3x Regional Champion Paul Hornak
The Father of VGC: Veteran Paul Hornak
Accomplishments
2008: 2nd Place LA Qualifier, Top 32 World Championships
2009: 1st Place Phoenix Regional, 4-1 National Championships
2010: 1st Place Seattle Regional
2011: 1st Place San Jose Regional, Top 16 US Nationals
2012: 3rd Place Long Beach Regional
Total Winnings
2008 Qualifier: Invitation and trip for five days to compete at the World Championships in Orlando, Florida
2009 Regional: Champion Plaque, invitation and trip to compete at the National Championships in St. Louis, Missouri
2010 Regional: DSi, trophy, invitation and trip to compete at the National Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana
2011 Regional: 3DS, medal, invitation and trip to compete at the National Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana
2012 Regional: Medal, $300
Biography and History
Paul "makiri" Hornak is one of the most distinguished and recognized players in VGC. As one of its first players since 2008, Paul has put incredible effort in turning the online community into what it is is today. He took VGC under its wing while it was still young, and evolved it into what it is today. He has changed and impacted both the VGC 2009 and 2010 metagames with his creative and incredible teams, most noteably with his "TopOgre" team. He also has the most consistent Regionals record out of any VGC player, finishing in the Top 4 every year along with 3 consecutive first place finishes, an achivement unmatched by anyone else. Paul is also a moderator on Smogon and is incredibly helpful with the community. He is also known for creating the "Mighty Ducks," a "team" of elite players throughout the world.
In 2008, Paul finished 2nd at the LA Qualifiers, losing to Chris Tsai. He went to represent the US at the World Championships, but lost in the first round against a Japanese player that had a counterteam to his. The following year, he won the Phoenix Regional and fell short of an Worlds invite at Nationals because of the poor system. Paul was placed in the hardest "pod" out of the four pods at Nationals that year, and although he finished with a 4-1 record within his pod, only the top 4 of each pod advanced to the Top 16. Because Paul's tiebreakers were not as high as the other 4-1's, he finished in 5th place and barely missed out. Paul then trekked to Seattle in 2010 and finished 1st again, creating a team that would change the metagame for the rest of the year.
The infamous "TopOgre" team consisted of a Hitmontop and Choice Scarf Kyogre lead, with Pokemon such as Abomasnow and Palkia in the back. Kyogre was able to 2HKO essentially anything, and Hitmontop, a normally underrated Pokemon, was brought out to its full potential by Paul's team. When teambuilding, Paul realized that Hitmontop had access to several priority move such as Sucker Punch and Mach Punch that gave even Uber Pokemon such as Dialga and Mewtwo trouble. Since it used all priority moves, it could be as bulky as possible. Paired with a Kyogre, the TopOgre team blew though the Seattle Regionals and changed the metagame. When Paul won with the team, players throughout the country had to make sure their teams did one of two things: They either played WITH a TopOgre team, or had to make sure their team fared well against it. The TopOgre team went on to make an impact at all the remaining Regionals, most notably winning the one in Texas and inishing 2nd at the one in New Jersey. Smogon user Rory was able to then use it to qualify for the World Championships at Indianapolis. Paul's genius creation shaped the metagame while it was very early and made players think twice while making their teams.
In 2011, Paul was able to win yet another Regional at San Jose, defeating several well known players such as Huy Ha, Duy Ha, and Alan Schambers. He then finished in the Top 16 at the National Championships: Just 1 game short of an invitation at the World Championships. Unfortunately, he had to play against Jason "Fish Fisher-Short, whom he defeated to win the 2010 Regionals in Seattle. Paul attended the LCQ in San Diego, but because of some bad luck, was eliminated in the second round. Most recently, at the 2011/2012 Fall Regionals, Paul finished 3rd. He was the only undefeated player going into the last round, but was paired down and lost. Because of tiebreakers, Paul finished 3rd overall out of all the people with the same record as him. With travel allowance to Nationals already secured, Paul will definitely be a threat at this year's National Championships and future years to come.
Interview
Thanks for taking some time out your busy schedule to talk to me today Paul! Why don't we start off by having you introduce yourself to all the readers?
I'm Paul "zerowing, makiri, dwayne elizondo mountain dew herbert comacho" Hornak. I'm 23 and currently going to school to be an air traffic controller in Southern California. I've been playing Pokemon since 1999 or so with some breaks thrown in there because of lack of interest or other things. I've been playing VGC since 2008 and I also manage the Stark Sharks SPL team. (They are currently the defending champions.)
Sweet. The first thing I have to ask you is, how did you get involved in VGC? You've been playing since it started in 2008, and have done consistently well every following year. What inspired you to play, and what made you stay?
Playing Pokemon for prizes has always interested me, I've always been very competitive in whatever I do and Pokemon came naturally to me. I first started caring about playing Pokemon IRL back in 2005 where I joined the Emerald Battle Frontier Tournament (Skarm's "Fly Raquaza" tournament), but I didn't make it to the final round in Seattle. Then, in 2006, I decided to try JAA, otherwise known as the Journey Across America tournaments, but the day before the Los Angeles tournament my car broke down and I was unable to attend because of that. Finally, in 2008, I got a chance to compete at the VGS in Los Angeles and I've sorta been hooked on doubles and VGC competition since. I've "retired" a few times but the drive to compete and win always brings me back, not to mention the chance to hang out with some very good friends I've met over the years.
Yeah, speaking about the VGC in LA, let's talk about your Regionals performances. You have the most consistent Regional finishes out of anyone in the whole country, finishing in the top 4 every year with 3 consecutive wins from 2009 to 2011. How are you able to do so well every year?
I'm still not sure, a lot of it is luck, a lot of it is the support of all my friends. I do put a lot of work into my teams prior to Regionals to make sure I go into a tournament with answers to everything, and I feel like I can beat anyone at any time. Confidence goes a long way and I am very confident in my ability to do well at any tournament I go to. I just play to the best of my ability and hope I don't get haxed, I've done pretty well for myself in that regard, though I'd still trade in all my regional performances for one world championship.
While we're talking about the World Championships, I've noticed that you have actually only qualified for it once out of the four years you have compete. What happened in 2009, 2010, and 2011?
in 2009, I was kind of a victim of circumstance and the, in my opinion, poor tiebreaker system. I went 4-1 in the Swiss rounds but my early opponents did poorly (one of them didn't even get a win) and it wrecked my tiebreaker with me finishing 5th when only the top 4 advanced to the Top Cut and an invite to the World Championships. A really bad loss put me in that position, a one turn sleep and a missed Bullet Punch caused my one loss when by all accounts I should have won the match. In 2010, I didn't even get to play at Nationals due to some family circumstances and I couldn't afford to go to Hawaii on my own to try to LCQ. Finally, in 2011 i made the Top Cut at Nationals, but unlike other years only the top 8 got an invite and I played pretty poorly in my top 16 match. My LCQ ended early because of some more one turn sleeps from my opponent.
Wow, it sounds like bad luck just keeps you hanging every year. Tell me about the first VGS attended: If I recall correctly, you ended up finishing 2nd at the LA qualifier. What happened at Worlds?
Yeah, I got 2nd at the LA Qualifier and I went into Worlds with a team jeps helped me put together based around Imprison and Explosion. I had two versions of it, but the one with Uxie and Azelf was likely the better of the two and I went into the tournament with that. Those two leads really only feared Weavile, and low and behold, my opponent was running a hail team with Weavile as his lead. My first turn went down exactly how I planned and I got rid of his Weavile without it doing too much damage to my team, but when his Abomasnow lived through my Snorlax's Fire Punch, I sort of panicked and used Self Destruct on the next turn despite Snorlax having a very good match up with Thick Fat. I still had a chance to win at that point but I can't exactly recall how it ended but my last Pokemon, Shiftry, is terrible against a Hail team.
Yeah, that was a pretty bad year for all the Americans. I want to move on to else. You've been a huge advocate for VGC ever since it was introduced by Pokemon, and have really expanded the community on Smogon to what it is today. Tell me more about what you've done for VGC both online in general and on Smogon.
Back in 2008, VGC was contained in one single thread and the same thing in 2009. I pushed for a few years just to get our current VGC forum which has helped grow the community since it has a lot more exposure compared to what it used to. I just try to get the word out at every VGC tournament I attend. I help promote Smogon with not only my shirts but by casually talking to people who may not know what Smogon is. I helped get some of our resources off the ground like C&C and trying to get warstories published on site because they are a very important part of VGC history and I want to get documention of everything that goes on for VGC. In 10 years from now, who knows who will be around to tell the story of any number of tournaments from our early days? Getting a record of everything is interesting for people joining the game now and down the line will be a good resource to see what happened these days as a way to reminisce about the old days and for new people to know who the grandfathers of the game are.
Absolutely. This also brings me to another topic, the "Mighty Psyducks." Can you tell me more about your team?
A lot of the inspiration is on Huy's shoulders, back in 2009 he wanted to name his Worlds Pokemon after the Mighty Ducks movies and during the tournament several of us quacked when he would win a match. I guess I sorta figured it would be the end of that gimmick but with some motivation from Nick Mccord we made it a full fledged "team." I put team in quotes because while some outsiders view us as a clan or something we're really just a group of friends, we started at 8 people in Seattle in 2010 and kept expanding as more and more of our friends wanted to join. We've probably outgrown our original usefulness of just a group of dudes and have become a full fledged mulitnational group of people including some Juniors and Seniors.
It sounds really similar to what Team Seniors is, actually! Pretty neat. I think one of the most well known things you are known for are creating exceptional winning Regional teams, namely your 2010 "TopOgre" team. Can you tell me more about your Regionals teams, especially your 2010? What is it like, having the rest of the world create their teams to match or beat yours?
I can't take full credit for all of my teams. I usually get some inspiration from someone or something. TopOgre, for example, never would have came about if Huy hadn't shown us a video of a Japanese player using Hitmontop. We (The Ducks) all tried to get it to work but I threw it on a team with Kyogre and basically found gold. It obviously wasn't perfect but putting it with what was in my mind, the best Non-Uber, Abomasnow, and an Uber who can take advantage of both weathers, Palkia, made it a very formidable team. I put a lot of work into my teams to make sure they are perfect and I really don't go into a tournament without feeling like my team is the best. I have notebooks full of failed teams that I had no confidence in. I also pour over stats and trends in order to make a great team, those notebooks filled with failed teams are also filled with tons of statistical analysis about types, base stats, whatever you could think of. The teams don't usually just come to me, but a combination of inspiration from others and a ton of analysis makes me create very good teams. I do find it interesting how often the teams I made in the past became centers of the metagames that year, but I think that's what comes with winning. Had I not done well at those tournaments, I'm sure a different team would have popped up and be used by or countered by everyone.
Would you like to tell me about your recent Regionals run? I recall you were undefeated before losing the last round, what happened?
I went into the final match knowing my opponent was good, but I think a combination of bad team choice for the battle and poor play caused the loss. He ran Scizor and Hitmontop, which usually I have no trouble dealing with, but one of his other Pokemon was Heatran which really causes some problems in tandem with those other two Pokemon. I really only had 2 Pokemon that could deal with Heatran, but one of them is really weak to Hitmontop and Scizor, and i let my other counter die early which really sealed my fate. I think some of my confidence did me in there as I felt really confident about my move but thinking back it was probably the worst decision letting my better counter die early knowing Heatran was the main problem for my team.
Ah, thanks for clarifying that. One thing I've noticed is that you don't really practice on PO, as you said in our statistics thread here. How do you practice then? Do you find not practicing on PO helps you?
I am at the point in my Pokemon career that I really don't need to practice, I know what every Pokemon does. Sure, there will be a surprise factor thrown in sometimes, but for the most part every Pokemon has a standard role and usually follows it. Even if a random surprise move or Pokemon is thrown at me, I have so much experience that I can quickly deduce what to do about the situation and go from there. With that said, I do play a few matches with my teams to get used to certain things, like the feel of a team and just to make sure it actually works, sometimes theorymon will fail. Getting a feel for the team is very important for me so using it feels like second nature and I can have answers for whatever is thrown at me. I just happen to get very comfortable with my teams very quickly.
That's a very impressive skill to have, to say the least. I have just a few more questions before we finish. The first is, tell me about your personal experiences at the VGC tournaments. You've obviously been to all kinds of different competitions. What's the environment like? What about the social experience? How about the tournaments itself and prizes?
I rarely get to spectate and hang out with people during the actual tournament because I'm usually on the other side of the ropes, but before and after it's always very fun to hang out with people you might only know on the internet. Everyone is usually very nice and really easy to get along with. The tournament enviroment can be very tense at times though, people are there to win and you can feel the tension in the air because only one person will be declared the winner. One thing I will sorely miss is Nick Mccord doing the announcing and such at Regionals. He really helped keep Regionals a fun place to be and the tension low. He is a great guy and knows how to make the tournaments fun to be a part of. Winning is always fun but it shouldn't be the only focus you have going into a tournament. Hanging out with a bunch of other people who love Pokemon is great because for the most part everyone who is part of the Pokemon community as a whole is very friendly and accommodating.
Yeah, I think everyone can say that Nick really made the last few years so incredible. I just have a few more closing questions. You are currently the manager of the defending SPL champions, the Stark Sharks. How were you able to pull off a victory last year, and how is it looking for you guys currently?
Last year, we had a very good team through draft and trades. We also had a top notch managing crew with MOP being a star. We had a never say die attitude and it propelled us to quite a few victories and eventually the championship. This year isn't looking as bright: We're currently 1-3 through a combination of hax and really bad misplays. The week long break is about to start so hopefully we can kick it up a notch and get back to winning, we really need it.
Well, good luck to you and your team Paul! Before we finish, do you have any final words? Shoutouts?
Shout outs to everyone who has ever taken part in VGC and helps keep this community going, it's awesome knowing you all.