Hi all! I dont post here often so you probably wont have seen my before. This is my story from my go at competing at the Birmingham VGC.
I have prepared my team long in advance of this, not wanting a repeat of last year where I was doing added touches in the morning before the tournament.
I set off for Euston in the morning, being very paranoid of going all the way there and not being far enough in the line. This wasn’t helped by my nerves. I had had no true practice at all, resorting to just using the battle subway.
Arrive at Euston, waited 45mins for a train. And spent over an hour in the most boring train ride ever. Nobody to even talk too. -_-
I get there on time though, and line up. Meet some cool people, and then, after all the wait. It was time to battle.
This was the team I used, I was worried because I didn’t RNG, and thought I might be flattened if I came up against one.
Krookodile: Adamant.Focus sash
252atk 92HP 164Spd
Crunch
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Protect
Eelektross: Modest.Sitrus Berry
252Spatk 252HP 4SpDef
Discharge
Flamethrower
Grass knot
Protect
Conkeldurr: Brave.Flame orb
252HP 252Atk
Mach punch
Drain Punch
Protect
Rock Slide
Archeops: Jolly.Flight gem
252Atk 252Spd 4HP
Acrobatics
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Protect
Zoroark: Nieve.Dark gem
252SpAtk 252Spd 4Atk
Sucker punch
Dark pulse
Flamethrower
Protect
Amoongus: Calm.Mental Herb
252HP 252SpDef 4Def
Giga drain
Spore
Rage Powder
Protect
The strategy was to use Krookodile and Eelektross to spam discharge/EQ without damaging each other. With Conkeldurr and Archeops being backup sweepers, Zoroark being there, just to put my opponent off during their selection. And amoongus was there to counter Whimmsicot/Terakion combo.
My first round opponent I had a chat with in the 3rd queue, I don’t think he EV-trained as he seemed to use ingame moves (fly). Due to my piss poor memory I cant remember much about the match. But I do remember he led with a Haxorus which at first scared me, and then a stoutland, which lacked intimidate. He was a very nice chap, but seemed rather disheartened with himself beforehand. I felt rather bad for winning that.
Second round. Now, here was where I fell last year to GEC. This time I hoped to get past it. One look at my opponents team and it spelled out competitive, Landourus, Thundurus, Volcarona, Archeops and two others I dont remember. This wasn’t going to be easy. I started off with Krookodile and eelektross, hoping to face the double genies, which I had thought beforehand couldn’t get past my lead. Instead he led with Archeops and Volcarona. I thought that my krookodile might be able to servive a round and knock them down with rock slide, while eelektross went with discharge. Archeops went first with a rock slide, knocking out krooks sash, then Volcarona hit with fire gem heat wave, knocking krook out of the match instantly, this was a very bad start. Eelektross survived and didnt flinch, discharge did almost nothing to Volcarona, but knocked Archeops into defeatist range, and paralised it! Sweet!
I responded with my own Archeops, hoping for a turnaround. My faith in the little dino paid off. A rock slide from him knocked out both Pokémon, I breathed a sigh of relief. Until Landorus was sent out (he sent out his 4th Pokémon too, but I cant for the life of me remember it, but it was knocked out fairly quickly). I had forgotten to check beforehand whether Archeops was faster than Landorus, shit. I hit Acrobatics, and hoped for the best. Archeops used its flight gem. Archeops used acrobatics. Landorus fainted.
Commence audible sigh. That had me very rattled. I shook my opponents hand, thanked him for such a good, but difficult, match and moved on to the stage I had been aiming for all day.
Round 3. I had achieved my personal goal. Anything more was a bonus. My opponents team showed me something I had been anticipating, Whimsicot and Terakion. Along with a Jellicent and Unfezant of all things. I can’t remember his last 2 though. I picked Krookodile and Amoongus for this. While he chose the Buffalo and sheep plant, as I expected. My amoongus started off with rage powder, pulling in a close combat from Terakion (with the mushroom laughing off the damage and punishing Terakion with effect spore’s paralasis), while the Whimsicot used Tailwind. Krookodile them unleashed hell with his Earthquake, OHKOing his Terakion, but unfortunatly amoongus went with him due to a crit.
I sent Eelektross, while my opponent went with Unfezant and a pokemon I cant remember. Krook was wounded so I protect with him. Luckily my opponent hit with a power herbed sky attack on krook, wasting the item. And Eelektross hit with a paralysing discharge. Krook and Eelektross then finish the match off. I shake my opponents hand, and he admits that once he saw I had picked Amoongus he knew it was all over.
Round 4. Now I am pleased I had made it so far, my legs were shaking. My next opponent was going to be tougher than any before. I chatted to him beforehand, he said this was his first tourney, but I wasn’t about to let my guard down. Team preview showed me Scrafty, Conkeldurr, Terakion, Chandelure, Whimsicott and Druddigon. This looked powerful, but on seeing Terakion and whimsicott again I decided to pick the same pokemon as last round. I sent Amoongus and krook out, expecting Terakion and Whimsicott, but was surprised by Chandelure and Scrafty. Fearing a fire attack I protect with Amoongus, and earthquake with krook. Scrafty uses fake out on Amoongus (This was infact a misclick by my opponent), and Krook outpaces Chandelure removing 2/3 of its HP and 1/3 of Scraftys. Heat wave hits, doing alot to Krook.
I am certain I can eliminate Chandelure this turn so I aim a spore at scrafty, to take it out of the battle and make it a dead weight. Chandelure falls to earthquake as expected, Amoongus takes little damage from it and Scrafty goes down to 1/3. It then hits Amoongus with crunch, lowering its defense. But Amoongus’s effect spore comes into play! Putting scrafty to sleep, on thinking that this just wasted Amoongus’s attack, Scrafty then uses its Lum berry to wake up, and then tragically is sent back to sleep by spore. I apologise to my opponent for that. He responds with Conkeldurr, do I foresee a protect here? I make a big mistake though and forget about amoongus’s defense drop and don’t use protect. So in taking out Scrafty with Earthquake, Amoongus goes down too =(. And conkeldurr as predicted protects and burns itself.
I send in Eelektross, eager on avenging Amoongus for the mistake. While my opponent sends out Druddigon. I protect on Krook expecting correctly a mach punch. Druddigon uses an attack on Eelektross that does 2/3 of damage to him 0.0. Turns out he has a life orb. Eelektross’s discharge gets a crit on Conkeldurr, shaving 2/3 of its HP off and paralising Druddigon! Things are looking up again. Krook cant survive though, and goes down to mach punch. But eelektross gets revenge with discharge KOing Conkeldurr, but he then goes down to Druddigon’s dragon claw. Final pokemon. Archeops is sent out. I am confident here I can KO druddigon after all the life orb damage its taken. But suddenly it goes first with sucker punch! Then as a last effort of Eelektross’s attack shows Druddigon only goes first to be paralysed, while Archeops uses acrobatics for the win. I thank my opponent for such a challenging match, but admit that without that luck he would be going on instead of me.
I enter the finalists lounge. Never in my entire trip did I think I would make it here. I was just hoping to get past my old record. I hand over my pokemon for checking, and chat with some of the other finalists. One of which was one of the guys I had met in the first queue earlier.
The staff explain the pass system and hand out the cards. A pass! Woot! Although this left me sitting there for ages waiting for a battle, almost wish I had got a battle card.
Things were looking up though, top 16 on my second try, San Diego within my grasp, I might be able to do it. I face off against one of the people I talked to in the lounge earlier. His 2 reserves I cant remember, but he used Hydraigon, Conkledurr, Whimsicott and Darmanitan.
I don’t know quite what to make of this, so I pick Krook and Eelektross. While he goes with Conkeldurr and Whimsicott. Conkeldurr is retreated after being intimidated, to be replaced with hydraigon. Most of this match now descends into a blurr of my useing ineffective moves or being protected against perfectly. Krook and Eelektross crumble, only managing to take out Whimsicott in the process. I send Archeops and Conkeldurr out, while he goes with Darmanitan. Repeated uses of protect by Hydraigon keep it alive, while I stupidly kept trying to Mach punch it when it was obvious he would protect. Conkeldurr goes down to Darmanitans massive power, and archeops takes over 50% from it in the next turn. But Archeops uses rock slide to KO both pokemon, leaving him with only one. Conkeldurr.
I had gotten so far this day, further than I had hoped or imagined. But it had to end at some point. Conkeldurr used mach punch for the win. I shook my opponents hand, congratulating him. While the lady with Mic came over and proceeded to ask questions about the match, with me admitting I had messed up.
The competition over for me I made my way to the battle area with the big screens and spent the rest of the time until the finals there.
All in all it was a fun day, and I did better than expected. I hope you enjoyed reading my warstory.
I have prepared my team long in advance of this, not wanting a repeat of last year where I was doing added touches in the morning before the tournament.
I set off for Euston in the morning, being very paranoid of going all the way there and not being far enough in the line. This wasn’t helped by my nerves. I had had no true practice at all, resorting to just using the battle subway.
Arrive at Euston, waited 45mins for a train. And spent over an hour in the most boring train ride ever. Nobody to even talk too. -_-
I get there on time though, and line up. Meet some cool people, and then, after all the wait. It was time to battle.
This was the team I used, I was worried because I didn’t RNG, and thought I might be flattened if I came up against one.
Krookodile: Adamant.Focus sash
252atk 92HP 164Spd
Crunch
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Protect
Eelektross: Modest.Sitrus Berry
252Spatk 252HP 4SpDef
Discharge
Flamethrower
Grass knot
Protect
Conkeldurr: Brave.Flame orb
252HP 252Atk
Mach punch
Drain Punch
Protect
Rock Slide
Archeops: Jolly.Flight gem
252Atk 252Spd 4HP
Acrobatics
Earthquake
Rock Slide
Protect
Zoroark: Nieve.Dark gem
252SpAtk 252Spd 4Atk
Sucker punch
Dark pulse
Flamethrower
Protect
Amoongus: Calm.Mental Herb
252HP 252SpDef 4Def
Giga drain
Spore
Rage Powder
Protect
The strategy was to use Krookodile and Eelektross to spam discharge/EQ without damaging each other. With Conkeldurr and Archeops being backup sweepers, Zoroark being there, just to put my opponent off during their selection. And amoongus was there to counter Whimmsicot/Terakion combo.
My first round opponent I had a chat with in the 3rd queue, I don’t think he EV-trained as he seemed to use ingame moves (fly). Due to my piss poor memory I cant remember much about the match. But I do remember he led with a Haxorus which at first scared me, and then a stoutland, which lacked intimidate. He was a very nice chap, but seemed rather disheartened with himself beforehand. I felt rather bad for winning that.
Second round. Now, here was where I fell last year to GEC. This time I hoped to get past it. One look at my opponents team and it spelled out competitive, Landourus, Thundurus, Volcarona, Archeops and two others I dont remember. This wasn’t going to be easy. I started off with Krookodile and eelektross, hoping to face the double genies, which I had thought beforehand couldn’t get past my lead. Instead he led with Archeops and Volcarona. I thought that my krookodile might be able to servive a round and knock them down with rock slide, while eelektross went with discharge. Archeops went first with a rock slide, knocking out krooks sash, then Volcarona hit with fire gem heat wave, knocking krook out of the match instantly, this was a very bad start. Eelektross survived and didnt flinch, discharge did almost nothing to Volcarona, but knocked Archeops into defeatist range, and paralised it! Sweet!
I responded with my own Archeops, hoping for a turnaround. My faith in the little dino paid off. A rock slide from him knocked out both Pokémon, I breathed a sigh of relief. Until Landorus was sent out (he sent out his 4th Pokémon too, but I cant for the life of me remember it, but it was knocked out fairly quickly). I had forgotten to check beforehand whether Archeops was faster than Landorus, shit. I hit Acrobatics, and hoped for the best. Archeops used its flight gem. Archeops used acrobatics. Landorus fainted.
Commence audible sigh. That had me very rattled. I shook my opponents hand, thanked him for such a good, but difficult, match and moved on to the stage I had been aiming for all day.
Round 3. I had achieved my personal goal. Anything more was a bonus. My opponents team showed me something I had been anticipating, Whimsicot and Terakion. Along with a Jellicent and Unfezant of all things. I can’t remember his last 2 though. I picked Krookodile and Amoongus for this. While he chose the Buffalo and sheep plant, as I expected. My amoongus started off with rage powder, pulling in a close combat from Terakion (with the mushroom laughing off the damage and punishing Terakion with effect spore’s paralasis), while the Whimsicot used Tailwind. Krookodile them unleashed hell with his Earthquake, OHKOing his Terakion, but unfortunatly amoongus went with him due to a crit.
I sent Eelektross, while my opponent went with Unfezant and a pokemon I cant remember. Krook was wounded so I protect with him. Luckily my opponent hit with a power herbed sky attack on krook, wasting the item. And Eelektross hit with a paralysing discharge. Krook and Eelektross then finish the match off. I shake my opponents hand, and he admits that once he saw I had picked Amoongus he knew it was all over.
Round 4. Now I am pleased I had made it so far, my legs were shaking. My next opponent was going to be tougher than any before. I chatted to him beforehand, he said this was his first tourney, but I wasn’t about to let my guard down. Team preview showed me Scrafty, Conkeldurr, Terakion, Chandelure, Whimsicott and Druddigon. This looked powerful, but on seeing Terakion and whimsicott again I decided to pick the same pokemon as last round. I sent Amoongus and krook out, expecting Terakion and Whimsicott, but was surprised by Chandelure and Scrafty. Fearing a fire attack I protect with Amoongus, and earthquake with krook. Scrafty uses fake out on Amoongus (This was infact a misclick by my opponent), and Krook outpaces Chandelure removing 2/3 of its HP and 1/3 of Scraftys. Heat wave hits, doing alot to Krook.
I am certain I can eliminate Chandelure this turn so I aim a spore at scrafty, to take it out of the battle and make it a dead weight. Chandelure falls to earthquake as expected, Amoongus takes little damage from it and Scrafty goes down to 1/3. It then hits Amoongus with crunch, lowering its defense. But Amoongus’s effect spore comes into play! Putting scrafty to sleep, on thinking that this just wasted Amoongus’s attack, Scrafty then uses its Lum berry to wake up, and then tragically is sent back to sleep by spore. I apologise to my opponent for that. He responds with Conkeldurr, do I foresee a protect here? I make a big mistake though and forget about amoongus’s defense drop and don’t use protect. So in taking out Scrafty with Earthquake, Amoongus goes down too =(. And conkeldurr as predicted protects and burns itself.
I send in Eelektross, eager on avenging Amoongus for the mistake. While my opponent sends out Druddigon. I protect on Krook expecting correctly a mach punch. Druddigon uses an attack on Eelektross that does 2/3 of damage to him 0.0. Turns out he has a life orb. Eelektross’s discharge gets a crit on Conkeldurr, shaving 2/3 of its HP off and paralising Druddigon! Things are looking up again. Krook cant survive though, and goes down to mach punch. But eelektross gets revenge with discharge KOing Conkeldurr, but he then goes down to Druddigon’s dragon claw. Final pokemon. Archeops is sent out. I am confident here I can KO druddigon after all the life orb damage its taken. But suddenly it goes first with sucker punch! Then as a last effort of Eelektross’s attack shows Druddigon only goes first to be paralysed, while Archeops uses acrobatics for the win. I thank my opponent for such a challenging match, but admit that without that luck he would be going on instead of me.
I enter the finalists lounge. Never in my entire trip did I think I would make it here. I was just hoping to get past my old record. I hand over my pokemon for checking, and chat with some of the other finalists. One of which was one of the guys I had met in the first queue earlier.
The staff explain the pass system and hand out the cards. A pass! Woot! Although this left me sitting there for ages waiting for a battle, almost wish I had got a battle card.
Things were looking up though, top 16 on my second try, San Diego within my grasp, I might be able to do it. I face off against one of the people I talked to in the lounge earlier. His 2 reserves I cant remember, but he used Hydraigon, Conkledurr, Whimsicott and Darmanitan.
I don’t know quite what to make of this, so I pick Krook and Eelektross. While he goes with Conkeldurr and Whimsicott. Conkeldurr is retreated after being intimidated, to be replaced with hydraigon. Most of this match now descends into a blurr of my useing ineffective moves or being protected against perfectly. Krook and Eelektross crumble, only managing to take out Whimsicott in the process. I send Archeops and Conkeldurr out, while he goes with Darmanitan. Repeated uses of protect by Hydraigon keep it alive, while I stupidly kept trying to Mach punch it when it was obvious he would protect. Conkeldurr goes down to Darmanitans massive power, and archeops takes over 50% from it in the next turn. But Archeops uses rock slide to KO both pokemon, leaving him with only one. Conkeldurr.
I had gotten so far this day, further than I had hoped or imagined. But it had to end at some point. Conkeldurr used mach punch for the win. I shook my opponents hand, congratulating him. While the lady with Mic came over and proceeded to ask questions about the match, with me admitting I had messed up.
The competition over for me I made my way to the battle area with the big screens and spent the rest of the time until the finals there.
All in all it was a fun day, and I did better than expected. I hope you enjoyed reading my warstory.
