Hi, my name is Unreality. I participated in the San Jose regional on May 21. However, I live in Massachusetts, and I'm writing this warstory from there. EDIT: The reason this warstory is so late is because I was in California from Friday to Tuesday with no actual computer to write from. I was invited to attend a conference with my dad Sunday to Tuesday. I convinced my dad to fly in two days early for the pokemon event and he agreed.
I flew in to San Jose on Friday with my dad, and we figured we would drive to the conference center to compete in the tournament the next day. I had been playing on Pokemon Online since November/December, but most of the time I gimmicked around with a Rain team. I built my Regionals team over April Break, and refined it (with help) the last two weeks. I had my entire team RNGed one week beforehand.
Of course, I brought plushies.
The Team:
Muffin the Krookodile (Named after Muffinhead)
Brownie the Eelektross
COokie the Terrakion (Named after CO)
not a typo
Cake the Thundurus
Donut the Landorus (named after OmegaDonut)
Pie the Amoonguss
I'm not including sets here; I think I might want to run something like this for Nationals. Also, I really don't want to see this team anywhere on PO or anything. You can probably glean enough from my game to see what the team is like, but I'm not revealing anything.
PREGAME LETS GO LETS GO
We arrived in California at about 9 PST. There was nothing more I could do to prepare my team. I went to the Battle Subway and powered through all 21 battles. I went to bed at about 1 PST, trying to keep the butterflies out of my stomach.
Arrival/Waiting
We arrived at the convention center at about 7:40. When we got in the door, there was already a very long line which wrapped all around the hallway to the door.
Quickly, I jumped in line behind two juniors and a senior. The juniors were talking about what they were going to do with the 3DS if they won. They were concerned about what would happen if they were going to play each other. I told them about friend rule and we chatted for a little bit.
Eventually (at around 8:15), a red-shirted TPCI official (later revealed to me to be Mike Liesik) came around and gave us all registration tickets.
It was about 45 minutes after we got the tickets before my section of the line moved into the section where we were given a talk by Mike about the battle box.
Finally, the line moved, and we were in! First, I went to a line where competitors would download the ruleset from a box and hand in their registration card. At that booth, I got a green paper wristband and a card that looked like this:
imagine this without the three wins
After that, I was pointed to go stand in a line where there were two boys waiting. These two boys were friends and the guy in the white t-shirt was like "one of you two wanna fight him" and the more courageous of the two said "ya sure". So we went to the first row of the black tables (the juniors were at the white).
Round One: VS Nicholas S.
When I asked him about Smogon, I'm pretty sure he said he knew what it was; I asked if he had an account at Smogon, and he shook his head. He had a trick room theme- it was the only trick room team I saw all day. His team was Musharna, Serperior, Sesmitoad, and Conkeldurr. His Musharna fired off a Trick Room but I kept Sporing his pokemon with Amoonguss. I remember that once Rocky Helmet activated from his Sesmitoad i was like "lol i got this". I won 3-0.
During this match, the amazing announcer Nick McCord thought it would be a good idea to ask the crowd where the furthest contestant was from. He got a few people from Arizona and then my dad was like "Yeah, we're from Boston." Nick was shocked and he didn't stop talking about that all tournament.
Once I had won, I called over a white-shirt assistant who cut the wristband off of my opponent and he walked out of the playing area. I advanced to the second row of black tables, where my opponent was waiting for me.
Round Two: VS Kristy
She didn't know what Smogon was. In Team Preview, her leads were Whimsicott and Terrakion, so I made sure to play Amoonguss to block the incoming Beat Up. However, she played Jellicent and Amoonguss. My Amoonguss was faster than hers, and Spored her Amoonguss and then Jellicent. After I had killed her Conkeldurr, I sent in Terrakion and Rock Slided for the victory. I forget the last pokemon she had because it went down too quickly. 4-0
The assistant came over and did the whole cutty-wristband thing again. They ushered me to the third row of tables, where I sat for a while and waited until a third challenger came.
Round Three: VS Cameron C.
Haha I really do not remember anything from this match at all. He didn't know what Smogon was and I was confused over what round match this was. We started our match and the only pokemon I remember were Archeops and Volcarona which both died to a Krookodile's Rock Slide. The rest of his pokemon died very quickly. 3-0
After this match, I was directed to the Finalists Lounge where I was very nervous. The assistant didn't know whether this was top 32 or top 16. And then Jeremy (alphaomega) showed up! I introduced myself and we started talking. Kamz came over and Jeremy and him reminisced about worlds. Somebody from another group heard UNREALITY and called me over to talk with their group, which was kingofkongs, kid kadabra, helraiser420, and two others. I wasn't aware somebody LIKED reading the THREE PEOPLE IN THE TOURNAMENT message! These guys appreciated my trolling. I'll definitely do more of it in the future I guess n_____n
Every contestant was required to give Mike Liesik their game cartridge for a hack check at this point. The junior in front of me got disqualified for an instance that went sorta like this:
Mike: "This Conkeldurr is hacked."
Kid: "Really?"
Mike: "Yep, it has an egg move and it was not bred."
Kid: "Oh. I got it from the GTS."
Mike: "Yeah don't do that."
Luckily, my cartridge went through fine. After the cart was checked, they sealed it in a bag that looked like this:
I then recieved a new card that looked like this:
imagine no wins again; the top right means i am the 21st player in Seniors
We all sat down at the black tables and a red-shirted official read the statistics to us. There were 22 juniors and 27 seniors left in the lounge, so 5 seniors got byes and the rest had to play. They handed out cards that said "PLAY" or "BYE" on them. I got PLAY, as well as everyone at our table. All of the people who played stood up and walked back over to the competition area. Jeremy and I sat next to each other; he had his eye on some kid who said he did not want to play Jeremy. However, they made everyone go down to the farthest seat on their row, so Jeremy ended up playing someone else.
Round 4: VS Vincent P.
He had no idea what Smogon was and he said he had played Pokemon a long time ago, but had only recently re-gotten into it. His team was Mienshao, Hydregion, Archeops, and Volcarona. I easily pulled through and got the 3-0 victory.
At this point, I had gotten the invite to Nationals. I let a deep breath out, and raised my hand for the assistant to put me into the next row of tables. Being one of the first five to complete the match, I got to play someone who had a bye. This ended up being none other than Kid Kadabra, which was a bummer because he is an awesome dude. I knew that this was where the cakewalk ended and the real matches began.
Round 5: VS Bruno C. (Kid Kadabra)
I won't go into elaboration on his team, in case he wants to use it for Nationals. I ended up Sporing all of his pokemon and then hitting them hard with Terrakion. He KOed two of my pokemon and I picked off the remaining pokemon one by one. If Kid Kadabra wants to post the video, I can put it here. I won 2-0.
I was the seventh person to finish my match in the round of top 16. I looked to my right and there were two matches underway (kingofkongs was already in the next round i think). I looked to my right and I saw...
Round 6: VS Jeremy F. (AlphaOmega)
you mean we can't get this on the TV screen?
I know he doesn't want me to reveal his team. I'd love to see the match again someday. Nice match, dude. I won 2-0.
I moved up to r7, where kingofkongs was waiting for me.
Round 7: VS Gavin M.
Nick's like, wow, the kid from Boston is still in this thing. I was pretty surprised myself.
I don't know if kingofkongs wants me to reveal his team, but it was a good match (albeit with his spread move miss when the score was 3-1, me). The game ended there 2-0, me.
I advanced to the final round, where there was only one trainer remaining at the black tables.
Round 8: VS Richard E.
DID I MENTION HE'S FROM BOSTON?
We talked while the juniors were completing their finals round and everyone was watching them. I asked if he knew about smogon and he was like "are you kidding?" and he noted my Koffing plush. We talked about the BW OU and BW UU metagames and he told me that all of his pokemon were OU. The juniors finished and we took to the box.
moofy moof moof n__n that's my greetings message
Yeah, I can't really say anything about the match that hasn't been said by watching the video online or watching this. I won, 3-0.
After the match there was clapping and my dad came up and Nick congratulated me. Then my dad's phone rang and it was my mom.
sorry i couldnt grab a good picture
We were awarded our medals and there were pictures. I bumped the person in the Snivy suit and I felt really sorry.
After this San Jose blogger dude dressed like Giovanni interviewed me and Richard (he didn't like STRONG POKEMON as a good battle tactic), I got interviewed by the person for TPCI. At this point, Nick came over and handed me a cookie. He said, "Nice job, dude" and walked away, presumably to drink a lot of water because he had just been commentating for 4 hours.
Props:
-MOOFIANS MOOFIANS MOOFIANS
-RNGers: Muffinhead x2, Charzaro, CO (x a very special one), xElite, and Tolan
-EVers: Charzaro (x6)
-Muffinhead for original WOMBO COMBO (but with unfezant lol that didnt work out)
-Human for the weird Landorus EV spread and 6th pokemon!
-Minccino for great huggles, Koffing for being a great litmus test
-OmegaDonut, for being such a great Landorus namesake
Slops:
-Donut the Landorus, because I didn't use it in one match
Epilogue
I flew in to San Jose on Friday with my dad, and we figured we would drive to the conference center to compete in the tournament the next day. I had been playing on Pokemon Online since November/December, but most of the time I gimmicked around with a Rain team. I built my Regionals team over April Break, and refined it (with help) the last two weeks. I had my entire team RNGed one week beforehand.
Of course, I brought plushies.
The Team:
Muffin the Krookodile (Named after Muffinhead)
Brownie the Eelektross
COokie the Terrakion (Named after CO)
not a typo
Cake the Thundurus
Donut the Landorus (named after OmegaDonut)
Pie the Amoonguss
I'm not including sets here; I think I might want to run something like this for Nationals. Also, I really don't want to see this team anywhere on PO or anything. You can probably glean enough from my game to see what the team is like, but I'm not revealing anything.
PREGAME LETS GO LETS GO
We arrived in California at about 9 PST. There was nothing more I could do to prepare my team. I went to the Battle Subway and powered through all 21 battles. I went to bed at about 1 PST, trying to keep the butterflies out of my stomach.
Arrival/Waiting
We arrived at the convention center at about 7:40. When we got in the door, there was already a very long line which wrapped all around the hallway to the door.
Quickly, I jumped in line behind two juniors and a senior. The juniors were talking about what they were going to do with the 3DS if they won. They were concerned about what would happen if they were going to play each other. I told them about friend rule and we chatted for a little bit.
Eventually (at around 8:15), a red-shirted TPCI official (later revealed to me to be Mike Liesik) came around and gave us all registration tickets.
It was about 45 minutes after we got the tickets before my section of the line moved into the section where we were given a talk by Mike about the battle box.
Finally, the line moved, and we were in! First, I went to a line where competitors would download the ruleset from a box and hand in their registration card. At that booth, I got a green paper wristband and a card that looked like this:
imagine this without the three wins
After that, I was pointed to go stand in a line where there were two boys waiting. These two boys were friends and the guy in the white t-shirt was like "one of you two wanna fight him" and the more courageous of the two said "ya sure". So we went to the first row of the black tables (the juniors were at the white).
Round One: VS Nicholas S.
When I asked him about Smogon, I'm pretty sure he said he knew what it was; I asked if he had an account at Smogon, and he shook his head. He had a trick room theme- it was the only trick room team I saw all day. His team was Musharna, Serperior, Sesmitoad, and Conkeldurr. His Musharna fired off a Trick Room but I kept Sporing his pokemon with Amoonguss. I remember that once Rocky Helmet activated from his Sesmitoad i was like "lol i got this". I won 3-0.
During this match, the amazing announcer Nick McCord thought it would be a good idea to ask the crowd where the furthest contestant was from. He got a few people from Arizona and then my dad was like "Yeah, we're from Boston." Nick was shocked and he didn't stop talking about that all tournament.
Once I had won, I called over a white-shirt assistant who cut the wristband off of my opponent and he walked out of the playing area. I advanced to the second row of black tables, where my opponent was waiting for me.
Round Two: VS Kristy
She didn't know what Smogon was. In Team Preview, her leads were Whimsicott and Terrakion, so I made sure to play Amoonguss to block the incoming Beat Up. However, she played Jellicent and Amoonguss. My Amoonguss was faster than hers, and Spored her Amoonguss and then Jellicent. After I had killed her Conkeldurr, I sent in Terrakion and Rock Slided for the victory. I forget the last pokemon she had because it went down too quickly. 4-0
The assistant came over and did the whole cutty-wristband thing again. They ushered me to the third row of tables, where I sat for a while and waited until a third challenger came.
Round Three: VS Cameron C.
Haha I really do not remember anything from this match at all. He didn't know what Smogon was and I was confused over what round match this was. We started our match and the only pokemon I remember were Archeops and Volcarona which both died to a Krookodile's Rock Slide. The rest of his pokemon died very quickly. 3-0
After this match, I was directed to the Finalists Lounge where I was very nervous. The assistant didn't know whether this was top 32 or top 16. And then Jeremy (alphaomega) showed up! I introduced myself and we started talking. Kamz came over and Jeremy and him reminisced about worlds. Somebody from another group heard UNREALITY and called me over to talk with their group, which was kingofkongs, kid kadabra, helraiser420, and two others. I wasn't aware somebody LIKED reading the THREE PEOPLE IN THE TOURNAMENT message! These guys appreciated my trolling. I'll definitely do more of it in the future I guess n_____n
Every contestant was required to give Mike Liesik their game cartridge for a hack check at this point. The junior in front of me got disqualified for an instance that went sorta like this:
Mike: "This Conkeldurr is hacked."
Kid: "Really?"
Mike: "Yep, it has an egg move and it was not bred."
Kid: "Oh. I got it from the GTS."
Mike: "Yeah don't do that."
Luckily, my cartridge went through fine. After the cart was checked, they sealed it in a bag that looked like this:
I then recieved a new card that looked like this:
imagine no wins again; the top right means i am the 21st player in Seniors
We all sat down at the black tables and a red-shirted official read the statistics to us. There were 22 juniors and 27 seniors left in the lounge, so 5 seniors got byes and the rest had to play. They handed out cards that said "PLAY" or "BYE" on them. I got PLAY, as well as everyone at our table. All of the people who played stood up and walked back over to the competition area. Jeremy and I sat next to each other; he had his eye on some kid who said he did not want to play Jeremy. However, they made everyone go down to the farthest seat on their row, so Jeremy ended up playing someone else.
Round 4: VS Vincent P.
He had no idea what Smogon was and he said he had played Pokemon a long time ago, but had only recently re-gotten into it. His team was Mienshao, Hydregion, Archeops, and Volcarona. I easily pulled through and got the 3-0 victory.
At this point, I had gotten the invite to Nationals. I let a deep breath out, and raised my hand for the assistant to put me into the next row of tables. Being one of the first five to complete the match, I got to play someone who had a bye. This ended up being none other than Kid Kadabra, which was a bummer because he is an awesome dude. I knew that this was where the cakewalk ended and the real matches began.
Round 5: VS Bruno C. (Kid Kadabra)
I won't go into elaboration on his team, in case he wants to use it for Nationals. I ended up Sporing all of his pokemon and then hitting them hard with Terrakion. He KOed two of my pokemon and I picked off the remaining pokemon one by one. If Kid Kadabra wants to post the video, I can put it here. I won 2-0.
I was the seventh person to finish my match in the round of top 16. I looked to my right and there were two matches underway (kingofkongs was already in the next round i think). I looked to my right and I saw...
Round 6: VS Jeremy F. (AlphaOmega)
you mean we can't get this on the TV screen?
I know he doesn't want me to reveal his team. I'd love to see the match again someday. Nice match, dude. I won 2-0.
I moved up to r7, where kingofkongs was waiting for me.
Round 7: VS Gavin M.
Nick's like, wow, the kid from Boston is still in this thing. I was pretty surprised myself.
I don't know if kingofkongs wants me to reveal his team, but it was a good match (albeit with his spread move miss when the score was 3-1, me). The game ended there 2-0, me.
I advanced to the final round, where there was only one trainer remaining at the black tables.
Round 8: VS Richard E.
DID I MENTION HE'S FROM BOSTON?
We talked while the juniors were completing their finals round and everyone was watching them. I asked if he knew about smogon and he was like "are you kidding?" and he noted my Koffing plush. We talked about the BW OU and BW UU metagames and he told me that all of his pokemon were OU. The juniors finished and we took to the box.
moofy moof moof n__n that's my greetings message
Yeah, I can't really say anything about the match that hasn't been said by watching the video online or watching this. I won, 3-0.
After the match there was clapping and my dad came up and Nick congratulated me. Then my dad's phone rang and it was my mom.
We were awarded our medals and there were pictures. I bumped the person in the Snivy suit and I felt really sorry.
After this San Jose blogger dude dressed like Giovanni interviewed me and Richard (he didn't like STRONG POKEMON as a good battle tactic), I got interviewed by the person for TPCI. At this point, Nick came over and handed me a cookie. He said, "Nice job, dude" and walked away, presumably to drink a lot of water because he had just been commentating for 4 hours.
Props:
-MOOFIANS MOOFIANS MOOFIANS
-RNGers: Muffinhead x2, Charzaro, CO (x a very special one), xElite, and Tolan
-EVers: Charzaro (x6)
-Muffinhead for original WOMBO COMBO (but with unfezant lol that didnt work out)
-Human for the weird Landorus EV spread and 6th pokemon!
-Minccino for great huggles, Koffing for being a great litmus test
-OmegaDonut, for being such a great Landorus namesake
Slops:
-Donut the Landorus, because I didn't use it in one match
Epilogue
