Reports

Published on September 4th, 2014 | by Tan

14

Hey Come Check This Team Out at #CelesticStars: A Top 8 LCQ Report

Hey guys, my name is Ryan Tan, and although I am probably most known for managing the Celestic Stars, I play some Pokémon on the side! Anyways, the report I have for you today is about my LCQ team from the 2014 World Championships. I bubbled at Top 8 to my pal Bopper (read about his report here), but after many people showed interest in my team, I decided to write about my only official team of the 2014 season.

I’ll be honest, my team is probably not the best team to copy and paste into Showdown or use in a fall regional. It’s complicated to use and has a bunch of obvious flaws. However, I felt that it was perfect for how I play. Many players in VGC often look at other successful players and copy their play styles (*cough* Pachirisu *cough*), and while that I think that is fine when you are starting out, it does not necessarily make you the better player in the long run. Trust me. I surround myself around people who are multiple regional champions, Nugget Bridge Invitational winners, worlds competitors, and even world champions, but when they help me out with a team or straight up give me one to use, I never see results. It was only after months of frustration when I realized that I should be playing to my strengths instead of using what works for other people. My personal philosophy when building a Pokémon team emphasizes comfortably over viability, and I hope you learn that lesson as well! Enjoy this report, but realize that I am not asking you to appreciate Hail or my team. All I ask is that you take time to find your own style, and expand on it until you are the best you can possibly be.

Why Hail?

 “Hail – a team archetype used by players who really don’t want to win any games.”  – Werford “Glossary of Important VGC Terms”

First and foremost, Hail was not the right metacall. Pre-worlds, I was expecting a rise in Mega Tyranitar, Mega Gyarados, and a small resurgence of Charizard Y. Those three Pokémon alone give Hail teams trouble as two of them remove Hail, and the other one can easily take out what I believe is Hail’s best sweeper in Rotom-F. However, I chose to use Hail a week after the United States Nationals because I was extremely comfortable with it, and everyone else wasn’t. I have used Abomasnow since 2012, with Hail being the main driver of my 2013 Nationals run. I felt that with my year absence from Pokémon, I should use something I was comfortable with instead of adapting to the meta game’s high offensive style. Furthermore, Hail was not on anyone’s radar leading up to Worlds. In fact, the absurd amount of Ice weaknesses on some Pokémon teams really showed how irrelevant Hail was. You can’t imaging the amount of gasps I got in team preview when my opponent saw my team for the first time. That discomfort allowed me to predict their knee-jerk reactions easily and without much thought. It was funny how many people straight up did not bring Garchomp or Salamence the entire set with the fear of a Blizzard. Most people who had counters like Charizard-Y and Tyranitar often lead with them because they unconsciously wanted to get rid of the Hail as fast as they can. Basically, most people psych themselves out at team preview, over prepare for the Hail, and get punished with a counter lead. By being so comfortable and relaxed with Hail while other people flustered over team preview, I put myself at the upper hand to win regardless of the match up at hand. Theoretically, Hail was not the right call for Worlds. Personally, however, Hail was the perfect call.

Team Building Process

[7/12/2014 1:11:33 AM] Ryan Tan: I realized how absurdly comfortable I am with hail
[7/12/2014 1:11:51 AM] Collin Heier: lol
[7/12/2014 1:12:44 AM] Collin Heier: you’re like a natural
[7/12/2014 1:12:46 AM] Collin Heier: honestly
[7/12/2014 1:13:19 AM] Ryan Tan: yea
[7/12/2014 1:13:35 AM] Ryan Tan: I’m bringing hail
[7/12/2014 1:13:44 AM] Ryan Tan: I don’t care if everyone knows
[7/12/2014 1:14:21 AM] Ryan Tan: It’s my most comfortable playstyle
[7/12/2014 1:14:51 AM] Ryan Tan: and this is my Pokémon break year so I deserve to truly enjoy the game for once
[7/12/2014 1:15:03 AM] Collin Heier: for sure
[7/12/2014 1:15:07 AM] Ryan Tan: ^_^
[7/12/2014 1:15:21 AM] Collin Heier: worlds is going to be great

My building process was actually pretty spontaneous. I haven’t been around the 2014 metagame as long as many of my friends were, so by the time I decided to go to Worlds, I was pretty lost in figuring what Pokémon worked for me. Frustrated, I threw together an incomplete form of my Nationals team from 2013 to relieve the team building stress. Surprisingly though, I began playing extremely well due to how familiar I was with my hail team and the genuine fun I was having. That night led to the eventual conversation in the Boiler Room and the team itself.

I started off with my 2013 Nationals team, since that was the style of Hail I was most comfortable with:

2013 US Nationals Team

Basically, this team had many things that I really liked. For one, it had a fast and slow Blizzard mode in the forms of Rotom-F and Abomasnow. This allowed me the options to either dent or even take out many of the Dragons and flying genies pretty quickly with a Choice Scarf Rotom-F Blizzard, or clean up with Abomasnow’s Blizzard when a mid-game Trick Room is set up. It had double Intimidate with Scrafty and Salamence to be able to check most opponents’ reaction to bring those pesky physical types that absolutely hurts my two Ice types, while still providing massive chunk damage in the early game with a Choice Band on Scrafty and a Dragon Gem on Salamence. Garchomp was a bulky Rough Skin variant, which was pretty uncommon in 2013, but it was able to come in late and sweep after hail and the early chunk damage wore down my opponent’s Pokémon. Jellicent’s strong special bulk combine with the intimidate support made it easy for me to set up Trick Room when necessary or provide Will-o-Wisp support if intimidate support was not enough. I always thought it was a brilliant team, and it was unfortunate that I bubbled at 33rd that year, one place away from Top Cut. (Oh the irony)

Anyways, I wanted to base my team around the same concept of extremely defense play until my opponent’s Pokémon are able to be knocked out with strong neutral hits. I tried to keep most of the concepts of my old hail team and transition them towards a 2014 metagame. What I got was this:

2014 Worlds LCQ Team

I wasn’t spouting nonsense when I bored you with that long introduction. I really went with what I was comfortable with and never looked back after I decided to use Hail. There is a lot of familiar aspects when it comes to this team, but there is many cool tricks hidden inside for 2014! Let’s delve.

An In Depth Look

Abomasnow @ Focus Sash
Ability: Snow Warning
Level: 50
EVs: 140 HP / 116 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
IVs: 31/31/31/31/29/0
– Blizzard
– Energy Ball
– Ice Shard
– Protect

Brought: 12/15 battles

Abomasnow is a Pokémon that I have grown comfortable with. Abomasnow provided a great answer to Rain and Sand, with a good possibility of winning a one vs one scenario against a Politoed or Sand less Tyranitar in the late game with a strong Energy Ball. Abomasnow is all about the late game clean up. It is rare for me to keep Abomasnow around in the early game after I set up the hail, and I often call it back until I chipped enough damage on the opposing Pokémon, set up Trick Room, or face off in a one vs one scenario. Focus Sash is probably the best option on Abomasnow. Abomasnow is slow and has pretty awful defensive typing. The Focus Sash allows me to safety fire off a Blizzard at least once, with is extremely critical damage in the mid-late game. A Blizzard + Ice Shard + Hail damage usually finishes off many Pokémon in the late game, and without a Sash, Abomasnow would not have provided the late offensive pressure I needed. I originally ran a 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 SpA because I assumed that the adding bulk to the Focus Sash was redundant, but after using Abomasnow for a while, I realized I was relying too much on the Sash to activate, which propelled me to invest a little bulk a few days before Worlds. 140 HP EVs is a completely arbitrary number that Collin (TheBattleRoom) suggested because Sejun (pokemontcg) used 140 HP EVs in his Abomasnow in last year’s World Championships. Hey, it’s Sejun’s spread, so it must be good! The bulk really helped even though it was arbitrary and spontaneous, as I was able to take neutral hits a lot better with the investment. Although, if I were to use Abomasnow again, I would probably change up the spread. My high usage of Abomasnow is pretty surprising since I try not to bring hail often due to my opponents overreacting to it, but I lost every game I didn’t bring Abomasnow, which is an interesting statistic.

Rotom-Frost @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
Level: 50
EVs: 5 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
– Blizzard
– Volt Switch
– Thunderbolt
– Trick

• Outspeeds 252 Spe Timid Mega Manetric

Brought: 15/15 battles

Besides Abomasnow, Scarfed Rotom-F was a Pokémon that immediately came to mind when I declared that I was running hail. Electric and Ice is pretty good offensive typing and with a scarf, it can provide fast offensive pressure from turn one. A fast Blizzard puts me ahead pretty quickly, doing enough most of the major threats in the metagame. I would not mind trading my Rotom-F for a weaken Gardevoir and Mega Kangaskhan, and with the double Blizzard threat from Abomasnow, it was very likely I was up 3-2 by the end of the first turn. Volt Switch was extremely useful in general for dealing good damage to troublesome Pokémon like Charizard Y without much penalty. Thunderbolt was a solid STAB move that I used out of hail, and still provided important neutral damage to anything that resisted Blizzard. Trick was a last minute change from Hidden Power Fire, since many friends convinced me that Ferrothorn would not be seen in the LCQ ( Pro tip, don’t listen to your friends). I used Trick more often than I thought, since it was able to shut down Aegislash pretty handily, as well as manage Ferrothorn decently well if I ran into one. Not to mention, it helps the Trick Room match up if I saw one. If Abomasnow was all about that late game, Rotom-F was all about the early game. I usually would lead Rotom-F to get that much needed chip damage to set up the late game sweep. I love Rotom-F and I think it’s the best Hail sweeper in the metagame. That probably explains why I brought it in all my games, including those that didn’t have Abomasnow.

Scrafty @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Atk / 12 Def
Adamant Nature
– Fake Out
– Drain Punch
– Crunch
–  Stone Edge

• Survives -1 Talonflame Brave Bird 100% of the time

Brought: 13/15 battles

When I saw the Assault Vest introduced in X and Y, I immediately thought of Scrafty. Intimidate with the added special bulk and HP recovering Drain Punch, gave anything without a Fairy typing problems to take out. Intimidate was extremely useful especially with all my weaknesses to physical attacks, and it gave me breathing room to chip damage away. Fake Out support is always useful for self-explanatory reasons, and Drain Punch assured me that Mega Kangaskhan was not a threat.  Crunch was there for secondary STAB and helped my Meowstic, Chandelure, and Aegislash match up. Fire Punch was supposed to go into the last slot until the night before when I realized that Fire Punch was an egg move, and I didn’t have a Scrafty parent with Fake Out and Fire Punch. I had a major freak out about it, since Fire Punch was needed for my extremely weak Ferrothorn match up. I was told again that I wouldn’t see a Ferrothorn (heh) and Stone Edge would be a perfectly suitable replacement. Stone Edge turned out to be very good, and I was able to OHKO most Charizard Y and deal a strong chunk to Rotom-H. It seemed redundant at first with Garchomp on this team, but seeing as most teams with Charizard Y and Rotom-H prepare hard for the Garchomp match up, having Stone Edge on Scrafty made it worth it. Scrafty’s role was a pretty unique one since can take multiple roles. It often worked well as a lead with Rotom-F, as it gave Intimidate and Fake Out support to allow Rotom-F to do its thing in the early game. It could stay in throughout the match to provide consistent damage to my opponent’s Pokémon, or it can switch out and come back at a later time to provide that essential pivot support in the transition to the late game. Scrafty fits my defensive playstyle perfectly, and it was often the Pokémon I relied on constantly throughout the tournament.

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 92 Atk / 44 Def / 100 SpD / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Sucker Punch
– Iron Head
– Play Rough
– Protect

• OHKOs 252 HP Tyranitar with Iron Head 100% of the time
• Survives Jolly Life Orb Garchomp Earthquakes 94% of the time

Brought: 7/15 battles

Mawile was my replacement for Salamence in this oh so similar Hail team, but it had a slightly different role. She provided double Intimidate support like Salamence, but she was also able to handle other Fairy types that gave me a little trouble as well handle everything that hail had trouble dealing with sans Fire and Steel types.  I knew Tyranitar and Mega Gyarados was going to be big in my match up, so I needed Mawile to take it out without much trouble. The spread and move set is pretty standard, so I do not want to bore you with much details. I added speed despite the Trick Room mode because I wanted not to rely too much on Trick Room with this team, and I wanted to get the jump on a Mega Mawile mirror in case it I came across it. Often, I used Mawile to punish opponents for overreacting to the Hail mode. Many people would bring their Tyranitars, Lucarios, and Garchomp to the game, only to see Mawile on the other side. Also, Mawile was extremely useful even when I didn’t bring it. Abomasnow, Rotom-F, and Mawile gives me three Fire weaknesses, which usually prompts my opponent to lead with their Rotom-Hs or Charizard Ys. I mean, a 50% chance of leading with a Pokémon that is weak to Fire is an odd most people would bite on. Knowing that in team preview, I was able to comfortably lead Garchomp and/or Scrafty with the probable chance that I had the lead advantage.  Out of the 10 games I faced Rotom-H or Charizard Y, they were led in 8 of them. Besides providing good synergy to my Hail mode and a good bait for my bait and switch tactics, she was also an excellent Trick Room sweeper that dealt great amounts of damage in the late game to clean up. I wished I was able to use her more, but with my Hail mode seeing more use than anticipated as well as seeing some solid checks to Mega Mawile in the LCQ, she saw less battle time.

Garchomp @ Lum Berry
Ability: Rough Skin
Level: 50
EVs: 60 HP / 236 Atk / 40 Def / 68 SpD / 104 Spe
Adamant Nature
– Dragon Claw
– Stone Edge
– Earthquake
– Protect

• “It lives things like Modest Hidden Power Ice from Mega Manetric, um it’s good I promise!”- Logan Castro (Yellowbox)

Brought: 11/15 battles

Leading up to the event, I was using Moopon’s Bulky Garchomp spread that he used in Japan Nationals. However, I grossly underestimated how long it takes to breed and train an entire team since I haven’t done that sort of thing since 2011 and did not want to put Blake under too much pressure to get my team together. So Logan offered to lend me his Nationals Garchomp for the LCQ.  I was extremely behind in building my team, so I gladly accepted it and rolled with the EV spread. I mean, it got Top 4 in US Nationals so it must be good! I made one change on his Garchomp, replacing Substitute for Stone Edge since I really needed the move to help against Rotom-H and Charizard Y that were going to give me trouble the next day. Everything looks pretty standard for this bulky Garchomp besides the Stone Edge choice. I chose Stone Edge over Rock Slide because it got the KO on Charizard Y almost all of the time while doing a bigger chuck to Rotom-H. Also I had other spread moves in the form of Blizzard and Earthquake, so I didn’t think I would miss Rock Slide. Overall Garchomp was great all around, as its solid damage output and natural bulk made it easy to use at any point of the game. Usually, I would reserve Garchomp in the back until I was able to clean up in the late game, but there were times where I brought it out early to deal with those pesky Fire types.

Slowking @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Oblivious
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 188 Def / 68 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 31/31/31/31/31/10
– Psychic
– Scald
– Trick Room
– Heal Pulse

• Survives Ray‘s Ferrothorn Power Whip

Brought: 2/15 battles

I know some of you waited long to see my thoughts on Slowking. I’m sorry to disappoint you but Slowking did not live up to my expectations. Slowking was the last Pokémon on my team after spending a long time trying to find a proper replacement to Jellicent. I used Chandelure, Gothitelle, Aromatisse, and Slowbro before settling on Slowking. Slowking was good in theory since it would kinda help my Mega Venusaur match up, set up Trick Room, help with my three Fire type weaknesses, and provide Heal Pulse support. Slowking was supposed to be my pivot support team member that helps in both the early and late game without the risk of being Taunted or Spored. What went wrong? Well, first of all the spread is pretty terrible. I put a lot of investment in Defense that only helped against a few Pokémon, and I put too little in Special Defense which cost me dearly in my Top 8 match. I put Safety Goggles on Slowking even though the chance of Amoonguss coming out against a Hail team is slim. If I had put on a Sitrus Berry, I would have been in amazing positions to win each of the two matches I brought it to. I knew after my first round that Slowking would probably sit out the rest of LCQ. It was a huge shame because battling without speed control and essentially a 6th member meant that I had to play extremely well to get past the LCQ, which obviously didn’t happened. At the very least, Slowking was there to threaten Trick Room, and since it took my number 2 spot on team preview, a lot of my opponents brought slow Pokémon in the back to counter my Trick Room mode. So psychological speed control is always a plus! I probably will find a good replacement to my favorite Pokémon Jellicent one day, but I know for sure Slowking isn’t it.

Common Leads

Rotom-F + Scrafty

This was my go to lead most of the time. These two gave me so many options and flexibility in the early game to deal some solid damage. If Hail seemed favorable from the lead, I would switch out Scrafty for Abomasnow as Rotom-F proceeded to Blizzard. If it wasn’t favorable I would Volt Switch or switch out Rotom-F for a different Pokémon while Scrafty Fakes Out or proceeds to deal damage to opposing Pokémon. Honestly, the offensive system and options between the two Pokémon really makes it easy to deal a good amount of damage on turn one.

Rotom-F + Garchomp

If I wasn’t using Rotom-F and Scrafty, it was usually Garchomp that sat alongside Rotom-F. It was mainly used for my Sun match up so I can take out Charizard Y easily, but I also used it for whenever I felt like using Earthquake on turn one.  It was especially good with Aegislash and was probably my best way with dealing with Ferrothorn since I can’t really do much but chip.

Scrafty + Mawile

Double date is amazing when you expect a hard counter to Hail. Since most things that hurt my Hail mode are physical attackers, Double Intimidate was able to force poor leads and punish the predictable switch.

Rotom-F + Abomasnow

There is a 95% chance that I would not lead straight up Hail. I only used this lead once in my LCQ against Greyson Garren (Greysong), and that is because I took a game three risk that he would lead with his Hail counters in the back instead as leads. Leading straight up Hail is a pretty bad play since most opponents are psyched into countering Hail. I only would consider this lead at a game three since the chance of them leading their Hail counters after two games without Hail leads is slim. It’s still extremely risky, but when you get further in a tournament, you need to take risks.

Threats

THREE. THREE FERROTHORN IN THE LCQ. If you didn’t skim over my Team Report, you would notice how afraid of Ferrothorn I was. I guess this extends to Scizor as well, but the lack of Fire moves on any of my Pokémon made taking it out a lot harder. To deal with it, I usually left it until the end where I would slowly chip damage off with some Blizzards, Earthquakes, maybe a Drain Punch. Trick helped out too as it was forced to attack instead of stall out with Leech Seed and Protect. Overall, it was probably less of a problem than I made it out to be since it could not really touch me at the late game besides stalling.

I know I probably have pretty good answers to Rotom-H, but it’s still not that great. Abomasnow and Rotom-F are counter hard by it, Scrafty and Mawile can’t take it out without being burned, and my Slowking takes too big of a chunk from its Thunderbolt. Garchomp was my only real answer, but the Stone Edge wasn’t strong enough to nab a knockout. It gave me trouble throughout the tournament when it really shouldn’t have.

Double intimidate, Hail team, Slowking, enough said. Basically I made a call that my chances for seeing a Bisharp were low, and I was happy I was right in that regard.  I would probably have to play very carefully around it, and use Garchomp well. Though, I also think that at even at +1, Bisharp would not be able to KO Scrafty, so I was felt pretty safe with a Drain Punch.

The list of counters can go on and on. Like I said before, Hail was not the best metacall for 2014! Though I think that using a team that I was comfortable with won out at the end. I wouldn’t have cared if I was playing an absolutely terrible match up because I was confident in my ability to win. Sometimes all you need is a little confidence to turn a losing battle into a winning one.

LCQ

I take terrible notes so instead of a battle by battle analysis, I will just say a little tidbit about my matches.

Round 1 vs Bye

Quick shout out to my original opponent Tucker Kem before the re-pairing! It was great talking to you, and I was happy to see you get far in the LCQ (Top 16 or 32)!

Round 2 vs Gabby Synder (JTK)

I was sad that I was facing Gabby in the second round. Magma has always been a fun group of people and facing one of the Admins is not fun. Anyways, we talked about cool things like the Amazon phone app and the lack of employee discounts, the Celestic Stars, and small talk here and there. She took Game One in a close one vs one situation, and I bounced back in the next two. I remember specifically hoping that I would a get a Critical Hit Stone Edge on her Rotom-H turn one of game three, and I did, which made me instantly feel terrible. But, Pokémon is Pokémon and Gabby seemed ok about it! So make sure to buy lots of things from the Amazon app to give her job security!

2-1

Round 3 vs Jacob Burrows (Noobly9730)

We talked about all the fun times we had playing Pokémon and our past experiences on tournaments. He brings up that he out predicted Gavin (kingofmars) by calling his risky play and therefore winning the game. I save that tidbit for later. I see the Charizard Y and my second Ferrothern of the day, which caused me to play out of my mind and win game one. I then use the information about his tendency to make second level predictions and played pretty safe game two. I don’t remember the exact details due to bad notes, but I’m pretty sure it paid off in the end!

2-0

Round 4 vs Adrian Pineda

His team was Amoonguss / Aerodactyl / Garchomp / Staraptor / Rotom- W / Chandelure

I’m pretty sure we both knew what was up. I felt bad for him since he probably faced his worst possible match up, but that’s what you get when you don’t prepare for the unexpected. He burned my Scrafty twice with Heat Wave and paralyzed my Rotom if that counts for anything! Furthermore I consider a team centered around Mega Aerodactyl and Garchomp before my Hail decision. So it was cool seeing it in the LCQ.

2-0

Round 5 vs Andres Morales

There is so much back story leading up to the actual match. First, Andres knocked me out of last year’s LCQ in round 3, so I was really looking forward to the match up. Second, we were down to the Top 32, so I decided it was important to scout out teams. Osamu Shinomoto lost to him in the last round, so I went up to him alongside his friends. I tried to communicate in English, Google Translate, even a Pokedex app on my phone to gather some intel. Yohei Yamane and the rest of Osamu’s friends started to help me, and we processed to act out Pokémon moves and items until I got all the info I needed. It was probably my favorite experience of the entire World Championships because it shows that although we come from different places and speak different languages, we can still communicate through our love of Pokémon! (That was extremely cheesy, but I do not apologize.) Anyways, that info was pretty vital since Andres was not running standard things like Colbur Berry Aegislash, Yache Berry Garchomp, and Hi Jump Kick Scrafty. I couldn’t maneuver around it game one, but I played well enough to squeeze by games two and three to take the match.

Side note, I saw Kamz, who I didn’t really know was Kamz until like halfway through my second battle, suffering because his battery was about to die out in the middle of the match. It’s Top 32, with plenty of charging stations available, so I see no real reason to not give him a charging outlet! I think this charging issue should be addressed for future tournaments.

2-1

Round 6 vs Greyson Garren (Greysong)

I was kinda looking forward to battling Greyson. The secret was out that I was running Hail by this point, so I’m sure Greyson was already prepping a way to beat it. In between rounds, I realized that I would have to play Blake for the Worlds spot if I beat Greyson. It was a brief second of worry though because you need to take things one game at a time. I win the first game with Scrafty, which he did not figure out was Assault Vest until well into the battle. He wins Game 2 solidly, and I then notice that there was a good chance he would lead something that Hail can handle. I explained my thoughts for the game 3 lead above. Anyways, I had a great lead matchup, and although Freezing Kangaskhan was unfortunate on turn one, it solidified my place into Top 8.

2-1

Round 7 vs Blake Hopper (Bopper)

So many thoughts ran through my mind in Top 8. That was my first mistake. Blake knew my team extremely well, he even lent me his Scrafty for the LCQ. I was freaked out even though I knew his tricks to his team. I kind of lost some of my confidence that helped me get to Top 8. I knew my ticket to victory was Slowking and Scrafty, but I remembered how subpar Slowking performed in the beginning of the day. I brought him anyways in game one, and it got knocked out before it set up Trick Room, I still play alright, and get myself into a winning position, but that is until Blake puts on the wig. Blake Hopper is one thing, but Blake Sparkles is nearly unbeatable. I kid you not, as soon as he put on the wig, the momentum shifted instantly. The wig. The echoes of the mall ringed through my head. I was done for. He reads my plays, and I lose game one. Blake was getting confidence, and I hoped that confidence would turn into cockiness, but I was wrong. Blake Sparkles pretty much dominated game two from team preview, and I lost. I wasn’t lying when I said confidence is everything. I lost that match because I wasn’t confident enough in my ability to win. Blake had that confidence.

0-2

Anyways losing in the Top 8 is painful, but I was happy enough that Blake was the one who eliminated me. The Boiler Room was able to send one more competitor in the World Championships and I feel that that is a win in my book.

Shout Outs and Thank Yous

• The Boiler Room- You guys been amazing. I still consider myself to be the weakest Boiler Room member in terms of skill, but that does not stop you from helping me out even when I cannot offer much in return. I am truly grateful for all the support you have given be, and I expect next year to be even better!
• Oliver (Smith): Can you believe it has been 5 years since we first met in High School? I will always remember asking you for help with my VGC 2010 team even though you had no interest in Doubles at the time. Glad you stuck around though, because I couldn’t be where I am without you! Thanks for all the times your family brought me to events. Thanks for keeping me interested in Pokémon. Thanks for actually becoming cool in college. I will try to continue my streak of doing better than you at every tournament, so you better catch up bro. #Jeznation
• Blake (Bopper): It’s always fun to play you bud. Thanks for everything you have done over the past few years! You played great in Worlds, and I’m glad you finally got your time to shine on the Worlds stage. I’ll be hope college treats you well, but until we go to the mall, stay fabulous~
• Ben (benjiTHEGREAT): Go back to your NPA team traitor! Seriously though, you are amazing. Thanks for helping me out with this team and all the other ones, having a girlfriend who debates (even though it’s LD), and livening up the Boiler Room with your cheer. Top Golf? Top Golf.
• Collin (TheBattleRoom): Dude I knew this was your year. I remember meeting you at Nationals last year, and after talking to you, I knew you were going to be great. You deserved your 3rd place at Worlds, and I am positive it isn’t your last year of success. Thanks for all your input on my LCQ team, I really appreciated your time in helping me out especially with the god awful spreads. I couldn’t have done well without you!
• Toler (Dim): Thank you for being you! I was pretty intimidated when I first met you in Athens being World Champion Toler Webb, but I learned how cool and amazing you were so it was cool that we became friends. Thank you for giving good input on my team even though you were busy with your Worlds team! Have fun with your social life!
• Enosh (Human): I know. You probably read the report and cringed because I didn’t follow any of your advice. I really am grateful for your input. Thank you for everything you have done over the past year and being so fun to hang out with at Worlds! Keep loving college, its great!
• Magma: Thanks for the great time at Worlds! Chalkey, thanks for running all the way from the Spy Museum to our hotel to check us in! Thanks for the fun sets Gabby! Thanks for CAH night everyone who was there! Thanks for being a chill group. Stay Classy.
• Team UK: Hey Love.
• Osamu, Yohei, and Team Japan: Thanks for helping me out in LCQ! Let’s play charades again next year!
• You: Hey you’re still reading! Thank you for not only reading this report but also being a part of the community. Each year our community gets bigger and bigger, and it’s amazing to see the old and new faces every year. I hope my team report helped you reflect on your own playstyle, and I hope to see you with your Pumpkin Spice Latte at #CelesticStars!!

About the Author

Tan Tan is the current manager of the Celestic Stars and a member of the Boiler Room. Being around the VGC scene since 2009, Tan hasn't gotten the headlining success as his friends, but loves the game anyways. Other than playing Pokemon and advertising coffee products, Tan studies bioengineering in Santa Clara University.

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