So, this is now my second year for VGC. As you all know, Alaka brought me into the VGC world so first of all, I'd like to thank him for helping me be where I am right now in the VGC competition. I would also like to thank Smogon University for all the helpful people, in-depth analyses, and just the great environment. Finally, I'd like to thank the following people for their help with advice, EV Training, RNGing, and more: Cybertron, pokemonrocks777, Aqueos, Human, Elemt, JRank, badalcristino and andrea. THANK YOU ALL! ^_^
Saturday morning:
I arrive at the Arlington Convention Center at around 8:30 watch JRank and some other people from my area. JRank unfortunately lost Round 4. :( After that, I walked around looking for battles and to get a feel of the gaming environment around me. After a couple of hours, I meet up with some Team Rocket guys, BadIntent, Ryuzaki, Lucariojr, and more and run some quick damage calcs on some key pokemon that could potentially be used. I get my ticket and wait in line with them for about 2 hours. Then, registration and the tournament starts. We all use the Friend Clause since we are all Smogonites/off Skarmbliss and we take out seats.
I won't go much into detail on my team because I might be using part of it at VGC Nationals. Here are the Pokemon:
SwaggaBot the Tornadus with Flight Gem
Japanese-NNed Terrakion with Focus Sash
You Jelly? the Jellicent with Water Gem
SwagBot2.0 the Thundurus with Electric Gem
Aller-Gs the Amoonguss with Coba Berry
Hydriegon the Hydriegon(LOL no NN xD) with Life Orb
YES MY WHOLE TEAM WAS SHINY!!! <3 ^__^
Round 1: CRITICO! vs. Jonathan G.(smogon lurker)
I talked to this guy before hand and he told me he was a smogon lurker who could RNG. EFFFFFF!!! :o He said he'd been working thorugh at least 5 teams and finally found one, so this would be a good match. This game was pretty intense. He led Tornadus/Terrakion and I led Amoonguss/Tornadus. He uses Rock Slide and I use Acrobatics and Spore. I Spore the Terrakion and Acrobatics his Tornadus for the OHKO. He sends out Krookodile and kicks in Intimidate. Okay...? I Spore and switch out to Terrakion. Now, both his Terrakion and Krookodile are asleep. I Close Combat his Krookodile with my Terrakion. Then I Giga Drain Terrakion to break the Sash. He sends out Chandelure. I Giga Drain and Rock Slide for the game. GG
1-0
Round 2: random girl that was apparently a skarmbliss lurker
She told me she had been procrastinating on her team, but still had flawless mons and all. WHY DO I GET ALL THE HARD OPPONENTS?! :O She leads Chandelure/Scrafty and I lead with Tornadus/Amoonguss. She Fakes Out Tornadus and I Spore her Chandelure. Next turn, I Giga Drain her Chandelure expecting a Sash and Acrobatics Scrafty for the OHKO. After I Giga Drained Chandelure she said, "Very good move. It was Sashed." ^_^ She sends out Tornadus. I Protect with Amoonguss and Tailwind. Her Chandelure is still asleep and she Acrobatics my Tornadus for the OHKO. I send out Terrakion. I Giga Drain and Rock Slide Tornadus, along with Chandelure for the double KO. Her final Pokemon is Conkeldurr. She Protects and kicks in her Flame Orb/Guts. I proceed to Giga Drain and Close Combat, and then Quick Attack for the game. GG!
Round 3: random guy
This guy had terrible IVs on his mons, which he told me beforehand and I noticed once we started. I lead Amoonguss/Tornadus and him with Amoonguss/Scrafty. He doesnt Fake Out me so I Spore his Scrafty and Acrobatics his Amoonguss. His Coba kicks in but it still gets OHKOed, and no critical. So I guess he wasn't kidding. He sends Conkeldurr which I Acrobatics for the OHKO and Giga Drain Scrafty. Next turn, he sends Gigalith and Protects, idk why though. o_o He doesn't have Flame Orb. TROLOLOLOLOL! I Giga Drain and Acrobatics for the game.
Round 4: Smogon lurker
Before this match, I was paired up with Calm_Lava but we used Friend Clause to avoid it. Then another Smogonite shows up(forgot her name) and we Friend Clause her. So finally, I get an opponent. He acts like a douche the whole game, and ill enunciate on that. I lead Amoonguss/Tornadus and he leads with Mienshao(actually a Zoroark) and Hydriegon. He sees my leads and is like, "WOW! Flawless shiny pokemon?! You have got to be kidding me!". I ignore him and commence to double Protect to scout his moves. I see Mienshao use Foul Play so I know it's a Zoroark. I Spore it and Acrobatics Hydriegon for the OHKO. He sends out Mienshao so I double Protect. I switch in Thundurus and Tailwind, while he switches out to Vanilluxe. He goes, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! ANOTHER SHINY!" Once again I ignore him, and I'm kinda pissed off because it seemed as if he was trying to throw me out of my game. But it didn't faze me. He Blizzards me and BOTH MY GENIES FREEZE! Great, this sucks! Next turn they get Blizzarded again for double KOs. I send in Amoonguss and Terrakion. He says, "THAT's IT! I don't feel comfortable playing against a whole team of shinies and he calls over Marriland to hack check me. Calm_Lava sitting next to me says, "You shouldn't doubt this kid's creditibility." He pretty much ignores Lava's comment on proceeds to call Marriland. We wait till the game is over to hack check. So, he has 3 mons against my Amoonguss and Terrakion. I Giga Drain Zoroark and Close Combat Vanniluxe for the OHKO. He sends in Conkelldurr. This is my last turn for Tailwind, so I Giga Drain Conkeldurr and Close Combat Zoroark for the OHKO. Apparently he didn't Protect with Conkeldurr. :x He Mach Punches and brings my Terrakion to its' Sash, then I Close Combat and Giga Drain next turn for the game. So I came back in a great match, but a bitchy opponent. Marriland hack checks my game and says, "Your game is clean. Nothing wrong with it." He leaves and my opponent murmurs something on the lines of, "I think this b**** cheated me." I was like, "OH NO HE DIDNT!" So i say, "Don't talk smack about Smogon dude." In my mind, I was about to shout "WHAT NOW BIATCH!" LOLZ But nah, just kinda mad at the moment. Once I got my game recorded, I proceeded to the Finalist Lounge, where I meet up with Ryuzaki and Alaka.
We sit in the finalist lounge for 30 minutes and find that we have 28 players in it. So, this means 4 byes. Didn't get one, neither did Alaka or Ryuzaki. So now we play Top 32.
Top 32: smogon lurker(knows how to IV Breed and RNG a little)
This guy told me he went on Smogon to see the analyses and built his team that way, but he honestly didn't play like he knew what he was doing. I led Amoonguss/Tornadus against his Amoonguss and Terrakion. I Acrobatics Amoonguss for the OKHO, and he doesn't have Coba Berry. He Rock Slides and my Amoonguss takes it with ease, while Tornadus goes down to 20%. I Giga Drain Terrakion and it KOs it! No Sash, no critical. WOW! :O Okayyyyy? He sends out Hydriegon and Elecketross. I Protect with Amoonguss and Tailwind and sweep next turn with Amoonguss Sporing and Terrakion using Close Combat.
I'm thrilled now. I got what I came to do. An invite to the 2011 Pokemon VGC National Championships. I already had my trip paid, $200 for a charter bus trip with my friends which also paid for hotel costs for 5 nights. ^_^ YUHHHH!
Top 16: Diego L. -goes on Smogon(just made an account and I forgot the name)
This guy was really good, like no lies. He starts with Thundurus and Tornadus and I with Terrakion/Tornadus. Seeing both genies are weak to rock and I might lose the speed tie, I Protect with Terrakion and Tailwind. He T-Bolts my Protected Terrakion and HP Ice on my Tornadus for a critical hit OHKO. I send in Amoonguss. I Spore Thundurus and Rock Slide. Both survive with about 20-25% left. He Acrobatics my Amoonguss with his Flying Gem kicking in, but I have Coba Berry, so Amoonguss survives with 25-32ish%. I Rock Slide and Protect to KO both genies. He sends in Amoonguss and Conkeldurr. He double protects to stall out my Tailwind. Then, he has Sitrus Berry in and he Mach Punches Terrakion to its' Sash. I Spore Terrakion and he Giga Drains Terrakion for the KO. I send in Jellicent. So now it's Jellicent/30% Amoonguss vs. his full health Terrakion asleep and full health Amoonguss. I Ice Beam Amoonguss(bringing it to about 40-50%) and Spore it as well, to make both his pokemon still asleep. His Terrakion stays asleep so I Water Spout with Water Gem and KO Amoonguss, bringing Terrakion to sash. I then Giga Drain it for the win! GG bro!
Top 8: Oliver V. AKA Smith on Smogon
This guy was pretty chill, but my Amoonguss ran through his team. I led Amoonguss/Tornadus and I forgot his leads. All I know was that at one point, 3/4 of his team was Spored and sleeping so I could sweep easily. I won 3-0. GG man!
*if you can add more details Oliver, I would greatly appreciate it! :) *
top 4: my mentor AKA Alaka on Smogon
I knew from Team Preview I'd lose this game. To sum it up, he sets up Trick Room and pretty much sweeps. My pokemon were all meant for outside of TR, so it was pointless. I realized after the game that I might've won if I had led with Amoongus/Hydriegon instead of Amoonguss/Tornadus because I would've Flamethrowered Amoonguss for the KO because of Life Orb and then Spored Reuniclus to prevent TR setup. His whole team would've collapsed and I would've made Top 2, but I was too stupid to realize it beforehand. Oh well, always Atlanta if I can go still. :)
So there you have it! After my loss to Alaka, I proceeded to sign papers for my $600 travel allowance, since I'm 17 only. I get pics with Alaka(2nd place), Ryuzaki(1st Place BEAST!), and some other guy I don't recall. I was very happy with my performance as I really was not expecting such a great day. I had gotten 9th place last year, so this was a HUGE improvement. I went from just an invite to a paid trip. I felt that if I had put a tad bit more thought in my gameplay Top 4, I might've made Top 2, but I wasn't thinking correctly. I was about to pass out Top 32 because of the lack of sleep, but I managed to pull through. And now... my legacy continues. The Indian rallies through and proceeds to Nationals, where he strives to get Top 8 once again and prolong the adventure with a 4th consecutive trip to the Pokemon World Championships.
Saturday morning:
I arrive at the Arlington Convention Center at around 8:30 watch JRank and some other people from my area. JRank unfortunately lost Round 4. :( After that, I walked around looking for battles and to get a feel of the gaming environment around me. After a couple of hours, I meet up with some Team Rocket guys, BadIntent, Ryuzaki, Lucariojr, and more and run some quick damage calcs on some key pokemon that could potentially be used. I get my ticket and wait in line with them for about 2 hours. Then, registration and the tournament starts. We all use the Friend Clause since we are all Smogonites/off Skarmbliss and we take out seats.
I won't go much into detail on my team because I might be using part of it at VGC Nationals. Here are the Pokemon:
SwaggaBot the Tornadus with Flight Gem
Japanese-NNed Terrakion with Focus Sash
You Jelly? the Jellicent with Water Gem
SwagBot2.0 the Thundurus with Electric Gem
Aller-Gs the Amoonguss with Coba Berry
Hydriegon the Hydriegon(LOL no NN xD) with Life Orb
YES MY WHOLE TEAM WAS SHINY!!! <3 ^__^
Round 1: CRITICO! vs. Jonathan G.(smogon lurker)
I talked to this guy before hand and he told me he was a smogon lurker who could RNG. EFFFFFF!!! :o He said he'd been working thorugh at least 5 teams and finally found one, so this would be a good match. This game was pretty intense. He led Tornadus/Terrakion and I led Amoonguss/Tornadus. He uses Rock Slide and I use Acrobatics and Spore. I Spore the Terrakion and Acrobatics his Tornadus for the OHKO. He sends out Krookodile and kicks in Intimidate. Okay...? I Spore and switch out to Terrakion. Now, both his Terrakion and Krookodile are asleep. I Close Combat his Krookodile with my Terrakion. Then I Giga Drain Terrakion to break the Sash. He sends out Chandelure. I Giga Drain and Rock Slide for the game. GG
1-0
Round 2: random girl that was apparently a skarmbliss lurker
She told me she had been procrastinating on her team, but still had flawless mons and all. WHY DO I GET ALL THE HARD OPPONENTS?! :O She leads Chandelure/Scrafty and I lead with Tornadus/Amoonguss. She Fakes Out Tornadus and I Spore her Chandelure. Next turn, I Giga Drain her Chandelure expecting a Sash and Acrobatics Scrafty for the OHKO. After I Giga Drained Chandelure she said, "Very good move. It was Sashed." ^_^ She sends out Tornadus. I Protect with Amoonguss and Tailwind. Her Chandelure is still asleep and she Acrobatics my Tornadus for the OHKO. I send out Terrakion. I Giga Drain and Rock Slide Tornadus, along with Chandelure for the double KO. Her final Pokemon is Conkeldurr. She Protects and kicks in her Flame Orb/Guts. I proceed to Giga Drain and Close Combat, and then Quick Attack for the game. GG!
Round 3: random guy
This guy had terrible IVs on his mons, which he told me beforehand and I noticed once we started. I lead Amoonguss/Tornadus and him with Amoonguss/Scrafty. He doesnt Fake Out me so I Spore his Scrafty and Acrobatics his Amoonguss. His Coba kicks in but it still gets OHKOed, and no critical. So I guess he wasn't kidding. He sends Conkeldurr which I Acrobatics for the OHKO and Giga Drain Scrafty. Next turn, he sends Gigalith and Protects, idk why though. o_o He doesn't have Flame Orb. TROLOLOLOLOL! I Giga Drain and Acrobatics for the game.
Round 4: Smogon lurker
Before this match, I was paired up with Calm_Lava but we used Friend Clause to avoid it. Then another Smogonite shows up(forgot her name) and we Friend Clause her. So finally, I get an opponent. He acts like a douche the whole game, and ill enunciate on that. I lead Amoonguss/Tornadus and he leads with Mienshao(actually a Zoroark) and Hydriegon. He sees my leads and is like, "WOW! Flawless shiny pokemon?! You have got to be kidding me!". I ignore him and commence to double Protect to scout his moves. I see Mienshao use Foul Play so I know it's a Zoroark. I Spore it and Acrobatics Hydriegon for the OHKO. He sends out Mienshao so I double Protect. I switch in Thundurus and Tailwind, while he switches out to Vanilluxe. He goes, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! ANOTHER SHINY!" Once again I ignore him, and I'm kinda pissed off because it seemed as if he was trying to throw me out of my game. But it didn't faze me. He Blizzards me and BOTH MY GENIES FREEZE! Great, this sucks! Next turn they get Blizzarded again for double KOs. I send in Amoonguss and Terrakion. He says, "THAT's IT! I don't feel comfortable playing against a whole team of shinies and he calls over Marriland to hack check me. Calm_Lava sitting next to me says, "You shouldn't doubt this kid's creditibility." He pretty much ignores Lava's comment on proceeds to call Marriland. We wait till the game is over to hack check. So, he has 3 mons against my Amoonguss and Terrakion. I Giga Drain Zoroark and Close Combat Vanniluxe for the OHKO. He sends in Conkelldurr. This is my last turn for Tailwind, so I Giga Drain Conkeldurr and Close Combat Zoroark for the OHKO. Apparently he didn't Protect with Conkeldurr. :x He Mach Punches and brings my Terrakion to its' Sash, then I Close Combat and Giga Drain next turn for the game. So I came back in a great match, but a bitchy opponent. Marriland hack checks my game and says, "Your game is clean. Nothing wrong with it." He leaves and my opponent murmurs something on the lines of, "I think this b**** cheated me." I was like, "OH NO HE DIDNT!" So i say, "Don't talk smack about Smogon dude." In my mind, I was about to shout "WHAT NOW BIATCH!" LOLZ But nah, just kinda mad at the moment. Once I got my game recorded, I proceeded to the Finalist Lounge, where I meet up with Ryuzaki and Alaka.
We sit in the finalist lounge for 30 minutes and find that we have 28 players in it. So, this means 4 byes. Didn't get one, neither did Alaka or Ryuzaki. So now we play Top 32.
Top 32: smogon lurker(knows how to IV Breed and RNG a little)
This guy told me he went on Smogon to see the analyses and built his team that way, but he honestly didn't play like he knew what he was doing. I led Amoonguss/Tornadus against his Amoonguss and Terrakion. I Acrobatics Amoonguss for the OKHO, and he doesn't have Coba Berry. He Rock Slides and my Amoonguss takes it with ease, while Tornadus goes down to 20%. I Giga Drain Terrakion and it KOs it! No Sash, no critical. WOW! :O Okayyyyy? He sends out Hydriegon and Elecketross. I Protect with Amoonguss and Tailwind and sweep next turn with Amoonguss Sporing and Terrakion using Close Combat.
I'm thrilled now. I got what I came to do. An invite to the 2011 Pokemon VGC National Championships. I already had my trip paid, $200 for a charter bus trip with my friends which also paid for hotel costs for 5 nights. ^_^ YUHHHH!
Top 16: Diego L. -goes on Smogon(just made an account and I forgot the name)
This guy was really good, like no lies. He starts with Thundurus and Tornadus and I with Terrakion/Tornadus. Seeing both genies are weak to rock and I might lose the speed tie, I Protect with Terrakion and Tailwind. He T-Bolts my Protected Terrakion and HP Ice on my Tornadus for a critical hit OHKO. I send in Amoonguss. I Spore Thundurus and Rock Slide. Both survive with about 20-25% left. He Acrobatics my Amoonguss with his Flying Gem kicking in, but I have Coba Berry, so Amoonguss survives with 25-32ish%. I Rock Slide and Protect to KO both genies. He sends in Amoonguss and Conkeldurr. He double protects to stall out my Tailwind. Then, he has Sitrus Berry in and he Mach Punches Terrakion to its' Sash. I Spore Terrakion and he Giga Drains Terrakion for the KO. I send in Jellicent. So now it's Jellicent/30% Amoonguss vs. his full health Terrakion asleep and full health Amoonguss. I Ice Beam Amoonguss(bringing it to about 40-50%) and Spore it as well, to make both his pokemon still asleep. His Terrakion stays asleep so I Water Spout with Water Gem and KO Amoonguss, bringing Terrakion to sash. I then Giga Drain it for the win! GG bro!
Top 8: Oliver V. AKA Smith on Smogon
This guy was pretty chill, but my Amoonguss ran through his team. I led Amoonguss/Tornadus and I forgot his leads. All I know was that at one point, 3/4 of his team was Spored and sleeping so I could sweep easily. I won 3-0. GG man!
*if you can add more details Oliver, I would greatly appreciate it! :) *
top 4: my mentor AKA Alaka on Smogon
I knew from Team Preview I'd lose this game. To sum it up, he sets up Trick Room and pretty much sweeps. My pokemon were all meant for outside of TR, so it was pointless. I realized after the game that I might've won if I had led with Amoongus/Hydriegon instead of Amoonguss/Tornadus because I would've Flamethrowered Amoonguss for the KO because of Life Orb and then Spored Reuniclus to prevent TR setup. His whole team would've collapsed and I would've made Top 2, but I was too stupid to realize it beforehand. Oh well, always Atlanta if I can go still. :)
So there you have it! After my loss to Alaka, I proceeded to sign papers for my $600 travel allowance, since I'm 17 only. I get pics with Alaka(2nd place), Ryuzaki(1st Place BEAST!), and some other guy I don't recall. I was very happy with my performance as I really was not expecting such a great day. I had gotten 9th place last year, so this was a HUGE improvement. I went from just an invite to a paid trip. I felt that if I had put a tad bit more thought in my gameplay Top 4, I might've made Top 2, but I wasn't thinking correctly. I was about to pass out Top 32 because of the lack of sleep, but I managed to pull through. And now... my legacy continues. The Indian rallies through and proceeds to Nationals, where he strives to get Top 8 once again and prolong the adventure with a 4th consecutive trip to the Pokemon World Championships.
