It is a shame it had to end like this, especially after the 2 months i spent preparing teams and testing new ideas for this tournament, when I barely had any spare time.
Back in 2014 / 2015 I thought that I could do really well in a tournament that featured all the 5 gens that existed back then and that there would be few players that could defeat me cleanly in a format like that because I felt that there were very few players that could play every gen OU at a high level, and I felt that I could beat anyone in all 5 gens, especially in ADV and GSC, my fav metas. However, reality showed me that it wasnt the case when this tournament, featuring that format, was created. And that is because I feel that Classic is a very ungrateful tournament where qualifying is not easy at all, and is not fair (any good complete player could have to face 5 top especialist players in their tier and get eliminated).
And then, when you qualify to POs, the luck and the cheese factors can easily decide series, ending a 2+ months run in an ugly way.
I think that after 4 classics my performance hasnt been bad at all, managing to qualify in 3/4 classic seasons, something very few players have managed to do, with all my 3 loses in POs being p unfortunate (like losing to a great player like Heist in Classic 1 because an IB freeze when my Zapdos was sweeping in game 5 after some really good series)
The reason Im saying this about Classic is because this is the last Classic Im playing, unless things change next year and something is done about the current status of the tournament. Im not willing to spend that much time in a tournament to end like this.
About this classic run:
This has been definitely the hardest run I have ever had in Classic, and not only because the great level a lot of people had (there is more and more people that are complete enough to be able to compete at a high level in every tier, something that didnt happen back in 2014/2015, although Im sad about how common cheese strats have been in every gen), but because I made the bad (or good, depending on how you look at it) of joining a ton of XPLs after a bad SPL, so I had like 30 games every week, which added a lot of pressure to me and was definitely a problem with my little spare time, although I did meet a lot of cool people in those teams and definitely had fun in all those teams. However the biggest problem was that it affected the motivation I had to play, and I ended sick of this game, which definitely affected me in both preparation and in my plays, which also resulted in a terrible Wcop (I would like to apologize to players like
Malekith Trosko reiku and all the new players who were very motivated in this Wcop and needed me, but I wasnt even the shadow of what I was in past Wcops).
I think I played well in the 2 series of POs, I don't really regret any play I made (except one in the DPP game vs Bomber), and I liked the 3 games I played vs Bomber (especially the GSC one) and the first 4 games vs Lavos. The last one was a disgrace, using a MU dependant team based on cheese + luck in the decisive game that auto lost vs the move Roar (I unfortunately decided to use Protect instead of Roar Pert in this team, for those wondering) is something I definitely didnt expect. I also feel that I got 0 luck while Lavos got several freezes, crits, FPs, key misses, but thats part of the game we play, so not really complaining about that.
Im happy that I defeated 2 of the best players atm in GSC while playing p well (i think) in POs. I am still the GSC king!
Also I would like to give shoutouts to 2 players that have been helping me a lot in my run in this classic:
august: It is crazy how we hadnt talked much in spite of both of us being in Smogon for more than 10 years until recently in the Pokemon Go channel. You were a big help polishing my DPP teams, especially the one I built vs Bomber. Im very happy with both DPP teams I have used, and you have definitely been a big help
Fear: Thank you so much for all the time you have spent helping me polishing my teams and testing them in both GSC and ADV. I know you for nearly 10 years and you are for sure one of the most talented pokemon players
--
This is a "retirement" post. And I say "retirement" because Im not planning to completely quit mons, but I will not join to another tournament in a very long time (until 2019 at least, maybe more). This first half of the year has been a big toll to me (pkmn related) for the reasons I said earlier and Im no longer motivated to keep playing... The End? We will see, maybe I will come back stronger or maybe I wont come back at all.
I have been playing this game competitively for nearly 15 years, when I was a kid, and it has given me a lot of good things, and I have also met very cool people and made some good friends.
S/o Pokexperto (Melkor and all the PxP crew, where I learnt about EVs and competitive mons back in 2004), Cemzoo Netbattle hispanic community (I will always consider Make to be one of the best players ever, lots of good times with people like
Colchonero, Rumano, Ka0X, etc), TLB clan (especially
Malekith, k-12 and Arbok, a lot of good moments), SB DPP ladder (great competition, will miss people like
Zak91,
panamaxis or
Krack), ATQ (
Fear Astamatitos Taylor etc), old players who have helped me a lot and I respected a lot and learnt a lot from them (
Loki husk Gouki @vil
gene), old germans players like Majin or Baris (miss you a lot) and newer ones like
Fakes, people like
Pleasure and
Kevin Garrett, ADV community (
Golden Sun @smurfer
Astamatitos Fear undisputed Kevin Garrett, etc), my SPL teams (had a lot of fun in most of them) and lots of newer people I have shared team with (Durians goat UPL team, love
Gunner Rohan obii; Rhydons too strong, lets win NUPL
Teddeh lax Snou Dundies HJAD dodmen Cdumas etc; tough luck pichus and especially charmanders, still love all of you). I wont mention all of you because you are a lot.
One last thing, to GSC and ADV communities: keep innovating, don't let the best pokemon metagames become stale and boring (as happened with DPP imo). Im happy how there are more and more players learning and getting a good level in GSC and especially in ADV. GSC and ADV is the reason I am still playing this game (BW too, although fk Exca)
Finally, I hope
Jimmy Turtwig win this Classic. Im mad because of how dirty you were with our GSC game, but I was impressed with your performance and I think you deserve it.
