I remember seeing those group of people, I was right infront if them at the line. I probably should have stayed longer tbh. Then again, I didn't know anybody sadly.
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VGC '12 United Kingdom National - Birmingham - March 3 - WON BY KobraTail
- Thread starter gec
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Some people can't afford to go all around Europe, their national VGC might be their only shot. By competing at every one you reduce the chances of other players who might get to see the world from winning, instead of being knocked out by someone who's had several shots already, seems wrong to me. Also region lock ensures all nationalities get proportionate representation, you wouldn't have a 100 metre race at the Olympics with the majority of runners from one country.
If I am honest, coming from someone who lost to him in T16, I didn't care nor would he if there was a lot of people cheering the UK Player because that would be the case, he can be arrogant if he wants to be because he is the winner, if I win Madrid (which I won't), I will be dedicating my victory to Ruben purposely because of his success in Birmingham and if any Spanish have a problem with that then it'll just be hypocritical.
I say, let them say what they like and let people make their own assumptions, truth is though that we do play a metagame with mechanics allowing luck so getting worked up over someone winning in a game full of mechanics that could just not go your way is going to destroy your character and personality right in front of others.
Oh and we do play as Europe together because we're all invited to each other's qualifiers. The whole arrogance is his tactic to put you off your confidence and to lose your cool and if you fall for it then you will have no confidence and will not make your best decisions in battle, it's a face, just like in boxing before they get in the ring the hype is all just to try and put the opponent off, unfortunately pokémon requires one person to go through and one to go out and hence trainers who pay a lot of money to go across Europe will try everything within the means of the rules to perform better, I mean wouldn't you?
I say, let them say what they like and let people make their own assumptions, truth is though that we do play a metagame with mechanics allowing luck so getting worked up over someone winning in a game full of mechanics that could just not go your way is going to destroy your character and personality right in front of others.
Oh and we do play as Europe together because we're all invited to each other's qualifiers. The whole arrogance is his tactic to put you off your confidence and to lose your cool and if you fall for it then you will have no confidence and will not make your best decisions in battle, it's a face, just like in boxing before they get in the ring the hype is all just to try and put the opponent off, unfortunately pokémon requires one person to go through and one to go out and hence trainers who pay a lot of money to go across Europe will try everything within the means of the rules to perform better, I mean wouldn't you?
Here's my semifinals match with Ruben, if anyone's interested: 15-28740-07313
Things I wish I'd done differently - Earthquaked with Garchomp instead of Dragon Clawing.
I don't mind the foreign players coming here really. It at least makes a nice talking point - telling your non Pokémon playing friends that people had come from Germany, Belgium and Spain lets them see that Pokémon really is serious business.
As for hax... Yeah, sometimes there's nothing you can do. The best player int he world can lose to Quick Claw Rock Slide flinches. That's life. It's really exacerbated by the way these are played, though - best of one instant elimination just serves to highlight the hax. If it was a best of three round robin tournament I think the effect of hax would be a lot lower, but that is of course completely unfeasible given the time restraints.
Things I wish I'd done differently - Earthquaked with Garchomp instead of Dragon Clawing.
I don't mind the foreign players coming here really. It at least makes a nice talking point - telling your non Pokémon playing friends that people had come from Germany, Belgium and Spain lets them see that Pokémon really is serious business.
As for hax... Yeah, sometimes there's nothing you can do. The best player int he world can lose to Quick Claw Rock Slide flinches. That's life. It's really exacerbated by the way these are played, though - best of one instant elimination just serves to highlight the hax. If it was a best of three round robin tournament I think the effect of hax would be a lot lower, but that is of course completely unfeasible given the time restraints.
You make a good point, but surely you can't deny that for people who can't compete anywhere other than where they live, money or whatever restricting, it would seem a little unfair that they only get one go?
Had a good day at VGC wish it wasn't single eliminations though means you lose too early if you get haxed and travelling all the way somewhere to lose first round can be depressing sometimes =/ haha
Yeah, this is a very true point but then you're asking yourself if you're a hardcore player dedicated or a player who plays just a bit now and then and is just there for the vibe, either are cool and fine and to be honest I'm a bit of both but I always learnt from a young age that if I want to get something then I have to work hard to pay for it and hence perhaps this is the concepts, to be honest getting the time off work has been really hard as well so it isn't really workable for most people.
Perhaps they might consider it for next year, I reckon they should just do a Nationals in which the top 16 win trips to Paris for the European Finals or something with LCQ, swiss top cut.
If Ruben plays to the crowd and tries to have fun all the jealous Brits call him arrogant. If anybody British did it then they'd be a wonderful character and fun for the entire tournament. I'm really sick of you all judging Ruben and calling him this and that as a way to disguise what you really want to say. It's pretty fucking clear from walking around the NEC today that the majority of people there disliked Ruben because he's Spanish, not because he's arrogant, because really he isn't.
So he shouts and dances when he wins. Is that what makes him arrogant? Well fuck, I guess he should just sit in silence poking away at his touch screen like everybody else instead of trying to bring a little fun and character to the competition.
He carries a Spanish flag with him. Yeah, he does. He's from Spain. He's representing his country in another tournament. You'd probably all do something similar is you went and played in another country.
And where's this unsportsmanship that you bring up? Ruben is one of the friendliest players I've ever met. He asks for photos with everybody he battles, tries his best to talk to them even though he doesn't even speak english. I saw no unsportsmanship on stage during the final, he shakes hands with his opponents, there's no bad body language. Seriously, can someone please tell me how he is unsporting at all. Oh right, he's Spanish.
If you want to be a bunch of xenophobic fucks, grow some balls and do it in public instead of trash talking a good player out of sheer jealousy. Ruben is the best UK representative we could ask for because he's not shit like all the UK players. Congratulations Ruben, you're awesome.
That's a good idea I doubt Nintendo would fork out for it though lol maybe something like the runner ups win qualifiers in all european finals sort of like a European dream team thing. How awesome would it be if they had the announcers call in the "European masters" or something!
Perhaps I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to the definition of good sportsmanship, but I was under the impression that the best winner is a quiet winner. I have a lot more respect for someone that will smile and shake hands, as opposed to a victory display. But this is just preference, I suppose.
Yeah, it irked me that Ruben was spanish and playing in the UK regionals - however, that's been explained in the topic and I understand that it really isn't an issue whatsoever. So apologies for coming across.."xenophobic." I didn't mean to.
But his mannerisms were a little too boastful, and I'd be just as irritated if Ben had won and danced about - nationality has nothing to do with it.
To be honest, I don't think I'd have the confidence to go to another country to take part, so I tip my hat at Ruben for that - but as I've said, my issue is not with his nationality, it's with the exuberance following a victory.
It was actually during his earlier battles; I remembered him from last year and all I remember was thinking the chap was a little full of himself. (And I don't believe that [Being Good At Something] permits a person to be arrogant.
Perhaps I misinterpreted his playfulness as arrogance - if so, I really do apologise. I don't want to come across as though I'm basing my whole argument on the fact HE'S SPANISH - really, that's not it at all. It was the post-victory display, and the general arrogance. It wasn't just me that was irked.
...ok so we're going into full out insults now. I absolutely take offence at that; are you inferring that Ben is one of those "shit UK players" that simply chanced his way to victory?
And please don't infer I'm jealous; like the rest of our group, none of us had any intention of making if into the finals - to make it passed the first round would have been a bonus for any of us. This is why we cosplayed this year, because we didn't want the pressure to perform weighing over us as it did last year. I wholeheartedly congratulate Ruben (Reuben? I keep seeing it spelt differently!) on his victory - he was definitely the better player. But please, don't insult the rest of the UK players by calling them shit. They absolutely were not to have got as far as they did.
Congratulations R[e]uben, I'm sorry if I've offended you personally. I do take issue with your victory display, but as Kinneas has kindly pointed out, I may be mistaking your exuberance for arrogance, so apologies.
Wolfey
VGC 2016 Masters Champion
I think everyone needs to cool down and stop complaining, as a humble American reading through this thread I would say today didn't go as well as a majority of the online community had hoped, and there's alot of bitterness from a fair amount of BS hax, but in all honesty at the end of the day no matter how much we fight or argue about whats unfair or what needs to change, one thing matters, and that's whether or not you performed to your personal goal today. As a majority of the EU player's online did not I would say, instead of arguing about what needs to change it seems more logical to just focus on your next tournament, as opposed to wasting time and energy fighting online about Ruben being Spanish. If you think there is a problem with the system, that nats should be region locked, it makes more sense to just email someone in charge with your opinion as opposed to pointlessly discussing it online where there will always people who agree with you and people who don't. All this is just my two cents from a bystanders perspective who didn't play, though, so keep that in mind
And my god can that boy dance :D
Yeah, everyone just needs to shut up now. It's Pokémon for God's sake. So what if people like to visit other countries and play in the tournaments. They're well within their rights to do so - you can disagree with it as much as you want, but until TPCi change the rules, it's not going to matter. Personally, I enjoy the company of the other Europeans, it makes the events more enjoyable. However, I will admit that the Spanish players antics at the hotel I was saying at were completely out of order and I am ashamed of them. That discussion is for another day though and probably not on here.
On the subject of 'hax' - I think a lot of people did legitimately lose to bad luck this year. I myself suffered two critical hits and a Meteor Mash miss which were very costly in the grand scheme of things, but I've not complained too much. I know there were other mistakes I made, I predicted my opponent's team wrongly from the team preview. Can I blame anything/anyone other than myself for that? Not really. I'll just have to deal with it. I'm disappointed, greatly, but it doesn't go any further than that. I don't even care if I sound like a dick because I personally think my opponent was not as good as me. He couldn't even get to Hawaii (most likely) even if he qualified, and he lost within the next two rounds as well. That hurts a bit because I obviously feel I could have done better further down the line, but I'll never know now.
Still, I enjoyed being with a lot of my friends within the UK and European Pokémon community and it was a fine weekend with some great memories (even if most of them are just the fac that the players who I considered the best in the UK almost all went out before the finalists lounge).
On the subject of 'hax' - I think a lot of people did legitimately lose to bad luck this year. I myself suffered two critical hits and a Meteor Mash miss which were very costly in the grand scheme of things, but I've not complained too much. I know there were other mistakes I made, I predicted my opponent's team wrongly from the team preview. Can I blame anything/anyone other than myself for that? Not really. I'll just have to deal with it. I'm disappointed, greatly, but it doesn't go any further than that. I don't even care if I sound like a dick because I personally think my opponent was not as good as me. He couldn't even get to Hawaii (most likely) even if he qualified, and he lost within the next two rounds as well. That hurts a bit because I obviously feel I could have done better further down the line, but I'll never know now.
Still, I enjoyed being with a lot of my friends within the UK and European Pokémon community and it was a fine weekend with some great memories (even if most of them are just the fac that the players who I considered the best in the UK almost all went out before the finalists lounge).
Here's a few gems from zog before VGC 2012:
Devestation, that was not aimed directly at you, but if you take offence then I don't care. Offence is taken, not given, feel however you like about it. Nearly everyone in the UK is bad compared to the rest of the world. That's why we haven't had a British champion in our own tournament since Rees. If people want to region lock the tournament because they can't beat players from other countries in their tournaments, then wow, what a shitty bunch of players we must be sending to worlds. Seriously.
And after:Zog said:
CLASSIC ZOGZog said:
Devestation, that was not aimed directly at you, but if you take offence then I don't care. Offence is taken, not given, feel however you like about it. Nearly everyone in the UK is bad compared to the rest of the world. That's why we haven't had a British champion in our own tournament since Rees. If people want to region lock the tournament because they can't beat players from other countries in their tournaments, then wow, what a shitty bunch of players we must be sending to worlds. Seriously.
hahaha yeah some of the uk players got really far in the uk vgc, I wonder how they managed that when all but 5 of the people there were UK PLAYERS
I think Kinneas makes a fair point but defining the UK Players like that is a bit incorrect, I mean, we must take into account the amount of hax that happened today and the fact it is single elimination perhaps thwarted some of the better players from proving their mettle and having the opportunity of winning, single elimination can be really cruel, but apart from that I am totally with you in regards to Zog's post.
Welcome to Pokemon and VGC.
zog you tosser even if you made it to the finals in 2011 I would have beat you
Yeah, fair point haha
Congratz RubeNCB92, you're a boss ~
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