Reports

Published on August 21st, 2013 | by Babbytron

27

Google: Cybertron. Did You Mean Babbytron? 2013 Junior World Champion Report

Hey everyone, Brendan “Babbytron” Zheng here. If you didn’t know, I started playing Pokemon competitively in 2010. What I will present here is the team I used to win the 2013 Pokemon World Championships in the Junior Division.

I started to team build right after my disappointing 4-3 finish at the US National Championships a month before Worlds. I wanted my team to beat Breloom and counter the Junior metagame, since I had lost to three “standard” teams at Nationals. The first idea I thought of was Conkeldurr and Swords Dance Scizor with a Trick Room mode. Originally, my team was Cresselia, Conkeldurr, Scizor, Terrakion, Hydreigon, and Heatran. However, the more I tested, the more I found out that I really disliked the team — especially because the core of rain and Scizor could really disrupt the team. So I started to use and test more Pokemon such as Choice Band Gyarados, Choice Scarf Landorus-T, Choice Scarf Heracross, Ludicolo, and even Mr. Mime!

Soon enough, I was really confident with my updated team of Skill Swap Cresselia, Substitute Heatran, Heracross, Conkeldurr, Hydreigon, and HP Flying Thundurus. But to get advice, I asked three time World Champion Ray Rizzo (Ray). He told me to change the Heatran, which was similar to Wolfe’s 2012 version, to an Eruption Heatran, get rid of Heracross, and change Skill Swap on Cresselia. The Eruption Heatran idea was something I really wanted to work on. I took Ray’s suggestions and replaced the more bulky Heatran for a very offensive one. I also changed Skill Swap to Sunny Day on Cresselia, and finally, replaced Heracross with a completely new Pokemon — Choice Band Escavalier. I will expand on this more in the team report, but it was the MVP of my team. Hydreigon was also not very useful in practice, so I replaced it with a very bulky Jellicent, which I thought countered a lot of “standard” Junior teams.

Soon, my team was a very Trick Room based team with Thundurus as my only semi-fast Pokemon. However, with two Trick Room users already, I would set up Trick Room most of the time, meaning that Thunder Wave wouldn’t really help me. I scrambled to find a Tyranitar and Rotom-W counter — two Pokemon I had a lot of trouble dealing with. My brother, Aaron Zheng (Cybertron), suggested a bulky Rotom-W similar to the one he was using, with Will-o-Wisp. Since I already had my Sitrus Berry on Cresselia, I went with the Chesto Rest variant, while Aaron used Sitrus Berry on his Rotom. Rotom-W gave me the bulky Electric-type I needed, but was much more helpful with Will-o-Wisp and Hydro Pump.

My team was now Cresselia, Jellicent, Escavalier, Heatran, Conkeldurr, and Rotom-W. I was very confident about my revised team — without further adieu, let’s get on to the actual team report!

Cresselia @ Sitrus Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 220 HP / 36 Def / 156 SAtk / 96 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
– Ice Beam
– Sunny Day
– Helping Hand
– Trick Room

I wanted my Cresselia to OHKO 4 HP Landorus-T, so I started off with Sassy nature for max bulk and min speed and added 156 Special Attack EVs. 220 HP is to minimize sandstorm damage like most Cresselia, and I put the rest in Defense and Special Defense. With a 0 Speed IV and Sassy nature, it reaches 81 speed, which will come in handy later with my Heatran. This Cresselia strangely doesn’t have Psychic/Psyshock. I felt that I didn’t need it because Hitmontop, Conkeldurr, and any other Fighting-type Pokemon would lose to Cresselia’s Ice Beam one on one anyway. Sunny Day was to make Rain less effective, get rid of the Sandstorm Special Defense boost for Rock-type Pokemon, and most importantly, boost Heatran’s Fire-type attacks. Helping Hand and Trick Room are self explanatory. Helping Hand serves as a Gem and can prevent Sucker Punches, while Trick Room reverses the speeds of my Pokemon, making it much easier for me to sweep.

Conkeldurr (F) @ Lum Berry
Trait: Iron Fist
EVs: 84 HP / 252 Atk / 12 Def / 160 SDef
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
– Drain Punch
– Ice Punch
– Mach Punch
– Detect

Conkeldurr was my runner up for MVP of the tournament. It was a bulky Pokemon that can heal back with Drain Punch. If you noticed, I did not use a Life Orb + Hammer Arm set. I really disliked having a bulky Pokemon which damages itself and can’t heal back. There wasn’t one point in the tournament where I didn’t want my set. I had Lum Berry to deal with annoying statuses, especially Spore from Breloom. I originally had Swagger on my Thundurus, but did not have room for it on my final team. However, it still served its purpose as seen in the finals where my opponent Ice Punched my Conkeldurr and froze me… just for me to unthaw! I was very happy at that point and I bet that made the crowd go crazy! The rest of the moves are self explanatory. The EVs are so I can always survive a Zen Headbutt from a max attack Metagross, hit as hard as possible, and take special attacks well.

Rotom-Wash @ Chesto Berry
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 236 HP / 88 Def / 180 SDef / 4 Spd
Calm Nature
– Hydro Pump
– Thunderbolt
– Rest
– Will-O-Wisp

Although this Pokemon may not have worked in the end for Aaron, it did for me. I used a set with Rest, which was a very good surprise factor, especially in best 2 of 3 where if I win one game without using Rest, I can use it the next game and put me in a very good position. I used Jumpei Yamamoto’s 2012 spread, which is bulkier than Aaron’s. It always survives a Dragon Gem Draco Meteor from Timid Latios  and has 4 Speed EVs to outspeed other Rotoms with 0 speed. I really liked Will-o-Wisp, because it often won me games single-handedly. I could even afford a miss or two because Rotom was so bulky. Hydro Pump and Thunderbolt are both too good to pass down, and even with no special attack investment, still helped me out a lot.

Heatran (M) @ Fire Gem
Trait: Flash Fire
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef
Quiet Nature
IVs: 21 Spd
– Eruption
– Heat Wave
– Earth Power
– Protect

Heatran was so strong. With sun, Helping Hand, and Fire Gem, I could OHKO a Cresselia! Although the only time I ever got a setup like this, I was at -1 Special Attack from Snarl, but still, a -1 near full HP Heatran almost OHKOed a Sableye with the sun and Fire Gem! If you haven’t already noticed, I used a 21 Speed IV Heatran instead of 0. Why, you might ask. Well, I wanted to use Eruption effectively and set up Sunny Day on the same turn. This is not possible with a 0 speed Heatran. With my 21 IVs in Speed, meaning that inside Trick Room, I can outspeed an Adamant Tyranitar and underspeed my Cresselia, allowing me to Sunny Day and Erupt in the same turn. I did not use the 196 HP / 60 Def spread that is pretty common, because I would rather just have more HP and take special moves better. The spread doesn’t even survive an Earthquake from Metagross 100% of the time, but fortunately, I only faced one Metagross that had Earthquake all weekend. While I had Earth Power, I did not use it once in the tournament as when I selected it, I was KOed before I could move.

Jellicent (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Water Absorb
EVs: 204 HP / 148 Def / 156 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
– Will-O-Wisp
– Trick Room
– Recover
– Scald

Jellicent was my least used Pokemon. I chose it because I wanted another Trick Roomer that could burn stall. Leftovers was probably the best item because Water Gem and Wacan Berry wouldn’t have helped me much, as I had no offensive power and a Water Gem boosted Scald does nothing. Also, I usually survive all the Electric-type moves anyway and can Recover off the damage. I choose Water Absorb because I thought that if I could predict a Water-type move onto a Pokemon, I could potentially heal the damage off by switching Jellicent in. It also walled Rain teams. Cursed Body did not seem really beneficial even though I never tested it. I also didn’t want to rely on me getting lucky to win a game. I added Jellicent before I had Rotom-W, so I had a pretty big problem against Tyranitar, leading me to add Will-O-Wisp. I was about to use Hydro Pump, but I found  that in the majority of my games I wasn’t even using Scald, so adding a more powerful but less reliable attack was not what I needed. I unfortunately was unable to showcase this Pokemon as much as I wanted to. The one match that I did bring her to, I thought that I had a pretty good match-up since my opponent did not have a Thundurus-T to really threaten my Jellicent. However, he had Thunder on his Latios which made up for it, so I didn’t bring Jellicent after game 1. The EV spread was from Gavin Michaels’ (kingofkongs) old team, which can pretty much survive any attack in the metagame.

Escavalier @ Choice Band
Trait: Swarm
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpDef
Adamant Nature
– Iron Head
– Megahorn
– Protect
– X-Scissor

Escavalier was the best Pokemon on the team. I originally had a Heracross in this slot. But one day, Aaron beat me with his Worlds team and I got worried. It was about a week before the tournament where we got the idea of a Choice Band Metagross. I tested at least ten battles with the Metagross before I said “Metagross is so bad.” I really disliked that Metagross can’t dish out incredibly powerful moves. Then, I got the idea of a Choice Band Escavalier. I did not take it seriously and was about to change the Pokemon, but the more battles I won with it, the more I liked it and took it seriously. You may notice a few strange things on this Escavalier, such as having Protect on a Choice Pokemon. The day before Worlds, I was using Return. Aaron was talking about Protect and how I can bluff a Bug Gem and switch the next turn. I didn’t really want to use it but my brother, Aaron Traylor (Unreality), Edward Fan (iss), and Jonathan Rankin (JRank) convinced me. I only used Protect once to bait the attack on Escavalier so I could set up a Trick Room, but it helped me win the game. I also had X-Scissor because I didn’t want to lose on a Megahorn miss. Helping Hand from Cresselia with X-Scissor got me most of the KOes I needed. Also, if you didn’t see yet, I used an Adamant natured 31 Spd IV Escavalier to outspeed minimum speed Amoonguss and still be slower than Conkeldurr. This is because against a Rain team with Amoonguss, I could Sunny Day and Megahorn the Amoonguss, getting rid of the biggest threat right away. This may not seem like a big deal, but in testing I found out that if I waste my turns sleeping, my team can’t win because I need the proper set up to win. I was able to showcase me outspeeding an Amoonguss on TV in my 4th round!

Team Synergy

This was my main lead. It worked so well with me being able to burn a physical Pokemon and hopefully set up a Trick Room to let my other Pokemon in the back sweep right from the start. I could also go a more offensive route and Helping Hand + attack my opponent’s Pokemon to hopefully get a 4-3 lead. I think that burn was the best status in Juniors with the amount of physical and non-resting Pokemon around. These two also worked very well for Aaron, and nothing in the metagame threatens the two of them immediately.

I did not lead with this a lot, but it was still a decent combo. My logic is that I can  burn whatever threatens me with Rotom-W and Recover with Jellicent on the same turn and later set up a Trick Room to start the sweep. Also, if I needed to, I could even Hydro Pump my Jellicent to recover all my damage! Both Pokemon are really bulky and can survive Dragon Gem Draco Meteors from Latios, and both can burn physical threats, so the bulk would often be overwhelming.

This was a great lead combo that helped me win my semi finals set. While Conkeldurr is really slow, it can survive most attacks. I can also choose to Detect and Trick Room to start sweeping right away. Conkeldurr’s Lum Berry came up clutch multiple times, and since my opponent would often choose to target Conkeldurr rather than Cresselia, I could survive an attack, KO back, AND set up Trick Room!

Notes on the Team

I really wanted to show some of the tricks I could do with my team on TV, but since I was unable to do so, I will explain them now. Eruption Heatran was really powerful, but not as much when I did not have Cresselia to set up sun or Helping Hand. Since I always had either Cresselia or Jellicent, I found out the next best way to increase my Heatran’s power was to actually Will-o-Wisp myself, either with Jellicent or Rotom-W! I also had two Trick Roomers and had the ability to pull off the famous “double Trick Room!” My last trick was Hydro Pumping my own Jellicent with Rotom-W to heal immediately. And of course, my Heatran was designed so Cresselia could Sunny Day first in Trick Room before Heatran could Erupt.

Just like Aaron’s team, we both wanted to use the pure strength of Conkeldurr and Heatran, with Cresselia and Rotom-W as the support cast. I decided to make a few metagame calls and used Choice Band Escavalier and Jellicent while he had Landorus-T and Tyranitar. My team relied on Trick Room more, but that doesn’t mean I had to set up Trick Room to win — I would often just go for an attack and get KOes since my team was also pretty bulky. To address Taunt:  Taunt was a really common move in Juniors since it shut down teams like mine. I actually really liked it when my opponent would bring Thundurus to Taunt me, and I often predicted this by Ice Beaming their Thundurus. This happened in both the semi-finals and the finals. It would give me a lead and set up a KO on Thundurus with Conkeldurr later on in the game!

Tournament Report

There were 40 Juniors which meant six rounds with a Top 8 cut. In order to ensure top cut, I knew I could only afford to lose one match. I was 11-1 in Worlds swiss the last two years and hoped I could continue my run. I didn’t take really great notes, so I will talk about the set in general and specific games if I can remember them.

Round 1: AJ Bradley [AU] (0-0)

I did not recognize his name but soon found out he placed 2nd at the Australian Nationals.

I start off game 1 with Rotom-W and Cresselia. He has Scrafty and Tyranitar. I switch my Cresselia into Escavalier anticipating a Crunch and a Fake Out. He double targets the Cresselia and I Will-o-Wisp his Tyranitar. “The foe’s Tyranitar avoided the attack!”. I sigh and  I Will-o-Wisp again hoping to hit… but I miss again! At this point I can’t come back in the game but still try my hardest. He later on flinches my Rotom-W while I was going for the Hydro Pump to KO Tyranitar. I learn that he has a Chople Berry Heatran, Lum Berry Scrafty, and Fire Punch Tyranitar. With that information, we go into game 2.

My opponent starts saying that he is going to win with his luck and that I shouldn’t be mad over a loss, which motivates me to beat him even more. I don’t remember too much of this game, but he does get a critical hit and a burn on one of my Pokemon. His Muddy Water also hit both of my Pokemon and lowered their accuracy. Luckily, I was still able to KO his Gastrodon. In the end, it is just his burned Tyranitar against my Cresselia and Conkeldurr.

In game three, the same thing as game two happens but he gets less lucky and I win more straightforwardly. I shake his hand and say good game. I was fortunate that he did not get luck in the third but I was really happy that I was able to win the set even though I lost my first game.

Record: 1-0 (2-1)

Round 2: Tristan Lankford [US] (1-0)

I knew Tristan because he was the other Junior that had the exact same regionals run as me, with two 1st places and one 2nd place. He placed in the Top 4 at US Nationals.

I start game 1 with Rotom-W and Cresselia. He leads off with Zapdos and Latios. I knew he was going to hit my Cresselia with Latios and hit my Rotom-W with Zapdos.  I switch Cresselia to Escavalier anticipating a Draco Meteor. Instead, he double targets my Escavalier with a Dragon Pulse and… ” The foe’s Zapdos used Signal Beam!” I was shocked that he had Signal Beam, and judging by the damage it did to my Escavalier, I assumed it was Choice Specs. The game gets a bit foggy here, but I do manage to pull a win and a lot of valuable information for game 2.

I decide to not use Heatran this game and bring Conkeldurr and Escavalier. This worked out because at one point during the game my game read “The foe’s Latios used Surf!” WOW. Thank goodness I didn’t bring Heatran! In the end, I had a healthy Conkeldurr and Escavalier against a protecting Abomasnow and a Surfing Life Orb Latios. All I could do was hope that Tristan did not get a double Critical Hit. Fortunately, that did not happen and I took the series. Good games Tristan, and see you next year in Seniors.

Record: 2-0 (3-1)

Round 3: Ryusei Yasue [JP] (2-0)

I did not know him previously and assumed he came from the Coro Coro tournament.

I do not remember the battles too much. However, both games did go quite similarly. I lead Rotom-W and Cresselia both games. He  always led Sableye and Latias. I did not know what he was really going to do, so my best strategy, I thought, was to spread burn and set up. This plan was very effective as it turned out he had Snarl Sableye! I did not attack once with Rotom-W and Cresselia. I knew at one point that my Heatran was able to sweep as long as I had Sun up, so I switched my Cresselia into Heatran as he kept spamming Snarl. But still, at -1, I was still able to KO the Sableye and do 40% to the Latias with a sun and Fire Gem boosted, near full HP Eruption. The only thing that really threatened me was his Heatran and Landorus-T. He brought Heatran game 1 and Landorus-T game 2. Since I am a 21 Spd IV Heatran, I was able to outspeed what I assumed to be 0 Speed Heatran. I won pretty straightforwardly. Since he brought his Choice Scarfed Landorus in game 2, I was scared, but I was able it OHKO it quickly with Conkeldurr.

Record: 3-0 (6-1)

Rount 4: Kota Nakamura [JP] (2-1)

I knew he was the 2 time National Champion in Japan, and I saw one of his matches on TV. He was using a pretty standard Rain team. I played this game on TV in front of everyone! I was also paired down this round.

I saw that he has no Electric-type users here, so I thought Jellicent would really shine. However, that is not what really happened. He had a minimum speed Amoonguss, so I outsped his Amoonguss and KOed it right away with my Escavalier, which was awesome. But then he used Thunder with his Latios! I was able to survive it with my Jellicent, but that gave me a warning not to use Jellicent the next game. I won pretty easily after I KOed his Amoonguss, since he had no answers to my Escavalier. In game 2, I predicted his Landorus-T switch in and Ice Beamed his Politoed mid-way through the game. He did switch to Landorus-T and he survived with 1 HP. However, I was able to KO it with Conkeldurr the next turn with Mach Punch. That prediction pretty much gave me the win. I was very surprised that he had a Focus Sash Latios, meaning that I couldn’t OHKO him with my Conkeldurr’s Ice Punch, but I believe he did not have a Psychic-type move so I was able to survive his Draco Meteor. His Thunder Latios really gave me a laugh and really changed the way I thought about his team. It was a close set, but I managed to win.

Record: 4-0 (8-1)

Rount 5: Beau Berg (Oreios) [US] (3-1)

He was the US National Champion and I was pretty scared because I was late to the match. I was excited to play the best Junior coming out of US Nationals, even though I had to play down again this round.

He had the same Pokemon as Nationals but they are SHINY. However, I still assumed he had the same sets as he did at Nationals. He lead with Cresselia and Tyranitar. That was probably one of his best leads for me to go up against because as long I was able to set up Trick Room, I could sweep. I had Rotom-W and Cresselia as my leads. I knew that he was smart enough to make predictions, so I switched my Cresselia to Conkeldurr and burned him. I was scared of his Scizor but fortunately he didn’t bring it both games. After Worlds, we had a rematch and he beat me because he was able to effectively use Scizor. I remember that I made a misplay because I knew he had Yache Berry from game one but still Ice Punched his Zapdos hoping to KO in game 2, instead of double targeting it to get the KO. He adjusted very well in game 2 and played the better game, but I was able to win with better predictions in the end. GG ORIEOS!

Record: 5-0 (10-1)

Round 6: Fuko Nakamichi [JP] (5-0)

I did not know her at all and suspected she came from Coro Coro. Little did I know, she was going to be my opponent in the finals.

I did not know what to expect so I lead Rotom-W and Cresselia both games. She lead Weavile and Virizion both games too. I did not want to leave my Rotom-W to faint and so I switch to Escavalier in game 1. She predicts this and uses Beat Up on her Virizion and Leaf Blades my Cresselia while I set up Trick Room. She needs to use Beat Up twice to KO me while I double target the Virizion the next turn, which Protects. I survive the Beat Ups and she goes for another Protect the next turn, which fails. I get the KO on Virizion while she KOes my Cresselia. After that, I sweep with my Escavalier and Conkeldurr. I also learn that her Scizor has Aerial Ace, which will come to play in the finals.

In game 2, we both lead with the same Pokemon. She used Beat Up on her own Virizion again and Sacred Sworded my Rotom-W, which I switched into Escavalier, and she got the OHKO! However, I was able to set up Trick Room, and with a full HP Cresselia and Conkeldurr, I was able to KO her Pokemon one at a time and win the set. I was worried that she would adjust after game 1 and bring Thundurus, but she did not at all, and she could not stop my Trick Room.

Record: 6-0 (12-1)

Post-Swiss Thoughts:

I had gone undefeated in Worlds swiss for the 2nd time in three years! I felt really good about my chances of winning the whole tournament because I beat all the Japanese trainers I played in swiss. I also won all my sets 2-0 after dropping one game in the first set of the day. I was worried about playing top 8 and top 4 on Saturday, but I got prepared as I made my third Worlds top cut in three years. The standings were posted and my opponent was another Japanese trainer I had not played. Beau helped me gather some information on his team, which was very standard but Heatran weak. Going undefeated in swiss really boosted my confidence and soon I was called to start top cut.

Top 8: Izumi Motoe [JP] (4-2)

He was talking with his other Japanese friends and I felt left out because I was the only American in Top Cut! I knew that my road to the Top 2 was going to be hard.

Like I said, his team looked really Heatran weak so I wanted to set up Trick Room and Sunny Day right away. The only thing I needed to find out was how fast his Metagross was. I did get up a successful sweep until his Metagross Earthquaked me in game 1. I knew that in game 2, I needed to burn his Metagross because it was faster than my Heatran in Trick Room. Game 2 was really good because he was able to set up Safeguard with Cresselia and he brought Abomasnow, which can threaten my Rotom. It came down to whether his burned Metagross could KO my Conkeldurr with a Meteor Mash after it survived my Mach Punch. Lucky for me, he missed! His Metagross fainted from burn, and I felt bad but we shook hands and I moved one to my third straight Top 4 at Worlds.

Record: 7-0 (14-1)

Top 4: Haruka Narita [JP] (5-2)

I believe she also came from Coro Coro. I really did not want to lose in the top 4 again so I got really serious and tried my best. This was my closest set of the entire tournament.

Haruka actually had what I thought was the coolest team in the entire tournament (next to mine of course, haha!). She had the double Spore option in Breloom and Amoonguss, meaning she could put her opponents to sleep either in or out of Trick Room. She also had max speed Heatran, which I was surprised to see. Latias was a Pokemon I didn’t see very much, and her team revolved around the core of Latias+Amoonguss+Heatran. Latias was there to support her Heatran with Tailwind, Icy Wind, and Sunny Day. Amoonguss had Eject Button and could combo really well with Latias, setting up Heatran for turn 2. I was familiar with Liepard because Aaron won a Regional with it, but her team had a lot of scary threats. Onto the games!

In game 1, I brought Conkeldurr as a lead to prevent the Liepard and Breloom lead, but she chose Thundurus instead of Liepard. I knew I could win but I needed to KO the Thundurus before she could Thunder Wave my Heatran and KO with her Heatran (at least this is what I thought — I later found out her Heatran outsped mine). I predicted the Taunt from Thundurus and Ice Beamed it. It did around 50% so I knew it was an offensive set. I was in a very good position, but choked it away in the end because I predicted wrong when I thought she would Eruption. Instead, she got a OHKO on my Heatran with Earth Power and I lost that game.

I was now really worried since I was one loss away from losing in Top 4 AGAIN. In game 2, she went for the predicted LieLoom combo. I knew that if I could set up Trick Room, I would be able to sweep. She knew I had Lum Berry on the Conkeldurr. On the first turn, she successfully got my Cresselia to sleep and my Conkeldurr to flinch. But next turn, she Swaggered AND Spored my Conkeldurr. I woke up with Cresselia and set up Trick Room. All I needed now was for my Conkeldurr to wake up. When I saw the message “Conkeldurr woke up” the next turn, I literally jumped up and cleaned up the game with my +2 Conkeldurr.

OK, my third game 3 at Worlds semis. I told myself I would not lose again. She actually uploaded the video, which you can see online at 39-33122-62977. In Game 3, she leads Thundurus and Liepard while I still lead with Conkeldurr and Cresselia. This game was like game 1 but without Swagger on her side, I did not get haxed and I adjusted properly. You can watch the battle video for yourself, but I play well for the majority of the game and had a huge turn when my confused Heatran got a Fire Gem Eruption off in sun, KOing her Liepard and doing ~50% to Latias. I then knew I had the game won when I set Trick Room up with Cresselia and Heatran beat her last two Pokemon! I was so excited after winning and started to cry because I had never been in the finals and finally broke my curse of losing in the top 4.

Record: 8-0 (16-2)

Pre-Finals Thoughts:

Aaron previously lost in the Top 4 and I really wanted to win. I found out my opponent was Fuko Nakamichi who was also my 6th round opponent. I knew her whole team already except what kind of Thundurus she was using. I thought about it and the only way she could effectively stop my set up was if she led Thundurus and Weavile. I planned to Ice Beam and Thunderbolt it with my Cresselia / Rotom-W lead. I did some damage calculations and I was ready for the finals. I slept early and woke up pretty early, too. Before we got set up, I saw that there were a lot of people but I was fine with it and kept calm. Also, another cool thing was that I wore headphones while playing! It was really cool and I finally got to experience it because of my lacking Nationals performance.

Finals: Fuko Nakamichi [JP] (7-1)

I did not know she had a Substitute plush so I was intimidated right away…

I take a few deep breaths and we begin our battle. You can see my finals matches at the official Pokemon Twitch Stream (super cool) and seadraDS recorded it  (there are some Japanese people commentating at the start, but it changes to Scott and Evan’s commentary later on). I was really excited the whole match and I did make a few mistakes here and there but it was a great experience!

Conclusion

Now with Worlds finished, we can all relax for a while and wait until Regionals. I was very satisfied with Aaron’s performance and most importantly my performance (haha Aaron). I know I don’t have to play seriously next season but I am still really excited about for what X/Y will bring. This year was amazing despite my bad Nationals showing. I really liked playing and building this team. I had great games all around and have to say congrats to everyone I played. Hopefully I will have the same type of report next year! Until next time, I will see you all later in the Seniors division! Maybe I can win Worlds there too and officially be a better Senior than Aaron…

About the Author

Babbytron is the 2013 Juniors Video Game World Champion. He placed 3rd at both 2011 and 2012 Worlds. He is a five time Regional Champion and finished 2nd at US Nationals in 2011. He will be a senior in the 2014 season. Also officially better than his brother Aaron "Cybertron" Zheng now.

Related Posts

Memoirs of a World Champion: by 2015 World Champion SHADEviera →

The Other Fire Doge: A Top 8 Lancaster Report →

Blazing Forward! A Malaysian Regionals 2nd Place Report →

Top 4, Top 4, We’ve Never Used This Team Before →