A Noob's VGC Warstory - Salem, OR

Dragonking700 · Nov 16th, 2011, 7:25:09 PM

Yup, I'm what you would call a noob on Smogon. I've been lurking for quite a while, but I finally decided it's time to introduce myself...

Hi! My name is Brandon Spicer, and this is my first warstory EVER, so please go easy on me if I mess up. :P

First off I need to give a HUGE thank you to Draco123 for giving me my entire team the night before the event. That was really awesome of him, especially since I was obviously a noob at VGC and he didn't even know me. Thanks a lot man XD

Okay, so I literally found out I could go to Regionals at precisely 9:00 PM on Saturday night. (FYI Salem is about five hours drive from where I live, not too far, but not close enough to make a single-day-trip easy D:)Because I had thought I wasn't going for the past few weeks, I didn't spend much time fine-tuning my team. And as you can see, it's pretty mediocre:

...

Not bad, but I knew it wasn't perfect by any means. Now on to the battles!
Please be warned, I didn't really keep track of matches, so there isn't too much detail :(

...

So, I finished 9th. Not bad for my first VGC where I actually knew what I was doing. If I had just won that last game, I would have made top 4 :(
Oh well, no big deal.
I also hope my noobish team doesn't upset you too much XD.

I had a lot of fun, and had to buy an Axew plush to remember the great time I had. I've decided from now on I will collect dragon pokemon plushies and attach them to my person whenever I attend an event in the future. This is how you will know me from this day forward, as the DRAGON KING!!!

But seriously, great job everyone, congrats to the Capri Niggas for owning the event, and the SPF guys for being awesome, and the tournament staff for also being awesome, and a big thank you to my dad for driving me there!

And I will see you all next year! (or maybe at the BC regional, possibly.)

~Brandon -Dragonking700

Stormfront · Nov 16th, 2011, 8:02:30 PM

Not bad man.

My record at Doswell might've been the exact same if we had to go to a 7th round.

(I ended 5-1 in 3rd).

Good luck if you go to BC.

**R Inanimate** · Nov 16th, 2011, 9:00:53 PM

Good Job on the 5-2 finish,

Oh, and it was a 2011 Nats shirt, not a Worlds shirt that I was wearing, didn't get to go to Worlds in VGC 2011, although I was close.

nachocheese999 · Nov 16th, 2011, 9:12:17 PM

Good Job on your first VGC tournament! Good Luck at nationals!

Dragonking700 · Nov 16th, 2011, 9:15:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat R Inanimate

Good Job on the 5-2 finish,

Oh, and it was a 2011 Nats shirt, not a Worlds shirt that I was wearing, didn't get to go to Worlds in VGC 2011, although I was close.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.
Okay, still an honor to battle a Nationals qualifier XD.

Terrador · Nov 16th, 2011, 9:22:39 PM

iirc, I kept on Protect shuffling while you HH + (insert appropriate move) spammed with Cresselia and Vaporeon. I'm p. sure it ended 2-0, but I was facepalming through the entire match. I think I ran Aboma/Starmie/Politoed/Ludicolo there.

GreySong · Nov 16th, 2011, 9:23:07 PM

Congrats on getting 9th!!!! See you at Nats!! :3

nachocheese999 · Nov 16th, 2011, 11:38:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Dragonking700

Round 6. vs. ???

This was against an older guy who was REALLY serious. I mean like no BS serious. He was probably in his thirties or forties. I just remember he had a lot of pokemon that were weak to abomasnow, and I got up a trick room and swept his team. The game ended with an HP ice from Zapdos on his garchomp. He let out an angry "DAMN IT!" and then he tried to act like I was hacking. It was pretty funny, he was like "That's a pretty interesting Zapdos you got there..."
Me: "um...thanks...haha."
Him: *sudden direct eye contact* "...WHERE'D YOU GET IT?"
Me: "uuuuh I got it from a friend."
Him: *raises hand* "Can you please check this Zapdos for me?"

LOL! You should have trolled him by saying you secretly got it AR hacked and its stats are like way higher than its suppose to be :)

HDmvp41 · Nov 17th, 2011, 12:29:56 AM

nice job bro i was at the battle next to you in the final round. It was my idea to start the shirtless thing =D.

but great job you shouldve taken some capri from us nigs!!

Dragonking700 · Nov 17th, 2011, 3:27:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat nachocheese999

LOL! You should have trolled him by saying you secretly got it AR hacked and its stats are like way higher than its suppose to be :)

Haha, that would have been pretty funny, I can just imagine his face XD
I was sort of caught off guard though, I had no idea why he thought it was hacked. Maybe he didn't know how hidden power works :/
And I have to admit, the way I mumbled "uuuuh, I got it from a friend" did sound a bit suspicious :P

HDmvp41, thanks! And yeah, that was pretty awesome :) I'm sure that would not have gone over as well in the younger age division, so all my regrets for not being a senior this year are lost XD

jessifer · Nov 17th, 2011, 4:56:42 PM

Congrats! Hope you do well!

Showsni · Nov 17th, 2011, 4:59:12 PM

Nice story! Your team might convince me to try Trick Room again at this VGC... (I already have a 2011 TR VGC team and a TR compatible Abomasnow from 2010).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Dragonking700

I was sort of caught off guard though, I had no idea why he thought it was hacked. Maybe he didn't know how hidden power works :/

He probably just didn't kow about RNGing. If you're playing properly, getting a Zapdos with good nature, good IVs and perfect Hidden Power type and power is astronomically difficult. (And make it shiny just for lols)

Dragonking700 · Nov 17th, 2011, 7:54:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Showsni

Nice story! Your team might convince me to try Trick Room again at this VGC... (I already have a 2011 TR VGC team and a TR compatible Abomasnow from 2010).

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. The downside of course is it's very easy for an experienced player to figure out what you're trying to do and counter it. One fun thing I've tried is using Whimsicott as my trick room user. This really messes with your opponent, because if they have a trick room team, they will set it up right away. And if they have pokes that are slower than yours, you can simply counter-trickroom so that you are faster.

Wolt · Nov 22nd, 2011, 11:26:58 PM

I completely forgot that a guy from Yakima was going to this. I was gonna make it a point to go say hi. Good job man taking 9th, but it looks like you got beat up a bit by SPF, which is a bit sad because we had to beat ourselves up as well.

Small question, what would your team do if you ever fought someone with fake out? Seems like your trick room team could get beat up real quick if you can't get it up.

Dragonking700 · Nov 23rd, 2011, 3:53:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Wolt

I completely forgot that a guy from Yakima was going to this. I was gonna make it a point to go say hi. Good job man taking 9th, but it looks like you got beat up a bit by SPF, which is a bit sad because we had to beat ourselves up as well.

Small question, what would your team do if you ever fought someone with fake out? Seems like your trick room team could get beat up real quick if you can't get it up.

Fake out is always a problem, but cresselia can usually take several hard hits, even super effective attacks, and still live long enough to set up trick room. So in the near-worst case scenario, where cresselia gets the fake out and/or abomasnow gets a heat wave or rock slide, it's usually not too much of a problem, because cresselia will probably live through it, and abomasnow being sashed will probably live through it also (unless it's in sand:P). Again though, if you know what you're doing, it's not that hard to counter. :( I think game #2 started out with an imprison that really messed things up.
Conkeldurr functions pretty well outside of trick room, but the recoil+weather just ruins it...

Tween Star · Nov 24th, 2011, 2:40:23 AM

add me on facebook if you want

~~ZachDro~~ · Nov 24th, 2011, 4:09:23 AM

Well done Dragonking. Hopefully you can get to BC for the spring one. Good luck!

Nov 16th, 2011, 7:25:09 PM	#1
Dragonking700 Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 109 Yakima, WA	A Noob's VGC Warstory - Salem, OR Yup, I'm what you would call a noob on Smogon. I've been lurking for quite a while, but I finally decided it's time to introduce myself... Hi! My name is Brandon Spicer, and this is my first warstory EVER, so please go easy on me if I mess up. :P First off I need to give a HUGE thank you to Draco123 for giving me my entire team the night before the event. That was really awesome of him, especially since I was obviously a noob at VGC and he didn't even know me. Thanks a lot man XD Okay, so I literally found out I could go to Regionals at precisely 9:00 PM on Saturday night. (FYI Salem is about five hours drive from where I live, not too far, but not close enough to make a single-day-trip easy D:)Because I had thought I wasn't going for the past few weeks, I didn't spend much time fine-tuning my team. And as you can see, it's pretty mediocre: ... Cresselia (F) @ Leftovers Ability: Levitate EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd) - Ice Beam - Helping Hand - Trick Room - Protect Pretty standard trick room team, with Cresselia as my trick room user. This thing is pretty awesome, as it can take most super effective hits and still live long enough to do its job. I couldn't really decide between psychic or ice beam for the attacking move, and finally concluded that either way I would always find myself in situations where I'm saying "Crap, why didn't I choose the other one?" Helping hand ensures Abomasnow's blizzard ohkos latios, zapdos, and puts a fairly large dent in things like ludicolo. Abomasnow (M) @ Focus Sash Ability: Snow Warning EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd) - Blizzard - Grass Knot - Ice Shard - Protect Focus Sash didn't see much use, but when it did it was worth it. Ice shard didn't help me out that much. It doesn't ohko anything (not to mention yache D:), and everything that's weak to ice usually switches out or get's taken out by blizzard after TR is set up anyway. Despite his faults, snowman is a pretty solid pokemon, and ice is definitely a good type to have in this format. I chose grass knot over giga drain because it takes care of tyranitar, a common switch in to an abomasnow. Zapdos @ Life Orb Ability: Pressure EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd) - Thunderbolt - Heat Wave - Hidden Power [Ice] - Protect Zapdos' speed is high enough that he is outsped by a lot of stuff in trick room :( HP ice is very handy for surprising garchomp or salamence, but still useless against latios, as there's no way Zapdos can survive a dragon gem dragon pulse or draco meteor. Heatran (M) @ Fire Gem Ability: Flash Fire EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SAtk Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd) - Heat Wave - Earth Power - Flash Cannon - Protect Standard standard standard. Conkeldurr (M) @ Flame Orb Ability: Guts EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SDef Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd) - Mach Punch - Drain Punch - Rock Slide - Protect This guy was a mixed blessing. Nothing can match the amazing power of a guts-boosted Drain punch, which has the added benefit of healing burn damage. The problem? Burn damage and hail damage really add up. Especially when you're forced to protect. In the future I might experiment with a non-trickroom set using papaya berry and payback, to really surprise cresselia (that's still not an ohko though, cresselia is such a beast.) Yup I'm getting off topic. Vaporeon (M) @ Wacan Berry Ability: Water Absorb EVs: 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SAtk Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd) - Scald - Ice Beam - Hidden Power [Electric] - Protect Okay, here's where you really start shouting "NOOB!" In my defense, it was a last minute team, and I really love vaporeon. I know ludicolo, jellicent, and politoed are all superior options. Basically these are the three reasons I chose to run it: 1. Higher sp. atk., specifically more powerful ice beam. 2. Slower for trickroom 3. All the pros immediately assume you are a noob and won't predict. (this actually kind of worked XD) Not bad, but I knew it wasn't perfect by any means. Now on to the battles! Please be warned, I didn't really keep track of matches, so there isn't too much detail :( ... Round 1 vs. an old guy. This guy must have been in his fifties. Which is pretty cool I guess. He was obviously not competitive though, and this was a pretty cheap win. I saw he had all kinds of random stuff in his team, lucario, altaria, armaldo, etc. He leads with altaria and uses SING on my cresselia...thankfully, I didn't need trickroom anyway, as I saw vaporeon (don't judge me!) could wall pretty much his whole team. So I helping hand and ice beam his altaria, and then it was pretty much spam attacks until I win...at one point he brought out lucario and used FORCE PALM on my cresselia... :/ 1-0 Round 2 vs. Kacey Traver I saw the SPF t-shirt and right away I knew this was going to be my first real match of the day. I believe he used chandelure, latios, hariyama, and metagross, (maybe not in that order) and I led with Cresselia and abomasnow with heatran and conkeldurr in the back. I think I caught him off guard at first when I actually predicted (my vaporeon scheme worked!) but he ended up with the win in the end. It was definitely worth it though, because this game contained one of the funniest moments of the entire night. So I have conkeldurr and heatran out. Trick room is up. He has chandelure and hariyama, both at low health. I assumed he would protect with chandelure, expecting an earth power, so he could take out my heatran with hariyama. So I decided to heat wave, since he wasn't going to use a fire attack anyway. I may have had a chance, but a crit on a fake out sealed my fate. (the critical hit from fake out caused conkeldurr to die from burn and hail :/ As I said earlier, a big downside to this team. However, I probably should have at least expected the fake out and protected, which would have allowed me to get off one final mach punch.) Here's the hilarious part though. I use heat wave. It misses hariyama....and KOs CHANDELURE. This was my face: O_____________O He explained to me after the match that he just didn't run flash fire, and that his chandelure was scarfed. But that was still probably the funniest moment of the whole tournament. Even though I lost, I was happy that I at least put up a decent challenge for him (our match was just a few seconds short of hitting the hour mark) and his words "Your actually really good" made the whole trip worth it 100%. XD 1-1 Round 3. vs. Jessica Bulgar She had a fairly decent team, but unfortunately for her she got off to a bad start by using fakeout on my abomosnow, which I protected, allowing trickroom to get set up. Since her team consisted of very fast frail pokemon, I was able to plow through it pretty easily with a few blizzards. I did get one crit on blizzard which KOd her chandelure though, so sorry for that Jessica. :( 2-1 Round 4. vs. Terrador Terrador, you could probably help me fill in the blanks here. I remember I led with vaporeon and KOd his starmie with HP electric. When he saw vapporeon, he was a little bit afraid to predict XD it worked again! 3-1 Round 5. vs. R Inanimate I saw the Nationals shirt, and I was scared. Fortunately for me though, he made a bit of a misplay at the beginning, and then switched his politoed into a blizzard from abomasnow, which hit AND froze. Not only that, but I used blizzard probably three or four times in the rain, and it didn't miss once. Sorry for the haxy game dude. It was still a challenge though, and win or loose, it's always an honor to play someone who's already proven their skill in the past. 4-1 Round 6. vs. ??? This was against an older guy who was REALLY serious. I mean like no BS serious. He was probably in his thirties or forties. I just remember he had a lot of pokemon that were weak to abomasnow, and I got up a trick room and swept his team. The game ended with an HP ice from Zapdos on his garchomp. He let out an angry "DAMN IT!" and then he tried to act like I was hacking. It was pretty funny, he was like "That's a pretty interesting Zapdos you got there..." Me: "um...thanks...haha." Him: sudden direct eye contact "...WHERE'D YOU GET IT?" Me: "uuuuh I got it from a friend." Him: raises hand "Can you please check this Zapdos for me?" 5-1 Final round vs. Lane Tower At this point, everybody was getting kind of crazy. Some of the guys started taking off their shirts. It was hilarious. The organizer dude was like "ooh yeah, they're getting shirtless over here!" and then he was like "Sorry guys, but this is technically a children's game, so I'm going to have to ask you to put the shirts back on. I got payback for my hax against R Inanimate this game. He thunder waved everything, and my cresselia was fully paralyzed for like THREE TURNS STRAIGHT. I made several misplays as well, switching in my Conkeldurr to his metagross and cresselia, which took both a psychic and a meteor mash, finishing it off before it could do anything. Then I sent in zapdos, which was also paralyzed. By now I knew it was pretty much over. Good game man. 5-2 So, I finished 9th. Not bad for my first VGC where I actually knew what I was doing. If I had just won that last game, I would have made top 4 :( Oh well, no big deal. I also hope my noobish team doesn't upset you too much XD. I had a lot of fun, and had to buy an Axew plush to remember the great time I had. I've decided from now on I will collect dragon pokemon plushies and attach them to my person whenever I attend an event in the future. This is how you will know me from this day forward, as the DRAGON KING!!! But seriously, great job everyone, congrats to the Capri Niggas for owning the event, and the SPF guys for being awesome, and the tournament staff for also being awesome, and a big thank you to my dad for driving me there! And I will see you all next year! (or maybe at the BC regional, possibly.) ~Brandon -Dragonking700 __________________ Oppan Gangnam Style! 〈(￣ー￣)ノ Last edited by Dragonking700; Nov 17th, 2011 at 7:56:47 PM.

Nov 16th, 2011, 9:00:53 PM	#3
R Inanimate Serenely Graciously Flinching Moderator Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 682 Vancover, Ability Region	Good Job on the 5-2 finish, Oh, and it was a 2011 Nats shirt, not a Worlds shirt that I was wearing, didn't get to go to Worlds in VGC 2011, although I was close. __________________ Just another rainy day on the train... VGCS Jaunary International, 165W-30L-27D/C, 1873, 13th Place VGC 2013 Winter Regional, Salem OR, 1st Place

Nov 16th, 2011, 9:12:17 PM	#4
nachocheese999 Join Date: Jul 2011 Posts: 242 Home of Ebonics	Good Job on your first VGC tournament! Good Luck at nationals! __________________ The NACHOandCHEESEmarket!!!! open for urgent trades or pending trades

Nov 16th, 2011, 9:23:07 PM	#7
GreySong Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 375 Illinois	Congrats on getting 9th!!!! See you at Nats!! :3 __________________ Officially moved to NuggetBridge.

Nov 17th, 2011, 12:29:56 AM	#9
HDmvp41 Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 25 Kennewick WA	nice job bro i was at the battle next to you in the final round. It was my idea to start the shirtless thing =D. but great job you shouldve taken some capri from us nigs!! __________________ Salem VGC 2012: 2nd place Leader of Seattle/Tri-cites VGC Capri Niggas.

Nov 16th, 2011, 8:02:30 PM	#2
Stormfront Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 472 Digital World	Not bad man. My record at Doswell might've been the exact same if we had to go to a 7th round. (I ended 5-1 in 3rd). Good luck if you go to BC. __________________ Trade Thread \| 5G RNG Guide Please Respond to All CMTs in my thread. VGC '12 Doswell Regional 3rd Place, Masters Division.

Nov 16th, 2011, 9:22:39 PM	#6
Terrador Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 3,008 One final hurrah before I depart.	iirc, I kept on Protect shuffling while you HH + (insert appropriate move) spammed with Cresselia and Vaporeon. I'm p. sure it ended 2-0, but I was facepalming through the entire match. I think I ran Aboma/Starmie/Politoed/Ludicolo there.

Nov 17th, 2011, 4:56:42 PM	#11
jessifer Join Date: Sep 2011 Posts: 271 A magical place~	Congrats! Hope you do well! __________________ RMTs: Sun-OU RMT * Rain-Ubers RMT * Hazards-OU RMT Art Thread

Nov 22nd, 2011, 11:26:58 PM	#14
Wolt Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 1,099 Moxee, WA.	I completely forgot that a guy from Yakima was going to this. I was gonna make it a point to go say hi. Good job man taking 9th, but it looks like you got beat up a bit by SPF, which is a bit sad because we had to beat ourselves up as well. Small question, what would your team do if you ever fought someone with fake out? Seems like your trick room team could get beat up real quick if you can't get it up. __________________ GET AT ME.

Nov 24th, 2011, 2:40:23 AM	#16
Tween Star Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 16 Spokane	add me on facebook if you want __________________ SPF

Nov 24th, 2011, 4:09:23 AM	#17
~~ZachDro~~ Banned deucer. Join Date: Apr 2011 Posts: 176 Delete my Smogon account please	Well done Dragonking. Hopefully you can get to BC for the spring one. Good luck!