The Hero Always Arrives Late: Salem Regional and International Challenge Champion Report
Article image created by feathers for Nugget Bridge. View more of her artwork on her tumblr or Nugget Bridge forums thread.
Hello again, this is R Inanimate. I went to the VGC Regionals in Salem, Oregon for the January set of Regionals. Due to various circumstances like fog, sleeping in a bit too long, and my dad feeling ill on the drive towards Salem, we ended up being about 20 minutes late for the scheduled 9:15AM registration ending. Fortunately for my brother and I, the registration staff were sympathetic to our situation and we were allowed to compete.
The Team
The team I used for the regional is modified from the team I used in the Nugget Bridge Major Final and December Winter Battle tournament. I initially started with a few minor moveset and item changes which worked well for me, but then decided to change a few Pokemon altogether since I felt that the team still didn’t have a satisfactory answer to the to the known flaws of my original team. What you see here is the result of these changes. Today’s nickname theme is Yggdra Union Cards, but these nicknames do not show up during battles. Hopefully nicknames will someday make a triumphant return to VGC battles…
Excadrill (F) @ Focus Sash ***Grav;Chaos
Trait: Mold Breaker
IVs: 31/31/28/00/22/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Earthquake
– Rock Slide
– Swords Dance
– Protect
“O angel deprived of light and wings… Let thy misery cage mine enemy.”
Deployed in 10/13 Battles at Salem
Deployed in 166/212 Battles in International Challenge
Mold Breaker Excadrill. But this time, Excadrill is running a Focus Sash Swords Dance set instead of a Choice Band. Not being locked into a move and having a way to protect itself was helpful in getting Excadrill into a favourable offensive position with Togekiss to support it. The team had a few ways to create an opportunity to get Swords Dance off with Excadrill which can easily allow my team to overwhelm the opponent with +2 Levitate-ignoring Earthquakes. While I found that the CB version of Excadrill was starting to lose its edge, Focus Sash and Swords Dance allowed Excadrill to make a quick recovery as one of the team’s offensive powerhouses, as shown by it’s high attendance rate in the battles that I had. Excadrill did a lot of work for the team in the Regionals and in the Wi-Fi International. There were quite a number of occasions where I managed to turn around a 4 on 2 battle with just Excadrill and Togekiss.
Latios (M) @ Dragon Gem ***Revolution
Trait: Levitate
IVs: 23/24/24/30/27/31
EVs: 4 HP / 248 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
– Draco Meteor
– Psyshock
– Helping Hand
– Protect
“O valkyrie of the doomed rebellion… In the depths of despair, sing us to victory.”
Deployed in 6/13 Battles at Salem
Deployed in 109/212 Battles in International Challenge
Standard-ish Latios. Unchanged from before, as far as moveset is concerned. Latios feels like it’s on the team to handle a few specific threats, but most of those Pokemon didn’t show up much at the regional. With the weaker defenses on my team, I find that using Draco Meteor can often put me in a vulnerable situation, even if I do KO something with it. But being fast, resistant to many common weaknesses of my Physical attackers, and being my only real Special Attacker, Latios’s role in the team is well defined. I just kind of wish there was something better I could use at times. In the Wi-Fi tourney, Latios helped out in a few tough battles, but was often more instrumental in dealing with lower rated players, where its speed and offensive strength allowed me to get a good hold over the battles.
Tyranitar (F) @ Choice Scarf ***RockFall
Trait: Sand Stream
IVs: 31/31/23/11/31/31
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
– Rock Slide
– Crunch
– Earthquake
– Fire Punch
“Michevious Demon plotting in solitude… Let boulders rain from the heavens.”
Deployed in 7/13 Battles at Salem
Deployed in 103/212 Battles in International Challenge
Scarf Tyranitar. Unchanged from before. I tried to run Ice Punch instead of Earthquake, but changed it back since I never found much use in Ice Punch. Tyranitar is one of those Pokemon that either does really well or really poorly against a lot of the commonly used Pokemon. And sometimes you just have to bring Tyranitar even though it doesn’t do too well against the opponent because you need a way to change the weather. Keeping Earthquake once again proved quite useful, as I did end up facing a few Heatran in Salem and in the Wi-Fi tourney.
Togekiss (M) @ Sitrus Berry ***Ace Guard
Trait: Serene Grace
IVs: 31/03/28/31/31/31
EVs: 244 HP / 96 Def / 116 SDef / 52 Spd
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
– Air Slash
– Tailwind
– Protect
– Follow Me
“O emperor, protector of many… Victory exists under thy flag alone.”
Deployed in 13/13 Battles at Salem
Deployed in 209/212 Battles in International Challenge
Follow Me + Tailwind Support. I don’t think I really need to explain it again. The fact that Togekiss was used in every single battle I had in the regional and had a near perfect attendance record in the Wi-Fi International should speak for itself. The only change here is that I rebred the Togekiss that I used previously and added some extra Speed. The extra Speed EVs give Togekiss 107 Speed, allowing it to outspeed 4 Spd EV Cresselia and to tie Scarfed Landorus-T after a Tailwind. The former point was helpful, the latter never showed up in any of the battles that I had.
Breloom (M) @ Life Orb ***Coma Karma
Trait: Technician
IVs: 31/31/25/22/25/31
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
– Spore
– Mach Punch
– Bullet Seed
– Protect
“The demon of visions cloaked in damnation… her ashes fall like somnolent snow.”
Deployed in 10/13 Battles at Salem
Deployed in 137/212 Battles in International Challenge
Technician Breloom, Sleeper. Breloom is the first new member of the team. I mentioned in my previous article that I had troubles with trying to face off against Breloom. After creating a Rain team that ran Breloom, I tried adding Breloom onto my Excadrill team, replacing Scizor. Breloom helps out a bit more than Scizor against Rain teams since it is able to easily KO Politoed with Bullet Seed and is resistant to Water-type moves. Breloom showed up a lot in my matches in the Salem Regionals, and if people weren’t prepared, it was very happy to shut their team down with Spore. Shutting down the opponent by putting them to sleep with Spore created an opening where I could bring out Excadrill to set up a Swords Dance or two and shuffle Breloom out for Togekiss. Throughout the Wi-Fi tourney, Breloom made a decently large number of appearances, through which I learned that sometimes you have to judge when you want things put to sleep, and when you want things to be KO’d. Minimum turn sleeps and 2 Hit Bullet Seeds are probably the only things that really hold Breloom back.
Bisharp (F) @ Choice Band ***BloodyClaw
Trait: Defiant
IVs: 31/31/14/14/30/31
EVs: 110 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Def / 140 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
– Sucker Punch
– Iron Head
– Low Kick
– Stone Edge
“Crazed Demon bathed in crimson moonlight… let fountains of blood rain from thy claws.”
Deployed in 6/13 Battles at Salem
Deployed in 124/212 Battles in International Challenge
Choice Band Bisharp, Defiance of Intimidation. My last and most recent addition to the team. With Staraptor, I felt that my team didn’t have a very good answer to Defiant Tornadus or Scarf Landorus-T and also made my team too vulnerable to opponent Intimidates. I tried using a Choice Band Cloyster, but found it rather lacking, so at the last minute I moved on to try out Bisharp. CB Bisharp is definitely an interesting option. After being intimidated, it has 436 attack, and is able to OHKO just about any Intimidate Pokemon that shows up. While being locked into Sucker Punch can be an extreme risk, I banked on the assumption that by the time people realize that it’s holding a Choice Band, Bisharp will have already done its job. It’s definitely a high-risk, high-return Pokemon that lives on the edge. The EVs provide 107 Speed, and it is able to survive a Zapdos Heat Wave or a Jolly Garchomp’s Earthquake when at full HP. I don’t think I was completely sold on Bisharp’s effectiveness from its Regionals performance, but the Wi-Fi tourney removed my doubts. Being able to 2HKO Metagross and demolish any Intimidate Pokemon that showed up was extremely helpful.
Overall
The team has lost a bit of its defensive synergy for more offense. I no longer have Intimidate support and now have three Pokemon weak to Fighting, Fire, Ice, and Ground. However, the offensive pressure that Swords Dance Excadrill, Breloom and CB Bisharp contributed to the team made the team feel a lot harder to take out than it seems on paper.
Team Synergy
Togekiss is the team synergy. Moving along…
Salem, Oregon Regionals
After causing a bit of panic to fellow Nugget Bridge members who were already at the venue, due to narrowly making the registration deadline, the Salem VGC Regionals went underway. The Salem Regionals had 101 players in the Master’s division, so we had to play 7 Swiss rounds before the Top Cut.
R1: Bye
The last 30 minutes or so of the drive to Salem were pretty nerve-racking, as the fear of not even being allowed to play in the tourney was a very real possiblity. The R1 bye that I earned from my 2nd place finish in the December Wi-Fi tournament came in handy here, as it allowed me to calm myself down and get into a better mindset for the tournament. Instead of having to play in a bit of a panicked state, I just chilled around with the other people with R1 byes, like feathers. I think everyone I knew won their first battle or had a bye.
1-0
R2: Nate Seigel (N8thePWNr)
My first opponent for the day was Nate. He recognized me as R Inanimate and seemed a bit down that he had to face someone like me so early in the Swiss rounds.
Team Preview:
Goodstuffs-ish. I see a Weavile, which is a bit threatening to my team, otherwise I felt that I had a good handle on his other Pokemon. I lead Togekiss and Breloom, with Tyranitar and Excadrill in the back.
Nate leads with Cresselia and Weavile. I proceed to switch out Togekiss to deactivate Weavile’s potential Focus Sash, and protected with Breloom. Next turn, I make a bold decision and expect Weavile to try to either use Protect or Ice Shard, and I use Spore instead of the obvious Mach Punch play, which pays off as I take Nate’s Scizor out of commission. The battle eventually leads to me sweeping the rest of Nate’s team with Togekiss and Excadrill.
Oh, on an unrelated note… throughout the battle, the two people battling beside us were having a conversation throughout their entire match. Loudly. What I could remember is that their conversation involved DeviantArt, Pokemon, a bit of MLP, and fanfiction. I’ll let your imagination decide what they were talking about.
2W-0L
R3: Trevor Ingram
My opponent for Round 3 was a player who was playing in their first VGC tournament.
Team Preview:
A straight Trick Room Team. I pretty much already knew who I wanted to bring. I chose Excadrill and Togekiss to lead with Breloom and Bisharp in the back.
I get a bit lucky with Flinches to put me in a big lead over Trevor, as he Protects with Amoonguss on T1 while I flinch Bronzong with Air Slash. Then I flinch Amoonguss on the next turn while Excadrill continues to freely use Earthquake. I miss with Air Slash against his Chandelure, allowing Trick Room to be set up, but it’s too little too late for Trevor. It goes down to being 4 vs 1 with only an Abomasnow remaining, which is easy pickings for my Breloom and Bisharp.
3W-0L
R4: Christopher Houser
Enter the Spokane Pokemon Federation. I’ve not had a good track record against players from their group, losing to them in 2011 and 2012. I entered this battle being 0 for 2 against their players.
Team Preview:
Hail Team. This is a bit of a tough matchup. Mamoswine hits effectively on ALL of my Pokemon, and Pokemon such as Salamence and Starmie can be a bit problematic to my somewhat middle-speed tier team. I decide to lead with Bisharp and Togekiss, with Excadrill and Latios in the back. Thinking about it, I have no clue why I didn’t go with Tyranitar instead of Latios, but that’s another story.
The match started off a bit slowly for me, as my Bisharp constantly ended up swinging into Protects with Sucker Punch. I set up a Tailwind in case the Abomasnow was Scarfed but found that it wasn’t. After trading a few blows, it comes down to a turn where Christopher has a full HP Mamoswine and 40% HP Starmie against my 40% HP Bisharp and near full HP Excadrill. I end up making the correct call in using Sucker Punch on Mamoswine and Rock Sliding with Excadrill, as he Protects with Starmie, and Excadrill outruns and KO’s Mamoswine before it can Earthquake. I then proceed to finish off the rest of his team.
4W-0L
R5: Marc-Phillip Parker (Bug Master Marc)
A rematch from the previous year’s Salem regional. There was a bit of a delay before this match, as they had to rearrange pairings, but most of the matches at the head of the table were unchanged.
Team Preview:
The team looks a bit similar to what he used last year. Since he doesn’t have any Swift Swim users, or Steel-types, and that running Shedinja is extremely risky against my team, I felt that I would be good using Latios and Togekiss as leads, with Excadrill and Breloom in the back.
The battle was largely in my control from the start, as my Pokemon choices were quite effective against his. Even though Latios ended up being fast asleep for the maximum number of turns, I knew I had the battle after knowing that he had brought Politoed and Gastrodon for his bench.
5W-0L
R6: Christopher Beckstrom
I’m now up to a 5-0 record, and can be assured that I just need one more win out of my next two games to reach the top cut.
Team Preview:
An interesting team. Cloyster kind of sticks out for me, since I’m pretty sure it is going to be holding a Choice Scarf, but I can’t be absolutely sure without some more information. I lead Bisharp and Togekiss, with Breloom and Excadrill in the back.
The match opens up with us trading KOs. I lose Togekiss while he loses his Cloyster. I send out Breloom, while he sends in Virizion. I then realize that it may have been better for me to try to preserve Togekiss instead of keeping Bisharp alive. The battle comes down to a Virizion at 1 HP that has slept for one turn, Scrafty at full, and one other vs Breloom and Bisharp. I go for the gamble that Virizion is fast asleep for more than one turn, and double target Scrafty with Spore and Iron Head, but unfortunately Virizion does not stay asleep and I’m defeated without even seeing his last Pokemon.
5W-1L
R7: Anthony Baney
I took my one loss, and my safety net is gone. Round 7 is now a must-win situation for me if I want to move on to the Top Cut.
Team Preview:
A Trick Room team? It was hard to get much of a proper read on his team. I remember overhearing about a team that had Manual Sun and Eruption Heatran and wondered if this was that person. I led Tyranitar and Togekiss, with Excadrill and Bisharp in the back, feeling that my lead choice should be effective against whatever he could use.
He leads with Heatran and Hitmontop, and I try to get him with an Earthquake on T1, but he does a strange maneuver in using Fake Out + Protect. The battle was quite strange for me from start to finish, and I spent a lot of time wondering what my opponent’s next move would be. I managed to dodge a few bullets, not hitting myself in confusion due to his Sableye’s Confuse Ray, but just when I was about to seal the game in my favour, his Jellicent throws a wrench into things double activating Cursed Body, disabling Earthquake and Air Slash, preventing me from finishing off Heatran. In the end, I managed to pull off the win as Rock Slide connects to finish off Jellicent after Excadrill takes a Heat Wave and survives with its Sash. Tyranitar then finishes off Heatran with Earthquake, despite being burned. In the end he had a Timid Heatran, and never used Trick Room, so I was never sure on his team strategy right to the very end.
6W-1L
Top 8: Max Douglas (starmetroid)
The results of the end of Swiss went up, and I was the 3rd seed and had to face off against starmetroid. Despite the strong showings I tend to have with playing Best of 3 in online mediums, I’ve lost in the first round of the top cut twice in a row — to the eventual champion both times, but that’s beside the point.
Team Preview:
A team that is very familiar to me. For those who are unfamiliar with the team, here’s a few references.
While I knew the 6 Pokemon he was using in advance since he told me that he was using this team, it’s not really the best of matchups for me, especially since I don’t know if he’s using the exact same EVs and moves or not, and I know that the team has a quite a few options in how it is played out.
Game 1
I get off to a decent start, putting Max’s Togekiss to sleep with Breloom and setting up a Tailwind. I note that his Heracross outran my Breloom but used Close Combat on Togekiss for a bit over 50%, meaning that it was a more offense oriented EV spread. Unforutnately, Breloom does not really have much offensive presence against Max’s leads, so I end up wasting my Tailwind time. The game is decided on a critical turn after my Tailwind ends where my Excadrill flinches, stopping it from finishing off Max’s Garchomp. My team quickly collapses after this point, and I lose the first game.
0W-1L
Game 2
[Battle video incoming! – Ed.]
Losing game one to a Rock Slide flinch hurts. Since Hearcross is a faster build, I consider that bringing Latios will be more helpful for me. I lead with Latios and Tyranitar, however my lead choice turns out to be poor, as Max leads with Rotom-F and Abomasnow. Although it may not have been the best idea, I went for a Helping Hand Rock Slide to open the battle. The result was that Rotom and Latios were KO’d, Abomasnow hung on with a Sash, and Tyranitar got frozen solid. At this point, I was thinking “here we go again…” with my 3rd Top Cut loss as the 3rd Seed, and potential;y being “Kamz’d”. However, I decided not to give up on the battle just yet. Tyranitar thaws out just in time to finish off Abomasnow with Rock Slide, and I am able to start my comeback in the battle. I switch out Tyranitar to Togekiss, set up a Tailwind for my team, and slowly finish off Max’s final 2 Pokemon to pull off a win and keep myself in the tournament.
1W-1L
Game 3
For the final game, I lead with Breloom and Tyranitar while Max leads with Rotom-F and Abomasnow again. He takes a long while for the first turn but ends up going on the offensive. I take out Rotom-F with Mach Punch and Abomasnow flinches from Rock Slide. This gives me a commanding lead in the battle, and he is never really able to recover from it. Even if Abomasnow didn’t flinch, provided it didn’t freeze Tyranitar again, his back half of Garchomp and Heracross would both be checked by the Latios I had in the back. I proceed to make the comeback after the near death experience in game 2 to take the series with a commanding victory in Game 3, breaking my Top Cut losing streak.
2W-1L
Top 4: Casiano S. Atienza III
Having made it past the first Top Cut round for the first time, I managed to get over another of my personal losing trends. But I didn’t plan to stop here.
Team Preview:
Ray-like team, with Rotom-W changed for Zapdos. For better or for worse for my team. The decision to run Zapdos at least ends up making his team less weak to Breloom and Mold Breaker Excadrill, so my team isn’t at at as good of a match up compared to if it still had a Rotom-W.
Game 1
I decide to lead with Breloom and Latios, with Togekiss and Excadrill in the back.
Casiano leads with Hydreigon and Cresselia. I have some luck in this match which allows me to easily take the battle. Draco Meteor goes Critical on his Metagross switch in, and Cresselia ends up sleeping for the maximum amount of turns for Spore on Turn 1. I end up getting Excadrill and Togekiss on the field and sweep.
1W-0L
Game 2
For this battle, I used the same 4 Pokemon, but led with Togekiss instead of Breloom to accompany Latios. Casiano leads with Metagross and Hydreigon. He makes a few surprise moves against me, like attacking with Hydreigon on Turn 1, while I double targetted Metagross. There were a few misses here and there, as he misses with Zen Headbutt once, while I miss with an Air Slash. The battle comes down to a +2 Excadrill and Togekiss, both at around 50HP, against a crippled Metagross and a full HP Zapdos. I go for the hope that his Zapdos is a bulkier variety, and thus slower than Excadrill. The gamble pays off and I manage to connect with Rock Slide on both of his Pokemon, finishing off Metagross, and dropping Zapdos down to about 10% of its HP. Zapdos Heat Waves and finishes off Excadrill, while Togekiss survives with roughly 12HP, sets up a Tailwind and finishes off Zapdos with an Air Slash, allowing me to narrowly squeak by with a win.
2W-0L
Finals: Alex Stempe (Stump)
I’ve now reached the final match. It’s starting to get late, so most of the event staff had already packed things up and were pretty much waiting on the final match to be finished. The few people that decided to stick around were able to watch the battle, at a distance, off of the screens on our DSes.
Team Preview:
Skill-Swap Cress team, from what I could tell from the team preview. The finals were the only set of matches that I wrote turn by turn notes for, so I’ll go over this set in detail.
Game 1
Turn 1
Alex leads with Whimsicott and Heatran against my Togekiss and Bisharp. Although Heatran may be faster, I decide to stick with Bisharp and attack, while Togekiss uses Tailwind. I was worried about a potential manual usage of Sunny Day, so I didn’t switch out to my Tyranitar just yet. Heatran protects, and my Bisharp gets to get its attack off, hitting Whimsicott and activating a Focus Sash. Both sides get a Tailwind up.
Turn 2
Now I decide to switch out to Tyranitar, to finish off his Whimsicott by Sandstorm. I was thinking that if he used Encore to stop my Togekiss from attacking, his Whimsicott will waste its last move. However, he uses Endeavor to drop my Togekiss down to 1HP, activating a Sitrus Berry. Togekiss outspeeds Heatran, flinches it with an Air Slash, and Whimsicott is KO’d by Sandstorm damage.
4-3
Turn 3
Alex sends out his Hitmontop. I go for a Follow Me and Earthquake. Hitmontop outspeeds Togekiss, but that doesn’t matter too much for me, since he used Fake Out on it anyways, possibly predicting that Tyranitar would use Protect or switch out. Instead Tyranitar goes ahead and uses Earthquake, landing a critical hit on Hitmontop to bring both of Alex’s active Pokemon to roughly a quarter of their HP. Heatran then finishes off Togekiss with a Fire Gem Heat Wave.
3-3
Turn 4
I send out Excadrill. I decide to keep Tyranitar in, and go for an Earthquake + Protect to take out his two Pokemon, but he switches out Heatran for Cresselia, and uses Wide Guard, making this a burnt turn.
Turn 5
I switch out Tyranitar for Bisharp and finish off Hitmontop with Rock Slide. Cresselia dodges Rock Slide and uses Trick Room.
3-2
Turn 6+
CB Sucker Punch finishes off Alex’s Heatran, leaving Cresselia to handle a Bisharp, Excadrill and Tyranitar. A few turns later, Cresselia goes down.
3-0
1W-0L
Game 2
Knowing that the Heatran is slower than Togekiss opens up some options for me. I decide to lead with Bisharp and Breloom this time. Alex leads with Heatran and Hitmontop.
Turn 1
My initial thought is to double up on Heatran, so even if Hitmontop uses Fake Out on one of my Pokemon, I can either KO it or put it to sleep. But then I worry about a potential Protect. After a bit of thinking, I convince myself that Alex will not use Fake Out with Hitmontop, and use Spore on it and Low Kick his Heatran. His move takes right to the end of the move timer, and I predict his actions perfectly. As he mentions, this was the “worst possible outcome” for him, as Hitmontop is shut down by Spore, and Bisharp KOs Heatran.
4-3
Turn 2
Cresselia is sent out, I go for the Spore on Cresselia and Low Kick on Hitmontop. Unfortunately, for Bisharp, Hitmontop wakes up on this turn, and Bisharp goes down to a Close Combat.
3-3
Turn 3
I protect with Breloom to block Close Combat, and finish off his -1 Sp. Defense Hitmontop with an Air Slash.
3-2
Turn 4
Gastrodon is sent out as Alex’s last Pokemon. I decide to go for Follow Me and Bullet Seed on Gastrodon. Hoping that I’ll eventually manage to connect on Gastrodon before he can take out my Togekiss. I don’t have to wait long as he doesn’t use Protect and Bullet Seed goes Critical on the first shot.
3-1
Turn 5+
Cresselia wakes up, but it’s far too late for it to do much to me, as I switch out Breloom for Tyranitar and finish the battle.
3-0
2W-0L
With this, I had taken 1st place at the Salem, Oregon VGC regionals. I was quite impressed with the overall increase in skill level of my opponents and the wide variety of decent teams that I faced. Quite a number of my matches were close and came down to me making a solid prediction to take the win. Had I not had the confidence I had in my skill and my team, I’m certain I would not have gotten as far as I had.
January Winter International
The story of this team doesn’t end with Regionals. Just a few days after my 1st place finish, the Wi-Fi International tourney started. I was thinking of going with a less serious team, but since my regionals team was already locked into the battle box, I thought I might as well use it. The competition this time was a lot tougher compared to the previous tournament, so despite using a team that I felt was stronger than its previous incarnation, I ended up with a lower final score. A lot of battles were done, and I learned a lot about using the team that I had made. I’ll go over a few things I found of note from the tournament:
- Approximately 90 or 95 of my opponents were from Japan or Korea.
- I was sort of surprised on just how many variations there were to the “Politoed + Kingdra + 4 Mysterymons” style of team.
- You know that the competition level is up when you face trainers every so often around the 1450-1500 range that have a full Rain or Sand team. As opposed to the usual In-Game teams.
- Surprisingly, most of my D/Cs came from Japanese players, when in the past I found they were less likely to D/C than others. Perhaps the harsh D/C witch hunt of last tourney got its message across to us over on the west.
- Notable opponents I faced throughout the tournament include: PM649, PungentFruit, Baz Anderson, Zach, TheBattleRoom, Pd0nZ, mrbopper, 13Yoshi13, Ben Kyriakou, carl, Seansymphony, Synre, JTK, Amarillo, MrEobo, and Fishy. My total record against these trainers ended up being 9W-7L.
- I fought one 1051 rated Japanese player that had a serious team, who looked like they were intentionally forfeiting against people, then playing seriously against high scoring people to try to destroy their rating. Fortunately, I managed to dodge the 32 point snipe.
- I seemed to have pretty bad luck with my highest rated opponents, as looking at it they are all either D/Cs or losses. A good portion of them were due to early game luck that pretty much determined the flow of the battle, like being put to sleep by Effect Spore, or missing an Air Slash twice in a row. This is part of the reason why I was at 1880 fairly early into Saturday but could never get back to this point.
Common Teams
In the Wi-Fi Internationals, there were a few teams that popped up on more than a few occasions against me.
Full Trick Room
OR
These kinds of teams either came with a single Trick Room user and many attackers, or multiple Trick Room Pokemon, 1 Fake Out user and Amoonguss. There were times where I could outplay the opponent, since neither of their leads were particularly threatening, allowing me to burn turns of Trick Room, and prepare myself for a sweep after TR ends. These were teams that I needed to plan things out a few turns ahead in order to keep myself in the game.
Rain Room
My previous team had a lot of trouble with this team style in the past, but with my current changes, and having a bit more experience with facing these types of teams I finally managed to get the hang of defeating them. These battles often went right down to the wire.
“Ray” Team
Every so often I’d end up seeing a team with 5 or sometimes all 6 of the Pokemon on Ray’s World Champion team. Alternative Pokemon included Salamence, Landorus-T,and Zapdos. Since I pretty much know what all of their Pokemon can do, it was often pretty easy for me to plan ahead and dismantle people who tried to use these types of teams against me.
Tricky Rain
Instead of the Rain Room team that has two different modes, these teams combined it together. I actually had quite a bit of trouble against these types of teams due to often failing to prevent the TR set up, one way or another. If I could stop Trick Room, though, it was an easy victory though.
Sand or Sand Room
OR
Either full Sand or a “Sand Room”. I felt that I either had these battles easily down or had a lot of trouble against them. Sometimes something as little as the team preview was enough to decide the battle. I felt that facing off against a Sand Room team was often easier for me to handle, as they would usually go for their Trick Room portion, that I have had experience playing around due to it being similar to the TR portion of a Rain Room team.
Extra Statistics:
Extra statistics for my battling marathon.
Lowest rated loss: ホワイト (White), from Kumamoto, Japan, 1481
Highest rated win: zzACH, from Wisconsin, USA, 1755
Longest Win Streak: 19 Wins
Longest Losing Streak: 2 Losses
Peak Rating: 1882
Win rate: 84.62%
Average Rating of opponents: 1545.30
Total Battles Played: 222 Battles
Final Record: 165W – 30L
Final Rating: 1873
Final Ranking: 13th Place
Although I had fallen short of my peak score, which would have placed me in 7th Place, I was still 1st amongst North American players so I can’t really say that I’m dissatisfied with my result.
Conclusion
January has been a pretty intense month for Pokemon Battling. With the Regionals and Wi-Fi tourney back-to-back it put the team to quite the test, and I feel that it definitely has passed. A shoutout to fellow NB members that I met at Salem, and to all my opponents that I faced in the Wi-Fi tournament. Even when you think that a team has reached its final phases, there always ends up being something you learn that you can change to make it better. Always remember… The Hero Always Arrives Late!
About the Author
R Inanimate R Inanimate is a long time participant in official Pokemon Tournaments, first attending the 2005 Battle in Seattle Tournament. Known for using teams that are a bit off from the standard, and not using RNG'd Pokemon. Avid Battle Frontier fan. Worlds 2013 competitor, known for running Togekiss and Mold Breaker Excadrill.
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