Hi everyone! Teclis here. As you may have guessed from the title, I am writing this RMT to celebrate my 1000th post on Smogon, and well, that went pretty fast. There's so much I would like to say, but a single post is short and I don't want to make it too annoying of a read for you. If anything, I find that there is a funny parallel between my competitive Pokémon experience across the years and the journey described in the mainline games and the anime. In both cases you start as a brand new Trainer, a bit hesitant, a little clumsy, exploring an unknown world much larger than you imagine. You then get to battle and improve, meet friends and rivals across the way, have both good and bad experiences and simply grow up. That may be more specific to me though, as I got into all this at a fairly young age and spent much of my adolescence, a period of many changes, playing competitive Pokémon as my main Internet-related hobby. As you may expect from a 1K RMT, this is as much me writing about a team as me using the occasion as a pretext to remember about everything that happened across those years since I first picked up a Poké Ball online. Don't worry though: that's it for the nostalgia part, and unless you open the traditional shoutouts there should not be too much sugar in the rest of this RMT. Now let's get back to the topic in hand!
Of all the metagames I have played since 2012, ADV is my favorite and I can’t preach enough about how great it is. It has everything from a great diversity of viable Pokémon and sets to the best community I have been blessed to meet passing by a perfectly balanced metagame, in which playing well is always rewarded beyond match-up considerations. That is not even mentioning the countless resources made by amazing contributors, an active and competitive ladder and... Arceus I could go on for hours so let’s stop here. If anyone wants to know more, I very much suggest you watch BKC’s video on How to get into competitive ADV OU (and the others about the tier on his channel while you are at it - that's only a few tens of hours). All that made the third generation a natural choice to feature a team from when planning this RMT.
That being said, pretty much everyone who knows me as a player may raise their eyebrow when seeing I made a RMT while I am almost never using my own teams in tournaments. I don’t especially like teambuilding and while I have a somewhat decent knowledge of the metagames I play, I find it much easier to use others’ teams rather than to bother spending time over something I don’t find fun. I am perfectly aware that one will never reach a good level at this game without building and that I am losing a lot by not doing so, but I don’t really play Pokémon to be the very best like no one ever was - and I don’t really care of what others may think of my skills as a Trainer. I am happy enough piloting squads in game and I have so much room for improvement here that I will probably never end up building regularly as others do.
However, I ended up starting in ADV during the last Smogon Premier League after a series of unlikely events (Classiest buying me being the first of the list) and that prompted me into something I had not done for a long time: actively building on everything which came to my mind. This was probably the only time an average Trainer like me would be able to play a couple games on the big stage and even I could not bring myself to do so with others’ teams. The squad I am featuring here today is among those I ended up not using for a lot of reasons, but has been one of my favorites long after the tournament’s end. Onto the actual thing now!
"SD Pass" in ADV is a generic term used to describe teams using Celebi
passing over Swords Dance to other team members. It will always be paired with its partner in crime, Magneton , simply to avoid being phazed over and over again by one of tier's most prominent Pokémon, Skarmory. However, apart from those two, SD Pass teams have used a variety of different Pokémon over the years and taken a lot of different forms. Here are a couple examples from those past years:
by zf (SPL, 2019) (description here)
by McMeghan (2019)
by thelinearcurve (Team Dump, 2019)
by z0mOG (SPL, 2020) (description here)
by McMeghan (CALLOUS Invitational, 2020)
As you can see, those teams have a couple common denominators: Metagross and Snorlax in addition to the Celebi + Magneton core in 4 out of 5. Metagross is pretty much the most obvious SD Pass recipient as it's bulky enough to easily pass Attack boosts to and can outspeed even the tier's fastest Pokémon (unless they are boosted) after one Agility. On the other end, Snorlax is used as a special sponge since Celebi can't reliably check the likes of Suicune, Starmie and other strong special attackers because it lacks a Grass move. As for the remaining Pokémon, the high usage of Flying types (Salamence / Gyarados / Zapdos / Aerodactyl) is explained by the fact that you absolutely need to check and force out strong Fighting type attackers (mainly Heracross, but also Breloom, Hariyama, Machamp) since they can easily come on Magneton, Snorlax or even Psychic-less Celebi and start spamming their STAB moves (with a bit of Bug coverage) to grab KOs very easily. Most of them also use additional checks to Tyranitar/Rock resists apart from Metagross, such as Flygon , Swampert or Claydol .It is worth noting that most of those teams are fairly weak to Gengar, as they are physically based with one special sponge, Celebi, being unable to hit the ghost and the other, Snorlax, being rendered useless by Will-O-Wisp. z0mog's is the only one in the bunch who uses Pursuit Tyranitar
to solve this issue. Tyranitar-less teams are forced to some more or less awkward juggling to deal with it, but they still have ways around it (see "the chef's recommendation" below).I won't claim to have been the first to use Milotic
in SD Pass, as apparently crayon pop beat me to it. I played once against his team when testing in ADV for SPL against Tamahome and lost. I remember thinking something like "oh come on, SD Pass is already annoying enough but if you had a Milotic it's straight nasty" but did not pay it much attention as it was in the middle of a long series of battles and I already had my team ready for the week. However, when I was looking for ideas later on I remembered this match and decided to give it a try. Now let me preach a bit on why despite being one of the tier's most passive Pokémon, lead Milotic is actually pretty great for that kind of offense:- It lures the opponent into a false sense of security. Milotic is usually played on fat, stallish teams with a classic Surf/Recover/Refresh/filler set. SD Pass' biggest advantage remains the surprise effect of your opponent not expecting Celebi to start setting-up on the physical side of the field, and Milotic is great at preserving it. Lead physical Metagross (which can be spotted pretty easily unless it switches out directly) + Celebi screams "Magneton offense", and from there you already have a general idea of what is coming. However, lead Milotic + Celebi or Snorlax ? Now that can make you think of a classic, boring team and make you drop your guard, be it only a little bit. That's especially true for me as I used a lot another fat team with lead Milotic and classic defensive Celebi (
) in parallel, so that opponents who scouted me would have to play more carefully than usual when facing it.
- It has a good lead match-up against a lot of top tier Pokémon, aka Salamence, Tyranitar and Metagross on top of Hypnosis. That means it will be able to get something asleep pretty early in the game and generate momentum for Celebi right from the start.
- It has an amazing defensive utility which you won't find in your usual offensive teams. It's a bulky Water with Recover, meaning it won't get chipped as easily as offensive Suicune or Swampert. (Sure, it doesn't resist Rock like Swampert but Metagross and Magneton in the back are good enough for that.) It helps a lot against mixed attackers like Salamence, Tyranitar or Metagross which are usually a pain for offensive teams to deal with on top of being a great Moltres check. Sure, other teams may already use Gyarados, Salamence or Aerodactyl, which are great Fire resists but they all get rendered useless by Will-O-Wisp so... All in all, Milotic is a terribly annoying Pokémon on its own for a lot of teams to deal with in the first place, even with minimal support, so always good to have around.
) and I only had to pick one last. I've highlighted above how important it was to have a Flying type along with a Rock resist so my final choice was between Salamence and Gyarados . I ended up picking the Atrocious Pokémon (that's apparently its Pokédex alias) so that my Dragon Dancer would not be nuked by random Ice Beams thrown at Celebi to prevent it from passing its boosts.I actually asked tama for the osgoode team I got the Milotic idea from when preparing this RMT, as I forgot even its general line-up when building my version. You can find it here. As described earlier, the SD Pass core structure is quite irremovable, so we ended up with 5 similar Pokémon. The sets are somewhat different due to the metagame having changed quite a bit since whenever this was built (Celebi being able to Baton Pass its boosts in front of Moltres and Zapdos instead of just being nuked by a Fire move or Roar'd away is pretty much mandatory those days) as well as a different lead, which in my opinion makes the ways both squads are played very different.
Now that the scene is set, let's see the team a bit more in details.
The nicknames are coming from a chinese web novel called The King’s Avatar. Feel free to give a try to the first chapters and more if affinity - it was a pretty cool read.
Boundless Sea (Milotic) @ Leftovers
Ability: Marvel Scale
EVs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Hypnosis
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Recover
I have spent a lot of time talking about Milotic qualities in this team above, so I won't go too deep into the details again. if I had to sum it up into one sentence, it is one of ADV's top powerhouses as far as tanking moves goes and generating momentum thanks to Hypnosis and damage from its good SpA. To be honest, I don’t really like Hypnosis in general because it misses whenever you need it the most with its low accuracy, but it perfectly fits the team’s needs here and Milotic's bulk gives it more attempts at hitting it compared to its other user Gengar. The idea will often be to have a favorable lead match-up, click Hypnosis on the incoming switch-in (Blissey, Celebi, Snorlax, Suicune and Jirachi among others) and go right into your Celebi to set-up a Swords Dance. By the time your opponent realizes that your first two Pokémon revealed were not exactly a stall team's premise, the main engine has started up and you will be able to pressure your opponent a great deal and/or remove his Skarmory depending on how it goes.
The other moves are fairly standard, with Surf and Recover being pretty much mandatory and Ice Beam a nice way to nuke threats like Dragon Dance Salamence as soon as possible without having to rely on some Toxic + Recover spam game in addition to hitting Grass types/Zapdos for super effective damages on the switch. As for the EVs they are as standard as it gets, outspeeding up to max Speed Machamp and Marowak while maximising physical bulk.
One Autumn Leaf (Celebi) @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 36 Def / 220 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Swords Dance
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Baton Pass
- Recover
The star of the team itself, Celebi is for once not using a classic tank or special attacker set, favouring a support oriented one, and Arceus knows it is good at it. Besides Skarmory, little-to-none Pokémon can prevent it from passing Attack boosts to the other team members and turning what are usually only slightly annoying Pokémon to deal with into major threats. This set largely enjoys the fact that Celebi is usually pretty passive and straightforward to check by pivoting into special sponges such as the aforementioned Blissey, Celebi, Snorlax and Jirachi to get free Swords Dance on those and pass them to the other team members. Overall, using this set is a matter of knowing which Pokémon you should pass your boosts to and when. There is no general advice I can give on that one since it mainly depends of your opponent’s team, what has been revealed and what you think might be lurking in the back; the rest is up to common sense, for example knowing that Gyarados won’t be able to sweep a team straight off the bat (in most cases) and that you should chip the opponent’s Pokémon a little with Snorlax or Metagross before. There is also the ideal scenario of expecting a Skarmory and not even bother Swords Dancing but straight Baton Passing into Magneton, removing the big threat as smoothly as possible but there again it is largely up to what the opponent has revealed so far.
Celebi’s moveset itself is pretty standard: Swords Dance, Baton Pass and Recover are pretty much mandatory to hand over Swords Dances reliably through the game. The last slot went to Hidden Power Rock which, combined with enough EVs to hit a 319 Speed stat, allows Celebi to outspeed and OHKO Moltres on the switch should the Flame Pokémon try to prevent it to pass away its boosts. The rest of EVs went in HP and Defense, allowing Celebi to always live a Jolly Dugtrio HP Bug and escape with Baton Pass among other things (as well as Adamant HP Bug most of the time). Ancient Power is a viable alternative if you don’t expect the game to last much and getting all the boosts is always amazing, but it has very low PP so you have to make sure you won’t need it too much. I personally prefer keeping HP Rock on hand for scenarios in which I will actually have to hit stuff with Celebi itself on the long run.
Obviously not being able to hit Pokémon you usually are a counter to due to the lack of traditional choices sucks - getting Roared out over and over again by a Swampert or a Suicune is especially annoying. However this only happens once your opponent knows your strategy (and providing he has those) so if you play the early game well enough it will usually be fine. Roro made a nice post proposing other sets and spreads recently, so I advise you to check it if you want to explore the different possibilities a bit more.
Empty Waves (Magneton) @ Magnet
Ability: Magnet Pull
EVs: 144 HP / 112 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Thunder Wave
- Toxic
Ah, the Trapper - with a capital T. Magneton has been on a slippery slope as of late with a poor winrate during the last CALLOUS Invitational, and honestly I can get why: its only impressive characteristic is its ability to get rid of Skarmory, which it can’t even always do reliably. Of course it has other tricks up its sleeve like spreading status or acting as a decent (although often one-time) check to Aerodactyl and other Pokémon Choice locked into a move you are resisting thanks to the great Steel type, but that's pretty much it. However when your core strategy is completely invalidated by Skarmory you can’t really afford to nitpick so here it is. The moveset itself is pretty standard with Thunderbolt as a strong STAB helping with Skarmory’s removal, HP Fire to hit Forretress passing by along with other Magneton and dual status to be as annoying as possible besides. The EV spread mainly revolves around never getting OHKOd by Jolly Yoloskarm’s HP Ground and outspeeding Adamant variants whenever, making it a winnable duel as long as you are not getting hit on the switch.
Demon Subduer (Metagross) @ Leftovers
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 116 HP / 252 Atk / 140 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Earthquake
- Agility
- Explosion
One of ADV best Pokémon, Metagross is a SD Pass staple for good reasons. It only needs one turn to outspeed every opposing unboosted Pokémon, is immune to Intimidate, can boost its Attack with a bit of luck and can always blow up to take down this one annoying Pokémon your opponent needed to keep the rest of the team in check (Roar Suicune/Swampert, Zapdos, etc). Pretty much nothing (except Skarmory) is safe against a set-up Metagross thanks to the Meteor Mash + Earthquake combo paired with Explosion’s raw power, and that is even more true when it starts off with a +2 Attack boost thanks to Celebi. In fact, a +2 Attack/+2 Speed Metagross is already enough for Skarmless teams to be forced to trade at least two Pokémon to take down the beast even right off the bat (as you can see in the match against rozes below). The most annoying part of dealing with Agility Metagross for your opponent is that it pretty much forces him to go right into its checks without attempting some midground pivoting so it does not go out of control. That being said, those checks are obliterated by Explosion, hence the dilemna for the opponent. It is up to you to decide if you should be keeping Metagross as a late game sweeper/win condition or if you should use Explosion early and remove threats to the rest of the team to facilitate its teammates' victory.
I'm using enough EVs to hit 211 in Speed so to outspeed every defensive Suicune, Milotic and the likes and get an emergency boom on them if needed, but if you just want to outspeed Aerodactyl and Jolteon after an Agility, you can just run 88 Speed EVs and put the rest in HP for extra bulk.
Receding Tides (Snorlax) @ Leftovers
Ability: Immunity
EVs: 92 HP / 116 Atk / 144 Def / 144 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Body Slam
- Earthquake
- Shadow Ball
- Self-Destruct
Good old Snorlax has been a staple of ADV Magneton Offenses for as long as I remember thanks to its ability to tank a couple special attacks without much troubles, its strong offensive presence thanks to a wide coverage in addition to Self Destruct and the fact that it enjoys Skarmory being gone. This set won’t win any originality award, but it still does its job well enough: taking on opposing special attackers and making holes into the opponent’s team in early game with Celebi's support. It is also the prime lead Zapdos switch-in as I can’t really go from Milotic into Celebi by fear of the bird simply Baton Passing into Dugtrio and clicking HP Bug. The EVs are from the analysis as there is no need for anything special, with enough Attack to OHKO 4HP Dug with Body Slam and enough speed to outspeed paralysed Aerodactyl and Jolteon. Earthquake is used instead of Focus Punch since you should not need to hit Skarm on the switch and +2 Earthquake hits Tyranitar and Metagross hard enough without needing to gamble on your opponent's choice to attack. Shadow Ball is basically here to hit Gengar while Body Slam and Self Destruct are two great STABs, respectively able to spread paralysis and take something down (especially when boosted) once at low health.
Combat Form (Heracross) @ Leftovers
Ability: Guts
EVs: 144 HP / 16 Atk / 184 SpD / 164 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Megahorn
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Ghost]
- Brick Break
linear’s alternative to Snorlax after playing a bit with the team, SpD Heracross may look like a strange idea at first but it is surprisingly effective at getting the job done. It both outspeeds max Speed Tyranitar and all the Pokémon which could try to speed creep in that area and has enough SpD to even live a Moltres' Flamethrower while hitting at least as hard as Snorlax. That being said, what I really like compared to the Sleeping Pokémon is Heracross not being bothered by Gengar at all. While Snorlax has Shadow Ball, it is not that effective of a Gengar countermeasure if you don’t hit it on the switch since it will otherwise burn and cripple you for the rest of the game with Will-O-Wisp. However this Heracross set doesn't care about Gengar's damage - it has enough SpD to live everything easiily but Explosion - it even welcomes being statused thanks to Guts. Apart from that its moveset is pretty classic, a solid all out attacker with strong STAB and coverage moves able to open some holes into the enemy team (can chip Zapdos with Rock Slide for Gyarados and Metagross among other things). The only drawback is that unlike Snorlax, it is OHKOd by Dugtrio so you have to be careful around it, as you will pretty much be forced to go from Milotic to Celebi T1 if your opponent leads Zap out of fear of getting trapped. Overall I think it’s a slightly better choice than Snorlax in this team and would recommend it for competitive use, but it is not my creation so only putting it between spoilers for reference.
Flowing Cloud (Gyarados) @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Double-Edge
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
Last but not least, Gyarados is an interesting Dragon Dancer in ADV. It has remained in the shadow of Salamence, who has a slightly better Attack and coverage, for a while but has been rising in usage during the past years thanks to its interesting typing which allows him to handle bulky Water types and the common Ice type moves much better than its Dragon counterpart. Its main disadvantage is that its Attack, even when boosted, is underwhelming, failing to get KOs on bulky Zapdos, Starmie, Gengar, Metagross or Tyranitar after one (or even worse, two) Dragon Dance(s). That is where Celebi passing Swords Dance boosts shines and turns the beast into a much more dangerous sweeper all of a sudden, as threatening offensively as Salamence without its defensive drawbacks. Its main issue is that it can't run a Flying type move and a Rock type move at the same time, meaning it will never be able to have a reliable STAB and hit the likes of Zapdos or Aerodactyl super effectively. By chance, the team has plenty of options to chip those in range so you will often be able to find ways around the problem.
Apart from that the moveset is pretty simple, with HP Flying being a decent (although not outstanding) STAB move which helps against Celebi and Gengar more than HP Rock and Earthquake being mandatory to hit Steel types and Tyranitar. Double Edge acts as the anti-Zapdos coverage move and a great way to hit stuff neutrally with more power than HP Fly, which can be a life saver at times as even at +2 Attack, Gyarados's raw power is not exceptional. Despite the lack of brute force, a Jolly nature remains mandatory to outspeed opposing Jolteon and Aerodactyl, as you won't always have the room to set up two Dragon Dances and don't want to be too easy to revenge kill. If anything, you should keep in mind that +3 Gyarados (after a Swords Dance Pass and a Dragon Dance) will always kill offensive Zapdos with a Double Edge (even Thunder Birds with 252 HP have a decent chance to drop), as well any Aerodactyl which has been chipped by HP Flying before (which is good to know as it is often used as the first Gyarados check).
I know RMTs usually include a bunch of replays featuring the team but I happen to have the bad habit to play most of my tournaments games on alts and I don't save friendly battles much. I'm thus facing an unexpected shortage of relevant games to show (not that there are not, but I don't find them especially interesting), except maybe...
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-506657 [CALLOUS Invitational IV play-ins finals against rozes, g1]
..in which I used the Heracross version. That was a pretty fun game in which Heracross and Metagross took out a bit more than half (if you count Swampert being super low) of the opposing team at the cost of their lives, leaving Celebi in a position in which it could sweep on its own with SD and HP Rock if not for some Ice Beam magic..which happened when Starmie got a critical hit the one turn I had to let it try in exchange for the opportunity to KO it.
However there is a much better example of this team being used in a tournament setting earlier in the year showcased here:
I passed the team to linear along with my SPL builds as he was looking for stuff to use against Asta in the first Pokémon Perfect ADV Qualifier finals, and their battle was apparently good enough to be showcased on BKC's channel. linear played this game a very interesting way and while he lost (dang, why do I have only replays of this losing) he showed that SD Pass could be a bit more deep than just clicking buttons with Celebi and Magneton.
While I'm at it I strongly advise anyone interested in competitive Pokémon to watch the other videos of this series ("Pokémon's Greatest Battles") no matter the tier just for the sake of taking a glance at the level of analysis/insight you have to be able to reach if you want to compete with the best Trainers.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-506657 [CALLOUS Invitational IV play-ins finals against rozes, g1]
..in which I used the Heracross version. That was a pretty fun game in which Heracross and Metagross took out a bit more than half (if you count Swampert being super low) of the opposing team at the cost of their lives, leaving Celebi in a position in which it could sweep on its own with SD and HP Rock if not for some Ice Beam magic..which happened when Starmie got a critical hit the one turn I had to let it try in exchange for the opportunity to KO it.
However there is a much better example of this team being used in a tournament setting earlier in the year showcased here:
I passed the team to linear along with my SPL builds as he was looking for stuff to use against Asta in the first Pokémon Perfect ADV Qualifier finals, and their battle was apparently good enough to be showcased on BKC's channel. linear played this game a very interesting way and while he lost (dang, why do I have only replays of this losing) he showed that SD Pass could be a bit more deep than just clicking buttons with Celebi and Magneton.
While I'm at it I strongly advise anyone interested in competitive Pokémon to watch the other videos of this series ("Pokémon's Greatest Battles") no matter the tier just for the sake of taking a glance at the level of analysis/insight you have to be able to reach if you want to compete with the best Trainers.
Special thanks to thelinearcurve for how much he improved the team, vapicuno & eden for giving me great advices on how to organize this RMT and Andy Snype for proofreading it.
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I know how long shoutouts are seen and all but those are the first and probably the last ones I will do here so please bear with me. If you are on this list (even if I did not have the time to write a word for everyone) it's because you influenced (for the better) my Pokémon journey one way or another, and I simply want to let you know and thank you. Sorry it had to be done through a ping!
Also fair warning, there is a bunch of french sections in there :P
JVC
Staff Franais
Team Salty
PS! Staff
ADV Community
2020 Classiest
Others
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I know how long shoutouts are seen and all but those are the first and probably the last ones I will do here so please bear with me. If you are on this list (even if I did not have the time to write a word for everyone) it's because you influenced (for the better) my Pokémon journey one way or another, and I simply want to let you know and thank you. Sorry it had to be done through a ping!
Also fair warning, there is a bunch of french sections in there :P
Vous allez rire mais je n'ai pas créé mon premier compte sur un site Internet dédié aux jeux vidéos dans le but de disputer des combats de Pokémon en ligne, loin de là. Non, je voulais juste poser des questions sur Animal Crossing New Leaf, sorti plus tôt dans l'année. Mais j'ai de fil en aiguille basculé sur le forum de ma licence favorite, Pokémon, un peu avant que X et Y arrivent en force et donnent un nouveau souffle à la compétition en facilitant les combats en ligne et l'élevage. Toujours est-il que j'ai rencontré beaucoup de gens sympas là-bas, qui m'ont attiré dans ce petit univers dans lequel je suis toujours sept ans après. Beaucoup d'entre vous ont quitté le jeu depuis, mais j'espère que vous vous portez tous bien où ce que vous soyez et quoi que vous faisez. Merci donc à :
- Aerow93 et Zokuru : vous êtes les deux premières personnes rencontrées de l'autre côté d'un écran dont j'ai pu dire "ce sont mes potes". Un a quitté Pokémon pour un autre jeu (où l'herbe est probablement plus verte), l'autre non mais les bons moments passés restent.
- Beuredecacahuete : j'ai pas pu trouver ton compte Smogon et vu ta manie de changer de pseudos je dois avouer ne pas m'être essayé au défi plus longtemps que ça, mais je t'ai toujours considéré comme la personne qui m'a poussé à réellement commencer la strat' avant même d'avoir rencontré tous les autres. Merci pour tes coups de pouce au début !
- dadoux : ce n'est que bien des années après que je me rends compte de l'ampleur de la tâche que tu t'étais fixée (donner une idée de ce qu'était vraiment la compétition à nous autres va-nu-pieds de JVC). Honnêtement, chapeau, parce que je crois que ça a réussi à pas mal de niveaux malgré toutes les difficultés de prêcher dans un forum qui était aussi...vivant et divers. Merci encore chef o7
- Mimolette : alors j'aime pas beaucoup le terme "bro" pour pas mal de raisons, mais si y a quelqu'un que j'aurais appelé comme ça c'est bien toi. J'étais vraiment un ptit con arrogant quand on s'est rencontré mais j'espère avoir grandi depuis. En tout cas t'es vraiment un mec cool et j'espère qu'on te reverra de temps à autre
- Tom0410 : je crois que t'as été la première personne (avec Beure) que j'ai classé comme "oula, ce mec est bon" dans ma tête. Ça avait beau être à l'échelle de JVC par le moi très inexpérimenté, c'est important d'avoir quelqu'un en ligne de mire pour s'améliorer et je pense que tu m'as un peu aidé à cet égard.
- Epic M, k3nan, Welli0u, Kit10, ludicrousman, RedMaxx, Rokhan, Staxi, jabar : vous avez tous percé sur Smogon ou dans la communauté française à divers niveaux et je suis fier de pouvoir dire que j'ai commencé la strat' au même endroit qu'une bande de chics types comme vous (même Jabar). Ça doit être un des "Avant-Après" les plus marquants qui me viennent à l'esprit - surtout pour ceux qui ont changé de pseudos (moi inclus je suppose).
Ça en fait du chemin parcouru ici. La principale raison pour laquelle j'ai commencé à contribuer à franais début 2017, alors que j'étais surtout centré sur JVC les années précédentes, était pour obtenir aide ( auprès des meilleurs joueurs de France) et visibilité (auprès d'une playerbase potentiellement intéressée) dans le développement de mon site. De fil en aiguille, j'ai apparemment assez fait chier le staff avec des idées de projets plus ou moins ambitieux pour qu'ils finissent par me promote histoire que je les mette en oeuvre moi-même. Autant chez JVC on était sans trop de prise de tête, autant sur franais j'ai dû m'améliorer en sérieux & comme joueur pour me montrer à la hauteur. Au delà de tout ce que j'ai pu y faire comme contributeur, c'est à travers la room que j'ai rencontré la plupart de mes poképotes actuels, donc un grand merci aux membres du staff, passés et présents, comme :
- raspberry, Unamed et Cicada : ah les darons. Merci de m'avoir fait confiance au début et d'avoir donné sa chance à l'ado un peu fou que j'étais (j'crois que maintenant je le suis complètement). Vous êtes des mecs cools avec une bonne tête sur les épaules et c'est un honneur d'avoir fait partie de votre staff.
- Adri et Emeri : que dire qu'on ne se soit pas déjà dit eh ? J'espère qu'ensemble on pourra continuer à faire vivre la communauté encore longtemps, d'une manière ou d'une autre. Content de travailler avec vous.
- Cdumas : je sais pas pourquoi un mec aussi intelligent que toi a choisi de jouer à Pokémon alors qu'il y avait beaucoup d'autres jeux beaucoup plus intéressants à côté, mais je vais pas m'en plaindre. T'étais un excellent joueur et membre du staff, et je ne peux m'empêcher d'espérer contre toute raison que tu reviennes à fond un jour. Respect en tout cas.
- Mounts et Sageau : vous êtes deux des mecs les plus gentils que j'ai rencontré sur Internet, et des joueurs plus ou moins corrects par-dessus le marché. Restez comme vous êtes, c'est toujours un plaisir de vous voir !
- 0NI : j'espère que tu prendras comme un compliment le fait que je te dise que même maintenant que je suis admin de PS, même après avoir vu des dizaines de mecs plus ou moins perchés tu restes le plus gros troll que j'ai vu dans la commu. Mais bon, même si on a des personnalités diamétralement opposées faut bien rigoler un peu de temps en temps et je dois admettre que si t'avais pas été là le staff aurait été beaucoup plus ennuyeux. Porte toi bien !
Si on m'avait dit quand on m'a proposé d'organiser l'ICFT que ça finirait par déboucher sur la création d'une communauté pareille j'aurais eu un peu de mal à le croire, et pourtant. Que de chemin parcouru ensemble. C'est de l'histoire suffisamment récente et connue pour que je ne m'étende pas en généralités, donc :
- Fildrong : Merci encore de m'avoir fait confiance au moment de se lancer dans ce projet un peu fou de créer une room Showdown pour la plus grande communauté française. Je me rappellerai longtemps de cet été passé à maintenir en vie ce groupchat en attendant que l'Upper Staff réponde à la requête (maintenant je peux le faire moi-même, ça doit être le karma), aux grands tournois organisés et aux combats de coqs franais-salty. C'était plus dur à certains moments que d'autres mais tout compte fait c'était plutôt marrant dans l'ensemble et j'espère ne pas avoir trop déçu. En tout cas tu fais un boulot fou pour la communauté et t'as toujours été là pour faire rentrer un peu de bon sens dans ma petite tête quand de besoin, donc j'estime toujours te devoir beaucoup. En espérant pouvoir continuer à pokétravailler avec toi encore longtemps !
- RedEmption : j'ai eu la chance de pouvoir suivre la majorité de ton parcours, de ton premier peak sur le ladder OverUsed avec cette ElecSpam douteuse à aujourd'hui en passant par tes débuts sur Youtube, et je pense qu'on peut raisonnablement dire qu'on a step-up dans la commu en même temps bien que suivant des voies différentes. Je ne peux que tirer mon chapeau vis à vis de ta passion toujours brûlante pour le jeu, toutes les idées plus ou moins folles que tu as fait réalités au fil des années et je suis convaincu que tu continueras à pousser la scène strat' française toujours plus haut. Keep it up!
- Sharow : quand la room a été créée je pensais sincèrement pas qu'on finirait par promote un quatrième Room Owner, mais je n'aurais pas pu demander meilleure personne que toi. Tu fais un travail de dingue pour la Salty et t'as tout ce qu'il faut pour continuer à l'améliorer. Merci pour tous les conseils avisés en matière d'animés (j'aurais raté pas mal de trucs sans toi), tes critiques pertinentes et les convs sympas sur tout et rien.
I'm not too sure of what I was expecting upon promotion after all the stories I heard about global staff members back in the day, but you are a cool bunch and I truely admire your time & dedication making the sim a better place for everyone. Everyone in is great so if I started to try and list every nice person I've met there I would probably end up with way too many people, but special mention to:
- bobochan and nui : two if the nicest persons I've been blessed to meet in the community. Thanks for all the help at the beginning, you made getting into the Driver role soo much easier for me. Stay the way you are and good luck moving forward!
- Alpha, Ransei, Aethernum, Andy Snype : we have staffed together for a while now and I'm glad I got to contribute with you. Thanks for your support & let's keep the boat floating!
- The Immortal : somewhat decent at randbats - always fun to fight with you. Seriously though I'm glad I got to know you a bit better after all those years, since the first time I saw you in the french room in 2014ish I was like this. You are a cool dude o7
- pre : maybe the most impressive contributor I've ever seen both in policy and tech across the numerous communities I have been part of. Are you even human? Anyway I'm glad you decided to stick around after retiring from staff and although few, I always enjoyed our conversations. I wish you all the best!
- eden : thanks for all the time you dedicated to tutoring me in ADV. You are a great guy & a solid player who probably does not get enough recognition given your impressive metagame knowledge and seriousness. Looking forward your future performances!
- BKC, vapicuno, CALLOUS : all of you have contributed tremendously to the ADV Community through resources creation & tournament hosting. For that, I can only thank you for ADV probably would not be half as popular a tier if not you all the time you invested into making it more accessible and more hyped.
- thelinearcurve, undisputed and Astamatitos : three of the best players I've ever seen on top of being very approachable guys. What partly separates ADV from other tier-based communities (at least according to me) is how accessible top players are even to newbies. Thanks for all the advices you gave me and the games we played through the years. You rule o7
- McMeghan : un peu la même que pour les trois autres, t'étais un des joueurs (voire le joueur) que j'admirais le plus quand j'ai commencé à m'intéresser à Smogon (je me rappelle de ce combat comme d'un des premiers que j'ai vu en direct) et c'est top de constater que même en étant un des meilleurs Dresseurs de tous les temps tu restes hyper accessible et sympa. C'est toujours un plaisir de te voir jouer et j'espère que tu continueras à briller en tournoi encore longtemps.
- Altina, Hclat, Melle2402, roystopror, Sadlysius : strong competitors in tournaments and cool guys outside. I hope you will keep playing and rising as high as possible in the future! :]
I know I did not write any s/o after the end of the tournament, mainly because it's not someting I felt like doing after how the last game ended and I was at loss for words after that hell of a ride. However, this was in hindsight the most fun I ever had on Smogon so I hope you won't mind me saying a few words all those months after :
post cagata
- FMG and d0nut : thanks for having me. I had few tournament performances in 2019 and "disappointing" does not even begin to describe my final record, but you kept pushing me forward. You were amazing managers and I hope you will give it another round this year.
- Tamahome and danilo : thanks for your support in ADV, ranging from test games to good advices from players who have seen much more than me. tama, grats again on being the first one to reach 100 wins in officials. If you wanna hear a little fun fact, when the newbie me asked one of my friends in 2014 who the world's best players were he put a certain "DracoMalfoy" in the list. I'm glad I got to team up with you 6 years later and got to know what a nice guy you are. danilo, I hope you have not given up on this game yet and that we will see you next SPL. I wish I could have supported you from the bench instead of the other way around x_x
- Excal : I'm glad I got to meet you the other day, you are a cool guy, a man of culture and I really enjoy talking with you whenever :] I'm afraid I will never be good at this mysterious thing you call DPP OU though, but it is what it is.
- KratosMana : I heard a lot of good about you before the tournament and it was pretty much all true. You are a great guy and your GSC performance was stunning, especially for your first SPL starting in the tier. Also my Arceus, this prep against Mr.E was one of the craziest things I've ever seen on this game. Looking forward your future tournaments!
- blarghlfarghl : it was really fun to team up with you, even if watching you play is quite dangerous for one's heart from a mate's perspective. Alas I'm not sure I will ever be able to spell your username correctly (where does it even come from?) so I had to copy/paste it to tag you here. I wish you could :haha: this post, but maybe next year :[
- Amaranth : I don't know if you remember the Ever Grande League in which I played BW under you but that was a super fun experience. It even allowed me to seriously get into ADV while teaming up with eden, which was a turning point in my pokéjourney. I was really glad we got to fight side by side once more for SPL and you did not disappoint, being one of the most motivated members of the team both in our server and in battle. I hope you will do great in the next editions as well o|
- Raiza : my first thought knowing I would team up with you was "thanks Arceus I won't be facing him". You probably never noticed but each time we faced in BW in team tournaments you broke my winning streaks pretty hard, and I don't remember ever beating you :v You had the most unfortunate run out of us all but no one can say your final record was because of a lack of skill/efforts. Better luck in future tournaments!
- suapah : thanks for carrying us to the finals, it was a pleasure to watch you play and I loved your teambuilding approach. You are a cool guy all around & I was super happy when I learnt you won Charity Bowl. Keep going boss o7
- Insult : I did not get to interact with you half as much as I would have wished due to the timezone difference and the fact that I don't play gen8ou, but you were an absolute beast on the battlefield and we could never have made it to the finals without you. Thanks for the adventure!
- Relous : The clutch lord himself. While you had a difficult regular season, you went all out when we needed you the most and did not disappoint at all. I'm sure you will do great from the start during the next edition!
- Persephone : I consider ORAS as a fairly stable, "solved" tier so to say so I can't help but to marvel at how you are always trying to push past what I see as its limits through a multitude of innovations and cool teams. I hope you will keep playing the tier a long time and help it move forward.
- false : when nilo got...forced to leave I pushed for you to get picked and I'm glad I did. Thanks for all your help with test games. You are a pretty good player and I hope you will get some big tours success one of those days to silence your haters.
- stax and Serene Grace : while I'm uterly clueless about DOU and LC I always felt we were pretty safe knowing you were on those slots. Keep doing great in your respective communities o7
- DaWoblefet : our Lord and Savior and the best rallying point we could have wished for. While you were not the most active guy around there we would have been lacking a lot without you so thanks for that :') see ya in upper staff.
- snaga : the true mastermind behind our success. I had no idea of who you were prior to the tournament but I soon realized how much I had missed before. I hope we will get to team up another time in the future.
post cagata
- Reverb : "Teclis" was just some random alt I used before you invited me in BOF after we played on the ladder, so I guess I owe you my username to some extent. You have left since but I hope you are doing well :]
- Bloo : you will probably never read this but if you happen to, then know I greatvappreciate the time you took to reply to this random who PMd you on PS/Skype a while ago. It was my first interaction with a top player and it made me realize how much I was lacking and made me want to improve even more.
- Tom Bus : you were a really cool dude and I loved your Youtube videos. I wished you stayed longer :[ (still rewatching those from time to time though - some never get old)
- boudouche : même si on s'est jamais spécialement croisé j'adorais tes vidéos Youtube et dadoux nous parlait pas mal de toi à l'époque de JVC. Sache juste qu'au delà d'un top player t'as été une source d'inspiration pour pas mal de monde qui a débuté avec moi. Content que tu repasses sur Smogon un peu plus depuis quelque temps !
- Iku, Guprei, Vieux Singe, Azz, MoahRikunel, John1240, Ectoboggan, Eldeer, Vextal, Eoward et bien d'autres dont je ne sais même pas s'ils ont des comptes Smogon et donc je ne citerai pas les noms pour une raison évidente, c'était sympa de vous avoir connu. Je ne pensais pas trouver une communauté aussi active et dynamique sur le site et même si la 8G est ce qu'elle est ce fut un plaisir d'échanger avec vous au fil des années !
- Pour finir, merci également à Guitoh (retraité, rip), Drascos et Gourmont de m'avoir laissé écrire pour Pokémon Trash et Pokébip respectivement. J'espère que vous continuerez à informer le pokéweb français encore longtemps !
If you have made it that far, congratulations! This was a not an easy post to write and to format so I hope you enjoyed the read. To be honest this team itself is now fairly old and has lost most of its greatest strength, the surprise effect, across the time. It remains pretty decent though, so if you are interested in Advanced give it a try at some point!
I don't know what the pokéfuture holds for me as I keep moving forward in life, but I hope I will be able to remain here a couple more years to battle, exchange and interact with all of you. Take care!
