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Look At What We Started A VGC 2012 Regional Warstory, by Aaron / Cybertron.
Introduction The title refers to one of my favorite rappers, Hoodie Allen. His new album "All American" came out just a week before Regionals, and motivated me to do well.
Hi everyone! My name is Aaron, and many of you know that read the VGC forums here at Smogon probably already know who I am. I love Pokemon, I love the TCG and the VGC, and I love writing warstories. I really enjoy promoting the game, and writing warstories is one of the best ways in doing so. Anyway, I guess it's kind of the norm now that I write a warstory after every VGC event. I've even had 10 different people ask me whether I was writing a warstory or not! Well, here it is. I'll try my best to make this one as enjoyable as all my past ones, so I hope you like it!
We start off after Rhode Island Regionals earlier in the fall last year, where my brother and I finished 1st and 2nd respectively. 2nd isn't too bad, but it's not exactly the most impressive accomplishment when you only had to battle 6 people to get there, and when there was only around 40 Seniors in the entire competition. It certainly didn't feel as impressive as my 4th place finish at Newark in 2010 out of 768 Masters, or my first and only Regionals win in DC last year out of over 200+ Seniors. With 2 trips, a hotel, $1,200, and a set of byes for both of us secured, I knew that we could go into Philadelphia a lot more relaxed. Winning extra money would be nice, but there was no more pressure to do well.
I started preparing for Philadelphia slightly before European Nationals began. I had never realized how centralized our PO metagame until around European Nationals. Trick Room Hail wasn't working out anymore, and I knew that it was time for that team to retire. It had too many weaknesses, and I wasn't going to risk using a team that relies on Blizzard after it eliminated me from VGC 2010. I began testing some other ideas, mainly standard Rain and Goodstuff. I didn't like Rain as much since Pokemon like Cresselia and Tyranitar give it some trouble, and I think it's a team that's a lot better for Juniors than Seniors. Most of my practicing on PO with the rain team was to master how to play it so Brendan would be able to use it.
The first time I actually really started using Goodstuff was when I was writing analyses for Smogon. Using Pokemon like Ambipom and even Dodrio, I found that the best way to test them out was slapping them onto a general core of strong Pokemon. I liked the synergy Pokemon like Cresselia and Hitmontop had, and I saw why it was such a popular team over in Europe. I tested a lot on PO with it, and some days, I ran extremely hot and would easily end up in the Top 10, while other days, I would crash and lose all confidence of the team. I then used it in the International Wi-Fi tournament, which out of over 9000 participants, I won. I knew it was a solid enough team to take to a tournament.
The team, if you were wondering, is just Hitmontop, Cresselia, Garchomp, Zapdos, Tyranitar, and Latios. It's nothing special, but it obviously works. I decided to get rid of Latios since it wasn't doing much for the team and I hate risking speed ties with other Latios. I tested Volcarona for a bit, and I really liked it so I threw that in a week before Philly. I tested on PO under the alts "we are hoodie" and "lucky man." As you can tell, I am a big fan of Hoodie Allen. Both eventually ended up in the top 10, which is my indication that I am decent at battling with my team and that I am ready. As for TCG, Brendan wanted to try a new deck out so we built him an anti-metagame deck consisting of Terrakion, Mewtwo EX, and Tornadus. I went for my Celebi, Mewtwo, Tornadus deck. It was so consistent and I really liked the way it ran. With just a week left, I stopped playing and got pumped up for Regionals.
tldr; I decide that Trick Room Hail was a fun team but wanted to just try out a standard team for Philly. (I can't thank Biosci, Cassie, Dillon, and Nexus for supplying me the members of the team, btw. More about this in the end!) So... I decide on a standard Goodstuff team and use CMT for TCG.
Friday, Friday, getting down on Friday! Wait: is Rebecca Black even alive anymore?
The week before Regionals was exhausting, and while New York public schools were on spring break, mine took place two weeks beforehand so I was stuck at school. I had Monday the week before Regionals off, but it was still tough keeping Regionals out of my mind since it was so close. I went to my internship after school, and got home on Friday night at around 8. I packed up all our things, made sure we had our decks and teams, and went to sleep at around 12. The adrenaline was just too much!
I woke up at 5 in the morning on Saturday, since we were driving straight down for TCG that day. I made sure that everything was ready, took a shower, and we leave the house at around 6:45... 45 minutes after we planned to. Pretty typical of us, lol. My dad is pretty incredible at driving, and we grab some food in North Jersey before driving the rest of the way. I take a power nap, and Brendan sleeps though most of it.
Yeah, I mean most of it. Babbytron needs his energy! After he wakes up, I question him on whether he will win TCG Regionals on Saturday, and he responds in this video.
[youtube]VeIAo3baBjs[/youtube]
After the video, I manage to snap a few pictures while we make our way towards the actual city of Philadelphia. We then finally arrive in Philadelphia an hour before registration closes. As we make our way through Philadelphia, I realize that traffic is worse in like Chinatown that it is on the highway. I feel right at home in NYC.
OK, OK, break time. Anyway, my dad drops us off at 1101 Arch Street, the address of the Philadelphia Convention Center. We notice some other TCG players and decide to just follow them, and as we walk into the convention center and are greeted by all our TCG friends. Time for another bad quality video. (I wish I took videos with Brendan's sweet camera, the picture quality that came out from it was absolutely amazing.) Anyway, this video was taken after Round 1 or 2 when I got a tweet from iss asking me how the convention center was. I took this video and tried to upload it immediately, but it didn't work very well...
[youtube]JtpA5IHwXcM[/youtube]
If that video wasn't enough, check out this awesome picture that my dad took of the entire room while we were playing.
What the room would look like in just a few hours.
If you still don't have a sense of what the convention center room was like, then take a look at the pictures below. Or just look at the pictures if you want to. Whatever you want man.
Like always, I managed to procrastinate and not write out my deck list the night beforehand, so me and Brendan scramble to get all the cards we need and finish the decklists up. I keep mine in the back pocket... but not for long. Turns out I end up leaving it at a table nearby, and when we finally sit down before Round 1 starts, my deck list is not on me! I scramble to quickly write down another one, but apparently it gets marked "late." A fair penalty for such stupidity... I walk around the room and to my surprise, biffsterPKMN approaches me and says hi! I take a second to process what's going on and realize that Robbie actually showed up to Philadelphia! He shows me his cool deck that he wanted to play in TCG just for fun, and I compliment him on the Mewtwo EX in it, heh. After exchanging greetings with him, everyone was pretty much ready to start.
Speaking of stupidity... check out these tags my friend Robby had.
As Unreality pointed out... "In the Coke can?!"
I manage to get a few pictures of the area before we start. Soon enough, pairings for Round 1 are up. Here's the TCG portion of my report. I actually took detailed notes on every single game, so if you even remotely understand TCG, you'll enjoy this!
Round 1 Aaron (0/0) vs. Alex F. (0/0)
CMT vs. Zekrom/Eels
I look at my starting hand... it has 3 grass energy, 1 DCE, 1 Catcher, and 1 Energy Retrieval. I start with a Celebi. Dear god. At least I get to go first. I top deck an N, and almost jump out of my seat. I play the N, and draw into a Mewtwo and a grass energy. I bench the Mewtwo, attach the energy, and pass. He just looks as his hand and passes. I manage to get another energy and retreat to get a KO on his active Tynamo. He brings out his Zekrom and is still not able to do anything. I'm convinced his hand is absolute trash and start playing pretty poorly. He draws into a PONT, puts down Tynamo, attaches DCE to his damaged Zekrom, and plays the PONT. Oh boy. He draws and says something about how his hand isn't much better, so I feel like I'm in a good position now. I end up using Juniper, discarding 2 DCE away, and play 2 Dual Ball. 4 Tails. Derrrrrp. He managed to get a KO and my Mewtwo and my Celebi, in which at this point he is up 3-4 on prizes. I manage to score a KO on his Mewtwo and it's 3-2 prizes. He plays an N as I draw into a Junk Arm and Grass energy. Nice, I can Pokegear the following turn! Nope, drawn into a PONT. I play the PONT and draw into a Junk Arm and Energy Retrieval, in which I play the Junk Arm for a Dual Ball. Tails... heads! I get my last Mewtwo out, play the Energy Retrieval, Forest Breath and attach to my Mewtwo, and retreat for a KO with x-ball on his Mewtwo with 3 energies for the win. Crazy game that had some strange momentum shifts.
1-0.
Round 2 Aaron (1/0) vs. John C. (1/0)
CMT vs. Terrakion/Landorus
I look at my pairings for Round 2, and recognize my opponent's name. His brother actually beat my brother in Round 1, so I was ready to get revenge! While shuffling his deck, I notice that he plays Crushing Hammer so I'm ready for a tough match vs. Durant. Turns out he actually plays Terrakion/Landorus, an incredibly easy matchup for my deck! After mulliganing twice, we start and he goes second. The game is pretty one sided, as I start with 2 Mewtwo, a grass energy, and a DCE. I flip 0/4 on Dual Balls before Junipering, and go agro Mewtwo. Despite the fact he flips 3/4 on Crushing Hammer, I am able to get quick KOes, the biggest one on a Landorus with 3 energy. I use Smeargle to Portrait a Junper, drawing into a grass, DCE, and Skyarrow. I win after I KO 3 of his Pokemon, since he runs out of attackers. A fairly simple game.
2-0.
Round 3 Aaron (2/0) vs. Peter K. (2/0)
CMT vs. Zekrom/Eels
This match was pretty crazy. He starts with a lone Mewtwo EX, while I start with a Mewtwo, Dual Ball, DCE, and a Juniper. I start with a Celebi Prime. I manage to go first and Dual Ball. I notice that my last two Mewtwo's are prized. Well, I'm pretty much screwed now. I have to get that KO on his active Mewtwo right away in hopes of drawing my other two. I get a Regigigas EX with the Dual Ball, bench it, attach DCE, and pass. He uses PONT and passes... Wow, I might be able to pull out the victory this turn. I attach my 2nd DCE to Regigigas, use Celebi's Forest Breath to attach an energy to it to retreat. I then play 2 Plus Power and Juniper... I manage to get Dual Ball, which is just what I need. I flip... heads, and heads! I quickly get my Shaymin out the deck, get both DCE onto my Mewtwo, and retreat to do 200 damage and the game.
3-0.
Round 4 Aaron (3/0) vs. Henry R. (3/0)
CMT vs. Zekrom/Eels
Random shot of my playmat and sleeves before Round 4 starts.
I start off this game really quickly and take a quick 4 prize lead. I flip 0/4 heads on Dual Balls throughout the entire game. He KOes my Mewtwo, and I just need my own Mewtwo to get a KO. I play Plus Power an Juniper... I draw into a Dual Ball... tails... tails. Damn, 0/6 on Dual Ball. I end up attacking with Regigigas for 40 that turn, since his active Mewtwo has an Eviolite on it. This allows me to have only 2 energy on a given Mewtwo and KO, since 80x2-20=140. He retreats to a Tornadus, Catchers one of my benched Thundurus, and gets another KO. In doing so, he gets rid of the energy on his Mewtwo. I promote my Tornadus, and draw a Dual Ball. Heads, and heads! Finally! I take some time and think, deciding whether to go for the Shaymin and Mewtwo since I have a PONT in my hand or a Smeargle instead of Shaymin. I take Smeargle since I like my chances with it better. I put down both and play the PONT. I draw a Shaymin, grass energy, and Junk Arm off the PONT, which is enough for me to win. I get all 3 energies from Regigigas onto Mewtwo with Shaymin, attach my last energy, and Junk Arm for the Catcher and the win!
4-0.
Round 5 Aaron (4/0) vs. Alex H. (4/0)
CMT vs. CMT
I'm pretty pumped now, since I'm 4/0 and feeling really good about my deck. I play Alex in round 5, and manage to go first in the mirror match, which is huge. He also mulligans twice, so I draw two extra cards. I start with a Celebi active, Mewtwo and Tornadus benched. I use Tornadus to get a quick lead by KOing his own Celebis, and charge up all 3 of my Mewtwos. He wastes 3 N early on in the game when we both had 4-6 prizes just to drawn into stuff, and relies on Regigigas EX. I Portrait a Juniper later on in the game and end up discarding 2 Catcher, 1 Junk Arm, and 1 Shaymin. I KO his Celebi with Tornadus. He isn't able to play an N down the following turn, so I just attach a DCE to one of my Mewtwo which I've charged up at this point and KO his Regigigas.
5-0.
Round 6 Aaron (5/0) vs. Victor A. (5/0)
CMT vs. Terrakion/Landorus/Mewtwo
[youtube]z9J0jLn5rHA&[/youtube]
I check the pairings and see that I am playing Victor, whose my good TCG friend. He's known as hipoke around the forums, and we actually faced in the Top 8 of the NY TCG State Championships a couple of weeks ago, where he won in a very intense 3 games since I misplayed really poorly in the last few turns. This was probably the strangest game I had in all of TCG. He starts off with a Shaymin, and attaches a fighting energy, Eviolite, and just passes. Wait, what? My start is average, and I play a PONT... I drawn into a bunch of Tornadus, Mewtwo, 1 Skyarrow, and a Junk Arm. No energy, no supporter. Well, crap. The next 8 turns are basically me drawing into absolutely nothing and passing. I do manage to get a KO on a Landorus with a Mewtwo, but that does not help me as he is still getting KO after KO. It's finally 2-5 in prizes in his favor, and I pray for a good top deck! Yes! I draw into an N! I begin to mount what I considered an impossible comeback, but I am manage to finally power up a Mewtwo and KO attacker after attacker. He does not have much to respond to N as I am able to play 2 more, and leave him with 1 card. I manage to actually pull off a victory since he is not able to get that last KO. Most intense game I've played in a while, and I end up as the only undefeated player after this match.
6-0.
Round 7 Aaron (6/0) vs. Darren N. (5/1)
CMT vs. 6 Corners with Mewtwo
[youtube]5PAeeSdoED4[/youtube]
I feel really relaxed at this point, knowing that even if I lose this battle, I'll probably be seeded #1-4, but I still play it through in hopes of finish #1 after swiss. I start with a Celebi active, with Tornadus and Mewtwo on the bench. He starts with Victini, 2 Kyurem and 1 Virizion. The game starts off with an early Collector from him as he goes on to fill his bench with 2 Terrakion. He KOes my Tornadus with a Plus Power and Catcher, but I'm able to return the KO with my Mewtwo. I misplay really poorly by benching my Regigigas EX early on in this battle. He is able to use Terrakion to revenge kill it and get 2 more prizes. I use my Mewtwo to KO his Terrakion, and Sapphire Birch tells me that I could have used Shaymin to KO his benched Mewtwo. The reason I didn't was because I did not want to risk him having a 2nd Mewtwo/DCE in hand, so I go for the safe play. I'm seriously regretting my Regigigas play now. The game boils down to whether I can get a KO on his active Mewtwo or not, and I use Smeargle to get two supporters down for the turn. I attack a DCE to a benched Tornadus, which now has 2 Tornadus on it, and get the KO on Mewtwo with my own Mewtwo. I think I have the game won for sure at this point... until he drops down another Mewtwo. Crap. All he needs is a Catcher and DCE, and he'll win the game. With only 2 DCE left in his deck, he doesn't get it and I manage to Catcher him next turn for the win. I misplayed really poorly twice in the game, but play well and finish swiss with a clean 7-0 record.
7-0.
Throughout all this madness, I get to meet Knights of Wario Land, a really cool guy here on Smogon. I also get to meet Jimmy M., last year's Runner Up at Nationals in Seniors TCG! I hang out with Sapphire Birch and pacostames101 throughout the tournament. Brendan started his day off 0-2, just drawing absolute trash against two very good Juniors players. He manages to rebound and win the next 4, finishing 21st, the lowest out of all 4-2s lol. He gets a bit upset after his first two losses, and with reason, but I tell him that he still has a TCG invitation to Worlds up to this point and that he's won a Regionals for TCG already! "Just win tomorrow, and it's all good, alright bro?" I don't manage to cheer him up very well, but what can ya do? He's a lot happier after he's able to win game after game though, and I applaud him for that - winning 4 straight TCG games is never easy, especially after you start so low. Anyway, time for some pictures!
Decent shot with Knights of Wario Land.
Brendan isn't too happy after losing 2 games in a row.
I sit and wait for them to post the final swiss results, mainly to see who I'll be playing in the Top 16. I'm pretty confident at this point, and there's just a few local TCG friends that I would rather avoid because most of them are good and I don't like playing friends in general. Results then go up.
Sorry for the really big picture, but I didn't want to resize it since it's such a boss picture :') I have to say, this is probably one of my proudest TCG accomplishments. 7-0 in the biggest TCG Regionals I've ever attended? I'll take it. Anyway, I look down and see a lot of familiar names... I get down to the 16th seed, and see that it's my friend Jeremy... pretty much the last person I wanted to play. Jeremy's known for sneaking into top cut and destroying in it (He won Regionals in RI after seeded 8th). I knew I'd have to get a bit lucky as well as play as good as possible in order to pull out a victory against him. We sort out our decks and sit down to start playing a bit after.
The Top 16 (#1 vs. #16)
Aaron (7/0) vs. Jeremy G. (5/2)
CMT vs. ZekEels
I hate playing against Jeremy. The only times I've actually won against him were when I just got lucky and steamrolled him in the beginning. I don't think I've legitimately beat him before, because somehow, I always just end up choking and misplaying really bad. In game 1, I end up going first, which is huge. I'm able to take a quick 6-4 lead even though I started with Regigigas, and am about to gain even more momentum when I have an easy KO on a Thundurus with 2 energy on it. I retreat my Smeargle to Celebi to get an extra energy off, and Junk Arm for the Switch... except I don't actually get the Switch. I somehow forgot that I needed the Switch and so I end up taking Catcher. I PONT in desperate hopes of getting a Junk Arm or a Switch, but with only 1 of each left in my deck, I don't get it. Because of this, he is able to get his energies onto a Zekrom and start taking prizes from there. We both misplay throughout the game, but this is what cost me both the game and tournament in the end. In game 2, I don't have a very nice start although I do start with Smeargle. I desperately try to get some energies on the field since I don't have any, and a Portrait for a Juniper along with my own Juniper leaves me with 3 Junk Arms in the discard pile after turn 1. There's not much more I can do after that.
7-1, elimination from Top 16.
Losing round 1 in the playoffs after you make it in as 1st seed is always really disappointing, but it was to a great friend of mine. It's funny actually, I managed to top cut every big TCG tournament this year (T8 RI Regionals, T8 PA States, T4 NJ States, T8 NY States, T16 PA Regionals)but I've managed to lose in the first game of each top cut, with 1 forfeit in RI since I dropped to play VGC... all I can do is stare at Brendan's 6 trophies while I have my 3....
Anyway, after losing to Jeremy, I'm pretty exhausted and hungry. My dad, Brendan and I head out in search of some food. We check out Chinatown (of course lol) and find a small but nice noodle shop, and we get something to eat before heading back to the parking lot and going to the hotel. While leaving the parking lot, I get a call from STRONG USER NATGEO and we chat about stuff. Stuff bros talk about. I tell him to get some sleep and that I'll see him tomorrow!
We finally get to our hotel, where I'm still scrambling to finish up some teams for other friends. Brendan falls asleep pretty quickly, and I decide that I really should get some rest too once it hit 12. Ready for a funny story?
So, I wake up later on thinking that it's already morning. The reason why I woke up was because of my dad's constant snoring, it was just so loud! I was like, "oh, it's pretty dark to be 6 AM right now" so I go turn my laptop on... and it says "1:10 AM." For a second, I thought I was dreaming or something, but nope, I really did only get 1 hour of sleep. I guess when you're that excited, you really don't need sleep. I crawl back into bed but struggle to fall asleep as my dad keeps on snoring. Brendan wakes up 15 minutes later, complaining because he can't fall asleep either. My dad finally wakes up while me and Brendan complain to ourselves, and actually manages to stop snoring for the rest of the night. Thanks dad.
Wow, look how much I've made you read already. For goodness sake, we're not even at the main event of the warstory, VGC itself! So, after getting a few more hours of sleep, I wake up to my alarm and start packing up. We originally wanted to get to the convention center by around 8, but just like Saturday morning, we end up leaving like 45 minutes after we were supposed to lol.
Before we head out though, Brendan receives an important business call from Darnell Washington reminding him that if he does not win today, Darnell will cut his sponsorship with Brendan. The pressure is on now! We pack all of our stuff up, check the hotel one last time (if only I did that in the hotel room I lost my 3DS and Pokemon games in...) and finally head out for the second day of the 2012 Pokemon Philadelphia Regional Championships!
I get a bunch of calls from NatGeo and TheGr8 as we travel there, and after a short 15 minute drive, we finally arrive at the convention center again. We head up the escalators as we are greeted with these long long lines! Finally, a tournament with more than 9 Juniors and 40 Seniors! I walk a bit towards the right, and meet a strong group of trainers and get pictures with all of them.
The one, the only, TheGr8.
Me and my boy Rukario, we go way back to 2008.
Me and my other boy, Chilebowl! Such an awesome guy / strong battler.
Slightly racist pose... classic iss and Cybertron picture though.
My old TCG friend Matthew also showed up to the event!
Throughout all this madness of taking pictures and finishing teams up, I also get to meet strong trainer Ominous Oppressor and his friend Mitch. Apparently, his mom let him out of his house to play some Pokemon. It was a real treat, although I'm not sure whether he wants his picture online or not. my good friend Vince/hitmonrocker also greets me, and I am totally bewildered! He told me he wasn't coming a couple of weeks ago, so I was really happy to see my old pal again. I finally finish up all the team building, and we get in line. The entire JINDERGANG consisting of Wolfey, Human, and kinderlew show up and we all hang out together. I tell kinderlew how adorable kinderbro is, and he proceeds to start talking SMACK with Babbytron. They get into a serious dissing contest, and eventually, Babbytron has no response to kinderbro's antics. He was just too much. I told Brendan he needed to step it up if he wanted to win today. He nodded understandingly.
As the line finally begins to move, kinderlew decides that he is too good to follow the rules and decides to go to the Battle Competition part of the game. He then proceeds to go "to the Live Competition," where it asks for him to wait as it searches for the competition data. After around 10 minutes and no data downloaded, he calls over a staff member and asks why the data hasn't downloaded... the guy was like "MAN YOU'RE WAY AHEAD YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THAT" and we all laugh. Good times, haha.
After that amusing incident, we make it towards the front of the line and finally get registered. dtrain and Sapphire Birch join us at this time. The TCG judges recognize me already, and as I get my wristband for the day, some other staff members point out my shiny medals from winning Nationals 2011. Since I was pretty much one of the last Seniors to get registered, they ran out of seats since all th seats were taken by Juniors and Seniors. As I walk through the room, I get all these "Ooooos" and "Ahhhhs," as well as many "OH MY GOSH IT'S CYBERTRON! HEY CYBERTRON! CYBERTRON CAN I GET A PICTURE WITH YOU?" I have to say, I was surprised by how many of the players in the room recognized me. I guess it was the medal too, I'm pretty pleased I won that now, haha. It was a real delight and honor to be known, and I never thought that the entire community would actually know who I was. Just so you get a sense of what the room was like...
I walk around the room, taking pictures while talking to NatGeo and iss. This is also when I get to meet Jeremy G, also known as RandomTron on Skarmbliss. He is such an awesome kid, and finished in the Top 4 in Newark last year in Seniors. Did I mention he's a professional actor too? No?
I also manage to get one with Drifblim and NatGeo. Senior division for the win!
After walking around and getting pictures, there are still no seats left. I leave the room to talk to the Masters for a bit, and when I come back, Dave has started making announcements. I quickly get out my camera to capture the energy in the room - certainly a lot better than the dull RI Regional!
[youtube]Osa8ZKP2dl0[/youtube]
Pairings are up shortly after... and round 1 starts!
The Chase is On
Sadly, unlike TCG, I was too concentrated on actually doing well so I completely forgot to take notes. Here's a basic summary of how the day went down. I don't remember all my opponent's teams, so for those that I did, I posted pictures of them. Sorry if I forgot!
Round 1
My opponent used Seadra and level 40 Pokemon. Enough was said. I was happy to have won such an easy game, but I knew my resistance would be pretty dirt poor because of it. I felt bad though, she didn't know you could use "powerful" Pokemon like Garchomp and Zapdos.
1-0.
Round 2 vs. Aravind Nair
Oh man, he's using UNREALITY'S strong triple Genie Pony team. I tremble of fear for a bit, until RandomTron asks him whether he EV trains and he goes "IS THAT TRAINING EEVEES?" I thought he was trolling me at first. Then he asked me what Tailwind did. The battle lasts for a long time, but it ends up in a 4-0.
2-0.
Round 3 vs. PungentFruit
I look at Team Preview, and have no idea what to choose. I hate Metagross in general, so I go for my Volcarona. I lead Volcarona/Hitmontop against his Latios/Metagross. In turn 1, I know I have to Fake Out Latios since a DM Draco Meteor would KO my Volcarona. I also go for a Quiver Dance (already a bad move, Bug Buzz probably would have worked out nicer). He uses Zen Headbutt with Metagross and KOes Hitmontop. The following turn, he switches the Metagross to Terrakion while I Protect with my Garchomp, which replaces Hitmontop, and Volcarona uses Bug Buzz on Latios for nothing. Ugh. I then Bug Buzz Latios again, which switches into a Metagross and leaves it with 10% left. Terrakion takes out my Volcarona with a Rock Slide while Garchmp uses Earthquake and KOes Metagross / leaves Terrakion with like 3 HP left. Now I'm really regretting not Heat Waving with Volcarona earlier on. I bring out Tyranitar, while he switches in Latios, and I feel like I'm screwed at this point. He goes for a double protect while I just go for a Dragon Claw / Rock Slide. The following turn, I protect with Garchomp and Rock Slide with Tyranitar... KOing Terrakion and leaving Latios with around 40%. (Another misplay, had I KOed Latios with Crunch, he would bring in Abomasnow, which Garchomp might have been able to handle since the Terrakion would be KOed by residual damage). The game is pretty much over at this point, and the only way I can win is by Protecting 5 times in a row while getting a Rock Slide flinch. I misclick and don't Protect the 3rd time, even though it was very very unlikely that I pulled a victory from that one. Good game PungentFruit, you deserved that win.
2-1.
In an attempt to get a picture with him, my friend ends up taking a video instead...
[youtube]lvbKmAoo6SU[/youtube]
Round 4 vs. Charles Sanchez (bluejay8295)
[youtube]ck73EnqSVNA[/youtube]
There wasn't very much that happened in our battle. He spread Thunder Wave with Thundurus as my Cresselia proceeds to be fully paralyzed for a few turns, but he Explodes with Metagross and takes out his partner while I Protect with my Garchomp and Rest with my Cresselia, easing the battle for me. I did get frustrated at some points, but it was a pretty good game overall. I can't remember much else about the battle though.
Round 5 vs. Victor Aung (hipoke)
You might recognize Victor's name from earlier before. That's because we played in TCG the day earlier! Although I am 3/1 at this point, Victor is 4/0 which will really boost my tiebreakers. He uses standard Rain with Latios. I go with my classic Hitmontop and Cresselia lead, and Hitmontop is able to OHKO Ludicolo on the 1st turn with a Fight Gem CC. The battle just goes downhill for him there, and amusingly, in the end, he has a Scarf Garchomp locked into Earthquake against Cresselia and Zapdos, lol. GG bud!
4-1.
Round 6 vs. Robby W.
Robby is another one of my TCG friends, and I helped him out with his team. He runs standard Rain, so I just go with Hitmontop and Cresselia and take him out from there. It was a rather amusing battle, since neither of us were taking it very seriously. He starts off with Toxicroak and Thundurus and immediately asks me, "HEY WHAT DO I DO FROM HERE." The rest of the battle is just us joking around with each other, and he actually brings it down to a close 1-0 finish.
5-1.
Round 7 vs. Jeremy G.
Jeremy is another familiar name - he was the one who eliminated me from Top Cut in TCG the day before! I also helped him out with his team, and beating standard rain with my team is fairly simple. I use my standard Cresselia / Hitmontop lead and just spread Thunder Wave everywhere, finishing him off with the sweepers in my team.
6-1. Round 8 vs. Sam S. (NatGeo)
Out of anybody I could have faced in the last round, I get paired with NatGeo! Just my luck! Although this was just his first VGC tournament, he was doing incredibly well and we both had 6-1 records going into the last round. I look at his team and figure that Volcarona can help me a lot in this match, especially since he doesn't carry Terrakion or Gastrodon like PungentFruit does. I lead with Hitmontop and Volcarona, with Cresselia and Garchomp in the back. He leads with Latios and Metagross with Garchomp and either Zapdos or Abomasnow in the back. I manage to get a T1 Quiver Dance as both of his Pokemon Protect, and from there on, it's smooth sailing since he doesn't really have an answer to Volcarona. Great game Sam, and you did awesome for your first VGC tournament!
7-1.
Soul on Fire
[youtube]XkRueLgXgvI[/youtube]
Did I mention how Brendan managed to go 7-0 while I was playing and win yet another Regional Championship? I think that makes him tied with David Arnold for most Regionals Championships ever won by someone! He shows me a really close battle where he barely wins by 8 HP, but after that battle, it got a lot easier for him apparently. He played a good TCG friend of ours in Round 6, and Superpokemon67's brother in Round 7. After Round 6, he was undefeated so I already knew he had secured the T4 finish, but he managed to top that by winning again. Brendan's now 11-0 this season :D I'm such a proud brother :')
Dave dives in...
And runs right back out!
At this point, I'm incredibly excited because I managed to win 5 games in a row (4 against good friends of mine, mind you) after losing Round 3 against PungentFruit. I still don't know how high my resistance will place me though because of my Round 1 opponent. However, I ask all my other opponents how they did in Round 8 and they all tell me that they won, which was really encouraging. I figured that there would only be 1 T4 spot open since PungentFruit and Drifblim would be the other two, so I anxiously waited as the round finished and they posted standings. Fortunately, I see that I finished 3rd! It's actually my worst Regionals performance in the Seniors division, lol, but I was incredibly happy to have won another $600 / trophy. Here's a picture of the final standings.
Smogon dominates the Seniors division with KeepBayleefing in 1st place, PungentFruit in 2nd place, myself in 3rd place, and Drifblim in 4th place. An impressive feat by all at the biggest Regional Championship in the country this year! (We were the only one to even break 100 players.) I'm pretty happy with my 3rd place finish.
After I get my awards and fill out forms, I say good bye to NatGeo, PungentFruit and the rest of the Seniors. I decide that since I'm going to be getting home late anyway that I should stay and cheer on my Master friends while updating Smogon and the rest of the world on how our best players were doing! iss and I set up my laptop at a table towards the back of the room. There's not much to be said about how I spent the next few hours, so just check out these pictures and you'll get a idea of what I'm talking about.
The alleged Hitmontop...
Basic summary of the day: kinderlew gets disqualified for an apparently hacked Hitmontop even though we couldn't find anything wrong with it. Some really tight Smogon matches, and a very intense Top 8 bracket. Wolfey, Human, JiveTime, Ben7000, Biffster, Civ, and Chilebowl all make it through to the Top 8, where they play for a trophy and potential Nationals money. Check out this video I got of all of them playing. It was so tense!
[youtube]afDIrhAO_zA[/youtube]
By the time Wolfe and JiveTime had won, it was way too late and my dad really wanted us out of there. Brendan and I wished them luck, said good bye to the three people that were left watching lol and finally headed home! Sapphire Birch texts me 10 minutes later than JiveTime managed to win the entire tournament and beat Wolfe. What an impressive feat, congrats to him. We finally get home at around 1 in the morning, I proudly put the two trophies that we won over the weekend on our piano (where there are 7 other Pokemon trophies from this year!) before I go to bed, sleep a few hours, and return to the never ending life of a high school student.
Fin.
Pros, cons, shoutouts!
What I really enjoyed about the weekend:
Both tournaments were pretty well run and a LOT of fun.
The experience was so much better than Rhode Island.
Brendan and I ended up doing well again!
Seeing so many old friends, as well as making many new.
Getting recognized by pretty much the entire Seniors division at the tournament.
Biggest turn out in the entire country for VGC!
Dave Schwimmer is a pretty awesome guy, great to talk to. Awesome decision of top cut for Masters!
What could have been improved:
Timing, the Masters delay was absolutely ridiculous.
Venue, the place was just small in general and the fact that we didn't have enough seats at first was kind of annoying lol
I love the TCG staff and judges, but there were just a few moments throughout the weekend where I thought some were being way too uptight about things that the really didn't need to be uptight about. Guess everyone's tired and frustrated though.
Going home on a Sunday night for school on Monday sucks :(
Shoutouts
First off, thanks to my dad for supporting this hobby and taking us to all these tournaments. Thanks to my mom for supporting us as well! You guys are the best.
Thanks to the following people for providing Brendan and I Pokemon. Without you guys, we would not have been able to compete. (Biosci, Cassie, Dillon, Hozu, Nexus, religiousjedi and a few more I'm forgetting. Please remind me!)
Babbytron for being the best Junior out there. 11-0, 2 Regionals wins. I love you bro!
dtrain and Sapphire Birch for being cool guys and supporting me like always, as well as practicing with me on Sundays.
iss, I love this kid and you'll get your chance in the spotlight someday <3
TheGr8, one of the coolest guys I have the honor of knowing. It was amazing seeing you again, and I'm so happy you did so well. You've been a major help in YouTube videos too, thank you for that. Tom is the best!
RandomTron for keeping me company while I updated Smogon while just being an overall incredibly guy. You're honestly going to be so famous one day, I hope you remember me haha! Your mom and brother were so nice too :)
The Knights of Wario Land for coming over on Saturday, great guy and it was really awesome meeting you.
PungentFruit, NatGeo, hitmonrocker, LudiImpact, The Hunger Snorlax, Drifblim, Superpokemon67 and all the other awesome Seniors for making the tournament so enjoyable.
Solace because she's Solace.
JINDERGANG/Wolfe pack for dominating, kinderlew should have been in the Top 4 with Wolfe and Human. You guys are so chill, I wish we could have hung out more throughout the weekend.
TDS and Enfuego. I love my dad. Enfuego is such a bro.
Chilebowl and Rukario for being so supportive and incredible.
Ben7000 for repping NYC, I knew you were gonna go far!
wer even though we barely met
Wildfire <3 <3 <3
TCG friends!
All the other great Smogoners that were there, including but not limited to The Wolf, Expert Evan, Shinkou, Jio, many others!
The people that recognized me for my videos / threads on Smogon / VGC accomplishments and complimented me on it! It was really hearwarming.
Everyone else that supported me throughout this adventure, it wouldn't be the same without you guys.
Everyone that did well in other Regionals, repping Smogon and VGC in general! (Congrats to the Arnold, ZachDro, LPFan, Alaka, Nickscor, AlphaOmega, R Inanimate etc etc etc!)
#seniors and #ducks
and my two favorite people in the world aaron traylor and daphne jin i love you guys forever yaaaay daphne she is so so cool woooooooo
and my irl friend liam and his brother for being so nice and giving us their games for free when we lost them! you guys are seriously the best and I can't thank you guys enough <3 <3 <3
I still have around 5 videos I have to get to uploading, along with probably 50+ pictures and a bunch more to write. I'm sure I'm forgetting shoutouts. I'm sure I'm missing important details. But, hey, for now, I hope you guys enjoy what I've gotten down, I'm personally really proud of this one. I also really like toying around with the YouTube tag on the forums, there are a lot of small and cool videos this time around.
200th Post!!! Remember when I said I was saving this post, well I wasn't lying.
Thanks for being awesome and doing good at ANOTHER Pokemon event! It was great meeting you in real life especially the awkward moment when you violated me and said "Why didn't you tell me you were small and adorable??!!!???" That made my day sort of. Now that I think of it, not really. I'm still kinda sad we didn't really talk >_____< I regret it.... Hopefully we can hang out at Nats if I come! Congrats on 3rd once again! You're the best! <333
EDIT: Babbytron is also the best! Congrats to you too!
Cybertron sucks and should be ashamed that he crashes my internet browser with each of his warstories >.<
just kidding! Great warstory, you never disappoint with the quality of your warstories! Congrats on your success(Babbytron too!) and hope you can make it to worlds!
Awesome warstory as always Aaron. Congrats to you on another top 4 performance and to Brendan for his second win this season! I wish you guys the best of luck at nats.
I can't help but be proud of how good you and Brendan have gotten at this game since you started in '08. I wish you all of the best at Nats this year broski! Who cares if you came in 3rd at this regional, you still have your bling from last year and I know you're gonna do great this year at Nats and Worlds :D
leave it to an Asian to complain about 3rd at the toughest Regional of the season.... lol but good job on that! I expected to finish 2nd after losing in Finals, but it doesn't really matter much, same prizes either way. Too bad we never got that rematch, hopefully have a chance at Nats even if it's not part of the actual tournament. Same story with food! Hope to see you again at Nats
Cybertron, my man, this is another epic warstory, you have way too much time for these things after every event. You even cover both you AND Brendan which is mad. Kudos to you for that. I'll see if I can make an appearance in your Nationals one. We did notice the top picture has a MASSIVE lurker in as well....
It's a shame you'll never be better than Babbytron though, he's going to be showing you up for years to come. Hope you enjoy getting used to that.
Cybertron! :D it was so awesome to see you again! I'm so glad you and babbytron did well again! I always love your warstories. Ahh thanks for the shoutout :P of course the videos and my AR on sunday morning. You were like the first person I meet at the VGC in Newark! I hope I can see you guys at Nats!
And you have a few videos that need to come in this warstory! :D
WOAH WOAH WOAH what are those words about to come out of Babbytron's mouth in that video. Aaron, stop being a bad influence on your brother he needs to stay adorable and NOT a pottymouth >:(
