Eledyr's here. If someone told me that I'd have 1000 posts on Smogon one day, I would have not believe it. For a mere fact... For a while I didn't wanted to contribute. I was just one ladder guy among many. But here I am. Time to do a little retrospective on how my trip have been so far on this website and not how became Smogon addict.
Many things could be said, and I skipped some elements, but now is the time to say thank you to everyone, as it is the tradition for this kind of posts.
This is the end of my post. It's 2am, I'm tired but proud of my trip on Smogon so far. As we say, and that's just the start! Hope to see you all around
I- 2013-2016 (Prior PS! era) Kids
Let's start prior everything related to competitive Pokemon. My story become around 2013. At that time, I was just a casual player, but in the same time I was looking to complete my Pokedex, and by the time I was investigating some of the French Pokemon website (particularly Pokebip, some French ppl will know what I'm talking about, the yellow pages), I found some weird infos about my favorite Pokemon. EVs, IVs, Hidden Power mentionned a lot, as well as Stealth Rock... At that time, I was curious, it was quite intriguing to learn about it but in the same time, not so much, for a mere fact: I didn't have a computer, and I didn't set up Internet on my Nintendo DS. And so... It remained like this for several years, something interesting but that I couldn't access. In December 2016, I obtained my first PC, and so I could spend more time looking around that curious thing that was competitive Pokemon. Like many during these days, I discovered it with some Youtubers, especially Azelma (retired now), and Fildrong. Especially, these videos come to my mind:
&
These were the videos that made me realize how interesting and deep Pokemon could be, and how much I wanted to get into it.
II- 2016- Late 2020 (PS! era) My Little Dark Age
However, I remained a ladder goon for a long time. And I mean a LONG time. At that time, I wasn't interested in participating in tournaments, nor that I was into contributing into Smogon. I just wanted to play to Pokemon against other humans, because I was bored to play against CPUs that had no challenge. A funny thing is, I clearly remember that my first ever team I used was featuring a Sand Rush Choice Band Excadrill... With Swords Dance. I figured out that it was stupid after a single use, and changed it for a Life Orb set.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-454608633
It's one of my oldest replay, and yeah I was bad at that time (as if I became better over the time lol).
That state of me being a ladder goon remained during well, 3-4 years. Until... 2020. Many things happened during these years, I became a Discord moderator for RedEmption (another important YouTuber for me, that also contributed a lot to my love for competitive Pokémon). I also created my Smogon account during 2017, to participate to the Ubers Open. I got eliminated directly in R1, and I still have one of the two losses in my replays, I look at it with a kind eye, because I already was interested in the Ubers tier, even at that time. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ubers-614507849 (yes I played Z-Celebrate Ho-Oh on sticky web, yes it's bad). My 2nd tournament ever was the 2018 Ubers Summer Seasonal. (hello keys) I somehow managed to reach R4 losers (despite my abyssal level), where I lost versus... Shuwri. Afterwards, I fell under the radar, and didn't enter any tournaments prior 2020. And this... Is what marks the 3rd era of my path here. During mid 2020, I was also invited to join a little Discord server. Won't reveal now who were in it, but trust me, this server is the crucial point of this story. As in this server, I met people who really gave me the motivation to become better at the game.
III - Late 2020-2023 (Smogon era) Hey Ya!
Many many things happened to me during these last 3 years (as for almost everyone). In May 2020, I realized that if I really wanted to progress on this game (I was stuck in the 1500s on almost every ladder I was on at this time, mainly SM OU & Ubers), I needed to train against experienced players, and I had no other better opportunity than going into tournaments. Starting this time, I started to grind experience on Pokemon. In March-April 2021, I was assigned to my tutor, the now banned JT Yao. Despite his horrible actions (that I definitely condemn), he made me want to contribute to Smogon more than just being a tournament goon. I quickly was interested to be one of those guys to host the huge tournaments that are The Official Smogon Tournament, The Smogon Premier League, etc. So, I started what I'm still doing by these days: I started to contribute to Smogon. First off, was my analysis of Cloyster in SS Ubers. I'm still proud by these days that I started to write them. After spending a full year of grinding experience, writing stuff, meeting new people, 2022 was my most important year on Smogon, thus by far. It started off by my first important tournament that I hosted, being the Ubers Winter League I (formerly Ubers Winter Team Tour). Before that, I only had the experience of hosting as one of the Ubers Live Tour host, which were already well an experience of hosting, but nothing close to what the Winter League is. I had a wonderful experience, thanks to the whole hosting team and my co-host MrAldo. Next was my first badge ever obtained, back in March 2022. This really kept me motivated to contribute. Then in April, came the STT aka the Salty Team Tournament, one of the biggest unofficial French tournament, where it was my first experience in a big team tournament. I ended up in a 4-4, with my peak being to beat... Shuwri, which was unbeaten, and it remained its only loss in the tournament. We ended up winning the tournament. Then, few months later, came the Ubers Premier League. Here, I was a sub for most of the tournament, and ended up in 0-2. A bad performance ? For me, not really. In backstage, I helped as much as possible my teammates, and I quickly realized that helping to prepare a tournament was something I liked a lot. It motivated me to become more and more interested to participate in tournaments, not as a player, but as a manager. And... The opportunity came to me. On September, I was contacted by Royal1604 to manage the Ubers World Cup with him. Not only that this was my first experience as a manager, but we won it! By that time, I also was part of many PLs, such as the RBYPL, the PTPL, the FCL, and such. The end of the year quite felt like the accomplishment of everything at once, as I earn successively all my badges between September and December.
Let's start prior everything related to competitive Pokemon. My story become around 2013. At that time, I was just a casual player, but in the same time I was looking to complete my Pokedex, and by the time I was investigating some of the French Pokemon website (particularly Pokebip, some French ppl will know what I'm talking about, the yellow pages), I found some weird infos about my favorite Pokemon. EVs, IVs, Hidden Power mentionned a lot, as well as Stealth Rock... At that time, I was curious, it was quite intriguing to learn about it but in the same time, not so much, for a mere fact: I didn't have a computer, and I didn't set up Internet on my Nintendo DS. And so... It remained like this for several years, something interesting but that I couldn't access. In December 2016, I obtained my first PC, and so I could spend more time looking around that curious thing that was competitive Pokemon. Like many during these days, I discovered it with some Youtubers, especially Azelma (retired now), and Fildrong. Especially, these videos come to my mind:
II- 2016- Late 2020 (PS! era) My Little Dark Age
However, I remained a ladder goon for a long time. And I mean a LONG time. At that time, I wasn't interested in participating in tournaments, nor that I was into contributing into Smogon. I just wanted to play to Pokemon against other humans, because I was bored to play against CPUs that had no challenge. A funny thing is, I clearly remember that my first ever team I used was featuring a Sand Rush Choice Band Excadrill... With Swords Dance. I figured out that it was stupid after a single use, and changed it for a Life Orb set.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ou-454608633
It's one of my oldest replay, and yeah I was bad at that time (
That state of me being a ladder goon remained during well, 3-4 years. Until... 2020. Many things happened during these years, I became a Discord moderator for RedEmption (another important YouTuber for me, that also contributed a lot to my love for competitive Pokémon). I also created my Smogon account during 2017, to participate to the Ubers Open. I got eliminated directly in R1, and I still have one of the two losses in my replays, I look at it with a kind eye, because I already was interested in the Ubers tier, even at that time. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7ubers-614507849 (yes I played Z-Celebrate Ho-Oh on sticky web, yes it's bad). My 2nd tournament ever was the 2018 Ubers Summer Seasonal. (hello keys) I somehow managed to reach R4 losers (despite my abyssal level), where I lost versus... Shuwri. Afterwards, I fell under the radar, and didn't enter any tournaments prior 2020. And this... Is what marks the 3rd era of my path here. During mid 2020, I was also invited to join a little Discord server. Won't reveal now who were in it, but trust me, this server is the crucial point of this story. As in this server, I met people who really gave me the motivation to become better at the game.
III - Late 2020-2023 (Smogon era) Hey Ya!
Many many things happened to me during these last 3 years (as for almost everyone). In May 2020, I realized that if I really wanted to progress on this game (I was stuck in the 1500s on almost every ladder I was on at this time, mainly SM OU & Ubers), I needed to train against experienced players, and I had no other better opportunity than going into tournaments. Starting this time, I started to grind experience on Pokemon. In March-April 2021, I was assigned to my tutor, the now banned JT Yao. Despite his horrible actions (that I definitely condemn), he made me want to contribute to Smogon more than just being a tournament goon. I quickly was interested to be one of those guys to host the huge tournaments that are The Official Smogon Tournament, The Smogon Premier League, etc. So, I started what I'm still doing by these days: I started to contribute to Smogon. First off, was my analysis of Cloyster in SS Ubers. I'm still proud by these days that I started to write them. After spending a full year of grinding experience, writing stuff, meeting new people, 2022 was my most important year on Smogon, thus by far. It started off by my first important tournament that I hosted, being the Ubers Winter League I (formerly Ubers Winter Team Tour). Before that, I only had the experience of hosting as one of the Ubers Live Tour host, which were already well an experience of hosting, but nothing close to what the Winter League is. I had a wonderful experience, thanks to the whole hosting team and my co-host MrAldo. Next was my first badge ever obtained, back in March 2022. This really kept me motivated to contribute. Then in April, came the STT aka the Salty Team Tournament, one of the biggest unofficial French tournament, where it was my first experience in a big team tournament. I ended up in a 4-4, with my peak being to beat... Shuwri, which was unbeaten, and it remained its only loss in the tournament. We ended up winning the tournament. Then, few months later, came the Ubers Premier League. Here, I was a sub for most of the tournament, and ended up in 0-2. A bad performance ? For me, not really. In backstage, I helped as much as possible my teammates, and I quickly realized that helping to prepare a tournament was something I liked a lot. It motivated me to become more and more interested to participate in tournaments, not as a player, but as a manager. And... The opportunity came to me. On September, I was contacted by Royal1604 to manage the Ubers World Cup with him. Not only that this was my first experience as a manager, but we won it! By that time, I also was part of many PLs, such as the RBYPL, the PTPL, the FCL, and such. The end of the year quite felt like the accomplishment of everything at once, as I earn successively all my badges between September and December.
Many things could be said, and I skipped some elements, but now is the time to say thank you to everyone, as it is the tradition for this kind of posts.
Shoutouts
Yelodash Thepatatedouce Calm Mind CaptainEikichi salt on me Quarante8 Ectross Lekstaz VyoletRayn Lolol.y Raph369 Motemomo Niou Orange et bien d'autres
Que dire... Les boss absolus. Ce serveur, qui était qu'un serv "pour faire des tournois entre potes", c'est devenu un serv légendaire pour nous, sur tellement de plans. J'vais pas m'étendre plus que ça, vous êtes juste les goats absolus.
GeniusFromHoenn special shoutout for you my friend. Yknow the drill, you're the GOAT.
Sharow BlazingDark FlexOKLM MarioREl et les autres
Les Human Centiskorch. En particulier, merci Sharow de m'avoir accordé ma chance à ce tournoi, c'est réellement grâce à toi que j'ai commencé à décoller sur Pokémon, même si ça paraissait pas être grand chose, au final ça a énormément joué. Donc vraiment, merci.
keys Fc Aberforth SparksBlade Aurora corvere Lasen Mashing Staxi Perry 7u9i2 Lunala Manaphy and all others
Ubers fellas. I hope that I helped to make it a better place. I'm proud to actively participate in this community, and I don't see any reasons to stop so far.
Swiffix Moutemoute Daki Antares Calife June Daruma Hiro' ironwater PandaDoux et les autres
Les gens du projet de trad. Toujours un plaisir de contribuer avec vous. Rassurez-vous, le temps passé à traduire le SM Mono n'est pas vain, s'il y a au moins un avantage c'est que j'ai progressé en anglais grâce à ça (enfin je crois) !
Royal1604 Inder Shuwri Alkione MMII Carl Murray Raph369 SiTuM RichardMillePlain Sharow Nael222
Mon premier tournoi en tant que manager. Ma première victoire sur Smogon. J'vais pas vous refaire un énorme pavé, vous savez à quel point j'suis fier de vous tous. Ce tournoi était super important pour moi. Merci les gars, c'était une super expérience.
Ctown6 SaDiSTiCNarwhal stunner047 realaccountami? Egor Zenadark Joya Hurtadoo Garrett Basedburner and soooo many others
People from different communities, it's hard to transmit everything I want to tell since you all had different impact, so just a huge thanks, you guys are the best.
Yelodash Thepatatedouce Calm Mind CaptainEikichi salt on me Quarante8 Ectross Lekstaz VyoletRayn Lolol.y Raph369 Motemomo Niou Orange et bien d'autres
Que dire... Les boss absolus. Ce serveur, qui était qu'un serv "pour faire des tournois entre potes", c'est devenu un serv légendaire pour nous, sur tellement de plans. J'vais pas m'étendre plus que ça, vous êtes juste les goats absolus.
GeniusFromHoenn special shoutout for you my friend. Yknow the drill, you're the GOAT.
Sharow BlazingDark FlexOKLM MarioREl et les autres
Les Human Centiskorch. En particulier, merci Sharow de m'avoir accordé ma chance à ce tournoi, c'est réellement grâce à toi que j'ai commencé à décoller sur Pokémon, même si ça paraissait pas être grand chose, au final ça a énormément joué. Donc vraiment, merci.
keys Fc Aberforth SparksBlade Aurora corvere Lasen Mashing Staxi Perry 7u9i2 Lunala Manaphy and all others
Ubers fellas. I hope that I helped to make it a better place. I'm proud to actively participate in this community, and I don't see any reasons to stop so far.
Swiffix Moutemoute Daki Antares Calife June Daruma Hiro' ironwater PandaDoux et les autres
Les gens du projet de trad. Toujours un plaisir de contribuer avec vous. Rassurez-vous, le temps passé à traduire le SM Mono n'est pas vain, s'il y a au moins un avantage c'est que j'ai progressé en anglais grâce à ça (enfin je crois) !
Royal1604 Inder Shuwri Alkione MMII Carl Murray Raph369 SiTuM RichardMillePlain Sharow Nael222
Mon premier tournoi en tant que manager. Ma première victoire sur Smogon. J'vais pas vous refaire un énorme pavé, vous savez à quel point j'suis fier de vous tous. Ce tournoi était super important pour moi. Merci les gars, c'était une super expérience.
Ctown6 SaDiSTiCNarwhal stunner047 realaccountami? Egor Zenadark Joya Hurtadoo Garrett Basedburner and soooo many others
People from different communities, it's hard to transmit everything I want to tell since you all had different impact, so just a huge thanks, you guys are the best.
This is the end of my post. It's 2am, I'm tired but proud of my trip on Smogon so far. As we say, and that's just the start! Hope to see you all around
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