Smogon: Why you came here and why you stayed

[Impulsive]

I've only just joined Smogon.com.

I started playing pokemon with Red and Blue. I played and beat both. Then i enjoyed the game still by using the cloning glitch and many other of the glitches in those first games. They were entertained me quite much. Yellow wasnt as fun for me but still entertaining. GSC opened up much more to the Pokemon world and entertained me much. Breeding and all the new aspects of the game (especially time) brought Pokemon into a new light for me. RSE was too easy but I enjoyed the legendaries from that gen. DPPt opened up competitive battling to me, as so many others with the advent of Wi-Fi. I haven't competed in any tournaments, but I've battled a few times over Wi-Fi with other competitive people and done alright. I enjoyed this quite much and using this site's resources I lurked and gained enough knowledge to make some decent poke's while I didn't have internet access for awhile. But now I do and...

Why I joined the Smogon forums: To learn how to make a team work better together, and more importantly learn strategy and tactics within the competitive pokemon world. I have much to learn and I will be joining the tutoring system in the next round (hopefully soon)

 

[Mikki]

Hello everyone.

My name is Mikki. I found the forums (not the actual site.) after trying to find some moveset suggestions for my team on Platinum. I have beaten Sapphire, Diamond and Platinum already but I am still working on the National Dex. So, I have rather decent grammar and I really do not use chatspeak unless if it is needed. ( I just use Lmao basically. No need really otherwise.)

I do plan to stay here for a while at least.

I am glad to be here.

 

[Zach]

Why I came: Stark Mountain
Why I stayed: Firebot Development Lab

 

[Eraddd]

I started because it seemed like a pretty cool forum, and because i wanted to get into competitive battling.

I got my butt kicked almost every time, and after I got my new computer, didn't down shoddy on it.

I'm staying because this place seems pretty chill and also because there's not as many idiots as the last forum i went too...

 

[Galactic Boss Cyrus]

I came here to find information on one of our Commanders. I stayed because I still haven't found anything, and it's only been a few days.

 

[Anthemon]

Hey, just joined smogon and figured this was the correct place to introduce myself.

I started pokémon in the days of R/B/Y when I was in Grade 2 or so, and then that died out quickly.

For whatever reason, although pokémon was incredibly popular during the first generation, when the second generation came, its popularity diminished. I was still interested in it, and I liked looking info up, but never played the games. That is, until the third generation.

With the third generation came the debut of Pokemon Colosseum on the GC, which I was fortunate enough to own. So I played that, along with XD after Colosseum's release and loved both of them.

After that phase, I picked up Pearl and PBR a little later, and was hooked on it...again. But I never played the game for real, like I am now.

As of this point, I was member on Neoseeker for a little while, and started to realize that amongst the idiocy there, there were actual knowledgeable people there about this game, something past what I thought pokémon was about. So, I began to research competitive pokemon, learned EVs, natures, formulas, IVs etc. And so I downloaded Shoddy, and I always used Smogon for advice, but it took me a year to actually join this site. So I now play the game competitively, because I enjoy the logic, strategy/tactics and reasoning involved.

And I haven't really "stayed" so, I hope I do in the future anyway, because I like what I see of the community here so far.

 

[drcossack]

Been here a while, finally decided to post in here.

Why I came: To get a VGC team rated.

Why I stayed: The first draft of my VGC team was horribly rough, and I kept refining it after seeing some movesets posted in warstory threads. I eventually started battling some of the 2009 VGC participants (616, mattj, Alakapimp, IPL, to name a few) and further refined my team into it's final form. Doubles eventually became my favorite form of battling, and I play VGC matches on WiFi more than anything. I also stayed to continue refining my team for the VGC, and also to polish my skills in other battle formats (OU and Uber.)

My history: While I've played Pokemon from the beginning, I didn't really get into competitive play until D/P. I dabbled in it at Nintendo events during Gen 1, and, though I played Silver, I didn't really do much with it. I lost interest during GSC. One day, I saw the preview for the Destiny Deoxys movie on Cartoon Network, watched it (even though it sucked), and got back into Pokemon. I studied some movesets, adapted them into my Emerald Pokemon, but I wasn't that knowledgeable about EV's and IV's.

When Gen 4 came around, I found out about Shoddy and started playing on it (I forget exactly when, but I know it's been over a year - I created my account before the Garchomp ban.) Official had been slowly dying, so I gradually started to play on the Smogon server. I started off as an OU player, who occasionally went into Ubers. After a while, I got bored with OU and started focusing exclusively on Ubers.

 

[Korski]

Why I came: To post my super kewl baton pass team on the rmt forum
Why I stayed: CAP!!!!

 

[Vapor Trails]

I came to Smogon because Gamefaqs has become a trolling house (at least the pokemon boards)
I'm staying on here because Smogon is much better that GFaqs, due to better descriptions of the pokemon and better sets, while GFaqs is like "Your pokemon are bad. Go build another team."
-2nd post i've ever made on here-

 

[zephus]

I've been lurking here for like half a year so I decided to join eventually.

 

[LadyMiir]

Hello! Just joined Smogon, and so I -hope- this is a good place to say hi...

Why I came (at first): To get some moveset ideas for my FR team at the time. Came back for LG... and R/S... and you get the picture. Also for consultation on which natures were best for certain Pokemon.
Why I ended up joining: I use Serebii for trading, but I do enjoy warstories and seeing creative movesets, etc. So I came here to learn a bit more about competitive battling, because I am completely new to it.

 

[mtr]

Why I came?

Well, if you want to have a good laugh at my expense, you could take a look at one of my early RMTs, but I can't quite find them. I joined to get my team rated, and gradually by lurking and asking questions, I began to learn the metagame, along with getting into Ubers.

Why I stayed?

Damnit, you guys are the only forum I've ever stayed at for a good deal of time. I really feel like I've become a part of this place more than any other place I've frequented on the internet. It would be horrible to leave.

 

[KingEmpoleon]

Why I came here:

Back around the time I joined, I didn't know what the hell EV'ing was and all of that, and I had heard about the VGC's, so I came, learned a little, was unable to go, etc...

Why I stayed:

Even though I was unable to go, I learned valuable information that would help me out for later, and now knowing that there's a metagame behind this that is constantly evolving, I decided to stay, and continue to grow my knowledge of competitive battling.

I hope I explained it well enough, or at least worded it correctly.

 

[gsninja]

How I got into Pokemon:

As we all know, Red and Blue hit the US in September of '98. Before this, I had only remotely heard snips of info about it, seeing as it arrived in Japan before then. Christmas of that year, I got the Red version from my mom, who told me she figured that I would like it. From there...well, I was obsessed with Pokemon right from the start. As of today, Pokemon is only the second game series that I've actually fallen in love with (The other being Golden Sun, which my username is based off of).

Even up 'til now, my interest in Pokemon hasn't dropped a single notch; it's only risen with each successive generation, and I enjoy each generation more than the last (Yes, I enjoyed D/P/Pt WAY more than G/S/C, and I've been with Pokemon from the start).

Why I came to Smogon:

I didn't get into competitive battling until around the end of the second gen, when Ruby and Sapphire were just looming around the corner. My interest in the metagame was pretty weak with G/S/C, because it was primarily stalling, and that bores the **** out of me. My interest in it really rose with R/S/E, during which more offense and a lot more factors emerged, and I started really getting interested. So far, my interest has peaked with D/P/Pt and HG/SS.

Anyways, Smogon was just one of the many names thrown around while I was lurking the GFAQs boards of Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Trading, along with Serebii and Marriland. I came to Smogon not looking for help or any competitive advice, but just to communicate with the Pokemon community. So I joined.

Why I stayed:

I hardly ever post on Smogon; I really only lurk every once in a while, but I stayed because it's a Pokemon community, and a competitive one at that, which means a hell of a lot more to discuss, and I honestly like discussion about the metagame a lot more than actually battling in it. Then there's the Smogon server on Shoddy; always nice to chat in real time with other people.

 

[Aeroblast!]

Why I came to Smogon: A general gaming forum that I was a part of (only because of Pokemon) only had a few frequent visitors, most of who were already a part of Smogon. I was intrigued, so I visited, and clearly saw that this site was the real deal when it came to pokemon.

Why I stayed: Pokemon is one of the best strategy games ever made. It's such a deep and complex game, that it never bores me. I lurk on the RMTs almost every day, looking for new ideas for teams, though I rarely, if ever, post.

 

[Chii]

Why I came

I was looking for emualtors and emulations online(not specificly for pokemon games) and during this process I found that shoddy battle simulator.
Thinking that I was so good at pokemon(which I wasn´t obviously) I got started and learnt everything about the competitive game by doing :P

Why I stayed

To be honest, Pokemon always was a very attractive game to me, but since I grew up and knew noone at my age playing this game I considered it being immature. I am very glad that the competitive game turnt out to be more than a kid´s game and that I finally have found a niche to play with these cute little monsters

 

[J-man]

Why I came...

Simply put, i like pokemon. To extensively put it- i want to make a name for myself and become a respected pokemon player. I have not yet broken my ties with casual battling, which i desire so much to do. I know that working hard on Smogon can do this, so... here I am...

 

[Octobre]

For the sake of a post count =) Why I came: Serebii's RMT forum died down Why I stayed: Trou Du Cul / Stark Mountain

 

[drynyl47]

Why I came: well, back when I was a noob to competitive battling, a friend of mine tlod me to visit this site. When I finally found this site, I finally realized that Pokemon isn't just all about childish stuffs. :P

Why I stayed: honestly, at first I don't have real intentions to stay here. But with the discovery of RNG, I finally decided to make a trade thread here together with my partner. Thankfully, our thread became really successful.

Overall, if it wasn't for Smogon, I'm still probably a noobish Pokemon player up until now.

 

[KrakenNLD]

I found smogon because I was being n00by :P. That's it, no joke :).

Anyhow, the story is that I one day decided to try and create a team in NetBattle (haven't heard of Shoddy Battle), which I did and tested it out a little. Failed miserable and then come over to ask for somebody to give me advice on serebii. I did so, and somebody suggested me to go and take a look at smogon.com because they have good competitive builds for each Pokémon. So I came to this site and started reading.

After I read my way through most Pokémon strategies. I decided to retry and make a team again according to smogon builds. It was not perfect and it lacked synergy, but at least I was winning a bit more of the time, as well as crippling some other players a bit better. My favorite one who swept through a great deal was a Reversal-Lucario with Substitute with the only change an ExtremeSpeed instead of Crunch (I already had a Dark-Type attack on another one). Anyhow, I was winning a lot more then before, but still I think I'm in the newbie phase here. To be honest, but heck... I'm ALWAYS reading something.

Then, I had a little break with Pokémon and everything that had to do with it. I only switched on my DS for the lottery and some other events, but that's it. Once I got scrolled down and saw the "Create-A-Pokémon"-section, I became curious so I clicked on to find more about it, and it was pretty fun to start reading about some new pokémon made by a competetive community. Then I started reading about the rules what to type, and I decided this would be a nice time to register (practice a bit on giving feedback/ideas for Cap9 to practice for Cap10 :P). But my nickname was already taken, I just decided to fill in my nickname, use a password I mostly use on most website's and I was logged on. I have not the slightest idea when I registered :P. Of course I can see it now, but I just can't remember it that I did so.

Anyhow, and now here I am making posts, still thinking about what to say to others. I heard there is a tutoring area here as well, might sign up for that tomorrow as well.

The link is also for me later, so that I can find it again.

That is also the reason why I want to stay, to help with CAPs :).


Edit: Ow yeah, side-note... avatar and all those things I will start on later as well, just not the time for it now.

 

[Skymin_Flower]

I started playing Pokemon when i was 6 years old. I had just bought a gameboy colour, and my older friend gave me a choice of his pokemon yellow or his pokemon gold. I took Gold. Since then, i have played through every single game pokemon has brought out, from Gold and Silver, all the way up to the newly released Explorers of the Sky (the only game i have not played through has been Pokemon Battle Revolution). I remember one of my friends, equally as obsessed with Pokemon as I was, and we both held tournaments, just the two of us, to see who could come out on top. These could range from "Who can capture Steelix in Pokemon Ranger fastest" right up the 6 vs 6 Pokemon battles. I stumbled across Serebii just looking on the internet. I started reading Serebii's Pokemon of the Week, which gives details of the competitive aspects of a Pokemon. I tried using these on Shoddy Battle, but i realised these were out of date (Electivires was written back when D/P came out, as being one of the best Pokemon). Smogon was mentioned a couple of times, so i googled "Smogon" and look what i found. :P I lurked for almost a year, and finally got an account a couple of months ago.

I stayed for while, just to learn about competitive Pokemon. I have read all the guides in the Articles section multiple times. Now I am more of a "casual" competitive player. I try out different (not OU) Pokemon to see how they fare in OU battle. I have tried Linoone and Pikachu to the greatest success. Linoone was my lead, and i swept countless teams 6-0 with a slightly modified belly drum set. And it is very funny to watch a Pikachu sweep. Now, however, you will usually find me either in the CAP forums or Smeargles studio. I love the artwork involved in pokemon, especially spriting.

 

[Ravelle]

My history with pokemon goes way back to it´s origins, I remember if it was yesterday.
One day my friend came over to hang out and the moment he made a step on to my door mat he grabbed something out of his pocket, it was a floppy disk and as he raised it in to the air he told me with much enthusiasm and joy he had obtained the first Pokemon game, Pokemon Red.
We were both in to the pokemon scene because it aired everyday on FOX Kids back then so you can imagine we were totally hyped we were able to actually experience raising own creatures.

From that day on we were obsessed with wit that ranged from collecting pokemon cards and posters to toys and magazines.

And now eleven years later and 10 games later I´m still enjoying the lights out of it and started my Pokemon carreer as collector and breeder which is a hard task because everyone on global trade wants to trade Legendaries for everyday like pokemon heh.

And the reason I came here is because someone posted a link of this place on a RPG blog on 1up.com and decided to join because I was looking for a good community.

 

[Terra]

I came to Smogon, because it's known as the largest community in Pokémon Competitive-Battling. First, i've been in AnimeG (now known as BisaBoard), then on PokéCommunity and many others. But here are really the most active Competitive Battlers, it's not only a slogan.

That's the only thing, why i stayed here - because here are the most active Competitive Battlers around. Smogon has negative points too, not less, but i need a target, where i find opponents, and for that Smogon is the best.

 

[Ally of Justice]

I came here a long time ago. Because some guy known as Jimbo42292 (Jimbo+ as he is known now) recommended me to join this place. Ah good times. I stayed because I did not have access to Pokesav at the time, and when I did get it. I just up and left this place. Then again I never really posted here. All I did here was get some easy trades for stuff.



I came back because Jimbo+ has not kept his end of a deal we made some weeks ago, and I have come for his soul.

 

[Moveset Master]

i was already here.