Smogon: Why you came here and why you stayed

[Yuuki-kun]

How I Found Smogon: I found Smogon in my search for a mature and reasonable Pokemon Community. I also looked for a nice system of trading which this forums has in form of the "WiFi" section. The discussion of competitive battles and in combination of "Shoddy Battle" helped this community talk, observe and improve our "metagame".

Why I stayed in Smogon: As I said earlier, people here are nice, competitive and reasonable. I also found debates to be funny and also professional. The goal and mindset of people who breed here are different from other forums. I also liked the fact the the community supports itself together, helping new players, and also improve already experienced players.

 

[Bran]

How I Found Smogon: I was originally a user of the Serebii forums for about 4-5 months during the fall semester of school last year. The site really did help me get started into getting rare items, pokemon to complete my pokedex, and get me a huge jump into battling. However, I got fed-up with the constant loading problems of the site, too many people wanting the stats instead of the IV/EVs and always at level 100, and the fact that I was a victim of obvious hacks about 5-6 times all added up to too much annoyance. That's when my best friend, jonniewalkereal, which I became friends with on Serebii, introduced me to Smogon. I instantly joined, and the rest is history

Why I stayed in Smogon: Although right now I'm hanging on by a thread on usage this summer, I love the competitive nature of everyone wanting to breed the best of the best with some of the most unique natures/movesets always available somewhere on the trading thread. Plus, it fuels me more to continue breeding so I can have only the best for trade. Finally, I have traded and cloned so much that my Pearl game is one box shy of being filled-up with pokemon that came from Smogon, which equates to over 500+ pokemon I would never have achieved all by myself. Now I have Diamond, and whenever I become active again in a month, I plan to fill that game-up with pokemon too!

 

[Run Jolteon Run]

How I got into Pokemon/Smogon
For my 13th bday, I got Pokemon Blue. It was tight, and I played it until that generation became obsolete. I then gave up everything pokemon and decided it was lame kids stuff. Which it was...until I saw my buddy playing Netbattle.
After that, he tried so hard to get me to play. He gave me his copy of Sapphire and I bought LeafGreen. By the time Diamond came out and I got it on opening day, I was so hooked. I finished up the game and everything and collected 'enough' different pokemon. (I only have 310 in my pokedex currently) I decided then that it was time to battle competitively in the real game (where Power Herbs are not deemed too broken to exist), which is where Smogon comes into play.

I showed up here because Serebii didn't give me detailled enough info about movesets and stuff. I love Serebii, but when I saw the lists here, my jaw literally dropped. All the EV info, all the good natures, all the broken, broken movesets! Oh man, I just finished my lv100 team and I couldn't have done it without Smogon. Props.

Why I stayed at Smogon:

Well, I just signed up for the forums today! ;)

 

[tape]

How I got in:

Apprentice/Tutoring system.I have known of Smogon ever since I joined NB, though(3 years and 2~ months ago).

Why I stayed:

Last battle to go.I don't even know if I'm staying.I'll probably sign-up for another round.

 

[Aint No Sunshine]

Why I came:
I've been a member of the Marriland Forums since May 2007 and I had known of Smogon since ADV. After gaining modship on Marriland and picking up D/P competitively, I decided to join and try to improve as a competitive battler.

Why I stayed:
I just enjoyed the mature community here. I'm still on Marriland, but this is where I go for more mature discussions.

 

[ShadowSaber]

How I got into Pokemon: I first got into Pokemon because when I was a little kid, my first GBC game was Pokemon Silver, and I played it to death. I can still remember my first playthrough, where I got to Morty and I couldn't figure out how to pass through the Gym, so I restarted. I also learned about Pokemon through the TV show and the card game. I collected my fair share of cards, and even skipped breakfast some days to watch Pokemon.

How I found Smogon: I found Smogon a short while after I had learned about EV's and IV's. I was surfing Serebii trying to figure out how to EV train and the like, and I can't remember where, but I had seen someone reference Smogon. I decided to check out the site, and that's how I first found Smogon.

Why I stayed: I stayed for the tipsand tricks, so to speak, that everyone seemed to know. It seemed competitive and intelligent players where everywhere, so I thought that if I wanted to learn competitive Pokemon, this was the place to go. I've stayed ever since.

 

[cim]

How I got in: My friend Linux Pingu (Gamewinners) told me about it and I started up with a noob team on NetBattle. I only seriously consider my "real" start to be a few months after signing up on Smogon.

Why I stayed: The fuck if I know. I've been banned one and a half times, have 14 infractions, and not a large fanfare. I guess I just really like competitive battling and the Smogon environment.

 

[BlueAizu]

How I got into Pokemon
I saw my big brother playing Pokemon Red, and I wanted to play it, too, so mom bought me Pokemon Yellow! My Pikachu's nickname was also the inspiration for my username.

How I found Smogon
I heard about this place and how a lot of outstanding players gather and battle here, so I decided that maybe I can see how well I'll fare against them! I could also potentially make myself better if I learned stuff, too.

Why I stayed
I honestly need to get better at Pokemon, and I enjoy contributing to the forum. I also never thought it'd be possible to run into people that enjoyed playing Pokemon but acted maturely at the same time. I've had enough with seeing statements of being the best trainer in existance and not even being able to spell that same sentence right... but Smogon proved me wrong.

That doesn't mean I don't like Marriland, though, since that's a nice community, too. I also use the team building feature there to make my teams to see if they're any good (and by good, I mean not having a common weakness)

 

[jujuomi]

I have had the blue game (blue/silver/saph/diamond) and the third (yellow/crys/emearld/platinum to be), since blue. But the thing was I didn't really get into competitive battling until 3rd gen. Only by the time that d/p got released did I really get into REAL competitive (3rd gen I thought haveing 25+ in sp.atk and speed was near impossible)

I don't really remember how I met smogon. I met it during the start of my competitve 3rd gen but then drifted away, and came back. My account had gotten banned for no use after a long time. Or so I think to this day. I lurked around smogon for about 1 month (november), and then I joined, and I guess I really liked the trade forum. Now I don't use it much.

The reason I stayed is deffinetly friends. Even though It sounds dumb, during this small time I have made good friends through here. Some include SwimRunner, goodbar, toothache, Expert Evan(Whom I met on Serebii Forums), and countless more. I may have also stayed to pass time. Plus for motivation. Unless I'm motivated I do nothing. If I look at the "Look at what I bred thread" sometimes I'll be like why can't I stop being lazy and start breeding like him/her.

 

[comray004]

1998. My friends Zack, Jacob, and Lucas all went out together and got this neat little game called Pokeman. (Yes, pokeman) They played it obsessively along with my brother. Everyone was always talking about the Card Key. I wanted a card key. (This is 100% true)

A couple years later my brother got pokemon Crystal. He would narrate everything that happened. But what relally hooked me was the way he said Item Pocket. He said it in a funny brittish accent. Item pocket. Item pocket. I wanted an Item Pocked and a Card Key so bad, I begged my mom for Pokemon Crystal. Then I was hooked. Many years later (2007) I finally got on ebay and bought Pokemon Red. It is the best so far in my opinion.

Smogon: My cuz told me about it.

 

[Ness]

2001 #pokegsc #neodome I wasn't into Pokemon that much at the time but hung around those channels because the people in those channels would torment the rest of MediaDriven with me.

I didn't get into competitive battling until 2004, in that time the days of #pokegsc and #neodome were over. I had no idea Smogon was owned by the same people from #pokegsc and #neodome at the time until I joined the IRC channel one day in 2005.

 

[Go2Sleep02]

How I Found Pokemon
1998

Well the way I first found out about Pokemon was when me and my family where on vacation in California to see our family up there ah good times. Anyway we where staying at a Red Roof Inn Hotel for a while and one day my older brother Omar ( The account name just stuck after he gave me the account on GameFAQS.) woke me up to watch this Cartoon and it seemed very intresting it was a cartoon called Pokemon, I was very sleepy it was like 6 something in the morning, but it was worth it. The epidsode we were watching was the one with the trainer who had his own gym and was not going to start his journey intell he had 100 wins. As soon after that I was hooked, a couple of months later I went as far as stealing this kid's Game Boy Color with Pokemon Yellow in the pack, but in the end I was a very dumb little kid at the age of Six who was hiding it behind a pole of a laundry mat. All in all just ask your parents children.



How I Found Smogon
2005

Once again I can never thank my older brother Omar enough he always kicked my ass in link cable battles on our Game Boy Advances, because he knew about how EVs worked and so he knew the game competitve wise. So anyway he told me this site had MUCH better movesets then Serebii did, so I checked this place out and he was clearly correct, I used this website for all my moveset needs, but never created an account because I was to stupid with using a computer at the time, I made a Smogon account in time after meeting Yuki at Journey Across America in Georgia I found his warstory in time and thought to myself "Wow this must be that dude from the tournament", and it was that same person.



Why I Have Stayed
Today

I have stayed on this website because I have fun here, there are countless topics on Pokemon, as well as other videogames as well as music. This place honestly is one of my favorite websites.

 

[skiznod]

(NOTE: this is my first post)
it all started when me and my cousin got the red and blue versions... i remenber my first journey into the game and i had started with a charmander, nicknamed chardust (those where the days). both of us, along with some of his friends, had never finished the game (legit anyways). since then, i've had at least one game from each of the generations at one point of time or another. a time later, i built a makeshift team and played two random people, and lost horribly. i researched serebii and asked around, but got nothing much of an answer, other than the 4 or 5 people complaining about asking for help.

to be honest, i kept hearing of smogon, but it never crosseed my mind as to coming here i found smogon just a couple of days ago looking for a good Blastoise set, the information was quite informative and gave me some ideas. i read one of the threads for a batton pass team, and the information one of the posts look like they have had experience in using that team and made minor improvements. i was impressed. so, i'm stayin' to becom a better player and try some new things on my diamond game.

 

[Llama]

I can't accurately say how in the world I came to be a memeber of these forums. It was definitely Diamond and Pearl the lead me here, before the 4th generation the most competitive I had been in pokemon was while playing my cousin. Serebii lead me to discover the depth of pokemon, and with knowledge that this game was so deep and expansive, I decideded to search the net and find a place to learn what I needed to play well. So somehow I ended up here, at smogon.

I signed up and then started lurking, learning the tricks of the trade and getting my pokemon up to competitive levels. I lived in the "Battle Me" thread for some time, before venturing out of the pokemon section, and into Firebot, congregation, and IR. Soon after hitting my 400th hour on pokemon, I started on to shoddy, pokemon became to much of a hassle with the time it took, and I am not one to stay on one team for long. Shoddy allowed me to be more creative and expand on the game.

Needless to say my first summer here came and went and I started hanging out in the non pokemon boards. Firebot provided me with a good laugh every once in a while and sometimes I would make a post, nothing special, just so people would know I'm here. IR was a great place to hangout and discuss music, other videogames, and movies.

I've gained a lot of useful and obscure knowledge while on these boards and its the intresting characters in this community that make me come back everyday. I managed to find one of the more educated forums and i'm glad. While i'm still more of a lurker than an actual poster, I enjoy sitting back and watching this place. While i'm pretty much done with pokemon, this is still a great forum to come to, and I must say its the fact that as far as the internet goes this place is more connected to the real world than anywhere, we hear everyone's honest opinions and even help people with their problems, that they are willing to tell, and everyone is a real person not just some random nobody we meet and hear some ridiculous bull about them.

Needless to say I like this place I'll stick around as long as this place keeps being unique and interesting.

 

[darksoulSP]

How I got into Pokemon: I, a young boy of 6, found myself intrigued by a strange video contraption my cousin Kyla had at one of my birthday parties. I had heard of the show before then, but she let me "start a new game" and I chose Squirtle, I must have really connected with me. Ever since that day, I hounded my parents to buy me a Gameboy Color and a Pokemon game, and avidly watched the show. True, when they gave in and heeded my demands, I could barely comprehend what was going on (I "released" my Wartortle, thinking it would come out of its Pokeball like on the show... :O Needless to say, it was up to Pidgeotto and Raticate to beat the Elite 4! :P), but I felt a joy like no other: The joy of a little kid going out on an adventure with the coolest creatures in the world!

How I got into Smogon: I knew about Competitive Battling ever since the 6th Grade, but I always used Serebii for my moveset needs and often found myself wondering why I lost so easily. Fortunately, a good friend of mine named Tim (Slipp on these Forums, if I'm not mistaken) showed me the light here, and I am never going back to that atrociously green website again! :P

Why I stayed: Heh, this is my first post here, so I can't really answer that. However, from what I've read so far, I'll fit right in. Here's to an awesome website!

 

[xdavi$x]

How I got into Pokemon: Hmmm I first got into pokemon back when it was the rage when red and blue had hit the states. I had first heard of pokemon when I was in 4th grade I believe. My class made us participate in pen pal thing with kids from Japan. All their letters were all about pocket monster this and pocket monster that and I had no clue what they were writing about. Then eventually I got a hold of red, then blue and I was hooked for sometime. After that I faded out pokemon and did not play any of the in betweens from red and blue to diamond. When I had read about diamond coming out and that it had real time wi-fi battles I was sold on that, so that's when I decided to pick up pokemon again. 8 or so years of not playing pokemon really took a toll on me. I had no idea of any of the pokemon after mew. There was much to be learned, so I had to school myself on so much that I didn't know existed such as EVs, IVs and etc. I didn't know anyone else that still played pokemon in my area so I just took to the internet and that's when I found Smogon.

How I got into Smogon: Just some google searching of pokemon strategy led me to here. There was just an insane amount of useful information that kept me hooked. Also the mascot was a big selling point, as Weezing was my favorite when I was a kid.

Why I stayed: I stayed with Smogon simply that it's a place for pokemon fans of all ages to get together and have some fun, and that Smogon is a good natured community helps with the appeal.
Also the fact I just moved to New Mexico to go to school and have nothing to do but play pokemon, school and hang out I've decided to start posting more. So if there are any New Mexico or Texas Smogoners, let's party and go to shows.

 

[Rugaji]

Very interesting..

I find this topic very interesting because I actually remember my first time playing Pokemon.

How I got into Pokemon: It was around the summer time of '97 - '98 if I recall correctly. The first game that I bought was blue. No one got me into Pokemon although I convinced my mom about this cool ass looking blue turtle in front of the cartridge. I was like "Mommy I want this game, can you buy it for me?" Really, I was only 5 or 6 years old at the time. It costs about $40 because..shesh it was new back then. I started out with the same type turtle animal because he was so cool looking from the sticker. Anyways, I think the reason I started playing Pokemon was because of how cool the Pokemon looked in the sticker when it sucked ass in the actual game. It looked like they drew it and didn't add too much colors.

I got stuck with Pokemon after I got Silver, which is my favorite Pokemon game of all time by far. Lugia was amazing in Silver. I loved Feraligatr in Silver, he was also cool looking, and Pokemon just got to me. I had no life and heck if I do right now.

When ADV came out, I knew nothing about competitive battling. For example; if i wanted a Pokemon to have descent stats..I'd usually pick a Pokemon..let's say Swampert..I would give it 10 Protiens, 10 Irons, 10 Calciums, 10 Zincs, 10 HP UPs, and 1 Carbos (lol). after I bred it with a Ditto. And usually I knew about natures in ADV but I didn't know all of them and what increased / decreased which stats. For Swampert I used Naughty Nature or Rash Nature. I used the set..always in Emerald; Surf, Ice Beam, Earthquake, and Protect. So basically I wasn't much of an expert in Emerald but I enjoyed it very much. It was fun using all 10 vitamins because it makes up (sort of) for not knowing how to EV train (or bred for good IVs).

How I found Smogon: A few weeks after I got Pearl. I basically got Pearl on April 22, 2007 so possibly I found Smogon around May; and joined January 2008. I got into right when I got Pearl too and people knew about "EV training" and I asked "what the FUCK is that?" and so I searched it up because I got no help whatsoever. I found Serebii and Smogon. I checked both and both were really reliable except that Serebii was a little confusing.

Why I stayed with Smogon: Seriously..I don't know but I felt it was the only possible way for me to get better and start to competitive battles with my friends. Also, this is where I learned about hacks (rofl..). To be real, this is a great forums website, and surely I'd stay for a long, long, long ass time. Yessir

x)

 

[imbackinblueredwhite]

How I found Pokemon?
How didn't I is a better question, Hello and this is me. Well my name is John, and I found Pokemon about, well Idk, when pokemon snapp ruled!! Yes it still does and I heard a new one is comming, yay!!

How Did I find somogon, First came friendcodes, then came serebii, then came the one and only SMOGON!! I just google questions and stuff for pokemon and discover sights.. so first came marriliand accually, just used it to look up pokemon and stuff. Then came friend codes when I decided to get into wifi, it was great accept for losing all the time! haha, then can serebii and IV and Evs, and it all started, Got my team, and are always improving it.. now is smogon and I've ben using this nice sight for my iv and ev spreads and needs its working, im winning more and more!! Now i decide to join the forums and hopefully creat a trade thread, get helped, and help, yes this is me and I just got from britan and it rocked.. yes this is me and Im SWEET lol.. This is me and here comes SMOGON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PazzaK]

When i started/first found out about pokemon
well i think it was when i was on holiday with my family in devon. with some crappy kids magazine i got a free poster telling me that i had to "catch 'em all". it was covered with a load of weird looking animals, and i wasnt really interested, until my prother looked over my shoulder and said "oh yeah, my friend told me about that thing. apparently that little yellow one can shoot electricity from its cheeks. O_O things just got interesting! unfortunatley, i only got 1 pound a week from my parents (i was only small), so i was unable to buy my own copy. but i kept annoying my friend until he leant me his. fucking amazing. i had no idea why some guy was telling me he'd had coffee and was alright now but i was excited.
but i think the very first time i ever saw it was when i was at some kind of daycare, and we all crowded round james ross' gameboy. it was even more confusing, we hoped that if you pressed a when a cool pokemon was on the screen he was your starter, (the syther sprite was epic).
i have been hooked ever since, i was quite the pokemon collector in the ruby and sapphire days, with rare pokemon from colleseum that made little children cry wih wonderment.
First discovered smogon
i came across it a while ago, but it was pretty intense so i didnt join. about 4 months later i joined because i wanted to post a RMT.

 

[Ngaged]

Hi guys this is my first time on these forums (I think)

From what I remember I first started playing Pokemon on the internet a few years ago. I used to go to GameFaqs and from there found Netbattle (made by some guy named TVsian I think) this was around the time of...Red/Blue I think and there were 150 Pokemon. I downloaded Netbattle + used the Netbattle forums. I mainly used the servers Blue Heaven (for battling/dueling, whatever its called) and Tafop, run by Glalie (mainly for chatting). Somewhere in that time I received Op in Tafop, I was a regular user there along with a few other people. Over time I continued to improve in Pokemon battling, at that time I considered myself one of the best, behind people like Veteran In Love (beast) and some other people whos names I can't remember.

Overall it was a pretty fun time, after maybe a year using Netbattle...maybe less or maybe more, I quit having anything to do with Pokemon, I vaguely remember that the Netbattle forums had fallen into decay and that someone named chaos was creating a new forum named smogon (around the time I quit). That was probably about 4 years ago, since I quit I havent used Netbattle (is that still the thing people use to fight online or is there something else now?) or used any Pokemon related forums (until today).

I registered on these forums today basically out of curiousity to see how internet Pokemon battling is doing and to see if I recognize anyone who used Tafop/BH back then or if any of them still play lol. A few names I can remember are Queen Zukin (sp?) from what I remember she was pretty hot, FlamingMasamune (cool dude), Glalie, Veteran In Love, and well thats basically it, I really feel like Im missing a lot of names of my old friends. The names I used to use on Netbattle were Vampire and n-gaGed (think thats how it was spelled). Obviously I don't remember much but its pretty cool to see so many users on this forum.

A few other oldschool names I remember battling/knowing/seeing post on NB forums were Jshadias, MasamuneXP, and TVSian, thats it...pretty sad but its been a long time.

From this I can only conclude that Pokemon on the internet seems to be thriving, the old Netbattle forums had only a fraction of the people as Smogon. Also its amazing how many new Pokemon/moves/etc have been introduced since I last used NB, the only styles I was good at back in the day were 150 and 250 Pokemon, when Snorlax was the shit and Luigi was considered "uber". Pokemon is now up to, what, Platinum? What other colors can they possibily use now lol? Dunno how many Pokemon there are now either but ill probably check later.

Anyway I doubt anyone remembers/knows me but I figured id post my experience with Pokemon

Out of curiousity are any oldschool BH/Tafop users still around?

 

[Dexterity]

How I got into Pokemon: When I was 7, I wanted a game boy color. At that time the only game I knew was pokemon blue and it was the shit around my area. In fact, my friend borrowed it and he was already at his 8th badge the next day. I must have completed pokemon blue around 10 times; it was pretty addicting.

How I found Smogon: I think I went to gamefaqs to look up how to catch the legendaries. Then I checked out the competitive movesets FAQ. The writer of the FAQ at the end mentioned that he wasn't going to update it anymore and he linked to smogon.

Why I stayed with Smogon: Competitive battling. Smogon is the most competitive pokemon site there is, no questions asked. I also stay here to trade for legit pokemon, which seems pretty hard on other sites.

 

[EnigmaKalion]

(This is my first post too, hope I'm not breaking any rule yet ^^)

Getting into Pokémon
I was eight or nine by the time Pokémon Red and Blue were on sale in my country (Italy), and me and my friends bought it simply because we were little gamers and were enticed by the new brand. Since then I played almost all Pokémon games in these years, however only in "Single Played Mode" (no competitive battling, no EV training, no Breeding, ecc.).
It has only since Pokémon Diamond that I decided to venture into the world of Battling, even tough I am completely new to anything ^^

Knowing Smogon.com and forums
Well, it's a little bit ridicoulus, but I came to know Smogon from some comments on Marriland's videos on Youtube.. They were like "Check this pokémon/that moveset on smogon.com or google it" or stuff like that, so out of curiosity I stambled upon the site.. Well, I think "University" is a good name :P
Oh, and about the forums.. Well, as I said, I'm totale newbie so I'm trying to learn everything I can before giving it a go.. Seems the best place around!

Staying in Smogon
The hardest question, since I've just got on! But I like the feeling of the forum, pretty much not like the one I'm used to. And I hope I can become a top battler for crying out loud! (Yeah, I got ambitions :P)

 

[DestinyZX]

Introduction

Hello, everyone. I'm new here so I'll make my reasons a bit descriptive.

Getting into Pokemon
Got into it when I was 12 years old when a friend of mine let me Pokemon Red. Finally experiencd Pokemon when I got Gold and Silver for Christmas. I liked the simple things such as training and battling but never know about the complicated things such as EV Training.

Knowing Smogon.com and the forums
I knew Smogon from Youtube after hearing about it from several comments. I checked the site out and it was pretty good. I never knew about competitive battling but it makes me want to learn it. As for the forums, they are pretty cool indeed.

Staying in Smogon
Me, I love battles but I wish one day to find a worthy foe. I own Pokemon Diamond and have beaten the game. Now with the concept of competitive battling, I can hopefully find a worthy opponent not to mention get into trades and find Pokemon I'm missing.

BTW, this is my first time here. Hope you don't mind. ^^;

 

[Counterpower]

Alright, well, like a few others I've seen here, this is my first post. I have been hanging around, reading some of the threads and strategy articles, for a little while though.

Anyway,

Why I got into Pokémon:
Well, I've been a huge Nintendo fan since I first got an N64 and Super Mario 64 with it. I had a Game Boy and got into Pokémon as soon as Blue was released. I very quickly became obsessed with it, eventually getting my hands on Blue, Yellow, Gold, Stadium 1 and 2, a few of the spinoffs (Snap, Puzzle League, and Pinball), and finally Sapphire. After Sapphire, though, I lost interest a little. In between growing up and thinking that the games were for a younger crowd, and a dismissal of Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen based on my thinking that I had already played similar games, I didn't really do anything Pokémon-related for quite a while. Fast-forward to the start of the Diamond and Pearl animated series, which I ended up watching for no apparent reason. That rekindled my interest in the game a little, and then when I had some spare cash and was looking for a new game to play, my eyes fell on Diamond, and I figured that I might as well try the game again. So I did, and now, well...

Anyway, there's a separate tale here, too. Through my time with the original first, second, and third generations, I never knew or cared that there was a more competitive level to the game. I was a lot younger then. When I came back to Diamond, I played the game more intelligently (like, actually using more than one Pokémon kind of intelligently) but still didn't know things like EVs, IVs, or tiers. And I still rarely played other people, and when I did, they weren't competitive players either. My interest in that level of play didn't really have an easily defined start... although part of it was my attempt over last summer to try to build a team that could compete in the tournament that Nintendo held. I was not selected to participate, though. That was my first attempt at focusing on competitive play.

How I found Smogon:
This one's short and easy. When I met another competitive player that goes to the same university that I do, he recommended that I come here.

Why I "stayed":
Well, again, this is my first post and I've really only been lurking for no more than two weeks. But this site seems to be a really detailed and really helpful look at competitive battling. I want to be better at that style of play, and it seems like this site is the best place for that to happen.

 

[Mr.378]

1.) How I found Pokemon
I first got into pokemon was I was...around 5. It was what everyone was playing and was also my first video game. Needless to say, it got me hooked on games.I would play the game alot, a bit cluelessly(I needed help getting past the old man in viridian city, among other things...) still I played and enjoed it and the sequals to come. I was the basic pokemon kid, not knowing anything competively and following the show. This lasted for about 5 years...

2.)How I found Smogon
Enter 2004, FR and LG came out. I was excited for the games to come out. Mainly for the extras. After I beat the games, I checked Serebii and found out about the 2 secret Island. I wanted to get to them so badly... So I got an Action Replay and Google searched for the codes. My search led me to a Thread on IGN's pokemon board. I found and used the codes and they worked. however the codes were old to me as I found something better, the fourms. I joined and, not being on any fourms earier, made every noob mistake in the book. The cycle would be me being stupid, getting banned for a week, then following my unbanning with the same stupidity...

This repeats for 6-12 months until I see a thread linking to Netbattle and Smogon. I download Nettbattle and brouse Smogon's main page for a bit. I notice they have every movesets for every pokemon that matters. I use the sets and form my own teams for a year. I decide to go a step further and brouse the fourms. By that time I knew how not to be as stupid as I was(I'm still dumb, just not as).I liked the fourms and choose to register. however, the registration E-mail gets deleted and I'm stuck postless for 5-6 Months. My account got activated on April 1st 2007(...)
because I went on IRC ajnd asked how to activate it.Someone(I forgot who) helped me and told me how to get the registration E-mail back. From then on I continued Posting and lurking here.

3.) Why I am still here.
Because everyone here is awesome. Even when I don't play pokemon, I still lurk Firebot and here occasionally.Also, I want to continue keeping updated on pokemon's metagame.

I guess that's it(damn, this the longest post I've ever made). The story of an idiot mainly. However, this place is too great to just leave, so I continue to stay here.Keep rockin Smogon!