Heh... sorry for making a crazy day just a bit crazier. I hadn't checked in on this thread for a little under two weeks (I think?), until I read the news just now in the irc channel, because of a "mourning period", so to speak. My mourning period isn't quite over yet, but since there's this one thing that I recall a certain man writing about fortrightness and leaving people in the dark about chasing moving targets, I feel I should post now anyways.
Jumpman16 I'm sorry, about my own stupidity.
#3669: CHUW-WWWW-WW3N-498R
Battle 3669 recap: a Roller Skater, lead Noivern. I hate lead Noivern4, because the best thing I can do is use Dragon Dance on a Hurricane (does ~50% on regular Gyara), Mega Evolve, and use Crunch (/usually/ OHKOes Noivern, and if it doesn't Mega Gyara survives the second Hurricane just barely). This Noivern uses Dragon Pulse though, confirming set 3. Because it's perfectly safe to try and get in a second DD, that's what I do. It crits, but Gyara survives. Then, for some reason, my dumb brain's thought process is "if +1 Mega Crunch is enough, then +2 non-Mega Crunch is too", which, quite clearly, is, well, wrong, so I lose Gyara for no reason while a 20% Noivern survives. I then send out Aegislash to finish it off, but I click Swords Dance first "because unboosted Aegi is awful". Second inexcusable misplay, and it's met appropriately with a Flamethrower burn. Even a burned +2 Sneak is enough to finish off Noivern, and Yanmega4 is next, finishing off Aegislash and leaving me with only Gliscor, which still can take _almost_ anything a Roller Skater can throw at me. Gliscor defeats Yanmega without much trouble.
I cross my fingers, thinking "please don't be Crobat, please don't be Crobat, please don't be Crobat."
It is Crobat. Crobat4 Taunts Gliscor to death without batting so much as an eye. Crobat3, on the other hand, can be beaten through its own Brave Bird recoil.
However, Infiltrator Crobat3 cannot.
If I had just clicked that Mega Evolve button, I would still have been going. If I had just finished off Noivern right away, I would still have been going. But I didn't, not much else to it. I don't really think I can chalk this loss up to "continuing to play after hitting #1". Noivern does have the habit of making my brain go up shit creek, and since I heavily rely on being "in the groove" for my consistency, this encounter's non-standard nature might have thrown me off in the same way had I still been chasing. Maybe if I had still been chasing, I would have been nervous enough to go for a straight Sneak after Gyarados died. I don't know, but I do think this brain failure could also have occurred before 3250. Which means the only thing I can blame myself for is choking like a complete beginner.
I guess I cannot really be sad about missing out on 4k lol, or maybe even about losing to Jumpman—the single most aggravating thing here is the way this loss came to be. If you're this far in, all you want to do is explore your limits and your team's limits. If battle 3578 happens, the one nigh-unwinnable matchup occurs, and a tiny bit of hax pulls me over the edge, then alright, apparently that's what this team had in it. However, there was absolutely no way in hell I should ever have lost this battle, meaning I "know" team Marathon is capable of more than 3668 and that I failed to bring it out. And that's really the sourest possible note this streak could have ended at.
On the bright side, exploring human's potential altogether is not my burden to bear anymore, and it's in good hands now. And it's been a wonderful journey nonetheless, and I probably will be able to look back on it like that in due time. Someone like me... should not want to "settle for nothing less than #1." Honestly, even now the feeling "omg I'm such an idiot" is way stronger than "I've come all this way for nothing". After all, I set out to _hopefully_ get my third 1k streak, and I did not expect to reach over 3,5k and top the leaderboard for two months... with a freaking Mega Gyarados of all things. I'm not pretending I've played as large a role as Jumpman, VaporeonIce, or GG Unit in making the leaderboard what it is now, but I do hope people will think of team Marathon when they look back at this leaderboard in a couple years. It's on me now to find a way to overcome the bitterness about the end of my run ._.
I guarantee that my involvement with the Maison doesn't end here, but I'm not sure when's gonna be the next time you guys will see that Starmie a friend of mine once gave me for my birthday as part of a "Pokemon Starter Kit". I have a couple other teams that I want to try out, and I have a (still rather short) ongoing streak in triples, but it's been really hard to find the motivation, and some early losses in doubles have been more demotivating than ever. I've already said a couple things about this, but the time investment required to set a competitive score here really makes you put things into perspective... and at times I honestly long for the days that a 100-win streak was a big deal to me. Atm I'm (still :p) playing other games and helping out on this site, but maybe the motivation to give Mt. Maison another go will strike again soon. Maybe I'll finally come up with a team that should be able to beat my X record in rotations, maybe my joy for doubles will re-emerge. Idk when that's gonna happen, but rest assured, even if it doesn't, this ramblin' kid isn't done ramblin' just yet.
Ngl, with Jumpman back at #1, the leaderboard... makes sense again. Apparently my hunches that you were still lurking in the dark and considered anything but a new record to be too small fry to post both were on point haha. This was my friend's reaction on Skype when I told her my record had been for all intents and purposes beaten:
[20:30:03] p squared: jumpman is a god
[20:30:30] p squared: oml
and I can only second that. Congratulations, I mean it, and kudos on overcoming that hardware failure bs all those months ago; the determination to keep coming back after something like that is incredibly impressive, even more than the team you've been using itself, and that's saying a lot. The cataclysmic faceoff between VaporeonIce and me couldn't go through, and it looks like this one is off as well, and for that I can only apologise. I just hope you can be able to look at this young Hylian warrior and tell me I made you work for it.
