EE's 2011 Newark/VGC warstory
 

Another year another VGC. Will the finally be the year that the father & son combo of Expert Evan & Shinkou finally qualify for an invite this year? Well that's what we keep hoping for and put in the time to try to put together such a team to accomplish that. This all started back in September when the Japanese versions were available and eventually RNG was cracked so we could breed and capture pokemon with perfectly desireable IVs and get a headstart on the rest of the population that just waited until March when the American versions finally came out. I've practiced and tested various types of teams and up until the day before Newark I even made few adjustments to my team which I'll explain later, but this is a glance of what I ended up using in Newark:
http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/641.pnghttp://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/553.pnghttp://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/642.pnghttp://archives.bulbagarden.net/medi...r_5b_593_f.pnghttp://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/639.pnghttp://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/591.png

The idea of this team is to take advantage of tailwind, use goodstuff pokemon to take advantage of the speed benefit, and provide as much overall coverage as possible, which is such a huge task even with a limited amount of pokemon available. As a recap of past years, this is how things ended up:

2006 JAA: Garden City, Long Island, NY
Expert Evan: lost round one where My drizzle gave way to a drought team and then was immediately in trouble and was swept 4-0 by a team I could've won against. Live and learn.
Shinkou: lost round one to Silv

Gamestop PBR Trumbull (2007): this post
so Shinkou beats me in finals. Too bad there were no Nintendo video game events that year I was aware of.

Showdown NY(2008): this topic
Expert Evan: finalist, lost to jbomber in the top 16 round, just one win away from going to worlds, led matches with a fake out weavile and trickroom bronzong lead.
Shinkou: finalist, lost to Blue Cookies in the top 16 round, all prior matches were easy but he wasn't as prepared for trickroom

2009: Philadelphia/VGC
Expert Evan & Shinkou: lost Round 0 to the bullshit lottery system that only allowed 128 mostly all scrubs to compete out of about 600 that showed up.

EE's VGC/Newark(2010): this topic
Expert Evan & Shinkou: lost round 3

Will 2011 be better? Well we arrived at Newark a little later since some others had suggested it would be slim to none that such a limit of 1024 for masters would be reached, so at 12pm, we saw that the line looked relatively small and decided to grab a late breakfast at a bagel shop within walking distance behind the Holiday Inn. We we came back and saw that the line was starting to move, we still guess it wasn't so big after all and when the cards got distributed and saw our numbers were 533 & 534 that confirmed we made the right decision to start as late as we did and not many players came in after us. We saw a group of smogoners moving in line way ahead of us, almost didn't recognize Carl in the next aisle, and proceeded to have everything ready.

So here again is the team I ended up using in fuller details as all were of my own RNGing to perfection where the stats counted at least:

http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/641.pnghttp://users.smogon.com/mingot/loraksballs/Master.png
Tornadus (M) @ Flight Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Acrobatics
- Taunt
- Tailwind
- Protect

This is the most sought after pokemon for VGC in my trade topic, and for good reason too: it's acrobatics easily OHKOs a majority of pesky leads while it can be used to setup tailwind and can also taunt the likes of Amoongus and trickroomers if it doesn't get fake outed. I really wanted to use whimsicott in the beginning, but ran into too many problems when testing on Pokemon Online.

http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/553.pnghttp://users.smogon.com/mingot/loraksballs/Luxury.png
Jack (Krookodile) (M) @ Chople Berry
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 92 HP / 252 Atk / 164 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Crunch

Krookodile may look like goodstuff pokemon, but its the best intimidater to help reduce attack of common physical foes to help my team last a little longer while it has some bulk and physical strength to help sweep especially in a tailwind. Notice this was caught in a luxury ball from the relic castle as all my pokemon were non-breed as they were all captured pokemon in anything else other than a pokeball.

http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/642.pnghttp://users.smogon.com/mingot/loraksballs/Dive.png
Borutorosu (Thundurus) (M) @ Charti Berry
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Grass Knot

Another high demand pokemon in my trade topic as its thunder wave is intended to stop other tailwinders in their tracks while also providing special offensive coverage.

http://archives.bulbagarden.net/medi...r_5b_593_f.pnghttp://users.smogon.com/mingot/loraksballs/Heal.png
Jellicent (F) @ Water Gem
Trait: Cursed Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Water Spout
- Shadow Ball
- Ice Beam
- Protect

The mini-kyogre of this generation with water spout dealing tons of damage especially when its in a tailwind. I made a last-minute choice to go with cursed body over water absorb as it was meant to especially cripple scarfers.

http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/639.pnghttp://users.smogon.com/mingot/loraksballs/Ultra.png
Randy (Terrakion) @ Focus Sash
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Quick Attack
- Protect
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat

Another popular pokemon used from my trade topic that I've used from the start although I've replaced lum berry with focus sash and put quick attack over quick guard to take care of other sashers especially. I had to choose between using either Terrakion or Chandelure but ended up with the faster pokemon in the event I can never setup tailwind.

http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites/bw/591.pnghttp://users.smogon.com/mingot/loraksballs/Premier.png
Haley (Amoonguss) (F) @ Coba Berry
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 14 Spd
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Spore
- Rage Powder
- Giga Drain
- Protect

This generation's blissey can be so annoying and for good reason as rage powder allows partner to deal its heavy damage while spore to cripple the opposition. Sadly I never got to use this as I'll explain later on why I should've sent it out when I didn't.

So let's proceed with the rounds:

Round 1: vs Rich H.
VashTheStampede had mentioned on IRC he was going to wear a tropical shirt and I recall what he looked like from some pictures and of course 2009 Philadelphia tournament, so I happened to see another guy in line about 10 spots behind me that was wearing a tropical red button-down shirt that also had facial hair. I took a closer look at him and was thinking that really could not be VashTS, so when it came time to play and they asked us if we knew each other, I asked the guy what's his name. He replied as "Rich". Wrong answer so I said "I don't know him", so we both go to our table and get started. The only things I can recall from the match was he had a ferrothorn that did stealth rock at least, a carracosta that did shell smash, and finally had a sigilyph. I lead with tornadus & krookodile and swept his team 4-0 as he wanted to forfeit when he sent out his last pokemon sigilyph since its only attacks charge beam and I'm guessing a psychic attack could not do anything to my krookodile. I encourage him to at least finish the match at least. It turns out last year he made it as far as round 4 but admitted he was having trouble understanding this new generation. Once our match was over, I quickly had to advance leaving me no time to send a twitter update at least.


Round 2: vs Matt L.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEinN_OnDeg (Courtesy of Kaphotics, also battle video 23-05957-91931)
Matt is a younger looking oriental guy that admitted he was very nervous, so once again I lead with tornadus & krookodile only this time I setup the tailwind while foe volcarona did its speed/sp.atk boosting move, and then I proceeded to do acrobatics and earthquake to KO both leads only this time volcarona's flame body burnt my tornados and even though it was sashed it still got quaked out. He now sends in mienshao and his intimidating krookodile and now a burnt tornados cannot OHKO mienshao. I admit I made a move mistake by having krookodile do rock slide and should've other done the stab move with earthquake or switched in my jellicent to be creatively better to get mienshao to crash on a hi jump kick. I still had my tailwind up so that thunderus and jellicent were able to get the job done. After the match Matt asked me for my honest opinion as to how he did, and my reply was that he at least got 2 of my pokemon down and did better than the first time I ever participated where I got 4-0d (reference to 2006 JAA) and he was like oh wow. I took my time to take some deep breaths and updated my twitter before proceeding to the next round.

Round 3: vs Sucker4Jessica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pP45Ktoo4M (Courtesy of Cybertron on big screen)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJGJdaYQpdg (Courtesy of Sucker4Jess with narration, also battle video 34-16068-01441)
This time on the big screen, and lots of smogoners watching, so I acknowledge the crowd and quietly hope I'm there not to disappoint. I will not go into much detail about this match as many thanks to Cybertron this is on youtube as I didn't get to record this match anyways. Things got off to a decent start by once again leading with tornados & krookodile and setting up the tailwind and KOing a hydreigon, but things rapidly went downhill when dealing with foes eelektross & amoongus as neither tornados, krookodile, thunderus nor terrakion could do much to them except finally getting rid of that amoongus. While each year it stings me as to what I could've done differently, this year was no different. What could I have done differently, well as the background song in the video goes, you have one chance. I could've chosen my amoongus instead of terrakion, which I know can outspeed an elektross in a tailwind at least, or when I was down to my final pokemon I could've called for a hack check since I was already quite frustrated with getting past this dude. I'm very curious as to what were all the stats on this eelektross so I can at least have something that can possibly better prepare for it if amoongus can't quite do the job. So my tourney quest at 2011/Newark has come to an end.

For the rest of the time, I at least got to meet most of the smogoners that said they were going at least, and learned many of them didn't even make it to the finalist lounge, including last year's Newark winner TTS. I also learned with disappointment that my son Shinkou didn't even make it past round 1 (battle video: 56-38280-23481) but did get some action in the King of the Hill area.

I stayed around and watched the finals this year as I could've thought that my round 3 opponent was playing ImperfectSpider in the haxy semi-finals as the guy had the same appearance and all, but today I learned the following:
Stuff like this really bums me when it happens and there is nothing I can do about it, and this sadly has been confirmed. I spent since last fall RNG breeding and catching pokemon that I could use for this year's VGC only to once again get cut short from getting further in the tourney. On the bright side, both Shinkou and I shall intend to be at the San Diego LCQs in August, so hopefully we'll have better luck then even though I expect the competition will be much tougher indeed, so once again which us luck.

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpg/ce6...626ba9d3_r.jpg

Good read EE.

Too bad with the way things turned out, but I'm sure you and Shinkou will kick some ass at the LCQ!

good luck next time

also lol at the LV 53 Hydreigon

Is Gen even legit? And if it is, how do you have to nerve to use it? Hmph.

Anyway, good job getting to round 3 EE, I saw you a few times but I was too scared to talk to you :x lol but yeah, I was the short brown kid in the blue Lucario world's 08 shirt, idk if you saw me or not. I made round 4 in Seniors. But yeah, Hardy Thundurus was funny haha. Nice warstory and good luck at LCQ at Worlds!

Hardy nature on Thundurus?

pity that you didn't get as far as you could have due to some unlucky damage rolls and misses.

nice warstory, though. Having videos always makes everything a lot better, too!

It's not. By the way I think I saw you because I remember seeing someone with the shirt you described.

Damn... I didn't think you would lose to a bulky Eelektross. I hope you have better luck on the next one. You should be glad your able to try again. (I don't even have the money to get myself to San Diego)

The one turn that really caught my attention in your R3 battle was when it was your Thundurus and Terrakion vs. the Amoonguss and Eelektross, and you went for the T-Wave + Close Combat after he Rage Powdered. I think that if you HP Ice'd the Amoonguss and used Rock Slide instead, it would have been game right there.

Good luck in San Diego, hopefully I'll be there to cheer you on :)

Another mistake you made was T-waving while I had Amoongus out, while I am fully aware that you were aiming for Eelektross with that T-wave. Furthermore you should have Hidden Power Ice'd the Eelektross instead of using Grass Knot, which I actually expected you to do. Considering you have 31 Sp.Atk IVs to my Eelektross's 22 Sp.Def IV stat, Hidden Power Ice would have done 25.57 - 30.68% which translates into 45 - 54 hit points worth of damage. More than enough to finish it off.

Get out of here with that gen shit.

EE, that sucks that you lost. It was nice to meet you and hopefully we can hang out in San Diego if I am able to go.

Actually it was timid nature, correction made. Time to correct on my Pokemon Online teambuilder.

I thought you posted you team in response, looks like it got deleted. Would you please PM it to me then? I recall the eelektross was adamant with a variety of EV distribution.

I suppose pokegen, if done correctly, can come across as legit. Little things like having a hydreigon actually at level 53 could've been avoided. I was a bit concerned that because my team all came from my Japanese ROM version with patches whether that would've effected my legitimacy but others have done well and succeeded with my Tornadus and OmegaDonut had confirmed it would not be a problem when he got as far as top 16 in Seattle.

Nice read EE! I am not sure if I met you on Saturday. But you are from Connecticut too?!?! I'm from the Northeast though lol. A level 53 Hydreigon. Hmm?

I saw your battle on the TV! Nice meeting you too. Sucks that you lost R3; I did too :(

I re-posted the team over Youtube. I'll be back later at 6pm EST. I gtg 2 work

Hey EE i met you before the start of the finalist lounge. Sorry that you went out like that but hopefully when you get to san diego you will have a better outcome than all the years you competed.

Great seeing you at Newark, EE, and it's a shame that it had to end like that for you dude. Like others have said before me, I hope that you and Shinkou own it at LCQ!

Thanks Klyle2009 (Sucker4Jessica) for posting to me your team as I was able to put together a wifi simulation team using RNG flawless pokemon to recreate our battle just to see what would've happened if I didn't make those few mistakes that costed me the match. While the outcome would've more likely come in my favor, given the nature of misses, critical hits, flinches and paralysis, it would be safe to say the outcome could still go either way.

@RedSpyda: congrats on making it as far, thanks.

@imperfectspider, same here, hopefully we'll meet again in San Diego.

Props:
- no limit reached this year
- arriving and not have to rush about where I was in line
- getting to stay around longer to meet more of the other smogonites I missed last year
- Making it to round 3 at least
- few of my matches are now on youtube, able to better analyze for future VGC tournaments now.

Slops:
- obviously not making it past round 3
- Shinkou losing round 1 with a team that got him ranked on the top 25 on Pokemon Online. I guess that goes for show that the real tournament makes simulator matches seem like nothing.

I will most likely make some changes before San Diego as I shall continue to playtest on Pokemon Online and see what happens in Indianapolis. Hopefully in San Diego I won't have to face fellow smogonites or other counters as the top 8 is what counts to get into Worlds at least.

Edit: for those curious about my pokemon's nicknames, which had a limit of 5 characters as per the japanese version, they were named after Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbeans, Haley Reinhart from American Idol Season 10, and the late Randy Savage.

I feel the same simulator pain... I basically got knocked out round one by Escavalier (in Trick Room), which I didn't see in the simulator at all. Honestly, I had no idea what its stats were or what sets people run on it. Hopefully we'll both do better in Indy ^.^

As an update I have a few "what-if" battle videos available trying to replicate that round 3 match to the best of my ability as to what I could've done to win that match taking into consideration the misses, critical hits, flinches and paralysis that could've affected the outcome.

For those of you that are still on the wifi blacklist, don't get any ideas as it takes a genius to pokegen a team and make it past the finalist lounge. In this day and age where it's easily possible to RNG for best possible pokemon and also clone copies for others to use as well, you anti-RNGers or anti-cloners are at a big disadvantage especially when speed counts, having the bulk to survive hits and the flawless attack to take another opponent down may mean the difference of advancing to the finals or the agony of defeat.

Unlucky EE, I was rooting for you. I think the biggest mistake in that match was not using Rock Slide with Terrakion when it came to Terrakion + Thundurus vs. Amoonguss + Eelektross. I'm pretty sure Rock Slide could have caused enough damage, if not then at least there was a chance of flinch. The extra damage on Amoonguss from using HP Ice would have been beneficial as well, probably a KO to be honest. Maybe you'd have been 2-1 up against your foe's Terrakion, with your own Terrakion and Thundurus. It would have surely been a victory.

Hopefully you can make it to Nationals LCQ or something, a second bite at the cherry is surely worth the journey. I think you could probably do better than you did.

I have to agree with Havoc, I narrated our battle as well as two other VGC battles I had on the Global Battle Union prior to VGCs. It should be posted tomorrow. I do remember stating that I would have had to rely on Terrakion's Rock Slide getting a flinch and/or you being fully paralyzed on your Terrakion in my narrative in order to pull off a win in the 2-1 scenario. To be honest, I didn't expect Eelektross to live the Grass Knot. It wasn't until I ran dmg calcs when I was like " O ok, HP Ice would have killed me!" We all make mistakes, like me NOT Protecting with Hydreigon when you had Tornadus ad Krookodile out second turn. Kick butt at LCQ though. My work schedule shuns me from attending. Do it big EE

Haha, those PO matches mean nothing when it comes to the real thing. I spent over 4 months practicing on PO and probably over 500 hours and used my team which peaked me at Rank 6 on PO just to lose in Round 4; and I'm a Senior X_X It was disappointing but it taught me a good lesson though. Next year, I'm spending no more than 2 weeks on PO and 1 month creating my team, that's settled lol.

For those interested, my dad included the battle video code to my first round battle in his opening post. I will also include it here: 56-38280-23481.

Next time when I play at the LCQ in San Diego, I better study my damage calculations because my lack of knowledge in knowing that Gross Knot on Jellicent would have put it low enough to keep Thundurus alive and that Close Combat would have OHKO'd Excadrill even with Chople Berry if not at more than 95% HP.

i spent 8months practicing on po and I can say it was worth it for me :D Learned so much and got better as a player.

I agree completely. Furthermore, sorry for the late YouTube post, but here it is. Me vs 2 Random GBU VGC players and vs ExpertEvan. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJGJdaYQpdg

The PO metagame is a lot more different to the actual VGC one which is the general rule of thumb when practising for VGC on PO, just remember that :)