VGC '11 US National - Indianapolis - July 8th to 10th - WON by superwolfe & Cybertron

[DukeTheDevil]

Top4 masters?
top8 masters?

video final???

Top 16:
Josh Cohen
Glenn Arnold
Critico (Milan Patel)
Samsung, Bianca222 (Duy Ha)
Zerowing, Makiri
The Wolf
TRE Brother
Meztips

Top 8:
Enfuego
Fish
Greysong
Steven Morioka

Top 4:
DukeTheDevil
TDS

2nd Place: TTS

1st Place: Superwolfe

 

[DM]

ZEBRA STRONGTH

Got home late last night, so tired. Huge congrats to everyone who made it to the end, namely to the champs (QUACKERTRON) and TTS for an extremely impressive showing from the 16th seed. So much fun, so tired, story is going to take FOREVER to write.

I miss everyone already! Like Synre said, it was great to meet so many new Smogon people while spending more time with the old ones. Come to Buffalo and hang out with me, I can't go next year!

So apparently those who made it into nats via LCQ are:

Imawario
TDS
3lmo
enfuego
destinybond
DukeTheDevil
pikabuddy


unknown: andrea's bf chad, DM, greysong?

Yeah, that's right, the guy who doesn't play pokemon made it to r3!!! I rule. So much fun. Chad played very well for a non-player too, he improved every time he competed this year.

No Dad lost R4 to a random, after (somehow) managing to beat ray423 and mingot. How come when people go with me they do better?

Ohhhh, that was your dad taking pics of everyone he played against? I sat right next to him r1 and r2, small world.

lol that was Chad's bag (my boyfriend). He was worried since it had my stuff in there but also said that if you didn't trade it back that he would have gotten the better end of the deal. ;P

So funny that it was picked up by another Smogoner. :jump:

They ruined Huy. He got haxed out at first three/four rounds so he tried to get last place later and cause of bs bye hax he didn't. His last game was so good though

"Good"? That was the single greatest pokemon-related event I have ever witnessed!

champz

Utterly amazing in every way possible.

some of Smogon's forum members' other antics(looking at you, beaglefan#s)

I believe you mean Ryan Schambers.

Also: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[BBB]

Thanks to everyone, especially team Shalom and everyone who was part of that little group today, I cant wait for everyone to see my finals matches, the first one he crit my mummy through a burn, the second one he got 3 paras and a flinch on my mummy everytime I tried to use TR, it was too close, and it didnt help with scraftys para and WoW missing, had a great time, thanks to everyone congrats to Aaron and Snake, I'll put up a warstory later

Where are the videos?

 

[bearsfan092]

some of Smogon's forum members' other antics(looking at you, beaglefan#s)

The worst part about all this is that I still had a ton of fun impersonating deagle yet I feel guilty

 

[Feathers]

I haven't been around at all due to this year being one of my busiest, but I thought I would stop by to say congrats and good luck at Worlds. I plan to be there next year and there is no way I'm missing the VGC again.

I was actually in Disneyland during Nats, and could you believe that I was still thinking about how much I wanted to be with you all playing Pokemon instead? I miss you guys!

Congrats again, and best of luck to Smogon in this year's finals.

 

[theamericandream38]

Not likely to write a warstory or anything so I thought I'd make a few comments here:

First of all, congratulations to the top 8 in all divisions, it's hard to qualify for Worlds every year and with as frustrating as this metagame has been for many of us, props to all of you that managed to win in spite of it.

While things could have gone better for me individually here(lol 17th at 5-2), the way things played out here reminded me a lot of why I love VGC, and trying to win isn't it, fun as competing was this year. Last year I hadn't played a game of doubles from JAA Detroit in 2006 until Nationals LCQ in 2010, and while I enjoy the game itself in spite of itself, I came, played, and had a fantastic time because I got to see everyone again. Annoyed though I was about my own position, I was glad to have friends in the top 16, and as the 17 seed I can say honestly I'm glad Danny was the 16 and not me, because he did a hell of a lot better than I would have and I'm really happy he won a trip. After Fish's misadventures in Swiss last year it was great to see him net an invite, too. I always try to view this as a team game because the game's nature makes it too frustrating alone and I wouldn't even play without my friends, and while we might have liked to do a little better as a group, it's not so bad when at least friends make it in, even if you lose yourself.

Thanks for the great time to all the old friends I saw again and all the new people I "met" in person for the first time this week. I have a great time at all these events and I'm already looking forward to next year. Hopefully I can improve enough to play a little better there.

EDIT: Oh, ffs I forgot the most important thing: i'm not sure if any of you will read this, but thanks so much to TPCI for putting on these events. It's funny to type knowing what has happened since, but I remember when we were playing competitive GSC we thought the Pokemon video games were dying, and it's because of the work of people like you all that it is instead thriving. I may not agree with all of the decisions you guys make with age divisions and metagames, but I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm so, so thankful to you guys for putting on these events. There's not much in life I look forward to more than Nationals these days. I know we give you guys some trouble with our amazing EV counting ability and some of Smogon's forum members' other antics(looking at you, beaglefan#s), but we really do appreciate what you guys do and it's all in fun. Thanks.

Just the most perfect post in every way, I agree 110%.

 

[dtrain]

Just got home. Went 4-0 and then lost my last 3 :( Ah well had a ton of close games+hax. It was great seeing everyone :)

 

[Team Rocket Elite]

Congrats to superwolfe and Cybertron on your wins!

 

[Synre]

Deleted the last couple of pages, let's all just be happy for the winners and that we all had a great time. I think we all kinda overreacted and misunderstood each other a bit... let's remember we're all friends and support each other. Sorry if my posts pissed anyone off.

Feel free and repost anything not related to that back and forth, I didn't edit related parts of posts that had unrelated content and just deleted because I'm on my phone.

 

[Ashenlock]

Yeah, congrats again everyone! I considered going up just to see fellow Smogonites.

 

[Mosquito]

Thank god the last few pages were deleted.... Anyhow, great time, congratulations to the winners, but I'd like to ask: Is it just me, or is the Seniors Division a little bit more "stale" than the Masters Division? From all the matches I've seen on the screens of the Masters matches, you guys seem to have more diversity than us. During Nats in Seniors, I didn't see much diversity from the "standards" of VGC (Thundurus/Tornadus/Scrafty/Terrakion/Amoonguss/etc.) while in Masters I saw other Pokemon used more often than in Seniors (such as Krookodile, Eelektross, Cofagrigus, ZEBSTRIKA).

 

[Human]

No, look at ABC and then look at David Arnold. A lot of things are different, for masters division people know the metagame shifts for it, for seniors though there is no way we can. We go in blindfolded and can't really focus on something out of the norm of the metagame that can counter it because we do not know what the metagame will be like.

 

[Alphabet123]

Yeah, I used 0 of these "(Thundurus/Tornadus/Scrafty/Terrakion/Amoonguss/etc.)" and used Krookodile and eelektross at lcq, and stunfisk, emolga, heatmor, etc. at nats, so my teams are counter examples

 

[kingofmars]

Mosqutio, you know that I don't use any legendaries, seniors is really fresh, IDK what you and your haxing mouth are talking about.

 

[Synre]

It kinda seemed like it was the other way around to me, with Seniors having cooler teams, though we all thought it was awesome TTS did so well _because_ it was out of the norm. I fought a grand total of about 11 different pokemon outside of my match with Halordain(who had a very cool team), and largely the matches on TV reflected that, though some of the 4-3 finishers had awesome teams. I saw a few cool mons trying to patrol Seniors on Sunday... Phiddle and I saw Cryogonal as we walked in and immediately decided to watch that over Masters.

I imagine the motivation for people is as much breaking the norm to have more fun as being antimeta and winning. I made a couple team choices(yeaaaaaa offensive Whim) for that reason, since the game has become so stale, and I know several of my friends did as well. It's a pity it is so hard to be both creative and effective this year; props to Danny for doing both outside of the tr weak.

I wish the format had allowed me to spectate more... I woke up early to catch Seniors Swiss on Saturday(I wish we'd been as good as you guys were) but it was hard to monitor much on Sunday with so much going on at once.

 

[Mosquito]

Maybe it's just me, but during Swiss rounds I faced mostly "standards". Kong, I know your pokes were a bit different, and so were Unreality's, but honestly, I was sick of seeing a genie on literally all but one team I faced in Swiss. I guess it made it easier to predict, though, since my team WAS only tested against standard mons. Human, thanks for the explanation, and ABC, that's pretty cool, and kudos to your for not using the same stuff over and over again (like me :T)

 

[PaperGlaceon]

Whimsicott says hi

 

[TTS]

Annoyed though I was about my own position, I was glad to have friends in the top 16, and as the 17 seed I can say honestly I'm glad Danny was the 16 and not me, because he did a hell of a lot better than I would have and I'm really happy he won a trip

I felt terrible for you when I saw that. Thanks a ton though, hearing that means a lot coming from a friend as close to me as you. As I said in Indy, come visit me in Maryland at some point and we'll go have some We The Pizza -- my treat :D

props to Danny for doing both outside of the tr weak.

Haha, the double edged sword of not really playtesting my team at all. Nobody knew it was coming since I didn't practice online(I'm looking at you, real Deagle.. counterteaming me last year, XD). I had the element of surprise for most of the day, although I know TDS and Wolfe both knew what I was running. Unfortunately, I didn't realize just how TR weak I was until I was already committed and 2 rounds into Swiss -- looking at you, Ninahaza.

TDS unfortunately had pretty much the ideal setup on his team for me, lacking any of the things that really countered it hard. Wolfe, on the other hand, had a team that was really my worst nightmare. I played terribly regardless, since I was so elated that I finally had earned a trip to Worlds, but really I don't think I could have won period -- it was Wolfe's game to lose, he had a huge advantage just from the team matchup and he played perfectly and didn't make any mistakes that would give me chances to gain the upper hand. I was pretty amused that he was getting so aggravated about the hax in our games -- I kept saying "Eh, it's Pokemon, dude", and he was about ready to pull his hair out. I obviously didn't want to say it mid-match, since really my only chance was him misplaying, but I knew even with the hax that I had very little chance of winning and was just delaying the inevitable haha. The fact that he stomped me even through all of the luck really shows just how screwed I was, haha.

Good games, dude. I completely underestimated you after the admittedly pretty lackluster DC finals. You're incredibly proficient at playing your TR team correctly, even under pressure. For that matter, I underestimated TR teams in this metagame period, haha.

 

[Firestorm]

So who else flew through Chicago? 7 hours total delayed... They kept saying 15 mibs. Just pulling into Toronto now. Gonna have to see if they'll pay for a cab because that last greyhound is long gone. Would literally have been faster to drive from Indianapolis.

 

[CaptKirby]

evan backed out on the fistfight; I think evan should pay me back for my trip who else agrees

 

[Fishy]

i'm pretty sure i ride the wave of indy hype all the way until the following summer.

this one has surely been such a trip, and this wave won't let up any time soon. miss you guys, and congrats to TTS for being the most endearingly obnoxious player that i could root for. :> blitzle power!!!

 

[TTS]

i'm pretty sure i ride the wave of indy hype all the way until the following summer.

this one has surely been such a trip, and this wave won't let up any time soon. miss you guys, and congrats to TTS for being the most endearingly obnoxious player that i could root for. :> blitzle power!!!

Ahaha, is that a good thing or a bad thing? <3 Fishy, your hugs did NOT disappoint. They most certainly helped to counteract the damage to my spine from hugging and lifting up people taller and larger than me and spinning them around all weekend.

 

[kamz]

first match of senior divison finalshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqK0hk_Ypz8

first match of the masters finalhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHur6fbiAgs&feature=related

 

[Cybertron]

Man I played so bad that game

 

[evan]

Worst finals setup ever. What a dumb idea. I really wanted to watch all three finals but ended up having to choose the one and merely glance over at the other two screens for periodic updates though i couldn't follow them all that well.