VGC San Fran -- They Grow Up So Fast!

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A Bit of Background Knowledge

So about a month ago, I realized I would be unable to compete in the VGC regional because a very close friend was having a very important party on that day. Disappointed but not deterred, I, Owlle, decided to shift my efforts to my seven year old sister, the hatchling. I modified the original team I was going to use to make it so easy that a seven year old could understand it, literally. I didn't break down the mechanics, but even the hatchling could follow simple directions -- "FIGHT 38 BIDOOF NOW!"

The Team

Leads:


Slaking -- NN Kong
Adamant - Truant
252 Attack/252 Speed
Moves: Ice Punch, Rock Slide, Slack Off, Protect
Item: Chesto Berry

The beast. I was determined to use a Skill Swap team, but I turned out modifying it so it was really only Kong who felt the benefits. On the way to the competition, I realized I had forgotten about getting him a Lum Berry. Didn't have any, so I went for Chesto.


Blissey -- NN Messa
Bold [? Maybe Calm. She hasn't given me my pokemon back yet.] - Serene Grace
252 HP / 252 Def
Moves: Skill Swap, Flamethrower, Focus Blast, Softboiled
Item: Chople Berry

Messa gave those unEV'd pokemon hell. The giant pink egg skill swapped, loafed around for a turn while a barrage of blows did little to knock down her health, and then skill swapped again to the opponents pokemon. As one bystander said, "Messa just owned that guy's Empoleon." Aaaaaand I only brought my sister and my own copy of HG/SS, so we didn't have leftovers. Double oops.

Bringing up the rear:


Rayquaza
Adamant [?]
Air Lock
32 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD / 216 Spe [roughly. I was in a rush.]
Moves: Dragon Dance, Extremespeed, Outrage,
Item: Life Orb

I hate weather teams. Rayquaza's simple goal was to do just that; stop weather. The few battles I managed to catch of my sister's play told me that she never really used the green snake as intended, never once making a switch to stop kyogre sweep. However, the fourth player stopped those rain dance teams in their tracks...


Shedinja
[meh. I forgot. Will update nature]
Wonder Guard
252 Attack/252 Speed
Moves: X-Scizzor, Will-o-Wisp, Shadow Sneak, Protect
Item: Focus Sash

Shedinja was kind of sloppily tacked on to the end of this very messy team. Main reason: No assembly required. It wasn't exactly rocket science to use shedinja; either he'd die, or he'd sweep. I was banking on some kids not preparing for this weird little bug thing, which turned out to be a safe assumption...

The Journey -- Now with extra cheesiness!

I, the hatchling, and our mother wake up to get ready to go to the VGC. Am I being vague? Sorry, but according to said mother you're all potentially a bunch of crazy child stalkers. ): No offense... Butanyways, I'll skim the specifics.

We arrive half way through registration, and hop into the junior's line. There was already quite a line for seniors, but considering that I've never been to one of these events as a member of Smogon I didn't recognize anyone. [Later on I saw a duck's shirt, though!]

We both download the shiny Eevee as we wait to register. Eventually, we get to the front of the line. The lady makes a big deal of staring down the Team Information sheet, but finally the hatchling is tagged with a wristband and ushered into the colored, cheap mats that made up the playing area.

Just a note. My sister stood out, not being the average image of a gamer. Blond hair and blue eyes and being tiny for one thing. A pink bow in her hair and a pretty pink dress for another. Anyhow. Now I'm supposed to talk about the battles, right? We'll just keep in mind that innocent little image and imagine those boy's crushing humiliation... until they learn to stop underestimating her. >)

Round One:

We had talked to this kid's family in line. He threw a fit because he knew he wouldn't win if he didn't face his little brother, who only had level 30's. His team was Typhlosion, Dragonite, Garchomp, and Salamance [?]. The hatchling ran through with only a few rockslides and some ice punches, 4:0.

Round Two:

So we got to talking to this kid's family. Apparently, they had driven up from LA just to have their only son compete in this contest. I tried to explain the game to the boy's parents, but they didn't really get it. After a while, we realized the battle was taking, well, forever. Marriland and some other guys walk over all "Why the hell is it taking so long?!?!" on their faces. The hatchling told me later that they claimed that the kids had broken the record for the longest match known for VGC regionals.

Here's what happened. The boy's team had a Giritina, something, Palkia, and Snorlax. All were pretty bulky. The hatchling only had Messa left, while the boy had two. However, Messa had Skill-Swap'd the ability Pressure from her opponent. Also, the Blissey had paralysis, which turned out to be a good thing. She out-stalled the boy with Softboiled until he struggle'd into defeat. Have a nice trip home? 1:0

Round Three:

I'm not sure this is round three, but I think it is. She saved it as her battle video, but couldn't remember when. Anyhow, there was this rain team. Palkia, Kyogre, Lati[os/as] some other pokemon. Kyogre, with Water Sprout, begins completely sweeping her team. By double-teaming Kong to kill him first round, the Skill Swap strategy didn't even start let alone work. Destroying her first three pokemon, it seems like the end. However, out comes Shedinja. They had no counter. It was game over from there. I'm kinda glad the bug seemed to have some use in the tournament. 1:0

Round Four:
By this time, some of the crowd had thinned out. The hatchling was getting some attention being the youngest and one of two girls still remaining. This battle was also projected on the TV screen, and was the last pair of the last battles before finalists. The boy started off with Spiritomb and Regigias, with Starraptor and Empoleon in the rear. While Messa gets the Skill Swap working, Kong unleashes a rockslide which only does 1/3 of the max health to each. Regigigas and Spiritomb, on the other hand, somehow deal ~1/2 damage to both Kong and Messa. Things seem as though they might get harder, but the next rockslide gets an amazing double critical hit on both Regigigas and Spirtomb, knocking both out. The MC at that point dubbed her the "Lady Luck" of the competition, and by the end of the match there were quite a few people interested in the pink powderpuff's progress. Out come the reinforcements, only to have Empoleon skillswapped into uselessness and the tumbling rockslide crush the hawk. Quick work from there. 4:0

***

Finals:

The hatchling didn't have enough luck to grab a skip, however, and had to fight two more matches. I didn't hear anything about these -- she didn't remember and I didn't meet the parents unlike the last few times. [One actually asked me to tutor their child... on playing pokemon. o-o]

So, she gets into the final four. I'm happy because we had made an agreement that I could have the DSi since she would be able to go on to nationals. My mom is nervous because she said that the hatchling could go onto nationals simply because she was sure that we wouldn't make it this far.

Her battle turns out to be against the champion of regionals. He uses a Latios and a Giratina to start. The hatchling I think got a little nervous... and a little too confident. She thought she could beat the two pokemon without skill-swapping, and basically sacrifices Kong because if it. Now, the hatchling isn't an expert at typing. She tries to Focus Blast Giratina and Flamethrower's Latios. If she had skillswapped, she could have crippled Giratina terribly. Instead, she forgets that Latios is a dragon type and goes down after a single Rock Slide. pffft. This was an important lesson in listening to her old sister. Rayquaza gets destroyed by a dragon pulse, and Shedinja manages to take down Latios but is killed by two Shadow Sneaks.

The Aftermath

We were all still very proud of the hatchling, however. If I may say so, she was something of a crowd favorite. We chilled in the finalist's lounge while the final match commenced. Bored, we made funny faces at eachother till this annoying reporter snapped a bunch pictures all "oohh... that's cyyuuutte." She got the new DSi, and after seeing the brand new box was quick to break off her agreement with me and claim that she wanted to keep the DSi. Mutiny! Oh well. My mom and I decide to deal with it later.

Then some people from IGN want to interview her. The girl of the duo claims to be a big fan, pointing to a "Team Hatchling" sign around her neck made out of binder paper. They ask her some questions, like what her team was, but the hatchling was a little shellshocked and couldn't remember. She warmed up after a bit.

Then some pictures with Pikachu and the other champions, and a quick photo shoot with the three starters.

Reflection

That was so fun it wasn't even funny. Heh. Like that makes sense. It was so enjoyable to see the next generation carry on to leave her name in pokehistory, even if she did get 3rd/4th at only regionals.

Unfortunately, the hatchling will not be attending Nationals as we already had travel plans made. As I said, our parent's confidence that we would get this far was low.

However, next year the hatchling AND myself will be back in action for another fun-packed adventure at regionals!
 

drcossack

I'm everywhere, you ain't never there
Awesome, glad you had fun. I lol'ed at "Shedinja was kind of sloppily tacked on to the end of this very messy team. Main reason: No assembly required. It wasn't exactly rocket science to use shedinja; either he'd die, or he'd sweep. I was banking on some kids not preparing for this weird little bug thing, which turned out to be a safe assumption...", even if it is true; we even joke about it on IRC. "Juniors? Use Shedinja and you'll win."

Question - your sister played the winner of SF Juniors in her final match, or someone else? I heard from Sidd that his cousin won, and, as far as I know, there was no Latios or Giratina on that team (I should know, since I built it.) Did you happen to record the juniors finals? I'd like to watch, since I haven't seen anything about it on the VGC site or Youtube.

Shameless plugs aside, congrats to your sister on getting so far. Shame you can't go to Nats.
 
Great story! Though I assume the round two team is slightly off, as Giratina, Lugia and Palkia wouldn't all be allowed on the same team.
 
drcossack: hrm... I assumed it was the finalist, because the kid was trying reaaallly hard not to grin big win they announced the winner. I'm not sure. He was the oldest out of the four winners, tall-ish with black hair? Not sure he was the winner, but he looked like it. I'm sure he led with Latios and Giratina, though. We didn't record it, sorry. Someone was, though, so maybe it will end up on Youtube eventually.
Showsni: oops, didn't catch that. I'm sure on Giratina and Palkia, but I must be confusing Lugia with something. Thanks!
 
OHHHHHHHH I have a video of the round she lost. I swore that team had been given to her by someone else when blissey survived eq. She lost to kamz who is a smogonite, so don't feel bad at all. Then kamz lost to the indian kid and I couldn't stop laughing. Did you hear all the people saying go little girl? I was (: Yes he used latios and giritina, but he lost the next round.
 
I'll be honest... the Juniors matches were really hard to follow because of how uninteresting they were. I will say though, that your cousin's match (I believe it was one of the last matches to determine who was getting into the Finalist Lounge, and it was pretty fucking awesome. I was rooting for her to win the whole thing, and it was a shame she couldn't make it all the way (but it's still impressive that she got into the top four).

Hope she does well in the Nationals.
 
This is srsly one of my favorite war stories of all time. >_< I reallyreally enjoyed reading this, and I'm sad I had no idea this was going on in there. Go Team Hatchling!! Good luck next year.
 
Poor kid she forgot to skill swap against latios and giritina. Also if rayquaza's outrage had lol pownt that giratina shedinja would've swept and I would have been laughing all day. I have a recording of the battle she lost.
 
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