Most of my trip is explained in my vlog at youtube.com/malicexbadintent. I'd say that is more interesting than text. This is mostly going to be pictures and just a quick rundown of stuff I didn't vlog about. Oh, and I'll warn you now; grab a drink and a snack, because this is still a relatively long read.
Videos: Vlog Part 1/2. Part 2/2. Battle 2/2 [Others still uploading] If anyone else got any of my battles, let me know. I asked a few people but no one has anything. WORLDS WILL BE DIFFERENT. I'm getting everything there.
Thursday June 24th 2010:
I arrive in Indianapolis alone and take a cab to the Super 8 motel. With all the plane delays, and time zone shifting, I don't get to bed until about 4 AM.
That night I also waxed my hair. I got a lot of compliments from you guys, so I guess I did a good job.
Friday June 25th 2010: Last Chance Qualifier:
Okay, I didn't get much sleep the night before at all. You can tell by the picture with me, sixonesix, and Masha. Well the LCQ was much more uneventful than I thought it would be. But I did get to meet some cool people there. I took some pictures as well. My mate sixonesix got haxxed out before I got to cheer him on. We got there when the second round was starting for the first people in line. POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN and Tyler422 were still in though. I cheered but I was instantly bummed about six losing. Weak hax is weak.
This is is the best way to sum up why we got to the convention center so late. What the heck, bro?
Me, Masha, and sixonesix. These were the only two people that knew of my team the day before the tournament.
Tyler422 going to work
POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN about to take out a gangsta guy. Notice the pick in his hair. I thought he might be good, but he lead with Luxray and Houndoom ._. Two turn win lol PBB ended up qualifying on Friday
TR_Jessie was a surprise to meet. I didn't think she'd be there. Such a powerful player. She 4-0'd a great team in top 32 of LCQ. She also placed 3rd overall in Nationals. That's what happens when you have a lot of matches with BadIntent jajajajaja.
June 26th, 2010: Nationals Day 1
Anyone at the event could tell I was in the zone mentally on both Saturday and Sunday. I wasn't social like most of the other people. I save that for after. While most people were hanging around, I was off to the side with my mp3 player on maximum. The night before the tournament, I went to sixonesix's hotel. Me, mattj, PBB, BlueCookies and six played some Melee with six winning pretty much every time. After the other three left back for the hotel, we talked a lot and then did some hardcore theorymon just like we always do on irc. sixonesix is the best person I've ever done team-building with. He doesn't have bad habits, and isn't afraid to consider and try stuff that's way out of the ordinary. I asked if I should used the team I was leaning towards that day, or the one we made on IRC during the last two weeks. He was positive that I should use the other team, and even though I wasn't as comfortable with it, I went with it because six is my dude. (Just for the record, six pretty much came up with the team. I mostly just came up some of the EVs and tweaked some moves.)
Right before the battles started
PBB, BadIntent, dtrain, Mattj, [a guy that gave me his name but I forgot], Greysong
Me cheesing right after one of my swiss rounds. Thanks to mingot for the picture.
I'm being purposefully vague about my team, but here's a quick rundown of Swiss. I ran Infernape Palkia Blissey Groudon.
Round 1 vs JRank
I recognized him as JRank and actually asked to see his backpack before the battle started lolololol He used Weavile Hitmontop Kyogre Palkia. It took me about a minute and a half to make my first move, since I know 09 leads are mainly there to make you do something stupid and waste on of your restricted Pokemon early. I played cautiously, and I got the upper hand early. I send out Blissey at the end for the auto-win.
Round 2 vs EnFuego
This guy was kinda annoying. He asked who I was and I told him. Then he wouldn't answer me straight when I asked him. I found out by the name on the screen that it was EnFuego. This guy talked a lot but as Feathers can tell you, I ignore people while battle- except when they announce what's going on in the battle and keep making commentary like we're on PBR. But yeah, that was a little annoying but the guy wasn't evil like a lot of people are saying. I've seen MUCH worse. He just talked a bit too much. Anyway, he had Toxicroak Palkia Dialga Abomasnow. The battle was even until I made a key prediction on turn three which helped a ton. He actually commended me for that. I was the only one who beat him that day.
Round 3 vs JGiles
First real test. This was the Dallas Champion. He lead with Azelf and a scarfed Giratina which was a lead I used to use to troll people in the live tournaments. If you don't have a way to immediately counter it, you lose. Well this guy made two huge misplays and that let my Infernape kill his Azelf before it could Explode. His Giratina was wrecking my team, but Blissey halted it. Once I started spreading the Toxic, it was over.
Round 4 vs ? [Skarm]
I didn't know who this was until the match was over. In the weeks before Nationals, I was concerned that the Ducks would have come up with Kyogre Hitmontop 2.0. Actually, right before the battle started, I was like okay if I'm 3-1 here I can still get top 16 lol. To say the least, I was surprised to see a mirror lead. On turn two his Spacial Rend missed which gave me the advantage I needed. Actually Skarm still had the advantage till I pulled out my super secret amazing move on his Metagross for the surprising OHKO. I'll have to tell you what I did after I'm done with worlds. Oh, and back to Kyogre Hitmontop. I never saw a new gamebreaking Duck team ='( Maybe the metagame is maxxed out.
Round 5 vs Cybertron
I was surprised he was 4-0 at this point. Not doubting his skill, but I was 99% sure he was running Misa Room again. I actually went out the battle room before we started to change items. I didn't know you could do that in the battle area so I delayed the match, but Cybertron told the judge it was okay. I subbed in Lum and Chesto on my leads cause I knew he was using Smeargle. I lead with Infernape and Tyranitar this time. I Faked Out Smeargle and Rock Slided. Smeargle fainted and Dialga flinched. He didn't get off Trick Room because of that and I flinch haxxed his whole team with Tyranitar for the 3-0. I told him I'd see him in top 16 the next day because I was sure he'd make it. I guess 5,6, and 7 all had counter teams.
Round 6 vs Milan Palel
Another Misa Room team. The difference was, I didn't lead with Tyranitar and he got Trick Room up. Once he send out Abomasnow, I knew I auto-won because he didn't tech in a Machamp for me like some people do with Misa Room. Well the "auto-win" against an all special attacking team ended up going the full 20 minutes. I had the advantage but I almost didn't KO his second to last Pokemon in time to give me the HP advantage at the end.
Round 7 vs Wesley Morioka
This is the battle where my swagger clouded my memory. I kinda laughed to myself in my head when I saw those leads, but Wesley gave me a great fight. I was so confident that I would win though, that I didn't take mental notes of his team in my head. I ended up winning, but I didn't remember his other Pokemon- Kyogre Toxicroak until it was too late the next day. In the battle Groudon went to work. Blissey hates physical attackers, but Groudon bullies them. This was the only real physical team I fought all VGC season. My Groudon was faster than his bulky Kyogre, which was odd. I found out later that his team was anti-Trick Room. Well Groudon EQ'd and Rock Slided Toxicroak and Rayquaza to KO them. Ape killed the Kangashan. Calm Mind Kyogre was too much for my Groudon though. I had to have Blissey stall it out at the end.
After that I got interviewed because I went 7-0. The interview is on Pokemon.com actually. Not sure how long it will be there though. Everything in life comes and goes, but I'm gonna archive that somewhere to immortalize it. http://www.pokemon.com/us/news/op_nats10_omari-2010-06-26/ I think a lot of the press overhyped me that day, hehe. But the game is heavily luck based so you can't accurately predict one person to win like you can in a game of skill like a fighter.
Top 16 Picture with Pikachu
Afterwards BlueCookies, PBB, MattJ, sixonesix and I went and got some food. I later went with sixonesix to hang out with some Smogon players at one of the sports bars. A lot of people congratulated me and I played arcade basketball against Ninahaza. I got smashed lol. I also caught up with Fish, who I've become good friends with after I lost to him Seattle. That night I pretty much just got on IRC and chatted it up in #skarmbliss. More congrats. I appreciate that, everyone. Me and Mattj went out to McDonalds and had a nice conversation about just stuff in general. It was nice to talk to the guy who was the first Smogon player I VGC'd against in April of 09. This was back on Serebii. We've both become even more powerful since that time.
June 26th, 2010: Day 2 of Nationals
BadIntent POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN BlueCookies before top 16 starts
Round 1 vs Rory:
BadIntent and Rory ready to battle
Rory told me he was mostly just going to try to have fun this match. I knew he was using Kyogre and Hitmontop- something six and I made a point to counter with this team. I used the same four I used in Swiss. Nothing really eventful happened in these two battles, except that I got Thunder paralysis on his Kyogre in both games. But with Top down, Blissey walled his team both times anyway. Rory was a good sport.
After the round, Alaka was telling me about his battle and I was surprised he gave so much detail since I was a potential opponent. But I learned that he like to pull out Icy Wind a lot on his Blissey and that is key to him stalling out physical attackers. He's a cool guy in real life, and I was reminded again of how short I was while he was recalling his round one battles. BlueCookies lost by time that round and I was confident that I could beat Wesley. I was pretty sure I would lose to BlueCookies honestly. Mattj also lost. Low damage variation is what did it.
Round 2 vs Wesley:
Battle 1- He used Hitmontop Rayquaza Toxicroak Kyogre. Yes, three physicals. Hell for a Blissey team. This was the first and only game that I got straight outplayed in. The Dragon Pulse and Air Slash on Rayquaza allowed it to do more damage without burning Sp Atk. like the Draco Meteor versions. It did enough damage to my Infernape and Groudon so that Blissey had to go head up with two physicals end game. Not good.
I remember this actually. I only picked up the DS when I realized "Oh, fuck I'm actually losing"
Battle 2- Well I don't think I got outplayed (or outmatched because I brought in a sub) this match, but I was haxxed out. It's my fault in hindsight though. I should have just won the first battle- then I wouldn't be on the verge of losing. Oh well. ggggggggggg Wesley. Here are the videos. PBB took the first one with my cam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUa9Gn3On58 The first match is still uploading.
Like I was telling BlueCookies the day before I didn't care all too much if I lost after top 8. I was super, super focused for that. Afterwards, I was still relatively focused but my heart wasn't quite in it the rest of the way. Wesley wanted the win more than me. I have video of our first match and I will record the second from my DS. And yeah, that's all I could get. Unfortunately, with only 1 GB of memory, I didn't get nearly as much vlogging, pictures, or battles that I wanted on my camera. At worlds I will definitely bring more memory with me. No one else recorded any of my stuff, so that's all you guys get.
I was really mad after I lost to say the least. I didn't actually stick around for the senior finals since I had a plane to catch, but even if I didn't I would have probably left anyway. I HATE losing!
Random thoughts about the people I met:
-I tried to give a bro hug to godudette, but she was too short so I kinda shouldered her in the face. Sorry about that lol.
-Duy helped me practice the bro-hug right after that incident. Such a cool dude.
-Ryuzaki, Deagle, Metabou were very nice and easy to talk to about the game. They all have great insight about VGC.
-Fishy, you look really good.
-I'm glad PBB had such a great time. Even after he didn't get top 16, he was still in very good spirits.
-Sixonesix is the best guy in life.
-Meeting breaktube and doctorken2k was amazing. I really should have gotten pic and video, but I had to catch a flight while they were recording the finals. That was the biggest mistake I made. Should have hung with you two more.
-Wesley is a really cool dude. So powerful. Anti-metagamers, what up.
-I didn't know Skarm was Skarm but he was a cool dude in real life. I didn't actually see his face in Seattle; that's why I didn't recognize him.
There was this guy in red shorts who was an amazing dude. I can remember your name for the life of me though! I saw him at TCG Regionals, VGC Regional in San Mateo, and at nats. He had basketball shoes on and he was light-skinned. He also wore a plaid shirt. I only just learned his name there. He was running a cursegar deck and I remember he was top 12 or something in the TCG last I talked to him. I just wanted to tell him thanks for all the support, and I want to know how you did at the TCG. If you are reading this dude, just VM or PM.
Hope you guys enjoyed it. I ended up 5th place at Nationals. So now I'm no longer just a local scrub!!!
Videos: Vlog Part 1/2. Part 2/2. Battle 2/2 [Others still uploading] If anyone else got any of my battles, let me know. I asked a few people but no one has anything. WORLDS WILL BE DIFFERENT. I'm getting everything there.
Thursday June 24th 2010:
I arrive in Indianapolis alone and take a cab to the Super 8 motel. With all the plane delays, and time zone shifting, I don't get to bed until about 4 AM.
That night I also waxed my hair. I got a lot of compliments from you guys, so I guess I did a good job.
Friday June 25th 2010: Last Chance Qualifier:
Okay, I didn't get much sleep the night before at all. You can tell by the picture with me, sixonesix, and Masha. Well the LCQ was much more uneventful than I thought it would be. But I did get to meet some cool people there. I took some pictures as well. My mate sixonesix got haxxed out before I got to cheer him on. We got there when the second round was starting for the first people in line. POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN and Tyler422 were still in though. I cheered but I was instantly bummed about six losing. Weak hax is weak.
This is is the best way to sum up why we got to the convention center so late. What the heck, bro?
Me, Masha, and sixonesix. These were the only two people that knew of my team the day before the tournament.
Tyler422 going to work
POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN about to take out a gangsta guy. Notice the pick in his hair. I thought he might be good, but he lead with Luxray and Houndoom ._. Two turn win lol PBB ended up qualifying on Friday
TR_Jessie was a surprise to meet. I didn't think she'd be there. Such a powerful player. She 4-0'd a great team in top 32 of LCQ. She also placed 3rd overall in Nationals. That's what happens when you have a lot of matches with BadIntent jajajajaja.
June 26th, 2010: Nationals Day 1
Anyone at the event could tell I was in the zone mentally on both Saturday and Sunday. I wasn't social like most of the other people. I save that for after. While most people were hanging around, I was off to the side with my mp3 player on maximum. The night before the tournament, I went to sixonesix's hotel. Me, mattj, PBB, BlueCookies and six played some Melee with six winning pretty much every time. After the other three left back for the hotel, we talked a lot and then did some hardcore theorymon just like we always do on irc. sixonesix is the best person I've ever done team-building with. He doesn't have bad habits, and isn't afraid to consider and try stuff that's way out of the ordinary. I asked if I should used the team I was leaning towards that day, or the one we made on IRC during the last two weeks. He was positive that I should use the other team, and even though I wasn't as comfortable with it, I went with it because six is my dude. (Just for the record, six pretty much came up with the team. I mostly just came up some of the EVs and tweaked some moves.)
Right before the battles started
PBB, BadIntent, dtrain, Mattj, [a guy that gave me his name but I forgot], Greysong
Me cheesing right after one of my swiss rounds. Thanks to mingot for the picture.
I'm being purposefully vague about my team, but here's a quick rundown of Swiss. I ran Infernape Palkia Blissey Groudon.
Round 1 vs JRank
I recognized him as JRank and actually asked to see his backpack before the battle started lolololol He used Weavile Hitmontop Kyogre Palkia. It took me about a minute and a half to make my first move, since I know 09 leads are mainly there to make you do something stupid and waste on of your restricted Pokemon early. I played cautiously, and I got the upper hand early. I send out Blissey at the end for the auto-win.
Round 2 vs EnFuego
This guy was kinda annoying. He asked who I was and I told him. Then he wouldn't answer me straight when I asked him. I found out by the name on the screen that it was EnFuego. This guy talked a lot but as Feathers can tell you, I ignore people while battle- except when they announce what's going on in the battle and keep making commentary like we're on PBR. But yeah, that was a little annoying but the guy wasn't evil like a lot of people are saying. I've seen MUCH worse. He just talked a bit too much. Anyway, he had Toxicroak Palkia Dialga Abomasnow. The battle was even until I made a key prediction on turn three which helped a ton. He actually commended me for that. I was the only one who beat him that day.
Round 3 vs JGiles
First real test. This was the Dallas Champion. He lead with Azelf and a scarfed Giratina which was a lead I used to use to troll people in the live tournaments. If you don't have a way to immediately counter it, you lose. Well this guy made two huge misplays and that let my Infernape kill his Azelf before it could Explode. His Giratina was wrecking my team, but Blissey halted it. Once I started spreading the Toxic, it was over.
Round 4 vs ? [Skarm]
I didn't know who this was until the match was over. In the weeks before Nationals, I was concerned that the Ducks would have come up with Kyogre Hitmontop 2.0. Actually, right before the battle started, I was like okay if I'm 3-1 here I can still get top 16 lol. To say the least, I was surprised to see a mirror lead. On turn two his Spacial Rend missed which gave me the advantage I needed. Actually Skarm still had the advantage till I pulled out my super secret amazing move on his Metagross for the surprising OHKO. I'll have to tell you what I did after I'm done with worlds. Oh, and back to Kyogre Hitmontop. I never saw a new gamebreaking Duck team ='( Maybe the metagame is maxxed out.
Round 5 vs Cybertron
I was surprised he was 4-0 at this point. Not doubting his skill, but I was 99% sure he was running Misa Room again. I actually went out the battle room before we started to change items. I didn't know you could do that in the battle area so I delayed the match, but Cybertron told the judge it was okay. I subbed in Lum and Chesto on my leads cause I knew he was using Smeargle. I lead with Infernape and Tyranitar this time. I Faked Out Smeargle and Rock Slided. Smeargle fainted and Dialga flinched. He didn't get off Trick Room because of that and I flinch haxxed his whole team with Tyranitar for the 3-0. I told him I'd see him in top 16 the next day because I was sure he'd make it. I guess 5,6, and 7 all had counter teams.
Round 6 vs Milan Palel
Another Misa Room team. The difference was, I didn't lead with Tyranitar and he got Trick Room up. Once he send out Abomasnow, I knew I auto-won because he didn't tech in a Machamp for me like some people do with Misa Room. Well the "auto-win" against an all special attacking team ended up going the full 20 minutes. I had the advantage but I almost didn't KO his second to last Pokemon in time to give me the HP advantage at the end.
Round 7 vs Wesley Morioka
This is the battle where my swagger clouded my memory. I kinda laughed to myself in my head when I saw those leads, but Wesley gave me a great fight. I was so confident that I would win though, that I didn't take mental notes of his team in my head. I ended up winning, but I didn't remember his other Pokemon- Kyogre Toxicroak until it was too late the next day. In the battle Groudon went to work. Blissey hates physical attackers, but Groudon bullies them. This was the only real physical team I fought all VGC season. My Groudon was faster than his bulky Kyogre, which was odd. I found out later that his team was anti-Trick Room. Well Groudon EQ'd and Rock Slided Toxicroak and Rayquaza to KO them. Ape killed the Kangashan. Calm Mind Kyogre was too much for my Groudon though. I had to have Blissey stall it out at the end.
After that I got interviewed because I went 7-0. The interview is on Pokemon.com actually. Not sure how long it will be there though. Everything in life comes and goes, but I'm gonna archive that somewhere to immortalize it. http://www.pokemon.com/us/news/op_nats10_omari-2010-06-26/ I think a lot of the press overhyped me that day, hehe. But the game is heavily luck based so you can't accurately predict one person to win like you can in a game of skill like a fighter.
Top 16 Picture with Pikachu
Afterwards BlueCookies, PBB, MattJ, sixonesix and I went and got some food. I later went with sixonesix to hang out with some Smogon players at one of the sports bars. A lot of people congratulated me and I played arcade basketball against Ninahaza. I got smashed lol. I also caught up with Fish, who I've become good friends with after I lost to him Seattle. That night I pretty much just got on IRC and chatted it up in #skarmbliss. More congrats. I appreciate that, everyone. Me and Mattj went out to McDonalds and had a nice conversation about just stuff in general. It was nice to talk to the guy who was the first Smogon player I VGC'd against in April of 09. This was back on Serebii. We've both become even more powerful since that time.
June 26th, 2010: Day 2 of Nationals
BadIntent POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN BlueCookies before top 16 starts
Round 1 vs Rory:
BadIntent and Rory ready to battle
Rory told me he was mostly just going to try to have fun this match. I knew he was using Kyogre and Hitmontop- something six and I made a point to counter with this team. I used the same four I used in Swiss. Nothing really eventful happened in these two battles, except that I got Thunder paralysis on his Kyogre in both games. But with Top down, Blissey walled his team both times anyway. Rory was a good sport.
After the round, Alaka was telling me about his battle and I was surprised he gave so much detail since I was a potential opponent. But I learned that he like to pull out Icy Wind a lot on his Blissey and that is key to him stalling out physical attackers. He's a cool guy in real life, and I was reminded again of how short I was while he was recalling his round one battles. BlueCookies lost by time that round and I was confident that I could beat Wesley. I was pretty sure I would lose to BlueCookies honestly. Mattj also lost. Low damage variation is what did it.
Round 2 vs Wesley:
Battle 1- He used Hitmontop Rayquaza Toxicroak Kyogre. Yes, three physicals. Hell for a Blissey team. This was the first and only game that I got straight outplayed in. The Dragon Pulse and Air Slash on Rayquaza allowed it to do more damage without burning Sp Atk. like the Draco Meteor versions. It did enough damage to my Infernape and Groudon so that Blissey had to go head up with two physicals end game. Not good.
I remember this actually. I only picked up the DS when I realized "Oh, fuck I'm actually losing"
Battle 2- Well I don't think I got outplayed (or outmatched because I brought in a sub) this match, but I was haxxed out. It's my fault in hindsight though. I should have just won the first battle- then I wouldn't be on the verge of losing. Oh well. ggggggggggg Wesley. Here are the videos. PBB took the first one with my cam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUa9Gn3On58 The first match is still uploading.
Like I was telling BlueCookies the day before I didn't care all too much if I lost after top 8. I was super, super focused for that. Afterwards, I was still relatively focused but my heart wasn't quite in it the rest of the way. Wesley wanted the win more than me. I have video of our first match and I will record the second from my DS. And yeah, that's all I could get. Unfortunately, with only 1 GB of memory, I didn't get nearly as much vlogging, pictures, or battles that I wanted on my camera. At worlds I will definitely bring more memory with me. No one else recorded any of my stuff, so that's all you guys get.
I was really mad after I lost to say the least. I didn't actually stick around for the senior finals since I had a plane to catch, but even if I didn't I would have probably left anyway. I HATE losing!
Random thoughts about the people I met:
-I tried to give a bro hug to godudette, but she was too short so I kinda shouldered her in the face. Sorry about that lol.
-Duy helped me practice the bro-hug right after that incident. Such a cool dude.
-Ryuzaki, Deagle, Metabou were very nice and easy to talk to about the game. They all have great insight about VGC.
-Fishy, you look really good.
-I'm glad PBB had such a great time. Even after he didn't get top 16, he was still in very good spirits.
-Sixonesix is the best guy in life.
-Meeting breaktube and doctorken2k was amazing. I really should have gotten pic and video, but I had to catch a flight while they were recording the finals. That was the biggest mistake I made. Should have hung with you two more.
-Wesley is a really cool dude. So powerful. Anti-metagamers, what up.
-I didn't know Skarm was Skarm but he was a cool dude in real life. I didn't actually see his face in Seattle; that's why I didn't recognize him.
There was this guy in red shorts who was an amazing dude. I can remember your name for the life of me though! I saw him at TCG Regionals, VGC Regional in San Mateo, and at nats. He had basketball shoes on and he was light-skinned. He also wore a plaid shirt. I only just learned his name there. He was running a cursegar deck and I remember he was top 12 or something in the TCG last I talked to him. I just wanted to tell him thanks for all the support, and I want to know how you did at the TCG. If you are reading this dude, just VM or PM.
Hope you guys enjoyed it. I ended up 5th place at Nationals. So now I'm no longer just a local scrub!!!
