I like snails - a VGC 2012 Houston Warstory

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Okay, let me start by saying that you guys made this Sunday amazing. Seriously, this year’s regional was a million times better than the 2011 one in Dallas. I might even say that it was more fun than the VGC 2011 nationals. Of course, I didn’t know anybody from smogon then but still lol. Alright, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on to the actual warstory. Sorry for the lack of pics, but I forgot to take any.

Friday

My VGC ’12 season officially begins on the Friday before the actual regional. The organizer of the tournament had set up a single battle video game tournament, and I had spent the past two weeks scrambling to get a team ready (I suck at single battles so I didn’t even have one pokemon ready to use lol). Stormfront had told me that he would be able to make me a team and to PM him when I saw him on PO so that he could give me the pokemon. I spent the next couple days on PO trying to find him, and finally I was able to PM him. Unfortunately, he was busy whenever I tried to contact him that entire week and I kind of got stranded three days before the tournament. I had one pokemon that Stormfront had managed to get me, but I had nothing for the other 5 slots. I eventually just took matters into my own hands and turned 3 of my doubles pokemon into singles pokemon and I was able to two other pokemon in time for Friday. So, I was able to convince my mom to take me to the Hilton North (I live in Houston so it was only a 45 minute drive) and then the real fun began.

I arrive at the Hilton North at around 6:30 ready to battle, but I’m a bit early since it was supposed to start at 7. I just wait around in the lobby with a ton of TCG players until then, but I wasn’t seeing anyone else with a DS. I got kind of worried and was hoping that I hadn’t got the time or date wrong, some other players eventually showed up. We all headed into the ballroom at around 7, but the event coordinator wasn’t there yet. It actually took him like an hour to show up, and at that point everyone was just really bored and wanted to get whatever competition they were in (TCG or video game) started. At 8 or so they brought out sign up sheets and there was a huge rush to get to them. Of course, there were a lot more people there for TCG than the video game, but we actually got a nice, even number of 12 to begin the tournament with. While we waited for pairings to get set up, another battler and I decided to test our abilities against each other. He used two different teams, one that led with a screen setting Musharna and a rain team. I beat both of them pretty easily, and almost immediately afterwards the first round pairings go up. Before I get into any of my battles, I guess I should show the team I was using.

Tyranitar
Excadrill
Latios
Terrakion
Thundurus
Darmanitan

Yep, a sandstorm team. Maybe it’s a bit overused, but you can’t say it isn’t effective. Now then, onto the matches!

Round 1: Bye

Yep, I was one of the 4 people who got round 1 byes. The guy I battled before the tournament started and his friend also got byes, so we all just stood around and waited for even longer to start battling (I probably would have preferred to battle just because of how long we had been sitting around doing nothing). The matches were limited to 15 minutes, so we didn’t have to wait long for round 2 to start.

Round 2: vs. Arthur:

Here it is, my first competetive singles match. He was also using a sandstorm team, so it was a pretty interesting battle. However, I was being incredibly stupid and decided that it was a good idea to send 3 pokemon to their deaths against his Excadrill before I sent in my own Excadrill to KO it. There wasn’t really any way to recover after that and I lost 3-0.

I was kind of disappointed that I was already in the loser’s bracket, but I figured that my next couple matches would be easy enough since everybody else had lost as well.

Round 3: vs. Tim

This was the friend of the guy I had battled before the tournament started, and it sucked that we would have to battle each other so soon. He had yet another sandstorm team. I was able to set up Stealth Rocks with Ttar, and soon after that I was able to get Excadrill into a very good position with +2 Atk and he was able to KO enough of his pokemon before he went down to put me into a position where there was no way could lose.

I was glad to not have lost my only two battles, but I figured that my luck wouldn’t last and that I would be out pretty soon. Does that happen? CONTINUE READING AND FIND OUT.

Round 4: vs. Josh

This was the third master I had played in a row and I was pretty pissed that I hadn’t gotten any of the little kids lol. Oh well, I guess that makes up for the bye I got. I can’t quite remember exactly what his team was, but I think it might have been ANOTHER sandstorm team (seriously I knew these things were popular but not THAT popular). I don’t really remember the match very well, I just know that it was really close and I won 1-0. Not much else to say, but at this point I was still pretty pessimistic about what the future would hold.

Round 5: vs. ???

At this point I’m in the top 4 and I just know that I’m about to get destroyed. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of my opponent but I remember the battle pretty well. He led with Houndoom and I led with Darmanitan. I U-turned into Ttar, set up Stealth Rocks and then KO’d his Houndoom that couldn’t really do anything to my Ttar. After that, every single one of his pokemon needed to set up or had a choice item. He danced around my Excadrill for a bit, but he had a very Stealth Rock weak team so he couldn’t switch much. I won 3-0 pretty easily after that. Then, I saw my opponent for the next round and knew I was in trouble. Yep, it was the guy who I battled before the tournament.

Top 3: vs. ???

Ugh, I can’t believe I forgot his name but he was indeed a very good battler. He knew my team going in, but I didn’t know which team he would be using. He ended up using his rain team, which countered my team pretty well now that he knew every member of it. I thought that I had the match lost through the entire first half, but I manage to make some good predictions and even it out. At the end, I have Ttar at about 50 HP, Thundurus at 14 HP, and a full HP Excadrill to his full HP Politoed and half HP Ludicolo. I force him to switch into Politoed after I sack my Ttar to get sand up, and then get it’s HP down near to about a quarter of its max with Excadrill. I send in Thundurus to KO Politoed, and then he sends out Ludicolo, which is in KO range of Thunderbolt thanks to Stealth Rocks. However, he’s faster than me, and there’s only one thing I can do. I T-Wave it and get the paralysis, then KO next turn with Thunderbolt for the win. I apologize for the hax, but he’s pretty cool about it. So, I’ve now made it to the finals and I’m guaranteed a prize for getting this far. Now that the pressure is off, I’m able to go into the finals calmly.

Final Match: vs. David

Despite all the masters in the tournament, the final match is actually a senior vs. a senior. My opponent was pretty cool and we talked a lot during the match. I recorded the finals, so anyone who wants to watch it should check it out.

Finals: 45-27179-63591

Yeah, I lost. Oh well, it was a pretty good battle and my opponent had actually won a similar tournament about a month ago, so at least I was losing to somebody good. David and I wished each other luck in the tournament and then we went to go get our prize for making the Top 2. When we went to go get them, though, we learned that the event coordinator had gone to sleep and that we would have to pick it up on Sunday. We didn’t mind too much, but I thought it was kind of weird that the guy running the event would go to bed when there were still things going on…But anyways, that’s the end of Friday. I had a great time at the tournament and it got me really pumped up for the actual regional.

Saturday

I didn’t really do anything at all on Saturday, it was just a day where I did my final practicing and got made the last member of my team because I was stupid and didn’t do it before. I did play in the Skarmbliss weekly tournament though. I didn’t do so well, but I didn’t lose to any seniors, and that’s all that’s important I guess. Yeah, that’s pretty much Saturday.

Sunday

I woke up feeling very nervous but at the same time very excited. I’m sure anybody that’s gone to a regional knows what I’m talking about. Anyways, the first thing I did was put on my Skarmbliss shirt, text my cousin (some people here know him as Red Yoshi) to make sure he was awake, and put my lucky charm (Snailsy the snail) in my pocket. I leave for the Hilton North at around 6:15 and get there at 7. I meet up with my cousin in the parking lot and we enter the building to find a strangely small crowd. I mean, I know it was early and that these regionals were much smaller than last year, but there were probably less than 20 people there. I didn’t go to a Fall Regional since the nearest one was 10 hours away, so I didn’t realize that it would be so small. Anyways, my cousin and I decide to have a practice battle to warm up and he gets some BS hax and beats me : (. After our battle I see Lucien Lachance walk through the hotel doors but I’m too shy to get up and say anything to him. Red Yoshi and I just hang out in the lobby for like an hour before registration starts, and then go to get in line, where I’m frantically trying to put Protect on my Metagross because I forgot to fix it’s final moveset after I taught it Zen Headbutt. I somehow end up right behind Kenan and we introduce ourselves. We talk for 20 minutes or so while registration got set up and then we got into the noob line because both of us left our POP IDs behind : (. We get registered pretty quickly and then go our separate ways to go sit with our families. Red Yoshi and I sit there for a while and we decide to get up and walk around to calm our nerves. When the roster finally gets put up, we do a player’s meet like we did at Nats last year. The girl I got matched with was freaking out because of my Skarmbliss shirt and her brother pretty much told her she was screwed lol. We got told that we wouldn’t be playing each other and she breathed a huge sigh of relief. Honestly, I was pretty glad too since I knew she EV trained and I wanted an easier match for the first round. A few minutes later, the real pairings go up and I find out that I had a much worse pairing than in the players meet.

Round 1: vs. David Mullan

Yeah, I had to play the guy that beat me in the finals on Friday. I knew that if he was anywhere near as good at doubles as he was at singles, this would be a very tough match. I wish Red Yoshi luck for his first round in juniors and then walk towards my table. They tell us that we can start and I start a very tough battle. I see in the team preview that he has a pretty solid sandstorm so I just go in with a lead of Hitmontop/Latios with Abomasnow/Chandelure in the back. I believe he leads with Ttar/Zapdos.
T1: TTar protects from my Fake Out and I Thunderbolt his Zapdos into low HP as he Discharges for about half HP on each of my pokemon.
T2: I Mach Punch into his Chople Berry and HP Ice Garchomp as it switches in, doing about half after Yache Berry. Rock Slide then KO’s Thundurus and I send out Abomasnow.
T3: He double switches into Zapdos and Scizor as I double target Scizor with Ice Shard and Mach Punch.
T4: I predict that he would switch into TTar from Zapdos and Mach Punch it for the KO. Scizor takes out Hitmontop and Blizzard missesI send out Chandelure and he sends in Garchomp.
T5:Garchomp and Abomasnow both protect as he tries to Bullet Punch Abomasnow and Heat Wave misses.
T6: He goes for a double protect, but fails (which is good, because it would have cost me the game if it didn’t).Ice Shard KO’s Garchomp, Bullet Punch KOs Abomasnow, and Heat Wave KO’s Scizor.
T7: Heat Wave KO’s the Zapdos he sends out.

My battle with David was probably the most difficult and closest one. I leave the area still shaken up at how close the match was.

I see Kenan and Aaron (LPFan) and we find out that all three of us won our first match, as well as Talon. We all kind of get our hopes up that there might be an all smogon Top 4, but we knew there was still a long way to go. I go to check on Red Yoshi when I see that he finished his match, and he tells me that he won 4-0 in a very easy match. The next round gets put up pretty quickly and I’m relieved to see that there are no smogon matchups.

Round 2: ???

When I get to my table, I see a kid who was probably in seniors for the first time this year. We started our match and I saw some very weird stuff like Jumpluff on his team. I select my team of Hitmontop/Thundurus/Latios/Chandelure and go into battle.

T1: I send out Hitmontop and Thundurus and he sends out Mienshao and Jumpluff. He Fake Outs Hitmontop and I Thunderbolt Mienshao to it’s sash as Jumpluff Sleep Powders Thundurus.
T2: Thundurus stays asleep, Hitmontop Mach Punches Mienshao for the KO, Jumpluff Sleep Powders Hitmontop. He sends out Gengar.
T3: Thundurus wakes up and Protects, Jumpluff Rage Powders, Gengar fails to Shadow Ball Thundurus
T4: Hitmontop wakes up and uses Helping Hand, Jumpluff Rage Powders, Thundurus KO’s with HP Ice, Gengar uses Focus Blast and misses.
T5: He sends out Metagross, Hitmontop KO’s Gengar with Sucker Punch, Thundurus Thunderbolts Metagross, Metagross Zen Headbutts Hitmontop for the KO. I send out Chandelure.
T6: Chandelure Shadow Balls for the game.

I got very lucky in this game with two 1-turn sleeps and Focus Blast missing, but I think I would have won anyways. I get my game hack checked and head towards the group of smogonites. Kenan, Aaron, and I were now 2-0 (I believe Cedric (Talon) was also 2-0 but I’m not sure) and we were pretty happy about it. Since the juniors were playing a bit before seniors, Red Yoshi had already been finished for a while and was able to tell me that he won. I wished him luck when the junior pairings went up, but a few minutes later he came back saying that he got an automatic win because his opponent didn’t show up. I was worried that it would affect his tiebreakers, but a win is a win I guess. He was now 3-0 with 3 rounds left, so there wasn’t much to complain about. Because he was done so soon, we had some time to talk about his matches and how his strategy was working before the senior pairings went up. I didn’t know until after the regional, but I was playing somebody from smogon in Round 3.

Round 3: vs. CouchMuffin

I don’t want to go into this match since he made Top 4 and might use the team at Nats, so I’ll just say that I made several mistakes and took risks that caused me to lose the game 0-4.

After the match, I see that Kenan also lost his match but Aaron won his. Kenan and I are kind of disappointed that we don’t have the chance to get first anymore, but we’re determined to make Top 4. The smogonites hang out for a bit until the pairings go up, and since the juniors and seniors went up at nearly the same time, I was able to wish Red Yoshi good luck.

Round 4: vs. Timothy Tran

When I was in team preview, I got scared because he had a sandstorm team, which I’ve been having trouble dealing with. I went in with Hitmontop/Latios/Abomasnow/Chandelure

T1: I send out Hitmontop and Latios and he sends out Ttar and Garchomp. I Fake Out Ttar and set up a Substitute with Latios while his Garchomp Earthquakes, leaving Hitmontop with about half HP.
T2: Mach Punch OHKO’s Ttar and Draco Meteor OHKO’s Garchomp. He sends out Excadrill and Landorus.
T3: I Mach Punch Excadrill and leave it in red HP, Draco Meteor crits and takes out Landorus
T4: He forfeits the match.

I was pretty surprised with how easy that match was. Even if I hadn’t gotten that critical hit, I could have taken it out easily. I go and see that Kenan won in a very tough match and Aaron also managed to win. I see that Red Yoshi is having a long battle, and after a while I leave to go to the bathroom. I noticed that the masters were lining up for registration as I’m walking by, and then I just hear a girl who I think was ryuzaki scream “OH MY GOD SKARMBLISS HEY WHO ARE YOU.” I was kind of surprised and I don’t think that I gave her a very clear answer lol, but eventually I got away. I headed back to where the matches were held and I saw that I had made it just in time. If I had been any later, I would have gotten a loss. Fortunately, I was able to get to my opponent in time and our battle started.

Round 5: vs. ???

At the beginning of the match I thought I was playing Talon, and when I asked if he was Talon from smogon he said he was. Well, turns out he wasn’t. Anyways, he had a really weird team with stuff like Emboar and Regigigas. I went in with Hitmontop/Thundurus/Chandelure/Abomasnow and hoped for the best.

T1: I send out Hitmontop and Thundurus and he sends out Hydreigon and Torterra. I Fake Out Hydreigon and KO Torterra with HP Ice. He sends out Regigigas.
T2: Mach Punch KO’s Hydreigon and Thunderbolt does about half to Regigigas. Ice Punch from Regigigas does about half to Thundurus. He sends out Emboar.
T3: Mach Punch leaves Regigigas in red HP and Thunderbolt leaves Emboar in red HP. Ice Punch does about a third to Thundurus and Emboar misses with Hammer Arm.
T4: Mach Punch KO’s Regigigas and Thunderbolt KO’s Emboar for the game.

Yeah, I found out a few minutes after the match that this wasn’t Talon, I would have been very surprised if he was. When I leave the area, I see Red Yoshi going to his fifth round against Pikabuddy’s brother. I wished him good luck since I knew he was going against a skilled opponent. When Kenan and Aaron got out of their matches, we found out that Aaron was still undefeated and Kenan and I were both 4-1. We were pretty excited about our chances now that we only needed to win the next two matches to either win or make Top 4. I had time to go wish Red Yoshi good luck again before the pairings for seniors went up. When I asked my opponent who he was, it turned out he went on smogon.

Round 6: vs. SidluvsBBQ

I’m not sure if he’s going to Nats or not, so I won’t reveal his team. If he tells me that it’s alright I can post the battle video of our match. All I’ll say for now is that it was a pretty close match where some good predictions of mine won me the match.

Since Kenan, Aaron and I were all together in the tables, I was able to tell them that I won before I left. I saw Red Yoshi waiting for me, where he told me he lost : (. Oh well, he said it was a pretty good game. I watched the battle video though and if he had Rage Powdered with Amoonguss instead of Protecting he would have been able to set up trick Room, send in Abomasnow to replace the fainted Amoonguss and taken out Kobe’s leads. Oh well, what’s done is done. I just told him that he needed to win his next match to make Top 4 and that hopefully he wouldn’t get anybody too experienced. The seniors and juniors final pairings went up at about the same time, so I wished him luck and we went our separate ways. Before I checked the pairings I found out that Kenan and Aaron both won, so Aaron would be playing in the finals and Kenan and I were both 5-1. Before the pairings went up, we all started a chant of “RANDOMS, RANDOMS, RANDOMS” in hopes of getting matched up with a random instead of each other. It turns out that all 6 smogonites who were 5-1 or better got paired up against each other :(.

Round 7: vs. Talon:

So, my battle to decide the Top 4 would be against Talon. I went to go sit down at my table and I saw that all the remaining smogonites were bunched together. We just talked for a bit before the matches started (and Talon reminded us not to look under the table so that we wouldn’t be blinded by Kenan’s swag :P). When we finally started, saw that Talon had a really good team and I already knew I was in trouble. I won’t say anything about his team since he might use it at Nats, but what happened during our battle was that he made a misclick that helped him a lot instead of hurting him. In fact, I think I might have had a shot of winning if it hadn’t happened. Kenan and I both lost, but Aaron managed to beat CouchMuffin in the finals and win the regional. Good job man!

I headed back to see how Red Yoshi did and I was told that he got 3rd place :D. I was really happy and proud of him when I heard how he did, especially after he lost in round 5. I actually think he might have gotten 2nd if Kobe had won the finals, but just making Top 4 is incredible. GOOD JOB RED YOSHI! I had to see my cousin go home shortly after since his dad had somewhere to be, but we went and got our Bring a Friend poster and he won a hat in the raffle.

As for myself, I knew I wasn’t going to make Top 4 since I had gone 5-2. However, I somehow got 6th place, the highest out of all of the 5-2s. I guess that makes sense, though, since the only two people I lost to made Top 4. That actually means a lot to me though, since at the end of VGC 11 my goal was to make Top 8 at regionals, and now I've done that. I had to leave shortly after the tournament, I couldn’t stay for masters. Oh well, I had a ton of fun anyways and I can’t wait to see you all again at Nationals. I’m sure it will be an even better time and I can’t wait for it. :)
 
Good job, you did really well! Anyways, yeah that misclick was really wierd. I guess that is what happens when you practice too much on PO.
 
Yes great job! and yeah misclicks are terrible sometimes my 5th round opponent did that and it totally mattered. Hope to see you at Nats!
 
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