here is my report of my expedition at the Woodstock, GA tournament:
I showed up at the place at about 1:30, with my JAA T-shirt, basebal cap, and Burger King pokeball T-shirt, ready to show off my pokemon master skills!
There were about 18 people at my tournament, ranging from about 5 to 21. Before the tournament started everyone was talking about their stragegies, and showing off their shiny/event pokemon. Two people had shiny charizard!!!!! I should have traded a Celebi for one but I didn't think about it in time. oh well. One dude had a Arecus that he caught legit after his friend sharked him the item that let him go into the place you can catch it, but he wasn't allowed to use it in the tournament (the only pokemon banned were the three that can't be caught legit in America yet).
four of us decided to have a 2vs2 tournament while we were waiting for other people to show up 'to warm up'. I was about to win the finals with the gg combination of a level 99 Dragonite and a level 62 Strataphor before they kicked us off the Wii so they could start the real thing.
The rules were as follows:
- 4 pokes each
- 1 on 1
- self-KO clause
- no sleep/freeze clause (only two people even used sleep moves and both lost first round so this ended up not mattering)
- no more than two pokemon could be caught in a masterball! (haha this must have been their shitty idea of checking for hacked pokemon)
- there was no item clause but I used a didfferent item for each poke anyway
- all pokemon would be leveled up/down to 50 (This saved my kinda- half of my pokemon weren't at level 100 but I only go to even use one of those three once)
Our story's hero's team:
Shirfty** Ian Garvey- Life Orb- Fake Out/Explosion/Solarbeam/Dark Pulse
Moltres- Shell Bell- Sunny Day/Solarbeam/Flamethrower/Extrasensory
Groudon** Groudon80- Salac Berry- Overheat/Swords Dance/Rock Slide/Earthquake
Mewtwo**chaos- Peyata Berry- Endure/Thunder/Solarbeam/Ice Beam
Strataphor** (I don't know what the computer coding for the 'male' symbol is)- Choice Band- Close Combat/Brave Bird/Fly/Defog (lol this was an ingame filler because I didn't have time to level up the Heracross I planned to use here to learn Megahorn)
Dragonite- Choice Specs- Draco Meteor/Fire Blast/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam
Round 1:
I had about the fourth battle in this round so I got to meet my Round 1 opponent and talk to him a little bit. He didn't want to use Ubers or even OU pokemon because they aren't cool. I told him I wanted to use a bunch of UU pokemon like Nidoking as well but I ran out of time to build a team and just exported some ubers from Emerald.
He used: Butterfree, Froslass, Banette, Lanturn
I used: Groudon, Shirfty, Mewtwo, Moltres
We both realized that this was going to be really one-sided but he said that he was at least going to try because he believed in his pokemon!!!! ok for real this guy had to be someone random from here/Serebii's forums that i've never met before. He couldn't be this awesome and not be. He couldn't.
so Groudon rock slides butterfree turn one, and he lives with Focus Sash. Sleep Powder. next turn we both switch pokemon. He brings in Froslass, I bring in Shirfty. I KO him with Dark Pulse and he has this 'wtf' expression on his face. I remind him of chlorphyll and he's like 'ahh'. OHKO'd the rest of his team.
interesting things that happened between matches/during other people's matches:
- one kid who was like 5 had to have come here after only playing the game about an hour or so. His team was like Zubat/Shinx/Bidoof/Piplup/Budew/Starly. He got swept by his opponent's Empoleon until he decided to finish off his last pokemon, Bidoof, with Mewtwo. I yelled 'GO BIDOOF' and everyone looked at me funny. Bidoof did about 15% with a critical hit tackle on the switch in. Fuck yeah!!!!! But obviously he ended up losing.
-somebody who signed up left without even battling in his r1 match so we didn't have enough people for the last match. The dude running the tournament must have felt really sorry for the above mentioned kid because he let him play again vs the person who was probably the oldest in the tournament. He fucked with him for a couple of turns with a Toxic/Confuse Ray Dusknoir before deciding that it was a heartless (and boring) way to win such an easy battle so he brought out his Vaporeon and swept him.
- I panicked when I saw a hispanic kid use Eruption Groudon (remember the jaa atlanta warstory?).
- like every fucking person in this tournament used Giratina except me. I have come to the conclusion that Shadow Force is actually an awesome move after seeing person after person get swept by it.
- of the two people running the tournament, one of them was a sexy red-headed girl. The other looked almost identical to Doomullet. Not even kidding here, I had to keep myself from asking if it was actually him and then looking stupid.
- everyone made fun of me for using the female character in the game. everyone.
- even five year olds know that OHKO moves are kinda ridiculous. Two guys were both down to their last pokemon. Kyogre barely survives a CH spacial Rend, to hit him back with Sheer Cold and win the thing. All of them let out a collective moan. His mom didn't get it so somebody explained to her how they only have a 3/10 chance of working but always KO. She was like 'fuck these losers, my kid is a risk taker, just like his dad! And he won!'
- the fucking JAA tournament shirt intimidated everyone. 'Shoudln't you be disqualified for being a professional pokemon player?'- one kid's mom.
- Pokemoms are sexy. and funny. and overall fun to be around. One of the moms told the bidoof kid after his second loss to join Pokemoncrater.com's forums so he could talk to her son about how to be come a better trainer!! I should have said something about this site right then and there but I didn't think about it. Also, four of the moms huddled together whispering something about a plot to take my DS away from me when I wasn't looking so their kids could have a shot at winning, but I put my hand over the pocket my DS was in and they all bursted out laughing.
- One of the little dude's grandma, who had to be about 90 years old, was doing running commentary on all of the matches. I kid you not. Her grandson was in a battle and used Heatran's Lava Plume on someone else's groudon (it did about 80%- ouch) and she yelled out LAVA PLUME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You had to be there to really understand it but it was fricking hilarious.
Round 2:
He used: wow I really don't remember this one as well as the other rounds. Giratina and Dialga are the only pokemon I remember him using and they were his last two.
I used: same pokes as Round 1
I must have gotten a swords dance in turn 1 and swept his first two pokemon (but apparently they did damage me into the yellow). Anyway he barely survived Earthquake with Giratina and then finished me off with Shadow Force. Moltres finished him off with Flamethrower and then 2hko'd his Dialga with Flamethrower as well.
by this time everyone realizes that I am pretty much the #1 threat in this tournament. Around this time one of the dudes tells me that he thinks he remembers seeing me around high school and complemented me for being thick skinned enough to wear a pokemon shirt in public.
The college-age dude kept asking me questions about all of the legendary pokemon in the tournament when neither of us were battling. Apparently he's not too familiar with them because he doesn't even bother catching any of them.
oh and having the tournament right in front of the Wii/DS video games instead of somewhere out of the way was not a smart idea. People kept pushing the competitors out of the way mid-battle to grab something stupid like a copy of Animal Crossing and I think that must have had an effect on at least a couple people's focus on the battling because one dude that was winning fucked up and picked a wrong move after being rudely bumped into by a customer and it cost him his match. I think that poor kid was almost in tears lol.
Round 3:
he used: Rayquaza, Kyogre, Strataphor, Heatran
I used: same I've been using, except this time i started with mewtwo
This would be the kid that used Sheer Cold Kyogre and whose grandma made the LAVA PLUME!!!!!!! exclamation over. Everyone thought it was amazing that such a small fry kept beating older players. And really he probably did have one of the better teams of all the people at the tournament (the other two that he didn't use this round were Regigigas and Mewtwo if I'm remembering right)
Mewtwo ohkos Rayquaza with Ice Beam. does around 90% to kyogre with Thunder and he gets para'd and doesn't do anything that turn. Thudner again. Thudner to the bird pokemon. I switched to groudon when heatran showed up although ive already seen him nearly OHKO one with lava plume. burns and does about 70% damage. However I know that he has a 4x weak to ground and that I have 2390423904823904 attack so I'm not worried. Earthquake OHKOs and the kid walks away. He looked really dissapointed that he lost, but I let him know that I lost the first TWO pokemon gameboy tournaments that I ever joined, and for him to just keep trying so he could become as good as me someday!!!!
the finals ended up being between the guy that knew me from high school and myself. We were talking about what we would actually do with the prizes should we win and as it turns out neither of us have a Nintendo Wii of our own. But having a free game for when you finally get the system would be hella nice, we both agreed on that!
he used: Snorlax, Rayquaza, Kyogre, Dialga
I used: Dragonite > Moltres this time, still leading with Mewtwo, and of course the awesome Groudon/Shirfty combo.
Mewtwo went out first against his Snorlax and I knew this was a bad way to start this off. Switched to Groudon, and he used Earthquake for around 20% damage. He switched to Rayquaza, and I swords Danced. moved first and KO'd with Rock Slide. Snorlax is back again, and almost as quickly, snorlax is gone again to Earthquake. He sends out Kyogre and I am hoping that I outspeed him. I do, and it OHKOs with Earthquake! He's awed that it does so much damage, but i told him, swords dance groudon has like 800+ attack after the first use! Dialga comes out next and Ice Beams me, but I barely survive. Another knockout and this is over. Victory is mine!!!!!!!!!
The shirt does not look like it fits me at ALL, and I have yet to try it on. But I will get a picture uploaded eventually with my wearing the shirt, and holding my glass trophy high in the air!
Right now you are probably thinking 'They gave you an actual trophy?' No silly! The last part of my story has to deal with that.
My dad and I went down to an IHOP after the tournament, so that I could eat a champion's meal after three hours of Pokemon ass-kicking. (yes, I was in there three hours. pbr animations really slow down the battles, and there was additional down time after each match after the tournament directors kept switching places [they were sharing a stool because it is a pain in the ass to stand in a crowded room with a hard-surface floor] and triple-checking to make sure they put in the rules correctly. round 1 took almost an hour and a half.)
Anyway, when I got there, i was hungry/thirsty as fuck, because I hadn't eaten anything all day long. So when the waiter brought me my glass of iced tea, I drank it in about a minute. He handed me another. It disappeared just as quickly. yet another. Gone in 60 seconds. So finally he bring out this motherfucking HUGE glass, has to be at least 18 inches tall, maybe taller. I joked with him and asked if I could actually keep it if I drank all of that shit, and he said if I could sneak it out of the place without anyone else noticing, it would be mine. I offered him $5 for it. He went to talk to his manager and said that it would be a deal if I would increase that amount to $8. I motherfucking wanted a trophy to cherish this day forever, so I made the deal. It's really cool actually. I think it's one of those wine glasses that a couple in love is supposed to share together. Whatever it is, it is never being used again and is going to become my ultimate pokemon championship. I will defend this title at any time, streetpokemon style! But nobody will ever take it from me.
Nobody.
[picture will eventually go HERE]
I showed up at the place at about 1:30, with my JAA T-shirt, basebal cap, and Burger King pokeball T-shirt, ready to show off my pokemon master skills!
There were about 18 people at my tournament, ranging from about 5 to 21. Before the tournament started everyone was talking about their stragegies, and showing off their shiny/event pokemon. Two people had shiny charizard!!!!! I should have traded a Celebi for one but I didn't think about it in time. oh well. One dude had a Arecus that he caught legit after his friend sharked him the item that let him go into the place you can catch it, but he wasn't allowed to use it in the tournament (the only pokemon banned were the three that can't be caught legit in America yet).
four of us decided to have a 2vs2 tournament while we were waiting for other people to show up 'to warm up'. I was about to win the finals with the gg combination of a level 99 Dragonite and a level 62 Strataphor before they kicked us off the Wii so they could start the real thing.
The rules were as follows:
- 4 pokes each
- 1 on 1
- self-KO clause
- no sleep/freeze clause (only two people even used sleep moves and both lost first round so this ended up not mattering)
- no more than two pokemon could be caught in a masterball! (haha this must have been their shitty idea of checking for hacked pokemon)
- there was no item clause but I used a didfferent item for each poke anyway
- all pokemon would be leveled up/down to 50 (This saved my kinda- half of my pokemon weren't at level 100 but I only go to even use one of those three once)
Our story's hero's team:
Shirfty** Ian Garvey- Life Orb- Fake Out/Explosion/Solarbeam/Dark Pulse
Moltres- Shell Bell- Sunny Day/Solarbeam/Flamethrower/Extrasensory
Groudon** Groudon80- Salac Berry- Overheat/Swords Dance/Rock Slide/Earthquake
Mewtwo**chaos- Peyata Berry- Endure/Thunder/Solarbeam/Ice Beam
Strataphor** (I don't know what the computer coding for the 'male' symbol is)- Choice Band- Close Combat/Brave Bird/Fly/Defog (lol this was an ingame filler because I didn't have time to level up the Heracross I planned to use here to learn Megahorn)
Dragonite- Choice Specs- Draco Meteor/Fire Blast/Thunderbolt/Ice Beam
Round 1:
I had about the fourth battle in this round so I got to meet my Round 1 opponent and talk to him a little bit. He didn't want to use Ubers or even OU pokemon because they aren't cool. I told him I wanted to use a bunch of UU pokemon like Nidoking as well but I ran out of time to build a team and just exported some ubers from Emerald.
He used: Butterfree, Froslass, Banette, Lanturn
I used: Groudon, Shirfty, Mewtwo, Moltres
We both realized that this was going to be really one-sided but he said that he was at least going to try because he believed in his pokemon!!!! ok for real this guy had to be someone random from here/Serebii's forums that i've never met before. He couldn't be this awesome and not be. He couldn't.
so Groudon rock slides butterfree turn one, and he lives with Focus Sash. Sleep Powder. next turn we both switch pokemon. He brings in Froslass, I bring in Shirfty. I KO him with Dark Pulse and he has this 'wtf' expression on his face. I remind him of chlorphyll and he's like 'ahh'. OHKO'd the rest of his team.
interesting things that happened between matches/during other people's matches:
- one kid who was like 5 had to have come here after only playing the game about an hour or so. His team was like Zubat/Shinx/Bidoof/Piplup/Budew/Starly. He got swept by his opponent's Empoleon until he decided to finish off his last pokemon, Bidoof, with Mewtwo. I yelled 'GO BIDOOF' and everyone looked at me funny. Bidoof did about 15% with a critical hit tackle on the switch in. Fuck yeah!!!!! But obviously he ended up losing.
-somebody who signed up left without even battling in his r1 match so we didn't have enough people for the last match. The dude running the tournament must have felt really sorry for the above mentioned kid because he let him play again vs the person who was probably the oldest in the tournament. He fucked with him for a couple of turns with a Toxic/Confuse Ray Dusknoir before deciding that it was a heartless (and boring) way to win such an easy battle so he brought out his Vaporeon and swept him.
- I panicked when I saw a hispanic kid use Eruption Groudon (remember the jaa atlanta warstory?).
- like every fucking person in this tournament used Giratina except me. I have come to the conclusion that Shadow Force is actually an awesome move after seeing person after person get swept by it.
- of the two people running the tournament, one of them was a sexy red-headed girl. The other looked almost identical to Doomullet. Not even kidding here, I had to keep myself from asking if it was actually him and then looking stupid.
- everyone made fun of me for using the female character in the game. everyone.
- even five year olds know that OHKO moves are kinda ridiculous. Two guys were both down to their last pokemon. Kyogre barely survives a CH spacial Rend, to hit him back with Sheer Cold and win the thing. All of them let out a collective moan. His mom didn't get it so somebody explained to her how they only have a 3/10 chance of working but always KO. She was like 'fuck these losers, my kid is a risk taker, just like his dad! And he won!'
- the fucking JAA tournament shirt intimidated everyone. 'Shoudln't you be disqualified for being a professional pokemon player?'- one kid's mom.
- Pokemoms are sexy. and funny. and overall fun to be around. One of the moms told the bidoof kid after his second loss to join Pokemoncrater.com's forums so he could talk to her son about how to be come a better trainer!! I should have said something about this site right then and there but I didn't think about it. Also, four of the moms huddled together whispering something about a plot to take my DS away from me when I wasn't looking so their kids could have a shot at winning, but I put my hand over the pocket my DS was in and they all bursted out laughing.
- One of the little dude's grandma, who had to be about 90 years old, was doing running commentary on all of the matches. I kid you not. Her grandson was in a battle and used Heatran's Lava Plume on someone else's groudon (it did about 80%- ouch) and she yelled out LAVA PLUME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You had to be there to really understand it but it was fricking hilarious.
Round 2:
He used: wow I really don't remember this one as well as the other rounds. Giratina and Dialga are the only pokemon I remember him using and they were his last two.
I used: same pokes as Round 1
I must have gotten a swords dance in turn 1 and swept his first two pokemon (but apparently they did damage me into the yellow). Anyway he barely survived Earthquake with Giratina and then finished me off with Shadow Force. Moltres finished him off with Flamethrower and then 2hko'd his Dialga with Flamethrower as well.
by this time everyone realizes that I am pretty much the #1 threat in this tournament. Around this time one of the dudes tells me that he thinks he remembers seeing me around high school and complemented me for being thick skinned enough to wear a pokemon shirt in public.
The college-age dude kept asking me questions about all of the legendary pokemon in the tournament when neither of us were battling. Apparently he's not too familiar with them because he doesn't even bother catching any of them.
oh and having the tournament right in front of the Wii/DS video games instead of somewhere out of the way was not a smart idea. People kept pushing the competitors out of the way mid-battle to grab something stupid like a copy of Animal Crossing and I think that must have had an effect on at least a couple people's focus on the battling because one dude that was winning fucked up and picked a wrong move after being rudely bumped into by a customer and it cost him his match. I think that poor kid was almost in tears lol.
Round 3:
he used: Rayquaza, Kyogre, Strataphor, Heatran
I used: same I've been using, except this time i started with mewtwo
This would be the kid that used Sheer Cold Kyogre and whose grandma made the LAVA PLUME!!!!!!! exclamation over. Everyone thought it was amazing that such a small fry kept beating older players. And really he probably did have one of the better teams of all the people at the tournament (the other two that he didn't use this round were Regigigas and Mewtwo if I'm remembering right)
Mewtwo ohkos Rayquaza with Ice Beam. does around 90% to kyogre with Thunder and he gets para'd and doesn't do anything that turn. Thudner again. Thudner to the bird pokemon. I switched to groudon when heatran showed up although ive already seen him nearly OHKO one with lava plume. burns and does about 70% damage. However I know that he has a 4x weak to ground and that I have 2390423904823904 attack so I'm not worried. Earthquake OHKOs and the kid walks away. He looked really dissapointed that he lost, but I let him know that I lost the first TWO pokemon gameboy tournaments that I ever joined, and for him to just keep trying so he could become as good as me someday!!!!
the finals ended up being between the guy that knew me from high school and myself. We were talking about what we would actually do with the prizes should we win and as it turns out neither of us have a Nintendo Wii of our own. But having a free game for when you finally get the system would be hella nice, we both agreed on that!
he used: Snorlax, Rayquaza, Kyogre, Dialga
I used: Dragonite > Moltres this time, still leading with Mewtwo, and of course the awesome Groudon/Shirfty combo.
Mewtwo went out first against his Snorlax and I knew this was a bad way to start this off. Switched to Groudon, and he used Earthquake for around 20% damage. He switched to Rayquaza, and I swords Danced. moved first and KO'd with Rock Slide. Snorlax is back again, and almost as quickly, snorlax is gone again to Earthquake. He sends out Kyogre and I am hoping that I outspeed him. I do, and it OHKOs with Earthquake! He's awed that it does so much damage, but i told him, swords dance groudon has like 800+ attack after the first use! Dialga comes out next and Ice Beams me, but I barely survive. Another knockout and this is over. Victory is mine!!!!!!!!!
The shirt does not look like it fits me at ALL, and I have yet to try it on. But I will get a picture uploaded eventually with my wearing the shirt, and holding my glass trophy high in the air!
Right now you are probably thinking 'They gave you an actual trophy?' No silly! The last part of my story has to deal with that.
My dad and I went down to an IHOP after the tournament, so that I could eat a champion's meal after three hours of Pokemon ass-kicking. (yes, I was in there three hours. pbr animations really slow down the battles, and there was additional down time after each match after the tournament directors kept switching places [they were sharing a stool because it is a pain in the ass to stand in a crowded room with a hard-surface floor] and triple-checking to make sure they put in the rules correctly. round 1 took almost an hour and a half.)
Anyway, when I got there, i was hungry/thirsty as fuck, because I hadn't eaten anything all day long. So when the waiter brought me my glass of iced tea, I drank it in about a minute. He handed me another. It disappeared just as quickly. yet another. Gone in 60 seconds. So finally he bring out this motherfucking HUGE glass, has to be at least 18 inches tall, maybe taller. I joked with him and asked if I could actually keep it if I drank all of that shit, and he said if I could sneak it out of the place without anyone else noticing, it would be mine. I offered him $5 for it. He went to talk to his manager and said that it would be a deal if I would increase that amount to $8. I motherfucking wanted a trophy to cherish this day forever, so I made the deal. It's really cool actually. I think it's one of those wine glasses that a couple in love is supposed to share together. Whatever it is, it is never being used again and is going to become my ultimate pokemon championship. I will defend this title at any time, streetpokemon style! But nobody will ever take it from me.
Nobody.
[picture will eventually go HERE]
