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Published on July 15th, 2012 | by Cybertron

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Jonathan Hiller (MrFox) – VGC ’12 Senior US National Runner-Up

Accomplishments

2011: 1st Place Newark Regionals, 30th Place US Nationals (Seniors)
2012: 2nd Place US Nationals (Seniors)

Total Winnings

2011 Regionals: Medal, 3DS, invitation and trip to Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana
2012 Nationals: Trophy, invitaton and trip to Worlds in Waikalola, Hawaii

Biography and History

Jonathan Hiller (MrFox), also known as Superpokemon67, has been playing competitvely since 2010 but proved his strength at the US National Championships just last weekend in Indianapolis. He started in 2010, where he attended the Newark Regionals just for fun. After being knocked out in the second round, he was inspired to do better the following year. With the introduction of the Seniors division in 2011, Jonathan once again attended the Newark Regionals. He won eight consecutive matches to capture the title of 2011 Regional Champion! You can watch his finals match here. With an invitation to Nationals and travel accommodations secured, Jonathan then attended the 2011 US National Championships. He finished 30th there, with a record of 4-3.

Jonathan returned this year to redemn himself, and he did just that. Although he didn’t have a particularly strong showing at either Regional he attended (Virgina and Philadelphia), he did incredibly well at the 2012 US National Championships. He finished with a record of 6-2 after Saturday, and was seeded 21st going into the final elimination round. Jonathan then proceeded to defeat several strong trainers, including 2012 Georgia Regional Champion DeVon Ingram, 2011 US Nationals Quarter-Finalist Brandon Tang, and 2012 Georgia Semi-Finalist Toler Webb. I battled Jonathan in the finals, which interestingly enough lasted longer than both the Junior and Master finals. It was a good game; both teams played hard.

Jonathan will be one of six Seniors representing the United States in the 2012 World Championships next month in Hawaii. Let’s all wish him good luck!

Interview

Hi Jonathan! It’s hard to believe that just a week ago, we were sitting across from each other, battling for the title of 2012 US National Champion! Congrats on your success at Nationals. Why don’t we start off by having you introduce yourself?

Hi, I’m SP67/Mr. Fox (I’m trying not to use SP67 anymore though). My real name is Jonathan Hiller (NOT Hitler) I’m 13, but I’ll be 14 right before worlds. I have a sweet moustache, three siblings, two cats, and I like Pokémon!

A sweet moustache indeed… thanks! How did you get introduced to Pokémon and competitve play? What made you stay?

My first Pokémon games were actually Pokémon Colosseum and XD Gale of Darkness. I only had a Gamecube at the time, but I was hooked on those and spent many hours replaying them. When I was 8, I randomly decided I wanted a Game Boy Advance and Pokémon Leaf Green for my birthday, and that’s what I got. After I beat Leaf Green, I kind of took a break from Pokémon. I then got a Wii, and eventually got a DS and Pokémon Diamond. Soon enough, I was hooked again! Those games are just so addictive, even when you don’t know the difference between an EV and an Eevee.

Not many people know about it, but my first VGC event was the 2010 Newark Regional. I saw it on the Pokémon website, started talking about it with my friends, and decided I should make a team. The team I used was complete crap and involved Guard Swapping a Shuckle with a Mewtwo because I thought it switched the actual stat. The team ended up as: Mewtwo, Shuckle, Feraligatr, and Ho-oh, all of them un-EVed, not a single one had Protect etc. Needless to say, I was out in the first two rounds. I did do that King of the Hill tournament side thing they had set up though and I stayed at the stand for 4 battles, and that pretty much solidified my idea that I would come back next year and win. And I did :D.

Yeah, that’s right! You won the 2011 Newark Regional Championships. Tell us more about that. What was it like?

That was an incredible experience, especially because my goal was just to make top cut, and I didn’t even think I would achieve that. A little after the world championships in 2010, I saw an interview with Ray Rizzo in Nintendo Power in which he said one of the best things you can do to train is find an online Pokémon community. I had already been lurking on Serebii since Regionals so I found out what EVs were! I learned that my team was complete crap, and figured I should join a forum of some sort. I have no idea how, but I found Skarmbliss before Smogon and joined there. I started working on a sun team with Groudon and Cherrim, much like the team 2010 Juniors World Champion Shota Yamamoto used. That was going pretty well, and then they announced the 2011 ruleset. I was kind of upset because I liked the team I was using and now I would have to get used to a new region. I downloaded PO for the first time, tried out a semi-successful sand team, and not much happened until I fought someone using Bisharp and saw it OHKO my Tornadus. After that, I decided that I wanted to use Bisharp in Tailwind, so I combined it with my favorite Trick Room counter (Focus Sash Imprison Chandelure) and the team was great!

When the Washington D.C. Regionals came around, I was using Tornadus, Terrakion, Imprison Chandelure, Choice Scarf Jellicent, Beat Up Whimsicott, and Bisharp. I was pumped for D.C, but I was also really nervous and I had to wake up at 4 in the morning. Anyway, the tourney didn’t go too well. I lost round 3 because I ran out of time in team preview, and it took my first four Pokemon. After that, I posted an RMT on Smogon on an account I had my dad make (I was 12 at the time, too young for an account) and Lucien Lachance said that I should use Overheat instead of Heat Wave on my Chandelure. The thought had never crossed my mind before, but the change helped me win Newark Regionals. I made that change just 3 days before the tournament!

Newark regionals… That Saturday was probably the highlight of my VGC experience so far. I was able to make it past the first 3 rounds all because of Overheat on Chandelure (thank you Lucian!), so I was already past where I was before and two matches away from the finalist lounge. Although I didn’t know it at the time, my next opponent was Rukario. I won’t say to much about the battle because you can watch it here (BV: 68-64119-23934), but I won, and made my first finalists lounge. I got a card with a bye on it, which made my day as it confirmed I was going to Nationals! After that I was just in this kind of happy mood and just let all the other battles come. I ended up beating Blitznburst, Mosquito and Solace and winning the whole thing!

Yeah, I remember watching you win the entire tournament as a spectator! You had a really tough lineup of opponents too. Let’s shift to the 2011 National Championships now, how did that go?

Not too well actually. The social experience was absolutely amazing, but the actual battling wasn’t that great. Right before the tourney started me and Kenan (Lucian Lachance) were sitting across from each other, and he was talking about using TR. We talked about my RMT and hoped we wouldn’t have to fight each other. Round one, I had to fight Bruno, who completely psyched me out with a Switcheroo Whimsicott hitting my Imprison Chandy. I missed an Overheat somewhere in that match, but I can’t remember if it mattered or not. And of course, in round two, I had to fight Kenan! His team looked like a Trick Room team in team preview, so like an idiot, I fell for it and sent out Imprison Chandelure against Jellicent and Hydreigon. Jellicent was Choice Scarfed, so I was screwed right from the start. The match was on the screen too, which kind of sucked, because if there was one match I didn’t want people seeing, it was this one :/. After that, I won two matches, then fought Brandon Tang. I lost that one, but won my last two games. I only placed 30th, but I had a great time hanging out afterwards and said I’d come back and make it to worlds next year. And I did :D.

Great recap! So how about VGC 2012? Did you attend any Regionals? How did those go for you?

Yeah, I attended both the Virginia and Philly regionals. Virginia was by far the smallest regional I’d ever been to. I was using a kind of silly team with a Togekiss, Rotom-W, Electivire, Imprison Chandy, Abomasnow, and Eject Button Hitmontop (which is much better than fight gem BTW). I lost round two to a Braviary and Razor Fang Hydreigon because I completely screwed up team preview and missed a crucial paraflinch with Togekiss. NEVER GET COCKY IT MAKES YOU LOSE!!! Anyway, I placed 6th there, even though I won all of my other matches. I did meet Dimsun though, which was great and we started training together for Spring Regionals.

Philly was the complete opposite of Virginia in that it was as large as any of the regionals of past years. We were all packed into a very small space. This was also the first time my little brother and sister competed with teams I’d given them. I already knew that I could go to Nationals even if I didn’t get the trip, but money would help and I wanted those byes. I won my first two battles and then lost to pokemoniskool because of a crit on my Rotom and my missing Ice Shard on his Garchomp 3 STINKING TIMES!!! It didn’t even have Brightpowder! That match made me kind of mad, and it didn’t help when my next opponent beat me with a basic rain team because of a Special Defense drop on my Rotom. I won all of my other matches though, going 6-2 along with my sister (not bad for her first event, huh) with us placing 21st and 9th respectively. My little brother went 5-2 losing to Babbytron and accidentally hitting the run button in one match.

I remember that match against pokemoniskool actually, I was sitting just a few seats away from you! That must have been really frustrating. You didn’t do too well at Regionals, but obviously a 2nd place finish at Nationals last weekend is really incredible. Can you tell us about how you prepared for the tournament?

Well, after the Philly regionals I basically decided that I was done using Imprison Chandelure as no one fell for it anymore, and I wanted to use Abomasnow so I would not die to Garchomp hax. I also changed my greeting to “SAND VEIL is the reason for RAGE” and promised myself that I would use Togekiss for the rest of the year, however long that may be. After that, the rest of the team just kind of fell into place. The team I used was Bisharp, Togekiss, Abomasnow, Infernape, Latios, Mamoswine. I actually finally decided on the team only a week before Nationals while we were in Indianapolis visiting friends, so I wasn’t able to practice with Mamoswine much. Unfortunately, putting on Mamoswine made me very Scizor/Cresselia weak, and I only realized that halfway through swiss, and you can clearly see that weakness in my finals match agsint you! Always re-evaluate your team for weaknesses like that when you change it so close to a tournament. I probably wouldn’t have been able to do much about it, but still. Anyway, thank God I didn’t fight that combo sooner.

Yeah, definitely. Scizor/Cresselia helped me a ton in my matches against you. Let’s transition to the actual tournament. Since you did not have any byes, you had to play all 8 rounds of swiss as well as all of top cut. Playing that many games of Pokémon and winning them is tough; how did you pull through?

Yeah, that was tough. I think the only reason I was able to pull through was I was praying before every match (before every move in the later matches) and I could really see the results of that. Thankfully, I didn’t have to fight anyone too tough in swiss until round three, where I fought a strong TR team but pulled out a win. Round 4 was against another basic Rain team which came down to him hitting a double Protect at the end and winning, although I misplayed right before then. I won all of my matches after that, even beating Brandon Tang, the person who knocked me out last year, until round 7. In round 7, I just played like crap and lost to a level 1 Aron because I forgot I could’ve Icicle Speared it to hit through Sturdy. Round 8 was a good close match against Fuel, but I won and made top cut as the 21st seed.

The next day I woke up knowing I had to fight Dingram (The Georgia regional winner, and a fellow Goon) which caused me to be a bit nervous. We had two close matches. I won the first no hax, but the 2nd had a lot of parahax (Togekiss is strong). Kingofkongs was sitting right next to me and lost, so now I have to fight the person who beat him. My team had a very good matchup against him, so I won 2-1 and moved on. The next match was for the trip and invite to Worlds, and I have to fight… Brandon Tang! I was nervous to fight him again, because we already knew each other’s teams. I won battle 1, battle 2, I lost because I missed Icicle Spear on his Garchomp in sand (SAND VEIL is the reason for RAGE) and game 3 was the closest match I may have ever had. It eventually came down to time while we were 3-3 and I won because I had more HP. I was going to Hawaii!!!

After that, I had to fight Dimsun, but I didn’t care anymore because we were both going to Hawaii! I had the better team matchup and won in two matches, but he’s an incredible player and you should totally interview him next. After that, I had to play you in the finals, which was my one screen match of the day. I kind of failed, but hey, it’s Pokémon, and I was weak to that team. Scizor/Cresselia screwed my team up.

Hey, a 2nd place finish is nothing to scoff at! Especially when the person you lost to was me! ;) But in all seriousness, how excited are you for Worlds? This will be your first World Championships!

I am so excited for worlds. I have never been to Hawaii or Worlds before, so it’s going to be a completely new experience for me. I’ve already changed most of my team, and I guess I’ll just GBU until the tourney comes. Maybe change some more stuff, I don’t know. I can’t expect anything but fun!!!

Absolutely, and that’s great you have a team already! Before we finish up, what’s your favorite Pokémon and game?

My favorite Pokémon is Togekiss. Jeremy Fan and Human are wrong: Togekiss is a winner’s Pokemon!!! My favorite game would have to be White. I know it’s cliché, but it’s the game that gets me free trips to fun places like big cities and tropical islands.

Haha, fair enough! Do you have any final words or shoutouts before we conclude this interview?

I have to thank everyone who has gotten Pokémon for me over the years. Biosci, Shii, Cassie, Charzaro, Nightblade, you guys are so amazing thank you for RNGing pokemon for the community. DIMSUN: you are a strong trainer, let’s dominate at Worlds!!! Cypher, Brandon, V17, Talking Lion, and the rest of the Goon Squad, you guys are great, thanks for making this experience so incredible. Ditto for #seniors, you guys are great. Thanks to Gamefreak for making Pokémon such a great competitive game. And thank God for blessing me with the ability to play Pokémon well, and for making all of this possible. And thanks for the interview Cybertron! I know it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I hope you enjoyed it!

Excellent! Thanks for everything Jonathan, and congrats again on your success. Good luck at Worlds; I’ll see you there! 


About the Author

is a five time Worlds qualifier ('08, '11, '12, '13, '14), a three-time Regional Champion, and a two-time National Champion. Aaron also placed 3rd at the 2013 Pokemon World Championships. He is sponsored by CLASH Tournaments and aims to promote competitive VGC through his YouTube channel, CybertronProductions. Aaron is currently a senior at Trinity School NYC.



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