WILL CONTINUE TO EDIT AFTER THIS GOES UP.
So, Since today is my 1 year anniversary on Smogon and I just got back from Nationals, I decided I would "contribute" by making a warstory.
Eelektross (M) @ Lum Berry “Jibaku”
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 228 HP / 252 SAtk / 30 Spe
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
Krookodile (F) @ Choice Scarf “CO♥”
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 158 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide
Reuniclus (M) @ Life Orb “JRankurusu”
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Protect
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
Conkeldurr (M) @ Flame Orb “Jiovaine11”
Trait: Guts
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 30 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Mach Punch
- Drain Punch
- Detect
- Rock Slide
Amoonguss (F) @ Coba Berry “Unreality”
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 238 SDef / 20 Spe
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Protect
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Spore
Gigalith (M) @ Normal Jewel “Charzaro”
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Protect
- Rock Slide
So, Thursday comes and we finally leave for Indianapolis. It was a 3 hour drive and I was texting JRank on the way down. It turns out our hotels are almost right next to each other, so we decide to meet at McDonald’s when I arrive at around 10:30 PM EST. So I arrive and I hang out at McDonalds with Werecario (Connor) and JRank (Jon). So I get food and we have conversation talking about tomorrow and whatnot, and then I get invited back to their hotel room. By now it is maybe around 11:15 PM. We get to the room and JRank’s dad is there and I got to meet him. He was pretty cool. We chill as they help him learn more about VGC and his team for tomorrow since he was participating in the LCQ. I decide to make the team that I recently conjured up for Nationals if I made it through LCQ on PO. We then test it out and I lost match one. I then play a second match and it eventually comes down being 2-2. Both Jon and Connor tell me to use Fissure so I decide to use it on 50% Mienshao, but they tell him to use it on 100% Hydreigon. I was about to go through with this when I go, “WAIT! HYDREIGON GETS LEVITATE FOOLS!” (Or something along the lines of that), so I just use Muddy Water and end up winning that game somehow 1-0 with Stunfisk. It is now close to midnight so I now go back to my hotel room where I quickly get on IRC and check in before going to sleep.
The next day we drive down to the Convention Center and JRank told us to leave and hour early to beat Rush Hour. So we get on the highway and it’s a 15 minute drive and we did not need to leave as early as we did. Anyway, we finally arrive at the Center after parking and walking there and I get in line and get number 81. So I get my team assembled in the Battle Box and whatnot then hang out with Connor and JRank for awhile. Line slowly moves along and eventually Tyler shows up with his younger sister who was also competing in LCQ. We hang out and talk as the line doesn’t move much and eventually Andrea and Chad show up. She takes a picture of me, JRank, and Werecario, and we continue in line. Finally we enter and get registered for the event and find our seats. We listen to the introduction and rules by Nick McCord before we finally start. This now brings me to the matches.
Nationals Banner above the Hall.
Inside the Hall with the large Pikachu suspended from the ceiling.
Nationals Backdrop
Worlds "Logo"
Single Elimination Round 1: Benjamin U.
So my first round opponent is a young kid and I keep to myself pretty much. I decide to lead Krookodile and Eelektross for this since it is what I had the most practice with. I had used it in Smogon Live Tourneys, Battle Subway, and PO, and most people said it was pretty solid. My opponent leads with Haxorus and Serperior which I thought would be an easy combo to take down. My suspicious couldn’t be farther from the truth. This was by far the hardest round I had during LCQ. I decide that Earthquake is not a viable option and choose to Crunch his Serperior which only does about half. He then uses Leaf Storm which OHKO’s my Krookodile. Haxorus uses Outrage which is a 2HKO on my Eelektross as I use Hidden Power Ice on it, which is also a 2HKO. I now switch in Reuniclus seeing as it is bulky and can deal out heavy hits. He uses GIGA IMPACT with Serperior on my Reuniclus and I only take about 40 HP but he got lucky and Outrage hit my Reuniclus, not my protected Eelektross. I then use Psychic h on his Serperior for the KO. He now brings in and Eelektross of his own which uses Crunch on my Reuniclus killing it, and Haxorus got a 3 turn Outrage, which killed my Eelektross. I’m now down 1-3 and think it is over, so I send in my Conkeldurr. I detect to get Flame Orb activated and to scout. I see his Haxorus is not Choice Scarfed like I thought as it tries to Earthquake and his Eelektross uses Thunder. Once he sees Flame Orb he’s muttering “Damnit.” I then proceed to use Mach Punch to KO Haxorus the next turn as he misses Thunder with Eelektross. He brings in his last being a Bisharp and I use Detect to scout as I am not worried about Burn damage. I see he is running Guillotine and bank on it missing. I decide to Drain Punch Bisharp next turn instead of Mach Punch because I wasn’t certain it would kill and I need a bit of HP back. Luckily for me he misses his Guillotine and I get to KO Bisharp as he misses with Thunder from Eelektross again. Next turn his Thunder finally hits, but it is not enough to KO and I just hit it with a Drain Punch bringing it into red where I finish it off with a Mach Punch next turn. In all honesty he probably should have won, but that is what happens when you use low accuracy moves. I then say something along the lines of, “Good Game, you gave me a real scare there,” which he did, and I move on to the next round. The battle video number is: 19-79577-56529.
Single Elimination Round 2:
So at this point I’m feeling pretty good about the competition, and our battle was one of the longer ones. I quickly scout the Round 1 section for JRank and the Round 2 section on do not see him. I assume he lost Round 1 but could have missed him. I now go to the seat I am ushered to and get ready to start my match. I honestly remember nothing about R2… It was against Roman N. and I only know that because of my card. All I remember is that I won 2-0 I think and Conkeldurr sealed the match easily. He may have had Hydreigon; I honestly remember nothing about this match and couldn’t even remember his leads later that day before Masters LCQ started when I tried to take notes. It must have been a really forgettable game. I think he had Samurott as well, but I’m not quite sure on that.
Single Elimination Round 3: Anthony T.
So now I head to Round 3 and think I just need to pull this off and I qualify for Nationals. If memory serves me correctly and I didn’t combine rounds 2 and 3, this is what happened. I lead Krookodile and Eelektross again. He leads I believe something weak to Ground and Serperior. I think I Earthquake with Krookodile killing the something and Flamethrower possibly with Eelektross on the Serperior as it Leaf Blades me. Leaf Blade was a 2HKO IIRC and basically I easily swept him 3-0 I think, Conkeldurr being able to clinch the win. I do remember he had a Fly Hydreigon which I out-predicted and killed easily and was down to actually Reuniclus and Samurott I think and took a Hydro Cannon for the 2HKO by Psychic.
I was so happy that I actually qualified after coming back being down 3-1 when I should have lost the first round. I somehow did make it into Nationals and wait in the long line before the Hack Check my game and give me a slip for some Play! Pokémon crap for the website. While waiting in line it looks like Andrea is pointing me out and she is with Duy and others so I keep waving or something of the sort. After all this is over I immediately go over where they all are and assumed Duy knew who I was and we sort of stare down for a second before he finally realizes and is like, “….. OH! ABC right, hey good job, nice to meet you, etc.” I then show Duy my Round 1 match of Vs. Recorder and he didn’t even watch it all the way through because it was so bad. We then all take seats at a table where I kind of just chill and stay there before trying to take notes later. Sapphire Birch eventually sits down (Whom I didn’t know was Sapphire Birch at the time,) and I was talking about Round 1 and show him the video as well, where he is constantly laughing at how bad my opponent was. I also meet Evan and tell him my team, and he said that he did not want to face me tomorrow because of how I could hax him, but I let him know I was in the Seniors Division, not Masters. The rest of the Seniors group eventually shows up and we hang out, get some pictures, and watch the Masters’ LCQ. We then pretty much of hang out for the rest of the day and talk. At the end of the day I go back to the hotel and get on IRC. I keep trying to get a Stunfisk from Human which he was RNG’ing, but he was too busy being AFK playing Call of Duty so I was starting to get upset. Also, I could not find ANYONE except for Tolanator who had an Emolga, which was not on at the time. Thankfully, CO RNG’d me a shiny one the night before Nationals. I then had to EV it and whatnot, and decide I want to NN my team that night too. I then have to trade a bunch of Pokémon back to CO so she could nickname them for me, which she did without any complaints. Human then decides he will give a nicknamed version to me tomorrow, since he did not want to trade.
Team Seniors Pic!
Me and Zheng, All Seniors were short minus Bruno and cloud really 9.9
Big Smogon Group Pic, Too bad Unreality and others missed it. :(
My Card showing me going 3-0.
My Registered Battle Box and Record for LCQ.
After somehow defeating all odds and actually make it into Nationals, I made a team literally a couple days before Nationals just in case I got in, and didn’t use my original Nationals Team as It was kind of in a slump. Here’s what it looked like:
Golurk @ Ghost Gem "♥moof"
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Atk / 26 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Shadow Punch
- Hammer Arm
- Earthquake
- Protect
Heatmor (F) @ Dark Gem (Last minute change suggested by Unreality so Sucker Punch actually does decent damage.) "Maestrol"
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 158 Atk / 100 SAtk / 252 Spe
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Protect
- Heat Wave
- Focus Blast
- Sucker Punch
Bisharp (M) @ Choice Band "Jibaku"
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Night Slash
- Brick Break
- Sucker Punch
When RNG'ing, I originally tried for Adamant, and forgot completely about Defiant for Intimidate Boosts and other Boosts. I got Jolly instead and decided to work with it, so changed it to Max Speed and Max Attack with a Choice Band to hit hard.
Darmanitan (F) @ Choice Scarf "CO♥"
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Rock Slide
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Earthquake
Stunfisk (M) @ Life Orb "JRank"
[Shiny]
Trait: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Fissure
- Thunderbolt
- Muddy Water
Was originally supposed to be Specs with Earth Power but Human forgot to breed it on. It was also supposed to have protect and I thought it did because my old one had protect but I forgot Human's had Dishcharge, which actually won me Round 7, so it was all good.
Emolga (M) @ BrightPowder "Solace"
[Shiny]
Trait: Static
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Air Slash
- Double Team
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
Double Team suggested by Human and I threw on a BrightPowder for more Avoid lols, did work, but not its intended job.
Saturday finally arrives and we get to the Convention Center early again. I hang out with the other people in the Seniors Division along with EnFuego and others, hoping Human would actually show up. Human finally shows up maybe 5-10 minutes before doors open, and trades me the Stunfisk, so props to him. Unreality now suggested I run Dark Gem on Heatmor, not Fire Gem, to do decent damage with Sucker Punch. I quickly make this change walking into the Hall to get in line. I’m in line a little bit ahead of the other Seniors, and decide to drop back in line with them. At this point Maski still did not have her team done, so everyone was trying to help her with that. We wait in line for the longest time imaginable and met Bruno (Kid Kadabra) and his friend, cloud. After waiting forever in line, we finally get registered and check the pairings board to see where to sit for orientation. I get paired with Human, but luckily the people we were paired with were not our Round 1 opponents. We get through orientation and see who we play Round 1. This brings me to the battles:
Table and Partner for Orientation - Human... (Alphabetical Order)
Me and Bruno (Kid Kadabra)
Waiting to get Hack Checked before the Event starts.
Taking my stuff to wait for the next round.
Swiss Round 1: Dominic
We chat real quickly, and he was one of my few opponents which I actually talked to. Bruno at this point who is sitting next to my opponent starts eating P.F. Changs Fried Rice, where a Staff Member then tells him to hurry up and finish because he was apparently not allowed to eat or drink during matches. I choose to lead Darmanitan and Bisharp this first match since it seems like they could quickly kill off his Pokémon. He leads with Amoonguss and Mienshao so I just decide to Flare Blitz the Amoonguss for a quick KO as he Hi Jump Kicks my Bisharp for a KO with Mienshao. I then decide to send in Emolga and he sends in a Landorus. I Flare Blitz the Landorus down to its Sash and get an avoid with my Emolga thanks to Rock Slide’s low accuracy and my BrightPowder, which he was upset at. I tell him I’m running BrightPowder and he just laughs and accepts it. Then Emolga tanks the next Rock Slide with 6 HP after killing off Mienshao with an Air Slash. I now send in my Stunfisk and he sends in Samurott and gets Quick Claw Hax using Surf killing my Emolga, his Landorus, and getting a critical hit to kill my Stunfisk which would have been able to live the surf and KO with Thunderbolt. Lost 1-0 due to Crit Hax should have Won 1-0, he was a cool guy and just laughed and stuff at our teams since we both ran Hax Items. Battle Video Number is: 66-52221-86966.
Swiss Round 2: KingofKongs – BS Matchup Hax
I decide to lead with Darmanitan and Bisharp as KoK leads Amoonguss and Samurott. I am assuming that he will use Protect however I do not want to lock myself into Superpower to hit Samurott, Earthquake will KO my Bisharp, and Rock Slide will not do much. So, on the off chance he did not protect I target Amoonguss with Flare Blitz. He does however protect with Amoonguss and Hydro Pumps with Samurott which OHKO’s my Darmanitan. I then proceed to Night Slash with Bisharp on his Samurott for around maybe 70-75%. I now bring in my Emolga and I assume he has the Coba Berry so I target Samurott with Thunderbolt and target Amoonguss with Night Slash. He then uses Rage Powder, drawing in my Thunderbolt. Samurott then Ice Beams Emolga for the KO as Bisharp hits Amoonguss with Night Slash. I now bring in Stunfisk and it dies to a Hydro Pump from Samurott as Bisharp uses Night Slash again killing Amoonguss, but also getting Effect Spore Paralyzed. . I now nicely ask him to make it 2-0 as I see Samurott will die to Life Orb recoil next turn. He brings in Conkeldurr and protects while using Grass Knot on my Bisharp for minimal damage and dies to Life Orb recoil. Kok now brings in Chandelure and uses Heat Wave to kill my remaining Bisharp. Good Game – Lost 2-0.
Swiss Round 3: “Dragon” (His OT)
After going 0-2, I finally get a match on the screens, which was one of my goals. I keep yelling at Duy to watch the video, and I get talked to by the staff lady because I am not allowed to talk to the people on the outside since they can see the battle and give me tips. I decide to use the same leads as the previous 2 rounds as they seem to work well. I lead Darmanitan and Bisharp and my opponent leads Scrafty and Tornadus. I decide to hit Scrafty with a Flare Blitz from Darmanitan knowing that it should hit hard and get a critical hit, though it may or may not have mattered depending on his EV spread. He tried to Fake Out my Bisharp with his Scrafty but by mistake I had Inner Focus instead of Defiant, which worked out well. Tornadus then Flight Gem Acrobatics my Darmanitan for the kill and I hit it with a Night Slash from Bisharp nearly killing it. He then sends in Haxorus and I send in Stunfisk. I decide to use Fissure on Haxorus for lols since I was on the screen and JRank was curious why I hadn’t used it yet. My opponent protects with Tornadus and I cannot hit it with a Night Slash now from Bisharp and his Haxorus uses Rock Slide, most likely hoping for Flinch Hax which he does not get. My Stunfisk then fires off a Fissure, which to my surprise, hits and of course OHKO’s the Haxorus. He then sends in his last, being a (Scarf I assume) Vanilluxe. He then proceeds to Blizzard which brings my Stunfisk to single digits, but finishes it off with an Acrobatics letting me easily KO the Tornadus. I now send in my last Pokémon being Emolga. To my surprise again, my opponent uses Blizzard which my Bisharp somehow avoids but hits my BrightPowder Emolga killing it before it can set up any Double Teams. I then hit it with a Night Slash which does about 70%. He then misses another Blizzard which I am pretty sure I would have lived, it was just the first miss that mattered, and I kill him with another Night Slash. IIRC, he muttered “Fuck,” when he lost. First Win, Won 1-0. Also, since it was on the screens, JRank recorded it which you can view here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HOcqzwj1Xc I now immediately go over to Duy and talk to him about the game and ask Evan and other people if they actually saw because the match was so lol.
Swiss Round 4: Brandon Tang – Finished 12th at Nationals – Lost to David Arnold in Top 8
From Team Preview he looks to be running Trick Room. I decide to bring my “Trick Room Counters” which are really just my slowest Pokémon. I lead Golurk and Heatmor as he leads Scrafty and Musharna. Scrafty goes for Fake Out on my Heatmor which does not do much as I use Shadow Punch boosted by Iron Fist and Ghost Gem for the KO on Musharna. He now brings in Jellicent which I assume has Trick Room. However, not wanting to risk anything, I try to Sucker Punch Jellicent with Heatmor which fails, and I protect with Golurk as he tries to Crunch it with Scrafty. I now Sucker Punch Jellicent again and it does maybe 66-75% again, but he uses Water Spout powered by a Water Gem which does enough to kill both of my Pokémon. I now bring in Bisharp and Stunfisk. Bisharp Sucker Punches Jellicent for the kill and Stunfisk missed with Fissure, allowing his Scrafty to kill my Bisharp with a Drain Punch. He now sends in Amoonguss which proceeds to Spore my Stunfisk as it lives a Crunch from Scrafty. It then dies to a Giga Drain from Amoonguss next turn. Good Game – Lost 2-0.
Swiss Round 5: Random – I didn’t ask anyone’s name.
Seeing my opponent’s team, I decided he would use TerraCott as I see he has both. I decide to lead Darmanitan and Bisharp. I predict he will be standard TerraCott and since I ran it for a little bit, I knew what he would do. I predict the Terrakion to protect, which it does, and use Flare Blitz to bring Whimsicott down to its Focus Sash and Iron Head with Bisharp to KO after it sets up Tailwind. He now sends in a Conkeldurr and protects. Terrakion uses Rock Slide and kills Darmanitan and does not do much to Bisharp. I then used Iron Head with Bisharp for the KO on the Terrakion and Conkeldurr’s Flame Orb activates. I now switch in Stunfisk and he brings in Amoonguss. Amoonguss uses Spore on my Stunfisk and it falls asleep as I predict the Mach Punch and switch out to Emolga who avoids the predicted Mach Punch due to BrightPowder. Stunfisk is then still asleep and I use Air Slash with Emolga and nearly KO the Conkeldurr. Conkeldurr then gets off a Rock Slide which does not do much to Stunfisk but kills Emolga, and Amoonguss tries to Spore I believe and Conkeldurr now dies to its burn. I now bring in my Bisharp and Amoonguss Giga Drains my Stunfisk. I believe I woke up and used Fissure and missed, as well as Night Slashed Amoonguss with Bisharp, which looks to be a 4HKO possibly after Black Sludge. Amoonguss now Giga Drains Stunfisk again for the kill and my Bisharp used Night Slash on Amoonguss. Now I think I Night Slash Amoonguss again and it is starting to get low, but I get Effect Spore Slept as the Amoonguss tries to Spore Bisharp anyway. From here on, I just try to wake up and Night Slash while Taking maybe around 10 HP from Amoonguss’ Giga Drains. He eventually gets a critical hit with Giga Drain bringing me to around 16 HP maybe and I never wake up. Next turn I die to a Giga Drain. Lost 1-0 because I wouldn’t wake up and Effect Spore couldn’t have given me Paralysis or Poison.
Swiss Round 6: Hunter – Young Kid, was 0-5 when I played him, made me feel bad.
So I decide to use my standard leads and send out Darmanitan and Bisharp. My opponent throws out a SazaJelly combo being Hydreigon and Jellicent. Not wanting to take a Water Spout from Jellicent assuming it was Choice Scarfed, I lock my Bisharp into Sucker Punch due to my Bisharp holding a Choice Band. It OHKO’s the Jellicent and my Scarf Darmanitan uses Super Power on Hydreigon for the KO since it does not have a Chople Berry. At this point I feel pretty good seeing as I’m up 4-2. He now sends in Krookodile and Landorus which has potential to beat my team if Krookodile has Intimidate as I will have to switch Darmanitan out, if not both of my Pokémon. Luckily for me, Krookodile does not have Intimidate so I feel safe about keeping my Pokémon in. I then Sucker Punch Landorus which nearly kills and use Super Power on Krookodile, but it lives with low HP too because I got the Attack Drop from the previous Super Power. He then uses Earthquake with Krookodile killing my Darmanitan and bringing my Bisharp to 9 HP. Landorus then uses Rock Slide and kills off Bisharp. I still feel pretty confident because I was thinking the Krookodile was Choice Scarfed, and both of those Pokémon were weak to Stunfisk’s Muddy Water. I now send in Stunfisk and Emolga. I decide to use Air Slash on Landorus for the kill assuming Krookodile was still Choiced, and Krookodile then kills my Stunfisk without a critical hit, which at first shocked me, but I then realized he got the Moxie boost from killing my Darmanitan so it was understandable. It was now down to my full HP Emolga against his nearly dead +2 Attack Krookodile which I assumed was still Choiced. I then use Air Slash for an easy kill and that is the game. Won 1-0 again, making me 2-4 overall. Still felt kind of bad for him, but I was not doing much better at the time. You can also view the video here courtesy of JRank uploading it to Youtube since it was on the screens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NElCaHTR0yc
Thinking about what to do first turn.
End of the same turn after I KO'd the Hydreigon with a Super Power.
Swiss Round 7: Random – Was 1-5 and it seemed like he didn’t really care anymore.
We exchange a few words and he says stuff like “We no longer have a chance” which was true and was confused at my Trainer Message and Team. From team preview, I see TerraCott again and am not the happiest person. I decide to lead Darmanitan and Bisharp again since it seemed to work last time. He leads Terrakion and Whimsicott like I expected. I decide to use the same moves as last time and double target Whimsicott but once I see no Tailwind or Protect on Terrakion I’m starting to get scared. I hit Whimsicott with a Flare Blitz which OHKO’d and they had no Focus Sash. His Terrakion now fires off an Earthquake killing Darmanitan and bringing Bisharp to low red where it OHKO’s Terrakion with an Iron Head. He now sends out double genies being Tornadus and Thundurus as I send out my Stunfisk. He then says something like, “Stunfisk, what’s that supposed to do?” and I was just like, “I don’t really know.” I believe my opponent then uses Acrobatics from Tornadus to kill my Bisharp, and uses Hidden Power Ice (I assumed it was Ice because Super Effective) on my Stunfisk which I knew I could take two, but not 100% confident I could after Life Orb recoil. Stunfisk then proceeds to Discharge which kills Tornadus and does maybe 70-80% on Thundurus, at which point he goes, “Oh, I guess that is what it is supposed to do.” I then send in my Emolga and decide to use Thunderbolt with both Pokémon on Thundurus as it barely fails to kill my Stunfisk with another Hidden Power bringing it to around 19 HP I think. Both of my Pokémon hit it with Thunderbolt and that is game. Won 1-0.
Strongth #47 Place
My Registered Battle Box and Record for Nationals.
Bruno wanted a picture of my shirt - wore this one on Sunday.
After this people congratulated me on doing as well as I did for using a troll team. I hung out with the Seniors group basically for the rest of the day. Bruno, Human, and I were invited to Maski’s hotel room where the rest of the Seniors were, so we head over there. They were staying in the JW Marriott, but Bruno takes us the THE Marriott. We thought we were in the right place because it had signs for Nationals so we head up to the 5th floor where Maski’ s room was, and start knocking on room 523 since that was her room number. After they don’t answer, Bruno calls Zheng and others and we decide they are just trolling us. Human was also on the line with someone else and I eventually made the point that if they were on the inside, we would have heard them. So after standing outside that room for about 10 minutes, we head back to the streets to find the JW Marriott. We find it fairly quickly as it was only about a block away, and yell at Bruno for taking us to the wrong hotel. Once we arrive at the JW Marriott, we ask the Front Desk Lady where the elevator was, and she tells us that we need a card. So we head over there and call Maski to come down with a card so we can reach the 5th floor. For some odd reason, Bruno and Human thought that even though the entrance to the elevators said 1-4, 22-24 or whatever it was, that we could still reach the 5th floor. We then walk over to where it said 5-21 or whatever, and wait for Maski. She finally arrives and we get in and try to go to the 5th floor. Maski inserts her card multiple times only to find that she brought the wrong one lol. So we ascend to the 21st floor or something where some employee gets on and we ask him to use his card to take us to the 5th floor. He then asks us if we actually need to be on the 5th floor, and we say yes. Thankfully he does put in his card and let us go to the 5th floor. We then head into Maski’s hotel room where all the others already were. We just relax and whatnot now. Later I try to play Bruno in VGC 2011 and while we are in the room where you take spots, we have a troll war where he tries to “get his spot” which was the left one. He kept running around so I take it and try to predict when he will actually enter so the battle can start. After like 5 minutes of this I finally get in my spot as he gets in his and we can start. We play and I believe I lost 2-0 but it was just for fun. I then also play Human against his unreleased team which he probably doesn’t want me mentioning, and won like 1-0 or something and he saved it, so I may get the video number eventually. After this I played a Sankey Cup match on PO against Snake BUT HE FREAKING GETS A MAGIKARP!!! I asked him to switch computers, but he wouldn’t let me. So I just kill off all his Pokémon, and I had like Mewtwo and Shaymin-S and ended up just killing on my own Pokémon because I couldn’t bring myself to kill the Magikarp and he won 1-0. Then we all went down to Steak N Shake where we had dinner and our waitress was just awful O.O. She was really slow at serving us and didn’t even bring us napkins, we had to ask. My mom had the same waitress as well and she said that she brought her a fork that still had ketchup on it. Anyway, after this we go back to hotel. The next day I just chill and watch all of the matches and cheer on everyone else. Then my mom and I left back for home. I had a great time and can’t wait for next year. I met a lot of people, way more than I thought I would.
MAJOR THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING:
JRank - Filming my 2 matches on the screens. / Moral Support
CO - Giving me 3 Pokemon which I used. / Moral Support
Human - Giving me a Pokemon for Nationals. / Moral Support / Suggesting Fissure and Double Team
ExpertEvan - Giving me Pokemon even though I did not get to use them.
Duy - Moral Support
Unreality - Suggesting Dark Gem / Moral Support
Jiovaine11 - Moral Support
Cosmicexplorer - Moral Support
muffinhead - Moral Support
Kid Kadabra - Moral Support / Getting me lost in Indy
Jibaku - Moral Support
This is fine for now, will edit in more pics, props/slops, etc.
So, Since today is my 1 year anniversary on Smogon and I just got back from Nationals, I decided I would "contribute" by making a warstory.
INTRODUCTION:
Well, I guess I should start at where this all began, the most boring part. Rules got announced etc. and I went to work on a team. Back in the day I used Whimsicott/Darmanitan/Hydreigon/Mienshao in Tailwind and didn’t do all that bad. However, time went along and the metagame changed so my team had to change with it. I finally decided to make a DisQuake Team which I am pretty sure I saw someone else use and liked the idea. I ended up originally putting it in Trick Room, but found out Krookodile was fast and benefited more from a Choice Scarf and outside of Trick Room. However, this only changed my team slightly as I had to add Focus Blast instead of Trick Room onto Reuniclus and switch up EV Spreads a tad to give me a bit more speed outside of Trick Room. Also, I did not want to run a standard 252 Attack/252 Speed Choice Scarfed Krookodile because it has some good natural bulk to take advantage of and should be out-speeding everything because of Choice Scarf anyway. I finally settled on this team for Nationals Last Chance Qualifier:Eelektross (M) @ Lum Berry “Jibaku”
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 228 HP / 252 SAtk / 30 Spe
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Protect
Krookodile (F) @ Choice Scarf “CO♥”
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 158 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Rock Slide
Reuniclus (M) @ Life Orb “JRankurusu”
Trait: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Focus Blast
- Protect
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
Conkeldurr (M) @ Flame Orb “Jiovaine11”
Trait: Guts
EVs: 228 HP / 252 Atk / 30 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Mach Punch
- Drain Punch
- Detect
- Rock Slide
Amoonguss (F) @ Coba Berry “Unreality”
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 238 SDef / 20 Spe
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Protect
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Spore
Gigalith (M) @ Normal Jewel “Charzaro”
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Protect
- Rock Slide
THURSDAY JUL 7, 2011
So, Thursday comes and we finally leave for Indianapolis. It was a 3 hour drive and I was texting JRank on the way down. It turns out our hotels are almost right next to each other, so we decide to meet at McDonald’s when I arrive at around 10:30 PM EST. So I arrive and I hang out at McDonalds with Werecario (Connor) and JRank (Jon). So I get food and we have conversation talking about tomorrow and whatnot, and then I get invited back to their hotel room. By now it is maybe around 11:15 PM. We get to the room and JRank’s dad is there and I got to meet him. He was pretty cool. We chill as they help him learn more about VGC and his team for tomorrow since he was participating in the LCQ. I decide to make the team that I recently conjured up for Nationals if I made it through LCQ on PO. We then test it out and I lost match one. I then play a second match and it eventually comes down being 2-2. Both Jon and Connor tell me to use Fissure so I decide to use it on 50% Mienshao, but they tell him to use it on 100% Hydreigon. I was about to go through with this when I go, “WAIT! HYDREIGON GETS LEVITATE FOOLS!” (Or something along the lines of that), so I just use Muddy Water and end up winning that game somehow 1-0 with Stunfisk. It is now close to midnight so I now go back to my hotel room where I quickly get on IRC and check in before going to sleep.
FRIDAY JUL 8, 2011 2011 NATIONALS LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER.
The next day we drive down to the Convention Center and JRank told us to leave and hour early to beat Rush Hour. So we get on the highway and it’s a 15 minute drive and we did not need to leave as early as we did. Anyway, we finally arrive at the Center after parking and walking there and I get in line and get number 81. So I get my team assembled in the Battle Box and whatnot then hang out with Connor and JRank for awhile. Line slowly moves along and eventually Tyler shows up with his younger sister who was also competing in LCQ. We hang out and talk as the line doesn’t move much and eventually Andrea and Chad show up. She takes a picture of me, JRank, and Werecario, and we continue in line. Finally we enter and get registered for the event and find our seats. We listen to the introduction and rules by Nick McCord before we finally start. This now brings me to the matches.
Nationals Banner above the Hall.
Inside the Hall with the large Pikachu suspended from the ceiling.
Nationals Backdrop
Worlds "Logo"
Single Elimination Round 1: Benjamin U.
So my first round opponent is a young kid and I keep to myself pretty much. I decide to lead Krookodile and Eelektross for this since it is what I had the most practice with. I had used it in Smogon Live Tourneys, Battle Subway, and PO, and most people said it was pretty solid. My opponent leads with Haxorus and Serperior which I thought would be an easy combo to take down. My suspicious couldn’t be farther from the truth. This was by far the hardest round I had during LCQ. I decide that Earthquake is not a viable option and choose to Crunch his Serperior which only does about half. He then uses Leaf Storm which OHKO’s my Krookodile. Haxorus uses Outrage which is a 2HKO on my Eelektross as I use Hidden Power Ice on it, which is also a 2HKO. I now switch in Reuniclus seeing as it is bulky and can deal out heavy hits. He uses GIGA IMPACT with Serperior on my Reuniclus and I only take about 40 HP but he got lucky and Outrage hit my Reuniclus, not my protected Eelektross. I then use Psychic h on his Serperior for the KO. He now brings in and Eelektross of his own which uses Crunch on my Reuniclus killing it, and Haxorus got a 3 turn Outrage, which killed my Eelektross. I’m now down 1-3 and think it is over, so I send in my Conkeldurr. I detect to get Flame Orb activated and to scout. I see his Haxorus is not Choice Scarfed like I thought as it tries to Earthquake and his Eelektross uses Thunder. Once he sees Flame Orb he’s muttering “Damnit.” I then proceed to use Mach Punch to KO Haxorus the next turn as he misses Thunder with Eelektross. He brings in his last being a Bisharp and I use Detect to scout as I am not worried about Burn damage. I see he is running Guillotine and bank on it missing. I decide to Drain Punch Bisharp next turn instead of Mach Punch because I wasn’t certain it would kill and I need a bit of HP back. Luckily for me he misses his Guillotine and I get to KO Bisharp as he misses with Thunder from Eelektross again. Next turn his Thunder finally hits, but it is not enough to KO and I just hit it with a Drain Punch bringing it into red where I finish it off with a Mach Punch next turn. In all honesty he probably should have won, but that is what happens when you use low accuracy moves. I then say something along the lines of, “Good Game, you gave me a real scare there,” which he did, and I move on to the next round. The battle video number is: 19-79577-56529.
Single Elimination Round 2:
So at this point I’m feeling pretty good about the competition, and our battle was one of the longer ones. I quickly scout the Round 1 section for JRank and the Round 2 section on do not see him. I assume he lost Round 1 but could have missed him. I now go to the seat I am ushered to and get ready to start my match. I honestly remember nothing about R2… It was against Roman N. and I only know that because of my card. All I remember is that I won 2-0 I think and Conkeldurr sealed the match easily. He may have had Hydreigon; I honestly remember nothing about this match and couldn’t even remember his leads later that day before Masters LCQ started when I tried to take notes. It must have been a really forgettable game. I think he had Samurott as well, but I’m not quite sure on that.
Single Elimination Round 3: Anthony T.
So now I head to Round 3 and think I just need to pull this off and I qualify for Nationals. If memory serves me correctly and I didn’t combine rounds 2 and 3, this is what happened. I lead Krookodile and Eelektross again. He leads I believe something weak to Ground and Serperior. I think I Earthquake with Krookodile killing the something and Flamethrower possibly with Eelektross on the Serperior as it Leaf Blades me. Leaf Blade was a 2HKO IIRC and basically I easily swept him 3-0 I think, Conkeldurr being able to clinch the win. I do remember he had a Fly Hydreigon which I out-predicted and killed easily and was down to actually Reuniclus and Samurott I think and took a Hydro Cannon for the 2HKO by Psychic.
I was so happy that I actually qualified after coming back being down 3-1 when I should have lost the first round. I somehow did make it into Nationals and wait in the long line before the Hack Check my game and give me a slip for some Play! Pokémon crap for the website. While waiting in line it looks like Andrea is pointing me out and she is with Duy and others so I keep waving or something of the sort. After all this is over I immediately go over where they all are and assumed Duy knew who I was and we sort of stare down for a second before he finally realizes and is like, “….. OH! ABC right, hey good job, nice to meet you, etc.” I then show Duy my Round 1 match of Vs. Recorder and he didn’t even watch it all the way through because it was so bad. We then all take seats at a table where I kind of just chill and stay there before trying to take notes later. Sapphire Birch eventually sits down (Whom I didn’t know was Sapphire Birch at the time,) and I was talking about Round 1 and show him the video as well, where he is constantly laughing at how bad my opponent was. I also meet Evan and tell him my team, and he said that he did not want to face me tomorrow because of how I could hax him, but I let him know I was in the Seniors Division, not Masters. The rest of the Seniors group eventually shows up and we hang out, get some pictures, and watch the Masters’ LCQ. We then pretty much of hang out for the rest of the day and talk. At the end of the day I go back to the hotel and get on IRC. I keep trying to get a Stunfisk from Human which he was RNG’ing, but he was too busy being AFK playing Call of Duty so I was starting to get upset. Also, I could not find ANYONE except for Tolanator who had an Emolga, which was not on at the time. Thankfully, CO RNG’d me a shiny one the night before Nationals. I then had to EV it and whatnot, and decide I want to NN my team that night too. I then have to trade a bunch of Pokémon back to CO so she could nickname them for me, which she did without any complaints. Human then decides he will give a nicknamed version to me tomorrow, since he did not want to trade.
Team Seniors Pic!
Me and Zheng, All Seniors were short minus Bruno and cloud really 9.9
Big Smogon Group Pic, Too bad Unreality and others missed it. :(
My Card showing me going 3-0.
My Registered Battle Box and Record for LCQ.
After somehow defeating all odds and actually make it into Nationals, I made a team literally a couple days before Nationals just in case I got in, and didn’t use my original Nationals Team as It was kind of in a slump. Here’s what it looked like:
Golurk @ Ghost Gem "♥moof"
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 HP / 232 Atk / 26 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Shadow Punch
- Hammer Arm
- Earthquake
- Protect
Heatmor (F) @ Dark Gem (Last minute change suggested by Unreality so Sucker Punch actually does decent damage.) "Maestrol"
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 158 Atk / 100 SAtk / 252 Spe
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
- Protect
- Heat Wave
- Focus Blast
- Sucker Punch
Bisharp (M) @ Choice Band "Jibaku"
Trait: Inner Focus
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SAtk)
- Iron Head
- Night Slash
- Brick Break
- Sucker Punch
When RNG'ing, I originally tried for Adamant, and forgot completely about Defiant for Intimidate Boosts and other Boosts. I got Jolly instead and decided to work with it, so changed it to Max Speed and Max Attack with a Choice Band to hit hard.
Darmanitan (F) @ Choice Scarf "CO♥"
Trait: Sheer Force
EVs: 6 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Rock Slide
- Flare Blitz
- Superpower
- Earthquake
Stunfisk (M) @ Life Orb "JRank"
Trait: Static
EVs: 252 HP / 6 Def / 252 SAtk
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Discharge
- Fissure
- Thunderbolt
- Muddy Water
Was originally supposed to be Specs with Earth Power but Human forgot to breed it on. It was also supposed to have protect and I thought it did because my old one had protect but I forgot Human's had Dishcharge, which actually won me Round 7, so it was all good.
Emolga (M) @ BrightPowder "Solace"
Trait: Static
EVs: 6 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
- Air Slash
- Double Team
- Thunderbolt
- Protect
Double Team suggested by Human and I threw on a BrightPowder for more Avoid lols, did work, but not its intended job.
SATURDAY JUL 9, 2011 2011 VGC NATIONALS.
Saturday finally arrives and we get to the Convention Center early again. I hang out with the other people in the Seniors Division along with EnFuego and others, hoping Human would actually show up. Human finally shows up maybe 5-10 minutes before doors open, and trades me the Stunfisk, so props to him. Unreality now suggested I run Dark Gem on Heatmor, not Fire Gem, to do decent damage with Sucker Punch. I quickly make this change walking into the Hall to get in line. I’m in line a little bit ahead of the other Seniors, and decide to drop back in line with them. At this point Maski still did not have her team done, so everyone was trying to help her with that. We wait in line for the longest time imaginable and met Bruno (Kid Kadabra) and his friend, cloud. After waiting forever in line, we finally get registered and check the pairings board to see where to sit for orientation. I get paired with Human, but luckily the people we were paired with were not our Round 1 opponents. We get through orientation and see who we play Round 1. This brings me to the battles:
Table and Partner for Orientation - Human... (Alphabetical Order)
Me and Bruno (Kid Kadabra)
Waiting to get Hack Checked before the Event starts.
Taking my stuff to wait for the next round.
Swiss Round 1: Dominic
We chat real quickly, and he was one of my few opponents which I actually talked to. Bruno at this point who is sitting next to my opponent starts eating P.F. Changs Fried Rice, where a Staff Member then tells him to hurry up and finish because he was apparently not allowed to eat or drink during matches. I choose to lead Darmanitan and Bisharp this first match since it seems like they could quickly kill off his Pokémon. He leads with Amoonguss and Mienshao so I just decide to Flare Blitz the Amoonguss for a quick KO as he Hi Jump Kicks my Bisharp for a KO with Mienshao. I then decide to send in Emolga and he sends in a Landorus. I Flare Blitz the Landorus down to its Sash and get an avoid with my Emolga thanks to Rock Slide’s low accuracy and my BrightPowder, which he was upset at. I tell him I’m running BrightPowder and he just laughs and accepts it. Then Emolga tanks the next Rock Slide with 6 HP after killing off Mienshao with an Air Slash. I now send in my Stunfisk and he sends in Samurott and gets Quick Claw Hax using Surf killing my Emolga, his Landorus, and getting a critical hit to kill my Stunfisk which would have been able to live the surf and KO with Thunderbolt. Lost 1-0 due to Crit Hax should have Won 1-0, he was a cool guy and just laughed and stuff at our teams since we both ran Hax Items. Battle Video Number is: 66-52221-86966.
Swiss Round 2: KingofKongs – BS Matchup Hax
I decide to lead with Darmanitan and Bisharp as KoK leads Amoonguss and Samurott. I am assuming that he will use Protect however I do not want to lock myself into Superpower to hit Samurott, Earthquake will KO my Bisharp, and Rock Slide will not do much. So, on the off chance he did not protect I target Amoonguss with Flare Blitz. He does however protect with Amoonguss and Hydro Pumps with Samurott which OHKO’s my Darmanitan. I then proceed to Night Slash with Bisharp on his Samurott for around maybe 70-75%. I now bring in my Emolga and I assume he has the Coba Berry so I target Samurott with Thunderbolt and target Amoonguss with Night Slash. He then uses Rage Powder, drawing in my Thunderbolt. Samurott then Ice Beams Emolga for the KO as Bisharp hits Amoonguss with Night Slash. I now bring in Stunfisk and it dies to a Hydro Pump from Samurott as Bisharp uses Night Slash again killing Amoonguss, but also getting Effect Spore Paralyzed. . I now nicely ask him to make it 2-0 as I see Samurott will die to Life Orb recoil next turn. He brings in Conkeldurr and protects while using Grass Knot on my Bisharp for minimal damage and dies to Life Orb recoil. Kok now brings in Chandelure and uses Heat Wave to kill my remaining Bisharp. Good Game – Lost 2-0.
Swiss Round 3: “Dragon” (His OT)
After going 0-2, I finally get a match on the screens, which was one of my goals. I keep yelling at Duy to watch the video, and I get talked to by the staff lady because I am not allowed to talk to the people on the outside since they can see the battle and give me tips. I decide to use the same leads as the previous 2 rounds as they seem to work well. I lead Darmanitan and Bisharp and my opponent leads Scrafty and Tornadus. I decide to hit Scrafty with a Flare Blitz from Darmanitan knowing that it should hit hard and get a critical hit, though it may or may not have mattered depending on his EV spread. He tried to Fake Out my Bisharp with his Scrafty but by mistake I had Inner Focus instead of Defiant, which worked out well. Tornadus then Flight Gem Acrobatics my Darmanitan for the kill and I hit it with a Night Slash from Bisharp nearly killing it. He then sends in Haxorus and I send in Stunfisk. I decide to use Fissure on Haxorus for lols since I was on the screen and JRank was curious why I hadn’t used it yet. My opponent protects with Tornadus and I cannot hit it with a Night Slash now from Bisharp and his Haxorus uses Rock Slide, most likely hoping for Flinch Hax which he does not get. My Stunfisk then fires off a Fissure, which to my surprise, hits and of course OHKO’s the Haxorus. He then sends in his last, being a (Scarf I assume) Vanilluxe. He then proceeds to Blizzard which brings my Stunfisk to single digits, but finishes it off with an Acrobatics letting me easily KO the Tornadus. I now send in my last Pokémon being Emolga. To my surprise again, my opponent uses Blizzard which my Bisharp somehow avoids but hits my BrightPowder Emolga killing it before it can set up any Double Teams. I then hit it with a Night Slash which does about 70%. He then misses another Blizzard which I am pretty sure I would have lived, it was just the first miss that mattered, and I kill him with another Night Slash. IIRC, he muttered “Fuck,” when he lost. First Win, Won 1-0. Also, since it was on the screens, JRank recorded it which you can view here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HOcqzwj1Xc I now immediately go over to Duy and talk to him about the game and ask Evan and other people if they actually saw because the match was so lol.
Swiss Round 4: Brandon Tang – Finished 12th at Nationals – Lost to David Arnold in Top 8
From Team Preview he looks to be running Trick Room. I decide to bring my “Trick Room Counters” which are really just my slowest Pokémon. I lead Golurk and Heatmor as he leads Scrafty and Musharna. Scrafty goes for Fake Out on my Heatmor which does not do much as I use Shadow Punch boosted by Iron Fist and Ghost Gem for the KO on Musharna. He now brings in Jellicent which I assume has Trick Room. However, not wanting to risk anything, I try to Sucker Punch Jellicent with Heatmor which fails, and I protect with Golurk as he tries to Crunch it with Scrafty. I now Sucker Punch Jellicent again and it does maybe 66-75% again, but he uses Water Spout powered by a Water Gem which does enough to kill both of my Pokémon. I now bring in Bisharp and Stunfisk. Bisharp Sucker Punches Jellicent for the kill and Stunfisk missed with Fissure, allowing his Scrafty to kill my Bisharp with a Drain Punch. He now sends in Amoonguss which proceeds to Spore my Stunfisk as it lives a Crunch from Scrafty. It then dies to a Giga Drain from Amoonguss next turn. Good Game – Lost 2-0.
Swiss Round 5: Random – I didn’t ask anyone’s name.
Seeing my opponent’s team, I decided he would use TerraCott as I see he has both. I decide to lead Darmanitan and Bisharp. I predict he will be standard TerraCott and since I ran it for a little bit, I knew what he would do. I predict the Terrakion to protect, which it does, and use Flare Blitz to bring Whimsicott down to its Focus Sash and Iron Head with Bisharp to KO after it sets up Tailwind. He now sends in a Conkeldurr and protects. Terrakion uses Rock Slide and kills Darmanitan and does not do much to Bisharp. I then used Iron Head with Bisharp for the KO on the Terrakion and Conkeldurr’s Flame Orb activates. I now switch in Stunfisk and he brings in Amoonguss. Amoonguss uses Spore on my Stunfisk and it falls asleep as I predict the Mach Punch and switch out to Emolga who avoids the predicted Mach Punch due to BrightPowder. Stunfisk is then still asleep and I use Air Slash with Emolga and nearly KO the Conkeldurr. Conkeldurr then gets off a Rock Slide which does not do much to Stunfisk but kills Emolga, and Amoonguss tries to Spore I believe and Conkeldurr now dies to its burn. I now bring in my Bisharp and Amoonguss Giga Drains my Stunfisk. I believe I woke up and used Fissure and missed, as well as Night Slashed Amoonguss with Bisharp, which looks to be a 4HKO possibly after Black Sludge. Amoonguss now Giga Drains Stunfisk again for the kill and my Bisharp used Night Slash on Amoonguss. Now I think I Night Slash Amoonguss again and it is starting to get low, but I get Effect Spore Slept as the Amoonguss tries to Spore Bisharp anyway. From here on, I just try to wake up and Night Slash while Taking maybe around 10 HP from Amoonguss’ Giga Drains. He eventually gets a critical hit with Giga Drain bringing me to around 16 HP maybe and I never wake up. Next turn I die to a Giga Drain. Lost 1-0 because I wouldn’t wake up and Effect Spore couldn’t have given me Paralysis or Poison.
Swiss Round 6: Hunter – Young Kid, was 0-5 when I played him, made me feel bad.
So I decide to use my standard leads and send out Darmanitan and Bisharp. My opponent throws out a SazaJelly combo being Hydreigon and Jellicent. Not wanting to take a Water Spout from Jellicent assuming it was Choice Scarfed, I lock my Bisharp into Sucker Punch due to my Bisharp holding a Choice Band. It OHKO’s the Jellicent and my Scarf Darmanitan uses Super Power on Hydreigon for the KO since it does not have a Chople Berry. At this point I feel pretty good seeing as I’m up 4-2. He now sends in Krookodile and Landorus which has potential to beat my team if Krookodile has Intimidate as I will have to switch Darmanitan out, if not both of my Pokémon. Luckily for me, Krookodile does not have Intimidate so I feel safe about keeping my Pokémon in. I then Sucker Punch Landorus which nearly kills and use Super Power on Krookodile, but it lives with low HP too because I got the Attack Drop from the previous Super Power. He then uses Earthquake with Krookodile killing my Darmanitan and bringing my Bisharp to 9 HP. Landorus then uses Rock Slide and kills off Bisharp. I still feel pretty confident because I was thinking the Krookodile was Choice Scarfed, and both of those Pokémon were weak to Stunfisk’s Muddy Water. I now send in Stunfisk and Emolga. I decide to use Air Slash on Landorus for the kill assuming Krookodile was still Choiced, and Krookodile then kills my Stunfisk without a critical hit, which at first shocked me, but I then realized he got the Moxie boost from killing my Darmanitan so it was understandable. It was now down to my full HP Emolga against his nearly dead +2 Attack Krookodile which I assumed was still Choiced. I then use Air Slash for an easy kill and that is the game. Won 1-0 again, making me 2-4 overall. Still felt kind of bad for him, but I was not doing much better at the time. You can also view the video here courtesy of JRank uploading it to Youtube since it was on the screens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NElCaHTR0yc
Thinking about what to do first turn.
End of the same turn after I KO'd the Hydreigon with a Super Power.
Swiss Round 7: Random – Was 1-5 and it seemed like he didn’t really care anymore.
We exchange a few words and he says stuff like “We no longer have a chance” which was true and was confused at my Trainer Message and Team. From team preview, I see TerraCott again and am not the happiest person. I decide to lead Darmanitan and Bisharp again since it seemed to work last time. He leads Terrakion and Whimsicott like I expected. I decide to use the same moves as last time and double target Whimsicott but once I see no Tailwind or Protect on Terrakion I’m starting to get scared. I hit Whimsicott with a Flare Blitz which OHKO’d and they had no Focus Sash. His Terrakion now fires off an Earthquake killing Darmanitan and bringing Bisharp to low red where it OHKO’s Terrakion with an Iron Head. He now sends out double genies being Tornadus and Thundurus as I send out my Stunfisk. He then says something like, “Stunfisk, what’s that supposed to do?” and I was just like, “I don’t really know.” I believe my opponent then uses Acrobatics from Tornadus to kill my Bisharp, and uses Hidden Power Ice (I assumed it was Ice because Super Effective) on my Stunfisk which I knew I could take two, but not 100% confident I could after Life Orb recoil. Stunfisk then proceeds to Discharge which kills Tornadus and does maybe 70-80% on Thundurus, at which point he goes, “Oh, I guess that is what it is supposed to do.” I then send in my Emolga and decide to use Thunderbolt with both Pokémon on Thundurus as it barely fails to kill my Stunfisk with another Hidden Power bringing it to around 19 HP I think. Both of my Pokémon hit it with Thunderbolt and that is game. Won 1-0.
Strongth #47 Place
My Registered Battle Box and Record for Nationals.
Bruno wanted a picture of my shirt - wore this one on Sunday.
AFTER THE EVENT.
After this people congratulated me on doing as well as I did for using a troll team. I hung out with the Seniors group basically for the rest of the day. Bruno, Human, and I were invited to Maski’s hotel room where the rest of the Seniors were, so we head over there. They were staying in the JW Marriott, but Bruno takes us the THE Marriott. We thought we were in the right place because it had signs for Nationals so we head up to the 5th floor where Maski’ s room was, and start knocking on room 523 since that was her room number. After they don’t answer, Bruno calls Zheng and others and we decide they are just trolling us. Human was also on the line with someone else and I eventually made the point that if they were on the inside, we would have heard them. So after standing outside that room for about 10 minutes, we head back to the streets to find the JW Marriott. We find it fairly quickly as it was only about a block away, and yell at Bruno for taking us to the wrong hotel. Once we arrive at the JW Marriott, we ask the Front Desk Lady where the elevator was, and she tells us that we need a card. So we head over there and call Maski to come down with a card so we can reach the 5th floor. For some odd reason, Bruno and Human thought that even though the entrance to the elevators said 1-4, 22-24 or whatever it was, that we could still reach the 5th floor. We then walk over to where it said 5-21 or whatever, and wait for Maski. She finally arrives and we get in and try to go to the 5th floor. Maski inserts her card multiple times only to find that she brought the wrong one lol. So we ascend to the 21st floor or something where some employee gets on and we ask him to use his card to take us to the 5th floor. He then asks us if we actually need to be on the 5th floor, and we say yes. Thankfully he does put in his card and let us go to the 5th floor. We then head into Maski’s hotel room where all the others already were. We just relax and whatnot now. Later I try to play Bruno in VGC 2011 and while we are in the room where you take spots, we have a troll war where he tries to “get his spot” which was the left one. He kept running around so I take it and try to predict when he will actually enter so the battle can start. After like 5 minutes of this I finally get in my spot as he gets in his and we can start. We play and I believe I lost 2-0 but it was just for fun. I then also play Human against his unreleased team which he probably doesn’t want me mentioning, and won like 1-0 or something and he saved it, so I may get the video number eventually. After this I played a Sankey Cup match on PO against Snake BUT HE FREAKING GETS A MAGIKARP!!! I asked him to switch computers, but he wouldn’t let me. So I just kill off all his Pokémon, and I had like Mewtwo and Shaymin-S and ended up just killing on my own Pokémon because I couldn’t bring myself to kill the Magikarp and he won 1-0. Then we all went down to Steak N Shake where we had dinner and our waitress was just awful O.O. She was really slow at serving us and didn’t even bring us napkins, we had to ask. My mom had the same waitress as well and she said that she brought her a fork that still had ketchup on it. Anyway, after this we go back to hotel. The next day I just chill and watch all of the matches and cheer on everyone else. Then my mom and I left back for home. I had a great time and can’t wait for next year. I met a lot of people, way more than I thought I would.
MAJOR THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING:
JRank - Filming my 2 matches on the screens. / Moral Support
CO - Giving me 3 Pokemon which I used. / Moral Support
Human - Giving me a Pokemon for Nationals. / Moral Support / Suggesting Fissure and Double Team
ExpertEvan - Giving me Pokemon even though I did not get to use them.
Duy - Moral Support
Unreality - Suggesting Dark Gem / Moral Support
Jiovaine11 - Moral Support
Cosmicexplorer - Moral Support
muffinhead - Moral Support
Kid Kadabra - Moral Support / Getting me lost in Indy
Jibaku - Moral Support
This is fine for now, will edit in more pics, props/slops, etc.
