Rising Star: National Champion Wolfe Glick
National Champion Wolfe Glick
Accomplishments
2011: 1st Place Regionals, 1st Place Nationals, 6th Place World Championships
Total Winnings
2011 Regionals: Medal, 3DS, Invitation and trip to Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana
2011 Nationals: Medal, 3DS, Invitation and trip to Worlds in San Diego, California
2011 Worlds: 3DS, various Worlds exclusive items
Biography and History
At this time last year, almost no one knew who Wolfe "Wolfey" Glick was. In just a few months, he was recognized by the entire community and had made a name for himself. He was a favorite to win the World Championships, and was even considered by 2010 World Champion Ray Rizzo his biggest threat. Wolfe came into the Washington DC Regionals unheard of before, and managed to defeat known players such as Tyler and imperfectspider to win the title of Regional Champion. To most, Wolfe's Regional victory seemed like a fluke. His team was nothing like the standard teams that were winning. It utilized Pokemon such as Lum Berry Emboar that seemed bizarre to most others. However, Wolfe proved everybody wrong after winning US Nationals, defeating several well known players along the way including TDS, TRJesse, Fish, Ninahaza, R Inanimate, DukeTheDevil, and TTS. It was clear after winning Nationals that Wolfe was a force to be reckoned with. At the World Championships, Wolfe finished the first day with a 4-2 record, just high enough to seed him as 6th for the following day. Unfortunately, Wolfe's reign came to a stop as he had to play 3rd seed Ray Rizzo, a match only befitting for the finals. Wolfe was eliminated by Ray, and finished 6th overall in the world. Wolfe had an incredible VGC 2011 season, winning trips to compete at both Nationals and Worlds and being one of the two players in the world to win 3 3DS's in one year. He proved himself as an incredible trainer who not only has amazing prediction skills, but also great team building abilities. Although he underperformed at the recent fall Regionals, he will clearly be a threat at the Philadelphia Regionals in April.
Interview
Like I always start my interviews, thanks for taking some time to talk to me! Why don't you introduce yourself to everyone reading?
I'm Wolfe Glick, otherwise known as Wolfey or Superwolfe.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't last year your first year of playing VGC? How were you introduced to it?
That's right, last year was when I started VGC. I've been playing singles for a while now, and I was pretty good if I do say so myself, but when I heard there were prizes for VGC I quickly made the jump. I'd always been vaguely aware of Skarmbliss as a double battling server and once I came I never left.
Right, and you had a pretty incredible season last year year, winning both Regionals and Nationals and finishing in the top 8 in the world. you also used a really interesting and creative Trick Room team, can you tell me more about that?
Haha, thanks, it was really an incredible experience. What happened last year is that I had no experience in VGC, no idea what I was doing, and the knowledge that I wanted to use Trick Room. My original team had only four Pokemon, and one of the was Archeops, I'm ashamed to say, so clearly not the best place to start. But with no experience in VGC or effective team building for doubles, my team evolved bit by bit to the finished product. I made over 300 variants and tested some exceptionally strange thoughts. Ironically my team last year had served me better in VGC 2012 in testing than any of my actual new teams, I'm working hard to discover a team that flows as well as my previous one.
Oh yeah, while we're talking about your team from last year, can you tell me more about it? I remember it utilized really crazy sets and Pokemon such as Cofagrigus, Emboar, Thundurus, and Terrakion!
That's right, there were a couple of strange Pokemon and there and they evolved. The Pokemon that stayed consistent throughout Regionals, Nationals, and Worlds were my Mental Herb Mummy, my Standard Fake Out Scrafty, and my LO Reuniclus. Those formed the basis of my team, along with Conkeldurr who went from Leftovers to Coba Berry to Flame Orb Facade. I also found Emboar intriguing and used a Lum Set at Regionals and Worlds to counter the ever present Amoonguss. I brought a Taunt Hydreigon to Regionals to attempt both Amoonguss and Chandelure who I struggle with throughout the year, and it served me well, but I moved on to Choice Scarf Terrakion and bulky Modest Thundurus at Nationals, and an updated Flying Gem HP Flying Thundurus at Worlds. The special thing about my team was that at any given moment I could switch a Pokemon upfront that was threatened out for a resistance and an advantage, reversing the momentum of the game. That, coupled with my innate ability to predict which of my opponent's Pokemon was going to protect (which is frequent when your opponent is attempting to stall out Trick Room), served me well throughout the year.
Yeah, your team had so many different things that worked here and there. So, tell me about your VGC experiences. How did you prepare for Regionals, Nationals, and Worlds. You obviously did incredibly well in your first year, what do you think your success was due to?
Tough question! Well to prepare, I played tirelessly on here testing variant after variant, and with no knowledge of VGC other than what I learned myself and no one to tell me what Pokemon were good or bad and what to use on them, my team had a kind of accidental originality to it. I invested a lot of time which really payed off, and it was very rewarding to see the fruits of my labor. Unfortunately, I was away at two separate camps the month leading up to Worlds, and so I only had a week to prepare and ended up bringing some Pokemon and sets I shouldn't have in hind site. I learned from the experience though, so all's well that end's well I suppose! As to the secret of my success, I think it might have been due to the fact that I was a new player who used a weird team. I think anyone battling me prior to Nationals or even during would have just assumed I'd made it as far as I did through sheer luck, and being the underdog is something that inspires me to perform to my fullest capacity. I also was very big into prediction and not so much team building, which isn't the way a lot of people play. Overall, I'd just say being a n00b served me better than any amount of skill could have.
That's definitely a unique answer, I've never heard anyone say the reason they were so good was because they were a noob! Anyway, tell me more about Regionals and Nationals last year. Was it tough winning both? Were you surprised to win? What was it like, winning your first VGC tournament? How about the people?
It was certainly an incredible experience and one that I'll keep with me for the rest of my life. The level of difficulty was incredible, I played so many good players, such as Fish, Evan, TTS (though hes not that great), TDS, R.Inanimate, Stephen Morioka, DuketheDevil, IPS, the list goes on and on and there is still more. I'd say with Regionals I had a much greater surprise factor that I used to my advantage than at Nationals. Regionals happened so quickly for me though, as I finished my T16 T8 and T4 matches all within 20 minutes, and its a major blur to me. I would go in and out of periods of playing well and slipping and making mistakes, and fortunately all of the matches that I did not play my best either didn't matter or I caught myself. I remember in DC Regionals, IPS completely outplayd me the first two turns and I remember thinking to myself, "you've got to play better or you're not going to Nationals." And, somehow, I was able to turn it around.
Nationals especially was incredibly nerve racking. My flight was delayed within 10 minutes of cancellation, a total of four to five hours, and I was under an insane amount of stress sitting in the airport wondering if I was even going to be able to attend Nationals. I passed a sleepless night, and the next day I remember not knowing anyone there and seeing everyone from Smogon and being too nervous to go over and introduce myself. It was really nice to see some of the people I'd met online. It was really stressful though because I played TDS in the first round, and lost completely. I had started with room for only one more error. I end up winning my next 4 matches, and then going up against Fish, to where it came down to if my Paralyzed Mummy can have gotten a burn. It does, and I could have jumped for joy, until I saw the fateful words "A critical hit!" I lost that match, and knew I had to win the next one to make it into the Top 16.
At 4-2 I had to play Ninahaza, and ended up winning and sneaking in at 14th seed. I barely made it, but the pressure didn't stop. The next day I played R. Inanimate in the top 16, and took game one, but in game 2 I accidentally misclicked horribly, switching the wrong Pokemon out and reversing my own TR. I pulled out the win through the art of timestalling, and advanced to the top 8. It was really tough but I managed to pull through, and in semi finals against DukeTheDevil it all came down to whether I get a double Protect (the only official double Protect I have ever attempted), and I must say I was surprised when it went off. My final match against TTS was one of my best ever, and I left feeling very gratified with a win I felt I'd earned. The experience of winning Nationals especially is an incredible feeling, and I can't describe to you how good it felt (although you already know, don't you?). Socially was really amazing, there were so many great people but Ill get to them later this one response is already way too long.
Absolutely, the feeling of winning it pretty incredible, isn't it? How did the World Championships go for you? Unlike myself and Junior Division Champion Henry Maxon, you managed to qualify for the Top 8 before having to play Ray Rizzo. How did you react when you saw you had to face Ray? How did your games, both in general, and against Ray in particular, go?
It really was, and that's right. I made Top 8 as the highest 4-2 in 6th seed after getting haxed big time by my good friend Zog. My games in general went fairly well, but I definitely did not feel as sharp with my team and I did not play as well. I had exceptionally difficult opponents as well, playing 2 Europeans and 4 Americans, and I started off against Ryuzaki so a difficult start to say the least. My matches against Ray were something I will never forget, as that's the one loss I have that I wasn't able to make up for later. To be honest, I don't remember that much of what happened other than I was under constant pressure and I couldn't think as clearly as I wouldv'e liked. I won game 1 even though there was a lot of pressure, and in game 2 he outled me and beat me because of it. In game 3, I lead with Mummy and Emboar against Substitute Hydreigon and Substitute Escavlier, and he gets a crucial Substitute up on Escavlier which I thought would Protect. There was a crucial flinch, and just like that, it was over. He played the better game and I definitely feel that he deserved to win, both against me and Worlds as a whole, all I wish is I could have given him a match with a clear head. I'll have to ask him for a rematch sometime!
Yeah, it was a shame to see you guys matched so early, I really wanted to see you guys play in the finals. Either way, you obviously had an incredible season last year. How did you do at the recent fall Regionals?
There's always next year, which I guess is this year? And I did exceptionally poorly if I do say so myself, losing to a Cryogonal Blizzard critical freeze outside of Hail. The issue was that I went in a team made by a great friend of mine, Human, and it didn't feel like something I was used to, so I played poorly with it. I learned though and Ill try again in Philly, according to my previous records I can only win tournaments won by Aaron Zheng so hopefully the trend will continue!
Haha, and I only win tournaments Wolfe Glick wins so let's do the same at Philadelphia! On another note, the social aspect of VGC is arguably the best part. Tell me about the people you have met through it.
Wow, where to begin with this one? I've only been playing a year and I've already met so many amazing people; The whole Kindergang is hilarous, Enfuego is one of the best trolls I know, as is Unreality. Human is someone who I've talked a lot with and is super smart and always willing to chat about my ideas. Muffinhead and Jibaku are guys I met recently and they are both really nice. dtrain is one of the coolest guys I know, and was willing to go out of his way to help me take attack EV's out of my Mummy at Worlds. There's so many more people I can't even go in depth about including imperfectspider, DuketheDevil, Ryuzaki, Bluecookies, TDS, Captain Falcon, and everyone at Nationals who witnessed the formation of Team Shalom. I also want to give a huge shout out to Destinybond for helping me so much with my team last year (despite him dropping off the face of the earth). And that's not even to mention the European players such as Ruben, Zog, PORKLOIN and there's so many more I cant even touch on! Especially my man Dozz, an extremely underestimated and creative player, whose been a great friend. I've worked with so much on theorymon with him, and I'm predicting him to do extremely well this year, all of Europe better be prepared! And last but about as far from least as you can get, is Team Zheng, my favorite Pokefamily around, both you and your brother are incredible battlers and on top of that really nice guys, I've never won a tournament that Cybertron hasn't won as well, so I'm hoping we can continue this trend. There's so many great people out there that I was surprised there was so much of a real community, it's a really nice thing to witness coming in as a new player.
Absolutely, it's really great to see that there are so many incredible people out there in the community. I have to ask though, how have you been preparing for VGC 2012?
Preparing for VGC 2012 is a lot tougher for me than last year. I've been testing tirelessly online to no avail, and I've probably built the same amount of teams as I did last year too. I would say this year allows for much more creativity but its also a lot tougher to have a well balanced team that covers every threat. I preferred last year a lot more, but I have a feeling that's just because I had a team. Overall I find this year more difficult but I have the feeling that if I can get a good team together it'll feel more rewarding.
Agreed. On a non-related note, what do you do when you're not winning at Pokemon?
Outside of Pokemon I sing as my main interest, play chess, run track, play soccer, troll, and harass Deaglebeagle.
Haha, those are some pretty fun hobbies! Any closing words to all the readers out there?
TTS SUX