LOL JUST KIDDING. I think Taylor Swift said it best in her song “Change” (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1jYllE0T-k) when she sang the lyrics:
And it’s a sad picture, the final blow hits you
Somebody else gets what you wanted again and
You know it’s all the same, another time and place
Repeating history and you’re getting sick of it
But I believe in whatever you do
And I’ll do anything to see it through
Because these things will change
Can you feel it now?
These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down
This revolution, the time will come
For us to finally win
And we’ll sing hallelujah, we’ll sing hallelujah
So we’ve been outnumbered
Raided and now cornered
It’s hard to fight when the fight ain’t fair
We’re getting stronger now
Find things they never found
They might be bigger
But we’re faster and never scared
You can walk away, say we don’t need this
But there’s something in your eyes
Says we can beat this
Because these things will change
Can you feel it now?
These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down
This revolution, the time will come
For us to finally win
And we’ll sing hallelujah, well sing hallelujah
Tonight we stand, get off our knees
Fight for what we’ve worked for all these years
And the battle was long, it’s the fight of our lives
But we’ll stand up champions tonight
It was the night things changed
Can you see it now?
These walls that they put up to hold us back fell down
It’s a revolution, throw your hands up
Cause we never gave in
And we sang hallelujah, we sang hallelujah
Hallelujah
After what happened last year (hell, and every year before that…) and the way things ended, we could have easily just packed everything in. But we did not give in to the temptation to pack it in and in the end resiliency won out. As it turns out, being one of the most consistent teams eventually triumphed anything anyone could throw at us. It definitely hasn’t been an easy journey however. (Be warned, history lesson incoming!)
The World Cups from Scofield's point of view:
WCOP 2009
FOUR (yes, 4!!) world cups ago, the outline of the west group as you know us formed together. Of the 8 original starters from that group, only Phil, Rem (who sat on the bench to play LoL…) and myself remain (and I didn’t even play this world cup!). But it was that group along with some OG bosses (duskie, LD, SOT, TAY) started the process of working together to build teams, test and prepare for our opponents. It was during this world cup that I first really put myself on the map, creating a legendary team (
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61060) with my favorite pokemon of all time (Gengar), going undefeated, and creating a few posts of which a lot of people disagreed with my sediments. This was a very memorable wcop for me, as it occurred right after I graduated from college and during it I travelled the world, checking Smogon whenever I had an internet connection, and I had a crappy summer besides that, having my heart broken. I really needed a win….unfortunately Phil choked in the tie breaker against Husk, causing us to lose to Asia.
WCOP 2010
Fast forward a year. This is a very….controversial world cup amongst west members. Just about all of the members of the previous team had returned. Occurring simultaneously during SPL, this caused a lot of tension amongst teammates as we were all on separate teams. Although at the height of my playing prime, many told me that I was also at the height of my bitchiness prime. In this world cup I almost joined the back to back 3-0 club…unfortunately an overheat miss cost me the game vs deep thought. There was a memorable game vs Earthworm, in which Oceania needed to lose 2 to be eliminated, otherwise we would be matched up vs them in the first round. So in the spirit of the game, we went for the win, confident that we could top oceania if matched up. I won in a very memorable game, that even had an article written about it (
http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue11/battle). Unfortunately, the rest of the field choked as oceania did not lose another game, allowing them to sneak into the playoffs against west. With salamence banned, I was able to make one of my all time best DPP teams for a match vs panamaxis. This would be the first of 3 important tournament matches vs pana. Unfortunately, I would lose this match, arguably due to a sleep powder miss that I think would have won the game for me. And then there is the controversial rem vs hipmonlee game…in which I had once inadvertently entered hip’s game on ladder, saw 1 of his pokemon…and didn’t tell rem. I seriously believed that rem’s team was excellently built and would win regardless of what happened. Unfortunately, the gallade that I saw in hip’s match ended up being scarfed, his lead, and had hypnosis (all of which I did not know)…which hit, losing rem a lot of momentum in the early game which he could never recover from. If I had told him what I had seen, would it had many any difference? Absolutely not, and I still believe that to this day. Does it still make everyone salty for some reason? Yes…But not as salty as would happen next, with new member TFC choking vs earthworm down 4-3….preventing phil from having a chance to choke in the tiebreaker. This world cup produced more salt than all the others combined….let’s just move on. Oh, and did I mention that I got my heart broken that summer?
Brief Interlude: SPL 2011
After missing out on 2 trophy opportunities (SPL 1 and WCOP 2010), I finally had a chance to win, possessing the best SPL team for the 2nd year in a row. We had a great team, unfortunately, in the finals our team became the victims of a terrible run of bad luck versus a much inferior team. Story of my life and once again proved just how unlucky of a person I was....I mean, just watch the replay of the swing game in the series (my battle):
http://pokemon.aesoft.org/replay-panamaxis-vs-Scofield--2011-04-09-private928595837
That would be the 2nd of 3 big tournament battles versus panamaxis...and the last DPP game I would ever play. I still watch that match every now and then just to remind me of how unfair life is...
I'm not sure if I actually told anyone this, but once we lost SPL, I decided to make the best out of it, deciding that I would disappear until WCOP comes around, where I would return to win the gold. But I wanted the story to be legendary and to do that I had to make a memorable exit...which was very much accomplished with this post:
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3451620&postcount=192
The stage was all set except...
WCOP 2011
This brings us to last year’s memorable and legendary world cup. So during my hiatus I actually never told anyone that I intended to play in the cup...so much to my surprise a lot of my teammates had jumped ship to another team -_-
So, just wanting to do the best I could, I ended up being the Captain of the team, eventually getting Phil to come back...and he brought bloo with him. Big boon to our team even though there were at least some T(fc)raitors who stuck with that other team. Luckily, we ended up working great as a team and were able to get it going after sneaking into the playoffs. Probably my most "zoned in" world cup, as I went undefeated again with some great teams while Captaining the team perfectly. Then in the finals, my team absolutely needed a win from me....against panamaxis of all people. So I played the 3rd big tournament match against panamaxis....finally getting a win as my gyarados (remember me?) got it's revenge (
http://pokemon.aesoft.org/replay-Scofield-vs-panamaxis--2011-08-22-private1776757359) in what would end up being my last BW and Pokemon battle ever. The stage was all set for a legend to be born. The team took votes on who would do the tiebreaker and Phil won (15-5 vote). While I would have happily done the tie breaker, I believed that Phil would win. Unfortunately, during this time I got my heart broken once again, so I really needed a win to get something positive out of the summer. Unfortunately, Phil choked versus Earthworm and we lost...
After that I just didn't have the motivation to play anymore and knew I was done....I did however hang around, winning a trophy in SPL 3 (at last!).....finally taking us to...
WCOP 2012
at the start of this tournament I wasn't sure that I had another legendary comeback in me or that Smogon could handle another one. Eventually I decided against it, and it's nice to see that it wasn't needed, but I did lend my capabilities as Captain once again. We were able to pick up some nice additions (I've wanted oristeros on this team forever) and Yee really stepped it up. We once again barely snuck into the playoffs, with everyone predicting against us once again. Then we had a great run, culminating in Bloo winning, preventing Phil from having a chance to choke. Which is really good too, because sadly I had my heart broken by a girl yet again and really needed a win...
It's kinda funny that I win 2 trophies in 2 tournaments I desperately wanted to win in the past....right after I stopped playing. To me, it pretty much means nothing though that I didn't play. I refuse to believe that the teams were better without me, it just so happened that everything went our way the second I decided against actively playing, but being the shitfest that life is, all that is to me is kind of funny. It's also kinda funny to me that I desperately wanted to win these 2 trophies for the past 4 years...but now that I've finally won them both (in the same year no less) it's amazing to me just how little it actually means to me. I won wcop this summer....but it didn't change anything, I still had a shitty summer and had my heart broken, winning didn't make my summer that much better...it just made it slightly less worse. Whether I played or not made no difference and whether I won or not made no difference. So despite being arguably the best team tournament presence, nothing has really changed. Of course, it is always better to win than to not. Hell, I'm probably just so used to losing, if we did lose maybe it wouldn't had even made my summer any worse this year....
Perspective:
Pretty much everything went our way this year....but that's not to say we haxed everyone. You know it's a big life philosophy of mine that everyone should get what they deserve, but that just so rarely ever happens. But you know what, deserve is subjective. I feel like we got very unlucky in the past, so I absolutely feel like we deserve to win this tournament. I do not believe in curses, I don't believe in luck, I do believe that whatever happens happens. Not everything happens for a reason, most of the time it's just happenstance, it's just coincidence, and if we're lucky it's serendipity. Other teams like Latin America probably think they deserve to win from their perspective, but from my perspective they're just a bunch of 15 year old who deserve nothing. Lots of teams can deserve to win, but only one can. Thankfully this year it was a team that I do think deserves to win the most...but hey that's just my perspective. And hey, if anything, it's nice to know that the saying is true...the 4th time is the charm.
Shoutouts
aldaron
Thanks for supporting us and for all the help, too bad you're an SPL traitor who ruined the metagame.
Bloo
One of the best players, even if he never makes his own teams. Never sends me logs, makes terse statements.
DUSKIE
Ah duskie....
Earthworm
One of my favorite Oceania players...I still think Phil should've beaten you last year and that I would have as well, but....PARTY PARTY PARTY.
Indra
Lakers suck.
Lavos Spawn
I've referred to you as the new apologies and a million other mildly insulting things. If anything you were always entertaining. Thanks for winning, I'm totally buying you in SPL this year.
LoveDestiny
You were right, pokemon sucks.
Loven
Shouldn't have ditched us ;)
Mithril
Finally made the team through perseverance and got a win, congrats....
Moet
Thanks for sticking around and helping, it made putting you on the roster easy!
mostwanted
One of the new additions, even though a lot of other people might be salty at you, you'll always be okay to me.
Myzozoa
6th man of the year. I'll half forgive you for SPL1 atrocities. You're still pretty weird though.
Oristeros
I've wanted you on this team forever. I remember back in DPP when I used to measure the worth of my teams by whether or not they could beat you. You were on ladder so much....never change.
Philip7086
Tbh i'm kinda sad that you never got to show off your clutch skills. Not even joking, I always wanted you to play tie breakers because I always knew it'd be a good match and I always thought you'd clutch it out....but at least we finally won! (PS I definitely do want you to win frontier.)
panamaxis
Another one of my favorite Oceanians. One of the few people that can say they beat me in a Bo3...
remlabmez
Get over the salt already gdi, it made no fucking difference.
Reyscarface
You're an idiot.
Seven Deadly Sins
Thanks for keeping the team afloat last year until I got back...maybe you'll be able to contribute more some day.
Shiki
Where the fuck have you been?
SOT
You didn't come on irc this year...
Stone_Cold22
You're a cool guy but you talk too fucking much.
symphonyx64
Always talking about politics or trying to get someone to visit you....fucking weird.
TAY
Thanks for starting it all even though you wouldn't even sign on now -_-
TFC
The judas himself...at least you came back...although I think the prodigal son is a load of bullshit...still glad to have you on.
undisputed
Lol, you shoulda at least signed up this year.
USA East
Uhhh, I'm not sure what to say really, I do think we are way better, you have some okay players and some overrated players and some players that just suck. I'll just cp this:
"When a man with experience meets a man with money, the man with experience leaves with money and the man with money leaves with experience."
yee
Came out of nowhere last year, was #1 cheerleader and calc guy. Would've absolutely gotten a trophy for helping out such an unbelievable amount. That's how you make teams. This year he stood and delivered, showing off his knowledge of the BW metagame and playing amazingly...and that's how you become Team MVP. =)
Scofield
Saved the best for last....time to face it, I am one of the best presences in team tournament play. 11-2 world cup record (yes, you read that correctly) for a team that made semis, #1 seed and finals twice, winning once and 3 straight SPL finals including one win. I am simply the best. Winning both SPL and WCOP in the same year is pretty amazing any way you slice it, thank you to everyone who made it possible!