A little premise: i'm not used to write long walls of text in english, so forgive me for some errors.
The background story
Last year i went to the vgc of berlin and paris, losing on both of them at top 16. At berlin i lost for a speed tie (infernape using encore on mine who used fake out before) and at paris for a fire blast miss vs flash_mc, aggravated by a double explosion ch (he says he would have won anyway, but he now knows how imprevedible pokemon battles can be). After such an unlucky tournament i promised i would never play vgc again if not in italy, because the travels have cost a lot of money for a gambling (at least i visited two wonderful cities). This year vgc was announced with ubers and hgss only (which strengthened my promise) but also in italian which gave me some hope. In meantime our recurrent pokemon fan event, the pokemon day, was announced the same days when the vgc was hold at berlin (12-13 june). In this event we always had multiple tournaments with rules from the main american tournaments, so an italian vgc was likely to happen. So i could have sold my two old pokemon cartridges when it was officially announced. My excitement soon turns in anger when i see the vgc announced in spain but not in italy (like they were taunting me for my loss at paris). To add more shame, the pokemon day had tournaments with copypasted vgc rules, so we had a "fake" vgc event. Now increasingly determined to not participate, i sold my cartridges without buying my hgss copy. With a borrowed cartridge, i lost at a tournament at semifinals for a 50% chance (it was guessing if my opponent would attack or protect) but also won another one for a 50% chance (after some sudden death matches, i tie with my opponent so we decide to toss a coin to decide the winner). The theory of the hax compensation (which later turns as the weak law of large numbers) is true! My prize was a pokemon platinum which i was going to sell if my friend hadn't made a proposal i couldn't refuse: to trade my prize for his heart gold so i could go to madrid and represent italy at the vgc of spain. With a surprisingly cheap trip and the team i used for the previous tournament, i'm ready for the challenge.
The team
To avoid the same fate of paris, i decide to build a team without a single inaccurate move. My original team was unstable so i tweaked it a little to go for "kinneas mode". The movesets are nothing new so i won't show them.
Troll Face - 9000 rad/s - MySpace - NoXmas4U - Metal Slug - Orpo Kyo
The event
Actually i came at the tournament place a day before, but feria de madrid was impenetrable. The next day i came at 8:15 and a fairly long queue was already formed (around 80 people). Flash and his comrades were just at few people away behind me and after an hour the queue has assumed gigantic proportions (around 300 people). Alvaro and Alessandro, the other italian vgc challengers, came after and stole my place but it was ok for me. (Alessandro is also our national tcg winner, so he's going to hawaii anyway). We start to enter into feria de madrid gradually and at 13:00 we reach the actual area of the tournament. FIVE HOURS STANDING, we even missed the junior finals, and you call this organization? Anyway the registration has already started and at least 200 people were out. I got the wristband number 140 but it doesn't indicate how many people were in front of me because the staff was processing the queue with different counted wristband for them. Eye of the tiger kicks in and i start to leave behind Alvaro and Alessandro in order to avoid battling them at the first round. Now four days have passed and my memory isn't perfect so i don't remember every detail of the matches.
Round 1 - Against Pablo
He sends out Bronzong and Slaking. It was obvious he was going to skill swap, so i fake out and dragon claw his slaking. He then switches bronzong for gyarados, and his intimidate made things harder for my two physical leads. Hitmontop kills slaking with a CH mach punch so that giratina's dragon claw hit gyarados instead. He sends out bronzong and switches gyarados for rayquaza. I don't remember much but his bronzong set up a reflect, then explodes KOing a dieing hitmontop and rayquaza KOed giratina with something (i think draco meteor?). Then palkia and abomasnow clean up everything.
While i was waiting for my second match, a labcoat guy stops me for a random hack check. He took a DSi and inserted my cart. Everything is ok and i proceed with the next round.
Round 2 - Against ???
He sends out Shiftry and Groudon. I try to fake out with hitmontop but shiftry was obviously faster, giratina dragon claws it and groudon used swords dance. The next turn i detect, he protects and shiftry explodes while giratina charges a shadow force. He sends mewtwo which protected itself from my sucker punch while giratina hits groudon with shadow force. Then groudon rock slides, missing giratina and doing little damage to hitmontop. Groudon protects (maybe from mewtwo's selfdestruct), hitmontop uses sucker punch on mewtwo who dies to a critical hit. I don't remember his last pokemon but eventually i won this battle.
To my astonishment, i see flash going out after the second round.
Round 3 - Against Kotone
After sending out our leads, the machine stopped working and my ds show a comunication error. The judges let us redo the battle with the same leads.
He sends out Kyogre and Hitmontop. Uhh zerowing's team strikes again. I made my hitmontop faster so i could fake out kyogre without problems. He does something with his hitmontop and i dragon claw kyogre leaving it with 30% of health. The next turn he switches hitmontop for abomasnow but my hitmontop KOes kyogre before it can use blizzard, giratina charges shadow force. He sends hitmontop again which surprisingly got OHKOed by shadow force while abomasnow protected i think. Now he sends out giratina-a. Hitmontop leaves his abomasnow with a sliver of health while blizzard KOes hitmontop and freezes my giratina. I send out palkia. Giratina got KOed by ice shard and my palkia froze with blizzard his giratina (which was hilarious because he froze my giratina before). Some blizzards later i won.
Finalist Lounge
There's no finalist lounge in europe, like last year. I got hack checked again and obtained a new wristband number 14. Alvaro and Alessandro lost at round 3 so i'm the last italian still in play. I watch some battles and then we got called. They gave the infamous energy cards which is strange because we are 32 so there's no need of giving byes (maybe someone got kicked out for cheating).
I got the green card (now i'm an US citizen lol) so i must do the top 32 match.
Top 32 - Against GOLD
Lucario and Mewtwo? Not a good matchup. Even with the fear of follow me, i fake out mewtwo but not before getting extremespeeded from lucario (which suffered life orb damage) that did around 60% damage, giratina charges shadow force. The next turn i detect with hitmontop his extremespeed, mewtwo protected too but to his surprise shadow force hit him anyway (then the in-game message explained what happened). I don't remember who was his next pokemon, but then lucario KOes hitmontop and then i send out palkia. It protected and then used flamethrower to KO lucario (which strangely didn't use extremespeed again, maybe he didn't use any pp-ups). The match was downhill after that.
Top 16 - Against ???
Now i'm face to face with the dreaded top 16 battle. Losing here again would mean i've got a curse or something. Hopefully his leads were dialga and smeargle, a good matchup for my team. I fake out his smeargle who didn't use follow me (meaning a dark void attempt) while i switch giratina for abomasnow on dialga using trick room. Then i protect abomasnow from dialga's flamethrower and KO smeargle with mach punch. This battle is hazy but in the end his abomasnow got saved by sitrus berry and his blizzard KOed both giratina and abomasnow. Then palkia ends all.
It was a great battle from my side.
After the battle i got a brief interview with the announcer so everyone knew that an italian guy reached the top 8.
Top 8 - Against Kefka
Now that I have overcome the barrier of the top 16, i can hope to win this time. But unfortunately kefka stopped me on tracks. This battle was recorded: 98-68466-65589
I got the worst matchup possible: Palkia and Kangaskhan. While i practiced this combo with other (faster) fake outers, this made the things a lot more difficult. Even the slightest damage could secure the KO of giratina with spacial rend, so i decide to protect it. Unfortunately i forgot to detect with hitmontop (kangaskhan is faster) so he took his fake out for 25%, but the life orb recoil would have made things easier for my hitmontop. At the second turn i realize that kangaskhan could have sucker punch, but i don't have non-damaging moves except protect... Instead he protected his kangaskhan, protect failed (this later proved good thing) and i got a spacial rend for 90% of damage. I protect a third time and THIS time he used sucker punch, kangaskhan got KOed by CH mach punch (didn't matter so much as the LO recoil gave me good chances of KOing it without a critical hit) and hitmontop got KOed by palkia's spacial rend (if i had detected hitmontop would have survived, but if kangaskhan had survived the situation would remain the same). I send out palkia, he sends out abomasnow. Now giratina can launch a shadow sneak before dieing, and my palkia unnecessarily won the first speed tie using blizzard (no freeze hax for me =/). Now the battle is decided by a coinflip: which palkia will destroy the opponent? In order to avoid giving my opponent a free turn in case i lose the speed tie, i decide to blizzard with abomasnow instead of protecting (which it would have been the winning move in this case). The turn had a different ending: his abomasnow used ice shard on my palkia (not killing it) and he won the speed tie, but he used spacial rend on abomasnow who is left with 30% of health. My palkia's blizzard KOed his palkia and unnecessarily critted abomasnow (who already launched his attack) while my abomasnow had nothing to blizzard. I briefly got the upper hand, until (to my horror) he sent out scarfogre. My two remaining pokemon, which are kyogre counters, were too weakened to take water spout (useless CH on palkia included).
I'm glad i lost to a 50% instead of 0.054%, especially in top 8 instead of top 4. Losing a turn before finals would have been a lot worse, with a mere invitation instead of the full trip. After the battle they took everything: the wristbands, the team information sheet, the card with the results and even the shiny eevee as they dismantled the download area before i could get it. So after all that trouble I got nothing, only the last recorded battle. But the most important thing is that THEY DIDN'T GET MY MONEY.
I doubt i will do the next year's vgc, if they don't do it in italy (especially rome). They require a new cartridge everytime, which is unbearable for a person who doesn't want to pay twice for the same game. And despite all their earnings, they still make you pay the """prize""" for a game which is mostly gambling.
The background story
Last year i went to the vgc of berlin and paris, losing on both of them at top 16. At berlin i lost for a speed tie (infernape using encore on mine who used fake out before) and at paris for a fire blast miss vs flash_mc, aggravated by a double explosion ch (he says he would have won anyway, but he now knows how imprevedible pokemon battles can be). After such an unlucky tournament i promised i would never play vgc again if not in italy, because the travels have cost a lot of money for a gambling (at least i visited two wonderful cities). This year vgc was announced with ubers and hgss only (which strengthened my promise) but also in italian which gave me some hope. In meantime our recurrent pokemon fan event, the pokemon day, was announced the same days when the vgc was hold at berlin (12-13 june). In this event we always had multiple tournaments with rules from the main american tournaments, so an italian vgc was likely to happen. So i could have sold my two old pokemon cartridges when it was officially announced. My excitement soon turns in anger when i see the vgc announced in spain but not in italy (like they were taunting me for my loss at paris). To add more shame, the pokemon day had tournaments with copypasted vgc rules, so we had a "fake" vgc event. Now increasingly determined to not participate, i sold my cartridges without buying my hgss copy. With a borrowed cartridge, i lost at a tournament at semifinals for a 50% chance (it was guessing if my opponent would attack or protect) but also won another one for a 50% chance (after some sudden death matches, i tie with my opponent so we decide to toss a coin to decide the winner). The theory of the hax compensation (which later turns as the weak law of large numbers) is true! My prize was a pokemon platinum which i was going to sell if my friend hadn't made a proposal i couldn't refuse: to trade my prize for his heart gold so i could go to madrid and represent italy at the vgc of spain. With a surprisingly cheap trip and the team i used for the previous tournament, i'm ready for the challenge.
The team
To avoid the same fate of paris, i decide to build a team without a single inaccurate move. My original team was unstable so i tweaked it a little to go for "kinneas mode". The movesets are nothing new so i won't show them.
Troll Face - 9000 rad/s - MySpace - NoXmas4U - Metal Slug - Orpo Kyo
The event
Actually i came at the tournament place a day before, but feria de madrid was impenetrable. The next day i came at 8:15 and a fairly long queue was already formed (around 80 people). Flash and his comrades were just at few people away behind me and after an hour the queue has assumed gigantic proportions (around 300 people). Alvaro and Alessandro, the other italian vgc challengers, came after and stole my place but it was ok for me. (Alessandro is also our national tcg winner, so he's going to hawaii anyway). We start to enter into feria de madrid gradually and at 13:00 we reach the actual area of the tournament. FIVE HOURS STANDING, we even missed the junior finals, and you call this organization? Anyway the registration has already started and at least 200 people were out. I got the wristband number 140 but it doesn't indicate how many people were in front of me because the staff was processing the queue with different counted wristband for them. Eye of the tiger kicks in and i start to leave behind Alvaro and Alessandro in order to avoid battling them at the first round. Now four days have passed and my memory isn't perfect so i don't remember every detail of the matches.
Round 1 - Against Pablo
He sends out Bronzong and Slaking. It was obvious he was going to skill swap, so i fake out and dragon claw his slaking. He then switches bronzong for gyarados, and his intimidate made things harder for my two physical leads. Hitmontop kills slaking with a CH mach punch so that giratina's dragon claw hit gyarados instead. He sends out bronzong and switches gyarados for rayquaza. I don't remember much but his bronzong set up a reflect, then explodes KOing a dieing hitmontop and rayquaza KOed giratina with something (i think draco meteor?). Then palkia and abomasnow clean up everything.
While i was waiting for my second match, a labcoat guy stops me for a random hack check. He took a DSi and inserted my cart. Everything is ok and i proceed with the next round.
Round 2 - Against ???
He sends out Shiftry and Groudon. I try to fake out with hitmontop but shiftry was obviously faster, giratina dragon claws it and groudon used swords dance. The next turn i detect, he protects and shiftry explodes while giratina charges a shadow force. He sends mewtwo which protected itself from my sucker punch while giratina hits groudon with shadow force. Then groudon rock slides, missing giratina and doing little damage to hitmontop. Groudon protects (maybe from mewtwo's selfdestruct), hitmontop uses sucker punch on mewtwo who dies to a critical hit. I don't remember his last pokemon but eventually i won this battle.
To my astonishment, i see flash going out after the second round.
Round 3 - Against Kotone
After sending out our leads, the machine stopped working and my ds show a comunication error. The judges let us redo the battle with the same leads.
He sends out Kyogre and Hitmontop. Uhh zerowing's team strikes again. I made my hitmontop faster so i could fake out kyogre without problems. He does something with his hitmontop and i dragon claw kyogre leaving it with 30% of health. The next turn he switches hitmontop for abomasnow but my hitmontop KOes kyogre before it can use blizzard, giratina charges shadow force. He sends hitmontop again which surprisingly got OHKOed by shadow force while abomasnow protected i think. Now he sends out giratina-a. Hitmontop leaves his abomasnow with a sliver of health while blizzard KOes hitmontop and freezes my giratina. I send out palkia. Giratina got KOed by ice shard and my palkia froze with blizzard his giratina (which was hilarious because he froze my giratina before). Some blizzards later i won.
Finalist Lounge
There's no finalist lounge in europe, like last year. I got hack checked again and obtained a new wristband number 14. Alvaro and Alessandro lost at round 3 so i'm the last italian still in play. I watch some battles and then we got called. They gave the infamous energy cards which is strange because we are 32 so there's no need of giving byes (maybe someone got kicked out for cheating).
I got the green card (now i'm an US citizen lol) so i must do the top 32 match.
Top 32 - Against GOLD
Lucario and Mewtwo? Not a good matchup. Even with the fear of follow me, i fake out mewtwo but not before getting extremespeeded from lucario (which suffered life orb damage) that did around 60% damage, giratina charges shadow force. The next turn i detect with hitmontop his extremespeed, mewtwo protected too but to his surprise shadow force hit him anyway (then the in-game message explained what happened). I don't remember who was his next pokemon, but then lucario KOes hitmontop and then i send out palkia. It protected and then used flamethrower to KO lucario (which strangely didn't use extremespeed again, maybe he didn't use any pp-ups). The match was downhill after that.
Top 16 - Against ???
Now i'm face to face with the dreaded top 16 battle. Losing here again would mean i've got a curse or something. Hopefully his leads were dialga and smeargle, a good matchup for my team. I fake out his smeargle who didn't use follow me (meaning a dark void attempt) while i switch giratina for abomasnow on dialga using trick room. Then i protect abomasnow from dialga's flamethrower and KO smeargle with mach punch. This battle is hazy but in the end his abomasnow got saved by sitrus berry and his blizzard KOed both giratina and abomasnow. Then palkia ends all.
It was a great battle from my side.
After the battle i got a brief interview with the announcer so everyone knew that an italian guy reached the top 8.
Top 8 - Against Kefka
Now that I have overcome the barrier of the top 16, i can hope to win this time. But unfortunately kefka stopped me on tracks. This battle was recorded: 98-68466-65589
I got the worst matchup possible: Palkia and Kangaskhan. While i practiced this combo with other (faster) fake outers, this made the things a lot more difficult. Even the slightest damage could secure the KO of giratina with spacial rend, so i decide to protect it. Unfortunately i forgot to detect with hitmontop (kangaskhan is faster) so he took his fake out for 25%, but the life orb recoil would have made things easier for my hitmontop. At the second turn i realize that kangaskhan could have sucker punch, but i don't have non-damaging moves except protect... Instead he protected his kangaskhan, protect failed (this later proved good thing) and i got a spacial rend for 90% of damage. I protect a third time and THIS time he used sucker punch, kangaskhan got KOed by CH mach punch (didn't matter so much as the LO recoil gave me good chances of KOing it without a critical hit) and hitmontop got KOed by palkia's spacial rend (if i had detected hitmontop would have survived, but if kangaskhan had survived the situation would remain the same). I send out palkia, he sends out abomasnow. Now giratina can launch a shadow sneak before dieing, and my palkia unnecessarily won the first speed tie using blizzard (no freeze hax for me =/). Now the battle is decided by a coinflip: which palkia will destroy the opponent? In order to avoid giving my opponent a free turn in case i lose the speed tie, i decide to blizzard with abomasnow instead of protecting (which it would have been the winning move in this case). The turn had a different ending: his abomasnow used ice shard on my palkia (not killing it) and he won the speed tie, but he used spacial rend on abomasnow who is left with 30% of health. My palkia's blizzard KOed his palkia and unnecessarily critted abomasnow (who already launched his attack) while my abomasnow had nothing to blizzard. I briefly got the upper hand, until (to my horror) he sent out scarfogre. My two remaining pokemon, which are kyogre counters, were too weakened to take water spout (useless CH on palkia included).
I'm glad i lost to a 50% instead of 0.054%, especially in top 8 instead of top 4. Losing a turn before finals would have been a lot worse, with a mere invitation instead of the full trip. After the battle they took everything: the wristbands, the team information sheet, the card with the results and even the shiny eevee as they dismantled the download area before i could get it. So after all that trouble I got nothing, only the last recorded battle. But the most important thing is that THEY DIDN'T GET MY MONEY.
I doubt i will do the next year's vgc, if they don't do it in italy (especially rome). They require a new cartridge everytime, which is unbearable for a person who doesn't want to pay twice for the same game. And despite all their earnings, they still make you pay the """prize""" for a game which is mostly gambling.
