I got back into Pokemon when Fire Red and Leaf Green came on the scene. I was wanting to play competatively with friends who also got it. Well they got lazy so I then found Netbattle and with the Journy Across America coming soon after that I found Smogon. I am finally actually getting around to trying to be an active member and learn a bit more about the game.
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- Thread starter Justin8649
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tl;dr: Nintendo Power, played heavily before RS, want to break DP.
Got into Pokemon:
I had been reading Nintendo Power for a few years and every year or so they'd have an article on this "Pokemon" game that was selling like mad in Japan. Finally it was the summer of 1998 and the games were going to be released in North America, so they stuck a "Pokemon Power" insert into one of the magazines that was supposed to be part 1 of 6. I read it and was interested - by the time the 4th one came out, I was hooked. I finally got my Red version on New Year's Day, 1999.
I played it obsessively for about a year then got a Yellow version that Christmas, engaging in many Mewtwo duels with my brother and one of my friends (as most of us did before we found the internet).
Competitive battling/Smogon:
In 2000, I had been reading FAQs at GameFAQs when a link caught my eye - message boards. One of the authors I had been reading heavily had a team rating topic, so I dropped my RBY team in (by this point, I had moved beyond Mewtwo but had Blastoise AND Cloyster on my team - ah, to be young and a prole again) and it promptly got ripped to shreds. I stuck around, learned RBY and ended up in a tournament held on blizzard's PBS where I was promptly squashed like a bug.
This was at the tail end of the RBY days, and GSC came out. I went in whole-hog, downloading a ROM for Silver before I got the game at Christmas 2000, writing a FAQ for it which ballooned even beyond what I expected and hanging out on Azure Heights and the main Pokemon board at GameFAQs. I still mainly RBYed online, but in July 2001 Sneak3 was announced so I basically had to teach myself how to use the GSBots - the one guy who wanted to do a GSPBS flaking out and dropping the whole thing.
I wasn't an elite GSC battler (though I could fake it pretty well), mainly because I kept doing things like following Item Clause in my teams, shocking people by never using stallers in favour of stuff like Moltres, and never using a certain egg. I hated Blissey before hating Blissey was cool. I ended up getting oped in a major chat (not mentioned yet in this thread, but I may be the only person who remembers it anyway). When RS was released, I devoted most of my Pokemon energies into the ingame while going to university, and fell out of competitive battling.
Zoom ahead to the fall of '06 and I'm getting jacked up for Diamond and Pearl's release. I surf over to Smogon one day at work and I'm learning way more than what I'm getting at Serebii (which is a lot) about the moves and the new Pokemon. Although I'm still not going to play the 3rd gen games online, I look forward to Competitor's release and hoping to help shape that game in some way. So I figured I'd register here to have some input.
Got into Pokemon:
I had been reading Nintendo Power for a few years and every year or so they'd have an article on this "Pokemon" game that was selling like mad in Japan. Finally it was the summer of 1998 and the games were going to be released in North America, so they stuck a "Pokemon Power" insert into one of the magazines that was supposed to be part 1 of 6. I read it and was interested - by the time the 4th one came out, I was hooked. I finally got my Red version on New Year's Day, 1999.
I played it obsessively for about a year then got a Yellow version that Christmas, engaging in many Mewtwo duels with my brother and one of my friends (as most of us did before we found the internet).
Competitive battling/Smogon:
In 2000, I had been reading FAQs at GameFAQs when a link caught my eye - message boards. One of the authors I had been reading heavily had a team rating topic, so I dropped my RBY team in (by this point, I had moved beyond Mewtwo but had Blastoise AND Cloyster on my team - ah, to be young and a prole again) and it promptly got ripped to shreds. I stuck around, learned RBY and ended up in a tournament held on blizzard's PBS where I was promptly squashed like a bug.
This was at the tail end of the RBY days, and GSC came out. I went in whole-hog, downloading a ROM for Silver before I got the game at Christmas 2000, writing a FAQ for it which ballooned even beyond what I expected and hanging out on Azure Heights and the main Pokemon board at GameFAQs. I still mainly RBYed online, but in July 2001 Sneak3 was announced so I basically had to teach myself how to use the GSBots - the one guy who wanted to do a GSPBS flaking out and dropping the whole thing.
I wasn't an elite GSC battler (though I could fake it pretty well), mainly because I kept doing things like following Item Clause in my teams, shocking people by never using stallers in favour of stuff like Moltres, and never using a certain egg. I hated Blissey before hating Blissey was cool. I ended up getting oped in a major chat (not mentioned yet in this thread, but I may be the only person who remembers it anyway). When RS was released, I devoted most of my Pokemon energies into the ingame while going to university, and fell out of competitive battling.
Zoom ahead to the fall of '06 and I'm getting jacked up for Diamond and Pearl's release. I surf over to Smogon one day at work and I'm learning way more than what I'm getting at Serebii (which is a lot) about the moves and the new Pokemon. Although I'm still not going to play the 3rd gen games online, I look forward to Competitor's release and hoping to help shape that game in some way. So I figured I'd register here to have some input.
Well let's see here..
I remember my first encounter like it was yesterday. It was the spring of 7th grade (this is 1999 I think) during which time I was staying after school everyday to practice for our theater version of The Hobbit. My friend Jim had a clear Gameboy pocket and would play it when it wasn't his turn on stage which was almost never. He had a fairly major role as one of the dwarfs I think and wouldn't get to play it much. I on the other hand had plenty of time offstage being that my part only had 2 lines and was in a mere one scene. Because of this I was allowed to borrow my friend's gameboy. The only gaming experience I had back then was my SNES and Super Mario World so I was quick to ask what game I should play. He recommended his Pokemon Blue version and told me to start a new game but specifically not to save! So I started it up and picked Bulbasaur because I thought he looked cool. It became a tradition that next week until the actual show date... I would play about an hour of pokemon by starting a new game every day with Bulbasaur each time. Then the play practice was over and Pokemon was gone.. or so one would think. Just that small experience got me addicted. The concept of catching and battling monsters was a completely new realm of fiction I had not heard of. That summer I worked my ass off mowing lawns for 10-20 bucks a pop and saved up for a Pokemon Blue of my own and a nice lovely blue Gameboy Pocket to match. It was the only game I owned for a long time but it didn't matter because it's all I wanted to play. I was never very good at the competitive part back then as my experiences with fellow classmates showed but that didn't bother me.
Somewhere in there I found out that I could play Pokemon on my computer via roms. I stumbled on to a few low grade websites about the games but nothing revolutionary. From there I eventually got my hands on a copy of a half assed translated version of pokemon silver and played that on my computer. A purchase of Gold version followed when it was released in the states.
Bored one summer day the next year around my birthday I came across Donald's Gamefaq guide for pokemon. Learned some of the standards and also that I could play pokemon online! What!? Googling gsbots brought me to an FAQ on TPM's boards where I quickly registered and posted a team of standards based on Donald's guide hoping to look like I was good at the game. My team building skills were not quite up to par yet and it got rated pretty harshly. I stuck around though and started playing on the bots and idling in #pokebattle. A user name change and a reputation for using UU pokemon suddenly got me into I think it was FBMT2 or something with the likes of some of #pokebattle's coolest. I lost in the first round but hey people chose me to be on their team. LS also seemed to take a liking to me and voiced me often.
I was never completely "in" with #pokebattle because most of them were tired of the stalling and didn't talk pokemon much whereas I was only comfortable talking about pokemon with them. I was not that open about other things for some reason. When advance hit Japan though everyone was playing the rom and talking about the new generation so I fit in just fine after that. Fanha made the bots which eventually lead to him forcing everyone into his own channel over #pokebattle. This in turn caused the series of events that created the first smogon forums (this is actually the second coming of smogon). Well from then on Smogon grew and I stuck with it not because of pokemon but more so because of the people I had met and became friends with.. especially after we had taken over at NB's forums.
And yeah that's pretty much how it happened with some slight errors I'm sure.
I remember my first encounter like it was yesterday. It was the spring of 7th grade (this is 1999 I think) during which time I was staying after school everyday to practice for our theater version of The Hobbit. My friend Jim had a clear Gameboy pocket and would play it when it wasn't his turn on stage which was almost never. He had a fairly major role as one of the dwarfs I think and wouldn't get to play it much. I on the other hand had plenty of time offstage being that my part only had 2 lines and was in a mere one scene. Because of this I was allowed to borrow my friend's gameboy. The only gaming experience I had back then was my SNES and Super Mario World so I was quick to ask what game I should play. He recommended his Pokemon Blue version and told me to start a new game but specifically not to save! So I started it up and picked Bulbasaur because I thought he looked cool. It became a tradition that next week until the actual show date... I would play about an hour of pokemon by starting a new game every day with Bulbasaur each time. Then the play practice was over and Pokemon was gone.. or so one would think. Just that small experience got me addicted. The concept of catching and battling monsters was a completely new realm of fiction I had not heard of. That summer I worked my ass off mowing lawns for 10-20 bucks a pop and saved up for a Pokemon Blue of my own and a nice lovely blue Gameboy Pocket to match. It was the only game I owned for a long time but it didn't matter because it's all I wanted to play. I was never very good at the competitive part back then as my experiences with fellow classmates showed but that didn't bother me.
Somewhere in there I found out that I could play Pokemon on my computer via roms. I stumbled on to a few low grade websites about the games but nothing revolutionary. From there I eventually got my hands on a copy of a half assed translated version of pokemon silver and played that on my computer. A purchase of Gold version followed when it was released in the states.
Bored one summer day the next year around my birthday I came across Donald's Gamefaq guide for pokemon. Learned some of the standards and also that I could play pokemon online! What!? Googling gsbots brought me to an FAQ on TPM's boards where I quickly registered and posted a team of standards based on Donald's guide hoping to look like I was good at the game. My team building skills were not quite up to par yet and it got rated pretty harshly. I stuck around though and started playing on the bots and idling in #pokebattle. A user name change and a reputation for using UU pokemon suddenly got me into I think it was FBMT2 or something with the likes of some of #pokebattle's coolest. I lost in the first round but hey people chose me to be on their team. LS also seemed to take a liking to me and voiced me often.
I was never completely "in" with #pokebattle because most of them were tired of the stalling and didn't talk pokemon much whereas I was only comfortable talking about pokemon with them. I was not that open about other things for some reason. When advance hit Japan though everyone was playing the rom and talking about the new generation so I fit in just fine after that. Fanha made the bots which eventually lead to him forcing everyone into his own channel over #pokebattle. This in turn caused the series of events that created the first smogon forums (this is actually the second coming of smogon). Well from then on Smogon grew and I stuck with it not because of pokemon but more so because of the people I had met and became friends with.. especially after we had taken over at NB's forums.
And yeah that's pretty much how it happened with some slight errors I'm sure.
Right um, I'm just some nobody, but reading all of your posts made me think of my experiences . . .
How I started Pokemon:
I was in 3rd grade way back when. I had a gameboy pocket, see through neon green (which with a black light looks sick). For some reason I can't remember, I bought a Red and Blue version at the same time. It became a big hit at school, we'd always play in class and stuff. I had a link cable to, so that was cool as well (there were about 16 or so boys that played . . . it was pretty cool). And the whole pokemon craze hit, what with the pokemon cards and T.V. show and all that sazz (I had 2 Charizards- both came out of a pack of 3 or so I was given). But when GS was first announced, I swore not to get it. 2 days before it came out, I was begging my parents to get it lol. I got both again, played through them, was happy. I got Crystal later, although by this time most of the kids in my school had stopped playing. Then in 6th grade I saw a poster for ADV gen, and I had to get Sapphire (I loved Kyogre, and I still do). But by now Pokemon was thought of as "childish" and "stupid" and, with my low self-esteem, I kept it a secret. But then I lost Sapphire, and I stopped playing until I say FRLG, and wanted to get it because my RB doesn't save anymore, so I got LG at the end of 04. I got Emerald soon after it came out, and just last year, me and my 3 friends started playing our old ADV gen games again, which was cool cuz we played in Chem, English, Government, and Math all the time lol.
I have owned every game besides Ruby and Colleseum.
How I found Netbattle/Smogon:
Last year I was battling my 3 friends, and I wanted to be the best, so I looked up movesets on gamefaqs. I found Blueshirt's guide, which taught me competitive battling. I read through the entire guide, then found Netbattle at the top. I downlaoded it, started playing on random servers, and I eventually wound up here while playing in the summer.
It doesn't matter if this is read by anyone, it was written for the pure nostalgia, just like I'm sure everyone else wrote theirs.
How I started Pokemon:
I was in 3rd grade way back when. I had a gameboy pocket, see through neon green (which with a black light looks sick). For some reason I can't remember, I bought a Red and Blue version at the same time. It became a big hit at school, we'd always play in class and stuff. I had a link cable to, so that was cool as well (there were about 16 or so boys that played . . . it was pretty cool). And the whole pokemon craze hit, what with the pokemon cards and T.V. show and all that sazz (I had 2 Charizards- both came out of a pack of 3 or so I was given). But when GS was first announced, I swore not to get it. 2 days before it came out, I was begging my parents to get it lol. I got both again, played through them, was happy. I got Crystal later, although by this time most of the kids in my school had stopped playing. Then in 6th grade I saw a poster for ADV gen, and I had to get Sapphire (I loved Kyogre, and I still do). But by now Pokemon was thought of as "childish" and "stupid" and, with my low self-esteem, I kept it a secret. But then I lost Sapphire, and I stopped playing until I say FRLG, and wanted to get it because my RB doesn't save anymore, so I got LG at the end of 04. I got Emerald soon after it came out, and just last year, me and my 3 friends started playing our old ADV gen games again, which was cool cuz we played in Chem, English, Government, and Math all the time lol.
I have owned every game besides Ruby and Colleseum.
How I found Netbattle/Smogon:
Last year I was battling my 3 friends, and I wanted to be the best, so I looked up movesets on gamefaqs. I found Blueshirt's guide, which taught me competitive battling. I read through the entire guide, then found Netbattle at the top. I downlaoded it, started playing on random servers, and I eventually wound up here while playing in the summer.
It doesn't matter if this is read by anyone, it was written for the pure nostalgia, just like I'm sure everyone else wrote theirs.
I began playing last April and just logged on to play with a friend of mine on empty servers. I enjoyed the game so much that I finally began to play on servers with other people. I was a bit apprehensive in getting on servers with people because I was new to the online gaming scene. Anyway, it wasn't long before I decided to sign on the busiest server, AKA Smogon and met some great friends and I'm still playing today. =)
How I started Pokemon:
Well basically I started playing Pokemon when it first came out on the good old gameboy I bought a Pokemon game from each genration Blue, Yellow, Gold, Crystal, Sapphire and finally Emerald each game interested me to get more games.
How I found Netbattle/Smogon:
Lol I found Smogon last January through good old Gamefaqs (lol) when I was looking for help on my sapphire game IIRC. I only decided to join this year =\.
Well basically I started playing Pokemon when it first came out on the good old gameboy I bought a Pokemon game from each genration Blue, Yellow, Gold, Crystal, Sapphire and finally Emerald each game interested me to get more games.
How I found Netbattle/Smogon:
Lol I found Smogon last January through good old Gamefaqs (lol) when I was looking for help on my sapphire game IIRC. I only decided to join this year =\.
I got into Pokemon because when it was really popular, I found out I was the only one in my form not to have the game, and I was feeling left out. Ive been playing ever since.
Then back in 2003, my friend told me about a good site called www.serebii.net (no need for you all to flinch when I say that). I went on it, even though a lot of the time the site was down. I really did love the site. I also began to go on other Pokemon sites more often. Then I found www.serebiiforums.com . Of all the forums I had been on, it was my favorite. The majority of the members are active so I get replies very quickly. And there are a fair few members (nowhere near as many as you get on Harry Potter forums and such though), yet it hasnt got so many members that it is impossible to get to know other members. I used to just view the forums, but after about 9 months of viewing them, I couldnt stand it and I joined. Even though I was new, I found out I knew more about Pokemon than most of the other members, so I was happy. People frequently talked about NetBattle (especially about the fate of Serebii's server lol) and then I downloaded the game. And thats how I found out about Smogon.
Then back in 2003, my friend told me about a good site called www.serebii.net (no need for you all to flinch when I say that). I went on it, even though a lot of the time the site was down. I really did love the site. I also began to go on other Pokemon sites more often. Then I found www.serebiiforums.com . Of all the forums I had been on, it was my favorite. The majority of the members are active so I get replies very quickly. And there are a fair few members (nowhere near as many as you get on Harry Potter forums and such though), yet it hasnt got so many members that it is impossible to get to know other members. I used to just view the forums, but after about 9 months of viewing them, I couldnt stand it and I joined. Even though I was new, I found out I knew more about Pokemon than most of the other members, so I was happy. People frequently talked about NetBattle (especially about the fate of Serebii's server lol) and then I downloaded the game. And thats how I found out about Smogon.
I never waste an opportunity to talk about myself! Thanks in advance if you read this to the end. ;)
How I first started playing pokemon:
I don't remember the year, but it was whenever Red and Blue came out. I always liked competitive games and after watching the anime on WB(before it was cool and got drafted to Kids WB!), I just knew I had to play this game. Somehow I got the Blue version. I don't remember my first Pokemon or my team, but I had alot of fun. I captured some Pokemon, beat the Elite 4 a few times and just wore the game out.
How I started battling online/How I found out about Smogon:
Eventually my grandmother got the internet and I found the GameFAQs GS board and thought it was awesome so many people liked and talked about Pokemon. Gold and Silver was released and as time went on, a battle program was created to battle on IRC.
Due to circumstance I lost my internet for a long period of time. When I came back, everything was different. Things changed so much that I just couldn't relate anymore. Pokemon and people. So, I just silently walked out the way I came in.
Fast forward a few years later. Pokemon on the DS is going to released, and with it, a new generation. Pokemon never disappoints, and DS is serious business. I don't want to miss this, and I wanna be here from the beginning. After a researching for a bit, I found that Smogon is the paragon of Pokemon excellence. And so, I just lurk around trying to integrate into the community that I started with in 2000.
That's my story.
My favorite Pokemon: Granbull. It's a bulldog with massive attack. You'd be wrong not to like it.
In closing, you can find me on Netbattle. I'm Rahke(another way to spell Rock), since someone took Rock. I'll be using a modified version of my old GSC team. It's not a themed team, I just don't know how to play in this generation well enough to stray from what I know. Feel free to drop me a challenge(No ubers). I'm always looking for a good battle.
Have a good one, seeya around.
How I first started playing pokemon:
I don't remember the year, but it was whenever Red and Blue came out. I always liked competitive games and after watching the anime on WB(before it was cool and got drafted to Kids WB!), I just knew I had to play this game. Somehow I got the Blue version. I don't remember my first Pokemon or my team, but I had alot of fun. I captured some Pokemon, beat the Elite 4 a few times and just wore the game out.
How I started battling online/How I found out about Smogon:
Eventually my grandmother got the internet and I found the GameFAQs GS board and thought it was awesome so many people liked and talked about Pokemon. Gold and Silver was released and as time went on, a battle program was created to battle on IRC.
Due to circumstance I lost my internet for a long period of time. When I came back, everything was different. Things changed so much that I just couldn't relate anymore. Pokemon and people. So, I just silently walked out the way I came in.
Fast forward a few years later. Pokemon on the DS is going to released, and with it, a new generation. Pokemon never disappoints, and DS is serious business. I don't want to miss this, and I wanna be here from the beginning. After a researching for a bit, I found that Smogon is the paragon of Pokemon excellence. And so, I just lurk around trying to integrate into the community that I started with in 2000.
That's my story.
My favorite Pokemon: Granbull. It's a bulldog with massive attack. You'd be wrong not to like it.
In closing, you can find me on Netbattle. I'm Rahke(another way to spell Rock), since someone took Rock. I'll be using a modified version of my old GSC team. It's not a themed team, I just don't know how to play in this generation well enough to stray from what I know. Feel free to drop me a challenge(No ubers). I'm always looking for a good battle.
Have a good one, seeya around.
How I found Smogon:
Actually this was very interesting.. Yeah right. I had just gotten off my Runescape Addiction -- and decided to branch off into another game. That being Pokemon. Next thing I knew, I went to Google, typed up Pokemon Forum, and Serebii was the first that appeared I think. I joined there -- after a while a random user posts about Netbattle. I am like, Netbattle? That seems interesting.. Yeah! I didn't like 'big' servers, so I started out in smaller servers like, uh, what was it called.... yeah morlord or something. Then to those silly RPG's, then Pokerealm. Eventually Pokerealm, turned sorta upside down -- lately, actually -- and I began joining Smogon Tournaments where I got to know a few Smogon users. I decided that I would be active here, and yeah, here I am.
Actually this was very interesting.. Yeah right. I had just gotten off my Runescape Addiction -- and decided to branch off into another game. That being Pokemon. Next thing I knew, I went to Google, typed up Pokemon Forum, and Serebii was the first that appeared I think. I joined there -- after a while a random user posts about Netbattle. I am like, Netbattle? That seems interesting.. Yeah! I didn't like 'big' servers, so I started out in smaller servers like, uh, what was it called.... yeah morlord or something. Then to those silly RPG's, then Pokerealm. Eventually Pokerealm, turned sorta upside down -- lately, actually -- and I began joining Smogon Tournaments where I got to know a few Smogon users. I decided that I would be active here, and yeah, here I am.
Well i first started to play pokemon when i was in 5th to 6th grade. I seen one of my friends with pokemon blue and i ask what Kind of game was that so he let me play. I found myself into the game so much that i had to buy my own game. I started with pokemon red. After that i started to like the game even more that every pokemon game that came out i wanted it.
Well i found about netbattle when one day i was going through the gamefaqs forum and i seen something about netbattle. I was by the name of Dark Gogeta some people might still remember that. Well the thing is i downloaded it and started playing. I wasn't known back then so on my first battle after beating some guy this person pms me and wants me to join a clan. I didnt know nothing so i accepted. After being on that clan for about a month and making a name of myself on the smaller server i decided to move on into the big one. The name of the clan was Chaotix =/. So anyways after battling in blue heaven people like crash(goof),vapicuno who was also a mod and many other mods at that time and making friends with zapdosman and fm who were the one that helped me the most i decided that this was the place i wanted to be if i wanted to get better. Months later blue heaven died and tafop came. This was when i kept making a name of myself by battling people like jumpman,cs and many other but i was just know as an ok battler. But that wasnt enough for i couldnt be an ok battler i had to be better. So thats when i decided to switch name since dark gogeta was the name i use when i first started. So i switch my name to Holyknight. Once again i decided to start out fresh so when i switch almost nobody knew it was me. And that when i started to make a name of myself i started to make teams that will beat many people and people stop calling ok battler to a better battler.In sometime i was to be considered one of the best battler around ofcourse sharing that with some tough opponents like vil,chaos and many others. Now after being absent from Nb for sometime i plan to regain that title once again.
That pretty much sums it up
Well i found about netbattle when one day i was going through the gamefaqs forum and i seen something about netbattle. I was by the name of Dark Gogeta some people might still remember that. Well the thing is i downloaded it and started playing. I wasn't known back then so on my first battle after beating some guy this person pms me and wants me to join a clan. I didnt know nothing so i accepted. After being on that clan for about a month and making a name of myself on the smaller server i decided to move on into the big one. The name of the clan was Chaotix =/. So anyways after battling in blue heaven people like crash(goof),vapicuno who was also a mod and many other mods at that time and making friends with zapdosman and fm who were the one that helped me the most i decided that this was the place i wanted to be if i wanted to get better. Months later blue heaven died and tafop came. This was when i kept making a name of myself by battling people like jumpman,cs and many other but i was just know as an ok battler. But that wasnt enough for i couldnt be an ok battler i had to be better. So thats when i decided to switch name since dark gogeta was the name i use when i first started. So i switch my name to Holyknight. Once again i decided to start out fresh so when i switch almost nobody knew it was me. And that when i started to make a name of myself i started to make teams that will beat many people and people stop calling ok battler to a better battler.In sometime i was to be considered one of the best battler around ofcourse sharing that with some tough opponents like vil,chaos and many others. Now after being absent from Nb for sometime i plan to regain that title once again.
That pretty much sums it up
How I first started playing pokemon:
I was in 7th grade during the Fall of 1998. I remember waking up one morning and watching an episode of Pokemon before going to school. It was the episode where Ash catches Primeape. After that, I started asking people about Pokemon and finding more about it. One of my closest friends at that time got me even more into Pokemon (and Anime in general) and we even watched the show together. Eventually I got Pokemon Red and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX for Christmas. I think you can guess which game I played the most. The rest is history.
How I started battling online/How I found out about Smogon:
I actually started to post at GameFAQs at the beginning of 2001 and it wasn't until sometime in 2003 that I started to learn about EVs, IVs, and competitive battling. I started looking more into it and going to Serebii.net to find out more about the game. It wasn't until just recently that I started to learn more about IVs. During last Summer, I registered for this website but didn't use it at all. Now I'm here and hopefully I'll be able to get better advice for the game.
I was in 7th grade during the Fall of 1998. I remember waking up one morning and watching an episode of Pokemon before going to school. It was the episode where Ash catches Primeape. After that, I started asking people about Pokemon and finding more about it. One of my closest friends at that time got me even more into Pokemon (and Anime in general) and we even watched the show together. Eventually I got Pokemon Red and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX for Christmas. I think you can guess which game I played the most. The rest is history.
How I started battling online/How I found out about Smogon:
I actually started to post at GameFAQs at the beginning of 2001 and it wasn't until sometime in 2003 that I started to learn about EVs, IVs, and competitive battling. I started looking more into it and going to Serebii.net to find out more about the game. It wasn't until just recently that I started to learn more about IVs. During last Summer, I registered for this website but didn't use it at all. Now I'm here and hopefully I'll be able to get better advice for the game.
How I started Pokemon:
I was in year 5 at Primary school, so I must've been about 10 years old. I first started collecting stickers with friends, until one of my friends started trading his stickers in masses for Pokémon "Cards". I got curious, so I went down to the shop after school and bought a packet. I got a shiny edition 1 Blastoise right away :) and from then on I collected the cards for a while. (although I still have many of them still!) Later that year, our school got burned down and we were moved to a local building for our lessons, in which children were allowed to bring in other "toys" rather than just cards, stickers and other regular break time items. A lot of my friends brought their gameboys in, I didn't have one at the time, so I couldn't really play it with them. I didn't think much of the games at the time, so I didn't play them. I just tried to persuade everyone to play football (soccer) instead, usually failing and having nothing to do most of the time =[. I evetually borrowed a gameboy and Pokémon Blue from a friend and realised I was missing out. So for Christmas, I got a Gameboy Color with Pokémon Red, Blue & Yellow. I raped those games, hard. I owned all my friends, being the only one clever enough to keep Amnesia on Mewtwo... But yes, I was still very much a n00b in those days. I obviously got Gold, Silver and eventually Crystal when they were released in the UK. I completed those rather fast and played for a little over a year doing other things on the game. I stopped playing for a while, until I heard of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire =O! What's this? Gameboy Advance Pokémon!? OMG! So yeh, I bought Sapphire on release with my friend Luke, we dominated it in a weekend too... Me still being somewhat of a n00b at this point.
How I found Netbattle/Smogon:
In 2004, I had finally gotten used to EV training, and I heard of a Battle Master 2004 Tournament, to celebrate the release of Pokémon Colosseum on the Gamecube. I entered the competition. I didn't get in, because of the totally gay random drawing from each Toys R Us store, picking just 1 person. However, it was my friend who actually got picked (although he sucked) so I tagged along. I let him use my cart for the first match. He almost lost right away, my Shedinja pulled him through as luckily, the girls Groudon did not have an attack to hit it, which was foolish. The girl however, was hott. So i made sure I got to know her a little better before she left. ;] He still managed to get to the finals, in London. So we all travelled down to see how well we could do. We lost in the 2nd round to the eventual winner of the thing, who I got talking to at the end. I challenged him to a battle, and beat him. He told me of Netbattle, so I thought I'd try my luck on it. Blue Heaven was still the place to be at this point, with Flygon being the dominant Pokémon! Lol. I quickly began to improve in real competetive battling. Helping a lot of n00bs from NOE improve. I started my own community (not a clan) and it was great. Taking the population of Pokémon players from NOE and bringing them to Netbattle, hosting tournaments and improving all the time. I joined PokeRealms site for the hell of it, and then Smogon soon after, I never really bothered to post on either though and just went along with my buisness on my sites. Just battling and not really getting recognised or talking to anyone other than the people who I already knew from previous sites. I think I'm quite well known now though. More so in PokeRealm than here, but oh well. Maybe if I can get to the finals in the Official Tournament, I will be more known.
Well that's about it, I'm on Netbattle oftenly and I'll be playing Pokémon for a very long time...
I was in year 5 at Primary school, so I must've been about 10 years old. I first started collecting stickers with friends, until one of my friends started trading his stickers in masses for Pokémon "Cards". I got curious, so I went down to the shop after school and bought a packet. I got a shiny edition 1 Blastoise right away :) and from then on I collected the cards for a while. (although I still have many of them still!) Later that year, our school got burned down and we were moved to a local building for our lessons, in which children were allowed to bring in other "toys" rather than just cards, stickers and other regular break time items. A lot of my friends brought their gameboys in, I didn't have one at the time, so I couldn't really play it with them. I didn't think much of the games at the time, so I didn't play them. I just tried to persuade everyone to play football (soccer) instead, usually failing and having nothing to do most of the time =[. I evetually borrowed a gameboy and Pokémon Blue from a friend and realised I was missing out. So for Christmas, I got a Gameboy Color with Pokémon Red, Blue & Yellow. I raped those games, hard. I owned all my friends, being the only one clever enough to keep Amnesia on Mewtwo... But yes, I was still very much a n00b in those days. I obviously got Gold, Silver and eventually Crystal when they were released in the UK. I completed those rather fast and played for a little over a year doing other things on the game. I stopped playing for a while, until I heard of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire =O! What's this? Gameboy Advance Pokémon!? OMG! So yeh, I bought Sapphire on release with my friend Luke, we dominated it in a weekend too... Me still being somewhat of a n00b at this point.
How I found Netbattle/Smogon:
In 2004, I had finally gotten used to EV training, and I heard of a Battle Master 2004 Tournament, to celebrate the release of Pokémon Colosseum on the Gamecube. I entered the competition. I didn't get in, because of the totally gay random drawing from each Toys R Us store, picking just 1 person. However, it was my friend who actually got picked (although he sucked) so I tagged along. I let him use my cart for the first match. He almost lost right away, my Shedinja pulled him through as luckily, the girls Groudon did not have an attack to hit it, which was foolish. The girl however, was hott. So i made sure I got to know her a little better before she left. ;] He still managed to get to the finals, in London. So we all travelled down to see how well we could do. We lost in the 2nd round to the eventual winner of the thing, who I got talking to at the end. I challenged him to a battle, and beat him. He told me of Netbattle, so I thought I'd try my luck on it. Blue Heaven was still the place to be at this point, with Flygon being the dominant Pokémon! Lol. I quickly began to improve in real competetive battling. Helping a lot of n00bs from NOE improve. I started my own community (not a clan) and it was great. Taking the population of Pokémon players from NOE and bringing them to Netbattle, hosting tournaments and improving all the time. I joined PokeRealms site for the hell of it, and then Smogon soon after, I never really bothered to post on either though and just went along with my buisness on my sites. Just battling and not really getting recognised or talking to anyone other than the people who I already knew from previous sites. I think I'm quite well known now though. More so in PokeRealm than here, but oh well. Maybe if I can get to the finals in the Official Tournament, I will be more known.
Well that's about it, I'm on Netbattle oftenly and I'll be playing Pokémon for a very long time...
How I first started playing pokemon:
My brother's dad bought me my gameboy and Pokemon Yellow. I was one of the few likers of Pikachu, althoug eventually my team consisted of Zapdos, Mewtwo and Dragonite(Pretty close to my current team). I ended up losing my enjoyment of it and found it "kiddy" when I lost my Silver version, which had my recently leveled up Ho-Oh and a bunch of other lvl 100s. I quit during the whole transition from GBC to GBA. Eventually, I saw Kyogre, which got me back into Pokemon.
How I started battling online/How I found out about Smogon:
I started through hearing alot about NB om IGN(The only good thing they did for me), and one day registered in Smogon. I started as an arrogant, "I'm the best player ever" that really sucked,(Though my concept of battling was alright) to the player I am today.
My Favorite Pokemon:
Between Gengar, Zapdos and my love Umbreon.
My brother's dad bought me my gameboy and Pokemon Yellow. I was one of the few likers of Pikachu, althoug eventually my team consisted of Zapdos, Mewtwo and Dragonite(Pretty close to my current team). I ended up losing my enjoyment of it and found it "kiddy" when I lost my Silver version, which had my recently leveled up Ho-Oh and a bunch of other lvl 100s. I quit during the whole transition from GBC to GBA. Eventually, I saw Kyogre, which got me back into Pokemon.
How I started battling online/How I found out about Smogon:
I started through hearing alot about NB om IGN(The only good thing they did for me), and one day registered in Smogon. I started as an arrogant, "I'm the best player ever" that really sucked,(Though my concept of battling was alright) to the player I am today.
My Favorite Pokemon:
Between Gengar, Zapdos and my love Umbreon.
How I found pokemon
I found out about pokemon through watching the show when I was 8 or 9 in 2000/2001. One day I was in a store and saw a game with the name "pokemon" on it. I automatically recognized it, and, as you can guess, I begged to buy it, just like any 8/9 year old would! I eventually got it and had a great time. It was Silver version, I have logged in over 700 hours due to not turning it off overnight and such..I probably played it for about 300 hours. I battled with my friend and his brother all of the time.
A few years later I was in the mall, and saw a sign, with two pokemon I've never seen on the TV series before! I was quickly drawn in and examined what it was. It was, of course, Ruby and Sapphire. I bought it, and played it for about 200 hours.
How I found smogon
My friend hadn't visited me in a while, and I found out that his parents divorced, and I was two blocks away then. I met him, after he came back to the house near me (He wasn't there for a while), and he told me about this website called "serebii". I asked what it was and he said it was a website about pokemon. I insisted to see it, so he came inside, we loaded up IE, and went to "www.serebii.com", and came up, but it wasn't the one he was talking about. I insisted that this "serebii" wasn't real. Later on I awkardly noticed that it could have been a ".net" or ".org". I eventually ended up on the serebii website and signed up for the forums. I talked childishly and awkardly, eventually leading to being banned. A couple months later I revisited serebii.net and noticed that there was a "chat" option on the website, so I clicked it. I recognized the javachat, as I have used it before I did on serebii. Some people were talking about this place called smogon. I pretty much asked "what is this 'smogon'?" after a while I got an answer and I looked it up on google. I joined the community, didn't have any social skills, and decided to call myself a weird name.."flavour trainer". I posted on here, my first post..You know..That thread..
I found out about pokemon through watching the show when I was 8 or 9 in 2000/2001. One day I was in a store and saw a game with the name "pokemon" on it. I automatically recognized it, and, as you can guess, I begged to buy it, just like any 8/9 year old would! I eventually got it and had a great time. It was Silver version, I have logged in over 700 hours due to not turning it off overnight and such..I probably played it for about 300 hours. I battled with my friend and his brother all of the time.
A few years later I was in the mall, and saw a sign, with two pokemon I've never seen on the TV series before! I was quickly drawn in and examined what it was. It was, of course, Ruby and Sapphire. I bought it, and played it for about 200 hours.
How I found smogon
My friend hadn't visited me in a while, and I found out that his parents divorced, and I was two blocks away then. I met him, after he came back to the house near me (He wasn't there for a while), and he told me about this website called "serebii". I asked what it was and he said it was a website about pokemon. I insisted to see it, so he came inside, we loaded up IE, and went to "www.serebii.com", and came up, but it wasn't the one he was talking about. I insisted that this "serebii" wasn't real. Later on I awkardly noticed that it could have been a ".net" or ".org". I eventually ended up on the serebii website and signed up for the forums. I talked childishly and awkardly, eventually leading to being banned. A couple months later I revisited serebii.net and noticed that there was a "chat" option on the website, so I clicked it. I recognized the javachat, as I have used it before I did on serebii. Some people were talking about this place called smogon. I pretty much asked "what is this 'smogon'?" after a while I got an answer and I looked it up on google. I joined the community, didn't have any social skills, and decided to call myself a weird name.."flavour trainer". I posted on here, my first post..You know..That thread..
Pokemon:
I used to baby sit my neighbours, and back in 1999 I went around for tea one night and found a pile of pokemon cards on the table, I wasnt sure what they were back then but I had seen some playing cards before. He had a Charmeleon and some other basic pokemon, I thought they were cool. We had just got a home PC with my moms compensation from a work related injury, and after connecting to the net I searched for pokemon, lots of links came up, like pojo and pokemoncrater. I started out on crater, and have been part of the community since.
Smogon:
I found it a while ago actually when it first started out, and there was this petty war thing going on, anyway I signed up on the forums and forgot about it as id given up with pokemon pretty much like. Yesterday, my friends were talking about Netbattle, something I havent played in ages so remembered this place, came back and signed up.
I used to baby sit my neighbours, and back in 1999 I went around for tea one night and found a pile of pokemon cards on the table, I wasnt sure what they were back then but I had seen some playing cards before. He had a Charmeleon and some other basic pokemon, I thought they were cool. We had just got a home PC with my moms compensation from a work related injury, and after connecting to the net I searched for pokemon, lots of links came up, like pojo and pokemoncrater. I started out on crater, and have been part of the community since.
Smogon:
I found it a while ago actually when it first started out, and there was this petty war thing going on, anyway I signed up on the forums and forgot about it as id given up with pokemon pretty much like. Yesterday, my friends were talking about Netbattle, something I havent played in ages so remembered this place, came back and signed up.
Pokemom in general:
I originally found Blue and Red at the very begining of grade 1, and beat the games in about 2 weeks. I colected the cards and everything, but didn't do it without someone else there, and not in a cometeitive way either. I did not play GSC at all, i unfortunatly missed that generation completely. In the summer of 2005, one of my best friends and I were at his house, and we were really bored. I told him that i was never going to get into pokemon again, and that it was for sissies. I don't think that now. Anyways, he got his ruby and emerald out, and told me to delete that profile on emerald, and start a new one. he told me that i would be suprised, and that i should beat it in about 1 month, that how long it took him. I started playing, and that was it. the next day, i had emeralod and ruby for my own, and played for about 2 months solid, beating every aspect of the game. Then, i got bored and just battled with close friends, whn the told me about FRLG. Then, i spent about a month beating everything in those too.
How I found Smogon:
While i was searching for useful guides on beatling the games besides gamefaqs, i came across a guy named Chaos mentioned in one of the sites, and links to smogon.com. I went there immediatly, downloaded netabattle, and signed up as a member a few weeks later. Needless to say, it was one of the best moves i've ever made.
I originally found Blue and Red at the very begining of grade 1, and beat the games in about 2 weeks. I colected the cards and everything, but didn't do it without someone else there, and not in a cometeitive way either. I did not play GSC at all, i unfortunatly missed that generation completely. In the summer of 2005, one of my best friends and I were at his house, and we were really bored. I told him that i was never going to get into pokemon again, and that it was for sissies. I don't think that now. Anyways, he got his ruby and emerald out, and told me to delete that profile on emerald, and start a new one. he told me that i would be suprised, and that i should beat it in about 1 month, that how long it took him. I started playing, and that was it. the next day, i had emeralod and ruby for my own, and played for about 2 months solid, beating every aspect of the game. Then, i got bored and just battled with close friends, whn the told me about FRLG. Then, i spent about a month beating everything in those too.
How I found Smogon:
While i was searching for useful guides on beatling the games besides gamefaqs, i came across a guy named Chaos mentioned in one of the sites, and links to smogon.com. I went there immediatly, downloaded netabattle, and signed up as a member a few weeks later. Needless to say, it was one of the best moves i've ever made.
How I got into pokemon
I started liking pokemon in my early school years, I bought some cards and watched the TV show alot too. I remember seeing pokemon on gameboy which was also something cool.
When my family moved to B.C. my brother and I were both gifted with gameboy's and pokemon yellow. I played through it and after being very fearful of the elite four I finally beat them and beat the game.
GSC came out after I moved to Alberta so my brother and I bought it with some money we saved up. We ended up piking Tododile as our starter and my brother named our rival something really gay (It was the hair).
After finding serebii I found out about R/S and bought it while on my trip to the US.
How I found Smogon
I knew about smogon long before I joined here, I think someone mentioned the site and looked at it. I joined months later when I found out smogon wasn't down.
I started liking pokemon in my early school years, I bought some cards and watched the TV show alot too. I remember seeing pokemon on gameboy which was also something cool.
When my family moved to B.C. my brother and I were both gifted with gameboy's and pokemon yellow. I played through it and after being very fearful of the elite four I finally beat them and beat the game.
GSC came out after I moved to Alberta so my brother and I bought it with some money we saved up. We ended up piking Tododile as our starter and my brother named our rival something really gay (It was the hair).
After finding serebii I found out about R/S and bought it while on my trip to the US.
How I found Smogon
I knew about smogon long before I joined here, I think someone mentioned the site and looked at it. I joined months later when I found out smogon wasn't down.
Man, you guys all got into it early. My friends only got me into pokeymans in the last few months, I wasn't allowed when it was first around (I'm sure you all know about that fiasco). Though I can't say I'm the worse for my severe pokemon-lacking, it was for all the wrong reasons. I'm 15 now.
I've only played Fire Red and Emerald, and found out about Netbattle when another friend of mine mentioned it. After playing against them and sucking at it for a while, I found this place and started making decent teams -- still horrible, but kind of battleworthy, more than before at least. Then I got bored and decided to wander onto the forum.
I kinda like it here, it's pretty funny. Also my favorite pokemon are Scizor and Breloom, sup.
I've only played Fire Red and Emerald, and found out about Netbattle when another friend of mine mentioned it. After playing against them and sucking at it for a while, I found this place and started making decent teams -- still horrible, but kind of battleworthy, more than before at least. Then I got bored and decided to wander onto the forum.
I kinda like it here, it's pretty funny. Also my favorite pokemon are Scizor and Breloom, sup.
How I got into pokémon?
Well, I was about 13 or something, and a friend came over to my house talking about a new game he had found on the internet, how it was about training monsters to defeat other monsters, etc... It seemed interesting, so I asked a copy of it and he gave me one. It was a ROM+emulator of pokemon red. (To me it was just a game really, I had no idea that the game wasn't even meant to be played on PC).
I got addicted almost instantly. So addicted I actually bothered to finish the whole game, including all pokemon, lots of lv 100s etc. This was 1999, I believe... or late 1998.
How I started battling online?
Well, this was a weird one...
I started going to GameFAQs looking for info on Gold/Silver (still playing on the PC, yet this time I did know what I was doing >:] ). Then, after devouring the FAQs there, I stumbled across the ones for competitive battling. The best of them referred a lot to things I had no idea of the meaning, like "HP BUG", "DVs/IVs", and "GS-Bot". And it mentioned the boards as a good place to ask things not explained there. So, there I go.
After some studying of rate-my-team topics and other general stuff, I downloaded mIRC and ventured into the old #battlearena, on Mediadriven... There, I learned my way around, made *coughcopiedcough* a team rated well in one of those topics, and started playing. I obviously lost the first battles...
Eventually I got to make my own teams and get a lot better too.
After some time I found there was a channel for brazilian people there, through a person who was using nicks in portuguese for their pokemon (some might know, most don't though - he went by as Wargod at the time). Through that channel, I got to know some of my best friends until today, and some of the people that still write the history here today. When I look back, I laugh that some idiots from our channel went to flood #battlearena or #neodome, and other idiots came to flood back. Those times were fun. This happened from mid 2001 onwards, pretty much until some time before the end of the bots.
How I got to know about Smogon?
Well, 2004 came, the RSBot was starting to flourish, and some time around this a program called Netbattle started to make room for itself too.
Although I did play a little in the early RS metagame, it wasn't even long enough to witness the release of the Fr/Lg games. Nearly everyone that mattered to me abandoned pokémon at about the same time too, for the brazilian release of Ragnarok Online. Very few people stayed behind, and I had almost no news from any of them, as I went to the MMORPG as well. The fact is that I was getting tired from pokémon too... so I just followed my friends.
The thing is that RO didn't catch my attention as much as it did to almost everyone else, but I happened to meet some people there, and this made me stick around for almost a year, and got me completely removed from pokémon except for half a dozen people.
That changed last year, july, when I met with a lot of those old friends in an anime event held around where I spent my vacation. Seeing all those kids with a gba in hands made me feel nostalgic... I even regretted not having brought my own copy of Sapphire (which I only bought for the sole purpose of battling in events like these, but was left to dust when I left pokemon that time). x_x
Well, I got back from vacation, and downloaded netbattle again. I still had the skill from before, but I also had the mentality from before, so, the people that remained playing all this time quickly recommended smogon.com as a source of information. And here I am. I'm not very active, but I'm still here. =]
Well, I was about 13 or something, and a friend came over to my house talking about a new game he had found on the internet, how it was about training monsters to defeat other monsters, etc... It seemed interesting, so I asked a copy of it and he gave me one. It was a ROM+emulator of pokemon red. (To me it was just a game really, I had no idea that the game wasn't even meant to be played on PC).
I got addicted almost instantly. So addicted I actually bothered to finish the whole game, including all pokemon, lots of lv 100s etc. This was 1999, I believe... or late 1998.
How I started battling online?
Well, this was a weird one...
I started going to GameFAQs looking for info on Gold/Silver (still playing on the PC, yet this time I did know what I was doing >:] ). Then, after devouring the FAQs there, I stumbled across the ones for competitive battling. The best of them referred a lot to things I had no idea of the meaning, like "HP BUG", "DVs/IVs", and "GS-Bot". And it mentioned the boards as a good place to ask things not explained there. So, there I go.
After some studying of rate-my-team topics and other general stuff, I downloaded mIRC and ventured into the old #battlearena, on Mediadriven... There, I learned my way around, made *coughcopiedcough* a team rated well in one of those topics, and started playing. I obviously lost the first battles...
Eventually I got to make my own teams and get a lot better too.
After some time I found there was a channel for brazilian people there, through a person who was using nicks in portuguese for their pokemon (some might know, most don't though - he went by as Wargod at the time). Through that channel, I got to know some of my best friends until today, and some of the people that still write the history here today. When I look back, I laugh that some idiots from our channel went to flood #battlearena or #neodome, and other idiots came to flood back. Those times were fun. This happened from mid 2001 onwards, pretty much until some time before the end of the bots.
How I got to know about Smogon?
Well, 2004 came, the RSBot was starting to flourish, and some time around this a program called Netbattle started to make room for itself too.
Although I did play a little in the early RS metagame, it wasn't even long enough to witness the release of the Fr/Lg games. Nearly everyone that mattered to me abandoned pokémon at about the same time too, for the brazilian release of Ragnarok Online. Very few people stayed behind, and I had almost no news from any of them, as I went to the MMORPG as well. The fact is that I was getting tired from pokémon too... so I just followed my friends.
The thing is that RO didn't catch my attention as much as it did to almost everyone else, but I happened to meet some people there, and this made me stick around for almost a year, and got me completely removed from pokémon except for half a dozen people.
That changed last year, july, when I met with a lot of those old friends in an anime event held around where I spent my vacation. Seeing all those kids with a gba in hands made me feel nostalgic... I even regretted not having brought my own copy of Sapphire (which I only bought for the sole purpose of battling in events like these, but was left to dust when I left pokemon that time). x_x
Well, I got back from vacation, and downloaded netbattle again. I still had the skill from before, but I also had the mentality from before, so, the people that remained playing all this time quickly recommended smogon.com as a source of information. And here I am. I'm not very active, but I'm still here. =]
I was kinda forced into it ever since blue heaven shut down and this server basically replaced it. Wonder if there's still any anger brewing about bh. I remember back in the day the very word bh was banned... I started off in rsarena though during my early days... and found netbattle through one of my friends. Believe his name was spellbound over in rsarena... haven't seen him since I left...
How I first stared playing pokemon:
7 years ago when i was 8, i went to Thailand to buy a Gameboy colour and versions Silver, red, blue and yellow (all in one. i think its one of the pirated versions). played red version first, and got addicted. i played my yellow version until i had like 8-9 pokemon at level 80 (venusaur, charizard, blastoise, alakazam, aerodactyl, mewtwo, and 2 others), which is really difficult since the missingno cheat doesn't work in yellow, so i trained them at the elite 4 for hours
How I started battling online/How I found out about Smogon:
I think i googled download pokemon to play the visual boy advance (ruby version), and then there was a result about "tvsian", the official maker of netbattle. Smogon was the top server with the most people, so of course i joined that server
7 years ago when i was 8, i went to Thailand to buy a Gameboy colour and versions Silver, red, blue and yellow (all in one. i think its one of the pirated versions). played red version first, and got addicted. i played my yellow version until i had like 8-9 pokemon at level 80 (venusaur, charizard, blastoise, alakazam, aerodactyl, mewtwo, and 2 others), which is really difficult since the missingno cheat doesn't work in yellow, so i trained them at the elite 4 for hours
How I started battling online/How I found out about Smogon:
I think i googled download pokemon to play the visual boy advance (ruby version), and then there was a result about "tvsian", the official maker of netbattle. Smogon was the top server with the most people, so of course i joined that server
First playing Pokemon:
I remember getting a Gameboy from a friend of the family. I wanted a game for it and remembered hearing something about "Pokemon" on the TV so I got Pokemon Red and beat the hell out of it. (I was about 10 years old back in 1997 when the whole thing started.) Then Yellow, then Silver. Watched the show from the start until about the time of Crystal. Never did buy Crystal and then stopped playing for years. Heard about RuSa more recently and then got Ruby. Became interested in competitive battling with friends...
Competitive Battling
Started on GameFAQs reading about EVs and IVs and Natures. I picked that up right away and was playing with my friends at lunch at high school (it was fun playing a "kid's game" for some reason).
Then I heard about smogon and netbattle and lurked here while playing netbattle. Took another long break from pokemon, heard about D/P, decided to register here as the addiction kicked back up again.
Favorite Pokemon?
Sableye.
I remember getting a Gameboy from a friend of the family. I wanted a game for it and remembered hearing something about "Pokemon" on the TV so I got Pokemon Red and beat the hell out of it. (I was about 10 years old back in 1997 when the whole thing started.) Then Yellow, then Silver. Watched the show from the start until about the time of Crystal. Never did buy Crystal and then stopped playing for years. Heard about RuSa more recently and then got Ruby. Became interested in competitive battling with friends...
Competitive Battling
Started on GameFAQs reading about EVs and IVs and Natures. I picked that up right away and was playing with my friends at lunch at high school (it was fun playing a "kid's game" for some reason).
Then I heard about smogon and netbattle and lurked here while playing netbattle. Took another long break from pokemon, heard about D/P, decided to register here as the addiction kicked back up again.
Favorite Pokemon?
Sableye.
How I First Started Playing Pokemon:
Standard story. Red and Blue became rather popular in school. I say rather because I went to a Christian School, so the parents that weren't deathly afraid of it were still terrified. However, when my friend Michael brought his Blue Verison + Gameboy Pocket to my house once, I knew I had to have the game. I was strangely attached the Articuno in particular (he was using the standard Mewtwo + 3 Birds + Starter + Random), since Blizzard was a cool move.
However, my mom was hesitant to buy me a Gameboy AND a Pokemon game, since she had surely heard of how evil the were. She probably thought the thing would go through my system, and told me that if I was allowed to try it. So, Blockbuster, offering Gameboy AND Game rentals at the time, became my source of Pokemon Yellow. I was hooked.
Unfortunately for me, rentals only last a week, and thats all my mom would pay for herself. Fortunately for me, I had heard news of a brand new Gameboy Color coming out soon, and my birthday/Christmas was coming up. Pokemon Blue and a Gameboy Color were at the top of my list, since at that age I was not that fond of Pikachu, but Wartortle was my favorite, and you could catch "THE CAT POKEMON" in Blue.
My birthday did not fare well, but Christmas was another ordeal entirely. First two presents I opened? Green Gameboy Color and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (which I say now, is still an awesome game). While I loved Mario games and could hardly argue with its allure, I was a bit disappointed that I did not get Pokemon. However, at the end of Christmas morning, there was one last present for me, shaped roughly like a Gameboy box. Lo and Behold...POKEMON BLUE.
By this time I had memorized the game by reading the strategy guide my friend had given me for my birthday. And I stormed through it. I loved it. I chose Venusaur as my starter, due to me not liking any of the other grass Pokemon in the game but finding Vaporeon very very cool. My lack of Wartortle was quickly remedied in the form of Pokemon Stadium, which would give you starters/other rare Pokemon in the form of prizes.
My undying love for Pokemon did not fade, and Silver version was another hit for me. I began to pay attention the massive benefits/detractions of typing outside of the obvious "Fire is strong against Grass", and because of it, Quagsire was a staple Pokemon on my team purely because Electric types couldn't hurt it. However, as the fad faded, so did my love.
I went through pretty much all of the fifth and sixth grade convinced that Pokemon were not cool in any way shape or form and actively denied any affiliation. However, at the end of sixth grade, my friend Michael had gotten a copy of Pokemon Ruby, and upon playing it my love had instantaneously been rekindled. My favorite feature was the fact that I could find Ralts, a psychic Pokemon, so early in the game (the whole RBY Psychic Dominance thing had stuck to my mentality like glue for a VERY long time).
So at the end of sixth grade, Pokemon had justified the purchase of ANOTHER Gameboy system. Sapphire was my new love. LeafGreen picked up right where Sapphire began to die, but for a while both games seemed to grow old. Been there, done that.
The Other Question:
At the end of ninth grade, I had heard rumors of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. I had the DS, and knew I was going to get the game. So I started training my Sapphire and LeafGreen Pokemon. I would be the strongest. However, I needed more than rumors, and found Serebii. It unveiled entirely new sides of Pokemon I had never thought about before. After reading up on strategies, EVs, and other things for quite some time I decided I needed more practical experience if I wanted to get any good. So I searched the forums for debates, reasoning, logic behind movesets and the like. And I found a link to Smogon.
And now I'm here. So cheers to my friend's Blue Version: Leading to a massive obsession spanning hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of hours.
I've still got that baby on my desk.
Standard story. Red and Blue became rather popular in school. I say rather because I went to a Christian School, so the parents that weren't deathly afraid of it were still terrified. However, when my friend Michael brought his Blue Verison + Gameboy Pocket to my house once, I knew I had to have the game. I was strangely attached the Articuno in particular (he was using the standard Mewtwo + 3 Birds + Starter + Random), since Blizzard was a cool move.
However, my mom was hesitant to buy me a Gameboy AND a Pokemon game, since she had surely heard of how evil the were. She probably thought the thing would go through my system, and told me that if I was allowed to try it. So, Blockbuster, offering Gameboy AND Game rentals at the time, became my source of Pokemon Yellow. I was hooked.
Unfortunately for me, rentals only last a week, and thats all my mom would pay for herself. Fortunately for me, I had heard news of a brand new Gameboy Color coming out soon, and my birthday/Christmas was coming up. Pokemon Blue and a Gameboy Color were at the top of my list, since at that age I was not that fond of Pikachu, but Wartortle was my favorite, and you could catch "THE CAT POKEMON" in Blue.
My birthday did not fare well, but Christmas was another ordeal entirely. First two presents I opened? Green Gameboy Color and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (which I say now, is still an awesome game). While I loved Mario games and could hardly argue with its allure, I was a bit disappointed that I did not get Pokemon. However, at the end of Christmas morning, there was one last present for me, shaped roughly like a Gameboy box. Lo and Behold...POKEMON BLUE.
By this time I had memorized the game by reading the strategy guide my friend had given me for my birthday. And I stormed through it. I loved it. I chose Venusaur as my starter, due to me not liking any of the other grass Pokemon in the game but finding Vaporeon very very cool. My lack of Wartortle was quickly remedied in the form of Pokemon Stadium, which would give you starters/other rare Pokemon in the form of prizes.
My undying love for Pokemon did not fade, and Silver version was another hit for me. I began to pay attention the massive benefits/detractions of typing outside of the obvious "Fire is strong against Grass", and because of it, Quagsire was a staple Pokemon on my team purely because Electric types couldn't hurt it. However, as the fad faded, so did my love.
I went through pretty much all of the fifth and sixth grade convinced that Pokemon were not cool in any way shape or form and actively denied any affiliation. However, at the end of sixth grade, my friend Michael had gotten a copy of Pokemon Ruby, and upon playing it my love had instantaneously been rekindled. My favorite feature was the fact that I could find Ralts, a psychic Pokemon, so early in the game (the whole RBY Psychic Dominance thing had stuck to my mentality like glue for a VERY long time).
So at the end of sixth grade, Pokemon had justified the purchase of ANOTHER Gameboy system. Sapphire was my new love. LeafGreen picked up right where Sapphire began to die, but for a while both games seemed to grow old. Been there, done that.
The Other Question:
At the end of ninth grade, I had heard rumors of Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. I had the DS, and knew I was going to get the game. So I started training my Sapphire and LeafGreen Pokemon. I would be the strongest. However, I needed more than rumors, and found Serebii. It unveiled entirely new sides of Pokemon I had never thought about before. After reading up on strategies, EVs, and other things for quite some time I decided I needed more practical experience if I wanted to get any good. So I searched the forums for debates, reasoning, logic behind movesets and the like. And I found a link to Smogon.
And now I'm here. So cheers to my friend's Blue Version: Leading to a massive obsession spanning hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of hours.
I've still got that baby on my desk.
First playing pokemon:
One day when I was in like 5th or 6th grade a VHS showed up at my house in the mail for me, it was a really sketchy advertisment for pokemon, talking about the anime and the game boy color games that were about to come out. I thought it was hella sweet so I made my mom buy me Blue. Then later my friend kourck stole my 6th grade girlfriend so I went to beat him up, but before I got the chance he said something about pokemon, and I also liked pokemon alot so we are now bestfriends and we played pokemon together all through GSC until we started playing halo1 before RS came out.
How I found smogon/netbattle:
After me and kourck played halo1 competively for a few years(6 national tournaments) halo2 came out and it sucked balls, so we were looking for something new to do and someone over at the MLG(major league of gaming) forums said something about pokemon online something something. Kourck did some research and found a link for netbattle, and we played it for like 2 days and got bored. After a few more months of not playing netbattle we just decided to start playing again a week or so ago, so I signed up for smogon and here I am!
One day when I was in like 5th or 6th grade a VHS showed up at my house in the mail for me, it was a really sketchy advertisment for pokemon, talking about the anime and the game boy color games that were about to come out. I thought it was hella sweet so I made my mom buy me Blue. Then later my friend kourck stole my 6th grade girlfriend so I went to beat him up, but before I got the chance he said something about pokemon, and I also liked pokemon alot so we are now bestfriends and we played pokemon together all through GSC until we started playing halo1 before RS came out.
How I found smogon/netbattle:
After me and kourck played halo1 competively for a few years(6 national tournaments) halo2 came out and it sucked balls, so we were looking for something new to do and someone over at the MLG(major league of gaming) forums said something about pokemon online something something. Kourck did some research and found a link for netbattle, and we played it for like 2 days and got bored. After a few more months of not playing netbattle we just decided to start playing again a week or so ago, so I signed up for smogon and here I am!
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