The Tale of a Mr. MSankey
~by Ray Rizzo
First let’s meet the champion, Msankey
But wait, MSankey has a clone!? Why yes, another MSankey, Omari “BadIntent” Travis
The powerful trainer whose room I crashed in on Thursday and onward. Please don’t quit VGC BI!
Friends of a Mr. MSankey:
Thomas “PokemonBattleBrain” Mifflin
A Pokemon Master, a Skarmory on defense in Foosball, and a great person IRL.
Dan “Dtrain” Levinson
Very tall, always a lot of fun hanging out with Dan.
Dale “Kinneas” Jacob
A strong trainer who was very kind and let me room with him Wednesday night. Not very good at cantar.
Rees “Mrs.Blackbird” Hamilton
Another Pokemon Master, and was a very chill (not cold) mate.
Ruben “RubeNCB” Puig Lecegui
HOLA! MUY BIEN A LA DISCO Y MUY BIEN A LA CANTAR! Was a lot of fun to hang out with, and he was very good at picking up girls using very “interesting” methods and getting straight to the point. SEX? SEX? SEX?
Albert “Albert” Bos Puig
MUCHO FUERTE Y BUENO A LA NADAR. The highest ranked European in Worlds, as well as a good translator for Ruben.
Mario “Kefka” Diaz de Cerio Beltran
KEEFFFFFKAAA. A very nice guy, and helped translate a lot of what Ruben was saying.
Mike “skarm” Papagianis
A member of Team Mike and Team Canada, was a lot of fun to crush in foosball to help boost my self esteem. Also steals people’s seats even when their drink and ketchup packets are sitting on the table there.
Don-yull “Zog” Nolan
Much less “British” than Dale and Rees. I pictured him as creepy with snakes and beetles crawling all over him, but he ended up being only a little weird! J/K he was a very nice guy.
Joseph “Ninahaza” Ninahaza
A great photographer and a great person to hang around with. I even saw him walk on the pool water I swear.
Ryan “Deagle” Schambers
A very powerful battler, but unfortunately he thought Haunter was stronger than Skarmory and Blissey.
Alan “Metabou” Schambers
A more powerful battler, he understood how powerful Skarmory and Blissey are and wore the electrode with wings shirt well.
Mike “OmegaDonut” Suleski
A powerful member of Team Mike and a very good strategist. Unfortunately he is not very good at using crayons.
Len “Alaka” Deuel
A good mentor for TCG and good at trolling kids. Doesn’t speak a word of Spanish though.
Mike “drcossack” Sankey
He unfortunately couldn’t make it to the Seattle VGC, the Atlanta VGC, the Newark VGC, Nationals, or Worlds, all after he said he would definitely be there. Because of three unforeseen deaths in the family or his Mom’s wedding, I named my trainer name after my good friend Mike Sankey.
Wednesday: I wake up early to catch my flight out of Philly ay 11 AM. I stupidly forget to eat breakfast, especially since I know I’m going to Hawaii where the food is very expensive. I connect in Dallas and LA before flying to Kona, so I spent most of my day in an airport or on an airplane. When I arrive in the Kona “airport” I meet up with Dan. At the instant I find Dan in the crowd Dale walks up to us, asking if one of us is Dtrain. We introduce ourselves and grab a taxi to the resort for a pricey $64. Luckily there were 3 of us so we split the cost. Less than a minute after we walk into the lobby we are greeted by none other than UK’s Finest, Rees! Dale gets his room key and Rees joins us in the room. We hang out in the room for a bit, use the free internet that was only in the lobby, and call it a night. Tomorrow is the day most people arrive, so we look forward to a really fun day and restore our health for 2 turns.
Thursday: We get up early and try to find some breakfast on the resort grounds, but $10 for 2 bowls of cereal and milk and a $30 cereal buffet are not the kinds of meals we’re looking for. We instead try to find the food court, but don’t walk an extra block and instead stop at the wrong shopping mall. There really isn’t much food to buy there, and all the food there was pretty expensive, so I have to wait until later to eat. When we get back to the hotel, we hang out in the lobby, use the free internet, watch Dan play the TCG, and finally greet Thomas and Omari, my two roommates for the rest of the weekend. Len joins us, and his giant sized Pokemon cards attract pokemon fanatics like a combee to honey.I was this close to not winning the World Championship because I almost died of laughter, and Dale really though I was dying haha. Tomorrow is the LCQ so we make sure to get some sleep since Thomas still needs to qualify.
Friday/LCQ: We wake up expecting a large Japanese turnout, but only 2 end up entering. America’s chances in worlds seem to get a whole lot stronger now! Thomas, Omari, and I end up getting breakfast on the resort grounds due to time, so I settle for 2 sausage egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches for $9, the breakfast of a champion. When we get down to the LCQ line, we see Dan, Don-yull, Ninahaza, Mike (Suleski), Erik (FMasamune) and all those who have already qualified cheering. Here I first meet team Spain. I get a picture with Rube and Albert, and we all watch the LCQ unfold.
There were some unfortunate knockouts, Chris Tsai, Mike (Suleski), Dan, and Don-yull were all knocked out. However, many did advance past the three rounds, including Thomas, Erik (FMasamune) and Ninahaza. One of the two Japanese players made it through too. We decide to celebrate and go to the food court. On the way we catch up with the Spaniards to learn a little Spanish. The Spaniards almost join us, but decide against it.
We hang out in the open gaming room, and Len lets me borrow his strong Gyarados deck, and I enter two TCG side events. I lose the first round to an 8 year old kid in the first tournament, but redeem myself in tournament two by defeating a 7 year old kid in the first round!
We end up going to the food court again, and spend the rest of the night in the lobby, hanging out, battling Japanese, and just chillin.
We see Rube and Albert with these two girls who don’t speak any Spanish, so that was pretty funny when we talked to them. Tomorrow is the big day so Thomas, Omari, Rees and I head back to Omari’s room to finish strategizing and deciding on which of our many strong teams to use. We don’t go to bed until 2 AM so when we wake up next morning we are all a little tired.
Saturday/Nationals (Swiss):Today is the big day! We wake up early again and get some breakfast at the same place we got breakfast yesterday. I can never eat before a big event, dating back to my time playing yugioh, so I only get one breakfast sandwich today. We meet up with Ruben, Albert, KEEFFFFFKAA, Ninahaza, Don-yull, and Mike (Canada).
We hang out until it’s time for pairings. When they put up pairings I see I have to play Omari round 1! They must be anti-skarmbliss or something! Luckily they ended up only being seating assignments to collect team sheets. When they put up the real round 1 pairings I see I have to play Judd (Kongler).
Now would be a good time to show you guys what I used this tournament.
Hariyama@ Flame Orb *Tom Sawyer
Brave
4 HP/252 Atk/252 SpDef
~Low Kick
~Fake Out
~Earthquake
~Protect
Cresselia@ Sitrus Berry *Limelight
Sassy
252 HP/4 SpAtk/252 SpDef
~Psychic
~Helping Hand
~Trick Room
~Light Screen
Dialga@ Chople Berry *FlyByNight
Quiet
244 HP/252 SpAtk/12 SpDef
~Dragon Pulse
~Thunder
~Flamethrower
~Trick Room
Kyogre@ Macho Brace *Freewill
Quiet
244 HP/12 Def/252 SpAtk
~Water Spout
~Thunder
~Ice Beam
~Protect
Groudon@ Iron Ball *RedSectorA
Brave
244 HP/252 Atk/12 SpDef
~Earthquake
~Rock Slide
~Fling
~Protect
Ludicolo@ Life Orb *YYZ
Modest
4 HP/252 SpAtk/252 Speed
~Grass Knot
~Hydro Pump
~Leech Seed
~Protect
As you can tell it’s a TR team, using the strongest Pokemon in the game. In swiss I used Hariyama/Cresselia/Dialga/Kyogre in every first battle. Rush is a powerful band and a lot of their powerful songs fit the 10 character limit (unlike U2 ) so I named my strong Pokemon after them.
Round One vs. Judd:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8927620
The stream is there so not much to comment on. It was a really tough match, and was the toughest win I had all day. Very good games Judd. If someone else recorded the match and put it on you tube let me know so I can link to that instead.
1-0
Round Two vs. Erik (FMasamune):
[Abomasnow/Ho-oh/Groudon/Cresselia/?/?]
I forget most of this match, but I remember getting pretty lucky game 1 with a critical hit on his calm mind Cresselia. Game two was really close, he spread paralysis on my team and there were a lot of fully paralyzes or flinches and I had to avoid enough of them to win which I ended up doing. I won 2-0, GG’s.
2-0
Now we take a lunch break. Me, Thomas, Omari, Alan and Ryan Schambers, The Spaniards, Don-yull, and Dale all eat at a very crowded place on the resort grounds(MUY LENTO).
Rube and I order a pizza and split it, but it doesn’t come for a very long time and Rube gets pretty annoyed and tries to get our waitresses attention many times until she finally acknowledges him lol. QUIERO MI COMIDA! The girls Rube and Albert were hanging with the night before came to our lunch table for a bit, and thought we all spoke Spanish. Unfortunately they wouldn’t join us for lunch and instead went swimming. After lunch we go back and resume the swiss rounds.
Round Three vs. Yasuki Tochigi
[Lugia/Infernape/Kyogre/Ludicolo/Tyranitar/Palkia]
This match went pretty poorly for me. Game 1, he didn’t know my team, I switched Hariyama out for Dialga, but he predicted that somehow and Earth Powered my Dialga switchin, dealing a lot of damage because of Life Orb. This ultimately ended up costing me the battle. Game two his Ludicolo managed to stall me out, as I could not get a spdef drop with Cresselia’s Psychic or a critical hit for quite a few turns so he eventually sapped all my health with Leech Seed. I lost 2-0, GG’s
2-1
Round 4 vs. Len Deuel
[Kyogre/Abomasnow/Hitmontop/Mewtwo/Blissey/?]
The first game he freezes my Cresselia, which costs me the game. But if I played a little better I might have won, the damage roll would have been really close though. Games two and three I don’t get frozen so I end up winning both. Len’s Focus Sash Mewtwo got me in game 2, but luckily it didn’t mess me up like Duy’s Focus Sash Groudon was known to mess up battlers. I won 2-1, GG’s
3-1
Round 5 vs. Shuuta Tamanaha
[Giratina/Toxicroak/Metagross/Dialga/?/?]
He was 2-2 at this point, which made me think my tiebreakers would be no good if I won this round and lost the next. This guy was the same guy I battled in the lobby the night before, so he was pretty surprised when he saw he was matched up against me, especially since I beat him the night before. These battles were pretty easy, but Cresselia survived Metagross’s explosion with a sliver of health both games. The first time he shouted KAAAA thinking it KO’d Cresselia, but when he saw the item activate, he thought I had sash and was very confused until he saw it was sitrus. I won 2-0, GG’s
4-1
Round 6 vs. Isao Yoshioka
[Kyogre/Ludicolo/Cresselia/Dialga/Groudon/Togekiss]
Isao was 5-0 at the time, so I had a gut feeling this guy was the runner up in Japan’s Nationals (Who I predicted to be the best Japanese player there). I called over a translator to ask, and sure enough he was. I knew this would be a very tough battle, and it ended up being my best match all tournament. As you can see we had five of the same Pokemon, with the only difference being Hariyama and Togekiss. Game 1 he got incredibly lucky and won in what ended up being a pretty close battle despite the luck. Game 2 he got incredibly lucky again in the beginning, but when I got a crit water spout on his Groudon from my low health Kyogre, OHKOing it, the game turned around and I ended up winning in another close battle. I saved this battle video, but we ended up having to delete all battle videos the next day to save each battle in the top 8 to verify the score. Game 3 had little hax, but it went down right to the end. It became a prediction war and I just needed to guess what he would do for at least one of the last two turns, but he out predicted me both turns and won the battle in another really close and good game. He saved this battle, but as I said earlier he had to delete it . At least Isao was 6-0 so it really boosted my tiebreakers, which ended up being good enough to qualify for the Top 8 tomorrow!
Final Record: 4-2 / 6th Place
My first round opponent would be the one Japanese player to make it out of the LCQ. He was known as “Lanturn guy” because he owned the LCQ with Lanturn. After we checked the standings and saw that Huy, Alan, Ryan and I were the four US qualifiers, we headed out to the food court again to celebrate.
While there I learned how to curse from Ruben and Albert. I’m learning more Spanish now than I learned in my three years in high school! While waiting for the shuttle, Ruben teaches me how to sing a Spanish love song. I get the chorus down perfectly if I may say so myself. Rees joins us and learns the chorus pretty quickly too! Kinneas comes down to the Lobby too, and we catch him by surprise and teach him to sing! He unfortunately doesn’t have a bright future in singing. Finally almost everyone in the lobby joins in, and we sound pretty good! After the singing, we decide to head over to the foosball table. We have a mini world cup, with Spain, Canada, France, the UK, and even other US teams competing. Team skarmbliss (Thomas and I) went undefeated. GG’s.
The girls that Rube and Albert were with a few times earlier this weekend saw us and we tried to get them to play foosball, but they were too scared of our power and went back to their room. Rube and Albert saw this as a perfect opportunity for SEX? SEX? SEX? And tried to work their magic. Unfortunately, they were only 17 and their parents were there, so Rube and Albert had to come back down and lose in foosball some more. Poor guys couldn’t win in foosball or with girls . We stay up really late considering I had to get up early and play in the top 8 tomorrow. At 2 AM I finally go to bed.
Sunday/Nationals (Top 8):I wake up and head to the lobby to run some quick damage calcs on Rotom and Lanturn.
I see that if Rotom has anything more than 252 HP I likely won’t OHKO it with Ludicolo’s Hydro Pump. I also see that Lanturn takes nothing from Ludicolo’s Grass Knot. I decide that using Kyogre/Ludicolo/Cresselia/Groudon would give me the best chance of winning.
Top 8 vs. Takushi Morishima
[Groudon/Rotom/Lanturn/Kyogre/Togekiss/?]
Game 1 Hydro Pump luckily hits and OHKOs his Rotom. After this Ludicolo rampages through his team. Game 2 I win easily again, by finishing off Togekiss before letting Ludicolo own him. I won 2-0, GG’s
Top 4 vs. Wataru Onishi
[Groudon/Cresselia/Dialga/Snorlax/?/?]
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8952320 (Battle 1 Part 1)
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8952518 (Battle 1 Part 2)
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8952584 (Battle 2)
My 2 battles were caught on the stream, so not much to say about the battle itself. It was pretty one sided. I use the Kyogre/Ludicolo/Cresselia/Groudon team again because against the Japanese I feel it’s a better team than Hariyama/Cresselia/Dialga/Kyogre. I won 2-0, GG’s
I get interviewed for a bit, and then decide to relax by going swimming. NADAR! I have become the highest placing American senior, and have already won an invite and a trip to San Diego for next year’s Worlds. I just need to relax and get TRANQUILLO. Thomas, Rees, Ruben, Albert, KEEFFFFFKAA and I all go swimming and hit around the ultra ball.
We decide to try out the water slide, but because we don’t have wristbands we can only go on it once. It was a ton of fun though. The water’s starting to get cold because the sun isn’t out and we haven’t seen any CHICAS. Where else better can we go than the Hot tub!
Jeremy and Dale join us and we hit around the ultra ball some more. Unfortunately the only girls we found were 6 year olds who got the ultra ball for us whenever it flew out of the hot tub. It’s now time to go back to the main room, watch juniors, and then battle in the finals. After thinking it over and talking to Thomas and Rees, I decide Groudon/Cresselia/Dialga/Ludicolo would be the best team to use. Mike (Suleski) comes over and starts strategizing on paper using a crayon. Unfortunately he was MUY FUERTE and broke the crayon. Time to resort to Pokesaving my team and my opponents team to test. During the making of the team they make me sit in the front row next to my opponent, so I can’t test team matchups. However, I believe Thomas and Mike (Suleski) tested my team against Yasuki Tochigi’s and gave me a thumbs up signaling that I had a decent shot.
The Finals! vs. Yasuki Tochigi (Rematch!)
[Lugia/Infernape/Kyogre/Ludicolo/Tyranitar/Palkia]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWEjUxpUGQQ (Battle 1 Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7wS9bnyttc (Battle 1 Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OIj9YC7O44 (Battle 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d-iCZfwW40 (Battle 3)
Whether I got less lucky than I did in the third battle and lost or not, I think I sure gave the audience a good show. It was a very intense match to watch (people losing their voices cheering, people falling off their chairs…) so you can only imagine what it was like to play the match. After I won, I was swamped with photos and interviews, and when it finally ended I had to catch my flight to Des Moines to go to college. I got packed in my room, learned my last bit of Spanish, and finally had to say goodbye to all the cool people I met and hung out with over the weekend.
I just want to give a quick shoutout before I end this story. I never would have gotten as far as I did if not for Mike Liesik and TPCi, for removing the lottery which kept me and a lot of other players out last year, and giving all players the chance to participate. This year was a ton of fun, and I can't wait to see all you guys again next year. ADIOS!
~by Ray Rizzo
First let’s meet the champion, Msankey
But wait, MSankey has a clone!? Why yes, another MSankey, Omari “BadIntent” Travis
The powerful trainer whose room I crashed in on Thursday and onward. Please don’t quit VGC BI!
Friends of a Mr. MSankey:
Thomas “PokemonBattleBrain” Mifflin
A Pokemon Master, a Skarmory on defense in Foosball, and a great person IRL.
Dan “Dtrain” Levinson
Very tall, always a lot of fun hanging out with Dan.
Dale “Kinneas” Jacob
A strong trainer who was very kind and let me room with him Wednesday night. Not very good at cantar.
Rees “Mrs.Blackbird” Hamilton
Another Pokemon Master, and was a very chill (not cold) mate.
Ruben “RubeNCB” Puig Lecegui
HOLA! MUY BIEN A LA DISCO Y MUY BIEN A LA CANTAR! Was a lot of fun to hang out with, and he was very good at picking up girls using very “interesting” methods and getting straight to the point. SEX? SEX? SEX?
Albert “Albert” Bos Puig
MUCHO FUERTE Y BUENO A LA NADAR. The highest ranked European in Worlds, as well as a good translator for Ruben.
Mario “Kefka” Diaz de Cerio Beltran
KEEFFFFFKAAA. A very nice guy, and helped translate a lot of what Ruben was saying.
Mike “skarm” Papagianis
A member of Team Mike and Team Canada, was a lot of fun to crush in foosball to help boost my self esteem. Also steals people’s seats even when their drink and ketchup packets are sitting on the table there.
Don-yull “Zog” Nolan
Much less “British” than Dale and Rees. I pictured him as creepy with snakes and beetles crawling all over him, but he ended up being only a little weird! J/K he was a very nice guy.
Joseph “Ninahaza” Ninahaza
A great photographer and a great person to hang around with. I even saw him walk on the pool water I swear.
Ryan “Deagle” Schambers
A very powerful battler, but unfortunately he thought Haunter was stronger than Skarmory and Blissey.
Alan “Metabou” Schambers
A more powerful battler, he understood how powerful Skarmory and Blissey are and wore the electrode with wings shirt well.
Mike “OmegaDonut” Suleski
A powerful member of Team Mike and a very good strategist. Unfortunately he is not very good at using crayons.
Len “Alaka” Deuel
A good mentor for TCG and good at trolling kids. Doesn’t speak a word of Spanish though.
Mike “drcossack” Sankey
He unfortunately couldn’t make it to the Seattle VGC, the Atlanta VGC, the Newark VGC, Nationals, or Worlds, all after he said he would definitely be there. Because of three unforeseen deaths in the family or his Mom’s wedding, I named my trainer name after my good friend Mike Sankey.
Wednesday: I wake up early to catch my flight out of Philly ay 11 AM. I stupidly forget to eat breakfast, especially since I know I’m going to Hawaii where the food is very expensive. I connect in Dallas and LA before flying to Kona, so I spent most of my day in an airport or on an airplane. When I arrive in the Kona “airport” I meet up with Dan. At the instant I find Dan in the crowd Dale walks up to us, asking if one of us is Dtrain. We introduce ourselves and grab a taxi to the resort for a pricey $64. Luckily there were 3 of us so we split the cost. Less than a minute after we walk into the lobby we are greeted by none other than UK’s Finest, Rees! Dale gets his room key and Rees joins us in the room. We hang out in the room for a bit, use the free internet that was only in the lobby, and call it a night. Tomorrow is the day most people arrive, so we look forward to a really fun day and restore our health for 2 turns.
Thursday: We get up early and try to find some breakfast on the resort grounds, but $10 for 2 bowls of cereal and milk and a $30 cereal buffet are not the kinds of meals we’re looking for. We instead try to find the food court, but don’t walk an extra block and instead stop at the wrong shopping mall. There really isn’t much food to buy there, and all the food there was pretty expensive, so I have to wait until later to eat. When we get back to the hotel, we hang out in the lobby, use the free internet, watch Dan play the TCG, and finally greet Thomas and Omari, my two roommates for the rest of the weekend. Len joins us, and his giant sized Pokemon cards attract pokemon fanatics like a combee to honey.I was this close to not winning the World Championship because I almost died of laughter, and Dale really though I was dying haha. Tomorrow is the LCQ so we make sure to get some sleep since Thomas still needs to qualify.
Friday/LCQ: We wake up expecting a large Japanese turnout, but only 2 end up entering. America’s chances in worlds seem to get a whole lot stronger now! Thomas, Omari, and I end up getting breakfast on the resort grounds due to time, so I settle for 2 sausage egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches for $9, the breakfast of a champion. When we get down to the LCQ line, we see Dan, Don-yull, Ninahaza, Mike (Suleski), Erik (FMasamune) and all those who have already qualified cheering. Here I first meet team Spain. I get a picture with Rube and Albert, and we all watch the LCQ unfold.
There were some unfortunate knockouts, Chris Tsai, Mike (Suleski), Dan, and Don-yull were all knocked out. However, many did advance past the three rounds, including Thomas, Erik (FMasamune) and Ninahaza. One of the two Japanese players made it through too. We decide to celebrate and go to the food court. On the way we catch up with the Spaniards to learn a little Spanish. The Spaniards almost join us, but decide against it.
We hang out in the open gaming room, and Len lets me borrow his strong Gyarados deck, and I enter two TCG side events. I lose the first round to an 8 year old kid in the first tournament, but redeem myself in tournament two by defeating a 7 year old kid in the first round!
We end up going to the food court again, and spend the rest of the night in the lobby, hanging out, battling Japanese, and just chillin.
We see Rube and Albert with these two girls who don’t speak any Spanish, so that was pretty funny when we talked to them. Tomorrow is the big day so Thomas, Omari, Rees and I head back to Omari’s room to finish strategizing and deciding on which of our many strong teams to use. We don’t go to bed until 2 AM so when we wake up next morning we are all a little tired.
Saturday/Nationals (Swiss):Today is the big day! We wake up early again and get some breakfast at the same place we got breakfast yesterday. I can never eat before a big event, dating back to my time playing yugioh, so I only get one breakfast sandwich today. We meet up with Ruben, Albert, KEEFFFFFKAA, Ninahaza, Don-yull, and Mike (Canada).
We hang out until it’s time for pairings. When they put up pairings I see I have to play Omari round 1! They must be anti-skarmbliss or something! Luckily they ended up only being seating assignments to collect team sheets. When they put up the real round 1 pairings I see I have to play Judd (Kongler).
Now would be a good time to show you guys what I used this tournament.
Hariyama@ Flame Orb *Tom Sawyer
Brave
4 HP/252 Atk/252 SpDef
~Low Kick
~Fake Out
~Earthquake
~Protect
Cresselia@ Sitrus Berry *Limelight
Sassy
252 HP/4 SpAtk/252 SpDef
~Psychic
~Helping Hand
~Trick Room
~Light Screen
Dialga@ Chople Berry *FlyByNight
Quiet
244 HP/252 SpAtk/12 SpDef
~Dragon Pulse
~Thunder
~Flamethrower
~Trick Room
Kyogre@ Macho Brace *Freewill
Quiet
244 HP/12 Def/252 SpAtk
~Water Spout
~Thunder
~Ice Beam
~Protect
Groudon@ Iron Ball *RedSectorA
Brave
244 HP/252 Atk/12 SpDef
~Earthquake
~Rock Slide
~Fling
~Protect
Ludicolo@ Life Orb *YYZ
Modest
4 HP/252 SpAtk/252 Speed
~Grass Knot
~Hydro Pump
~Leech Seed
~Protect
As you can tell it’s a TR team, using the strongest Pokemon in the game. In swiss I used Hariyama/Cresselia/Dialga/Kyogre in every first battle. Rush is a powerful band and a lot of their powerful songs fit the 10 character limit (unlike U2 ) so I named my strong Pokemon after them.
Round One vs. Judd:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8927620
The stream is there so not much to comment on. It was a really tough match, and was the toughest win I had all day. Very good games Judd. If someone else recorded the match and put it on you tube let me know so I can link to that instead.
1-0
Round Two vs. Erik (FMasamune):
[Abomasnow/Ho-oh/Groudon/Cresselia/?/?]
I forget most of this match, but I remember getting pretty lucky game 1 with a critical hit on his calm mind Cresselia. Game two was really close, he spread paralysis on my team and there were a lot of fully paralyzes or flinches and I had to avoid enough of them to win which I ended up doing. I won 2-0, GG’s.
2-0
Now we take a lunch break. Me, Thomas, Omari, Alan and Ryan Schambers, The Spaniards, Don-yull, and Dale all eat at a very crowded place on the resort grounds(MUY LENTO).
Rube and I order a pizza and split it, but it doesn’t come for a very long time and Rube gets pretty annoyed and tries to get our waitresses attention many times until she finally acknowledges him lol. QUIERO MI COMIDA! The girls Rube and Albert were hanging with the night before came to our lunch table for a bit, and thought we all spoke Spanish. Unfortunately they wouldn’t join us for lunch and instead went swimming. After lunch we go back and resume the swiss rounds.
Round Three vs. Yasuki Tochigi
[Lugia/Infernape/Kyogre/Ludicolo/Tyranitar/Palkia]
This match went pretty poorly for me. Game 1, he didn’t know my team, I switched Hariyama out for Dialga, but he predicted that somehow and Earth Powered my Dialga switchin, dealing a lot of damage because of Life Orb. This ultimately ended up costing me the battle. Game two his Ludicolo managed to stall me out, as I could not get a spdef drop with Cresselia’s Psychic or a critical hit for quite a few turns so he eventually sapped all my health with Leech Seed. I lost 2-0, GG’s
2-1
Round 4 vs. Len Deuel
[Kyogre/Abomasnow/Hitmontop/Mewtwo/Blissey/?]
The first game he freezes my Cresselia, which costs me the game. But if I played a little better I might have won, the damage roll would have been really close though. Games two and three I don’t get frozen so I end up winning both. Len’s Focus Sash Mewtwo got me in game 2, but luckily it didn’t mess me up like Duy’s Focus Sash Groudon was known to mess up battlers. I won 2-1, GG’s
3-1
Round 5 vs. Shuuta Tamanaha
[Giratina/Toxicroak/Metagross/Dialga/?/?]
He was 2-2 at this point, which made me think my tiebreakers would be no good if I won this round and lost the next. This guy was the same guy I battled in the lobby the night before, so he was pretty surprised when he saw he was matched up against me, especially since I beat him the night before. These battles were pretty easy, but Cresselia survived Metagross’s explosion with a sliver of health both games. The first time he shouted KAAAA thinking it KO’d Cresselia, but when he saw the item activate, he thought I had sash and was very confused until he saw it was sitrus. I won 2-0, GG’s
4-1
Round 6 vs. Isao Yoshioka
[Kyogre/Ludicolo/Cresselia/Dialga/Groudon/Togekiss]
Isao was 5-0 at the time, so I had a gut feeling this guy was the runner up in Japan’s Nationals (Who I predicted to be the best Japanese player there). I called over a translator to ask, and sure enough he was. I knew this would be a very tough battle, and it ended up being my best match all tournament. As you can see we had five of the same Pokemon, with the only difference being Hariyama and Togekiss. Game 1 he got incredibly lucky and won in what ended up being a pretty close battle despite the luck. Game 2 he got incredibly lucky again in the beginning, but when I got a crit water spout on his Groudon from my low health Kyogre, OHKOing it, the game turned around and I ended up winning in another close battle. I saved this battle video, but we ended up having to delete all battle videos the next day to save each battle in the top 8 to verify the score. Game 3 had little hax, but it went down right to the end. It became a prediction war and I just needed to guess what he would do for at least one of the last two turns, but he out predicted me both turns and won the battle in another really close and good game. He saved this battle, but as I said earlier he had to delete it . At least Isao was 6-0 so it really boosted my tiebreakers, which ended up being good enough to qualify for the Top 8 tomorrow!
Final Record: 4-2 / 6th Place
My first round opponent would be the one Japanese player to make it out of the LCQ. He was known as “Lanturn guy” because he owned the LCQ with Lanturn. After we checked the standings and saw that Huy, Alan, Ryan and I were the four US qualifiers, we headed out to the food court again to celebrate.
While there I learned how to curse from Ruben and Albert. I’m learning more Spanish now than I learned in my three years in high school! While waiting for the shuttle, Ruben teaches me how to sing a Spanish love song. I get the chorus down perfectly if I may say so myself. Rees joins us and learns the chorus pretty quickly too! Kinneas comes down to the Lobby too, and we catch him by surprise and teach him to sing! He unfortunately doesn’t have a bright future in singing. Finally almost everyone in the lobby joins in, and we sound pretty good! After the singing, we decide to head over to the foosball table. We have a mini world cup, with Spain, Canada, France, the UK, and even other US teams competing. Team skarmbliss (Thomas and I) went undefeated. GG’s.
The girls that Rube and Albert were with a few times earlier this weekend saw us and we tried to get them to play foosball, but they were too scared of our power and went back to their room. Rube and Albert saw this as a perfect opportunity for SEX? SEX? SEX? And tried to work their magic. Unfortunately, they were only 17 and their parents were there, so Rube and Albert had to come back down and lose in foosball some more. Poor guys couldn’t win in foosball or with girls . We stay up really late considering I had to get up early and play in the top 8 tomorrow. At 2 AM I finally go to bed.
Sunday/Nationals (Top 8):I wake up and head to the lobby to run some quick damage calcs on Rotom and Lanturn.
I see that if Rotom has anything more than 252 HP I likely won’t OHKO it with Ludicolo’s Hydro Pump. I also see that Lanturn takes nothing from Ludicolo’s Grass Knot. I decide that using Kyogre/Ludicolo/Cresselia/Groudon would give me the best chance of winning.
Top 8 vs. Takushi Morishima
[Groudon/Rotom/Lanturn/Kyogre/Togekiss/?]
Game 1 Hydro Pump luckily hits and OHKOs his Rotom. After this Ludicolo rampages through his team. Game 2 I win easily again, by finishing off Togekiss before letting Ludicolo own him. I won 2-0, GG’s
Top 4 vs. Wataru Onishi
[Groudon/Cresselia/Dialga/Snorlax/?/?]
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8952320 (Battle 1 Part 1)
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8952518 (Battle 1 Part 2)
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8952584 (Battle 2)
My 2 battles were caught on the stream, so not much to say about the battle itself. It was pretty one sided. I use the Kyogre/Ludicolo/Cresselia/Groudon team again because against the Japanese I feel it’s a better team than Hariyama/Cresselia/Dialga/Kyogre. I won 2-0, GG’s
I get interviewed for a bit, and then decide to relax by going swimming. NADAR! I have become the highest placing American senior, and have already won an invite and a trip to San Diego for next year’s Worlds. I just need to relax and get TRANQUILLO. Thomas, Rees, Ruben, Albert, KEEFFFFFKAA and I all go swimming and hit around the ultra ball.
We decide to try out the water slide, but because we don’t have wristbands we can only go on it once. It was a ton of fun though. The water’s starting to get cold because the sun isn’t out and we haven’t seen any CHICAS. Where else better can we go than the Hot tub!
Jeremy and Dale join us and we hit around the ultra ball some more. Unfortunately the only girls we found were 6 year olds who got the ultra ball for us whenever it flew out of the hot tub. It’s now time to go back to the main room, watch juniors, and then battle in the finals. After thinking it over and talking to Thomas and Rees, I decide Groudon/Cresselia/Dialga/Ludicolo would be the best team to use. Mike (Suleski) comes over and starts strategizing on paper using a crayon. Unfortunately he was MUY FUERTE and broke the crayon. Time to resort to Pokesaving my team and my opponents team to test. During the making of the team they make me sit in the front row next to my opponent, so I can’t test team matchups. However, I believe Thomas and Mike (Suleski) tested my team against Yasuki Tochigi’s and gave me a thumbs up signaling that I had a decent shot.
The Finals! vs. Yasuki Tochigi (Rematch!)
[Lugia/Infernape/Kyogre/Ludicolo/Tyranitar/Palkia]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWEjUxpUGQQ (Battle 1 Part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7wS9bnyttc (Battle 1 Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OIj9YC7O44 (Battle 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d-iCZfwW40 (Battle 3)
Whether I got less lucky than I did in the third battle and lost or not, I think I sure gave the audience a good show. It was a very intense match to watch (people losing their voices cheering, people falling off their chairs…) so you can only imagine what it was like to play the match. After I won, I was swamped with photos and interviews, and when it finally ended I had to catch my flight to Des Moines to go to college. I got packed in my room, learned my last bit of Spanish, and finally had to say goodbye to all the cool people I met and hung out with over the weekend.
I just want to give a quick shoutout before I end this story. I never would have gotten as far as I did if not for Mike Liesik and TPCi, for removing the lottery which kept me and a lot of other players out last year, and giving all players the chance to participate. This year was a ton of fun, and I can't wait to see all you guys again next year. ADIOS!