The Switch That Redeemed IRC

[THE_IRON_KENYAN]

February 16th, 2011 9:00 Am (approx) Pacific Standard Time. I wake up, and eat my morning breakfast of Peanut butter crunch with whole milk. Get on IRC.

Things were standard -- As standard as they possibly could be. In #dreamworld I see AJC relentlessly pegging away at some pokemon concept, flooding the chat with peppered lols and insights on his vast laddering experiences. I get a red highlight in #drachma and a loud to go along with it. I reluctantly click on the channel tab next to the chat bar and find out it was RODAN highlighting me to get me in order to get me to click on yet another link. I couldnt remember what it was because I honestly couldnt give a shit, but I think we can all assume it was mundane stupidity. Talking shit about the Cryonicles losing streak was the name of the game in #premier, but I decided to pass since there was no point in trolling a team already so far down. #wishmkr, although being a new IRC hotspot, continued the pattern. Mekkah was talking about TCG, but no one responded. He eventually took the hint, and shut the fuck up because nobody cared at the time -- Its one of the reasons hes a respected member and admin of this forum. Its just to bad zfs started talking about how we should go back to the good ol days and play GSC. 1 response from G80 was all he got. Just 1. Standard.

I was planning on closing up chatzilla when I forgot that it gives you an "Are you sure?" message before so. Panning my eyes down the screen to click the final quit button, I notice a familiar, yet exciting message:


drcossack (<B@seball.starting.soon>) has joined #wishmkr


I double back on the "Are you Sure?" and click the red x to cancel it. Maybe IBM is on to something. Maybe computers are getting smarter. Maybe, just maybe.

An opportunity that might have been my only chance at salvaging the days IRC experience came right in front of me, although it wouldnt be as simple as you might first suspect. Things had stagnated between me and drcossack that week, and I knew that if I wanted to make things entertaining for myself I would have to get creative.

It was at this point I realized I had an old VGC team in pastebin. Even though I played with the team a grand total of 1 time, I slapped that shit on PO teambuilder and gave drcossack an offer he couldnt refuse. A friendly VGC battle pitting the experienced drcossack -- The same man who said even BlueCookies was shit -- against little ol' me: The VGC beginner. He accepted just as I expected, and told me to get on PO's skarmbliss server. I happily obliged, thus starting the journey this thread is meant to cover:

The journey to IRC redemption.


My team:



The team was pretty old. I used it frequently last gen, and got positive feedback from Eo who used a similar team. Drcossacks team ended up being the same throwback style as mine, making my worrying at the start of the match unnecessary.


Battle between drcossack VGC and KENYAN started!

Tier: VGC 2011
Rule: Unrated

KENYAN sent out Palkia!
drcossack VGC sent out Weavile!
KENYAN sent out Hitmontop!
drcossack VGC sent out Metallica! (Dialga)
The foe's Weavile is exerting its Pressure!
Palkia is exerting its Pressure!
The foe's Metallica is exerting its Pressure!
thecrusher555 is watching the battle.

Start of turn 1
The foe's Weavile used Fake Out!
Hitmontop lost 34 HP! (21% of its health)

Hitmontop flinched!

Palkia used Earth Power!
It's super effective!
The foe's Metallica lost 56% of its health!

The foe's Metallica used Trick Room!
The foe's Metallica twisted the dimensions!

An average turn. My team too was Trick Room based, but the suicide Weavile lead was a bit unsettling because I didnt get it to faint as it was intended to, but I put a nice dent in Metallica(Dialga).

Even with drcossacks past history on the site and dead giveaways of maturity and mental prowess, I knew I shouldnt underestimate anything because it has a dumb nickname. I learned that the easy way by watching makiri talk on IRC.

Start of turn 2
The foe's Metallica used Protect!
The foe's Metallica protected itself!

Hitmontop used Mach Punch!
The foe's Metallica protected itself!

The foe's Weavile used Ice Shard!
Palkia lost 51 HP! (29% of its health)

Palkia used Spacial Rend!
The attack of Palkia missed!

Getting out-predicted by a dude whose vocabulary only consists of "um, no?", "whatever.", and "lol." definitely didnt bring me any confidence. I lick my wounds and plan my next attack.

Start of turn 3
The foe's Metallica used Protect!
The foe's Metallica protected itself!

Hitmontop used Mach Punch!
It's super effective!
dbolt is watching the battle.
The foe's Weavile lost 80% of its health!
The foe's Weavile fainted!

4-3 Breath of fresh air

Palkia used Earth Power!
The foe's Metallica protected itself!

drcossack VGC sent out Abomasnow!

The foe's Abomasnow's Snow Warning whipped up a hailstorm!

Hail? Weavile? This could only mean one thing...

Start of turn 4
Palkia used Protect!
Palkia protected itself!

Hitmontop used Mach Punch!
It's super effective!
The foe's Abomasnow lost 73% of its health!

The foe's Abomasnow used Blizzard!
Hitmontop lost 73 HP! (46% of its health)
Hitmontop ate its Sitrus Berry!
Hitmontop restored some HP!
Palkia protected itself!

The foe's Metallica used Blizzard!
Hitmontop lost 60 HP! (38% of its health)
Palkia protected itself!

Hail continues to fall!
The foe's Metallica is buffeted by the hail!
Hitmontop is buffeted by the hail!
Palkia is buffeted by the hail!
SgtWoodsy is watching the battle.

I predicted the Blizzard spam and felt pretty good about it; however, my Hitmontop was on the brink and my Palkia wasnt looking too shabby either. I had to get creative if I wanted to stay in this game, as I knew I couldnt stand many more blizzards. My next controversial move set the set the game right in my hands.

Start of turn 5
KENYAN called Hitmontop back!
KENYAN sent out Cresselia!

KENYAN called Palkia back!
KENYAN sent out Dialga!

DOUBLE SWITCH

Dialga is exerting its Pressure!
The foe's Abomasnow used Ice Shard!
Cresselia lost 24 HP! (10% of its health)

The foe's Metallica used Blizzard!
Dialga lost 64 HP! (30% of its health)
Cresselia lost 39 HP! (17% of its health)

Hail continues to fall!
Dialga is buffeted by the hail!
The foe's Metallica is buffeted by the hail!
Cresselia is buffeted by the hail!
Cresselia restored a little HP using its Leftovers!
The twisted dimensions returned to normal!
KENYAN: nice moves dumbass
KENYAN: B)
drcossack VGC: nobody switches there
drcossack VGC: fuck off

I decided to throw a little trash talk in there to A: Entertain myself and B: Throw off my opponent emotionally. I knew if I could throw him off his grove he would be more prone to mistakes than he usually would be otherwise, and knowing my skills in those areas I decided to combine them with my previous knowledge of drcossacks general maturity and pokemon skills to deliver a decisive blow.

Start of turn 6
The foe's Abomasnow used Protect!
The foe's Abomasnow protected itself!

Cresselia used Psychic!
The foe's Abomasnow protected itself!

Dialga used Aura Sphere!
It's super effective!
The foe's Metallica lost 32% of its health!
The foe's Metallica fainted!

4-2

Hail continues to fall!
Cresselia is buffeted by the hail!
Dialga is buffeted by the hail!
Cresselia restored a little HP using its Leftovers!
drcossack VGC sent out Metagross!

JabbaTheGriffin is watching the battle.

Start of turn 7
The foe's Abomasnow used Protect!
But it failed!

Dialga used Protect!
Dialga protected itself!

Cresselia used Psychic!
The foe's Abomasnow lost 26% of its health!
The foe's Abomasnow fainted!

4-1 Blowout?

The foe's Metagross used Explosion!
Cresselia lost 164 HP! (72% of its health)
Cresselia fainted!

3-1. Comeback time for the good Dr?

Dialga protected itself!
The foe's Metagross fainted!

Nope. 3-0. Looks like the dr got schooled.

KENYAN won the battle!
KENYAN: I sure can handle my pokeballs well
drcossack VGC: GG

His team:






The heartfelt underdog making a bold statement on the back of an experienced, veteran VGC player set the tone for IRC the rest of the day. There was a little bragging, a good healthy debate on whether or not I was an idiot for making my controversial move, and many jokes. It was a complete turnaround of what I experienced earlier on IRC, and in the end im glad I didnt select "Yes, Im sure I want to quit" on Chatzilla. I guess the moral of the story is to give things a chance and pay attention because it might be an incredible experience ;)

Happy reading,
THE_IRON_KENYAN

[Venser]

holy shit an on-topic post from tik

[YAYtears]

Wait this is 4G

[Lord Liam]

My favourite part is when cossack lost.

[NatGeo]

Originally Posted by Fat THE_IRON_KENYAN

The journey to IRC suicide.

[thunderstone]

Really enjoyed reading this, great post.

[Fatecrashers]

A++++++++++

[Mario With Lasers]

Originally Posted by Fat YAYtears

Wait this is 4G

well, at least it's not a Spinda sweep

[Eo Ut Mortus]

An inspiring triumph over both internal and external forces. Never have I seen such excellence as was displayed in this warstory; I am truly enthralled.

drcossack's attendance aside, I also thought TIK played very well.

[Huy]

Nobody switches in VGC except the Japanese, Huy, and OmegaDonut. You broke the rules, I'm sorry.

[Pidge]

This one of the best warstories I have ever read. The comments were so in-depth and you explain all your options clearly. It was a good battle as well with good predictions on both sides. The hax was a little unfortunate, but you were able to pull through for a win. Well done and I hope you contribute more warstories in the future. This is probably the best warstory I've ever read. I was listening to music, and it got really intense right when Shanderaa came in. And did anyone else notice the opponent's green/purple color scheme? Actually if you play Ubers on the Beta Server you can often see people using teams like this + Darkrai. So it wasn't really OMG TROLL for me... However, I rarely see shit like this in OU. For some reason, the people who play OU tend to be more serious competitive battlers, so you're less likely to see such terrible teams. However, the OP's response was good. It's such obvious trolling it's actually funny, especially when you consider that his/her/its other posts are generally 'ok' and not a bunch of incoherent shit. Really the commentary didn't do anything. There was no real skill involved on either of your parts for this battle, as someone mentioned before it was a lot of one Pokemon revenge killing another one. There were some misplays, too, such as you keeping your Chandelure in on his Gyarados when he will clearly outspeed, and also thinking that on such low health your Metagross would survive a +1 Waterfall from the Gyarados. Overall I'd give it a 4/10, I know it's easy to sit here and criticise, but your commentary was lacking a lot, in future you should choose a slightly longer battle maybe, with more thought process in. The format was decent, however, and good luck for next time. You basically just told us what happened and what was going to happen next, which is pretty pointless because we know what's going to happen by reading on. You need to explain why you did what you did to add some depth. We need to know why you made you chose X over Y. I appreciate the time and thought you put into this. You detailed at length your thought process, and the percentages and pictures throughout made for a clean presentation. However, I felt you elaborated too much. I was already turned off when when I saw multiple paragraphs to read before turn one. If you feel you have to do a tl;dr explanation, then it probably is too long to read. As the battle continued, you broke down even trivial decisions which, for any experienced battler, had obvious conclusions. It's offputting to slog through an entire paragraph when the reader already knows what's coming up next. The unnecessary block of text for obvious turns constantly disrupted the flow of the battle. A few misplays turned me off as well. Turn 19, as you've already stated, should've been an Earth Power, saving your Nidoking the Shadow Ball from Shanderaa, and also, as you pointed out, all of Nidoking's last Ice Beams should've been Flamethrowers. The worst misplay was by your opponent, who threw away the battle when it should've ended based on a speed tie if he had thought through his endgame. He sac'ed his Ditto against your Genosekuto, when he should've just sac'ed any of his other three pokemon. He could then send his Ditto back out, transform into Genosekuto, and mash Flamethrower, forcing you to sac your Nidoking. In the end, the winner would've been decided on a coinflip as you sent back in your Genosekuto for a possible sweep with Flamethrower. Also, this is just a personal preference, but I would've set up SR while Heatran was behind a Sub against Ttar. i don't really understand two things from this battle:in turn 11 when you were behind a sub why didn't you use stealth rock and then switch?does the balloon pop even if you are behind a sub? and in turn 17 why didn't you switch since you had seen he was using an attacking gliscor so it would probably outspeed you?anyway that was an enjoyable battle and i really liked reading it... All in all, with the misplays and unneeded length, I didn't like this warstory as much as other posters seemed to. The battle was good, but not the best. You are clearly a good player, and that shows. Your opponent was good as well, but you seemed to control to the momentum for basically the entire match. There were only a couple times where you were at a disadvantage, and they never lasted more than maybe 2 or 3 turns. I second using Slowbro for your Kanto team. He's great, and hes not OU, although hes still completely viable for it (only because there are many other options). On the final turn, if you'd used Roost with Dragonite to halve the damage from Ice Punch, could you have survived the hit and then had a guaranteed KO on the Medicham with Dragon Claw? I guess probably not seeing as it had a Bulk Up but just wondering :) The battle wasn't quite up to par to be honest. It was better than a lot of recent warstories yes, but still not epic - there were a fair few facepalm moments for me on both sides, and the hax and misplays took away from any drama it might have had. I guess just because it was the final of a tourney doesn't mean it's worth a warstory. Still an amazing story. Oh yeah, can I save this war story on a word document so I can preserve it for years to come. One of the better Warstories I've read. I was hooked even before Turn 1 began. The way you went into depth about every move was brilliant. Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see your Kanto team. However, your effort is noted, and anyone who uses Nidoking is awesome. Just learn to cut out unnecessary words, sentences, and even paragraphs, which will improve all of your writing in general. This takes the cake for best warstory yet , Gen 5. Your detailed thought processes, simply put, was fantastic. Excellent formatting, a great battle as well; contributing to making this a highly enjoyable read. A great warstory with very thoughtful commentary. A lot of players sometimes talk about hax, but it's seems rare that someone will notice the RNG. It occurs to me that a few of your decisions were not calculated right there in the match, but were made based on past calculations and experience, which I think is a nice touch (as I started reading I was thinking "I hope that paragraph didn't equate into a 3 minute wait for his opponent" and then I read the analysis at the bottom of the first paragraph and realized you had thought about this long ago :P

Only thing that ponders me is the title name. Its just so.... punny. 10/10

[KokoaKiwi]

wtf is going on in this thread

[yytan12]

9/10 Battle was enjoyable and fun to read, you explained your options very nicely.

The only thing that I found troubling is keeping up with your opponent's pokemon.

[RaRaRabbit]

Originally Posted by Fat Pidge

This one of the best warstories I have ever read. The comments were so in-depth and you explain all your options clearly. It was a good battle as well with good predictions on both sides. The hax was a little unfortunate, but you were able to pull through for a win. Well done and I hope you contribute more warstories in the future. This is probably the best warstory I've ever read. I was listening to music, and it got really intense right when Shanderaa came in. And did anyone else notice the opponent's green/purple color scheme? Actually if you play Ubers on the Beta Server you can often see people using teams like this + Darkrai. So it wasn't really OMG TROLL for me... However, I rarely see shit like this in OU. For some reason, the people who play OU tend to be more serious competitive battlers, so you're less likely to see such terrible teams. However, the OP's response was good. It's such obvious trolling it's actually funny, especially when you consider that his/her/its other posts are generally 'ok' and not a bunch of incoherent shit. Really the commentary didn't do anything. There was no real skill involved on either of your parts for this battle, as someone mentioned before it was a lot of one Pokemon revenge killing another one. There were some misplays, too, such as you keeping your Chandelure in on his Gyarados when he will clearly outspeed, and also thinking that on such low health your Metagross would survive a +1 Waterfall from the Gyarados. Overall I'd give it a 4/10, I know it's easy to sit here and criticise, but your commentary was lacking a lot, in future you should choose a slightly longer battle maybe, with more thought process in. The format was decent, however, and good luck for next time. You basically just told us what happened and what was going to happen next, which is pretty pointless because we know what's going to happen by reading on. You need to explain why you did what you did to add some depth. We need to know why you made you chose X over Y. I appreciate the time and thought you put into this. You detailed at length your thought process, and the percentages and pictures throughout made for a clean presentation. However, I felt you elaborated too much. I was already turned off when when I saw multiple paragraphs to read before turn one. If you feel you have to do a tl;dr explanation, then it probably is too long to read. As the battle continued, you broke down even trivial decisions which, for any experienced battler, had obvious conclusions. It's offputting to slog through an entire paragraph when the reader already knows what's coming up next. The unnecessary block of text for obvious turns constantly disrupted the flow of the battle. A few misplays turned me off as well. Turn 19, as you've already stated, should've been an Earth Power, saving your Nidoking the Shadow Ball from Shanderaa, and also, as you pointed out, all of Nidoking's last Ice Beams should've been Flamethrowers. The worst misplay was by your opponent, who threw away the battle when it should've ended based on a speed tie if he had thought through his endgame. He sac'ed his Ditto against your Genosekuto, when he should've just sac'ed any of his other three pokemon. He could then send his Ditto back out, transform into Genosekuto, and mash Flamethrower, forcing you to sac your Nidoking. In the end, the winner would've been decided on a coinflip as you sent back in your Genosekuto for a possible sweep with Flamethrower. Also, this is just a personal preference, but I would've set up SR while Heatran was behind a Sub against Ttar. i don't really understand two things from this battle:in turn 11 when you were behind a sub why didn't you use stealth rock and then switch?does the balloon pop even if you are behind a sub? and in turn 17 why didn't you switch since you had seen he was using an attacking gliscor so it would probably outspeed you?anyway that was an enjoyable battle and i really liked reading it... All in all, with the misplays and unneeded length, I didn't like this warstory as much as other posters seemed to. The battle was good, but not the best. You are clearly a good player, and that shows. Your opponent was good as well, but you seemed to control to the momentum for basically the entire match. There were only a couple times where you were at a disadvantage, and they never lasted more than maybe 2 or 3 turns. I second using Slowbro for your Kanto team. He's great, and hes not OU, although hes still completely viable for it (only because there are many other options). On the final turn, if you'd used Roost with Dragonite to halve the damage from Ice Punch, could you have survived the hit and then had a guaranteed KO on the Medicham with Dragon Claw? I guess probably not seeing as it had a Bulk Up but just wondering :) The battle wasn't quite up to par to be honest. It was better than a lot of recent warstories yes, but still not epic - there were a fair few facepalm moments for me on both sides, and the hax and misplays took away from any drama it might have had. I guess just because it was the final of a tourney doesn't mean it's worth a warstory. Still an amazing story. Oh yeah, can I save this war story on a word document so I can preserve it for years to come. One of the better Warstories I've read. I was hooked even before Turn 1 began. The way you went into depth about every move was brilliant. Keep up the good work and I can't wait to see your Kanto team. However, your effort is noted, and anyone who uses Nidoking is awesome. Just learn to cut out unnecessary words, sentences, and even paragraphs, which will improve all of your writing in general. This takes the cake for best warstory yet , Gen 5. Your detailed thought processes, simply put, was fantastic. Excellent formatting, a great battle as well; contributing to making this a highly enjoyable read. A great warstory with very thoughtful commentary. A lot of players sometimes talk about hax, but it's seems rare that someone will notice the RNG. It occurs to me that a few of your decisions were not calculated right there in the match, but were made based on past calculations and experience, which I think is a nice touch (as I started reading I was thinking "I hope that paragraph didn't equate into a 3 minute wait for his opponent" and then I read the analysis at the bottom of the first paragraph and realized you had thought about this long ago :P

Only thing that ponders me is the title name. Its just so.... punny. 10/10

This right here makes this thread awesome and yet annoying at the same time. I am both confused and amused. It is distressing and yet I feel enlightened. Also my eyes caved in and I spit up blood.

Also I am not positive if this is taken from a massive amount of different posts and sentences (I don't understand how any lunatic would find that fun), but I think the bolded part of that quote was from me, but I don't know for sure... or I said something ALONG those lines.

[StarmanXL]

Originally Posted by Fat Pidge

Huge ass wall of text

I don't know what's worse/funnier; the fact that you copy-pasta'd a shit ton of previous warstory comments into a towering literary brick or that I read the whole thing.

Also 9/10 for the warstory. My only critique is that you switched and we all know that you're not supposed to switch in doubles.

[masterful]

The powerful, insightful commentary displayed in this warstory inspires a feeling of absolute awe and one of depression, as we all know that, no matter what we do for the rest of our lives, we shall never be as great as the one and only TIK.

2.5/10

[Ramblin Wreck]

THE IRON KENYAN I WANT YOUR BABIES

[yoshinator879]

This is gen 4, it doesn't belong here.

[Colonel M]

Originally Posted by Fat Ramblin Wreck

THE IRON KENYAN I WANT YOUR BABIES

This summarizes my thoughts nicely.

I am glad I am learning from the best instead of some loser like drcossack.

[Citizen]

w
u
t

[StardustGD]

whats this hole double switch nonsense about. whats so bad about it?

[Ditto]

10/10 if nothing else for the fact that cossack lost ^_^

[Engineer Pikachu]

Originally Posted by Fat Ditto

10/10 if nothing else for the fact that cossack lost ^_^

[little gk]

This is what Pokemon is all about, playing the game the right way. TIK may have had his moment of bragging at the end, but by not responding to cossack's "fuck off" he really showed who the bigger man was. TIK, I thank you for showing true sportsmanship.

[MapleSandwich]

The fact that you switched in VGC, AND made drcossack lose, pretty much makes this the best warstory in VGC history.

Hell, only warstory in VGC history as far as I am concerned. All future VGC warstories must include switches from here on out, or be locked for lack of quality.