My VGC journey begins way back in Late April 2009. I just learned about the VGCs and I practiced very hard to make a team. Alas, I didn't get in last year because of the lottery. But this year I was determined to not let that deter me, so I planned to go to 4 of the 6 (7 including LCQ) to give myself the highest chance to get in. I saved up money for an entire year and even that wasn't quite enough. I trained for hours all 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Every single day since May 8, 2009 I've been training for the VGCs. So of course I'm real anxious to finally write a warstory about it. Sorry if it seems unprofessional. Also, sorry this is late. Ever since my loss in Seattle, I've been constantly working on improving my game and I haven't had time to really reflect on my journey so far until today. Plus I'm in a good mood after my Phoenix experience.
MAY 9, 2010- Seattle, WA
So I it's finally May 9, 2010. They day I will finally see if all the VGC seeds I planted will bear fruit. I chill in the building and just kinda mess around for a bit. I end up seeing zerowing (who was a lot shorter and had a much higher voice than I imagined) and his ducks. I knew him and the ducks were good, but I wouldn't know just how good until later that day.
In the line for the "King of the Hill" side tournament, I meet Raze 17 for the first time. Shortly afterward, I meed J-Leo-L and a cool guy named Rodrigo. I end up being one of only 2 people to get 5 wins in a row during that side tourney, but the players there weren't very good honestly. I battled an VGC event Eevee for crying out loud. The kid downloaded that thing like 5 minutes before our battle. At least the battles were on the big screen, and the way we set up our games was just like the real thing. Those 5 matches really killed all the nerves I had.
Eventually, I hear there's a line building outside and I go out with Raze and J-Leo-L and I meet Cocy965. All three of these guys were awesome. Here are some pictures. I only saw Ostrigal for a fleeting moment, but it was great to see him in real life. It's always cool when we get a chance to chat online but it was great to see him and his son (who got top 8 in juniors I believe).
1. J-Leo-L 2. Raze17 3. Cocy965 4. Group shot.
Okay enough prelim talk. Let's cut to the chase. First round. I'm so pumped up. I just took my earbuds out and have my shades on. Roscoe Dash and Soulja Boy's "All the Way Turnt Up" is still playing in my head and my swagger is on full tilt. I'm doing my little bounce I do before every match and I wait for my opponent to come up. First it was a guy but since I beat him twice earlier in the day, he decided to go to another station. A girl ends up coming up. She looks a little familiar, and I almost don't ask if she's from Smogon (so as not to look stupid), but I come to the conclusion that the worst thing she can say is "no".
BI: You Feathers?
Feathers: Yeah.
BI: You know who I am?
Feathers: (slight pause)
BI: The one who told you about the Dialga.
Feathers: Ohhh, you are the last person I wanted to battle.
^BI's swagger taking effect. No but really, I shook her hand and we got ready to battle. She was really, really nice and she was talking to me right before we started. I didn't mean to offend her, but I was super focused on this (I mean I trained so hard), so I just kinda nodded but didn't really respond. I'm not gonna reveal her team out of respect, but here's mine. I won't post the EVs and Natures; they're custom spreads that I made up.
Infernape @ Focus Sash
-Flare Blitz
-Close Combat
-Mach Punch
-Protect
Giratina @ Choice Scarf
-Shadow Force
-Thunder
-Stone Edge
-Outrage
Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
-Rock Slide
-Crunch
-Low Kick
-Protect
Palkia @ Haban Berry
Spacial Rend
Flamethrower
Thunderbolt
Protect
Round 1: Vs Feathers
Well I get off the Scarf Force + Close Combat combo perfectly. It gets a crit on one of her Pokemon. It was pretty downhill from there. She had a good team that probably could have very likely placed top 16, but my team was able to counter it pretty well. I win.
Round 2: Vs 21 Year old guy.
He leads with Zapdos Groudon. This team is made to murder that lead. I use the same Shadow Force + Flare Blitz combo to kill Groudon without it even getting to attack. Infernape gets down to a sliver from Discharge and a Blaze and Drought boosted Flare Blitz kill Zapdos. Giratina Shadow force rapes the reserved Mewtwo. I forgot the last Pokemon, but I win this battle handily as well.
Round 3 Vs Fish.
Dude. Fish is hella good. That's all I can say. I lost this battle 4-0. He was a duck and now I finally saw how strong they were. I'm not sure how much input zerowing had on this team but I'm guessing a lot. It's about as flawless a team I've seen in VGC 2010. And that's saying a lot when almost every lead has an obvious and immediate counter. I think it's better than Kyogre/Top, but that's just me. The video is here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI3my1KUP2Q
Here is my video coverage and analysis of the day.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9D3A7F4221E74813
So I fly home very disappointed. But I have to pick myself back up, because one week later, it's time for the San Mateo VGC! I didn't get any video from this one because I was really focused but I did get some pictures.
MAY 15, 2010- San Mateo, CA
Okay, so I admit. I was a real jerk to Huy online after what happened to him in Seattle. Mainly I was just pissed at getting 4-0'd though and I thought I'd take it out on a duck. I should have apologized more formally to you, but sorry about that comment man. I did shake your hand (again) so yeah.
Lower Circle: On the very left is Huy. To his right is his brother, Duy. To Duy's right is TAY. I think the last guy is Rory, but I don't know.
Upper right: The guy in the red shorts is a guy I met at TCG Regionals. I still don't know his name (lol) but if you're reading this, holla at ya boi. The four guys sitting in a circle on the upper right are VERY important. The one with the tan jacket on is brownballa55 (Eshaan). To his right is WishboneKid (Austin) with his girlfriend. To their right is Kevin (I think that's him but I can only see his back) who's screen name I'm unsure of. At any rate the three guys and I would end up taking a journey to Phoenix the following week, but more on that in the third part of the story.
Skarmbliss Elites from left to right: Metabou, (? haven't met him online but I will update), POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN, DANUKES
Ok so you guys already know how I do my prebattle by now so let's just get into them. Oh, but you need my team first.
Here, you guess the movesets. 90% of your guesses on EVs and attack will be correct since this team is just a more aggressive variation of Misa Room. Still <3 you Misa. Even though you're not really Campo >>
Round 1: vs a girl
She was nice but she lead with Metagross and Roserade. Yeah... I cleaned up.
Round 2: vs an owner of some Pokemon site
Ok this guy was not bad. He leads with Dialga and Kyogre. I'm already thinking he's like zerowing and has Abomasnow and Hitmontop in the back. (a few days before the Seattle VGC, I battled zerowing on irc as mrbananagrabber and he lead with Palkia Kyogre, followed by Hitmotop Abomasnow. I battled Littlesnail in one of the Skarmlive finals with those same four before I battled zerowing, and needless to say I got crushed. It's a shame he wasn't at Seattle because that team turned out to be the best. Okay, anyway I end up Faking Out Dialga anyway. I say, since Smeargle is level 1 I can't really go wrong in Trick Room. Water Spout does over half to Dialga and I get Trick Room up. I endeavor and Dragon Pulse Kyogre for the kill and his Dialga Dracos mine for the kill. They send in Swampert and I send in Machamp. I Dynamic Punch Dialga for the kill and Swampert Waterfall crits Machamp for the kill. I endeavor the Swampert down to 1 HP. They send in Blissey and I send in Kyogre. Now i'm glad that I'm running the level 1 set. I Endeavor the Blissey all the way down to 1 HP and as the HP is dropping the other guy let's out a huge "Ugghhh!" Water Spout kills both of his guys before they can attack.
Round 3: Vs. Eric Wu
Ugh. Fucking Hitmontop. After this battle I have complete disdain for zerowing and his team. Hitmontop just raped my team by itself. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS8DbTAfAIM
MAY 22, 2010- Phoenix, AZ. The not so "war" story
Okay so a couple days after the San Mateo VGC I hear from WishboneKid again on IRC. I practice battled with brownballa55 earlier that day (15th) and I was familiar with Kevin from San Mateo. BB55, or Eshaan as I'm gonna call him now, was the one who beat POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN in San Mateo with a critical hit, which ended up causing that whole getting back in line drama. Also we were running identical teams for the most part. The EVs and IVs were slightly different, but the 4 Pokemon and the overall concept were the same. Anyway WishboneKid (Austin from now on in this story) says it would be a better idea to carpool with him Eshaan and Kevin than to take Greyhound. That would have cost me $218, and I ended up paying like $130 carpooling and getting a hotel.
At this point, the story is getting a little long and the journey with my new friends isn't really done any justice by typed out words. Later on today though, I'll update this thread with YouTube videos from San Mateo and my personal account of our trip, stay, and trip back up. It's gonna be in a vlog format, so come back to this thread so you can hear about that. The video should be up within 24 hours.
Okay, since this team did so well and mainly only lost due to misprediction, I'm going to go ahead and keep it a secret. But long story short, I won rounds 1-4. Then I made it to the finalist lounge. I got a bye in round 5 and that got me an invite to nationals. I literally hugged Xerograde when we both drew a bye lol. I won round 6 against Masha's brother. I lost in round 7 to a semifinalist (who lost to Persian/Weavile lead >>). However the person I lost to was running the same four Pokemon as the runner up so I'm not tripping too bad. This is the second tourney I've lost to the second place player.
I HAVE A LIVE VIDEO OF THE FINAL MATCH. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kq_9-5fSC4. Thanks to Supe for letting me get a clear shot.
Okay here are some great pics I got:
Fish just plain old looks like he's raw. Bossman.
Left to right: OmegaDonut's girlfriend, OmegaDonut, Fish, BadIntent (Me)
Me and Ninahaza. I actually hadn't talked to him before the event, but he recognized me so it's all good.
Sidenote: Quite a few people: Imperfectluck, OmegaDonut, Xerograde, Ninahaza, WishboneKid, Marsha, (the list goes on) recognized me simply based on my avatar. I thought that was pretty awesome.
Thanks to Fish for taking this. One of my favorite pics of all time.
Kevin, WishboneKid, BadIntent, BrownBalla55
Here is my playlist of my Phoenix VGC Experience: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9D3A7F4221E74813
The playlist and channel will be constantly. Visit youtube.com/malicexbadintent for videos of my VGC experience.
To everyone who can make it: see you at Nationals. I'll be there the day of the LCQ just to socialize. The pressure will be off that day so it should be a great day to hang out.
I know I didn't win the whole thing but I'd like to thank MattJ, GreySong, Jivetime, DANUKES, and sixonesix for their constant support in helping me get this far. Even when I was down, and most people doubted me, they stuck with me.
MAY 9, 2010- Seattle, WA
So I it's finally May 9, 2010. They day I will finally see if all the VGC seeds I planted will bear fruit. I chill in the building and just kinda mess around for a bit. I end up seeing zerowing (who was a lot shorter and had a much higher voice than I imagined) and his ducks. I knew him and the ducks were good, but I wouldn't know just how good until later that day.
In the line for the "King of the Hill" side tournament, I meet Raze 17 for the first time. Shortly afterward, I meed J-Leo-L and a cool guy named Rodrigo. I end up being one of only 2 people to get 5 wins in a row during that side tourney, but the players there weren't very good honestly. I battled an VGC event Eevee for crying out loud. The kid downloaded that thing like 5 minutes before our battle. At least the battles were on the big screen, and the way we set up our games was just like the real thing. Those 5 matches really killed all the nerves I had.
Eventually, I hear there's a line building outside and I go out with Raze and J-Leo-L and I meet Cocy965. All three of these guys were awesome. Here are some pictures. I only saw Ostrigal for a fleeting moment, but it was great to see him in real life. It's always cool when we get a chance to chat online but it was great to see him and his son (who got top 8 in juniors I believe).
1. J-Leo-L 2. Raze17 3. Cocy965 4. Group shot.
Okay enough prelim talk. Let's cut to the chase. First round. I'm so pumped up. I just took my earbuds out and have my shades on. Roscoe Dash and Soulja Boy's "All the Way Turnt Up" is still playing in my head and my swagger is on full tilt. I'm doing my little bounce I do before every match and I wait for my opponent to come up. First it was a guy but since I beat him twice earlier in the day, he decided to go to another station. A girl ends up coming up. She looks a little familiar, and I almost don't ask if she's from Smogon (so as not to look stupid), but I come to the conclusion that the worst thing she can say is "no".
BI: You Feathers?
Feathers: Yeah.
BI: You know who I am?
Feathers: (slight pause)
BI: The one who told you about the Dialga.
Feathers: Ohhh, you are the last person I wanted to battle.
^BI's swagger taking effect. No but really, I shook her hand and we got ready to battle. She was really, really nice and she was talking to me right before we started. I didn't mean to offend her, but I was super focused on this (I mean I trained so hard), so I just kinda nodded but didn't really respond. I'm not gonna reveal her team out of respect, but here's mine. I won't post the EVs and Natures; they're custom spreads that I made up.
Infernape @ Focus Sash
-Flare Blitz
-Close Combat
-Mach Punch
-Protect
Giratina @ Choice Scarf
-Shadow Force
-Thunder
-Stone Edge
-Outrage
Tyranitar @ Lum Berry
-Rock Slide
-Crunch
-Low Kick
-Protect
Palkia @ Haban Berry
Spacial Rend
Flamethrower
Thunderbolt
Protect
Round 1: Vs Feathers
Well I get off the Scarf Force + Close Combat combo perfectly. It gets a crit on one of her Pokemon. It was pretty downhill from there. She had a good team that probably could have very likely placed top 16, but my team was able to counter it pretty well. I win.
Round 2: Vs 21 Year old guy.
He leads with Zapdos Groudon. This team is made to murder that lead. I use the same Shadow Force + Flare Blitz combo to kill Groudon without it even getting to attack. Infernape gets down to a sliver from Discharge and a Blaze and Drought boosted Flare Blitz kill Zapdos. Giratina Shadow force rapes the reserved Mewtwo. I forgot the last Pokemon, but I win this battle handily as well.
Round 3 Vs Fish.
Dude. Fish is hella good. That's all I can say. I lost this battle 4-0. He was a duck and now I finally saw how strong they were. I'm not sure how much input zerowing had on this team but I'm guessing a lot. It's about as flawless a team I've seen in VGC 2010. And that's saying a lot when almost every lead has an obvious and immediate counter. I think it's better than Kyogre/Top, but that's just me. The video is here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI3my1KUP2Q
Here is my video coverage and analysis of the day.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9D3A7F4221E74813
So I fly home very disappointed. But I have to pick myself back up, because one week later, it's time for the San Mateo VGC! I didn't get any video from this one because I was really focused but I did get some pictures.
MAY 15, 2010- San Mateo, CA
Okay, so I admit. I was a real jerk to Huy online after what happened to him in Seattle. Mainly I was just pissed at getting 4-0'd though and I thought I'd take it out on a duck. I should have apologized more formally to you, but sorry about that comment man. I did shake your hand (again) so yeah.
Lower Circle: On the very left is Huy. To his right is his brother, Duy. To Duy's right is TAY. I think the last guy is Rory, but I don't know.
Upper right: The guy in the red shorts is a guy I met at TCG Regionals. I still don't know his name (lol) but if you're reading this, holla at ya boi. The four guys sitting in a circle on the upper right are VERY important. The one with the tan jacket on is brownballa55 (Eshaan). To his right is WishboneKid (Austin) with his girlfriend. To their right is Kevin (I think that's him but I can only see his back) who's screen name I'm unsure of. At any rate the three guys and I would end up taking a journey to Phoenix the following week, but more on that in the third part of the story.
Skarmbliss Elites from left to right: Metabou, (? haven't met him online but I will update), POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN, DANUKES
Ok so you guys already know how I do my prebattle by now so let's just get into them. Oh, but you need my team first.
Here, you guess the movesets. 90% of your guesses on EVs and attack will be correct since this team is just a more aggressive variation of Misa Room. Still <3 you Misa. Even though you're not really Campo >>
Round 1: vs a girl
She was nice but she lead with Metagross and Roserade. Yeah... I cleaned up.
Round 2: vs an owner of some Pokemon site
Ok this guy was not bad. He leads with Dialga and Kyogre. I'm already thinking he's like zerowing and has Abomasnow and Hitmontop in the back. (a few days before the Seattle VGC, I battled zerowing on irc as mrbananagrabber and he lead with Palkia Kyogre, followed by Hitmotop Abomasnow. I battled Littlesnail in one of the Skarmlive finals with those same four before I battled zerowing, and needless to say I got crushed. It's a shame he wasn't at Seattle because that team turned out to be the best. Okay, anyway I end up Faking Out Dialga anyway. I say, since Smeargle is level 1 I can't really go wrong in Trick Room. Water Spout does over half to Dialga and I get Trick Room up. I endeavor and Dragon Pulse Kyogre for the kill and his Dialga Dracos mine for the kill. They send in Swampert and I send in Machamp. I Dynamic Punch Dialga for the kill and Swampert Waterfall crits Machamp for the kill. I endeavor the Swampert down to 1 HP. They send in Blissey and I send in Kyogre. Now i'm glad that I'm running the level 1 set. I Endeavor the Blissey all the way down to 1 HP and as the HP is dropping the other guy let's out a huge "Ugghhh!" Water Spout kills both of his guys before they can attack.
Round 3: Vs. Eric Wu
Ugh. Fucking Hitmontop. After this battle I have complete disdain for zerowing and his team. Hitmontop just raped my team by itself. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS8DbTAfAIM
MAY 22, 2010- Phoenix, AZ. The not so "war" story
Okay so a couple days after the San Mateo VGC I hear from WishboneKid again on IRC. I practice battled with brownballa55 earlier that day (15th) and I was familiar with Kevin from San Mateo. BB55, or Eshaan as I'm gonna call him now, was the one who beat POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN in San Mateo with a critical hit, which ended up causing that whole getting back in line drama. Also we were running identical teams for the most part. The EVs and IVs were slightly different, but the 4 Pokemon and the overall concept were the same. Anyway WishboneKid (Austin from now on in this story) says it would be a better idea to carpool with him Eshaan and Kevin than to take Greyhound. That would have cost me $218, and I ended up paying like $130 carpooling and getting a hotel.
At this point, the story is getting a little long and the journey with my new friends isn't really done any justice by typed out words. Later on today though, I'll update this thread with YouTube videos from San Mateo and my personal account of our trip, stay, and trip back up. It's gonna be in a vlog format, so come back to this thread so you can hear about that. The video should be up within 24 hours.
Okay, since this team did so well and mainly only lost due to misprediction, I'm going to go ahead and keep it a secret. But long story short, I won rounds 1-4. Then I made it to the finalist lounge. I got a bye in round 5 and that got me an invite to nationals. I literally hugged Xerograde when we both drew a bye lol. I won round 6 against Masha's brother. I lost in round 7 to a semifinalist (who lost to Persian/Weavile lead >>). However the person I lost to was running the same four Pokemon as the runner up so I'm not tripping too bad. This is the second tourney I've lost to the second place player.
I HAVE A LIVE VIDEO OF THE FINAL MATCH. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kq_9-5fSC4. Thanks to Supe for letting me get a clear shot.
Okay here are some great pics I got:
Fish just plain old looks like he's raw. Bossman.
Left to right: OmegaDonut's girlfriend, OmegaDonut, Fish, BadIntent (Me)
Me and Ninahaza. I actually hadn't talked to him before the event, but he recognized me so it's all good.
Sidenote: Quite a few people: Imperfectluck, OmegaDonut, Xerograde, Ninahaza, WishboneKid, Marsha, (the list goes on) recognized me simply based on my avatar. I thought that was pretty awesome.
Thanks to Fish for taking this. One of my favorite pics of all time.
Kevin, WishboneKid, BadIntent, BrownBalla55
Here is my playlist of my Phoenix VGC Experience: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9D3A7F4221E74813
The playlist and channel will be constantly. Visit youtube.com/malicexbadintent for videos of my VGC experience.
To everyone who can make it: see you at Nationals. I'll be there the day of the LCQ just to socialize. The pressure will be off that day so it should be a great day to hang out.
I know I didn't win the whole thing but I'd like to thank MattJ, GreySong, Jivetime, DANUKES, and sixonesix for their constant support in helping me get this far. Even when I was down, and most people doubted me, they stuck with me.