Well, this is my first post here, so I may as well make it a good one...
I'm Devastation, or Dev for short. I'm a member of other forums, but for now, you can all just know me as Devastation. ;)
How I first started playing pokemon:
Well, at the age of two, I was given a Gameboy, one of those giant grey bricks that I used to play Tetris on. As a result, I became a 'Child of Nintendo' and would buy the top games that my older sisters would suggest I buy. When Pokemon Red and Blue came out, I got Pokemon Blue and started with a Squirtle, whereby I played right up until Misty's Gym before my older sister erased my game. I restarted with a Charmander and, in all these years, haven't reset my blue game and still have my Lv. 100 Charizard with a moveset of Fire Spin, Fire Blast, Seismic Toss and some other pretty damn rubbish attack. (Fissure, I think.)
I completed both games like a noob, no thought to "wait a second, Dragon doesn't seem to have a move that doesn't inflict a set amount of damage," or "why the hell did they give Gengar that massive weakness to Psychic when really it's the only thing that can kick the hell out of Alakazam?!"
Then I got Pokemon Gold and Silver and treated it in much the same way. Power > Accuracy + Reliability was my motto, though minus the mathmatical allusions, and I completed that game, before getting my Pokemon handed to me by Red of Mt. Silver.
I first started thinking competitively when Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire came out. I appreciated the internet more at the age that I was when it came out, and used well known sites for updates on what sort of new Pokemon were going to feature, and I soon joined Psypoke, the forums.
On there, I realised what I had been doing wrong all these years, and learnt finally that Thunderbolt was better than Zap CAnnon any day.
It was from Psypoke that I learnt about Smogon.
How I started battling online/How I found out about Smogon:
When taking part in heated discussions on "who was better, Pokemon X or Pokemon Y," arguments were decided by "well, Smogon says this one is better," and then the other person would back down.
Netbattle is still something that I haven't got my head round, and still haven't bothered downloading it. I even sent a message to someone who I thought was the creator of it (I think it was someone who just had a server for Netbattle) telling them that it was a cheats playground becuase there was no fun in training a Pokemon, enjoying raising Pokemon, hatching their babies and all that.
While on the forums at Psypoke, I learnt what competitive battling was. I learnt all the terms, Physical Sweeper, PP Drainer, Toxi Trapper, the lot, and I was feeling pretty confident. When I found out that the next batch of games was going to be internet-compatible, I started training like mad, feeling confident that armed with my weapons of knowledge, I would become a renowned trainer on the internet.
However, complications arose with Psypoke and I left, and joined a new place, just as Diamond and Pearl were released. The people of PKMN.NET were more serious about IV training than Psypoke ever were, and when I Pal-parked my Pokemon to my cartridge and went onto the great battlefield of the internet, I realised that I wasn't going to be the great trainer I thought I was.
That was actually a month ago. For the past month and however many weeks, I have been training Pokemon that just don't seem to cut it. I hold a belief that straying from the norm is the key to victory, as people find it harder to anticipate your attacks. My Choice Specs Tyranitar, for example. When I battled someone with it for the first time, they were shocked I didn't sweep them away with Dragon Dance, but rather Thunderbolted the hell out of his unwary Gyarados. Next time I battled him, however, I realised what my mistake was; I was going to be fighting people more than once and this time he was prepared with a very pink, very high-HPed Blissey that managed to wall all of my efforts, and I didn't have an EQ to kill it with.
And this is why I am here. I have recalled the wonderous mentions of Smogon from Psypoke and the mutterings of an elitist site from PKMN.NET and have been driven here for training.
I hope, here, someone will take me under their wing, and I will be able to live up to my username of devastating an opponent's team with Netbattle techniques, but exemplified and excersised against an opponent's Diamond and Pearl Pokemon.
God, I really did go to town with this post, didn't I? I'd love to have people PM me to talk to me about my moveset problems and personal favourite movesets, so I'll shut up now. ;)
Thanks for reading this. ;)
