Reports

Published on May 7th, 2013 | by Braverius

26

A Different Face, but the Same Old Story: March International Challenge and Spring Regional Report

Before regionals, I was sitting at around 254 Championship Points. Everyone and their mother was telling me, “Congrats, you qualified for worlds! You probably don’t even have to try at Madison now.”

Oh how wrong that was.

I knew I had to at least top cut to “ensure” my invite. I told people that the floor would be between 300-320 earlier in the year to get into worlds. Most people replied with something along the lines of “I think you’re trying too hard” while others were basically laughing at the prospect that it could take 300 points to get into worlds with such a small amount of events.

Welp.

I ended up really getting into teambuilding mode about 5 weeks before regionals. I had a lot of free time before this regional, so I found it easier to get a team together and keep my focus while doing so. I ended up putting together a Perish Trap team inspired by the one that GreySong was running with a 92-4 record on GBU, so I was brimming with confidence that it would work. A little over a month before regionals, I was set.

Yeah, no. That never happens.

Sure enough, it fell apart on me about two weeks before regionals after a pretty disappointing run of 31-19 in 50 matches on GBU against similar competition to the 92-4 run. I was sort of frantic, and although I knew I could at least have a chance with Perish Trap, I felt too uncomfortable with the prospect of certain combos pretty much instantly beating me. I also felt moderately comfortable with Collin (TheBattleRoom)’s team, but I didn’t have enough overall practice with some of the Pokémon on it to a point where I felt comfortable trying it at this point — even though I did end up building 4.5/6 of the mons on it (he changed Latias to Latios at the last minute before regionals). So I went back to the drawing board and tried to crank out a team with familiar concepts and good synergy; something I could feel was consistent enough for me to use against any team I saw, and something I was comfortable enough with to not have to do damage calculations in the middle of my battles which would completely disrupt my train of thought.

I ended up making a team that was basically an edited version of the team I used in the March International Challenge.

1st Place (North America) March International Challenge Team

Togekiss @ Sitrus Berry “Airbus”
Ability: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 84 DEF / 4 SATK / 158 SDEF / 12 SPE
Calm Nature
– Follow Me
– Air Slash
– Flamethrower
– Thunder Wave

Breloom @ Life Orb
Ability: Technician
EVs: 4 HP / 252 ATK / 252 SPE
Jolly Nature
– Mach Punch
– Bullet Seed
– Spore
– Protect

Thundurus @ Electric Gem “ORLF”
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 164 HP / 8 DEF / 48 SATK / 252 SDEF / 36 SPE
IVs: 31 / 2 / 30 / 31 / 31 / 31
Calm Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Thunder Wave
– Taunt
– Hidden Power Ice

Kingdra @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 248 SATK / 248 DEF / 4 SDEF / 252 SPE
Modest Nature
– Muddy Water
– Draco Meteor
– Hidden Power Grass
– Hydro Pump

Tyranitar @ Focus Sash
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 108 ATK / 20 DEF / 116 SDEF / 12 SPE
Adamant Nature
– Rock Slide
– Crunch
– Superpower
– Protect

Excadrill @ Ground Gem
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 36 HP / 252 ATK / 4 DEF / 4 SDEF / 212 SPE
Adamant Nature
– Rock Slide
– Earthquake
– Substitute
– Protect

This team was… well… solid conceptually, except you’ll notice that the Tyranitar and Kingdra had some… problems. Yeah, let’s just say I threw this team together after the tournament already started and did it as fast as I could just so I could get going quickly. Turns out Kingdra had 248 Defense EVs instead of Special Attack… whoops. TheOnceler apparently put EVs in the wrong stat, so WELP DEFENSIVE KINGDRA HAPPENED. I actually just found this out when I was writing the article, but now I know why I missed so many KOs. Also, I grabbed the wrong Tyranitar and threw a sash on it thinking it was Jolly 252/252. At least it wasn’t as bad as DEFENSIVE KINGDRA.

So this team did well, but I felt Tyranitar / Excadrill / Kingdra were not optimal and Thundurus was just there to deal with stupid Taunt-able and Thunder Wave-able things. I remade the team a bit, putting some familiar faces on while adding a couple of twists. It was all stuff I wanted to try out at an event, and it all fit well on a team: Latios, Chandelure, Breloom, Togekiss, Mamoswine, and Bisharp.

I noticed some glaring weaknesses to Trick Room, but it was something I could at least harass with Breloom / Togekiss and Substitute Chandelure. The Latios didn’t do anything really regardless of what I ran on it (surprise, surprise), but everything else worked pretty well together.

However, with the issues with Trick Room and with a general lack of bulk, I felt uneasy about the team. It felt too openly bad to getting an unlucky game. It relied on not getting critical hit, which is a hard thing to do for 6 straight Swiss matches and 3 best-of-three series afterward. Considering how many times I was critical hit compared to my opponent (over 2.2x as much) in the International Challenge in March, I was concerned about this and wanted to at least have one more team ready to go. I went back to basics, and thought about things I knew I could use consistently well and knew would stand a chance in every matchup. Then I thought about last year, and how I won the regional while being hands-down the most confident about my team’s core than I’ve ever been at an event. So I took the team from last year, and decided to fix it:

2012 Madison Regional 1st Place Team

Mamoswine @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Cloak
EVs: None
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Ice Shard
– Icicle Spear
– Protect

Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 ATK / 252 SPE
Jolly Nature
– Rock Slide
– Crunch
– Low Kick
– Fire Punch

Hitmontop @ Fighting Gem
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 44 HP / 252 ATK / 212 SPE
Adamant Nature
– Close Combat
– Fake Out
– Sucker Punch
– Wide Guard

Volcarona @ Charti Berry
Ability: Flame Body
EVs: 44 DEF / 212 SATK / 252 SPE
Modest Nature
– Quiver Dance
– Heat Wave
– Bug Buzz
– Protect

Zapdos @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Pressure
EVs: 220 HP / 252 SATK / 36 SPE
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power Flying
– Heat Wave
– Protect

Amoonguss (Lv49) @ Chesto Berry
Ability: Effect Spore
EVs: 252 HP / 4 DEF / 252 SDEF
Sassy Nature
– Giga Drain
– Spore
– Rage Powder
– Rest

Yeah, the whole un-EVd Mamoswine is probably well-known by now, but that’s what I ended up winning with. There were obvious flaws in the EVs as I was still not that good with spreads and stuff back then. However, the concept worked well and ended up being the key to winning that. So if I could win with a not fully optimal team, what about winning with a pretty much fully optimal version of the team, or at least being able to perform consistently enough to top cut and give myself a good chance once in top cut? All I needed to do was get those 70 CPs and it was pretty much set for worlds, so I decided it was best to put effort into calcing, testing, and tweaking the team rather than continue with the other Togekiss / Breloom team (which I did flirt with using a bit until the Wednesday before).

2013 Madison Regional 3rd Place Team

Zapdos @ Choice Specs
Trait: Pressure
EVs: 248 HP / 88 SAtk / 8 SDef / 164 Spd
Modest Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Hidden Power [Flying]
– Heat Wave
– Volt Switch

When I saw the spread on Zapdos from last year, I died a little inside. I only outsped Jolly Tyranitar, and the HP was just there because HP is a thing that makes you bulky, right? Well, that couldn’t be the logic any more, so I ended up calcing this out a bit more and finding that Sitrus just wasn’t going to do the trick. I needed heavy damage on Metagross, which minus Volcarona my team has issues handling. I put Specs on it after seeing it do well for jio a while back, and put enough speed on it to outspeed Excadrill outside of sand, because people see my Tyranitar and expect me to provide the sand because WEATHER IS EVERYTHING OBVIOUSLY.

Anywho, I wanted this Zapdos’ priority to still be offense, but I wanted its spread to actually survive hits I needed it to survive. The first thing I put in was the Speed, as I didn’t want to have to deal with Rotom-W and Cresselias outspeeding me in any circumstance. Also, outspeeding Excadrill outside of sand only requires two more points than Rotom-W’s speed tick, so I decided to go with 141 to do so. With what I had left over, I wanted to find a number that ensured a KO on Metagross with a Volt Switch + Thunderbolt (saw this to be a necessity when testing with only 4 Special Attack EVs). I also wanted to be able to OHKO standard crappy 252 HP / 4 SpDef Rotom-W with a Helping Hand Thunderbolt, and this gave me just enough Special Attack to do so. Finally, I wanted to be able to knock out the bane of my team’s existence, Suicune, in one shot (ask Stephen how necessary this was!), and this spread OHKOd 81% of the time, and 100% of the time with one turn of sand damage. All in all, this Zapdos did so much more work than it did last year, and was probably the MVP this time around. I used it in all 6 Swiss rounds and in all but one match in top cut, and it was consistently solid every time.

Amoonguss @ Chesto Berry   “Wumbo Jet”
Trait: Regenerator
EVs: 212 HP / 108 Def / 188 SDef
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spd
– Rage Powder
– Spore
– Giga Drain
– Protect

This shroom has been on every single regionals team I’ve ever had, and it just got better along the way with Regenerator’s release after fall regionals. It was basically my anti-gimmick device. If anyone wanted to go hard with a gimmick (besides bog sun, which was only a concern in Boston), they’d get sentenced to 1-5 turns of sleep. Things like standard single-track minded “weather teams”, Shuckle/Chansey (this doesn’t even deserve credit but still), Trick Room, and anything that the opponent used that was basically relying on matchup were not having fun against Amoonguss. Sometimes you’ll see a team that would be good in Singles, but is used in Doubles with a mindset that what wins in Singles also wins in Doubles. This isn’t true at all, but people build teams with “weather” and “Trick Room” being their goal rather than covering their bases and worrying about how they play rather than who they play. This is something Amoonguss punishes hard, and is part of the reason why I haven’t lost any really “bad matchups” at a regional in a while.

It obviously also does well against higher-level play. Rage Powder is a huge help for this team, as it can lure away Close Combats from Tyranitar and priority from Mamoswine as opponents try to hit it hard or pick off sash. Spore helps punish anyone who sets up Trick Room in order to control Volcarona or Tyranitar’s speed, and Giga Drain makes sure that Struggle isn’t its main damage after a taunt while letting it have a restorative move. I ran Protect over Rest because I felt that it was getting targeted too hard on this team to not run Protect and battles were ending too quickly for Rest to become a thing I needed anyway. I kept Chesto on for sleep wars, and it did end up helping in Top 8 against IceKingz.

Hitmontop (M) @ Fighting Gem   “Extra Leg”
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 156 HP / 156 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 188 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Close Combat
– Fake Out
– Wide Guard
– Helping Hand

I ended up getting sick of dying to Cresselia Psyshocks after Biosci constantly pointed that pretty fatal flaw out, so I just made this one survive a Psyshock while still going fast and still doing solid damage. It took hits decently enough for me, and still did its thing against other Hitmontops, none of which went faster than me. I want to provide damage calcs here, but I explained the general lack of need for those on Hitmontop’s spread in the Fort Wayne article. Other than the Psyshock thing, Hitmontop is a pretty simple concept on this team, and I figured I’d just keep it down to earth and not make any drastic changes. The only even slightly big switch was Helping Hand over Sucker Punch, and that’s simply because Zapdos was doing enough damage to Jellicent / Chandelure now, so I wasn’t as afraid of either. It did its job to help its teammates both offensively and defensively, and did it well enough on its own offensively, and that’s exactly what I needed from it.

Volcarona @ Bug Gem   “Muffins”
Trait: Flame Body
EVs: 68 HP / 20 Def / 212 SAtk / 4 SDef / 204 Spd
Modest Nature
– Bug Buzz
– Heat Wave
– Protect
– Quiver Dance

I decided to switch up the item on Volcarona because I felt Charti Berry was just not needed with Nightblade7000‘s spread (which I did tweak a bit but the concept of this is his). Bug Gem allowed for a OHKO on Cresselia with a Helping Hand from Hitmontop. I think I stressed out too much on beating Cresselia and Metagross, since it was always an issue for me with this team, but Volcarona does well outside of that too, obviously, and ended up being a solid choice once again. I felt I was less reliant on Quiver Dance this time around (only used it once all day), and less reliant on Lum Berry in return, but it was still a consistent source of damage and a decent defensive pivot with Tyranitar (Bug, Fighting, Steel).

Mamoswine @ Focus Sash   “DAT SWINE”
Trait: Thick Fat
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
– Earthquake
– Icicle Spear
– Protect
– Ice Shard

After being asked questions like, “Does your team even lift, bro?” countless times, Mamoswine started lifting this offseason and got some EVs to show for it. I actually did my EVs this time, and it ended up giving me 3rd place instead of 1st…so as you can all see, if there’s anything to be learned from this, EVing your mons is not good and if you want to win, you shouldn’t do it.

All jokes aside, this was just the typical Swine business. Come in, mess up the metagame, and put the team in a good position to take the match (if not take it himself). I felt it was a solid enough switch against Thunder Waves and HP Ices or Ice Beams from Thundurus or Cresselia, respectively. It seemed like a longshot to use Swine again successfully, but the more and more I talked with Crow about the metagame, the more and more it appeared that it was still a viable option. I again went with Sash over Life Orb, although I did test Life Orb and Icicle Crash after a good conversation with Ray. It ended up being too slow to both improvise on Life Orb damage and take any massive hits from things it was trying to knock out, and Icicle Crash ran into too many Substitute Thundurus, Yache Landorus-T, and had equal KO hits with EQ on Shuca (and non-Shuca) Metagross, aforementioned Landorus-T, and Garchomp. Also, Spear didn’t add to the agony of trying to hit Garchomp.

Tyranitar (M) @ Choice Scarf   “Less Haste”
Trait: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 244 Atk / 4 Def / 4 SDef / 252 Spd
Jolly Nature
– Crunch
– Rock Slide
– Low Kick
– Ice Punch

ScarfTar doing ScarfTar things. The only differences were the 8 EVs out of Attack and into Defenses because 185, not 186, was the actual KO stat on a few mons, and why not just give it a tiny bit more bulk if the attack isn’t doing anything? Also, Ice Punch over Fire Punch was just to deal with Garchomp better and have a more accurate move to finish off Ice-weak things, such as Zapdos, Salamence, and Dragonite, with something other than Rock Slide. Plus, I gave approximately 0 cares about Scizor, which was what I used it for in the past since I only fear Acrobatics on it — which for some odd reason no one uses anymore.

The surprise factor wasn’t there as much, but I did use it to mindgame people because I was using a “different Tyranitar”. This was true, but it wasn’t really that different, just RNG’d my own this time rather than using the timeless JhenMohran.

Overall, I really did like the team. It went back to basics, covered me well against things I felt would be a threat in general, and most of all was something I was incredibly comfortable using. I did this at Fort Wayne as well, not so much at Florida, but regardless, it’s a great regionals team. It’s consistently good, can play both aggressively and conservatively, and allows me flexibility in a best of 3. It was the right choice because I needed a good amount of CP rather than going in too far over my head trying to take the win and nothing else. I needed to keep the worlds invite in perspective here too.

2013 Madison Regional Round-by-Round Recap

I’ll give a quick rundown of what I remember from regionals. I didn’t take any notes all dayy, so I’m going completely off of memory and Stephen’s matchup pictures (We all appreciate the picture more than you can imagine! Thanks again Stephen!).

Round 1: Bye

He was a strong opponent, coming in undefeated, but I sat down on that chair and I was not budging. I checked and double checked the registration and round sheets the staff posted, went back and sat down, and didn’t leave the area when warned not to. Bye couldn’t handle that strategy and ended up going down hard in a hasty victory for me, making me 4-0 against him all time. GG WP.

1-0

Round 2: Christopher Hough

I came into round 2 cold again which I wasn’t too crazy about and pulled someone that, at the very least, knew the game well. He told me he made his team on the fly and didn’t get much practice with it, but in team preview I knew that if that was the case, he at least had a good feel for building it. I remember a Jellicent / Gastrodon lead, and I expected Trick Room from what I saw in team preview. I vaguely remember the exact turns of the battle, but I do know I got 3 Rock Slide flinches with two of them being pretty important, especially because his Marowak head Earthquake over Bonemerang. This would have probably knocked me close to death last turn if not completely knocking me out. The Jellicent / Gastrodon was a Surfing duo that actually gave me some trouble because I locked into HP Flying on Zapdos, expecting the Marowak switch in that never came when I wanted it to. I ended up winning 2-0 with my Tyranitar at full health and Amoonguss (iirc) at about 1/3 health. Quite a bit more of a challenge than I expected round 2, but thankfully I could pull out the win.

2-0

Round 3: Hannah Azok

I just got back from lunch break and the pairings were posted, so I ran to the table, not even checking who I was playing, and ended up figuring “oh a random, probably fluked to 2-0.” Hah, I was wrong. I feared Tornadus more than anything going into this tournament, as I was 3x weak to flying with Zapdos and Tyranitar being my only resists. Terrakion has never been friendly to this team either, as Hitmontop is the only safe check to it and Garchomp tends to avoid moves quite often… so I was pretty nervous, but I figured I could work my way around it. Turn 1 I switched Hitmontop into Tyranitar to take an Acrobatics and… a critical hit happens, knocking Tyranitar down to abour 20% health (the Tornadus was Prankster because I didn’t see a boost after Intimidate). This really hurt, as I knew that Rock Slide from Terrakion could probably knock it out now. After some pretty unpredictable turns for both of us, it ended up being Garchomp + Escavalier with a Tornadus in the back vs my Zapdos and Mamoswine. I Ice Sharded the Garchomp and landed it, knocking it out (it was about half health), and Thunderbolted the Escavalier which switched into Tornadus. After Escavalier got sent back out, I just Thunderbolted and Earthquaked to victory from there. That was a fun match, considering we both had to think through everything as we both admittedly didn’t like our team matchups.

3-0

Round 4: Andrew Burley (Andykins)

First opponent that I both knew of and knew had a team ready. I didn’t recognize the name at first, but it turns out it was Andykinz, who I’d played on Pokémon Showdown before. While I had played him, I didn’t have any idea what he was running before the match, so I was on guard a bit more heavily. The battle ended up going back and forth, and I had a very small advantage when I avoided a Zen Headbutt that likely would have removed that advantage. I ended up playing pretty conservatively down the stretch trying to hold onto what I could, and he made two good moves to pull the battle close again. He had one last dying chance to knock me out, and missed another Zen Headbutt. It was pretty hard to tell how the game would have gone had the first one landed because it was earlier in the match, but I likely would have had it even if the second one landed. I just feel bad winning like that though, so I was pretty upset at the RNG in general for ruining that one early on. He played me well, and I knew I had a pretty good chance of seeing him in top cut (assuming we both made it) based on the team and how he was playing.

4-0

Round 5: Kristen Beno

Bog rain finally happened. I was waiting for it for quite some time, because I heard that everyone and their mother was running it. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Kristen at tournaments before, but never ended up playing her and didn’t know of anyone that had, so I was unsure what to think going into the battle. It was pretty standard rainy stuff in team preview and I figured at the very least I’d get a scare, if not a full-fledged long battle. I led Mamoswine / Zapdos against Politoed / Thundurus-T. Zapdos took out the Politoed, Mamoswine took out the Thundurus-T (after it put a good dent in Zapdos though), and I sort of cruised from there on out. Pretty unfortunate lead situation, but I figured she’d lead the Thundurus-T as most teams did against me in practice. In a best of three, I’d have been pretty scared games two and three, but thankfully my familiarity came in handy here and helped me get a more comfortable win against someone who appeared to know what they were doing. Phew, now I at least had a chance of top cutting, just had to win one more to ensure it.

5-0

Round 6: Kamaal Harris (FonicFrog)

And then, you know, I pull Kamaal in Swiss for the second time this year. I felt I had a somewhat manageable matchup, but was not a big fan of Excadrill. He led Excadrill / Tyranitar and I remember I was pretty much out of position there (I think I led Zapdos / Hitmontop). Turn 3 I brought it back to even calling the Gastrodon switch in and double attacking and knocking it out, but the combination of Excadrill, Tyranitar, and Cresselia along with excellent plays by Kamaal (and a superb Low Kick on Cresselia by me) were too much after being down early, and he managed to pull off a decently comfortable victory. As much as I did try to win that match, I was hoping I wouldn’t simply to avoid a conundrum where I could have potentially knocked him out of top cut if things unfolded wrong, which I didn’t want to do at all. Thankfully this was not the case, and I was glad to see him top cut a second time in a row. The year of the (Fonic)Frog has been long overdue.

5-1

Round 7: Samuel Reinke

Cory and I were doing the math before the round and figured that unless someone had a ridiculous resistance, we both were going to make top cut. However, I wanted to make 100% sure, so I went into this round like any other this day. After talking for a bit while waiting for the round to start, I saw on Sam’s trainer card that he was from North Dakota. I hadn’t heard of the guy before, but major props for coming that far and doing so well at a regional. I was even more impressed when I saw the mystical ARMALDO on his team, which was mostly bog rain, but the Armaldo-style loveable type of bog rain. I got a decent lead and was up 4-2 until Armaldo happened. I ended up losing Amoonguss and Zapdos leaving Tyranitar and Mamoswine left over. I thankfully managed to take out the thing in 2 Rock Slides while surviving a Bug Bite, but that was pretty darn close for how it was before the Armaldo went into hero mode. I was impressed and sort of concerned about seeing another Armaldo, or having to play him in top cut at all, because I had absolutely nothing that beat it once he had rain up.

6-1

Either way, I took the victory by a hair and had a top cut spot sealed. I went to check the attendance sheet, and it turns out I was playing…

Top 8: Chris Wiley (IceKingz)

Before I go into detail, I want to just say that this was possibly the best top cut series I’ve ever had and could be even better than versus Stephen in Fort Wayne finals. Kudos to Chris for one intense but fun series, and for making top cut for the first time and playing like you’ve been there before. Well done.

I don’t remember too much about the first battle, but I do know I got beat pretty bad by Musharna and Jellicent. I did a lot of item scouting and tried to see what I needed to do in order to take out the bigger threats either before OR after Trick Room was up. I ended up finding out his Amoonguss had Focus Sash, but I couldn’t do anything about the Abomasnow either way because I was in a bad spot when it Ice Gem Blizzarded all over me. I clawed back into the battle at the end, but he managed to shut me down with a couple of good maneuvers because Trick Room was up late in the match. He took the win, and onto battle two we went.

Heading into this match, I figured it was sort of a hilarious destiny for me to lose here, considering I really persuaded him to end up going to this regional. I was stunned by how hard I got beat the first match, and while I knew I had a chance in this one, it’d be mostly an uphill battle. I ended up Amoongussing through the match pretty well, and managed to squeak out a close victory after not bringing Volcarona and instead bringing Tyranitar, which helped me deal with Jellicent a lot better. The game lasted quite a long time nonetheless, but I sealed it by a small margin. Game three was going to be one interesting match…

I wasn’t at all sure what to expect here. I knew he’d have to change up the Musharna / Scrafty lead from games 1 and 2, but I didn’t know what he’d go with considering he had a few different options. I assumed that he might go for either Scrafty and Jellicent or Amoonguss and Jellicent, so I led Zapdos and Hitmontop, hoping to Fake Out the Amoonguss before it Rage Powdered and put a dent in the setup. He led Amoonguss and Jellicent, and I took charge early, but he clawed his way back in after I failed to realize that his Politoed was Choice Specs right away. I thankfully was able to hit Rock Slides down the stretch, but that was one of the better comebacks I’ve seen regardless. Before the last turn, we shook hands, because it just came down to the Rock Slides hitting, and I acknowledged that even if I missed that, I wouldn’t be the least bit upset. I thoroughly enjoyed that series. I was extremely drained afterward, though, as it lasted a little over an hour, so going straight to my next match was something I was not looking forward to… and against Stephen no less, who I’d need all of whatever was left of my focus for.

Top 4: Stephen Morioka (Stephen)

So, another rematch from the Fort Wayne fall regional. I was drained heading into this match, but did my best to try and bring it together for the round. I knew that Stephen was ready as usual, and his team showed it. I honestly don’t remember the sixth mon because he brought the same four to both matches. I ended up getting demolished by Tyranitar and Excadrill early in game 1, and got outplayed to oblivion late in the match. He sealed the victory pretty quickly, and took the first game more handily than I expected. I felt I played decently at the start, but lost focus for one turn and he took complete advantage of that, beating me 4-0 in the first match.

The second time around I had a plan similar to the one I had in top 8 of Fort Wayne against a similar unfavorable matchup — more Hitmontop + Volcarona mind games. I made two good plays turns one and two and needed to not get flinched, and didn’t, so the battle looked good right away. However, he made two excellent plays afterward, bringing it back to even. It stayed really close down the stretch, Volcarona ended up taking out most of his team, but Suicune ended up being the real difference maker. It did burn two of my Pokemon with Scald, but only one burn really mattered, and he would have had a similar chance of winning regardless. I tip my hat to him for playing those matches so well. I can’t say I’m the least bit surprised about him defeating me, but doing it in such convincing fashion game 1 and pulling off a hasty comeback game two was something I didn’t see coming. I’ve always enjoyed playing against Stephen, and again, this is a situation where I’m pretty content going down, because he needed the championship points and outright earned the win.

Finish: 8-2, 3rd Place

I signed a waiver form, got my trophy, playmat, and binder (Chris got the hat earlier!), and headed out to Chipotle with tad38, macle, and Wiretap. We checked in on the other regionals, and then Tad walked back to his dorm while we drove back to my house, which was actually agonizingly longer than heading to the regional because everyone was sleeping and I was nearly doing so as well but had to somehow drive. We got back, Macle headed home, and I got into bed quickly but couldn’t fall asleep since everyone wanted to talk about regionals and stuff, and then I just couldn’t fall asleep anyways. Oh well, everyone got home just fine, and it ended up being a great weekend. Sleep is an afterthought on the Sunday after an event anyways!

This was probably my favorite regional thus far and I’m looking forward to doing this again next year. Before that comes though, Nationals will soon be upon us, so I’m hoping to have another team ready to go. Probably a lot more of a relaxed feeling going into Nationals now, but I’ll end up playing hard anyways knowing how that always ends up happening.

Hope to see everyone again in a couple months!

About the Author

Braverius started playing competitive Pokemon in April 2011. Since then he has been fortunate enough to compete in numerous official live events, qualifying for Worlds in 2013 and winning four Regionals along the way.

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