So yesterday Nintendo of Australia held a battle competition in the Myer on George Street, Sydney. The link to the information was put up in #ocn, and a few of us in Sydney decided to go and play some Pokemon. Four of us - Earthworm, KnightoftheWind, Crux and myself ended up going, and we were joined by Earthworm's friend Michael and I think HSB (who we didn't hang out with because nobody sacked up and talked to him). After an hour long train ride to the city, I made my way to the top floor of the Myer, not knowing that elevators existed so I was quite tired when I rang Crux to find where he was in the line. After about a minute of awkward silence, I tapped him on the shoulder (quite a feat, he's very tall and I am very short) and asked if he was from Smogon. When he said yes, we found Earthworm and his friend up the front of the line, and KnightoftheWind joined us soon afterwards.
Lining up for entry was pretty dull, except that as we lined up, we had the opportunity to play with that Wii drawing application, so I drew a Koffing and added #ocn under it hoping that GoldenSun actually did turn up, but to no avail. The Koffing was unfortunately erased and someone drew an Emolga instead :( Near the front of the line, some Asian guy suddenly yelled out 'WHO KNOWS ABOUT EVs?' Our hands shot up, and we looked around to see a disappointingly low amount of hands in the air. I mentioned this, and it seemed like we were geared for an easy Smogon win.
I walked around and looked at all the various pieces of technology and video games for sale as the other guys signed up for the tournament. I didn't have a copy of Pokemon then (and I still don't, thanks a lot Adam "I won't sell my copy of Pokemon Black that I won for $20 to Thorns" Nelson), so I would be spectating the entire day. We found a spot away from all the little children, and I hijacked an iPod dock that was on display and started playing some Crystal Castles as we all chatted about our teams and how Smogon was still down (Crux refreshed the page during the day in the hope that it would be up, to no avail).
The first round kicked off, and all three competing Smogon members made it through. Crux was first, beating a girl with his Whimsicott/Terrakion team. Earthworm beat a small boy who had a Herdier and Ducklett. The kid ended up crying, and when I called Earthworm on that, he answered me with a rather stoic 'a win's a win'. Using Crux's phone, I relayed this to #ocn, which was met with a few profanities, and Earthworm was coloured a bastard for the rest of the day. KnightoftheWind beat another casual player quite handily.
Crux and I went to watch the battle on the big screen, and we saw the winner of the 2007 competition get beaten soundly by some kid using a Haxorus. The host of the tournament approached the whole Smogon crew afterwards, and he told us that this was running because Australia doesn't have VGC, but apparently our chances of having VGC will ride on the success of these battle competitions, so if you're in another state, please participate!
We went down for lunch after the round 1 matches at my urging - I hadn't had breakfast and I really wanted some Subway. To my dismay, the Subway line was massive so we all went to Oporto with Earthworm. When we went back up, we had a look around and found a pretty awesome model of the Sydney Harbour Bridge made out of LEGO!
Everyone made it through their round 2 games as well, except for Earthworm's friend Michael who lost to a kid who was supposedly HSB from this very website. We caught a few glimpses of some people who actually knew what they were doing - we saw a few Whimsicotts, one Amoonguss, and even a Trick Room team designed to counter the Whimsicott/Terrakion combo that Crux, Earthworm and weird fringe kid were running. Remember that we were only allowed to use Pokemon numbered 1-151 in the Unova Pokedex, excluding the Ubers Reshiram and Zekrom.
Round 3 came, and Crux, Earthworm and KnightoftheWind all made it through that as well, and I think it was KotW that was put up on the big screen. He handily beat some guy who was using an all-Bug team. I filmed it, but my video phone is really bad quality and I'd rather spare you the pain of having to watch and listen to a video shot on my phone.
Round 4 was probably where the last of the kids using their starter Pokemon, Haxorus and general bad Pokemon like Zebstrika and Unfezant got culled out. KotW got knocked out due to the other guy using a Terrakion that basically ran over his entire strategy of disrupting setups. Crux battled on the big screen, and we saw him beat a competitor who was looking pretty strong with a Whimsicott/Conkledurr strategy, along with a Cofagrigus. It was a pretty good battle, the other guy knew about the danger of a +4 Terrakion (for those of you who do not know, if Beat Up is used on a Pokemon with Justified, each hit boosts its Attack, so in 4v4 doubles, Whimsicott will Beat Up Terrakion boosting its Attack to the equivalent of two Swords Dances) so Crux had his work cut out for him, but he won in the end. Earthworm made it through, using the same strategy.
In round 5, we expected Earthworm and Crux to play each other since most of the other matches had been played by the time they were called up, but due to a stroke of luck they lasted another round without having to play each other. Crux lost to a guy who I think was called BJ, due to an unlucky Draco Meteor crit (bs hax). Earthworm won his battle on the big screen against a girl who was rolling Trick Room and cemented his position as the favourite to win. I also got this on camera, but again you don't want to see it.
Round 6 came - the preliminaries. Smogon had one player left, and we watched as BJ beat out the one Amoonguss team that was in the tournament, and Earthworm beat a kid who was also using Whimsicott/Terrakion (captured on film by a guy with a good camera!), so he was going to face BJ in the final.
The grand final was a really good match, with elements of luck on both sides. I'll leave it to Earthworm to post his warstory, since I think he'll know the battle better than anyone else. To my knowledge, a video of it hasn't been put online, and my phone ran out of memory so I couldn't film it. Earthworm's Battle Video was saved though, so you can have a look at it if you've got WiFi - the code is 36-19507-78272.
Overall, it was a really good day. I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to meet with some of the Sydney Smogon users in real life, which is why I decided to come, and I don't regret my decision. Unfortunately, the other NSW Smogon users didn't come, off the top of my head we didn't see GoldenSun, Improbability or Brammi, which was a shame. I didn't get too many pictures, but I did get (pretty bad) pictures of the other three guys. KotW is the guy grinning, Earthworm's holding his DS, and Crux is the guy with the white hoodie with his back turned to me (how rude).
Lining up for entry was pretty dull, except that as we lined up, we had the opportunity to play with that Wii drawing application, so I drew a Koffing and added #ocn under it hoping that GoldenSun actually did turn up, but to no avail. The Koffing was unfortunately erased and someone drew an Emolga instead :( Near the front of the line, some Asian guy suddenly yelled out 'WHO KNOWS ABOUT EVs?' Our hands shot up, and we looked around to see a disappointingly low amount of hands in the air. I mentioned this, and it seemed like we were geared for an easy Smogon win.
I walked around and looked at all the various pieces of technology and video games for sale as the other guys signed up for the tournament. I didn't have a copy of Pokemon then (and I still don't, thanks a lot Adam "I won't sell my copy of Pokemon Black that I won for $20 to Thorns" Nelson), so I would be spectating the entire day. We found a spot away from all the little children, and I hijacked an iPod dock that was on display and started playing some Crystal Castles as we all chatted about our teams and how Smogon was still down (Crux refreshed the page during the day in the hope that it would be up, to no avail).
The first round kicked off, and all three competing Smogon members made it through. Crux was first, beating a girl with his Whimsicott/Terrakion team. Earthworm beat a small boy who had a Herdier and Ducklett. The kid ended up crying, and when I called Earthworm on that, he answered me with a rather stoic 'a win's a win'. Using Crux's phone, I relayed this to #ocn, which was met with a few profanities, and Earthworm was coloured a bastard for the rest of the day. KnightoftheWind beat another casual player quite handily.
Crux and I went to watch the battle on the big screen, and we saw the winner of the 2007 competition get beaten soundly by some kid using a Haxorus. The host of the tournament approached the whole Smogon crew afterwards, and he told us that this was running because Australia doesn't have VGC, but apparently our chances of having VGC will ride on the success of these battle competitions, so if you're in another state, please participate!
We went down for lunch after the round 1 matches at my urging - I hadn't had breakfast and I really wanted some Subway. To my dismay, the Subway line was massive so we all went to Oporto with Earthworm. When we went back up, we had a look around and found a pretty awesome model of the Sydney Harbour Bridge made out of LEGO!
Everyone made it through their round 2 games as well, except for Earthworm's friend Michael who lost to a kid who was supposedly HSB from this very website. We caught a few glimpses of some people who actually knew what they were doing - we saw a few Whimsicotts, one Amoonguss, and even a Trick Room team designed to counter the Whimsicott/Terrakion combo that Crux, Earthworm and weird fringe kid were running. Remember that we were only allowed to use Pokemon numbered 1-151 in the Unova Pokedex, excluding the Ubers Reshiram and Zekrom.
Round 3 came, and Crux, Earthworm and KnightoftheWind all made it through that as well, and I think it was KotW that was put up on the big screen. He handily beat some guy who was using an all-Bug team. I filmed it, but my video phone is really bad quality and I'd rather spare you the pain of having to watch and listen to a video shot on my phone.
Round 4 was probably where the last of the kids using their starter Pokemon, Haxorus and general bad Pokemon like Zebstrika and Unfezant got culled out. KotW got knocked out due to the other guy using a Terrakion that basically ran over his entire strategy of disrupting setups. Crux battled on the big screen, and we saw him beat a competitor who was looking pretty strong with a Whimsicott/Conkledurr strategy, along with a Cofagrigus. It was a pretty good battle, the other guy knew about the danger of a +4 Terrakion (for those of you who do not know, if Beat Up is used on a Pokemon with Justified, each hit boosts its Attack, so in 4v4 doubles, Whimsicott will Beat Up Terrakion boosting its Attack to the equivalent of two Swords Dances) so Crux had his work cut out for him, but he won in the end. Earthworm made it through, using the same strategy.
In round 5, we expected Earthworm and Crux to play each other since most of the other matches had been played by the time they were called up, but due to a stroke of luck they lasted another round without having to play each other. Crux lost to a guy who I think was called BJ, due to an unlucky Draco Meteor crit (bs hax). Earthworm won his battle on the big screen against a girl who was rolling Trick Room and cemented his position as the favourite to win. I also got this on camera, but again you don't want to see it.
Round 6 came - the preliminaries. Smogon had one player left, and we watched as BJ beat out the one Amoonguss team that was in the tournament, and Earthworm beat a kid who was also using Whimsicott/Terrakion (captured on film by a guy with a good camera!), so he was going to face BJ in the final.
The grand final was a really good match, with elements of luck on both sides. I'll leave it to Earthworm to post his warstory, since I think he'll know the battle better than anyone else. To my knowledge, a video of it hasn't been put online, and my phone ran out of memory so I couldn't film it. Earthworm's Battle Video was saved though, so you can have a look at it if you've got WiFi - the code is 36-19507-78272.
Overall, it was a really good day. I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to meet with some of the Sydney Smogon users in real life, which is why I decided to come, and I don't regret my decision. Unfortunately, the other NSW Smogon users didn't come, off the top of my head we didn't see GoldenSun, Improbability or Brammi, which was a shame. I didn't get too many pictures, but I did get (pretty bad) pictures of the other three guys. KotW is the guy grinning, Earthworm's holding his DS, and Crux is the guy with the white hoodie with his back turned to me (how rude).
