Reports

Published on November 4th, 2014 | by Cinaclov

14

When the Wind Blows: An Animated 2014 UK Nationals Report

Hello everyone, I’m Daniel, known on here as Cinaclov. Thanks for checking out my animated team analysis and tournament report for the 2014 UK National Championships.

Despite this being my third time competing at a UK National, this is the first report I’ve created for Nugget Bridge, but more notable is that I decided to animate it. I wanted to create something that even if you didn’t have a clue about competitive Pokémon would still have some entertainment value whilst maintaining the same level of information competitive players are looking for. Hopefully they both worked out that way and everyone will enjoy them. Let me know what does and doesn’t work in the comments.

After competing at Nationals I had the idea of creating an animated tournament report about my experience; I was considering writing up a report of the event anyway whilst also wanting to create some animations for my portfolio, so thought why not kill two birds with one Rock Slide and animate it? Then when SuperIntegration’s report was posted I received a few messages asking about how my team worked, making me realise that people were interested and that it’d be worth following up on that animation idea. Unfortunately with this year also being my final year of university it has taken me far longer than planned to complete this, but hopefully the animations are entertaining enough to make up for that.

Before we get into it proper I’d just like to point out a couple of things:

• The majority of the written text in this article is going to focus on the peripheral elements of my 2014 Nationals experience; basically everything besides the battles themselves. If it’s just the analysis and battles that you’re interested in go for the animations.
• In both videos I am narrating fairly quickly. This is to fit in all that I wanted to say in a reasonable running time (the original scripts would’ve been about 45 minutes total). On YouTube there are subtitles if that helps. It might also be helpful to pause at points if you’re interested reading in specific text or stats.
• For the battles I have tried to replicate each scenario as accurately as possible but often it worked better to rearrange things – eg; Talonflame might have been on the right side of the field in battle but her flying animation takes up a lot of room visually and can be distracting. Consequently she was often moved to the left side of the field out the way. I don’t think there’s any major changes, but it’s just something to be aware of. You might notice inconsistencies when comparing the animations to the battle videos.

Team Analysis

This first video covers the team building process for me throughout 2014, showing the evolution of the team (including through the Bristol Battle Tournament) and ending with an analysis of the final version I took to Manchester.

Apologies for the not-fantastic-but-passable quality of the sound recording in the first video, but it does improve for the second. Remember to view both in HD

For those who prefer their Pokémon stats more conventionally presented:

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 52 Atk / 44 Def/ 132 SDef / 28 Spd
Careful Nature
– Play Rough
– Fire Fang
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Azumarill @ Assault Vest
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 156 HP /196 Atk / 100 Def / 44 SDef / 12 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Aqua Jet
– Play Rough
– Waterfall
– Superpower

Rotom-Heat @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 126 HP /4 Def/ 148 SpA / 4 SpDef / 228 Spd
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Thunderbolt
– Volt Switch
– Hidden Power [Ice]

Talonflame @ Charti Berry
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 172 HP/ 4Atk/ 44 Def/ 236 SDef/52 Spd
Careful Nature
– Brave Bird
– Tailwind
– Quick Guard
– Protect

Amoonguss @ Lum Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 Spd
Bold Nature
– Giga Drain
– Sludge Bomb
– Spore
– Protect

Goodra @ Expert Belt
Ability: Sap Sipper
EV’s: 92HP /164Def /188 SpA/ 4SpDef/ 60Speed
Modest Nature
– Dragon Pulse
– Thunderbolt
– Fire Blast
– Feint

Friday May 23rd

The day before Nationals. My plan for the event was I’d travel to Manchester on Friday, play in the tournament Saturday and Sunday, tourist around Manchester on Monday then head back on the Tuesday.

Friday morning I got a train that left at about 10:00am, intending to spend the 5 hours of travel time watching saved battle videos and making notes. Instead I ended up talking to three older people who were also sitting at the table with me. At Birmingham two of them left to be replaced by a younger couple who just so happened to be going to the VGC as well, so we sat and discussed Pokémon for the rest of the journey. I arrived in Manchester about 3pm and was at the hotel by half past.

I had booked this hotel quite late as I didn’t know if I could make Nationals until about two weeks prior. The hotels on the tournament site were incredibly expensive by that point but this one was just a 10 minute bus ride away and really cheap in comparison – it cost me less than half in total for what it would’ve cost for just one night staying next to Event City. Admittedly there were no windows and the whole place was heavily scented with lemon (not that that’s a terrible thing I guess), but for the amount I paid at that short notice it was fantastic. I think that’s worth remembering for anyone who has to get accommodation for a tournament: check out a few options first rather than just going for the closest and most expensive.

You have no idea how difficult it is to take a decent picture of a small hotel room with minimal natural lighting using an iPod camera that hates dim lighting conditions.

Saturday May 24th: 1st Day of Nationals

I woke up early. Whilst the hotel did provide breakfast it was from 8:30 onwards so I made the decision to get breakfast when I got to the venue to avoid being late for registration. I also stocked up on sandwiches from the petrol station whilst passing by as I didn’t want to get hungry during the day and it’s ­probably a good thing I did; registration was done by half 10 but it wasn’t until 3pm that actual battles began. Whilst waiting I met and got talking to Abir and James who I ended up hanging around with for most of the day, notable because I’d end up facing Abir later in the tournament.

Battle Report

You can also view the Battle Videos for each individual game (besides the first one which I forgot to film).

Rd2 – Luigi Lo Giudice (LPRox)
Rd3 – Gareth Buckley – (FroZen85)
Rd4 – Eden Batchelor (Xenoblade Hero)
Rd5 – Abir Ahmmed – Hedge282
Rd6 – Josh Schmidt
Rd7 – Max Kraffert (Nerpheus)
Rd8 – Sam Bentham (SuperIntegration) – SuperIntegration’s report, as referenced in the video.

Sunday May 25th

One of the advantages of not making top cut is I could have a bit of a lie in, whilst those who’d made it had to be there for 9am. The first two rounds of Masters had happened by the time I got there (around half 10ish). Whilst waiting for the finals I decided to enter a pick up tournament that was being held for anyone not competing in the main event where I lost first round to someone called Richard, who by coincidence I’d spoken to the day before at the 3DS charging station. Naturally we’d both swapped our teams tactics with each other whilst there, reasoning that it’d be safe to do so as there’s no way we’d end up playing against each other at this stage of the tournament.

LN5G-WWWW-WWW8-ZSPP

At the time I felt like I’d played really badly the entire game but watching the replay back I think I didn’t do all that badly until turn 9. Sableye had just switched in against my Mawile and Talonflame. I should have Quick Guarded with Talonflame but instead switched her out(?) and allowed Mawile to get burned. No idea what my logic was, but that seems to be the beginning of the end for me there.

After watching the semis and finals I hung around a bit and spoke to various people, then decided to check out the surrounding shops at the Trafford Center next to the tournament venue  — there were adverts all over Manchester for some kind of Lego Centre there and I thought that could be interesting. Gareth (FroZen85) decided to come along with me, but it was really expensive to get in and absolutely packed full of people so we gave up on that. Gareth decided to go at that point, saying that the shopping centre gave him the creeps. I’d never visited before and thought I’d stay and have a look round, and having done so I completely agree. The whole place was skin crawlingly creepy and fake. Everything from the fake ‘Greek’ statues with painted togas, the vaguely Greek style architecture mixed with modern glass, piped classical music… it felt weird in a kind of movie dystopia way. I wouldn’t recommend visiting just on the off chance anyone was considering it.

As was the plan from the start I spent Monday doing the tourist thing around Manchester before heading back the next day. It’s something I’d recommend for people who end up going somewhere they haven’t been before for a tournament: make the most of being there. Loads of people seemed to turn up to Manchester for the tournament then were gone, but after travelling to get there I’d say make some time to see the place. Think of it as a holiday or something.

The videos sum up my thoughts on how the tournament itself went so I wont dwell on that, but the overall event was great. If you haven’t been to a Pokémon tournament before and you’re capable of doing so, go for it. It’s fantastic being able to just completely nerd out about Pokémon and have everyone around you be on the same page, but more broadly than that it’s just such a great atmosphere. As stated in the Battle Report, I didn’t meet anyone who wasn’t really friendly and approachable and it was such a good time. Prepare for it by all means, but go there to have fun as opposed to winning it all and you wont be disappointed!

I’ll end with a list of things I’ve learnt and observed from both the tournament and whilst making the animations;

• Scripting and voice recording takes much longer than you’d think for a project like this
• Animating anyone who flies with a flapping animation is horrible.
• Mawile is probably the most awkward Mega Pokémon to animate decently. Just as well I didn’t have one on my team then… Gyarados gets honourable mentions.
• Speaking of which, I faced more Gyarados than Kangaskhan at Nationals. That might not be too odd in the current metagame but at the time Kangaskhan was basically Queen of the VGC.

My good luck charms from the event. They only let me down once (I forgot them for the Rd2 match)

Thanks everyone for watching/reading. This is the first time I’ve done something like this so constructive feedback would definitely be appreciated. I’d love to do another animation next year if I can, but it’s unlikely to be two big animations like these. Suggestions on how I could improve on these or what to try in the future would be great. For anyone who’s interested, I have written up a blog post reviewing my thoughts on both the creative process and the final animations, or equally have a look at the last few months of updates to see how things progressed.

On a side note, I’d like to do some kind of small dedication to the Official Nintendo Magazine forums which are closing in November, along with the magazine. That’s where I and a few others I know here started playing Pokémon competitively, and whilst the whole of ONM has seemingly been on life support for years I want to acknowledge where I started and how great it was around the D/P/Pt era.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Nintendo for their part in all this. Smash Bros on 3DS made rendering video something to look forward to rather than dread.

Thanks y’all 

About the Author

Cinaclov

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