Darkmalice

Hey :) We're paired for the Smogon Doubles tourney, I'm GMT +1 and available in the afternoons / at night. When can you play?

It's been a while, I just wondered if you're concerned that the event page for the upcoming singles tournament only has 11 people saying they'll attend? I wonder if people are less interested in singles, although that would be strange as it's the simplest battle type. Also, if Smogon decides to banish something to Ubers shortly before the tournament, I wonder what time period is considered too late to change the rules regarding that Pokemon.

I'm glad Smogon is finally embracing Doubles with rules less restrictive than VGC and quite similar to AVcon rules. Do you play on the simulator much? I tried using Pokemon Showdown but it didn't work... nothing happened when I pressed the button to find a battle.

I hope they still have the paper where they wrote down my prize to claim later - if not, hopefully Daniel Moraw could convince them since he witnessed my victory and not using the prize.

I wouldn't do Gingy?

Did you huffle and puff and blow his house down?

That really sucks about your busy schedule, but it will hopefully pay off once you graduate. It's impressive that you win tournaments despite your lack of time to prepare.

I found it boring to use such common Pokemon on that winning team, and I might consider a more innovative one to test before AVcon. That selection by Wolfe definitely ruined his chances, although Ray seems to get through anything. It's weird, I've watched most of his battles that are on YouTube, and his playstyle just seems... normal, without taking many risks from what I've seen. He even leaves in Metagross on Gastrodon which OHKOs it with Gem-boosted Earth Power, and still comes out on top.

By the way, I didn't claim the $25 prize in late December as I don't play any card games... they wrote down my name so I can claim it later, but I might have to do a deal with someone who does play any of the games they sell.

That sucks about uni starting so soon for you - also, your attendance will probably be the main factor in whether I get to the finals or not. I'm mainly interested to see how you play in singles.

Do you spend much time watching world championship battles? I actually never did that until after AVcon 2012, but I've learned a lot since then. I particularly enjoy 'gimmick' teams or strategies, especially when they consistently defeat more standard ones. For that reason, I would've preferred for Wolfe to win against Ray Rizzo. Getting to the world final with Exeggutor is impressive in itself.

Even if he'd set up TR, with his weird team it probably wouldn't have been too problematic. I usually have no trouble controlling whether TR goes up or not (you're the only one who has made it too hard, partly because of the wide-ranging speed tiers of that team you used).

You didn't say whether you'll be at the singles tournament on the 10th of Feb (they changed the date), is there any chance you will be?

I suppose they made the 5th-gen for DS to get the most sales out of it, although it now makes sense to move on from that outdated technology. I agree that the story was better, but overall the games didn't feel like a real generation leap.
I wonder if X/Y will still allow battle animations to be turned off - would seem weird in 3D without them. It now seems clear why there hasn't been a successor to Battle Revolution, as they might release one after 6th-gen for WiiU. It would make for very spectacular HD finals at AVcon, although the improved graphics on 3DS might make such a game seem redundant.

It certainly was a TR team, and he should've used it since my Pokemon were clearly faster. Perhaps he was put off for the same reason I didn't use it against you - the possibility of it being reversed.

Contrary is an interesting ability that one of my VGCS opponents tried to use in a complex way, but it required too many turns of setup, by which time my Scrafty had done its job. By the way, will you attend the next tournament on the 3rd of Feb? I'd like to see if you're as good at singles - I have barely any singles experience aside from the Battle Tower (record streak 646 in Platinum). I've practically forgotten how it's played.

Pokemon X/Y was the first game announcement in years to make me excited. However, it makes 5th-gen seem like an awkward "4.5" - the graphics didn't improve much, it was on the same system, etc. The surprisingly close release date makes sense from a business perspective, of course.

Sounds good, I'd much rather be in a cold place right now... I've been to 10 countries, including Germany and Austria which you visited.

Thanks, although it's true those crits made it much easier. Bronzong wasn't much of a problem anyway, but as for Reuniclus - the opponent complained since he targeted the incoming Hydreigon with Focus Blast, but even without the crit he only had a 70% chance to not flinch from Iron Head, then 70% to actually hit. I chose Iron Head not just for reliability, but also for the flinch chance which is very relevant in TR conditions (or without TR, in this case). Would you agree that his team seemed weird? E.g. Bronzong using a pitifully weak EQ, Gastrodon using the same move weakly and thus wasting Storm Drain boosts, and Reuniclus having one of the most unreliable moves in FB. That's why I was surprised he made the final.

Skill Swap was even more useful than I expected. Apart from spamming Intimidate every turn, it can give Levitate to Metagross, take Jellicent's Water Absorb to defend against rain teams, and more. I survived a ridiculously long battle by taking a Vaporeon's Water Absorb and then passing it to Metagross, so it couldn't be burned by Scald. Guts and Flash Fire were particularly fun to steal. Some opponents complained about my tactics because they were unconventional (all of them were surprised by Swagger, so they clearly haven't seen VGC finals). What would you say to people who think these tactics are 'stupid', as some said?

That's okay, I suspected you were away - where did you go? If you went somewhere cooler, today's weather would've been a nasty surprise (could make a nerdy joke about Groudon, Ninetales or Fire-type moves, but I won't).
Yeah, I should've won the Sand Veil battle since I was outplaying him. I won 21 of 24 battles in the online VGCS tournament, which is pretty good since I faced quite a few competent players.

Thanks, but notice how I only win things when you're absent!? I've only lost to you and Athan so far (hax favoured him that time, but I also made some mistakes). Not sure if you've seen, but here's the final if you have access to Nintendo Wi-Fi:
48-94545-42198.
I really don't know how he also won all his battles before the final... what do you think?