VGC '12 France National - Paris - March 17th - WON BY bharmalm

[NidoRich]

May as well just say I lost round 1 due to facing a hacked pokemon (1 is 100% hacked due to me and Blakey damage calc'ing afterwards) Tried to get the staff member to check his team but he didn't understand what i was saying (I literally asked very slowly the following 4 times) 9.9 and basically took my ds and cancelled participation :'(

Always next year 9.9

 

[Havak]

Paris was amazing (bar the actual tournament for me, but it was good for some of my friends for the most part). First, a big congratulations to Pokérob for finishing third. He played very well all day (bar his top 4 game lol) but I think his head was in Hawaii at that stage anyway. His German opponent was very good, lots of fun as well as being a very polite guy, much like ALL of the Germans. Congratulations to everyone else as well!

My first round match had a lot of hax against me but I managed to pull off a comeback and win 2-0. I had a feeling it wasn't going to be my day even though I managed to win my first game. I lost in round two against a decent player, I don't want to sound big-headed but I did lose to my own miss-plays rather than my opponent being outstanding, but I still lost which is the point and my opponent deserved to win. His team for the battle was Amoonguss | Chandelure | Terrakion | Conkeldurr - so basically a standard 2011 Trick Room team (or so I thought). I lead Hitmontop and Thundurus, I was toying with the idea of using Substitute for fear of Overheat from Chandelure, but decided that Trick Room was the bigger threat to my team so I used Taunt. Sure enough, I was hit with Overheat which took me down to around 40 HP. Next turn, I completely forget about Rage Powder and go for Taunt on Amoonguss + Sucker Punch. I really should have switched in my Cresselia this turn on the -2 Overheat because it would do next to no damage and I have a Chesto Berry to help against Amoonguss' Spore anyway (so no need to Taunt it right away). After Thundurus fainted and Chandelure was at -4, I was so close to using Close Combat on Chandelure, a silly move it would seem, but I was sure he'd switch and the rest of his team on Team Preview seemed like it couldn't take Fighting moves all that well. I decided to target Amoonguss instead for the KO with Close Combat and Ice Punch from Metagross, which worked out for me as it was down, but he had switched in Terrakion (Life Orb) for Chandelure. If I would have risked the hit on Chandelure I'd have taken down Terrakion and had a better shot at the win with Cresselia still max HP and Metagross ready to kick some dick. Conkeldurr came in and ruined my only other chance at a win with a critical hit Mach Punch on Metagross which didn't allow me to knock out Terrakion sooner. Maybe his strategy was to basically bluff Trick Room, as he had Payback on his Conkeldurr and it may well have been a Scarf on Chandelure for all I know (as I only used slower Pokemon or priority moves while it was in play, and it had Overheat, of course).

So, long story short, there were around three or four moves that I was 50/50 on. If I went the other way on a few of them I'm sure I'd have won.. And when I needed a bit of luck to have a chance I didn't get it. Good game, though, whoever it was (I think he was Spanish but I'm not certain).

Lastly, I had a great time meeting lots of Smogon members, especially the Germans. The Saturday evening was one of the best parts of the trip for me. The Germans had 48 cans of beer with them and were more than happy to share with the whole UK team which was incredibly generous. They spoke English extremely well for the most part, we even went to some wacky bar at the night for cocktails and had a blast. It really was one of the best times ever and I'm so glad I got to meet them all. I'm already planning to go to Germany instead of France for next years VGC, I enjoyed their company that much.

Thanks again everyone, maybe next year is my year..

 

[SolCalibre]

Paris was amazing (bar the actual tournament for me, but it was good for some of my friends for the most part). First, a big congratulations to Pokérob for finishing third. He played very well all day (bar his top 4 game lol) but I think his head was in Hawaii at that stage anyway. His German opponent was very good, lots of fun as well as being a very polite guy, much like ALL of the Germans. Congratulations to everyone else as well!

My first round match had a lot of hax against me but I managed to pull off a comeback and win 2-0. I had a feeling it wasn't going to be my day even though I managed to win my first game. I lost in round two against a decent player, I don't want to sound big-headed but I did lose to my own miss-plays rather than my opponent being outstanding, but I still lost which is the point and my opponent deserved to win. His team for the battle was Amoonguss | Chandelure | Terrakion | Conkeldurr - so basically a standard 2011 Trick Room team (or so I thought). I lead Hitmontop and Thundurus, I was toying with the idea of using Substitute for fear of Overheat from Chandelure, but decided that Trick Room was the bigger threat to my team so I used Taunt. Sure enough, I was hit with Overheat which took me down to around 40 HP. Next turn, I completely forget about Rage Powder and go for Taunt on Amoonguss + Sucker Punch. I really should have switched in my Cresselia this turn on the -2 Overheat because it would do next to no damage and I have a Chesto Berry to help against Amoonguss' Spore anyway (so no need to Taunt it right away). After Thundurus fainted and Chandelure was at -4, I was so close to using Close Combat on Chandelure, a silly move it would seem, but I was sure he'd switch and the rest of his team on Team Preview seemed like it couldn't take Fighting moves all that well. I decided to target Amoonguss instead for the KO with Close Combat and Ice Punch from Metagross, which worked out for me as it was down, but he had switched in Terrakion (Life Orb) for Chandelure. If I would have risked the hit on Chandelure I'd have taken down Terrakion and had a better shot at the win with Cresselia still max HP and Metagross ready to kick some dick. Conkeldurr came in and ruined my only other chance at a win with a critical hit Mach Punch on Metagross which didn't allow me to knock out Terrakion sooner. Maybe his strategy was to basically bluff Trick Room, as he had Payback on his Conkeldurr and it may well have been a Scarf on Chandelure for all I know (as I only used slower Pokemon or priority moves while it was in play, and it had Overheat, of course).

So, long story short, there were around three or four moves that I was 50/50 on. If I went the other way on a few of them I'm sure I'd have won.. And when I needed a bit of luck to have a chance I didn't get it. Good game, though, whoever it was (I think he was Spanish but I'm not certain).

Lastly, I had a great time meeting lots of Smogon members, especially the Germans. The Saturday evening was one of the best parts of the trip for me. The Germans had 48 cans of beer with them and were more than happy to share with the whole UK team which was incredibly generous. They spoke English extremely well for the most part, we even went to some wacky bar at the night for cocktails and had a blast. It really was one of the best times ever and I'm so glad I got to meet them all. I'm already planning to go to Germany instead of France for next years VGC, I enjoyed their company that much.

Thanks again everyone, maybe next year is my year..

I've been hearing the germans being so nice and sporting lately this weekend and of course they are a very strong group, they've proved that in two nationals this year so far. I might even go to germany next year if you guys are all going. It'd be awesome to meet you all again, had a blast (my feet didn't haha) and it was awesome to meet some of the UK smogoners.

I'll be looking to great war stories from Dozz and whoever will write up luca's amazing entrance *cough* cutting it close *cough* and as well as any other ones.

 

[Dozz]

I don't know about a Warstory for this one. I might just go for a long post here. Writing up my matches is just going to piss me off, so I'll outline here.

It wasn't a shabby weekend overall. As always, had a great time travelling with my boys Rees, Tim, Osirus, Keely, Twash and Ant. Coach journey out wasn't too bad, and and as per usual, friday night was rather banterous, even if I did have to share a bed with two others. Oh Etap. Thanks to Tblaky for organising stuff like that, i've just been too busy to be doing stuff like that for myself.

As for the Saturday. It was nowhere as busy as Brum, we got there about an hour early, and there was actually so few people about it was unreal. It did immediately become apparent it was just a EU battleground, with sheer amounts of Germans, and Spaniards, a few Italians amongst the French, not to mention the UK players. It was nice to meet, and shake hands with so many of them, and there seemed to be a lot of national pride at stake. The venue was a little to be desired IMHO, especially in comparison to La Defense from last year, but, there must have been some reason it got moved.

The battling was... Meh. Was a shame to see my friends go out early doors, for all sorts of reasons, but that's Pokemon I guess. I'll try summarise my games nice and quick.
Round 1 - Play neatly round a Zoroark, which is predict correctly, to a comfortable win
Round 2 - He hits two blizzards outside of hail, and freezes one, but it doesn't matter in the end, as some bulk saves me, and I make it through
Round 3 - I was paired with Sol64 from the UK, and who I'd travelled with. We hadn't played on the bus, so both went in blind, and it was a pretty good game. We were just playing round each other, and it went to Average HP at time. The battle number is above :)

Top 32 - This match was so damn tough. I had to sit at a table with a card the said "Bye" on it. It was torturous, but I snuck through 1-0

Top 16 - Misplay T1, can't defend that. Then I go to pull it back. I don't think my crit really mattered, based on the following turn, and it didn't KO Anything, but the crit on my clutch poke a couple of turns down the line wouldn't have KO'd, so I think that was pretty essential. Probably looks different with a different perspective though. That's Monz

Afterwards was pretty tedious, trying to kill time in the coach, and would rather get an earlier one next time. Though I swore off coach travel last year, this year put it back in how awful the night bus back really is. We had a sick pictochat though, as per usual. Ant is a good artist on that little screen for sure.

That's it for this year I think. Retirement announcement coming soon.

TL;DR As per usual, I had a great time with the lads. I'm trying really hard not to john about the result, but, i'm not feeling grand about it.

 

[outofthedarkness27]

grats to everyone who got hawaii!

 

[Picollo]

i had to go pretty soon , seems that i missed something in the evening haha..oh well.

great tournament like a european championship...

 

[KiwiDawg7]

Congratz everybody!
Although it's really sad that none of the French placed...

 

[Pokérob]

Thanks Havak, I don't want to sound cocky but I didn't even try in the Semi Finals and I did want to apologise for not giving it a shot but I'm sure my 4-0 stella performance in top 8 was credible enough to prove my trip for worlds.

Been spamming facebook and the german topic about how great the Germans are, I found them really a great crowd to be with and to be honest felt happy it was a German final, although as I said with a bitburger in my hand, you guys should've found a way to turn off battle animations just to screw everyone non german over hahahaha.

My trip to Essen was as much fun I think, the trip there was great, the trip back home I didn't enjoy at all, I didn't sleep a wink and sadly I don't think many players were too happy that I spent the whole of friday not even touching my game whilst everyone played on the bus.

I'm not sure if I can come to Madrid, if I see some spanish people post or quote me to come, I will, if not, I just won't bother, I don't see the point in going after taking out I think it was Chaos in top 32 they called him on the bus home and another great spanish player in top 16 and feel they might just find it as me rubbing it in if I am at Madrid already qualified or something. :S Although I really want to go so I can hang with the staff and support the other europeans attending!

 

[Dozz]

I think it was Chaos in top 32 they called him on the bus home

Rob, your top 32 Opponent was called K-Os. I played him last year in Paris, and spoke to him yesterday. Just for future reference.

 

[Pokérob]

Rob, your top 32 Opponent was called K-Os. I played him last year in Paris, and spoke to him yesterday. Just for future reference.

Ah thanks, yeah he told me I think he said that I didn't deserve to go to Worlds or something in top 32 and when I came over to apologise for the critical hit on his cresselia I was again treated with that same attitude, it isn't my fault that the game did it to him but I don't want to go to Madrid right now because of that reaction.

 

[Baz Anderson]

Well I finally arrived home about an hour ago. Had a great weekend, really good meeting everyone. My tournament didn't go well at all, a Meteor Mash miss and a Critical Hit to knock out my Hydreigon didn't help things there, but that's Pokémon... Had good fun battling others on the bus and in the coach station in Paris regardless of the tournament.

Both Birmingham and Paris events were such good fun, I will definitely be looking to go to more next year and look forward to seeing everyone again wherever that will be. (Team UK people, or anyone I met really, add me on FB if you like - link).

 

[Cybertron]

Uploading matches from the tournament now, sped up and with music like always!

Seniors Finals.
Dozz vs. Sol64.

 

[Baz Anderson]

Some pictures!!

Hide

Tepig running from something...

Me & starters...

Me & Metagross...

 

[Maski]

BHARLLRMALRMARLARMLARLMAMRLM
i am proud of you :D :D great job

 

[Spaniard]

@Pokérob.

I don't know K-os in person, but I've been told he reacts bad when losing.

It'd be great to see you in Madrid.

 

[Repr4y]

Hi guys!
This is a battle of my top8: 65-35133-82099
In the final, i was very nervous, but.i played well, i believed that bharmalm used protect or change with his tyranitar in a twice turns. And the sash beat me xD
The last BPunch i had a missclick for the pressure and i beat tyranitar, i wanted beat latios haha. But FIESTA! HAWAII! xD

 

[pokebasket]

Congratz everybody!

Repr4y you are the best!! ;)

Well, is there any video of PokeAlex (3rd) ?

 

[Galooks]

What a german asskicking!!

There are many reasons for the frenchfail
First, VGC tournament never had a success with competitive players due to the different rules.
Second, Today, there are few people who are still playing pokemon in France
Third, France is at the center of VGC in Europe. So a lot of foreign players come in our tournament to "steal" our free trips lol.
So, there were less than 200 people at the master division, and maybe the half wasn't from France.

And unfortunately, VGC tournament are not representative. I think drug duck will agree after his haxxy loss against a french random. Other played an 6vs6 team and reached top16 and could win the match (Serene grace blissey with Blizzard, if someone watched the battle). :evan:
So good players like Froggy didn't reach top 16, and 4 random french players have done it

But congratulations to the winners, it was nice to see you again spanish, german, and english smogoners ;)

 

[Nathane3]

Well done to bharmalm and Pokerob for winning and getting 3rd for the UK.

It was a great day, even though i went out round 2, just cheering on the team felt great.

Was cool to hang out with Team Germany as well, they were a great bunch of people.

Hopefully i will return next year and do a little better myself!

 

[drug_duck]

What a german asskicking!!

There are many reasons for the frenchfail
First, VGC tournament never had a success with competitive players due to the different rules.
Second, Today, there are few people who are still playing pokemon in France
Third, France is at the center of VGC in Europe. So a lot of foreign players come in our tournament to "steal" our free trips lol.
So, there were less than 200 people at the master division, and maybe the half wasn't from France.

And unfortunately, VGC tournament are not representative. I think drug duck will agree after his haxxy loss against a french random. Other played an 6vs6 team and reached top16 and could win the match (Serene grace blissey with Blizzard, if someone watched the battle). :evan:
So good players like Froggy didn't reach top 16, and 4 random french players have done it

But congratulations to the winners, it was nice to see you again spanish, german, and english smogoners ;)

Not to mention several other good players got haxed out early as well. From the top of my head I know Misaki, tblakey89, flash_mc and bellanko all lost to hax. But to be honest with such a close and equilibrated playing field one basically had to expect this.

Second, Today, there are few people who are still playing pokemon in France

I can understand why no-one's taking VGC as a tournament seriously anymore. I'm glad I went and got to meet so many nice people from all around Europe and I don't regret it at all, I had a great time with the brits, the Spaniards and I got to talk / meet with "my" frenchies and with Matteo.
If there's one thing I really regret it's putting so much effort into practicing.

I'm also calling for Swiss + KO tournaments in European Nationals for the years to come. As long as it remains to be Single Elimination only, I won't bother going just for the tournaments. This also means I'm not going to Milan and I'm not going to worlds either.

Best of luck to everyone going to Worlds ;)
~ retired_duck

 

[keelhauled]

Grats to the winners, although i'm just gonna throw it out there and say the trip was probably a waste of money (reasons to be explained later, events first)

Thursday night I went to a concert, so I had about 3 hours sleep before my 6am train, got to the coach station, had a bit of banter on the coach, destroyed everyone on there bar one of my matches vs kaga which was bs hax, friday night was pretty cool, we just walked around the event area, and to the hotel, got some pizza (my pizza was meant to be pepperoni, like fuck it was, worst. pizza. i have ever bought. ever. fucking like cream cheese base or some shit, little bits of hammy bacon and onion, what the fuck.) anyway, chilled in the hotel lobby area doing some batalhars, I gave twash my team and beat him in a cheeky little mirror match.

Got another 3 hours sleep before vgc, headed down and met drug duck and the other germans. Got signed up, front of the queue with dozz.

R1 - Turn one, Sunny Day + Overheat vs zapdos. Boom. Open the game like a boss, make a few bad turns, but clean up with sunny day + volc vs suicune
R2 - Played a german guy, he was using rain, so my matchup was pretty safe, although I got so many crits it was unreal, if you're reading this im sorry man, it was pretty bs.
R3 - Paired up against Hogan, SST, was pretty worried cause he was running something I don't like facing at all, although I thought i'd be able to cope, since I'd practised specifically against it a lot, in short, I was caught out twice by things I hadn't expected at all, although I think I played as well as I could, he was just the better battler.

Rest of the event was cool, I just watched the battles, talked to people, all cool.

Wandered around the paris shops after vgc, then I just got ill, fukken shitty ass shit, pretty much spent the coach journey dying, spent £50 on a train from london-liverpool cause I didn't want to be on another coach, then spent the past day in bed.

tl;dr i didnt like paris because i lost early again and had the rest of the day to kill, spent said rest of day and days afterwards ill, and night coach fuckin sucks, some dick infront of me put his seat the full way back, and add to the fact i have long ass legs, it was incredibly uncomfortable.
However, it was great meeting people I wouldn't have normally met at UK vgc, like drug duck etc, and thats why region lock would suck dick

 

[tajirifr]

Congrats to Pokerob, for our epic match in qualification turn 2. He did an awesome match and tournament. German player's make very good match but the finals was a little bad cause Yoshi seems make some mistake.

Good tourney and good luck to all qualifiers for world.

Frenchies & I make a great bad performance.

 

[Galooks]

Not to mention several other good players got haxed out early as well. From the top of my head I know Misaki, tblakey89, flash_mc and bellanko all lost to hax. But to be honest with such a close and equilibrated playing field one basically had to expect this.

When i arrived on saturday morning, i saw all of the best european players. I think we were at least 12 or 15 players who had reached once a semi-final.

I can understand why no-one's taking VGC as a tournament seriously anymore. I'm glad I went and got to meet so many nice people from all around Europe and I don't regret it at all, I had a great time with the brits, the Spaniards and I got to talk / meet with "my" frenchies and with Matteo.
If there's one thing I really regret it's putting so much effort into practicing.

+1000
I cannot say practicing is useless but in tournament there is always a problem :D. As you, Each year i meet new people an I had very good days in VGC tournaments.

I'm also calling for Swiss + KO tournaments in European Nationals for the years to come. As long as it remains to be Single Elimination only, I won't bother going just for the tournaments. This also means I'm not going to Milan and I'm not going to worlds either.

I think TPCI want to organize tournament where "everybody can win". Pokemon is a great game cuz there isn't unbeateable players like in Street Fighter or Super Smash Bros. Unfortunately, single elimination is random

Hope to see you next year my friend

 

[13Random37]

German player's make very good match but the finals was a little bad cause Yoshi seems make some mistake.

the only ''bad'' move I could find was when he used EQ and I switched to meta predicting an ice punch :|
I don't care, however lol

Hawaiiii it's easy! thanks for everyone cheering for me :)

 

[Havak]

<3