So... I'm Arielle. That's not actually my real-life name, but who cares - after all, this is a forum about Pokémon, who don't exist in real life either.
I'll skip over the personal stuff, since it would probably sound like I'm making up sob stories for Tumblr. The only thing you should know about me is that I'm from Poland, which means my timezone is CET and I'm not a native English speaker.
Anyway, the Pokémon franchise isn't very popular with Polish people - the games aren't sold in popular stores (heck, nothing from Nintendo is sold there) and the anime is only aired on a single TV channel. That being said, I still managed to get to know about the series. A few years ago, I bought myself a GBA off the Internet. Not because I wanted to "relive my childhood" or anything, I just wanted to see how video games were like in the olden days. After I received the console, I started looking for games on the same website where I bought the GBA, and I found Pokémon Emerald. I decided I might give it a shot, so I bought it. I had a lot of fun with that game even though it turned out to be a bootleg, so I couldn't do stuff like growing Berries. I also didn't have any friends to trade or battle with - heck, I didn't have any friends at all - so I just played the game alone. I remember how I spent several hours trying to catch a Feebas on Route 111, and I finally did it.
Anyway, several years later I got a 3DS XL for my birthday. Along with it, I got two games - Bravely Default and Pokémon Y. The former I despised (can't quite remember why, but that's not important), although I actually enjoyed playing the latter. I only spent 40 hours or so playing it, as I didn't do much post-game. A few months later, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were announced (HOENN CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!!!!! 1111111). I got Alpha Sapphire for Christmas and I enjoyed it even more than Pokémon Y. In fact, have played it for about 100 hours and I still play it to this day. Anyway, after I beat the Elite Four, I thought I would be able to win Link Battles using the team that I had. Boy, was I wrong. As one might say, I got 'rekt' before I could even beat one of the opposing Pokémon. So, I searched the internet for competitive battling strategies, and all sorts of stuff came up. EV training guides, breeding guides and, of course, Smogon. That's the short story of how I came here.
So, feel free to ask me any questions you might have (unless you don't have any, in which case that's no problem) and I apologise for my poor English. I'm from Poland, as I said before.