So this is my war story both me and my friend Capt Coconut made it to top 8 at the San Francisco regional. We both started practicing a month before the event so I was really nervous I never played competitive and I lurked here at smogen to get tips and info so I ended picking a Japanese team I liked, it looked like it was good against trick room and rain dance it consisted of empoleon, toxicroak, salamence, and snorlax. When we got here it was packed with people so we waited for about two hours for the lottery to start. I had 145 which is zapdos and luckily got in and so did my friend. I was really excited and nervous at the same time.
First round
I got paired against a guy that said it was his first time playing competitive so I was a little relived. He started with ludicolo and electrode and I sent out toxicroak and empoleon. So as my first move I did fake out with toxicroak targeting electrode and surf with empoleon I ended up killing electrode, after he sets up a rain dance and he leech seeds with ludicolo he then sends out a toxicroak so for some reason I switch both my guys for salamence and snorlax, he then smiles for some reason, when I switch my salamence ends up getting iced beam and Snorlax gets brick braked, I was OMG I JUST GOT PWND thankfully they both lived at yellow hp. Salamence only because he was holding the anti-ice berry, I then killed the toxicroak with salamence, snorlax protected just in case his toxicroak had a focus sash. Well salamence dies to ice beam from ludicolo. He then sends out kingdra and I send out toxicroak. I faked out with toxicroak hitting kingdra, then I returned with snorlax, (thinking I was going to kill it) well it did nothing ( cried a little inside I was WTF what’s wrong with my snorlax return) he then leech seeds my snorlax, he ended up killing my snorlax and I killed his kingdra with toxicroak. I then send out my empoleon I end up winning against him and move on.
Second round
So I check my snorlax and he had no happiness so I was really confuse how he lost it. I did transfer it to my pearl the day before because I had a couple rare candies on that game but I didn’t know trading your pokemon made them loose happiness. So I kind of lost some confidence cause I hade a snorlax with a useless move. Thankfully I smoked my second round opponent don’t remember much I just know he started with lapras and poliwrath and he had gallade and gardenvior.
Third round
This round also wasn’t that hard to beat she played skarmory and salamence as her leads. I sent out my usual leads; she ended up killing my toxicroak. I then send out my salamence thankfully her guy was at low red life so I overheat and end up killing both of them she then sends out gengar and gyarados her gengar kills my empoleon I draco meteor gyarados bringing it down to low yellow, she uses earthquake with gyarados hitting no one (LOLWUT) I then send out snorlax she tries to hypnosis but it is a miss I swagger my snorlax with salamence lum berry cures confusion, gyarados waterfalls snorlax but only took a quarter of his hp, snorlax then OHKO gengar with fire punch. I then ended up winning next round so I was really excited to be moving on to the top 16th.
Top 16th
So when I saw his team leads I was so happy because my team is meant to beat his. He starts of with lv 1 smeargle and a dusknoir he starts off with a follow me from smeargle I fake out, his focus sash activates I then fallow up with surf killing the smeargle an damaging dusknoir he then send out snorlax he belly drums, than he psyches up with dusknoir. I surf with empoleon then cross chop with toxicroak killing snorlax he then sends out metagross. I sucker punch his dusknoir with toxicroak almost killing him. He rock slides with dusknoir hitting both my pokemon making my empoleon flinch he psyches up with metagross. I sucker punch with toxicroak metagross not doing a lot of damage then aqua jet with empoleon the dusknoir fainting it, his meatgross knocks out toxicroak. I send out snorlax then earthquake with him, while protect with empoleon not doing a lot of damage because his metagross was holding the anti-ground berry he ends up OHKO my snorlax. I sent out salamence so thinking I had the game in the bag he bullet punches my salamence OHKO = (but my empoleon surf ends up getting a critical hit =) knocking him out. So after I beat him some of the staff ask me if I knew who he was I said I didn’t know, they told me he was last years champion(idk of what), I got relieved after that.
Top 8
Well literally I got smoked; I never play tested against my opponent’s team so I didn’t know what to do. He was running a trick room team with a lv 50 smeargle, dusknoir, machamp, and lapras the critical error was in my first move instead of using fake out I should of use taunt on his dusknoir shutting down trick room but I faked out smeargle which ended up using detect thus setting up trick room and getting all the trick room shenanigans going. I tried recording the battle, but someone from the staff came and turns off the power while trying to save, but I think I did great for my first time. I had a blast and had only a month to play test and come up with a team, but I was hoping to top 4 with my buddy Capt coconut, but there is always next year hope it wasn’t to long of a war story.
Top 16th video
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