Yeah see, some of us just plain suck at everything we do in life, and try to get over 1600, on any metagame / tourney / anything, just once in our lifetime. CP is an absurd dream for me :P
I don't really believe that, especially if you put so much time into something. What you're putting time into does make a difference though.
I only started VGC last year with the 2014 season. Prior to that I've never played or considered any competitive Pokemon, especially not Smogon Singles. I was a Pokemon TCG player that got disenchanted with the game and didn't want to spend a lot of money every year but still wanted to stay in the community. I'm lucky that the local scene in BC is filled with ridiculously strong players, from Canadian Nationals champion Tony Cheung, to multi-worlds competitor Randy Kwa, and this year's 2nd place US Nats finisher Rapha Bagara. We had 3 TOs and got lots of Premiere Challenges and playing with the big boys definitely leveled up my game.
I did realize a couple of things while approaching team building:
You should always have at least a 4-6 match up against the field. This includes niche strategies, counter-meta teams, and completely random teams. That means, if you have a counter-meta team that beats all the top 20 popular mons, but doesn't have any real way to handle things outside of it, you're screwed. In a tournament setting, you'll probably be stuck in the 3-3 crowd and you'll never encounter the match ups that your team was designed for. This is why most of the successful teams you see has an element of "good stuffs" in it, it get them through the first half of the tournament.
You should always practice using the "good stuff". This leads into my next point, but I learned the most from copying other teams and playing them. I want to see what makes them tick, what kind of match ups and situations do I want to have and what Pokemon, moves, and items do I end up fearing the most? By and far, the best way to learn to beat the Good Stuff team is to play it yourself so that you can understand the mentality behind using the team. During Seattle Regionals, I played against fellow Canadian Tyson Gernack, who was using a variant of Conan's Oregon Regionals winning team. I had practiced with my own variants of Conan's team and used it in three Premiere Challenges, getting 2nd place at one of them. When we played, I made every read because I knew exactly what he wanted to do.
Copying other people's team and using them without changing too much is also important for improving your skills as a player. If someone did well with the team, you *know* that the team is good, which means if you lose a game, it's probably your play. It's the classic elimination method of problem solving, with the problem being "why am I losing?" If it's not the team, it's the player. Recognizing that can help you improve your team preview and play tremendously. I normally play at least 10 games with a team before I even start to consider changes to the team. I want to make sure that I'm playing the team correctly first before I start blaming the team for why I'm losing.
Play with what you're comfortable with. The other great thing about playing a wide variety of other people's teams is that you start to get a sense of yourself as a player. There will be certain styles and Mons that you just prefer to use. Team/Player synergy is just as important as anything else. For example, how comfortable are you with 90% accurate moves? 80% accurate moves? Do you like rolling confusion or multi-hits? What's your preferred method of speed control? (make sure you play lots of games with each before deciding!). All these things will guide you towards making the right team choices for you, allowing you to play the way you want to for long tournaments.
Going back to the example of Conan's team...it originally used Mega Salamence, but I really didn't feel comfortable with the multiple ice-weakness on his team, so I tried Mega Gyarados and it was terrible. Finally, I swapped to Charizard Y and instantly felt more comfortable picking leads in team preview. Interestingly enough, Conan's team was based on a Japan Battlespot team that was popular at the time, but it originally ran Charizard Y and he didn't like it and switched it out for Mence.
Lastly, don't be afraid to share. Even within the confines of the local BC metagame, almost everyone practices and did team building with at least 2 other people locally. Randy Kwa is infamous for publicly sharing his movesets and spreads and just beating you anyways. Rapha sort of followed that trend, as he would post tournaments reports and include his full team and then continue to use that team for the next couple of tournaments. His Nationals team was essentially the same as the team that he won the BC Invitationals with (that he posted on vgcwithhats.com) and I believe his first Premiere Challenge victory came from using the same team that he got Top 4 at Oregon regionals with (that he posted on NB).
The Japanese share and practice with each other all the time. Not being afraid to let people know what you're packing and still beating them is a mark of a great best-of-3 player and, ultimately, you will need to win several bo3 to do well in VGC.
In either case, I managed to finish 17th in Canada in CP this season. I believe I placed around 250th in North America with my 128 CP, well shy of the Top 40 cut off for Worlds. Next year I intend to play more and perhaps travel with the local group to Oregon and Indy, but we'll see! I do have a newborn coming in October :p
