The Rise of the Zheng Dynasty - Washington DC VGC Warstory

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To start off: My brother and I went a combined 16-0 and won both the Juniors and Seniors division. Boss. (Maybe we'll finally be known because getting 3rd and 4th last year...)

Hey guys, Cybertron here, and here’s my warstory of the Washington VGC that took place yesterday. (It’s going to be really long – I had nothing better to do on the long drive home, and it probably has a bunch of useless crap you don’t care about, yay :D) I’m probably making a big deal out of just a Regional Championship, but I needed something to do on the way back so… enjoy. I’m trying a different format for this warstory, so I hope you like it.

“Hey, your whole team’s shiny!"

My 2011 VGC experience started a couple of months ago, when they announced official rules in America. I tried to hoard as many Pokémon as I could on Wi-Fi (ironically, I didn’t use any of those) to create a team and just try things out. My first three battles were against JRank, a super nob. (Just kidding, he’s really pro) My team eventually started off as Tornadus, Jellicent, Landorus, and Hydregion. It was random, but managed to get an 11-win streak when I started off with it on PO. I realized later on that it wasn’t consistent enough and needed some serious working on. After constant working on my team and advice from my good friend Milan (CRITICO!), I settle on a team that was very similar to his at the Texas Regional. Mine, however, originally had Hydregion and Scarf Chandelure. At the last minute in the morning, I decide to change my Hydregion into a Thundurus, which was one of the best decisions I have made. I probably used Thundurus in 7/8 of all my games. I want to thank JRank, Bitterlemon, Elemt, and bond for their Pokemon. I’m always too lazy to RNG shiny guys, but these guys were awesome in letting me use their Pokemon. (Darn JRank, why isn’t your Chandy shiny!) My team was completed around a month before the competition. I decided that it was simple but strong enough for a Junior to use, but I kept Hydregion and Landorus rather than Amoongus and Chandy on this team. With a week before the competition left, I finalize both of our teams and we try to cram in some practice battles. I ended up logging over 1000 Pokemon Online battles, a good amount of wins but also a fair amount of losses. Here’s my team in images:



“You went to sleep at 3 AM just to have a better In Game Name?”

Our DC adventure starts Friday afternoon. We leave our house at around 6. My dad stops a bunch of times to take naps, and because of traffic, we don’t get to our hotel until 2 in the morning. I start my White version over and play an hour just so I could have a better IGN, and fall asleep at 3. I got like three hours of sleep that night, but I can never sleep before a big competition. Should have went with MSankey though instead of MrZheng…

“It’s going to be a long day…”



The next morning, I shower and such and try to cram some knowledge into my brother’s head. It seemed like he couldn’t memorize any of it, so I began to worry. I also learned that the Arnold’s were going to DC, awesome… It seemed to take forever to get out of the hotel, we couldn’t find the convention center for a while, etc. Needless to say, I didn’t start off my morning very well.

By the time we got to the convention center, we were towards the last part of the line, meaning we would be one of the last bunches of people to battle that day. My mom was awesome and held our spot in line while I walked around and met Human, the Arnold’s, and Dimsun for the first time.

My brother and I registered, after what seemed like forever. (The number I got was 238, or Smoochum. Hugs and kisses!) They downloaded the info into our game, gave us pretty cool looking bags with Zekrom/Reshiram on the back, and gave us bracelets/cards for our battles.



Soon, my brother and I were ushered into the line where we went to battle in our separate areas. Rounds 1, 2, and 3 went by really quickly for me. I 4-0’d all my opponents, but fortunately, all three of them were very kind and did not seem to get very upset. They were one-sided the whole time. I DO remember getting critted three turns in a row in Game 1 though. Game 2 was simple, but in Game 3, the guy looked like he has a solid team (he lead with Landorus and Thundurus), but after setting Tailwind up, I swept.

Brendan, on the other hand, can never remember his battles. It looked like he was struggling with his first few since it took him at least 10 minutes to complete his second battle, but he told me that his opponent was just taking a long time to choose her moves. Having easy battles before the finalist lounge really took a lot of pressure off me: I always seem to barely win my Round 1 game in any tournament, but managed to breeze through this year. I thought to myself, “Maybe this would be a good year…”

When I got to the finalist lounge, I was crapping in my pants during the hack check. Being the lazy bum I am, I got all 6 of my Pokémon and my brother’s Pokémon from Smogoners. I’m always paranoid about hack checks, even though I’m confident there were no problems with them. I got even more nervous when it took the guy like 5 minutes to just read the game with the program because it wouldn’t load. Either way, passing the hack check was a huge relief for me. They took our games cards, gave us new bracelets, and told us to just sit down and relax.

While I’m waiting in line in the finalist lounge, my little brother walks in, excited that he made it through as well. I’m really excited at this point because I think that both of us have a real good shot of doing well today! I just sit down and chill with Human and Hitmonrocker for a while. A good amount of accomplished Seniors are in the lounge: Human, Hitmonrocker, David Arnold, Talon (The very guy who won Texas Regional as Junior last year, beat my brother at Nationals, and got DQ’d the round after for having hacked Pokemon…), and a few others. All of us had a good chance of winning, but only one would go home successful…

Mike finally announces that we have 31 Seniors in the lounge today, meaning only 1 would get a bye. Surprisingly, I managed to… not get the bye, so I had to play to get my Nationals invitation. My top 32 battle was a blur to me, I remember having an okay match. Mainly focused on talking with Human who had his very long match next to me.

"If that Jellicent takes out my Terrakion..."

My Top 16 battle, on the other hand, was insanely close. My opponent recently posted the video of the battle on Youtube, so you can check it out, but I'll describe what went through my mind and my process of though.

Turn 1: He leads off with Amoonguss and Thundurus, and I go with my own Amoonguss and Tornadus. I'm really stuck on what to do on this turn: I could either go for the KO on Amoongus, taking a risk because I'm not sure if he has a Coba Berry and Spore the Thundurus, letting my Tornadus go down, or predict that he's going to Thunderbolt my Tornadus. I end up Rage Powdering, working to success as it directs both a Thunderbolt (boosted by Electric Gem, effectively wasting it) and a Spore.

Turn 2: I'm kind of regretting not taking out Amoonguss from last turn, because he's really annoying to go against and can Spore everything. I don't really think about my moves this turn and use Acrobatics on him while he Protects. His Thundurus Discharges (rather than Thunderbolting my Tornadus, which really helps me out this battle), leaving both in the yellow. My Amoonguss sleeps.

Turn 3: His Amoonguss Rage Powders while I KO him with an Acrobatics, boosted by Flying Gem. Effect Spore puts my Tornadus to sleep, but it doesn't matter beacuse Thundurus's Discharge takes him out, along with doing a decent amount to Amoonguss, still in the yellow. He still stays asleep this turn.

Turn 4: I'm kind of panicking inside at this point - I have 2 sweepers, but Amoongus is dead weight as he can't do anything and stays asleep. I can only pray that he wakes up and can get some Spores off. I send out Terrakion to replace by Tornadus, while he brings out his Landorus. I try to play it safe by Rock Sliding. He switches out his Thundurus to Jellicent for some reason, and EQs, hitting all three of my guys. Cursed Body activates and blocks his own EQ, haha. Amoonguss survives, but can't wake up this turn -_-

Turn 5: With Amoonguss still asleep, I'm really getting worried now. I Rock Slide and Spore, I believe (should have tried to Protect with Amoonguss). Rock Slide misses Jellicent, and at this point, I'm thinking "Crud, it's over..." I hope for the flinch hax on Landorus, but to no avail. He Rock Slides + Water Spouts. After Rock Slide, Terrakion has around 20 HP. Even with the Water Gem, Water Spout does like 17 damage and my Terrakion barely survives.

Turn 6: With Terrakion still on the field, I send out Thundurus. I HP Ice the Landorus and Rock Slide the Jellicent, KOing both of them and taking the lead 2-1.

Turn 7: He brings out his Thundurus. I Quick Attack just to get 10-15% damage, and finish him off with a Thunderbolt.

This was one of the best games I've probably ever played. We both made a few mistakes that could have changed the result of the game, and fortunately, hax didn't play too much of a role in it. It was an excellent game though - had my Terrakion been KO'd, it probably would have been game right there. I was just relieved I made it to the next round, until I find out... David Arnold's my next opponent.

“This game is going to go down to hax.”

While I’m waiting around for my opponent, there are two other kids sitting at the tables: David Arnold and my eventual Top 4 opponent. For some reason, they didn’t pair them two up so a guy ushers me up to David and I’m pretty much sure my tournament’s over now. To make matters worse, we lead with exact same leads! He states right away that this game is going to go down to hax, which I agreed with. I won’t post exact details of his team, because he might use it for Nationals but I won because I got both a crit and flinch in one turn, and managed to stay away from para-hax a good amount of the battle. (He paralyzed three of my guys)

“ZHENG’D OUT”

My Top 4 opponent seems pretty confident when I go up to battle with him. At this point, we’re way ahead of the other battles going on: There was still a Top 8 match going on. Either way, this seems to be the only battle I remember clearly so here’s what happened: He leads with Terracott, which is expected. I lead with Tornadus and Terrakion, and Acrobatics the Whimsicott and Close Combat the Terrakion. Acrobatics works out well and kills the Whimsicott, but he gets the Beat Up’s before that. That’s fine… until he managed to Rock Slide me after winning the speed tie AND flinching my Terrakion. His face lights up with excitement while the damage is still going down in my game, and I knew he got the flinch. He sends out Volcarona while I send out Thundurus. I think I go for the Grass Knot + Rock Slide this turn, and his Volcarona lives this turn, but flinches. Doesn’t really make a difference but it helped boost my confidence. I think he protected with Terrakion that turn too, so it manages to live. He Rage Powders the next turn, but I targeted him with Quick Attack and killed Terrakion off with Grass Knot. I don’t remember what his last Pokémon was, but it went down pretty quickly.

It was either this battle or the battle before when the awesome CHODE SMUGGLERS come into the convention center. My boys 3lmo and imperfectspider made shirts with my face on them that said “ZHENG’D OUT” at the back. Seeing those shirts really made my day, they’re freaking awesome and chill.

“Brendan, what do you use against Hydregion?
…Shadow Ball?”


At this point, I can’t believe I’m in the finals. I’m the first to finish, so I just hang around and watch the Junior finals. My brother easily beats his opponent, to my surprise, and wins. My 8 year old brother, who was probably the shortest one there just won 8 straight games and won? I really didn’t think he would be able to pull it off, especially since I asked him basic questions that morning and he pretty much got all of them wrong. Maybe it was a bad idea to give him his team just a week before Regionals… I told him that morning to just try his best, and if he couldn’t do well, he still had next week at Newark. He managed to pull off a victory against Grace Arnold (I don’t know how he manages to do that; he’s 2-0 against her so far) in the semi’s. I’m really proud (and happy!) of him, winning such a big tournament really boosts his confidence. Oh, and he’s got 2 more years in Juniors after this year. ;)

“2008 all over again?”

At this point, I really didn’t care how I finished in the finals. I came here with here with one goal: For at least one of us to win. We already got our hotel room, and two flights paid for so even if I finished second, I would have around $300 left over after booking the flights. Getting the hotel was the best part, due to the dilemma this year with hotels. I saw that Vince beat his opponent in the semi’s, meaning it would be me and him in the finals. It’s a lot more fun playing with a good friend, especially Vince. We went to Worlds in ’08 together after placing in the NY VGS Qualifier, the first one that ever took place. He’s just too awesome; he has the coolest personality, he’s awesome to talk to, and he takes this game seriously, but still manages to have fun the whole time. I went into the finals a lot more relaxed than I would have with anyone else, and whatever the outcome was, I didn’t care. There are videos up of it, but here’s what happened and my mindset while battling.

After pondering a good while from team preview, I decide to go with Tornadus, Terrakion, Jellicent, and Chandy. He leads with Scrafty and Eelektross against my Tornadus and Terrakion. He told me that he thought I would lead with Jellicent and Amoongus, which is why he chose those two.

Turn 1: I Quick Guard and Tailwind (I know that both of my guys were faster, but it was more of a suicide setup so my other guys could come out and sweep) while he uses Fake Out (which is negated) and Wild Charges my Tornadus to death. A quick 4-3 lead for him, but I have Tailwind up.

Turn 2: I send out Jellicent to replace Terrakion. He protects with Scrafty, which I targeted with Terrakion and Water Gem Water Spout takes care of Eelektross. 3-3 now.

Turn 3: He sends out Krokodile (named AlphaOmega, I complemented him on his nickname :D). Intimidate drops my attack, as expected. I go for the Water Spout and Close Combat his Scrafty, but because of his Chople Berry, he manages to hold on by like 10 HP after both attacks and Drain Punches my Terrakion to leave him to his Sash, getting a critical along the way.

Turn 4: He protects with Scrafty yet again, while I Water Spout and Rock Slide. (Rock Slide because I thought Krokodile might have a Focus Sash) which takes care of Krokodile. I’m 3-2 now, but Tailwind is over.

Turn 5: This is the most important turn of the game. He sends out his Choice Scarfed Jellicent, and I Shadow Ball that while Close Combating the Scrafty. I should have realized he was scarfed, but he targets my Jellicent instead of Terrakion, so I managed to kill Scrafty and do a hefty amount of damage to Jellicent.

Turn 6: He knocks my Jellicent out with a Shadow Ball while I Rock Slide for the KO. 2-0

Cool, I’m now a Regional Champion 8) Vincent gets up and hugs me. See why he’s awesome now? I get interviewed, do some paper work for Nationals, take pictures, etc. We go for lunch and I come back with my brother to watch and give updates with the Seniors with Human. His phone runs out of power so he runs all the way back to his hotel and connects it to my laptop to charge. (There was no Wi-Fi at the convention center :/) IPS played like a boss, the finals were really strange and slow paced though. Great showing by many Smogoners, I really enjoyed seeing TTS and dtrain use the Zebra!



Victory is mine!


“Any other last words about today’s tournament?”

That was one of the questions that the interviewer asked me, and I commented on how this was, by far, the best VGC Regional I’ve been to. Since the beginning of the VGC in 2008, I’ve been to a qualifier every year and I’ve seen it grow and develop into the wonderful tournament it is today. 2008 was a decent year, but you had to be chosen through email and was very rushed, they announced it very late. 2009 was terrible because of the lottery: I was confident that I would do well in my last year in Juniors and my little brother even had a solid team, but neither of us even got the chance to play. I even got rained out on my flight to Nationals, so I couldn’t compete in the LCQ. (I got rained out to TCG Nationals in 2008, and my dad drove the ~10 hours to Ohio, making us the last ones to arrive to registration before it closed. He’s amazing.) Last year was a lot better, allowing more people to play and getting a lot more organized, but there were no chairs at Newark and at the first two rounds at Nationals. This year was pretty much flawless. It ran very quickly and efficiently, it allowed hundreds of players to play at the same time; it looked very professional, and was generally run a lot better than previous years. They also put a lot more effort in running the tournament this year: I noticed they actually made bye/play cards instead of just giving energy cards away. Maybe it’s me, but VGC’s have significantly improved in the last two years and I only expect the best at Nationals and hopefully at Worlds.

Props:

- JRank (Chandelure), Elemt (Tornadus, Jellicent) bond697, (Terrakion) and Bitterlemon (Thundurus) for their awesome Pokemon and effort in RNGing them. Thank you guys so much.
- My parents for driving the 5-6 hours to Washington and supporting our hobby. It worked out pretty well, didn’t it?
- My brother, for being incredible and surprising me. Maybe it’s the pressure that helps him perform, but he played the semis and finals very well. I’m proud of you ☺

- Milan, (CRITICO!) he’s really supportive and awesome, and gives a lot of good advice too. Can’t wait for Nationals man ☺
- Rukario and Chilebowl; chilliest guys ever, hopefully I’ll make it to Newark to chill with you and you better win!
- Greysong, just because he’s awesome and possibly the nicest guy ever. Hope to see you Indy!
- dtrain and TTS, nice job with the National invites and using the Zebra :P
- Hitmonrocker: Man, you and your mom are honestly awesome, can’t wait for Nationals with you. If I could play anyone in the finals, I’m glad it was you..
- Human: I probably hung around you the most yesterday, haha. Pleasure being around you, Newark’s for you to win now buddy.
- dimsun: u r a nob losing r3
- iss: Subseed Whimsicott sucks, but I’m rooting for you at Newark, I’m sure you’ll do well.
- David Arnold for being a really chill opponent, sorry about the hax buddy! Hopefully we can have a rematch one day.
- Chode Smugglers: IPS, you’re amazing and you better win Newark. You guys are all awesome and chill. ZHENG’D OUT.
- Duy and Huy Ha for sucking. WATCH OUT THERE’S A NEW DYNASTY IN TOWN.
- Jeremy Fan: My Asian brother!

- Smogoners in general. I was pretty quiet and didn’t associate myself with many Masters and mainly hung around Seniors, but it’s always a pleasure being with you guys. I’ll try to be more social at Nationals, haha.
- All those that helped me out with practice battles: You guys rock.
- The prizes: Can’t really complain with 4 free trips to Indy and 2 hotel rooms, 2 1st place medals, and 2 3DS’s. Brother opened his, and it’s awesome!
- Mike and all the staff for running the best tournaments ever… I enjoy it a lot more than TCG tournaments now to be honest.
- Nick for being the coolest MC: “Looks like that Jellicent’s going to turn into jello!”
- Creating a Senior division: I hate going against people older than me, ugh.
- Actually being known this year, last year people called me “little asian kid” at Newark, ha.
- Family sweep!
- The hax gods for being on my side that day ☺

Really, I don’t have any slops because it was such an amazing tournament. (Other than the fact the TCG and VGC Regional Medals are EXACTLY the same, other than the ribbon, haha. Not really complaining, just pointing it out) Oh yeah, this metgame isn’t too fun but hey, I won in it… I could only wish that fellow friends and Smogoners have done better, but congrats to superwolfe for winning. It was by far a great way to start off our VGC season. I really didn’t expect either of us to do so well, so it’s great that we won ☺

Hopefully, Nationals will be much more successful than last year. (As Duy says… 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th 17th place) See you guys in Indianapolis! ☺

Mr. Zheng

Click this link for all my Regional Photos: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1165004924012.2025150.1194555905&l=da7df21577
 
Wooh, nice story. Very similar to my bro and i. The morning of the tourney, I ask him what to do if he sees a jellicent. Uhhhhh, Close combat?
 

Jibaku

Who let marco in here????
is a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
-__-


Congrats on the win dude. I noticed when I came in to South Hall a person was wearing a ZHENG'd OUT t-shirt
 
Get Zheng'd, noobs! Congratz bro, I knew you'd pull it off. No 17th place for you now at Nationals... ZHENG WINS NATIONALS! :D Can't wait to hang with you man, gonna be blast! Also tell Lil Zheng I said GREAT JOB! :)
 
Congrats bro, i knew you and your little brother could do it :D don't worry, Rukario and I are in it to win it next week ;D congrats to you guys again, i can't wait to chill with you at Newark or nats :D
 
YOU BETTER GET YO ASS DOWN TO NEWARK AND SUPPORT MY ASS D:

Congratz x1000 for winning that shit browski :D
and you better make at least 16th this year at nats lol ;)

Love you Aaron <3
 

Dimsun

VGC 2012 Seniors Champion
Sorry for grammar but...
I r nob 4 losing r3

No, but seriously, it was AWESOME to watch you and Vincent duke it out in the finals. I wasn't sure who to root for. All the seniors there (well, maybe not the one who beat me... just kidding, just kidding!) were awesome, and I hope we get to see each other again next year. Good luck at Nationals, Cybertron!
 
The Arnold family congratulates the Zheng's on a fine performance. Great job. The kids had a blast and really enjoyed the competition. See you in Indy!
 
Congratulations! An amazing feat that you made it to the top, but I knew you could do it. Just goes to show you what some determination and some practicing can do for you.
 
Don't hate on Dimsun, probably would have done pretty well if not for an unfortunate pairing :( Congrats on the win Cybertron.
 
Thank you all! It's still hard to believe we both won...

oh shit shots fired
I only kid, the Ha's are awesome. Except Duy's so mean to me :(

The Arnold family congratulates the Zheng's on a fine performance. Great job. The kids had a blast and really enjoyed the competition. See you in Indy!
Pleasure meeting you guys! David had great sportsmanship even with all the hax in our battle and was incredibly kind. It was an honor to battle him :)

Don't hate on Dimsun, probably would have done pretty well if not for an unfortunate pairing :( Congrats on the win Cybertron.
Haha, shame you guys had to go against each other so early on in the tournament :(
 

JRank

Jonny
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
My Chandelure helps everyone out aside from me. Congrats on the win, now you can either use that Chandelure at nats or let me RNG you more mons, so even after I fail at the LCQ you can win with my mons ;)

And yes I'm a pro nob
 

Jibaku

Who let marco in here????
is a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
[15:20] <@Jibaku> .u Zheng
[15:20] <&skybot> Jibaku: zheng: (V, Chinese; "jung") To own oneself with extraordinary vigor, esp. to incur spectacular and lasting injuries; to painfully fail

you fail
 
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