Anti-war story - warning: long-winded post about nothing ahead
hrm... well, the start with, I'm still a noob on these forums, so I don't know anyone here all that well. And being rather sarcastic in tone, if it offends you, I'll apologize in advance.
Well, then... I joined this forum soon after deciding to go to SF for the VGC. I play pokemon mostly because it panders to my Ruthless-Collector-Girl mode. And battling means using ugly/scary looking pokemon, as their unevolved, but cuter forms don't quite have a chance against their more powerful counterparts. So when the announcement of Shiny Milotic consolation prize was announced, there was no way that I'd miss it. "Yay for pretty fishie" was the standard response to my friends who wondered why I'd attend a video game event at all.
The problem began when I remembered the dumb luck law, where the most apathetic people involved are the ones dumb luck favors the most. I pretty much knew at that point, I'd have a higher than usual chance of being selected to battle. But I had no intention or interest in doing so. Competitive play is definitely not for me. I did come up with a few schemes, but I wouldn't be able to test it until the actual event.
We set out from LA in the evening and got into Fremont around midnight, and checked into the Hilton. They screwed us on breakfast (we paid for three but only got two), and I ended up sitting next to a quiet nerd type with a DS on the table. I managed to poke him and confirm that he was going to the tourney. So after some morning craziness, we get to venue around 10 minutes before senior reg closes.
Actually, filling out those team reg sheets took the most work. I grabbed three copies and scribbled down 4 random pokemon off the top of my head and paired them with moves also randomly. So I ended up with a bidoof that knew dark void and explosion. The stats were like picking lottery numbers. Apparently, you also needed to fill out the items section before getting a wristband, so many of my pokemon held things like pokeballs and potions. There was a lot of getting in line and getting out of line to fill out the sheets. >_<
Anyway, for the next hour of waiting, I take pictures and such while trying to pal park the 6 bonus disc jirachi to trade. I'd forgotten to do this while on the drive up, but oh well. FAIL The room was pretty crowded with 6th graders and adolescent boys with enough acne to make me want to start peddling acne treatments then and there. The rest of the time, we sit in one of the side lounges (why is there a bar in a fitness center?? O_o).
At the end of the day, I ended up with shiny fishes, a few new friends, and a guest wristband courtesy of Chris, the cute nerd boy who ate breakfast next to us. We didn't stick around the watch the finals because no one I knew would be competing and my udon craving was getting stronger by the minute. Mitsuyoshi, whywhywhy did you close your Little Tokyo shop?!?!
That's all I remember for nao. Good luck to the rest of smogon people in the upcoming tourneys~
