Introduction
I first heard about VGCs back in 2008, when they had the Video Game "Showdown." I didn't actually start competing until 2010, however. I competed at Newark in 2010, D.C. and Newark in 2011, and Providence and Philly this year. I did pretty badly in most of these though, due to a combination of bad plays, hax, and using mediocre teams. But I finally managed to put together a good team for the Philly regional, so I was pretty confident that I could do better this time.
My Team
Pretty much a boring goodstuffs team, but it works, so why not?
Sunday, April 15, 2012: Philadelphia, PA Regional
As everyone probably knows, despite the planned start time of 12:00pm, we didn't actually start until several hours later. We also got divided into two flights, due to the large turnout. I was in the "Pink" flight, as were most of the other Smogoners.
By the way, I didn't really talk to any other Smogoners there, since unfortunately I'm usually really shy around large groups of people. But if you saw someone who was carrying a blue jacket, that was probably me. :P
Round 1
My opponent said that this was his first regional. Based on Team Preview, it looked like he was running a TR team, just not a very good one. He led with Jellicent and Dusknoir, and I sent out Zapdos and Chandelure. Zapdos OHKOed Jellicent, and Chandelure used Shadow Ball on Dusknoir, which then set up Trick Room. I forget what his next mon was, but he was unable to do any significant damage.
Win 4-0 | Overall Record: 1-0
Round 2
My next opponent's team consisted of five Unova pokemon plus a Charizard. She led with TerraCott against my Hitmontop and Zapdos. I correctly predicted that she'd Protect with Terrakion and Tailwind with Whimsicott, and so I Fake Out Whimsicott and set up my own Tailwind. On turn 2, I KO Terrakion while she Tailwinds and sends out Archeops. Next turn she had Archeops use Rock Slide, but once again I predicted this and used Wide Guard with Hitmontop to protect Zapdos while it KO'd Archeops with Thunderbolt. Pretty much gg from there.
Win 4-0 | Overall Record: 2-0
Round 3
My Round 3 opponent said that he plays Magic: The Gathering and just got into Pokemon recently. He definitely learned the game pretty well, though. Team Preview revealed that he had several Sandstorm-oriented mons, and Sandstorm was the one team that I didn't want to have to face. Anyway, I led with Hitmontop and Zapdos against his Tyranitar and Latios. After setting up Tailwind, I double targetted his Tyranitar. Bad move--his Tyranitar protected while Latios used Psychic on Hitmontop. Although it somehow managed to barely survive, I was feeling pretty bad about the match at that point. Over the next couple of turns, I KO'd his Latios with a Hitmontop Sucker Punch and a Metagross Bullet Punch. If I remember correctly, he also had a Suicune which went down in one shot from an Electric Gem-boosted Thunderbolt from Zapdos. After that, he had Tyranitar and Excadrill left, and I had Metagross and Zapdos out with Chandelure still left. He probably could have won if he had Protected with Tyranitar and used Earthquake with Excadrill to KO my Metagross. Instead, he predicted my Zapdos would use Heat Wave (which it actually didn't have) and used Rock Slide to get KO it instead of Metagross. Shockingly, my Metagross didn't flinch and proceeded to use Earthquake, which KO'd Excadrill and also Tyranitar in one hit due to a crit.
Win 3-0 | Overall Record: 3-0
Round 4
Here's where things got very interesting. My Round 4 opponent had a pretty standard goodstuffs team. I led with Hitmontop and Cresselia, and he with Cresselia and Zapdos. I then realized that I had not chosen my four mons very wisely; I didn't have Chandelure or Tyranitar, which meant that I would have no good way of taking out his Cresselia. My Cresselia also got burned early on from Heat Wave, which didn't help. Anyway, this ended up being one of those annoying, long battles involving lots of Icy Wind. It became apparent that this battle would be ended by the timer. So as the timer reached zero, we each had two mons left: he had his Cresselia left with 1% HP, plus a Tyranitar with full HP; I had Metagross and Zapdos, one at ~15% and the other at ~70%. Then, another turn started, with the battle timer at zero and the turn timer back at 60 seconds. So I thought, "Nice, I can just double Protect and let Sandstorm finish off Cresselia, and then I'll win the tiebreaker." But instead, I saw something along the lines of, "Time is up! The battle will end!" So that last turn would never happen. At that point, I hadn't calculated the HP percentages yet, so I wasn't sure who would win. But then I saw, "Player lost against _______." :evan:
Loss 2-2 | Overall Record: 3-1
Round 5
I don't remember this round too well, which is probably a good thing because I'm seeing that these battle recaps are getting to be too long :P. My opponent had a rain team with a couple of Trick Room mons, including an Escavalier. He led with Escavalier and Ludicolo against my Cresselia and Zapdos. Ludicolo used Fake Out on my Zapdos, and my Cresselia used Thunder Wave on Ludicolo--which, sure enough, had a Lum Berry. I then realized what I foolish move I made when Escavalier OHKOed my Cresselia with Megahorn. Somehow, though, I ended up pulling off a win.
Win 2-0(?) | Overall Record: 4-1
Round 6
My next opponent had speakers that he used to play music during the match, which I thought was an interesting tactic. He led with Scarf Breloom and Life Orb Ambipom against my Hitmontop and Zapdos. Luckily, Zapdos woke up soon enough to use Tailwind, and it was an easy enough win from there.
Win 2-0 | Overall Record: 5-1
Round 7
The final round! I made it back to Table 4, and figured I had a chance at making Top Cut if I won this battle. I didn't realize this at first, but I believe my opponent this round was Stormfront. I felt pretty good based on Team Preview, and I led Hitmontop and Zapdos against his Hitmontop and Latios. He did make a bad move or two, which definitely helped. It ultimately came down to my Chandelure against his Metagross and Typhlosion. Fortunately, I had damaged his Metagross enough already for Heat Wave to barely finish it off despite an Occa Berry. After that, the question in my mind was whether or not his Typhlosion would have a way of damaging Chandelure. Then I read, "Typhlosion used Hidden Power!" and thought I had lost. For some reason, I assumed it would be HP Ground. And then I saw, "It's not very effective..." Two Shadow Balls later, and I'd won. I have the battle video saved, so I can upload it when I get a chance. (EDIT: 23-05957-41821)
Win 1-0 | Overall Record: 6-1
----------
Then we just had to wait for the final standings to be calculated. The Top 4 from each of the two flights would make Top Cut. I was really excited that I might finally have made it to the final rounds of a VGC. Then the names of the Top 8 from the Pink Flight were called. And my name was called... fifth.
So I missed Top Cut by one place. Obviously that was pretty disappointing, but I really shouldn't complain considering that at least I finally did respectably well at a VGC as I've always thought I should be able to do. Unfortunately, as I said, I didn't get to talk much to other Smogoners, but hopefully that will be different in the future :D.
I first heard about VGCs back in 2008, when they had the Video Game "Showdown." I didn't actually start competing until 2010, however. I competed at Newark in 2010, D.C. and Newark in 2011, and Providence and Philly this year. I did pretty badly in most of these though, due to a combination of bad plays, hax, and using mediocre teams. But I finally managed to put together a good team for the Philly regional, so I was pretty confident that I could do better this time.
My Team
Pretty much a boring goodstuffs team, but it works, so why not?
Sunday, April 15, 2012: Philadelphia, PA Regional
As everyone probably knows, despite the planned start time of 12:00pm, we didn't actually start until several hours later. We also got divided into two flights, due to the large turnout. I was in the "Pink" flight, as were most of the other Smogoners.
By the way, I didn't really talk to any other Smogoners there, since unfortunately I'm usually really shy around large groups of people. But if you saw someone who was carrying a blue jacket, that was probably me. :P
Round 1
My opponent said that this was his first regional. Based on Team Preview, it looked like he was running a TR team, just not a very good one. He led with Jellicent and Dusknoir, and I sent out Zapdos and Chandelure. Zapdos OHKOed Jellicent, and Chandelure used Shadow Ball on Dusknoir, which then set up Trick Room. I forget what his next mon was, but he was unable to do any significant damage.
Win 4-0 | Overall Record: 1-0
Round 2
My next opponent's team consisted of five Unova pokemon plus a Charizard. She led with TerraCott against my Hitmontop and Zapdos. I correctly predicted that she'd Protect with Terrakion and Tailwind with Whimsicott, and so I Fake Out Whimsicott and set up my own Tailwind. On turn 2, I KO Terrakion while she Tailwinds and sends out Archeops. Next turn she had Archeops use Rock Slide, but once again I predicted this and used Wide Guard with Hitmontop to protect Zapdos while it KO'd Archeops with Thunderbolt. Pretty much gg from there.
Win 4-0 | Overall Record: 2-0
Round 3
My Round 3 opponent said that he plays Magic: The Gathering and just got into Pokemon recently. He definitely learned the game pretty well, though. Team Preview revealed that he had several Sandstorm-oriented mons, and Sandstorm was the one team that I didn't want to have to face. Anyway, I led with Hitmontop and Zapdos against his Tyranitar and Latios. After setting up Tailwind, I double targetted his Tyranitar. Bad move--his Tyranitar protected while Latios used Psychic on Hitmontop. Although it somehow managed to barely survive, I was feeling pretty bad about the match at that point. Over the next couple of turns, I KO'd his Latios with a Hitmontop Sucker Punch and a Metagross Bullet Punch. If I remember correctly, he also had a Suicune which went down in one shot from an Electric Gem-boosted Thunderbolt from Zapdos. After that, he had Tyranitar and Excadrill left, and I had Metagross and Zapdos out with Chandelure still left. He probably could have won if he had Protected with Tyranitar and used Earthquake with Excadrill to KO my Metagross. Instead, he predicted my Zapdos would use Heat Wave (which it actually didn't have) and used Rock Slide to get KO it instead of Metagross. Shockingly, my Metagross didn't flinch and proceeded to use Earthquake, which KO'd Excadrill and also Tyranitar in one hit due to a crit.
Win 3-0 | Overall Record: 3-0
Round 4
Here's where things got very interesting. My Round 4 opponent had a pretty standard goodstuffs team. I led with Hitmontop and Cresselia, and he with Cresselia and Zapdos. I then realized that I had not chosen my four mons very wisely; I didn't have Chandelure or Tyranitar, which meant that I would have no good way of taking out his Cresselia. My Cresselia also got burned early on from Heat Wave, which didn't help. Anyway, this ended up being one of those annoying, long battles involving lots of Icy Wind. It became apparent that this battle would be ended by the timer. So as the timer reached zero, we each had two mons left: he had his Cresselia left with 1% HP, plus a Tyranitar with full HP; I had Metagross and Zapdos, one at ~15% and the other at ~70%. Then, another turn started, with the battle timer at zero and the turn timer back at 60 seconds. So I thought, "Nice, I can just double Protect and let Sandstorm finish off Cresselia, and then I'll win the tiebreaker." But instead, I saw something along the lines of, "Time is up! The battle will end!" So that last turn would never happen. At that point, I hadn't calculated the HP percentages yet, so I wasn't sure who would win. But then I saw, "Player lost against _______." :evan:
Loss 2-2 | Overall Record: 3-1
Round 5
I don't remember this round too well, which is probably a good thing because I'm seeing that these battle recaps are getting to be too long :P. My opponent had a rain team with a couple of Trick Room mons, including an Escavalier. He led with Escavalier and Ludicolo against my Cresselia and Zapdos. Ludicolo used Fake Out on my Zapdos, and my Cresselia used Thunder Wave on Ludicolo--which, sure enough, had a Lum Berry. I then realized what I foolish move I made when Escavalier OHKOed my Cresselia with Megahorn. Somehow, though, I ended up pulling off a win.
Win 2-0(?) | Overall Record: 4-1
Round 6
My next opponent had speakers that he used to play music during the match, which I thought was an interesting tactic. He led with Scarf Breloom and Life Orb Ambipom against my Hitmontop and Zapdos. Luckily, Zapdos woke up soon enough to use Tailwind, and it was an easy enough win from there.
Win 2-0 | Overall Record: 5-1
Round 7
The final round! I made it back to Table 4, and figured I had a chance at making Top Cut if I won this battle. I didn't realize this at first, but I believe my opponent this round was Stormfront. I felt pretty good based on Team Preview, and I led Hitmontop and Zapdos against his Hitmontop and Latios. He did make a bad move or two, which definitely helped. It ultimately came down to my Chandelure against his Metagross and Typhlosion. Fortunately, I had damaged his Metagross enough already for Heat Wave to barely finish it off despite an Occa Berry. After that, the question in my mind was whether or not his Typhlosion would have a way of damaging Chandelure. Then I read, "Typhlosion used Hidden Power!" and thought I had lost. For some reason, I assumed it would be HP Ground. And then I saw, "It's not very effective..." Two Shadow Balls later, and I'd won. I have the battle video saved, so I can upload it when I get a chance. (EDIT: 23-05957-41821)
Win 1-0 | Overall Record: 6-1
----------
Then we just had to wait for the final standings to be calculated. The Top 4 from each of the two flights would make Top Cut. I was really excited that I might finally have made it to the final rounds of a VGC. Then the names of the Top 8 from the Pink Flight were called. And my name was called... fifth.
So I missed Top Cut by one place. Obviously that was pretty disappointing, but I really shouldn't complain considering that at least I finally did respectably well at a VGC as I've always thought I should be able to do. Unfortunately, as I said, I didn't get to talk much to other Smogoners, but hopefully that will be different in the future :D.
