man, we broke the metagame real hard.
Skarm, Jeremy, and I walked into the battle room and were pleasantly surprised that Hitmontop and Blissey were chosen to represent the VGC World Championships. LCQ continues to roll as we watch our fellow players play their matches. In the end, the LCQ was dominated by the Arnold Family (Atlanta Redux) with a sprinkling of Smogoners in their. The player that caught my eye though, was T.Dom, a Japanese player that had taken out Danny Bryan (The one that beats Dubs in LCQ) and dtrain using a Lanturn. He looked familiar but I did not recognize him until skarm mentioned his name later. (Turns out he top 8’ed at Worlds last year too!)
Oh man. T.Dom is a BOSS.
Mike Liesik…doing the Marriland?
Later in the Afternoon, we end up playing some TCG and VGC battles in the open gaming room while Alaka and his brother were trying to pawn off their wares. Feeling the itch to battle, I challenged Jeremy to an 09 battle while skarm and PBB were off failing at making poffins. I used my usual Stantler/Smeargle lead in order to set up Double Relicanth.
It was a good game, both teams played hard, but Relicanth prevailed.
Team Mike, holla! Also, hands off my hubby, skarm.
I believe from here we decided to go swimming. The small group went on an excursion to find the ocean in the middle of the night but to no avail. We went on an Enlightening journey through the Tiki Torch trail which ended up at a large Buddha Statue. Thoroughly enlightened, we decided to take it easy by the pool. Not long after, a guy walks by, sees Duy and starts talking to him. He’s freaking out because he doesn’t have Pokemon for the next day, because he qualified using someone else’s team. Me being the smartass that I am makes some comment about random player Evan Falco and wondering what he was using. From the other side of the pool I heard “Hey that’s me!” Turns out Falco was running around trying to find a team to use. Skarm was generous and gave Falco a team.
ONWARD TO ENLIGHTENMENT!
Team Mike is Real Close.
The team retired to the lobby where we played some fun matches with the Japanese before we retired to get ready for the next morning.
Saturday August 14th, 2010
Aiya.. Parasectu… *random Japanese words*
Alright, so this day was almost completely devoted to Pokemon. We make our walk to the gaming area. Before I begin tournament coverage, I’m going to completely go over my team. It was very different from anything other people were using and I loved playing with it. I’ve tested bits and pieces of this team over the past few months but decided at the last minutes to put all of my favorite bits and pieces together to form this team. I liked that I had many options with items, I loved that I got to use Pokemon that are hardly ever seen, and I really enjoyed the reactions I got out of this team.
The Team:
Groudon ** Huy
@ Iron Ball/Lum Berry
Brave, 0 Speed, [252HP/252Atk/6Def]
~Earthquake
~Rock Slide
~Swords Dance
~Protect
A pretty sweet Iron Ball lead that ensures Jumpluff gets the sun off. It is pretty simple. Be slow, set up Swords Dance, rape things while their Pokemon try to take out Jumpluff.
Jumpluff ** Andrea <3
@ Yache Berry/Focus Sash/Iron Ball
Jolly, [252HP/252Speed/6SpDef]
~Sleep Powder
~Protect
~Bounce
~Encore
Jumpluff’s role is to disable things so that Groudon can get a sweep going. Sleep Powder and Encore are obvious. Bounce is there to avoid Shadow Forces, Explosions, and for general fun (<3 Andrea). Jumpluff switches out after it has disabled a couple Pokemon so that Dialga can have some fun.
Dialga ** Fishsaurus
@ Life Orb / Sitrus Berry/ Lum Berry
Quiet, 0 Speed, [252HP/252SpAtk/6Def]
~Dragon Pulse
~Trick Room
~Flamethrower
~Protect
With such a slow Groudon, and the ability to disable a ton of Pokemon with Sleep Powder and Encore, Dialga can generally come in later and set up Trick Room with ease. Life Orb is used depending on whether or not I feel like I need to hit hard with Dialga or if I need it to stay alive.
Abomasnow ** Tucker
@ Life Orb/Sitrus Berry/ Focus Sash
Quiet, [252HP, 252SpAtk,6Spdef]
~Blizzard
~Hidden Power [FIRE]
~Protect
~Grass Knot
Abomasnow is generally seen as a lead with Mewtwo in order to fake an Abomatwo lead. It is a pretty standard Abomasnow. Item choice is depending on the opponent’s team. It fires stab Blizzards and Grass Knots into opposing teams for MASSIVE DAMAGE.
Mewtwo ** Lena
@ Iron Ball
Sassy, [252HP, 42Atk, 4Def, 212Spdef]
~Trick Room
~Protect
~Selfdestruct
~Blizzard
These last two Pokemon are what I feel make my team very unique. I’ve been toying around with this Mewtwo for months and decided that I wanted to survived Water Spouts and Specs Dracos. No one expects Trick Room coming from this thing and with Iron Ball, it is slow enough to boom the turn after.
Parasect ** pearhead
@ Life Orb/ Focus Sash/ Sitrus Berry/ Yache Berry
Brave, [252HP/252Atk/6Spdef]
~Spore
~Protect
~X-Scissor
~Seed Bomb
Parasect was my MVP for Worlds 2010. With Spore under Trick Room, Parasect is deadly. It’s no slouch on the offensive end, either. Seed Bomb and X-Scissor has some very nice coverage and does massive damage to anything it hits for Super Effective. Slap a Life Orb on this baby and you’re looking at some pretty surprising damage. The best part of it is when people realize that they have no Parasect counters =)
How the Team Works Together:
I have a few modes with this team but I’m only going to go into detail about how the two modes I used the most worked:
Jumpluff, Groudon, Dialga, [Abomasnow/Parasect]
*This team is pretty simple to understand. Iron Ball Groudon is slower than most everything and lets Jumpluff play around in the sun. With Sun up, Jumpluff outspeeds everything in the game, firing off fast Sleep Powders to disable the opponent’s Pokemon. Encore is there in case anyone tries to get wise and Protect or Fake Out or Safeguard or whatever to avoid Sleep Powders. This allows Groudon an easy way to Swords Dance. With Groudon all set up, people tend to get pretty flustered and Protect/Switch a lot. I find an opening to get Dialga in to set up Trick Room so that Groudon, Parasect/Aboma, or even Dialga itself can sweep.
Mewtwo, Abomasnow, Dialga, Parasect
*No one ever expects slow Trick Room Mewtwo. The premise around this team is also pretty simple. The lead is a disguised AbomaTwo lead, that tries to force the opponent to protect/switch so that Mewtwo has an easy way to Trick Room. After Mewtwo Trick Rooms, it usually goes straight to boom as most people tend to think that they will outspeed Mewtwo in Trick Room. Turn 1 usually looks like –Mewtwo Trick Room, Aboma Blizzard—while turn 2 looks like –Mewtwo Boom, Aboma Protect. Mewtwo does massive damage or gives a free switch in to Parasect to that it can sleep things. Dialga comes in late game to reset Trick Room for Parasect or just cleans up.
The Matches
Round 1 vs. Bye
This was incredibly tough for me to swallow. I was pretty nervous before the tournament because of the team I chose to use. Delaying the start of the tournament for me left me pretty flustered. I spent the majority of the round blowing up Andrea’s phone with updates. 1-0
Round 2 vs. Atushi Makio
Cresselia, Dialga, Kyogre, Ludicolo, Togekiss
For me, this was probably the most nerve-racking match of the day. I haven’t seen what anybody was using and this would be my first time using the team. First game I went with Groudon/Pluff/Dialga/Aboma. He went with Cresselia, Dialga, Kyogre, Ludicolo. Sleep Powder wrecked everything while he let Groudon get up to +6 with Swords Dance. Trick Room came out and it was just a clean sweep for me.
Game 2, I decided I wanted to switch it up. I went with TR Mewtwo and that paid off heavily. He lead with Togekiss/Ogre. Follow me, Blizzard came from his Pokemon. This let me set up Trick Room and made it extremely easy for me. Dialga and Parasect made quick work of Ludicolo and his Dialga. 2-0
After this first match, we went on a lunch break I got some quick interviews with people about their thoughts on the day. We hung out for a good while before we returned to do battle.
Round 3 vs. Albert Bos Puig
Mewtwo, ScarfGiratina, Blissey, Abomasnow, Weavile, Palkia
Game 1
He led with Mewtwo, ScarfGira. I end up Sleep Powder Mewtwo and Giratina locks itself into Shadow Force. Jumpluff avoids the Shadow Force with Bounce while Groudon tries to set up. His Abomasnow eventually comes out and I lose Groudon. This goes back and forth for a while. This time, I chose to go with Abomasnow over Parasect and I thought it would have been okay. Until he sends out of Blissey. Eff. Blissey stalls out some of my Pokemon and not wanting to lose anytime, I hit run.
Game 2
He brings Weavile and Palkia. I bring Mewtwo and Aboma. I protect with Mewtwo to avoid the Fake Out and sees that he’s aiming a Draco at Mewtwo. This pleases me greatly. Aboma fires off a blizzard to break Sash. Next turn, I lose Aboma to a Low Kick, but Mewtwo takes the Draco handily and sets up Trick Room. Not having any other options with the SelfDestruct, he brings in Blissey to take the hit and Parasect/Dialga make quick work of the rest of his team.
Game 3
I go back to Jumpluff/Groudon but choose to use Parasect this time. First turn, he protects with Mewtwo while I fire off a Sleep Powder. Groudon Swords Dances while his Giratina SafeGuards. Thinking he’s safe, he goes for an attack with Mewtwo only to get Encored by Jumpluff. I set up Groudon, and somehow and take out Mewtwo and Giratina Slowly. His Abomasnow comes in to make quick work of my leads. It comes down to my Dialga and Parasect vs his Blissey. There was about 2 minutes left on the clock at this point and I was panicking. I managed to get the Blissey to sleep and barely managed to KO it with 5 seconds reamaining on the clock. 3-0
Round 4 vs. Takushi Morishima (AKA T. Dom)
Groudon, Rotom-C, Kyogre, Lanturn, Togekiss
Game 1
I go with my typical lead and he goes with Groudon/Rotom. He sighs when he sees my lead and knows that it’s going to be an uphill battle. Rotom-C sleeps, Groudon sets up, Dialga comes in and Trick Rooms. Groudon runs through Ogre/Rotom-C/Groudon/Lanturn under Trick Room.
Game 2
I go with the same team since I had so much success with it. He counters with Togekiss/LumOgre. He double targets Jumpluff, I waste the Lum and he takes out Pluff. A little bit of back and forth later and he gets the win.
Game 3
I switch to Trick Room Mewtwo. He goes with Togekiss/Ogre again. I survive a Water Spout and Trick Room while Togekiss and Ogre both take Blizzards. He takes a boom and Parasect/Dialga do their thing. 4-0
Round 5 vs. Isao Yoshiaka
Cresselia, Specs Dialga, Kyogre, Ludicolo
Isao and I were the lone undefeated players left on the field. These matches were fun even if it ended up in his favor. The first match came down to a lot of missed Blizzards from his Dialga and a lot of missed Sleep Powders on my end. The second match was pretty fun. He T-Waves Mewtwo and I let out a small snicker. He sees that Mewtwo isn’t attacking and he looks at me with wide eyes and asks “Tricku…Room?” I smile and he gives me a hearty approving nod and giggle. Here, I thought I had him. He switches his Ogre in while I was ready to boom and his Cresselia was sitting there not doing anything. I would have been fine if not for a FP that turn =P. It’s okay though, I thought. Until it happened 5 more times. Oh well. It was very fun and he was VERY nice about it. 4-1
Round 6 vs. Naoto Mizouchi
Kyogre, Palkia, Ludicolo, ScarfAbomasnow
Naoto was a very quiet boy, but very respectful. Game, he won with a couple of Sleep Powder misses and because I left Parasect on the bench. Game 2, I went with Trick Room Mewtwo. It catches him off guard. At the end of the match, it ends up being my 30% Dialga against his 40% Palkia. His Spacial Rend ends up missing, and my Dragon Pulse takes out Palkia. The third match, I went with TR Mewtwo and blew up right off the bat. From then on, Parasect wrecks the rest of his team with his Life Orb. At the end of the match I could hear him muttering “Aiya, Parasectu…” under his breath =] 5-1
With my favorable record and pretty amazing resistance, I end up grabbing the second seed for Sunday. We all head out and grab some dinner. Jeremy, dtrain, Rees, Kinneas and I decided to head out to the pool to check out the “Dive-In Movie.” It ended up being a movie played on a tiny screen next to the pool. We had some good times splashing around in the water discussing the full day of competition that had previously occurred. We got all pruny and decided to head for the lobby.
We hang out for a bit with skarm, kongler, and the rest of the worlds crew. The boys all ended up playing foosball and hijinx ensued. A drunk skarm pushed everyone into playing foosball and hilarity soon followed. Friendships grew strong this night. It didn’t matter that we were all competing against each other only a few hours before, none of that mattered anymore. There were no Ducks, no Smogonites, no Skarmblissers – just some friends having a good time with a computer and a foosball table.
Sunday August 15th, 2010
What’s the matter, trainer?
I couldn’t sleep anymore so I woke up bright and early. I sat in the lobby with BlueCookies and dtrain eagerly awaiting the clock to hit 9:30. We grab some breakfast and make our way towards the gaming area so I can check in. Team Japan had already arrived and picked out their seats. Alaka and I had a practice match in order to calm my nerves. I won.
I checked in and took a seat next to my opponent. We shook hands and took our places. We awaited the countdown. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Battle!
Quarterfinals vs. Wataru Onishi
Kyogre, Togekiss, Snorlax, Tyranitar
I came in knowing full well that Wataru would know the ins and outs of my team. I switched some items around to help me a bit. I put life orb on Parasect to get some key knockouts and threw Focus Sash onto Jumpluff knowing that he did not have an Abomasnow to bring. I led with the usual Groudon/Jumpluff and he went with Togekiss/Ogre. I figured he wouldn’t try to follow me so I protected with Groudon and Sleep Powdered Kyogre. He Helping Hands with Togekiss. Jumpluff uses Sleep Powder. MISS. Dang. That was my chance to waste the Lum Berry I thought it had. It hits me with Blizzard bringing me into Sash range. I try for the Sleep Powder again but get the Lum. He misses Blizzard on Pluff and Groudon gets a quick Rock Slide off. I fire off a couple more Sleep Powders before he finally gets Jumpluff down. At this point, I went to Dialga to try to get up a Trick Room for Parasect. Tyranitar uses Low Kick! It’s a critical hit! I’m left with a Parasect with no Trick Room. Good game.
Game 2, I thought I would catch him off guard with Trick Room Mewtwo. I had ev’ed both Mewtwo and Abomasnow to take HH Water Spouts and survive. If anyone is interested, check out the battle video (21-91799-89929) I was planning on getting the Trick Room off with Mewtwo, taking out the Ogre with a LO Grass Knot, but alas, it was not meant to be. Parasect losing a speed tie to Snorlax was just the last straw. I had bent and tried not to break but I could not stretch any further. I shook Wataru’s hand and he looked into my eyes and said to me “I’m sorry.”
I was not bothered by the fact that I lost the way I did. Having played this game for so long, I’ve come to accept that sometimes things just don’t go your way. Regardless, I had a great time taking this team as far as I could and my only regret was that I wasn’t able to get up on the big stage to show everyone this very quirky, but very fun team.
Just Married!
Jesus and his soon to be Wife
Canada, UK, and US YEAH!
The day chugged along as we helped BlueCookies prepare for the finals. The atmosphere in that room for the finals was electrifying. I’ve never seen a room so hyped up for a Pokemon battle before. We cheered, people fell out of chairs, people that I thought were sessile were jumping up and down out of their chairs watching the match. It was a great moment in Pokemon history and I was proud to be a part of it. We took some post tournament pictures before a couple of us had to leave to catch their flights (including champion cookies!)
As much of the group as we could find + Marriland
After dinner, we all met in the lobby with the usual crowd. The only difference was that this time, the Japanese were all gathered on the other side of the room. Duy and Alaka were playing Battle Factory until T.Dom and Tsuji came over to see what all of the fuss was about. Duy showed them Battle Factory and they quickly picked up on it. Duy and Alaka paired up with Ryo and T.Dom respectively in order to challenge the Battle Factory. We quickly learned that it didn’t matter if you were Japanese of America – Battle Factory is going to hax the shit out of you regardless. =P
After some fun battle factory matches, T.Dom and Tsuji pulled out their carts and challenged Team America to a multibattle. Dtrain and I obviously stepped up to their challenge and we had some of the most amazing battles I’ve ever had. We all got to use a couple of our favorite Pokemon. In the end, the might of Sunflora was no match for us (32-02800-90039). Alaka and Jeremy also got in on the action and they fared FAR better than we did. Before team Japan turned in for the night, we took one final group picture.
Wait. How did Smeargle Explosion do that much?
Striking Tsuji’s signature KAAA! pose. This is easily my favorite picture of the whole weekend. Though we’re missing some key people, this really represents what Pokemon is all about. It’s a beautiful thing when something like this can bring people from completely different cultures and backgrounds together.
The Rest of the Days
While worlds had ended, my time in Hawaii had not. I spent the next few days with my parents and dtrain exploring the rest of the island and good times were had by all. I ended up burning through a bunch of my phone minutes because I missed Andrea too much to not talk to her for a day =X But anyway, there wasn’t much happening here other than dtrain breaking like 60 laws. Like touching the turtles. And us running into TR Jessie completely at random. Nothing much, typical Hawaii.
whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa Hawaiin stop signs
Conclusion
The end of the VGC season is always a sad time for me. It signals the end of a year and is the last time that a lot of these people gather together. Through the two years that I’ve done VGC, I can safely say that the Pokemon part of it is only secondary. The best part of this is getting to be an environment with people from all over enjoying the things you love the most.
This season was especially important for me. I had to prove to the world that I was not someone that just fluked into Worlds last year and that I could do it on my own. Though I didn’t place any better than I did last year, I still feel like I’ve proven to myself and to the world that I can play Pokemon with the best of the world.
2010 VGC has brought be some of the best times I’ve ever had in my life. Nationals, Seattle, and Worlds were all events that I would never trade for anything in the world. This year, I’ve made new friends, rekindled old friendships, explored new cities, had amazing adventures, met the most amazing girl in the world (<3 Andrea), went on a crazy road trip, and met people that I’ve known for years as my “online friends.” These are experiences I will never forget. I’m thankful that TPCi puts on these events and gives me a chance to experience all of this and that they are listening enough to help make the VGC grow. Mushy Huy. I’m out.
Props:
~TPCi for listening to the VGC players wants
~Mighty Ducks of Pokemon – QUACK QUACK QUACK
~andrea for giving me the ideas for my team and telling me Weavile was retarded (also for being amazingggg <33333)
~Tyler422, OmegaDonut, and andrea for RNGing my team
~Articuno64 for exploring Parasect
~Duy for picking up the game extremely fast and giving me someone to test with
~Amazing adventures and experiences that I will never forget
~BlueCookies for WorldChamp!?
~Unity in Pokemon. USA, Japan, Europe. Skarmbliss, Smogon. When it comes down to it, though we do have our respective teams to play for, in the end, we’re all just playing for the love of Pokemon.
~Everyone for being nice and friendly, especially the Japanese
~People's reactions to my team. Wide-eyes, dropped jaws, and people falling out of their chairs <3
~The people. Oh god the people. Everyone that I've met and hung out with this year. You make it so much more amazing.
I learned how to rock a hat!
Slops:
~Lame Dive-In Movie
~Not being able to buy the Worlds 2010 banners
~Not ever being on screen
~Califa
