Orlando, FL, Worlds 2008/Pokemon Showdown story

[POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN]

Yep, my Florida Showdown story. I have a ton of pictures, interesting tidbits, etc, so imo this should be a good read for everybody. So enjoy. ;) If you didn’t do so already, check out the website for some pictures of the events I am mentioning in this thread.


DAY 1 - THURSDAY

This will be a short section. :P I wake up at 4 am and leave at 5 am to catch my 6:50 am flight. I make a stop in Phoenix, and then a direct flight to Orlando and get in at around 6 pm. I take a Mears shuttle to the hotel. While in the hotel lobby, the Hilton, I see Zerowing and we chitchat for a minute or two while waiting to check into our rooms. As I check in and receive my room information, they hand me my hotel keys, which are specially designed keys for the Worlds competitors. There’s a picture of one in the upper portion of this image:



I am exhausted, so I just chill and get some food and sleep. Nothing too interesting about that. :P


DAY 2 - FRIDAY

I wake up and get a bite to eat. I then head down and try to find the area where I check in. There is a big hallway, with ballrooms etc on the left, with windows on the right. I get there, and there was a HUGE crowd. lol The entire area was swarming with TCG players, many from different countries. Some were for the last chance people trying to get an extra spot in the competition. I was like “oh fudge” when I saw the line because I definitely didn‘t want to wait in it. I took a look around, and then saw this table that was out of the way, and with like a 5 person line; I then thought “Ok, that must be the Showdown line”. It looked something like this:



You can see Chris, the winner of LA, on the right in the red shirt. The line extended to the left a bit.


The crowd looked like this for the TCG part early on, but then extended to the left and filled that space:



While in the main hallway, there were these banners hanging from the ceiling, like this:



There were several of these hanging around, and they all had different pokemon on them, as you can see. The Pokemon shown were:
Palkia
Electivire
Eevee + every evolution
Darkrai
Cresselia
Giratina
Absol


I took pictures of all of them, but I won’t post them all, it would be a chore to upload them etc. :P


I check in, and I get my nametag and a little coupon. I then go to a side area in one of the rooms, and pick up my goodie bag. =)

It contained:







(the special hotel key is in the above left corner. The booklet shown had different common sayings in many different languages in case we wanted to try and converse with others from different countries; very cool IMO, I even talked a little bit with a few Japanese players in Japanese :P)





The following two pictures are of the same shirt, just one is a close up of the front and one is the back.






The above right picture is the cards from different countries, most of the major ones. It says Worlds/video game thing they have next year will be held in San Diego, so I can’t wait for that. =)


After I put the stuff away in my room, I just kind of hang out with other people until around 4:00 pm, where they have a Showdown Icebreaker of sorts. I battle a few Japanese kids, though they are juniors. I almost lose to one of them due to Hydro Pump missing(I used my rain team because I didn’t want to giveaway my real competition teams). But I beat most of the people. I battled one senior kid(the KAAAAAAA guy, a bit more on that later), but he had Trick Room and I had a rain team, so I almost automatically lost.


I meet up with Bluecookies, Mysteryman, Zerowing, and the NYC winner, who also goes here but his name escapes me. Both were pretty cool and I met up with them afterwards and throughout the entire trip. JBomber was there as well and he was cool; he took some pictures you can see in his thread. Well anyways I stay there for almost 3 hours, just battling of talking with other people from Smogon. We were allowed to go up onto the big stage and battle with other people if we wanted to. I didn’t because the time ran out that Pokemon was allowed to have it open, but I probably would have if given the chance. I watch those matches as well.


I then leave, and go to the room and watch some of the Little League World Series. =)

[POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN]

DAY 3 - SATURDAY

The big day.

I found it somewhat hard to fall asleep last night, but I managed. Opening ceremonies was at 9:30 am, so I go over to that. There are a few introductions, and pomp-like things, etc. They basically say ”You’re the best in the world, good job for being here, blah blah blah”. They then allow the Showdown players to leave the area and go to the competition room.

It looked something like this:



Junichi Masuda, director of Pokemon and composer of some of the musical selections as well, is seen in the first picture, but it's a bit hard to see. He and the other programmers etc were just milling about with all the competitors. I even stood next to him the night before and talked with him a bit while a few people were battling. :o He spoke relatively good English, better than I expected.

Anyways, the juniors go first, and then the seniors go second.

I find my pairing and what table to go to.

I go there.

And a Japanese girl shows up.

:P Not that I mind. I have fought other females before, so it mattered little to me.



NOW

THE BATTLING SECTION




Here’s the team I chose to use for this battle:

Togekiss @ Chesto Berry
Calm
Follow Me
Protect
Air Slash
Fire Blast

Bronzing @ Lum Berry
Jolly
Imprison
Protect
Trick Room
Hypnosis

Snorlax @ Chople Berry
Sassy
Fire Blast
Crunch
Protect
Selfdestruct

Metagross @ Muscle Band
Adamant
Meteor Mash
Bullet Punch
Explosion
Protect

The point was to Imprison or Trick Room, depending on who the opponent had out at the time. Imprison was for hurting Trick Room teams, and if I faced a rain team or something I can use Trick Room. If Protect is Imprisoned, I can get off Explosion easily, espcially with Hypnosis help from Bronzong. Crunch on Snorlax is for Ghosts, and Fire Blast on Lax and Togekiss was for Bronzong and Metagross.

BATTLE 1: the Japanese girl

I am doing my best to remember this from Saturday. So please bear with me if I have made a mistake. :P

We sent out our teams.

She sends out Ludicolo and Gyarados. I sent out Togekiss and Bronzong.


Rain team, right?


Turn 1 = She Protect with Ludicolo and switches out to ABOMASNOW. So at this point, I think “oh shizzle hail”. I use Follow Me with Togekiss and Trick Room with Bronzong.


Turn 2 = I Hypnosis with Bronzong on Abomasnow, but it misses(uh oh, here we go again, just like my LA final 4 match; Hypnosis mised 2 times there. Hopefully it won't screw me here). Abomasnow uses Blizzard, doing decent damage to Kiss, while I Air Slash Ludicolo for massive damage. Ludicolo uses Blizzard, but it missed Togekiss thank goodness and does little damage to Bronzong(Abomasnow’s did little also).


Turn 3 = Abomasnow uses Protect. In retrospect, I should have Imprisoned anyways after Trick Room, I would have swept and won with Explosion; that mistake was partly due to my not really having anybody to play that was decent except for a very select few. I try to Hypnosis Abomasnow, but it obviously fails. I Air Slash Ludicolo, but it misses(>____>). Ludicolo uses Blizzard, and it kills my Togekiss. I send out Snorlax.


Turn 4 = Both of her pokes use Protect, so my moves do no damage.


Turn 5 = I use Fire Blast on Abomasnow, but it misses. Bronzong uses Hypnosis on Ludicolo, it misses a second time. They both use Blizzard, my opkes take little damage. Bronzong is barely alive. Trick Room ends.


Turn 6 = Bronzong uses Protect. Her Ludicolo uses Hydro Pump on Bronzong, but it does nothing. Abomasnow switches out for Metagross. I Fire Blasted at Abomasnow with Snorlax, but it hit Metagross obviously and I get a CH and faint it(my only lucky break). She sends back out Abomasnow.


Turn 7 = Ludicolo uses Hydro Pump and kills Bronzong. Abomasnow uses Blizzard. It does minimal to Snorlax due to Thick Fat. I bring out Metagross. Snorlax kills Ludicolo with Crunch, and she sends out Gyarados.


Turn 8 = Gyarados uses Protect, while Metagross Meteor Mashes Abomasnow and it survives. I get a +1 Attack. Snorlax uses Crunch on Gyarados, but it’s negated. Abomasnow uses Blizzard, and it freezes Snorlax. :|


I’m really hurting now.


Turn 9 = I Bullet Punch Gyarados, but it only does around like ¼ damage. Gyarados uses Waterfall, and IT GETS A CRITICAL HIT AND KOs MY METAGROSS

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Fas
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Hg
Khjghjdsg
Fgjad
Fasd
Fasd
F
Asd
Gh
Dfj
Ghjdgh
Jdf
Fd
Hd
Dfh
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Dfgf
Ssh
Dfgs
Tre5
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Df


.........



Abomasnow had Protected, which I predicted, so that’s why I went to Gyarados. Snorlax is still frozen.


Turn 10 = Snorlax is still frozen, so I do no damage. Abomasnow uses Blizzard, and Gyarados uses Waterfall.


Turn 11 = I die to Abomasnow Blizzard and Gyarados Waterfall, since it had been hit repeatedly with Blizzard enough to be KOed by Waterfall.



So, I lost round one. :( I lost to some pretty bad luck IMO. But I don’t like to make excuses. This just motivates me more for next year’s competition on San Diego. There were no consolation prizes or anything for those who lost round 1.

Almost every Smogoner lost round 1, including Zerowing and Bluecookies. Only 3 Americans made it past the first round IIRC. Both LA and NYC champions won and advanced to the second round I believe.

I stuck around to watch the semis and finals. Bluecookies has recorded and uploaded them; check out his Youtube profile for all of them(http://www.youtube.com/user/ch00b27). Here's a teaser picture:




Izuru Yoshimura is on the left, and Yasuhito Kajiwara is on the right.



So, my day ended early as far as competing goes. But I stick around and watch the semi-finals and finals. BlueCookies from Smogon recorded them since I had forgotten my video camera, he’ll be posting them soon. I had a very hard time falling asleep that night; I just kept dreaming of Abomasnows and Hypnosis missing.

The rest of my day is filled with hanging out around the competition area and challenging other random people, most of whom I beat. It seemed the only time I got bad luck was in the match that actually mattered.

[POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN]

DAY 4 - SUNDAY

This is an exciting day for me, knowing that I will be getting autographs from GameFreak designers. :o


Lucario was being distributed this morning as well, so I get there early for that. I was first in line for the Lucario. So,


I WAS THE FIRST PERSON IN THE WORLD TO RECEIVE THE LUCARIO.


IMO That’s really cool. It is Adamant, lv. 30. It’s holding Leftovers, and has IDNO 08178, with a OT of WORLD08. It doesn’t have any special moves. I was loling, I read the back of the Wonder Card, and they made an error with the date. It said July 16th, instead of August 17th. x)

I then get in line for the first set of autographs, Takumi Akabane and Shigeki Morimoto; Junichi Masuda and Tsunekaz Ishihara were in the second set. I had a pretty big FR/LG poster for all of them to sign. They all drew little pictures next to their names, which made it extra special. Here is what the poster looked like that I had signed, with all 4 autographs:








Junichi Masuda and Shigeki Morimoto





Takumi Akabane and Tsunekaz Ishihara




:)

I couldn’t get any other things autographed because it was one item per signer per person. I could have hopped back in line and gotten others, but both lines were incredibly full, especially the later one, and they cut the line off and wouldn't allow anybody else in line, so I could not get any duplicates. =( So, I did not get any extra autographs.


After the signings, I hang out a little bit with with other Smogoners. One of them battled someone named POKEMAN, but we couldn’t see who it was, since there were crowds of people just waiting for the doors for the closing ceremonies to open. We asked every little kid that walked by “Hey, are you POKEMAN????????????". It was hilarious, we got all kinds of looks from the people we asked. A "Smogon picture" was taken on omni's camera I believe of all the Smogoners present. Here it is:





Closing ceremonies were interesting but kind of boring. All 3 TCG winners were from the USA. They announced the Showdown winners. I watched and clapped, etc, but was pretty bored.:P




The winners. The Showdown winners were not holding signs.
After this, I head back to my hotel room and watch some of the Olympics and LLWS. =)

DAY 5 - MONDAY

I didn’t have a flight until 5:30pm, so I had some time to burn. Thankfully the media director for this event had asked me to do a radio interview for a local LA station and I consented. It was cool being on radio. I think I have been on every media, except book. But I won’t be writing a book anytime soon, lol.

Afterwards the junior champion and his parents were hanging around too because they made Orlando into a vacation. We talked a bit, and I got his email in case I want to challenge him or just battle/trade. We actually went dumpster diving(searching through the trash for goodies), because Pokemon USA just throws stuff away afterwards. They can’t keep it for next year because it says 2008 on it, so they just chuck it, which is a real shame. I find 2189347189479023847901238742 posters that they had been giving out just lying in the trash in perfectly good condition, so I take those. They also had the huge signs that were around the rooms with decorations, something like this:



I thought about taking it, but common sense kicked in and I left it there. :P I got this though, which is really cool:



There was even a full deck of cards in the trash, with a few rares and holos so I snagged those as well.

I then left for the airport, and flew home. =)




So, I had the time of my life. Though I lost round 1, I am now determined to beat the Japanese next year; that gives me motivation. The motivation to win. :) I met a ton of cool people from Smogon and just randoms. It felt good to be around people of my own kind(lol). I am now anxiously awaiting San Diego next year. I might be uploading a few more pictures a bit later.


Thanks for reading. :)

[McLovinn]

Awesome.

Though the Dumpster Diving is fucking disgusting. Unfortunate that you lost first round :(.

[Age of Kings]

The above right picture is the cards from different countries, most of the major ones. It says Worlds/video game thing they have next year will be held in San Diego, so I can’t wait for that. =)

Really? I guess I'll show up for that. I'll have my license next year as well. xD

I wish I were there, sounded fun. Sorry you lost round 1 as well. =( It was good enough ebing there, so.

[POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN]

Yep, I heard from multiple sources that Worlds/video game thing will be in San Diego in 2009, in early August, like this year.

[Havak]

Awesome, I so wish we could've had more stuff like this in the UK :(

[Jibaku*]

Awesome. I REALLY wished I was in it though :(. I mean, all that crowd, all that sick feeling everytime I enter a tournament. All of the pressures are soon relieved when you come home from it

*wishes for another JAA, and perhaps get revenge on the guy who haxed me*

[Sixonesix]

Do you know if they're having this in any other American cities (hopefully Chicago) next year?

[Mini Guerra]

I was at work during the ones in cali.

[Expert Evan]

San Diego 2009 would be awesome as I hope nothing gets in the way of my qualifying for it next year. Great pictures PBB.

[phalanx]

nice, heard about the lucario today, any chance ya know we could get some :(
wish we got events like this in the UK

[deathshadow8895]

Great warstory and Showdown story. I'm sorry about all of the hax in your match PBB >_<. It's interesting that only 3 of the American participants advanced to the second round. I guess Japan has a higher density of experienced players. I'll be looking forward to the video of the finals.

[Vampy34]

Its not a higher density of better players, its a more experience in this battle type =/

[POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN]

Originally Posted by Fat Sixonesix

Do you know if they're having this in any other American cities (hopefully Chicago) next year?

I have no idea what stops they will be doing next year. I'd assume they would make it more widespread than this year, but we can only wait and see. :P



@above = It's actually both. They are more familiar with that ruleset, which does help them from the start. But they have a lower ratio of nooby trainers to competitive trainers. We as America definitely have a higher one.

[Age of Kings]

Originally Posted by Fat POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN

Yep, I heard from multiple sources that Worlds/video game thing will be in San Diego in 2009, in early August, like this year.

I'm excited, I'm definitely coming (I haven't played the actual games in forever, though xD). Hopefully, I'll get to meet up with some of you next year. ^_^;

[McLovinn]

I wish they'd have some battling tournament in the UK. They only have these stupid tournaments where you can go and get a certain Poké :/.

[Miltonic]

awesome pics, im waiting for next years maybe they can make a a stop in Philly since it would be a closer than New York for me.

[Arseus]

Oh man PBB, I almost cringed reading your match, you got haxxed so badly :( This sounds like it was really fun, I hope Canada gets a chance to participate in something like this hopefully in the near future.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, what were the EVs on your Pokémon? Thanks for typing this up!

EDIT: Pablo, I'm aware of the World Showdown next year, but I'm not getting my hopes up yet. And Electrone0, it seems next year follows the same rules as this year's did, albiet Platinum only, and possibly an altered ban list.

[Pablo]

The next Showdown will be in San Diego 2009, and is supposed to fature 20 countries or so.

[Electrone0]

Hopefully next year its singles so I stand a chance.

[theamericandream38]

Great story man, it is unfortunate that you didn't do so well in the tournament but it is good that you had a good time anyway. I am extremely excited for next year's tournament and hope there will be more than two qualifiers so I can have a chance of making it.

[the Lexx]

hi pbb =]

Sounded like a great time. Really wish I could've made the NYC event at least, maybe next year.

[Dexterity]

holy shit San Diego?? That's where I live :D

[guraboy]

Its in San Diego next year? Awesome. I guess i might still be living down here by then. Unless i decide to graduate lol :P