where you think you can buy $2 belts until fearzecrawdaunt tells you they were actually $10
this was my first trip to a nationals event and i had an absolutely amazing time. i was actually unsure if i would make it as i was flying standby on an air canada employee discount on canada day weekend, but i was able to get to toronto after waiting in the airport from 4am to 12pm. seriously, i ran between gates every half hour waiting to see if i would get on an open seat. it was a long, long day, as were pretty much all of the days spent there, and i didn't take many pictures because i was just having too much fun to care.
can we have nationals in vancouver next year please
anyway, i arrived around 8pm on the friday and got to the hotel shortly after. i later discovered everyone paid like $20+ for a taxi because nobody realized there was a free airport shuttle except me
so i dropped my stuff in skarm's room where gene was also staying (first time meeting him, he is a cool dude guys) and we went up to TRE, RI and fearzecrawdaunt's room (i'm just gonna call you FZC why is your name so long) where we played a bit of n64 before deciding to find something in the area to do. we were mostly on BC time so we were still pretty awake even though like nobody got any sleep
so we go online and find something that looks kind of cool. arcade games? sounds good, let's go check out "Playdium"
it takes about 20 minutes to get there after figuring out how to get around an overpass. wow, there sure where a lot of warehouses in the area. odd place for an arcade, huh? hey cool, that sign in the window says they sell arcade machines. wait. wait wait wait wait oh my god it's just a store
we found an arcade supply store
so yeah that adventure can probably sum up the entire weekend but i guess i should keep going
after our crushing defeat we walked all the way back to the hotel because there was nothing else to do whatsoever. we might have played more N64 but i was too tired to even know what was going on at that point. we did help gene practice but he fell victim to my deadly trick room kecleon/donphan combo. FZC had TCG in the morning so we decided to split so he could get some sleep, meanwhile we tried to stay up to watch arachnoquake at 2am but skarm passed out like 4 minutes before it came on. here is a brief summary i just found of this supposedly 2012 movie. "Deadly fire breathing spiders are unearthed after a massive earthquake in New Orleans"
i propose this movie be screened at worlds
the next morning we slept forever, but TRE, FZC and RI came by to let us know they were going down for TCG. i was going to go back to sleep but i was like what i'm here for pokemon so i got up and ditched skarm and gene. when i got down i was surprised to find merchandise! after inspecting the figures and plush toys i determined they were pretty much all bootlegs or factory rejects (uuuhh i sell pokemon merchandise as sort of a side-job) but they did have cheap cards so i bought some
random people in the hall
let me tell you about the venue
let me tell you
after seeing photos of US nats i can confirm ours was nothing like that at all
we got the super budget edition
all of our banners were from different years
there were like 5 banners total
anyway the rest of the day went by very VERY slowly. everyone eventually came down and we met up with atlas, who is a super cool guy also!
we sat around in the area just outside the event hall playing pokemon and we all took turns battling a pokedad who's son was playing TCG. we got really confused. gene was the first to fall victim to odd format where he was challenged to a 6 vs 6 doubles open level match without realizing it wasn't vgc rules. poor soul, he only picked 4 pokemon and got stuck against a full team
eventually we all got the chance to battle fervid the pokedad, in 3 vs 3, vgc, and 6 vs 6 doubles. we told him he should play in VGC. i used my 2011 VGC team and luckily was challenged to an actual VGC match
champions in the making. RI and TRE had the most legit pokemon shirts
TCG was ridiculous. and by ridiculous i mean each of the 8 masters rounds took OVER AN HOUR EACH. on top of that they started about 40 minutes late and took like 25 mins to get pairings up every time. we cheered on FZC and atlas but eventually got bored. i think josetron joined us at some point as well. we also saw snivy102 in passing but i didn't see him again the whole trip.
gene and skarm left at some point to go get drinks at milestone's across the street because who plays pokemon sober, and for certain uuuuh reasons i left the hotel for milestones as well with RI and josetron. i can't remember why TRE didn't come too?
when i arrived gene and skarm decided to try and get the girliest drink on the menu
together they achieved a pair of shoes
eventually we got back and TCG still had not finished. FZC had a run-in with a bad sport and eventually determined he would be playing VGC tomorrow with the rest of us as he would not top cut in TCG. ):
i think at some point roz showed up finally, and i was no longer the only girl around! roz is super cool and i hope we can meet up at more events in the future.
when TCG finally ended like after 8pm or something ridiculous, we got everyone together and went up to RI's room for some intense stadium 2 challenge cup. 4 players, 1vs1, no checking your pokemon's moves or discussing which pokemon to choose, or knowing which pokemon you're going to switch to.
the results were spectacular
sunny day bubblebeam blissey
doubleteam houndoom
mega-kick hyper beam blissey
the most broken jolteon on the planet
terrible gengars (roz stop picking gengar oh god stop picking gengar)
never-miss megahorn heracross
the possibilities truly are endless. later in the night, chinese_dood and his gf found us after a long day in toronto and participated for a while. we played minigames galore and all was well.
the next day, we all got up and finally went down to register for our main event. sadly, it didn't look very busy at all. we finally found phiddlesticks and his buddies, and clear and layell eventually joined us.
my photo prowess. i had a bunch of chargers and extra DS systems in my backpack and looking back on that it probably wasn't a good idea to give me anything
chinese_dood and his gf sally! she had an adorable snorlax pillow
before long it was time to play. for whatever reason they were a lot better about getting pairings up for VGC and we waited only minutes between rounds. and apologies to anyone expecting a series of warstories, but i can honestly say i was not completely focused on the game and i was there more for the experience. i did come up with a super gimicky team that leo bred once again for me, but in the end i lent my ferrothorn from that team to one of FZC's friends from TCG. we had a lot of fun putting that team together... prankster volbeat anyone?
anyway, not a single match went by where someone didn't get one or two crits on me while i got nothing. well, once i froze a gallade but it defrosted in the same turn. i used the same team i used at regionals which was abomasnow/dewgong/weavile/garchomp/ludicolo/metagross. obviously not balanced at all but i had fun with it. this time i went 3-3 and placed 35th i believe, but i honestly wasn't concerned with placing. i think we all knew who would make it to the finals already. i did battle gene and he won, and this time he remembered to put an item on his zapdos. apologies to gene for chatting him up, i get nervous during battles even when i'm sure i'm not going to win.
i did have a lot of friendly conversation though, my opponents were all really nice and i got to battle one of FZC's TCG friends. i feel like my battles were all a success even if i didn't do nearly as well.
eventually we were left with our top players in the top 8, as we had hoped for. i was left with the job of texting firestorm as skarm went to play and we all gathered in the room. we were restricted to a roped off area where we could not see the matches, but we entertained ourselves by having battles.
at this point skarm had also taken my mini wailord to a few battles for luck while i kept my stuffed emboar on the table for my matches. get your own wailord flask next time. wailord is hidden but on the table. everyone is in deep concentration as our 4 players are put against each other and the randoms get paired.
eventually we are left with the top two. our very own chinese_dood and skarm, battling it out for top canadian. neither of them are from the east.
my big wailord pillow is stolen as well, but there is a snorlax in the way and neither wailord brought their pokeflutes
and wow, what a battle. we were allowed to crowd the table and FZC grabbed his camera in time to record the second match.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofVbrTUTi24&feature=player_embedded
no matter who won, we had a great time and everyone had fun i'm sure.
the winners! fun fact, katy who came in 4th i think was the lone player from PEI!
and i stole this picture from sally
by then, everything had been taken down and the event was officially over. we grabbed everyone and headed over to milestone's for some victory dinner and drinks
i had my first "official" drink as i had just turned 19 on the 22nd. perfect timing! all in all, we had a great meal and retold inside jokes and had just a great time. we later all crammed ourselves into RI's room where we played stadium 2 late into the night. and FZC almost ALMOST bought a belt from dixon convenience to reward skarm and chinese_dood. almost.
what a great weekend! i don't even think i need to do a pros and cons list. yeah, our decorations sucked and we had no TVs, but we had a nationals event! we played with friends! i got to meet some amazing members of smogon! i only hope i can make it to worlds.
and we are all the champions my friends
can we have nationals in vancouver next year please
anyway, i arrived around 8pm on the friday and got to the hotel shortly after. i later discovered everyone paid like $20+ for a taxi because nobody realized there was a free airport shuttle except me
so i dropped my stuff in skarm's room where gene was also staying (first time meeting him, he is a cool dude guys) and we went up to TRE, RI and fearzecrawdaunt's room (i'm just gonna call you FZC why is your name so long) where we played a bit of n64 before deciding to find something in the area to do. we were mostly on BC time so we were still pretty awake even though like nobody got any sleep
so we go online and find something that looks kind of cool. arcade games? sounds good, let's go check out "Playdium"
it takes about 20 minutes to get there after figuring out how to get around an overpass. wow, there sure where a lot of warehouses in the area. odd place for an arcade, huh? hey cool, that sign in the window says they sell arcade machines. wait. wait wait wait wait oh my god it's just a store
we found an arcade supply store
so yeah that adventure can probably sum up the entire weekend but i guess i should keep going
after our crushing defeat we walked all the way back to the hotel because there was nothing else to do whatsoever. we might have played more N64 but i was too tired to even know what was going on at that point. we did help gene practice but he fell victim to my deadly trick room kecleon/donphan combo. FZC had TCG in the morning so we decided to split so he could get some sleep, meanwhile we tried to stay up to watch arachnoquake at 2am but skarm passed out like 4 minutes before it came on. here is a brief summary i just found of this supposedly 2012 movie. "Deadly fire breathing spiders are unearthed after a massive earthquake in New Orleans"
i propose this movie be screened at worlds
the next morning we slept forever, but TRE, FZC and RI came by to let us know they were going down for TCG. i was going to go back to sleep but i was like what i'm here for pokemon so i got up and ditched skarm and gene. when i got down i was surprised to find merchandise! after inspecting the figures and plush toys i determined they were pretty much all bootlegs or factory rejects (uuuhh i sell pokemon merchandise as sort of a side-job) but they did have cheap cards so i bought some
random people in the hall
let me tell you about the venue
let me tell you
after seeing photos of US nats i can confirm ours was nothing like that at all
we got the super budget edition
all of our banners were from different years
there were like 5 banners total
anyway the rest of the day went by very VERY slowly. everyone eventually came down and we met up with atlas, who is a super cool guy also!
we sat around in the area just outside the event hall playing pokemon and we all took turns battling a pokedad who's son was playing TCG. we got really confused. gene was the first to fall victim to odd format where he was challenged to a 6 vs 6 doubles open level match without realizing it wasn't vgc rules. poor soul, he only picked 4 pokemon and got stuck against a full team
eventually we all got the chance to battle fervid the pokedad, in 3 vs 3, vgc, and 6 vs 6 doubles. we told him he should play in VGC. i used my 2011 VGC team and luckily was challenged to an actual VGC match
champions in the making. RI and TRE had the most legit pokemon shirts
TCG was ridiculous. and by ridiculous i mean each of the 8 masters rounds took OVER AN HOUR EACH. on top of that they started about 40 minutes late and took like 25 mins to get pairings up every time. we cheered on FZC and atlas but eventually got bored. i think josetron joined us at some point as well. we also saw snivy102 in passing but i didn't see him again the whole trip.
gene and skarm left at some point to go get drinks at milestone's across the street because who plays pokemon sober, and for certain uuuuh reasons i left the hotel for milestones as well with RI and josetron. i can't remember why TRE didn't come too?
when i arrived gene and skarm decided to try and get the girliest drink on the menu
together they achieved a pair of shoes
eventually we got back and TCG still had not finished. FZC had a run-in with a bad sport and eventually determined he would be playing VGC tomorrow with the rest of us as he would not top cut in TCG. ):
i think at some point roz showed up finally, and i was no longer the only girl around! roz is super cool and i hope we can meet up at more events in the future.
when TCG finally ended like after 8pm or something ridiculous, we got everyone together and went up to RI's room for some intense stadium 2 challenge cup. 4 players, 1vs1, no checking your pokemon's moves or discussing which pokemon to choose, or knowing which pokemon you're going to switch to.
the results were spectacular
sunny day bubblebeam blissey
doubleteam houndoom
mega-kick hyper beam blissey
the most broken jolteon on the planet
terrible gengars (roz stop picking gengar oh god stop picking gengar)
never-miss megahorn heracross
the possibilities truly are endless. later in the night, chinese_dood and his gf found us after a long day in toronto and participated for a while. we played minigames galore and all was well.
the next day, we all got up and finally went down to register for our main event. sadly, it didn't look very busy at all. we finally found phiddlesticks and his buddies, and clear and layell eventually joined us.
my photo prowess. i had a bunch of chargers and extra DS systems in my backpack and looking back on that it probably wasn't a good idea to give me anything
chinese_dood and his gf sally! she had an adorable snorlax pillow
before long it was time to play. for whatever reason they were a lot better about getting pairings up for VGC and we waited only minutes between rounds. and apologies to anyone expecting a series of warstories, but i can honestly say i was not completely focused on the game and i was there more for the experience. i did come up with a super gimicky team that leo bred once again for me, but in the end i lent my ferrothorn from that team to one of FZC's friends from TCG. we had a lot of fun putting that team together... prankster volbeat anyone?
anyway, not a single match went by where someone didn't get one or two crits on me while i got nothing. well, once i froze a gallade but it defrosted in the same turn. i used the same team i used at regionals which was abomasnow/dewgong/weavile/garchomp/ludicolo/metagross. obviously not balanced at all but i had fun with it. this time i went 3-3 and placed 35th i believe, but i honestly wasn't concerned with placing. i think we all knew who would make it to the finals already. i did battle gene and he won, and this time he remembered to put an item on his zapdos. apologies to gene for chatting him up, i get nervous during battles even when i'm sure i'm not going to win.
i did have a lot of friendly conversation though, my opponents were all really nice and i got to battle one of FZC's TCG friends. i feel like my battles were all a success even if i didn't do nearly as well.
eventually we were left with our top players in the top 8, as we had hoped for. i was left with the job of texting firestorm as skarm went to play and we all gathered in the room. we were restricted to a roped off area where we could not see the matches, but we entertained ourselves by having battles.
at this point skarm had also taken my mini wailord to a few battles for luck while i kept my stuffed emboar on the table for my matches. get your own wailord flask next time. wailord is hidden but on the table. everyone is in deep concentration as our 4 players are put against each other and the randoms get paired.
eventually we are left with the top two. our very own chinese_dood and skarm, battling it out for top canadian. neither of them are from the east.
my big wailord pillow is stolen as well, but there is a snorlax in the way and neither wailord brought their pokeflutes
and wow, what a battle. we were allowed to crowd the table and FZC grabbed his camera in time to record the second match.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofVbrTUTi24&feature=player_embedded
no matter who won, we had a great time and everyone had fun i'm sure.
the winners! fun fact, katy who came in 4th i think was the lone player from PEI!
and i stole this picture from sally
by then, everything had been taken down and the event was officially over. we grabbed everyone and headed over to milestone's for some victory dinner and drinks
i had my first "official" drink as i had just turned 19 on the 22nd. perfect timing! all in all, we had a great meal and retold inside jokes and had just a great time. we later all crammed ourselves into RI's room where we played stadium 2 late into the night. and FZC almost ALMOST bought a belt from dixon convenience to reward skarm and chinese_dood. almost.
what a great weekend! i don't even think i need to do a pros and cons list. yeah, our decorations sucked and we had no TVs, but we had a nationals event! we played with friends! i got to meet some amazing members of smogon! i only hope i can make it to worlds.
and we are all the champions my friends
