twash did not get to #2 on his VGC run due to a beginner's luck, btw.
Pictures coming later if possible. Guys if you took pictures of me PLEASE post them in the thread because I only took one and then my battery died -.-
Draft 1: Chandelure, Tornadus, Jellicent, Thundurus, Terrakion, Krookodile
Draft 2: replaced Krookodile with Hydreigon
Draft 3: Scrafty, Tornadus, Jellicent, Thundurus, Terrakion, Amoonguss
Turns out later that day that this happened to be Ruben’s team…but honestly at this point I don’t want to change much anymore. It was boring, but effective.
After preparing the team and getting ABC to EV train my mons (<3), I didn’t do much else, but on the last day cosmicexplorer was willing to take away about four hours of his time and tutor me in vgc, and it helped me a great deal later on.
It was a 50 minute drive-ish.
After we got there, I spotted evan and introduced myself rather awkwardly, but they took it fine. Evan then decided to remind me of my 6-0 loss in the SPL Ubers playoffs against Gliscor -_-, but we were cool with that. The Ducks went off for lunch and I found my high school friend which I will talk about more later. Still feeling awkward, I decided to go off to search for muffinhead and stumbled across him on the line, along with CO and cosmicexplorer. Being an awkward guy that I was, I just stared at them for about 7 minutes before finally tapping CO. CO saves me from embarrassment by asking “Are you Jibaku?”, to which I replied yes. Sixonesix also made an appearance but we never actually talked. Later on in that line, I found out that Cocy, IPS, and elmo had saved the spot right in front of me. I got nervous once again.
Also there was a guy dressed up as SUBWAY BOSS EMMET, which was incredibly cool.
The line wait was pretty long and I was pretty quiet most of the time. Moof discussed how he would be using Liepard (9.9), while CO mentioned about using Vanilluxe. Cosmicexplorer assured me everything would be find after I choked just about countlessly while waiting (x_x). Oh yeah
CO ALSO BROUGHT LIKE 5 DSES WHAT IS THIS I DONT EVEN...
Cocy, IPS, Elmo, agreed to friend ruling us and then they decided to talk about last year’s VGC. We saw the Ducks return to their line (evan, tyler, Dubs, andrea, bluecookies, dtrain, did I miss anyone?) and wished them good luck.
We were asked to prepare our DSes, and so we did, and I became more “chokey” as we progressed closer to the registration. We prepared to friend clause but they said we wont be battling each other so I didn’t have to use it (Cocy did though).
It was pretty suspenseful. The wait for the first battle was pretty darn long and the countdown was scary.
My Team (For Reference’s Sake). Will add more onto this later
Scrafty (M) @ Chople Berry *** Scooter
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 132 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Protect
NOTES: Standard Tailwind Scrafty pretty much, with some speed creeping going on to beat other Scrafties (which happened once so I'm glad I did). Nicknamed him Scooter because of Moxie. And because he's a Dark type, cuz the Scooter logo is black.
Tornadus (M) @ Flying Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Acrobatics
- Taunt
- Substitute
- Tailwind
NOTES: Cosmicexplorer told me to use Taunt - which although failed to be useful in the matches, it did at least help me in choosing my leads.
Amoonguss (M) @ Coba Berry
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SDef / 20 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Protect
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
NOTES: Best Pokemon in VGC 2011? You decide.
Jellicent (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Hydro Pump
NOTES: Water Absorb vs. Cursed Body was a tough decision, but everyone else seemed to recommend Water Absorb after a bit of discussion. Also my (moof's) Cursed Body Jellicent is female which looks so much worse anyways. PRINGLES FOREVER.
Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Quick Attack
NOTES: Obvious set is obvious
Thundurus (M) @ Electric Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 192 SAtk / 60 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
NOTES: EVs help it survive EGem Thundurus Thunderbolt, as recommended by Synre. However the special attack drop did hurt me once (possibly twice if you count icepick's match, but I don't know), but I might've still lost against ips anyways. Electric Gem and Charti Berry was tough to decide, but since I have a fair amount of rock coverage anyways I just went with e-gem to help take down opposing Thundurus better.
Round 1.
Sean then asked me, “Do you EV train?”, and I’m pretty was like -___-, and at the back of my mind, “Oh do you NOT see my trainer name?” Guess not a lot of people know me. So I replied, “Everyone asks that question…”. He then assumes that I didn’t EV train.
His team: Whimsicott / Terrakion / Scrafty / Mienshao (and a Musharna and something else in the back)
My team: Tornadus / Scrafty / Amoonguss / Thundurus
The countdown reaches zero and we started off. He led off with Terracott, probably in hopes of getting a quick win, despite my countermeasures against it. I didn’t expect Terracott lead actually (expecting Mienshao/Whimsi), but this works out for me even better. I decided to lead with Scrafty/Tornadus as a general catch-all.
###
Turn 1: Scrafty Fake Outs Whimsicott and Tornadus KOes it. Terrakion uses Rock Slide and leaves Tornadus hanging at 3 HP. Mienshao was sent out.
Turn 2: I expected Mienshao to Fake Out Tornadus so I switched it to Amoonguss, and I was right. Scrafty Protects itself against Terrakion’s Sacred Sword.
Turn 3: Shroom Rage Powders, drawing in Drain Punch and Sacred Sword. Effect Spore kicks in and poisons Terrakion and sleeps Mienshao (and naturally, this ticked him off big time). Scrafty Drain Punches Terrakion into just poison kill range (lol). Sean sends out Scrafty.
Turn 4: Mienshao is still asleep, and I decided to gang attack Scrafty for whatever reason. My Scrafty (gonna call him Scooter for the rest of this match) Drain Punches and does about 60%. His Scrafty Bulk Ups while Amoonguss Spores, only to be cancelled by Chesto Berry. At this point I could assume he doesn’t have Protect, so I Rage Powdered and Drain Punched it to death. Mienshao wakes up, U-turns on Amoonguss, and promptly falls asleep again on yet another Effect Spore misfortune.
Turn 5: There is no turn 5. He ragequitted.
###
Sean storms out of the hall and made me feel bad for haxing him. However, chances are I could’ve still beaten him with Tornadus and Thundurus at the back. My game froze from his shut-off and got a couple of staff members confused. Only then did one staff come by and simply shut off my game which made everyone feel stupid (including myself). Anyways, I was just glad that I survived the first obstacle: getting past r1.
After sitting down in the Round 2 section, I noticed that the guy sitting next to me asking his opponent “Did you RNG?”. The reply was “I didn’t IV breed”, and then the dude (the guy sitting next to me) starts talking about RNGing in detail. But my attention to his talk was cut short when my opponent showed up.
Sorry, I lost my namesheet on the way home, and I just didn’t remember his name. He was pretty cool, but we didn’t have much of an introduction and played right away.
His Team: Terrakion / Whimsicott / Jellicent / Chandelure
My Team: Tornadus / Scrafty / Thundurus / Amoonguss.
I repeated my r1 team, yeah. This match was one of my simpler matches and was rather straightforward, really.
###
Turn 1: Terrakion Protects, Scrafty Fake Outs Whimsicott and Tornadus proceeds to shred it with Acrobatics. Chandelure was sent out.
Turn 2: He switches Terrakion for Jellicent. Tornadus Subs while Chandelure fires off a Fire Gem Heat Wave which broke it and did a lot of damage to Scrafty. Scrafty Drain Punches Jellicent to no avail.
Turn 3: I wasn’t going to let them kill Scrafty since he hits all of the remaining mons SE, so I sacrificed Tornadus. Scrafty Protects, Tornadus Tailwinds. Chandelure Heat Waves while Jellicent wastes its Water Gem to kill a nearly dead Tornadus. I sent in Thundurus.
Turn 4: Jellicent was switched out for Terrakion, and Thundurus’ Electric Gem Thunderbolt hits it for about 80%. Scrafty, now speedy under Trick Room, Crunches the Chandelure into oblivion. Jellicent is sent back in.
Turn 5: Thundurus Thunderbolts Terrakion for the finish, while Scrafty’s +1 Crunch OHKOes Jellicent.
###
He was pretty cool about the loss, but we didn’t speak much. ONTO Round 3
His Team: Whimsicott / Terrakion / Thundurus / Chandelure
My Team: Tornadus / Amoonguss / Thundurus / Jellicent
And…you’ve got to be kidding me? This is the third Terracotta team I’ve seen in a row. But he did have some other members which I don’t remember that caused me to put Scrafty in the back. His team was very weak to Jellicent it seems, so I used this opportunity to bring him in.
###
Turn 1: Terrakion Protects, Whimsicott Tailwinds, Tornadus OHKOes Whimsicott with Acrobatics. Amoonguss Spores Terrakion to no avail. Chandelure is sent out.
Turn 2: Amoonguss Protects, Tornadus Tailwinds, Terrakion and Chandelure KO Tornadus with Rock Slide + Heat Wave. I send in Jellicent.
Turn 3: Chandelure is switched out for Thundurus while Amoonguss Rage Powders. Jellicent used Water Spout and OHKOes Terrakion and does about 65% to Thundurus. Chandelure is sent back out.
Turn 4: Keeping Jellicent at full health is pretty important here, so I Rage Powdered with Amoonguss and Jellicent Water Spouts both Chandelure andH Thundurus to death.
###
The dude complimented my use of Rage Powder and acknowledged me as a formidable foe throughout the battle. We shook hands and parted our ways as I approach the fourth ring. I gave evan a smile as a sign that I’ve passed my expectations.
At this point I looked around for the rest of the people. I haven’t seen CO and I saw Cocy and cosmicexplorer still playing. After sitting down for a while in the round 4 seat, my opponent finally shows up and sits down. But this wasn’t going to be a simple one. This dude is none other than the user Lugiatina. Oh and he’s also my high school friend asdfegeg.
I looked at his trainer card nervously. His “signature” or so, on that card, says “I am your RIVAL” or something like that. I don’t really remember. The team selection lit up and his team was definitely a bit different from what I have usually seen, so I needed to play carefully.
His Team: Volcarona / Jellicent / Thundurus / Haxorus, and Terrakion and Escavalier at the back.
My Team: Scrafty / Terrakion / Thundurus / Amoonguss
I don’t remember why exactly I went with a Scrafty / Terrakion lead, but I’m glad I did. Well actually, not really, because things did not go quite as well as I wanted.
###
Turn 1: Jellicent Water Spouts, damaging Scrafty a fair bit and nearly OHKOing Terrakion. Terrakion holds on to its Focus Sash and Rock Slides, dealing about 40% or so to Jellicent AND MISSES VOLCARONA which I thought costed me the game there. Volcarona Bug Buzzes Scrafty, leaving him with about 10 HP (x_x), but Scrafty finishes off Jellicent with Crunch which at least lightens things a bit. Thundurus is sent out. UGH
Turn 2: I stared blankly for a bit trying to figure out how to break this combo – with Terrakion just about dead and all. If only he could live for another turn or so…
Predicting that THundurus would strike Terrakion, and Volcarona to use Bug Buzz on Scrafty (risk management says this may be better move than Heat Wave since THundurus would have taken care of Terrakion and Bug Buzz is more accurate), I switched Scrafty to Amoonguss and had Terrakion Protect itself. Amoonguss takes a dent from Bug Buzz, but he held out fine.
Turn 3: Amoongus Rage Powders and takes an Electric Gem Thunderbolt to the face (why not Hidden Power…). Terrakion Rock Slides and puts both Volcarona and Thundurus into very critical range (Volcarona was Sashed). Volcarona then finishes off both Terrakion and Amoonguss with Heat Wave. (x__x). I sent out Scrafty and Thundurus.
Turn 4: Gaining some hope, I tried to fake out Thundurus to get a kill, while getting Thundurus to use Hidden Power to KO the 1% Volcarona. Volcarona Rage Powders and dies to Scrafty’s Fake Out. His Thundurus beats mine in a Speedtie and kills Scrafty with Thunderbolt, while my Thundurus’ Hidden Power finishes him off. We’re down 1-1. Lugiatina sent out Haxorus.
Turn 5: Okay so basically, if it has Outrage or is Choice Banded (or have an Attack boost of some sort), I lose this match. There’s only one thing to do now. Thundurus used Hidden Power and does about 70%, while Haxorus used Dragon Claw and does about 90% to Thundurus. At this point he facepalmed, saying that if he had Dragon Danced, he would have won this match.
Turn 6: Haxorus Protects for some reason. Timer was still too far away from zero to actually stall things, though.
Turn 7: Thundurus casually destroys Haxorus with Hidden Power.
###
Despite the hax, I enjoyed this match simply because I was able to turn it around, and thus I recorded it. The match can be seen here:
17-11901-73967
At this point, I walked around and found out that muffinhead, CO, and cosmicexplorer have been eliminated, making me incredibly nervous (CE was my tutor, after all). However, evan, Tyler, sandman, and cocy made it through, as well as TTS but I don’t recall seeing him.
evan also stressed the importance that one of us has to beat Synre in ranking.
During this break I decided to hop by to the guy I beat at R3, where he congratulated me and wished me the best of luck. I then talked to muffinhead and cosmicexplorer for a bit but I completely forgot what we were talking about. I don’t know what else to do at this point, so I just walked around until they called – which I apparently did not notice at all until muffinhead pointed out!
After sitting down, we are informed that 19 people have made it thus far, and thus, the director started handing out PLAYs and BYEs. I got a BYE but Cocy and IPS got PLAYs. A lady came by and started asking me for my details, as I’ve now received the invite.
This was where Cocy lost his match. IPS advanced.
I was told to sit at the furthest seat at the end of the line (which means I get to play my match on the TV! Well not really. My opponent did.
We introduced ourselves. I said I was Jibaku and he said “Oh hi. I’m icepick”. At this point I’m like…CRUD. This be my first Smogoner battle (my previous match did not count since he’s more of an irl friend than a Smogoner).
I don’t really remember what goes on his full team, but I do recall that Jellicent could sweep it if things are weakened slightly. I forgot what 4 did he use when making this warstory so I had to ask.
His Team: Scrafty / Haxorus / Thundurus / Conkeldurr
My Team: Scrafty (Scooter) / Thundurus / Jellicent / Tornadus
Haxorus in particular scared me due to its tremendous power. However, the standard Hax doesn’t seem to be very strong so I should be able to take a hit.
######
Turn 1: Scooter Fake Outs Scrafty (I Speed Creeped mine a bit for this kind of thing), while Thundurus HP Ices Haxorus for a good amount of damage. Haxorus used Dragon Dance.
Turn 2: Haxorus Protects while Thundurus throws up a Substitute (I’m assuming he’s afraid that Hax might be double targeted). Scooter fails his Drain Punch on Haxorus’ shield while Scrafty Drain Punches Scooter for a decent dent. Chople kicks in and weakens the damage.
Turn 3: Scooter uses Protect (hoping to avoid Drain Punch from Scrafty). Haxorus Rock Slides and breaks Thundurus’ Substitute, while Thundurus KOes Haxorus with Hidden Power. Scrafty Crunches Thundurus for a lot of damage, leaving Thundurus nearly dead.
Turn 4: Conkeldurr Mach Punches Thundurus and leaves it hanging at 3 HP. Thundurus then uses Electric Gem Thunderbolt at Scrafty for a good amount of damage. Scooter Drain Punches Scrafty (Chople kicks in), but it barely survives, while it Drain Punches back against Scooter and gets a lot of health back (while severely damaging it)
Turn 5: I predicted that the easiest way for icepick to win this turn is to Mach Punch Thundurus and while Protecting Scrafty. And it turns out my prediction was entirely correct and I swapped Thundurus to Jellicent to avoid Mach Punch. Scrafty Detects, but Scooter decides to Drain Punch Conkeldurr instead, putting it into Water Spout kill range, essentially.
Turn 6: To shield against Mach Punch, I got Scooter to Protect while Jellicent Water Spouts, knocking out Scrafty and severely damaging Conkeldurr. Durr Rock Slides and does about 40% to Jellicent (and nothing to Scooter) and promptly dies to the burn. Thundurus is sent in
Turn 7: I decided to play safe so I switched Jellicent out to my nearly dead Thundurus so I could send him back in to Ice Beam. Icepick’s Thundurus kills Scooter instead =(. Jellicent is sent back in
Turn 8: Jellicent Ice Beams and does about 70%, and freezes Thundurus as well! You could say that his Thundurus is….icepicked. Pardon me for the terrible pun, but it didn’t matter anyways since my own Thundurus won the speed tie and proceeded to Thunderbolt for the KO.
Icepick was kind enough to record the battle, and he uploaded it. If you want to watch, here is the code:
60-53941-00672
(For some reason, his video starts from turn 2.)
At this point, I got my interview, which I think I failed miserably at! The questions were: "How are you feeling?" and "What in that match made you most nervous?" In the first question I just replied with, "very nervous" and then spilled out my team's weakness (Thundurus) on the second question which I think IPS later on used against me. Yeah, it didn't go too well. Marriland did manage to calm me down though so I'd like to thank him for that. Then I just sat there, staring at the crowd constantly, until my next opponent arrived.
With all thanks to:
- ABC, for EV training every single one of my Pokemon and RNGing me an Amoonguss.
- cosmicexplorer, for tutoring me in VGC for about four hours on Friday
- Red, for the Scrafty
- muffinhead, for the Jellicent, and for being there.
- evan and Synre for suggesting a few things that made it into the final version of the team. Also for being Scooters.
- sandman, for the Tornadus
- Kaphotics, for the Thundurus
- My dad, for driving me there
- JRank....for absolutely no reason. Actually no. You told me how the replacement Pokemon mechanics worked.
- And everyone else who supported me!
Props:
- Top 4!
- Meeting Smogoners irl
- Surviving Round 1
- I MADE SOMEONE RAGEQUIT IRL WHOOO
Slops:
- Terrakion only did anything in one match
- I made the first guy ragequit
- I didn't get my 3DS :(
- I probably can't go to nats
Pictures coming later if possible. Guys if you took pictures of me PLEASE post them in the thread because I only took one and then my battery died -.-
Preparations
Let me begin with the preparations for the VGC. First off, yeah, I exaggerated slightly about cramming things since I only really crammed on the day before the event. But before getting my mons I practiced a bit on Skarmbliss ladder and got decent results with a team. So then, I asked muffinhead (who looks different irl than his picture post in the album 9.9) to give me a Jellicent, Krookodile, a Bold Shroom, and another Jellicent later on. I got Tornadus from sandman (who qualified t16 so props), and I already have Terrakion (got it from a fakegts server, risky move though), and Thundurus (Kaphotics’s, from a fakegts server). Later on I found myself wanting more support than just Tailwind, however, so with a few helpful advice from some people I added Scrafty and Amoonguss in. ABC recommended me Calm Shroom over Bold so he RNGed one for me, while Red bred Scrafty for me.Draft 1: Chandelure, Tornadus, Jellicent, Thundurus, Terrakion, Krookodile
Draft 2: replaced Krookodile with Hydreigon
Draft 3: Scrafty, Tornadus, Jellicent, Thundurus, Terrakion, Amoonguss
Turns out later that day that this happened to be Ruben’s team…but honestly at this point I don’t want to change much anymore. It was boring, but effective.
After preparing the team and getting ABC to EV train my mons (<3), I didn’t do much else, but on the last day cosmicexplorer was willing to take away about four hours of his time and tutor me in vgc, and it helped me a great deal later on.
Saturday, June 11th, 2011
I had trouble sleeping. I slept from around 12 to 3, woke up, got on irc, and tennisace motivated me to go back to sleep so I did at around 5, and woke up at 7. It was really nervewrecking as I tried to calculate the possibility of me fighting a skarmbliss/Smogon member. Then after I woke up and dealt with the dentist, I left for Chantilly. It was a 50 minute drive-ish.
After we got there, I spotted evan and introduced myself rather awkwardly, but they took it fine. Evan then decided to remind me of my 6-0 loss in the SPL Ubers playoffs against Gliscor -_-, but we were cool with that. The Ducks went off for lunch and I found my high school friend which I will talk about more later. Still feeling awkward, I decided to go off to search for muffinhead and stumbled across him on the line, along with CO and cosmicexplorer. Being an awkward guy that I was, I just stared at them for about 7 minutes before finally tapping CO. CO saves me from embarrassment by asking “Are you Jibaku?”, to which I replied yes. Sixonesix also made an appearance but we never actually talked. Later on in that line, I found out that Cocy, IPS, and elmo had saved the spot right in front of me. I got nervous once again.
Also there was a guy dressed up as SUBWAY BOSS EMMET, which was incredibly cool.
The line wait was pretty long and I was pretty quiet most of the time. Moof discussed how he would be using Liepard (9.9), while CO mentioned about using Vanilluxe. Cosmicexplorer assured me everything would be find after I choked just about countlessly while waiting (x_x). Oh yeah
CO ALSO BROUGHT LIKE 5 DSES WHAT IS THIS I DONT EVEN...
Cocy, IPS, Elmo, agreed to friend ruling us and then they decided to talk about last year’s VGC. We saw the Ducks return to their line (evan, tyler, Dubs, andrea, bluecookies, dtrain, did I miss anyone?) and wished them good luck.
We were asked to prepare our DSes, and so we did, and I became more “chokey” as we progressed closer to the registration. We prepared to friend clause but they said we wont be battling each other so I didn’t have to use it (Cocy did though).
It was pretty suspenseful. The wait for the first battle was pretty darn long and the countdown was scary.
My Team (For Reference’s Sake). Will add more onto this later
Scrafty (M) @ Chople Berry *** Scooter
Trait: Moxie
EVs: 124 HP / 252 Atk / 132 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Crunch
- Fake Out
- Drain Punch
- Protect
NOTES: Standard Tailwind Scrafty pretty much, with some speed creeping going on to beat other Scrafties (which happened once so I'm glad I did). Nicknamed him Scooter because of Moxie. And because he's a Dark type, cuz the Scooter logo is black.
Tornadus (M) @ Flying Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Acrobatics
- Taunt
- Substitute
- Tailwind
NOTES: Cosmicexplorer told me to use Taunt - which although failed to be useful in the matches, it did at least help me in choosing my leads.
Amoonguss (M) @ Coba Berry
Trait: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 236 SDef / 20 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
- Protect
- Rage Powder
- Spore
- Giga Drain
NOTES: Best Pokemon in VGC 2011? You decide.
Jellicent (M) @ Choice Scarf
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Water Spout
- Ice Beam
- Shadow Ball
- Hydro Pump
NOTES: Water Absorb vs. Cursed Body was a tough decision, but everyone else seemed to recommend Water Absorb after a bit of discussion. Also my (moof's) Cursed Body Jellicent is female which looks so much worse anyways. PRINGLES FOREVER.
Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Trait: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- Close Combat
- Rock Slide
- Protect
- Quick Attack
NOTES: Obvious set is obvious
Thundurus (M) @ Electric Gem
Trait: Prankster
EVs: 4 HP / 192 SAtk / 60 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Thunder Wave
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
NOTES: EVs help it survive EGem Thundurus Thunderbolt, as recommended by Synre. However the special attack drop did hurt me once (possibly twice if you count icepick's match, but I don't know), but I might've still lost against ips anyways. Electric Gem and Charti Berry was tough to decide, but since I have a fair amount of rock coverage anyways I just went with e-gem to help take down opposing Thundurus better.
ROUND 1 – Vs Sean
I told Sean how nervous I was. He then said that this was his first tournament scene and worked all night to prepare. I had mixed expressions at that point but I don’t care. I have to beat him. I needed to get past Round 1.
Sean then asked me, “Do you EV train?”, and I’m pretty was like -___-, and at the back of my mind, “Oh do you NOT see my trainer name?” Guess not a lot of people know me. So I replied, “Everyone asks that question…”. He then assumes that I didn’t EV train.
His team: Whimsicott / Terrakion / Scrafty / Mienshao (and a Musharna and something else in the back)
My team: Tornadus / Scrafty / Amoonguss / Thundurus
The countdown reaches zero and we started off. He led off with Terracott, probably in hopes of getting a quick win, despite my countermeasures against it. I didn’t expect Terracott lead actually (expecting Mienshao/Whimsi), but this works out for me even better. I decided to lead with Scrafty/Tornadus as a general catch-all.
###
Turn 1: Scrafty Fake Outs Whimsicott and Tornadus KOes it. Terrakion uses Rock Slide and leaves Tornadus hanging at 3 HP. Mienshao was sent out.
Turn 2: I expected Mienshao to Fake Out Tornadus so I switched it to Amoonguss, and I was right. Scrafty Protects itself against Terrakion’s Sacred Sword.
Turn 3: Shroom Rage Powders, drawing in Drain Punch and Sacred Sword. Effect Spore kicks in and poisons Terrakion and sleeps Mienshao (and naturally, this ticked him off big time). Scrafty Drain Punches Terrakion into just poison kill range (lol). Sean sends out Scrafty.
Turn 4: Mienshao is still asleep, and I decided to gang attack Scrafty for whatever reason. My Scrafty (gonna call him Scooter for the rest of this match) Drain Punches and does about 60%. His Scrafty Bulk Ups while Amoonguss Spores, only to be cancelled by Chesto Berry. At this point I could assume he doesn’t have Protect, so I Rage Powdered and Drain Punched it to death. Mienshao wakes up, U-turns on Amoonguss, and promptly falls asleep again on yet another Effect Spore misfortune.
Turn 5: There is no turn 5. He ragequitted.
###
Sean storms out of the hall and made me feel bad for haxing him. However, chances are I could’ve still beaten him with Tornadus and Thundurus at the back. My game froze from his shut-off and got a couple of staff members confused. Only then did one staff come by and simply shut off my game which made everyone feel stupid (including myself). Anyways, I was just glad that I survived the first obstacle: getting past r1.
After sitting down in the Round 2 section, I noticed that the guy sitting next to me asking his opponent “Did you RNG?”. The reply was “I didn’t IV breed”, and then the dude (the guy sitting next to me) starts talking about RNGing in detail. But my attention to his talk was cut short when my opponent showed up.
Round 2: ?????
Sorry, I lost my namesheet on the way home, and I just didn’t remember his name. He was pretty cool, but we didn’t have much of an introduction and played right away.
His Team: Terrakion / Whimsicott / Jellicent / Chandelure
My Team: Tornadus / Scrafty / Thundurus / Amoonguss.
I repeated my r1 team, yeah. This match was one of my simpler matches and was rather straightforward, really.
###
Turn 1: Terrakion Protects, Scrafty Fake Outs Whimsicott and Tornadus proceeds to shred it with Acrobatics. Chandelure was sent out.
Turn 2: He switches Terrakion for Jellicent. Tornadus Subs while Chandelure fires off a Fire Gem Heat Wave which broke it and did a lot of damage to Scrafty. Scrafty Drain Punches Jellicent to no avail.
Turn 3: I wasn’t going to let them kill Scrafty since he hits all of the remaining mons SE, so I sacrificed Tornadus. Scrafty Protects, Tornadus Tailwinds. Chandelure Heat Waves while Jellicent wastes its Water Gem to kill a nearly dead Tornadus. I sent in Thundurus.
Turn 4: Jellicent was switched out for Terrakion, and Thundurus’ Electric Gem Thunderbolt hits it for about 80%. Scrafty, now speedy under Trick Room, Crunches the Chandelure into oblivion. Jellicent is sent back in.
Turn 5: Thundurus Thunderbolts Terrakion for the finish, while Scrafty’s +1 Crunch OHKOes Jellicent.
###
He was pretty cool about the loss, but we didn’t speak much. ONTO Round 3
Round 3: ????
Again I really wished I remembered his name (it was something rather unique). He wished me best of luck and stated that if he loses to me, he wants me to win it. He was very nice, and complimented me on my moves which helped offset the ragequit I got on the first round.
His Team: Whimsicott / Terrakion / Thundurus / Chandelure
My Team: Tornadus / Amoonguss / Thundurus / Jellicent
And…you’ve got to be kidding me? This is the third Terracotta team I’ve seen in a row. But he did have some other members which I don’t remember that caused me to put Scrafty in the back. His team was very weak to Jellicent it seems, so I used this opportunity to bring him in.
###
Turn 1: Terrakion Protects, Whimsicott Tailwinds, Tornadus OHKOes Whimsicott with Acrobatics. Amoonguss Spores Terrakion to no avail. Chandelure is sent out.
Turn 2: Amoonguss Protects, Tornadus Tailwinds, Terrakion and Chandelure KO Tornadus with Rock Slide + Heat Wave. I send in Jellicent.
Turn 3: Chandelure is switched out for Thundurus while Amoonguss Rage Powders. Jellicent used Water Spout and OHKOes Terrakion and does about 65% to Thundurus. Chandelure is sent back out.
Turn 4: Keeping Jellicent at full health is pretty important here, so I Rage Powdered with Amoonguss and Jellicent Water Spouts both Chandelure andH Thundurus to death.
###
The dude complimented my use of Rage Powder and acknowledged me as a formidable foe throughout the battle. We shook hands and parted our ways as I approach the fourth ring. I gave evan a smile as a sign that I’ve passed my expectations.
At this point I looked around for the rest of the people. I haven’t seen CO and I saw Cocy and cosmicexplorer still playing. After sitting down for a while in the round 4 seat, my opponent finally shows up and sits down. But this wasn’t going to be a simple one. This dude is none other than the user Lugiatina. Oh and he’s also my high school friend asdfegeg.
Round 4: Adam L. (Lugiatina)
I looked at his trainer card nervously. His “signature” or so, on that card, says “I am your RIVAL” or something like that. I don’t really remember. The team selection lit up and his team was definitely a bit different from what I have usually seen, so I needed to play carefully.
His Team: Volcarona / Jellicent / Thundurus / Haxorus, and Terrakion and Escavalier at the back.
My Team: Scrafty / Terrakion / Thundurus / Amoonguss
I don’t remember why exactly I went with a Scrafty / Terrakion lead, but I’m glad I did. Well actually, not really, because things did not go quite as well as I wanted.
###
Turn 1: Jellicent Water Spouts, damaging Scrafty a fair bit and nearly OHKOing Terrakion. Terrakion holds on to its Focus Sash and Rock Slides, dealing about 40% or so to Jellicent AND MISSES VOLCARONA which I thought costed me the game there. Volcarona Bug Buzzes Scrafty, leaving him with about 10 HP (x_x), but Scrafty finishes off Jellicent with Crunch which at least lightens things a bit. Thundurus is sent out. UGH
Turn 2: I stared blankly for a bit trying to figure out how to break this combo – with Terrakion just about dead and all. If only he could live for another turn or so…
Predicting that THundurus would strike Terrakion, and Volcarona to use Bug Buzz on Scrafty (risk management says this may be better move than Heat Wave since THundurus would have taken care of Terrakion and Bug Buzz is more accurate), I switched Scrafty to Amoonguss and had Terrakion Protect itself. Amoonguss takes a dent from Bug Buzz, but he held out fine.
Turn 3: Amoongus Rage Powders and takes an Electric Gem Thunderbolt to the face (why not Hidden Power…). Terrakion Rock Slides and puts both Volcarona and Thundurus into very critical range (Volcarona was Sashed). Volcarona then finishes off both Terrakion and Amoonguss with Heat Wave. (x__x). I sent out Scrafty and Thundurus.
Turn 4: Gaining some hope, I tried to fake out Thundurus to get a kill, while getting Thundurus to use Hidden Power to KO the 1% Volcarona. Volcarona Rage Powders and dies to Scrafty’s Fake Out. His Thundurus beats mine in a Speedtie and kills Scrafty with Thunderbolt, while my Thundurus’ Hidden Power finishes him off. We’re down 1-1. Lugiatina sent out Haxorus.
Turn 5: Okay so basically, if it has Outrage or is Choice Banded (or have an Attack boost of some sort), I lose this match. There’s only one thing to do now. Thundurus used Hidden Power and does about 70%, while Haxorus used Dragon Claw and does about 90% to Thundurus. At this point he facepalmed, saying that if he had Dragon Danced, he would have won this match.
Turn 6: Haxorus Protects for some reason. Timer was still too far away from zero to actually stall things, though.
Turn 7: Thundurus casually destroys Haxorus with Hidden Power.
###
Despite the hax, I enjoyed this match simply because I was able to turn it around, and thus I recorded it. The match can be seen here:
17-11901-73967
FINALIST LOUNGE:
The ladyguard asked to see my namecard and a smile. She was sweet and let me pass where the registration guy asks me for my game. He seemed to enjoy calling me chipmunk at first but then nicknames me “Master 10”. He was pretty cool dude.At this point, I walked around and found out that muffinhead, CO, and cosmicexplorer have been eliminated, making me incredibly nervous (CE was my tutor, after all). However, evan, Tyler, sandman, and cocy made it through, as well as TTS but I don’t recall seeing him.
evan also stressed the importance that one of us has to beat Synre in ranking.
During this break I decided to hop by to the guy I beat at R3, where he congratulated me and wished me the best of luck. I then talked to muffinhead and cosmicexplorer for a bit but I completely forgot what we were talking about. I don’t know what else to do at this point, so I just walked around until they called – which I apparently did not notice at all until muffinhead pointed out!
After sitting down, we are informed that 19 people have made it thus far, and thus, the director started handing out PLAYs and BYEs. I got a BYE but Cocy and IPS got PLAYs. A lady came by and started asking me for my details, as I’ve now received the invite.
This was where Cocy lost his match. IPS advanced.
I was told to sit at the furthest seat at the end of the line (which means I get to play my match on the TV! Well not really. My opponent did.
We introduced ourselves. I said I was Jibaku and he said “Oh hi. I’m icepick”. At this point I’m like…CRUD. This be my first Smogoner battle (my previous match did not count since he’s more of an irl friend than a Smogoner).
Round 5: Daniel K. (icepick)
I don’t really remember what goes on his full team, but I do recall that Jellicent could sweep it if things are weakened slightly. I forgot what 4 did he use when making this warstory so I had to ask.
His Team: Scrafty / Haxorus / Thundurus / Conkeldurr
My Team: Scrafty (Scooter) / Thundurus / Jellicent / Tornadus
Haxorus in particular scared me due to its tremendous power. However, the standard Hax doesn’t seem to be very strong so I should be able to take a hit.
######
Turn 1: Scooter Fake Outs Scrafty (I Speed Creeped mine a bit for this kind of thing), while Thundurus HP Ices Haxorus for a good amount of damage. Haxorus used Dragon Dance.
Turn 2: Haxorus Protects while Thundurus throws up a Substitute (I’m assuming he’s afraid that Hax might be double targeted). Scooter fails his Drain Punch on Haxorus’ shield while Scrafty Drain Punches Scooter for a decent dent. Chople kicks in and weakens the damage.
Turn 3: Scooter uses Protect (hoping to avoid Drain Punch from Scrafty). Haxorus Rock Slides and breaks Thundurus’ Substitute, while Thundurus KOes Haxorus with Hidden Power. Scrafty Crunches Thundurus for a lot of damage, leaving Thundurus nearly dead.
Turn 4: Conkeldurr Mach Punches Thundurus and leaves it hanging at 3 HP. Thundurus then uses Electric Gem Thunderbolt at Scrafty for a good amount of damage. Scooter Drain Punches Scrafty (Chople kicks in), but it barely survives, while it Drain Punches back against Scooter and gets a lot of health back (while severely damaging it)
Turn 5: I predicted that the easiest way for icepick to win this turn is to Mach Punch Thundurus and while Protecting Scrafty. And it turns out my prediction was entirely correct and I swapped Thundurus to Jellicent to avoid Mach Punch. Scrafty Detects, but Scooter decides to Drain Punch Conkeldurr instead, putting it into Water Spout kill range, essentially.
Turn 6: To shield against Mach Punch, I got Scooter to Protect while Jellicent Water Spouts, knocking out Scrafty and severely damaging Conkeldurr. Durr Rock Slides and does about 40% to Jellicent (and nothing to Scooter) and promptly dies to the burn. Thundurus is sent in
Turn 7: I decided to play safe so I switched Jellicent out to my nearly dead Thundurus so I could send him back in to Ice Beam. Icepick’s Thundurus kills Scooter instead =(. Jellicent is sent back in
Turn 8: Jellicent Ice Beams and does about 70%, and freezes Thundurus as well! You could say that his Thundurus is….icepicked. Pardon me for the terrible pun, but it didn’t matter anyways since my own Thundurus won the speed tie and proceeded to Thunderbolt for the KO.
Icepick was kind enough to record the battle, and he uploaded it. If you want to watch, here is the code:
60-53941-00672
(For some reason, his video starts from turn 2.)
At this point, I got my interview, which I think I failed miserably at! The questions were: "How are you feeling?" and "What in that match made you most nervous?" In the first question I just replied with, "very nervous" and then spilled out my team's weakness (Thundurus) on the second question which I think IPS later on used against me. Yeah, it didn't go too well. Marriland did manage to calm me down though so I'd like to thank him for that. Then I just sat there, staring at the crowd constantly, until my next opponent arrived.
Round 6: Rick G.
Looking at his team, I almost sank. Cosmicexplorer and I went over my team's nemesis last night. He assured that if I repeatedly hit it I should be fine. Also, the Pokemon in question is somewhat rare.
His Team: Eelektross / Krookodile / Whimsicott / Terrakion
My Team: Amoonguss / Thundurus / Tornadus / Jellicent
And that Pokemon is none other than Eelektross. It could OHKO half of the team and really dent the rest, while not taking so much from my assaults. ARGH
###
Turn 1: Thundurus throws up a Substitute while Krookodile Rock Slides, breaking the Sub and doing some damage to Amoonguss. Eelektross used Acrobatics to hit Amoonguss, only to fail the KO thanks to Coba Berry. Amoonguss Spores Eelektross. SCORE!
Turn 2: Rick probably expected me to strike Krookodile as it's still awake, and Protected. Amoonguss also Protected in case of Earthquake, while Thundurus began to chip away at Eelektross with Thunderbolt (around 40% damage).
Turn 3: Krookodile Earthquakes (I should totally have expected this and saved Amoonguss) and Amoonguss faints. Thundurus Thunderbolts Eelektross once more, while Eelektross remained asleep. I sent in Jellicent
Turn 4: Krookodile switches out for Whimsicott, and Jellicent Water Spouts, killing Eelektross and doing little to Whimsicott. Thundurus Hidden Powers Whimsicott and left it in red HP.
Turn 5: With Whimsicott out, I knew Jellicent is in danger. Whimsi is faster and could easily Grass Knot it for a chunk of damage, leaving it helpless. Or worse, perhaps it would set up Tailwind. Either way, I know keeping Jelly in would be bad for me, so I switched it out for Tornadus. As expected, Krookodile Protects and Whimsicott Tailwinds, while Thundurus Hidden Powers Whimsicott for the finish. Terrakion is sent out.
Turn 6: Just to play safe against the possibility of Scarf Terrakion (though with Terrakion/Krook in the team the chance of one being Chople and the other being Sashed is also likely), I had Thundurus Thunder Wave Terrakion as Tornadus Tailwinds. Both Terrakion and Krookodile Rock Slide, knocking out Thundurus and leaving Tornadus with 3 HP (again?). Tornadus had dodged Terrakion's Rock Slide and I breathed in relief now that I could win should Krookodile be Sashed. Jellicent is sent back in.
Turn 7: Jellicent OHKOes both Terrakion and Krookodile.
At this point I sighed in relief as I have just conquered the team's biggest weakness. I looked at the audience and saw muffinhead and cosmicexplorer with their signs of approval. Interview came along again and I failed once again my revealing my Eel weakness though at this point any good player with it in his or her team could have figured it out, if we had to fight. One more to go for the 3DS...
Round 7: Mitchell H. (imperfectspider)
Interview man came along and asked us how confident we are. I subconsciously replied "Yes" which may have been a bad mistake as I've been winning by NOT being confident. IPS said something about how this is an old team but he's hoping this team still works well.
His Team: Terrakion / Thundurus / Musharna / ???
My Team: Thundurus / Scrafty / Amoonguss / Tornadus
I didn't really bother remembering this one much as I didn't play well at all and it was on the big screen anyways. IPS predicted my fake out + thunderbolt and went straight to Musharna which messed me up. Then Terrakion came around and flinched me twice later on in the match while Musharna survives an attack later on by 1 HP (maybe I shouldn't have lowered my Thundurus' Special Attack). Terrakion then starts picking things off with Quick Attack. I lost 0-3. gg though, since this isn't a Quick Claw loss.
Afterwards, the lady escorted me out of the line after I part with my wristbands. She then asked for my information and gave me paperwork to fill out later. She then mentions how I have to return after the finals for pictures.
wolfe's team: Cofagrigus / Hydreigon / Reuniclus / Conkeldurr
Probably the most awkward match I have seen. Trick Room went on and off for about 7 times and it eventually came down to time. IPS originally had momentum by getting in two Spores but eventually end up being stalled out.
His Team: Eelektross / Krookodile / Whimsicott / Terrakion
My Team: Amoonguss / Thundurus / Tornadus / Jellicent
And that Pokemon is none other than Eelektross. It could OHKO half of the team and really dent the rest, while not taking so much from my assaults. ARGH
###
Turn 1: Thundurus throws up a Substitute while Krookodile Rock Slides, breaking the Sub and doing some damage to Amoonguss. Eelektross used Acrobatics to hit Amoonguss, only to fail the KO thanks to Coba Berry. Amoonguss Spores Eelektross. SCORE!
Turn 2: Rick probably expected me to strike Krookodile as it's still awake, and Protected. Amoonguss also Protected in case of Earthquake, while Thundurus began to chip away at Eelektross with Thunderbolt (around 40% damage).
Turn 3: Krookodile Earthquakes (I should totally have expected this and saved Amoonguss) and Amoonguss faints. Thundurus Thunderbolts Eelektross once more, while Eelektross remained asleep. I sent in Jellicent
Turn 4: Krookodile switches out for Whimsicott, and Jellicent Water Spouts, killing Eelektross and doing little to Whimsicott. Thundurus Hidden Powers Whimsicott and left it in red HP.
Turn 5: With Whimsicott out, I knew Jellicent is in danger. Whimsi is faster and could easily Grass Knot it for a chunk of damage, leaving it helpless. Or worse, perhaps it would set up Tailwind. Either way, I know keeping Jelly in would be bad for me, so I switched it out for Tornadus. As expected, Krookodile Protects and Whimsicott Tailwinds, while Thundurus Hidden Powers Whimsicott for the finish. Terrakion is sent out.
Turn 6: Just to play safe against the possibility of Scarf Terrakion (though with Terrakion/Krook in the team the chance of one being Chople and the other being Sashed is also likely), I had Thundurus Thunder Wave Terrakion as Tornadus Tailwinds. Both Terrakion and Krookodile Rock Slide, knocking out Thundurus and leaving Tornadus with 3 HP (again?). Tornadus had dodged Terrakion's Rock Slide and I breathed in relief now that I could win should Krookodile be Sashed. Jellicent is sent back in.
Turn 7: Jellicent OHKOes both Terrakion and Krookodile.
At this point I sighed in relief as I have just conquered the team's biggest weakness. I looked at the audience and saw muffinhead and cosmicexplorer with their signs of approval. Interview came along again and I failed once again my revealing my Eel weakness though at this point any good player with it in his or her team could have figured it out, if we had to fight. One more to go for the 3DS...
Round 7: Mitchell H. (imperfectspider)
Interview man came along and asked us how confident we are. I subconsciously replied "Yes" which may have been a bad mistake as I've been winning by NOT being confident. IPS said something about how this is an old team but he's hoping this team still works well.
His Team: Terrakion / Thundurus / Musharna / ???
My Team: Thundurus / Scrafty / Amoonguss / Tornadus
I didn't really bother remembering this one much as I didn't play well at all and it was on the big screen anyways. IPS predicted my fake out + thunderbolt and went straight to Musharna which messed me up. Then Terrakion came around and flinched me twice later on in the match while Musharna survives an attack later on by 1 HP (maybe I shouldn't have lowered my Thundurus' Special Attack). Terrakion then starts picking things off with Quick Attack. I lost 0-3. gg though, since this isn't a Quick Claw loss.
Afterwards, the lady escorted me out of the line after I part with my wristbands. She then asked for my information and gave me paperwork to fill out later. She then mentions how I have to return after the finals for pictures.
FINALS
IPS' team: Musharna / Amoonguss / Hydreigon / Landorus
wolfe's team: Cofagrigus / Hydreigon / Reuniclus / Conkeldurr
Probably the most awkward match I have seen. Trick Room went on and off for about 7 times and it eventually came down to time. IPS originally had momentum by getting in two Spores but eventually end up being stalled out.
Aftermath
Not much to say here. After the finals were over we went and took pictures. Me, Tyler, IPS, and wolfey and the starters/Pikachu were photoed by some people. After the photo, I asked one of the staff (the cool staff) to get me another one of those Zekrom / Reshiram stringbags since I lost it during round 2 or so. Oh and someone came up to me and interviewed me and this time I felt a lot less nervous than before. However, this isn't the interview going into the main site.
I went and tried to take pictures, but my battery died and only got one with dubs/evan/tyler on it. The crowd dispersed rather quickly at the end and in little time I found the South Hall rather empty. However, that is not reflective of how I feel about the event. Though I was one match away from winning what I came there for, the event was still incredibly fun and getting into top 4 felt like an accomplishment.
CO had to leave early so I never got to say goodbye :<
I went and tried to take pictures, but my battery died and only got one with dubs/evan/tyler on it. The crowd dispersed rather quickly at the end and in little time I found the South Hall rather empty. However, that is not reflective of how I feel about the event. Though I was one match away from winning what I came there for, the event was still incredibly fun and getting into top 4 felt like an accomplishment.
CO had to leave early so I never got to say goodbye :<
TO BE CONTINUED (when I'm not tired)
With all thanks to:
- ABC, for EV training every single one of my Pokemon and RNGing me an Amoonguss.
- cosmicexplorer, for tutoring me in VGC for about four hours on Friday
- Red, for the Scrafty
- muffinhead, for the Jellicent, and for being there.
- evan and Synre for suggesting a few things that made it into the final version of the team. Also for being Scooters.
- sandman, for the Tornadus
- Kaphotics, for the Thundurus
- My dad, for driving me there
- JRank....for absolutely no reason. Actually no. You told me how the replacement Pokemon mechanics worked.
- And everyone else who supported me!
Props:
- Top 4!
- Meeting Smogoners irl
- Surviving Round 1
- I MADE SOMEONE RAGEQUIT IRL WHOOO
Slops:
- Terrakion only did anything in one match
- I made the first guy ragequit
- I didn't get my 3DS :(
- I probably can't go to nats
