Friday: Elmo and I flew into Indy around 10:00 am. We got to the convention center and made our way through the hundreds of frat brothas to the hall in the back where the pokemon stuff was. We walked around and briefly said hey to Bluecookies and some of the ducks. I was hungry as hell so Elmo and I went to some coffee place with a corny name. Afterwards, we got together with other Chodesmugglers. Calm_Lava, IPS, and AlexaMedicine all came into the convention center and not long after TDS followed with his two kids, Cybertron and Babbytron. We waited in line with Team Magma until LCQ started. Once the line started moving, we all split up to avoid having to battle each other.
My Team:
Tornadus (M) @ Flight Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Acrobatics
- Substitute
- Protect
- Tailwind
McSmuggler (Amoonguss) (M) @ Mental Herb
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
- Giga Drain
DontHurtMe (Scrafty) (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Detect
- Fake Out
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Thundurus (M) @ Charti Berry
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 116 HP / 140 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Substitute
- Taunt
Don'tHitMe (Hydreigon) (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Protect
The team is pretty standard, very easy to use, very effective, and has tons of possible leads for bring 6 pick 4. I would like to give a huge shout out to Metabou for letting me use his genies, saved me a hell of a lot of time.
Round 1: Mingot Impersonator
After I got seated, some old guy who kinda looked like Mingot sat down across from me. I’ve never met Mingot and he sorta looked like him from pictures, so I started to worry. I asked the guy if he had played before and he said, “I have been playing for a while, I wasn’t going to enter this year, but my daughter decided to, so I figured why not.” After he said this I was sure that it was Mingot and I made the decision to not go for the friend rule and to just grip it and rip it. Thankfully, about 5 minutes later, I saw actual Mingot walk by in the LCQ line. I breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to battle.
All I remember is that the guy brought 3 rock weaks and 1 flying weak, so my scarf terrakion and tornadus quickly 4-0ed him.
Round 2: Steve F.
I saw that the guy was running an obvious TR team, so I left Terrakion on the bench and led with Scrafty. I took out his TRoomer turn1 and got a quick 3-0. This guy was one of the coolest guys I met at the competition. When I critted him I apologized and he wasn’t angry at all. Even more I noticed him cheering for me when I had R4 on the screen and I also noticed him watching my Top 8 nationals match. Steve was a really cool guy, and I felt bad about knocking him out.
Round 3: Ryan D
This battle was scary, I got up 3-1 quckly. However that 1, was a ferrothorn, and I didn’t bring hydreigon. So I took about 10 turns attacking it and doing minimal damage. I ended up winning with my Thundurus being my last Pokemon and having 2 HP. 1-0 win
Round 4: Egdar F
I was the first person into round 4 and started looking around to see who was coming. I saw Chalkey walking my way, so I started yelling and telling him to turn around, turns out that he was on his way to Round 3. A Guy in a Skarmbliss shirt sat down next to me and introduced himself as Destinybond. We talked briefly until my opponent came. This was practically a mirror match, expect he had a thundurus spreading paralysis. The match came down to my Terrakion getting a rock slide off through a 25% chance and full paralysis and a 30% chance at flinching. 2-0 win
Finalists Lounge: In the finalists lounge I saw a lot of familiar faces, TDS, Elmo, Enfuego, Destinybond, Jhud, Glenn Arnold, Imawario, TR Jessie, Greysong, and probably some others, I can really remember. So 17 people made it to the finalists lounge and luckily they let all 17 through so I was in to nationals. I was so pumped. Last year the ChodeSmugglers had 1 representative at Nats, being Zill4. This year we had 9 being, Ryuzaki(Dallas Champ), Imperfectspider(winner of 3 regionals), DukeTheDevil(LCQ), TDS(LCQ), Dentinybond(LCQ), Elmo(LCQ), Enfuego(LCQ), Cybertron(DC Champ), and Sapphire Birch(top 16 Newark). As you can see, we are moving up in the world and are a forced to be reckoned with. Afterwards I called my dad to let him know that this trip wasn’t a waste of $500.
A bunch of us were then waiting in the lobby and Imperfectspider asked who wanted his $300 travel allowance. Elmo, Chalkey, and I all said yes. I suggested a push-up contest and Chalkey ripped of his shirt.
Round 5: Chalkey H., Elmo
We decided that Calm_Lava would count out the numbers and pace us. I was confident going into it. I knew I could beat Elmo and I assumed Chalkey couldn’t get more than 20. I pumped out 10 with a smile on my face. At 20 I started to get worried, since Chalkey and Elmo were keeping my pace. At around 35, my arms started to get wobbly, however I wanted to win. Somewhere around 40, Elmo fell out. It was also at this time when I heard someone say, “this guy hasn’t got much left.” I assume they were talking about me, however I looked up at 43 and saw Chalkey barely get up. I got my 44th up and Chalkey gave it all he had, but couldn’t get his 44th one up. I was pumped, however this turned out to just be a pride contest, since Imperfectspider will be using the 300$ to help travel to worlds.
Then we all went to Steak and Shake and did some pokemon coloring pages. We went back to the Convention Center and did that battle test thing. Wait, shit! I don’t know what days we did what. Oh well, all that matters is that we got Alexa M. on the leaderboard three times. Then we went back to the hotel to finish BigBoyMitch’s team and have a JO sesh.
Saturday: I wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy. I get coffee, then we go to the food court for some breakfast. Marriland says to never battle on an empty stomach. We meet up with other Chauds then we go watch team seniors embarrass the rest of the Senior Division. We all get signed up and sat down. I sit across from Mike Suleski, 2009 National Champion and about 180 pounds of lean mean American Pokemon Muscle. It was at this time that Mike Liesik yelled at Asian Deagle and told any other impersonators to leave for. For some reason I was about to get up, but then I remembered that I am who I thought I was. We get told the rules and then we get the matchups. Ill try to remember what I can of the matches.
Round 1:
I don’t remember anything about this match, other than that I dodged a rock slide and heat wave.
2-0 W
(1-0)
Round 2:
Guy had a straight up tailwind team. Ran an unusual Jellicent, it outsped my scarf terrakion without a scarf in tailwind. I lose to unusual set hax
1-0 L
(1-1)
Round 3: Victory Star
Victory Star was one of my favorite people that I battled. He was very nice and very friendly. Unfortunately for him, i was very ready for his Trick Room team. Double attacked trick roomer. Swept with Tornadus and Moxie scrafty.
2-0 W
(2-1)
Round 4: Zerowing/Makiri
I was nervous going into this, since I knew how good Zerowing was, however I don’t think he knew who I was, which I think helped me out. He had two crits, I dodged an overheat and got a pivotal speed tie. I probably had more hax, but it was pretty even. I felt like he outplayed me, but I think I had the advantage in team matchups.
2-0 W
(3-1)
Round 5: Metabou
Metabou’s team matched up very well against mine and he outplayed me. The only thing that kept it close was the hax I got.
1-0 L
(3-2)
Round 6:
This guy had a straight up tailwind team. I matched tailwind to keep the speed advantage and won easily.
3-0 W
(4-2)
Round 7: JHud
Jhud is a good battler and he had a krookodile and an eelektross, two pokemon which give my team a lot of trouble. I played the first turn very well and held the advantage from there.
1-0 W
(5-2)
I looked at the board and saw that I got 10th overall and qualified for the second day. Tds and Enfeugo also qualified. So 3 Chodes made it to the second day.
We went to Noodles and Company for dinner then hung out playing N64 for about the rest of the night. I also got on IRC and asked PBB and DragonFE for advice. PBB didn’t give me advice, but he gave me motivation. He told me to win so that I can go to San Diego and meet him. DragonFE told me to maintain my boner. This advice along with PBB’s motivation would lead to my success on the second day.
I 4-0 all of my opponents and get to the finals where I face Duy. We say screw VGC 2011 and we play VGC 09, old school style, standing up, on Pokemon Battle Revolution. We tie and we are Co-National champions. I become a local celebrity and all of the bitties want a piece. Then I wake up.
Sunday: I wake up at 8:00, shower and get coffee. TDS and I get to the Convention Center at 8:50. We sit down and hear the rules and what not.
Round 1: Milan Patel (Critico)
Battle 1: I see that his team looks Trick Roomish, so I lead with Scrafty and Thundurus. I go for the taunt and he didn’t have a mental herb, I didn’t have any trouble since I had the speed advantage. (3-0) W
Battle 2: I bring the same team, however he switches to a faster goodstuffs team. He had the speed advantage and I didn’t bring my landorus counter. (3-0) L
Battle 3: I bring my standard team and he brings a similar team to battle 2. The match was really close; I had some hax go my way, but nothing outrageous. (1-0) W
Round 2: Greysong
Battle 1: I get a crit on his Haxorus and a crit on his Amoonguss, I win easily due to all of the luck I got. (3-0) W
Battle 2: This battle is very close however I think I got something like two flinches and a defense lower with crunch. Idk either way I got the majority of hax. Sorry Greysong (2-0) W
Round 3: Superwolfe
Battle 1: Knowing that Wolfe runs trick room, I bring my usual trick room leads. I controlled the battle very well and won easily. (3-0) W
Battle 2: We both brought the same teams but he out predicted me and just controlled the entire match. (3-0) L
Battle 3: Man this battle could have gone either way. It was a long battle and it came down to whether Wolfe got the double protect or not. He got the double protect and took out my Hydregion to win (2-0) L
I also learned after my battle that I could have won even though he got the double protect, had I known about the speed stat on one of his pokemon. However, that’s all I’m going to say since I don’t want to give away Wolfe’s team.
Even though I lost, I was more than happy. I got a free trip to worlds and two other Chauds qualified as well (Enfuego and TDS).
Then we did some coloring and Calm_Lava took like 40-50 DS skins. My IceCreamCone wasn’t good enough to make it on the wall, so I signed it and gave it to Duy. Then we all went over to watch Marriland battle and the everyone did feelings checks. I didn’t since reaching into my bag to get my DS was WAY too much effort.
Afterwards, some of the Chodes and some of the Ducks and some of the Bluecookies all went to Ray’s hotel room to play N64. Then we got dinner at Steak and Shake/ Noodles and Company. We tried to play mini golf, but apparently everything closes at 6pm in Indianapolis. So we went to hang out at an outdoor bar that had cornhole. Duy and I then beat Bluecookies and Chadbrochill 21-0 at cornhole. GG, maybe next year world champ. Then we went back and rounded off the night with some more N64, where I stomped Bluecookies at pokemon trivia.
Woke up the next day, checked out and did leaving stuff. Elmo and I sat in the hotel lobby for like 3 hours. Then a flock of Ducks and a flock of Bluecookies walked in. We sat and talked for half an hour then Elmo and I had to leave. We then saw Bluecookies at the airport and talked with him for like an hour then we boarded and left.
Props:
Meeting so many cool people
Chodes dominating nats
Getting Top 4
Getting to go to worlds
Being crowned 2011 VGC National Push Up champion.
Slops:
Chauds not getting 16/16 second day
Not actually battling Duy in 09 finals
Not meeting Tyler
/me boosts Chauds
/me boosts friends of Chauds
My Team:
Tornadus (M) @ Flight Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Acrobatics
- Substitute
- Protect
- Tailwind
McSmuggler (Amoonguss) (M) @ Mental Herb
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Protect
- Giga Drain
DontHurtMe (Scrafty) (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Drain Punch
- Crunch
- Detect
- Fake Out
Terrakion @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Thundurus (M) @ Charti Berry
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 116 HP / 140 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Substitute
- Taunt
Don'tHitMe (Hydreigon) (M) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Dark Pulse
- Draco Meteor
- Flamethrower
- Protect
The team is pretty standard, very easy to use, very effective, and has tons of possible leads for bring 6 pick 4. I would like to give a huge shout out to Metabou for letting me use his genies, saved me a hell of a lot of time.
Round 1: Mingot Impersonator
After I got seated, some old guy who kinda looked like Mingot sat down across from me. I’ve never met Mingot and he sorta looked like him from pictures, so I started to worry. I asked the guy if he had played before and he said, “I have been playing for a while, I wasn’t going to enter this year, but my daughter decided to, so I figured why not.” After he said this I was sure that it was Mingot and I made the decision to not go for the friend rule and to just grip it and rip it. Thankfully, about 5 minutes later, I saw actual Mingot walk by in the LCQ line. I breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to battle.
All I remember is that the guy brought 3 rock weaks and 1 flying weak, so my scarf terrakion and tornadus quickly 4-0ed him.
Round 2: Steve F.
I saw that the guy was running an obvious TR team, so I left Terrakion on the bench and led with Scrafty. I took out his TRoomer turn1 and got a quick 3-0. This guy was one of the coolest guys I met at the competition. When I critted him I apologized and he wasn’t angry at all. Even more I noticed him cheering for me when I had R4 on the screen and I also noticed him watching my Top 8 nationals match. Steve was a really cool guy, and I felt bad about knocking him out.
Round 3: Ryan D
This battle was scary, I got up 3-1 quckly. However that 1, was a ferrothorn, and I didn’t bring hydreigon. So I took about 10 turns attacking it and doing minimal damage. I ended up winning with my Thundurus being my last Pokemon and having 2 HP. 1-0 win
Round 4: Egdar F
I was the first person into round 4 and started looking around to see who was coming. I saw Chalkey walking my way, so I started yelling and telling him to turn around, turns out that he was on his way to Round 3. A Guy in a Skarmbliss shirt sat down next to me and introduced himself as Destinybond. We talked briefly until my opponent came. This was practically a mirror match, expect he had a thundurus spreading paralysis. The match came down to my Terrakion getting a rock slide off through a 25% chance and full paralysis and a 30% chance at flinching. 2-0 win
Finalists Lounge: In the finalists lounge I saw a lot of familiar faces, TDS, Elmo, Enfuego, Destinybond, Jhud, Glenn Arnold, Imawario, TR Jessie, Greysong, and probably some others, I can really remember. So 17 people made it to the finalists lounge and luckily they let all 17 through so I was in to nationals. I was so pumped. Last year the ChodeSmugglers had 1 representative at Nats, being Zill4. This year we had 9 being, Ryuzaki(Dallas Champ), Imperfectspider(winner of 3 regionals), DukeTheDevil(LCQ), TDS(LCQ), Dentinybond(LCQ), Elmo(LCQ), Enfuego(LCQ), Cybertron(DC Champ), and Sapphire Birch(top 16 Newark). As you can see, we are moving up in the world and are a forced to be reckoned with. Afterwards I called my dad to let him know that this trip wasn’t a waste of $500.
A bunch of us were then waiting in the lobby and Imperfectspider asked who wanted his $300 travel allowance. Elmo, Chalkey, and I all said yes. I suggested a push-up contest and Chalkey ripped of his shirt.
Round 5: Chalkey H., Elmo
We decided that Calm_Lava would count out the numbers and pace us. I was confident going into it. I knew I could beat Elmo and I assumed Chalkey couldn’t get more than 20. I pumped out 10 with a smile on my face. At 20 I started to get worried, since Chalkey and Elmo were keeping my pace. At around 35, my arms started to get wobbly, however I wanted to win. Somewhere around 40, Elmo fell out. It was also at this time when I heard someone say, “this guy hasn’t got much left.” I assume they were talking about me, however I looked up at 43 and saw Chalkey barely get up. I got my 44th up and Chalkey gave it all he had, but couldn’t get his 44th one up. I was pumped, however this turned out to just be a pride contest, since Imperfectspider will be using the 300$ to help travel to worlds.
Then we all went to Steak and Shake and did some pokemon coloring pages. We went back to the Convention Center and did that battle test thing. Wait, shit! I don’t know what days we did what. Oh well, all that matters is that we got Alexa M. on the leaderboard three times. Then we went back to the hotel to finish BigBoyMitch’s team and have a JO sesh.
Saturday: I wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy. I get coffee, then we go to the food court for some breakfast. Marriland says to never battle on an empty stomach. We meet up with other Chauds then we go watch team seniors embarrass the rest of the Senior Division. We all get signed up and sat down. I sit across from Mike Suleski, 2009 National Champion and about 180 pounds of lean mean American Pokemon Muscle. It was at this time that Mike Liesik yelled at Asian Deagle and told any other impersonators to leave for. For some reason I was about to get up, but then I remembered that I am who I thought I was. We get told the rules and then we get the matchups. Ill try to remember what I can of the matches.
Round 1:
I don’t remember anything about this match, other than that I dodged a rock slide and heat wave.
2-0 W
(1-0)
Round 2:
Guy had a straight up tailwind team. Ran an unusual Jellicent, it outsped my scarf terrakion without a scarf in tailwind. I lose to unusual set hax
1-0 L
(1-1)
Round 3: Victory Star
Victory Star was one of my favorite people that I battled. He was very nice and very friendly. Unfortunately for him, i was very ready for his Trick Room team. Double attacked trick roomer. Swept with Tornadus and Moxie scrafty.
2-0 W
(2-1)
Round 4: Zerowing/Makiri
I was nervous going into this, since I knew how good Zerowing was, however I don’t think he knew who I was, which I think helped me out. He had two crits, I dodged an overheat and got a pivotal speed tie. I probably had more hax, but it was pretty even. I felt like he outplayed me, but I think I had the advantage in team matchups.
2-0 W
(3-1)
Round 5: Metabou
Metabou’s team matched up very well against mine and he outplayed me. The only thing that kept it close was the hax I got.
1-0 L
(3-2)
Round 6:
This guy had a straight up tailwind team. I matched tailwind to keep the speed advantage and won easily.
3-0 W
(4-2)
Round 7: JHud
Jhud is a good battler and he had a krookodile and an eelektross, two pokemon which give my team a lot of trouble. I played the first turn very well and held the advantage from there.
1-0 W
(5-2)
I looked at the board and saw that I got 10th overall and qualified for the second day. Tds and Enfeugo also qualified. So 3 Chodes made it to the second day.
We went to Noodles and Company for dinner then hung out playing N64 for about the rest of the night. I also got on IRC and asked PBB and DragonFE for advice. PBB didn’t give me advice, but he gave me motivation. He told me to win so that I can go to San Diego and meet him. DragonFE told me to maintain my boner. This advice along with PBB’s motivation would lead to my success on the second day.
I 4-0 all of my opponents and get to the finals where I face Duy. We say screw VGC 2011 and we play VGC 09, old school style, standing up, on Pokemon Battle Revolution. We tie and we are Co-National champions. I become a local celebrity and all of the bitties want a piece. Then I wake up.
Sunday: I wake up at 8:00, shower and get coffee. TDS and I get to the Convention Center at 8:50. We sit down and hear the rules and what not.
Round 1: Milan Patel (Critico)
Battle 1: I see that his team looks Trick Roomish, so I lead with Scrafty and Thundurus. I go for the taunt and he didn’t have a mental herb, I didn’t have any trouble since I had the speed advantage. (3-0) W
Battle 2: I bring the same team, however he switches to a faster goodstuffs team. He had the speed advantage and I didn’t bring my landorus counter. (3-0) L
Battle 3: I bring my standard team and he brings a similar team to battle 2. The match was really close; I had some hax go my way, but nothing outrageous. (1-0) W
Round 2: Greysong
Battle 1: I get a crit on his Haxorus and a crit on his Amoonguss, I win easily due to all of the luck I got. (3-0) W
Battle 2: This battle is very close however I think I got something like two flinches and a defense lower with crunch. Idk either way I got the majority of hax. Sorry Greysong (2-0) W
Round 3: Superwolfe
Battle 1: Knowing that Wolfe runs trick room, I bring my usual trick room leads. I controlled the battle very well and won easily. (3-0) W
Battle 2: We both brought the same teams but he out predicted me and just controlled the entire match. (3-0) L
Battle 3: Man this battle could have gone either way. It was a long battle and it came down to whether Wolfe got the double protect or not. He got the double protect and took out my Hydregion to win (2-0) L
I also learned after my battle that I could have won even though he got the double protect, had I known about the speed stat on one of his pokemon. However, that’s all I’m going to say since I don’t want to give away Wolfe’s team.
Even though I lost, I was more than happy. I got a free trip to worlds and two other Chauds qualified as well (Enfuego and TDS).
Then we did some coloring and Calm_Lava took like 40-50 DS skins. My IceCreamCone wasn’t good enough to make it on the wall, so I signed it and gave it to Duy. Then we all went over to watch Marriland battle and the everyone did feelings checks. I didn’t since reaching into my bag to get my DS was WAY too much effort.
Afterwards, some of the Chodes and some of the Ducks and some of the Bluecookies all went to Ray’s hotel room to play N64. Then we got dinner at Steak and Shake/ Noodles and Company. We tried to play mini golf, but apparently everything closes at 6pm in Indianapolis. So we went to hang out at an outdoor bar that had cornhole. Duy and I then beat Bluecookies and Chadbrochill 21-0 at cornhole. GG, maybe next year world champ. Then we went back and rounded off the night with some more N64, where I stomped Bluecookies at pokemon trivia.
Woke up the next day, checked out and did leaving stuff. Elmo and I sat in the hotel lobby for like 3 hours. Then a flock of Ducks and a flock of Bluecookies walked in. We sat and talked for half an hour then Elmo and I had to leave. We then saw Bluecookies at the airport and talked with him for like an hour then we boarded and left.
Props:
Meeting so many cool people
Chodes dominating nats
Getting Top 4
Getting to go to worlds
Being crowned 2011 VGC National Push Up champion.
Slops:
Chauds not getting 16/16 second day
Not actually battling Duy in 09 finals
Not meeting Tyler
/me boosts Chauds
/me boosts friends of Chauds
