Three months ago, after something like 12 years of playing the game, I finally began my competitive battling career. With official VGC tournaments in Toronto, I could not pass up the opportunity to “become a master”. But it would not be easy…
I knew I would have to learn some new things to achieve any level of success at the Regional tourney. It was already known that game battling and metagame battling were totally different beasts, and I had spent some time looking up information on Smogon a while back (which is why my join date is almost three years ago, despite only ever competitively battling for the first time in the past quarter year). I have a friend who has done some battling on Pokemon Online, and he started giving me some pointers and practice battling me and my team as I started planning.
Soon enough I had my team.
Rotom-W
Timid / Levitate / Choice Scarf
Metagross
Adamant / Clear Body / Occa Berry
Tyranitar
Brave / Sand Stream / Chople Berry
Garchomp
Jolly / Sand Veil / Yache Berry
Gyarados
Adamant / Intimidate / Wacan Berry
Excadrill
Adamant / Sand Rush / Life Orb
And so off I go to Regionals…
I went sporting some gear (same gear I sported at Nats) which some of you might recognize. Also, I introduced myself by my real name, Jason, but Kapuran is my Trainer name in-game.
Nervous, alone (for my brother had ditched me), and excited, I began battling. Winning the first battle lifted me up; losing the second brought me down (and by a mere 6HP, too). Losing again almost caused me to give up hope, but cleaning up the next three wins was a nice reward. Ending 4/2 ranked 26th (bottom of the 4/2 tiebreak, lame) left me pleased, but knowing I could do better, I began plotting for Nats…
Alas, procrastination and laziness snuck up on me. Though I did end up compiling a Sunny Day team, preliminary testing gave mixed results. I wish now I had tried it, but I choked and ended up using the same, unchanged team from Regionals, hoping I could do better with more experience…
ROUND 1: My first opponent is named Winston (OT Yoda). I found myself up against a Trick Room team. Hariyama and Musharna take the stage, and I get a little worried, since dealing with Hariyama is tough (I need more Fighting coverage). But the battle goes on, and I’m doing okay. I luck out later, dodging two Heat Waves from Chandelure with Metagross, and easily dispatch an Abomasnow for the win, 2-0.
ROUND 2: Griffin (OT Gryphon) had another trick room team, Hariyama and Cresselia, but this time it goes horribly wrong. I believe I took out one Pokemon, but ended up getting double KO’d for the lose with an Earthquake. Dejection sets in… but apparently I beat this guy in Regionals, so I suppose what goes around comes around.
ROUND 3: I get poorly matched at 1/1 against clear with 2/0 (buys?) and got ruined with bad luck (survive an Earthquake with Garchomp, and miss a Dragon Claw on his Garchomp, then his Garchomp uses my sandstorm to outspeed me thanks to Icy Wind and kill me. See clear’s warstory for more details, as I am actively repressing this memory).
ROUND 4: Starting to miss Trick Room teams as the teams are getting closer and closer to being mirrors of my own. This time, against Josetron, his team is half identical to me. A beautiful shiny Metagross did some damage, as did the opponent Garchomp, but I persevered and won the battle 1-0. (Note to Josetron: Sorry if I was not very friendly, two losses in a row put me in a bad mood. :/)
ROUND 5: I come up against Layell, and despite a false start and the threat of repairing, we get to battle. Unfortunately for Layell, I have Flamethrower on Tyranitar, and win 4-0. Layell graciously does not bleed on me.
ROUND 6: Easily my favorite battle of the day, a Rain Team comes up, and though while I usually hate rain I found this battle interesting and invigorating. I clean up the rain with my sand, and it comes down to a battle of the ‘Grosses. I make a foolish mistake at the end, almost giving away the battle, but end up winning (can’t remember if 1-0 or 2-0, but there was very little HP left on the screen). Alas, I forget the name of this opponent.
P.S. If you can identify yourself as one of my unnamed opponents, please do. :)
And so Nats ends for me, 4/2, placing 18th this time, despite the same W-L-L-W-W-W pattern, and my warstory closes out. A delicious meal at Harvey’s (mmmilkshake) fills my gurgling belly (seriously, POP, give a lunch break) and I return to check in on the action briefly, but my brother (who joined me for Nats, but did awful with 2/4) needed to head home, so I didn’t get to socialize as much. Still, due to being at Regionals, I recognized people (like Atlas) and felt much more welcomed and friendly this time, and looking forward to meeting up with people and getting to know them more in the future.
Alas, I hugely doubt my ability to get to Worlds, but I hate to see VGC season end already. So; aside from hangouts, which we TO-locals should do, I would also appreciate feedback on my team. Excadrill has not really served me terribly well, and I need more coverage. Metagross needs a Zen Headbutt to deal with fighting, probably replacing Bullet Punch. Still, though I’d love feedback and to clean these guys up, I think I’m retiring the team as a whole (thus the posting of all the details) and going to work on a new compilation for 2013. Anyone interested in going up against my Sunny Day team? >:D
I knew I would have to learn some new things to achieve any level of success at the Regional tourney. It was already known that game battling and metagame battling were totally different beasts, and I had spent some time looking up information on Smogon a while back (which is why my join date is almost three years ago, despite only ever competitively battling for the first time in the past quarter year). I have a friend who has done some battling on Pokemon Online, and he started giving me some pointers and practice battling me and my team as I started planning.
Soon enough I had my team.
Rotom-W
Timid / Levitate / Choice Scarf
- Thunderbolt
- Discharge
- Hydro Pump
- Trick
Metagross
Adamant / Clear Body / Occa Berry
- Bullet Punch
- Earthquake
- Meteor Mash
- Protect
Tyranitar
Brave / Sand Stream / Chople Berry
- Crunch
- Flamethrower
- Protect
- Rock Slide
Garchomp
Jolly / Sand Veil / Yache Berry
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide
- Earthquake
- Protect
Gyarados
Adamant / Intimidate / Wacan Berry
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
Excadrill
Adamant / Sand Rush / Life Orb
- Rock Slide
- X-Scissor
- Earthquake
- Protect
And so off I go to Regionals…
I went sporting some gear (same gear I sported at Nats) which some of you might recognize. Also, I introduced myself by my real name, Jason, but Kapuran is my Trainer name in-game.
Nervous, alone (for my brother had ditched me), and excited, I began battling. Winning the first battle lifted me up; losing the second brought me down (and by a mere 6HP, too). Losing again almost caused me to give up hope, but cleaning up the next three wins was a nice reward. Ending 4/2 ranked 26th (bottom of the 4/2 tiebreak, lame) left me pleased, but knowing I could do better, I began plotting for Nats…
Alas, procrastination and laziness snuck up on me. Though I did end up compiling a Sunny Day team, preliminary testing gave mixed results. I wish now I had tried it, but I choked and ended up using the same, unchanged team from Regionals, hoping I could do better with more experience…
ROUND 1: My first opponent is named Winston (OT Yoda). I found myself up against a Trick Room team. Hariyama and Musharna take the stage, and I get a little worried, since dealing with Hariyama is tough (I need more Fighting coverage). But the battle goes on, and I’m doing okay. I luck out later, dodging two Heat Waves from Chandelure with Metagross, and easily dispatch an Abomasnow for the win, 2-0.
ROUND 2: Griffin (OT Gryphon) had another trick room team, Hariyama and Cresselia, but this time it goes horribly wrong. I believe I took out one Pokemon, but ended up getting double KO’d for the lose with an Earthquake. Dejection sets in… but apparently I beat this guy in Regionals, so I suppose what goes around comes around.
ROUND 3: I get poorly matched at 1/1 against clear with 2/0 (buys?) and got ruined with bad luck (survive an Earthquake with Garchomp, and miss a Dragon Claw on his Garchomp, then his Garchomp uses my sandstorm to outspeed me thanks to Icy Wind and kill me. See clear’s warstory for more details, as I am actively repressing this memory).
ROUND 4: Starting to miss Trick Room teams as the teams are getting closer and closer to being mirrors of my own. This time, against Josetron, his team is half identical to me. A beautiful shiny Metagross did some damage, as did the opponent Garchomp, but I persevered and won the battle 1-0. (Note to Josetron: Sorry if I was not very friendly, two losses in a row put me in a bad mood. :/)
ROUND 5: I come up against Layell, and despite a false start and the threat of repairing, we get to battle. Unfortunately for Layell, I have Flamethrower on Tyranitar, and win 4-0. Layell graciously does not bleed on me.
ROUND 6: Easily my favorite battle of the day, a Rain Team comes up, and though while I usually hate rain I found this battle interesting and invigorating. I clean up the rain with my sand, and it comes down to a battle of the ‘Grosses. I make a foolish mistake at the end, almost giving away the battle, but end up winning (can’t remember if 1-0 or 2-0, but there was very little HP left on the screen). Alas, I forget the name of this opponent.
P.S. If you can identify yourself as one of my unnamed opponents, please do. :)
And so Nats ends for me, 4/2, placing 18th this time, despite the same W-L-L-W-W-W pattern, and my warstory closes out. A delicious meal at Harvey’s (mmmilkshake) fills my gurgling belly (seriously, POP, give a lunch break) and I return to check in on the action briefly, but my brother (who joined me for Nats, but did awful with 2/4) needed to head home, so I didn’t get to socialize as much. Still, due to being at Regionals, I recognized people (like Atlas) and felt much more welcomed and friendly this time, and looking forward to meeting up with people and getting to know them more in the future.
Alas, I hugely doubt my ability to get to Worlds, but I hate to see VGC season end already. So; aside from hangouts, which we TO-locals should do, I would also appreciate feedback on my team. Excadrill has not really served me terribly well, and I need more coverage. Metagross needs a Zen Headbutt to deal with fighting, probably replacing Bullet Punch. Still, though I’d love feedback and to clean these guys up, I think I’m retiring the team as a whole (thus the posting of all the details) and going to work on a new compilation for 2013. Anyone interested in going up against my Sunny Day team? >:D
