America's Cutest Trainer: Natalie Kaspszak
Sorry Min, she's cuter.
Accomplishments
2011: 1st Place Georgia Regionals, Top 16 US Nationals
2012: 2nd Place California Regionals
Total Winnings
2011 Regional: 3DS, medal, invitation and trip to compete at the National Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana
2012 Regional: Medal, $600, Round 1 & 2 Bye at Nationals
Biography and History
Natalie "Maski" Kaspszak is not only known for being one of the best Senior division players, but is also widely recognized as one of the few competitive female players. She blew into the competitive scene last year with VGC 2011, entering the Georgia Regional. She swept through the entire tournament to become 2011 Regional Champion, having defeated Brandon "Brandon13569" Mitchell in the finals, shown
here. Natalie is the only girl in America to ever win a Regional in the Seniors division. With a free trip and invitation secured, Natalie flew out to Indianapolis to compete in the 2011 National Championships. She finished with a 6-1 record overall and was seeded 5th going into the second day. (Fun Fact: Natalie threw up before the competition started on Saturday. We thought it was because she was disqualified from the hack check! Turns out it was just out of pure nerves.) With the Top 16 full of Regional Champions and well known names, Natalie faced one of the few "randoms" at the time, Brandon Tang and was a favorite to win her match. Unfortunately, due to some bad luck and nerves, she was eliminated out of the Top 16. However, this would not end her VGC 2011 run as she tried her luck again at the LCQ. She played 2010 US Junior National Champion Wade Stanley in the 2nd round and pulled an impressive victory before meeting eventual 2011 Seniors World Champion Kamran "Kamz" Jahadi in the 3rd round. Their match was featured on the screen for everyone to
watch. With some hax, Natalie had the victory secured when she got a bit overconfident and made some poor moves, not expecting a Heat Wave critical hit. Kamran got the critical hit, and managed to win the game with 15 HP left on his Chandelure. Who knew that Natalie's loss would result in the eventual World Champion?
(Fun Fact: She also became part of the whole "Win Worlds, Get the Girl" theme when a bunch of Masters joked that if I won Worlds, I would "get the girl." I think we all know who the girl is."
Natalie has proven herself to be a top competitor through her results last year, and her finish this year at the Fall Regionals shows that she is a consistent player. At the California Regionals, filled with well known Seniors such as Matt "TheCalmSnivy" Dunham, Gavin "kingofkongs" Michaels, Colin "V17" Bos, and Kamran "Kamz" Jahadi, Natalie finished 2nd overall after losing to Matt "TheCalmSnivy" Dunham. She has now won $600 and 2 byes secured at this year's National Championships. Don't let her feminine tactics let your guard down! She is an incredible player who manages to build teams the day before competitions and perform extraordinarily well, and will be a threat to all the Seniors this year at the National Championships.
Interview
or pretty much the warstories she never wrote
Hi Natalie, thanks for letting me interview you today! Why don't you introduce yourself?
Hi! I'm Natalie, but everyone just calls me Maski. I'm 14, a girl, and I live in Arizona.
Sweet! So, how did you get introduced to Pokemon and competitive VGC?
I have been into Pokemon since I was five years old. I had watched the first Pokemon movie, hated it, went over to my cousin's house and saw him playing Pokemon Sapphire, and decided "Hey, this is actually kind of cool." When Diamond and Pearl came out, I found Smogon and would always look at the competitive analyses. Back then I was really into Pokesav, so I would sav "legit hacks" and play my friends. I made one or two singles teams and a doubles team and would play all the time on PBR. Those teams were godawful, let me tell you. Later I got into anime and pretty much forgot about Pokemon until HGSS, but never got into battling, only the fandom.
At the beginning of 2011, my friends and I were really into Pokemon BW; we were so psyched for the new Pokemon and new characters/storylines/whatever. During February of last year, I remember finding the thread on Smogon about the BW mall tour when looking for dates and stuff and thought to myself, "Hey, I remember Smogon. What is competitive battling with the new Pokemon like?" Well, I found a thread about VGC and Pokemon online and everything kinda went downhill from there. I mean, I thought I was good, so I thought I could win events and started practicing. My first team consisted of Volcarona, Virizion, Excadrill, Jellicent, and some other ridiculous mediocre crap.
Then I met Deagle, and he taught me about VGC 2011 (cringe) and around the same time I found Skarmbliss. I only played with a standard Trick Room team that he gave me-- until I met TheCalmSnivy. We became really good friends and would literally talk all day and practice and teambuild and I sure as heck wouldn't be the player I am today if I hadn't met him. During that time until Regionals, I learned how to make decent teams through trial and error (thought there really wasn't that much to test back in those days....) And, I wouldn't have half of the confidence I have had I not met kingofkongs. I already had seen him around on the forums and regarded him as a "good player" (rofl.) Once he found out I was a girl, he started making me known to other players and writing silly stories about me which he posted to Skarmbliss. (Basically, OH MY GOD SOMEONE NOTICED ME KJBSKJBFKJ WOW) Then I won Regionals, and even more people found out about me!
Right, speaking about you winning Regionals, what was that like? It was your first VGC tournament ever, I'm sure that must have felt really awesome.
My first tournament experience was amazing, and I think winning it is what really got me into the VGC community for good. Since I haven't ever written a warstory (I have a really bad memory), I guess I'll go into some more detail. My dad travels a lot, so we have a ton of free tickets via frequent flier miles. My dad and I flew out to GA instead of CA because it was the first regional after school ended for me. Again, we had frequent flier miles, so it didn't really matter distance-wise. I had changed my whole team the night before we left, and ev'd my team on the plane. Unfortunately I am really clumsy, so I messed up on more than half of them, and had to stay up until 2 or 3 the night before regionals getting some Pokemon from TheCalmSnivy and re-eving the other half of the messed up mons. I finished my Eelektross in the car on the way to the convention center, and forgot to give it flamethrower... so I actually won the tourney with tbolt, HP Ice, protect, and tackle!
In line, I found we were actually behind Alaka, mingot, and his daughter Malison. Me and Malison got to be really good friends during the course of that day. I was really nervous in line, but once I sat down for my first match and saw my opponents team (really standard, the kid was like 11) I relaxed. I felt really bad for beating him though, because we talked a lot with his family in line :( The next couple of matches went similarly. 2nd round I played someone who lurked Smogon, but I 4-0ed him IIRC. Somewhere along the line (again, forgive my memory) I played TheCanadianKid in a good match, gg man! In the finalist's lounge Mal and I hung out and we both got byes. I remember playing green hornet t4, but easily predicted his first turn explosion with Landorus. In the finals I faced Brandon, and played really bad. Like, terribly. I just finished watching my match which you can find
here, and am actually laughing out loud and yelling at the screen (NO HE'S GONNA PROTECT ISN'T THAT OBVIOUS OH MY GOD YOU ARE SO DUMB UGH WHAT IS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD). Once I saw that first turn KO (crit didn't matter,) I pretty much resigned to myself that I would lose. He basically destroyed my team until Conkeldurr and Amoonguss came and cleaned up.
I felt really amazing once I won-- I honestly didn't expect to even get into top 16.... which is all I wanted, so once I got that far, I just relaxed and let what would happen, happen. I am so fortunate I won though, because I started going on IRC and met Unreality and Cybertron, who were fellow senior regional winners. We made a chatroom called #Seniors, and invited our friends and some other seniors players in. And thus, Team #Seniors was born. I felt I was finally a part of the community, and had a whole team of friends backing me up. It's a pretty amazing feeling.
Note by Natalie: Wow, ok, sorry, this is kinda turning into one big warstory.
Haha, don't worry! The longer responses, the better and the more interesting! So, tell me about your experiences at Nationals. Tell me about how it was, the team you decided to use, and how far you got with it.
By the time Nationals rolled around, everyone in #Seniors was really close friends. Just getting to meet everyone in person was the best experience I've ever had. I mean, we're like a family.... each event is just a big family reunion. It was a little awkward meeting the masters and the Ducks because I had no idea what they looked like, haha. Our group would be talking to someone for like 15 minutes before I would finally ask, "Uh... sorry... but who are you?" and then the typical "Oh, hiiiii! Hi! So nice to meet you! (then occasionally an "Oh my God!!") I'm Maski! How are you??? :D :D :D" I guess most people's impression of me was "a really hyper girl." I'm not hyper, but way too overexcited to meet people. Also I guess I laugh at everything? I don't know, lol.
Anyways, the night before LCQ, we had just gotten to our temporary hotel and I was testing my team until like 2 AM. I lost almost every single battle, and freaked out. I realized this team was NOT going to work for me. I didn't sleep the whole night, partially because I was nervous, partially because I just plain couldn't fall asleep, and partially because my stomach really hurt! Little did I know that was actually some form of stomach flu creeping up on me. I think I dozed off for around 30 minutes at 8 AM.
After I woke up again, I got dressed and waited for my dad to wake up so we could get to the winner's hotel and the convention center. We met Unreality in the lobby; he was the first member of Team #Seniors I had met that day. Then I got to the convention center and met the rest of our team. That evening, we all stayed in my room and tried to build a new team for me and Snake, since he had lost his cart! Everyone left at around 10 PM, and I just couldn't piece a team together with what we had come up with. I remembered Aaron's Quick Guard Terrakion (Fun Fact:I managed to showcase Quick Guard Terrakion at the Washington DC Regionals in the Finals. It was the only time I ever used it), and realized that a majority of the Seniors would be using Fake Out + Spore, Tailwind, Trick Room, etc. I paired Terrakion with Tornadus for obvious reasons and then added Pokemon I was comfortable with in the back like Amoonguss, Conkeldurr, and Eelektross, which also had the added benefit of working great in Tailwind. Snivy had given me the good idea of using Water Gem Jellicent which is a great Tailwind Pokemon, too, and that completed my team. I got my whole team AND half of Snake's new team from him that night. What a godsend. He is LITERALLY the most selfless person.
The next morning, I had NO appetite, and my stomach was just screaming. In line, I had to excuse myself to the restroom because I was positive I would throw up. When I sat down before first round, I took some ginger and mint tablets (to calm my stomach) and then ate some Altoids. Unfortunately, instead of calming my stomach, it finally made me toss my cookies. @_____@ That whole weekend, I was known as "The Girl Who Threw Up First Round." Sexy. B)
Anyways, usually, once you get rid of your stomach contents you feel a little better, which I did. (⊙‿⊙✿) Every round in Swiss, I faced a Fake Out lead, like I predicted. So, winning was really easy! I went 5-1 beating Unreality in the final round, and getting haxed by Mosquito in an earlier round. I ended up 5th seed. Team #Seniors spent the evening in my room again, where we looked at PO logs and discussed about our opponents the next day. I didn't eat anything the whole day, save for a milkshake at Steak & Shake and some crackers before bed. It was literally the only thing my stomach could handle. :( The next morning I decided it would be in my best interest not to eat, lol. I had a bet that I would wear a dress if I made it to the next day, and I did! But I lost t16 to bad crit hax. (I'm really superstitious: I swear it's because I didn't wear my lucky Skarmbliss shirt!) So, I didn't have the invite to Worlds, even though it was just a 6 hour drive. Oh well! I was confident I could make it through LCQ.
I remember making your team with you literally the night before the tournament! It's really quite impressive how you managed to play so well with it and keep your cool about it. I'm sure losing one match short of a Worlds Invite it slightly disappointing though, but you managed to go to Worlds. What was LCQ like? What about meeting people all around the world?
At Worlds, we hung out with the Ducks instead of just Team #Seniors. What a great group of guys, oh my God. I love you all so much. (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧
LCQ.... wow. Just wow. I, like usual, settled on my team the day before: I decided to use my Nats team, but with a few adjustments. I met TheCalmSnivy in the LCQ line, and made the switch from slow to fast Amoonguss seconds before I registered. First round went great, just a girl around my age which was an easy 4-0. Second round I played Wade Stanley, 2010's Junior Nats champion. He was running Endeavor Whimsicott on a Trick room team, and I just remember I double targeted the TR Pokemon and then his strategy was screwed after that. I also got some crits in that match, but nothing would have prepared me for my next match.
I was then paired up with Jeremy Fan, and we were really good friends so we were like "NO 8( I don't want to play you! Do I have to play him/her?" And then the other pair before us finished their match, so Jeremy was paired up with the winner, and I was paired up with none other than ~*~*~SOON-TO-BE WORLD CHAMPION KAMZ JAHADI~*~*~. I see the team preview and I was like "oh wow this is Aaron's team rofl w/e" and picked my usual leads, Terrakion and Tornadus. His Terrakion was named ZHENG so, in a bout of stupidity and blind faith, assumed it was scarfed like Aaron's. Turns out I was right... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ IIRC, I Close Combat the Terrakion and Acrobatics the Tornadus and it lived. I probably did something else, I don't remember, but I just know his Tornadus was left at like 10%. I should have Tailwinded; I think he did. He sends out a Chandelure and Heat Wave misses. He then starts Overheating, which missed something crazy like 3 times in a row while I picked off his other Pokemon. In the end, he had Chandelure at around 80%, I had a full health Amoonguss, and an Eelektross at 75%. At this point, I was SO confident I was going to win, I forgot he had used Heat Wave earlier and thought he was scarfed and locked into Overheat. I Rage Powder the incoming Overheat which misses (AGAIN) and Crunch. He now has roughly 15% left. This turn, I would have won if I spored, but again, thought he was scarfed so I just did a Rage Powder + Crunch without thinking it through. And then he uses Heat Wave and it misses Amoonguss (rofl) and crits my Eel for the KO. I had a really bulky Eel and the crit mattered. :( I just calc'd both Modest and Timid. Anyways, he Overheats next turn for the win. GG gg. Too much hax is bad. Overconfidence is bad. u___u
But, hey! It was a super fun and CRAZY game, and it meant the rest of the weekend was nice and stress-free! :D Team #Seniors spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out in our free time, and, of course, playing Pokemon. It was fun watching everyone's matches, even though we all kinda flopped in the end. Again, hanging out with the Ducks was GREAT. Went to the beach, hung out in Ray's room, etc. Cybertron has a
great warstory which you should TOTALLY read instead of hearing it from someone lame like me, hehe!
Yeah, I think this is said a lot but the best part about Worlds for many of us, including me, was really the social experience and hanging out with all the awesome Masters, especially the few international guys! Well, now that we're done talking about VGC 2011, I have to ask you about 2012. What do you think of the metagame? How did you transition from your first year of competitive play in a metagame that is rather restrictive to a metagame that allows almost anything? What was Fall Regionals like?
Well, it took me like 4 months to fully learn the metagame and every possible use for a Pokemon last year, which was like 20 Pokemon. I'm really slow... It was my first year last year too, so all Pokemon gens 1-4 that people were used to playing with are brand-new to me this season. I practice a little on PO with moof, Snivy, and kingofkongs, even though I've only made like 3 teams so far. I don't really ladder anymore. I like to watch people's matches, though. I had taken a break from Pokemon after Worlds, and only picked it back up about a week before Regionals. I just built a quick ZapTop lead team, with stuff like Cress and Jellicent in the back. I gave my Cress Calm Mind on the ride to Cali, but didn't know enough about Cresselia to know that you should use Rest with a CM set... lol.
Anyways, my rounds were easy and I beat kingofkongs with a lot of hax t4. Sorry man. @v@ I didn't care what happened after i got t4, because I had the partially paid trip. When I beat kinfogkongs I got the byes too, so that was good. I played Snivy t2 and he had tested and practiced a lot and totally shut down my ZapTop. :p In the end I had my CM Cress and he had all special Pokemon left, so I would have won if I had the Rest. Oh well, my fault for making the change last-minute. Snivy probably wouldn't have been able go to Nationals if he hadn't gotten the fully paid trip, so I am really glad I lost. (Maybe the stars were aligned in his favor so that I didn't know better than not to put Rest on Cress... but that's my superstitious side talking again, lol.)
I'm pretty impressed to be honest, I don't know how you manage to build teams right before events and consistently do so well with them! On a different note, you've been competing in the Seniors division for two years now. What are your thoughts on the competitors in it, and who are you afraid to go up against at this year's National Championships?
The Seniors division... huh. I have mixed feelings about it. In Seniors, you really have to remember to ignore the PO metagame. It's easy to forget about what people will actually be using in the division. Random Matchup is good for testing; that's what I mostly do now. As for Seniors players, I am personally scared of playing Cybertron, Snivy, kok, JRank, iss, Snake, Jeremy and Lucien. (aka the remaining Seniors in Team #Seniors)
Other than the fact you're a Senior, you're also a girl! What's that like? Do you feel like it's slightly uncomfortable, playing a male dominated game?
It's great, actually! I love guys. Often they are so much more fun and easy to be around. I have always been more friends with guys than with girls. I get teased sometimes, but it's all in good spirit, you know? I just absolutely love hanging out with everyone and being a part of the community. Like I said earlier, we are a family.
That's really great to hear, we really need more girls like you that play, haha! Anyway, thanks for all the answers and taking your time to respond to all of these questions. To finish up, why don't you tell the readers what you do outside of Pokemon and do some shoutouts?
I am into a lot of fandoms. I really like puzzle video games like Professor Layton (recently Ghost Trick, too.) I like MSPaintAdventure's webcomics (read: Homestuck) and am into some anime. I also play the flute and am really into music. I sew and draw sometimes too.
No, actually, I just sit on my butt all day IMing and keeping up with my fandoms on Tumblr.
idk wow i just love you guys so much
also why is team #seniors a thing i dont get it we're just friends guys
apparently people worship us or s/t? lol
#Seniors
#whitetrash
#ducks
Smogon & Skarmbliss
Thanks for the interview, Cybertron! <3
(wow look at this sappy humble wall of text what a GIRL)