Reports

Published on December 16th, 2013 | by Zog

38

I’m #3 so Should Probably Try Harder: Third at the Nintendo UK Winter Championship

Hi, I’m Zog! I’ve been playing Pokémon tournaments for years now, so you might’ve seen me around. I like free stuff, and obtaining free stuff from playing Pokémon is my favourite method of obtaining free stuff. There’s a lot more to my love of Pokémon than free stuff, but I love that there is free stuff. So, taking any excuse to doss off from my research paper, I thought I’d enter the wonderful Nintendo UK Winter Championship.

Since the unfortunate closure of all three of our venues, the UK’s excellent fan-run Nintendo-supported tournament scene had been quiet for a while. Thankfully, Nintendo UK decided to organise an official tournament: an invitational championship set in the heart of London; an all-out single-elimination apocalypse between the winners of 23 fan-run regional qualifiers, eventually giving rise to 64 competitors.

Consequently I dragged my silly and bearded flatmate James (Ninjames) out of his bed and down the road to the North Wales regional, where we had a great time and qualified alongside my longtime rival and officially world’s strongest bald trainer Christoper Arthur (Koryo). He kindly offered to drive us all the way down to London for the final, and with that we began preparing for the big showdown in the capital.

The Team

Simplicity is something I really believe in, especially in Pokémon. Idea being, if something isn’t specialised, there’s more that it can deal with: every team I build has to be able to deal with everything, or I won’t run it. Likewise, the more complicated or contrived something is, the more likely it is to miss the point entirely. So, you could say I’m a really pragmatic player. My strategy is to, uh, “win by playing better than the opponent”. So, “no excuses”; nothing more complicated. If I haven’t played to win better than my opponent has, I have failed. If I win, I win, woo!

I love simplicity. And there’s nothing simpler than repetition. If you have the courage to do what it takes to win over and over to win even more in a video game competition, you have the heart of a champion.

So, “What’s this?”, you might be thinking. “You love simple, repetitive things”? Why yes, I adore electronic music, which was the basis for all of my Pocket Monsters’ nicknames, and the title of this report.

Windowlicker– Aphex Twin

“Mraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah UNH! UNNNNNNH! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah”

Mawile @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Attack / 4 Special Defense
Adamant Nature
– Play Rough
– Iron Head
– Sucker Punch
– Protect

Someone looking to impress might describe Windowlicker as seductive, yet metallic. Powerful, yet dawdling. That person would be a total clown, much like the author of this report.

Either way, Windowlicker is so Mega Mawile it’s incredible. With its Intimidate support, excellent defensive typing and limited yet perfect movepool, Mega Mawile is an ultimate Pokémon for high-level play. Anyone’s Mawile would likely be running the same moveset as mine: these four moves let it do its best. And do its best it does: Mega Mawile is one of the biggest monsters the game has ever seen. But its essential moveset is both a curse and a blessing: it means once Mawile is on the field, everyone thinks they know what’s going to happen. This means that playing with and against Mawile, everything comes down to prediction. I love it.

Aside from a few howlers where I totally screwed her over, Windowlicker was invaluable over the course of the day and really did me proud.

Satisfaction– Benny Benassi

“Push me. And then just touch me. Till I can get my. Satisfaction.”

Garchomp (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Rough Skin
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Attack / 252 Speed
Jolly Nature
– Earthquake
– Dragon Claw
– Rock Slide
– Protect

Much like its namesake, Garchomp begs you to touch it and gets mothers in a fuss. Of course, aside from the notorious music video I’m referring to the ubiquitous Mega Kangaskhan, a reason to use Rough Skin.

Similarly to Mawile, this is Garchomp’s best set by a wide margin, which is why every Garchomp ever uses it. A hard check to Charizard and Talonflame, and number one beatstick of the metagame, standard Garchomp is quite a lovely Pokémon if you play it right. I put an Expert Belt on it for some extra damage, which KOs other Garchomps nearly all the time and always after Rough Skin. It’s also helpful against Mega Mawile, Gyarados, bulky Charizard and Tyranitar.

The completely standard EVs are just asking for a speed tie with other Garchomp, but sadly you have to run it this way to outspeed Salamence, Flygon and other inferior dragons. Garchomp is the best.

Satisfaction didn’t let me down at all, bless her cotton socks. Standard Garchomp is so good, but please don’t use it yourself because speed ties make me stressed.

Setting Sun– The Chemical Brothers feat. Noel Gallagher

“You’re coming on strong, you’re showing your colour, like a setting suuuuuun”

Charizard @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Solar Power
EVs: 100 HP / 252 Special Attack / 148 Speed / 4 Defense
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Heat Wave
– Solar Beam
– Protect

A powerful tune, a total throwback to the ‘90s and an incredibly witty pun on the fact it sets the condition of sun upon the field, Setting Sun was the perfect name for Mega Charizard Y.

Mega Charizard Y is a really interesting Pokémon to use. It’s got reasonable Speed, good bulk and mighty offensive presence, but it’s easily thwarted by the most common Pokémon in the metagame: my highly original Garchomp set. The fact Garchomp can switch in on anything, then outspeed and destroy you with Rock Slide is the biggest downer to using Mega Charizard Y. But that’s a good thing, because when he isn’t countered, he’s close to impossible to stop. Powerful Grass and Fire coverage annihilates almost all it outspeeds, and most of what it doesn’t, so I ran some defensive EVs so survive random Thunderbolts and Water attacks in Sun.

It also looks really, really cool. Sadly, Setting Sun only saw action in one game in London, but in that one game he was invaluable. The teams I was put up against either were weaker to Mawile or carried fast Rock Slide users, so he stayed in the box.

Electronic Battle Weapon 7– The Chemical Brothers again

“Ranananananana wununununu ranananananana wununununu”

Rotom-H @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 80 HP / 252 Special Attack / 178 Speed
Modest Nature
– Overheat
– Thunderbolt
– Volt Switch
– Will-O-Wisp

It’s pretty weird, it’s electronic, you fight people with it. Pow, call it Electronic Battle Weapon 7. Fairly substantial reasoning if you ask me.

After totally screwing up the North Wales regional by EVing him wrong so he undersped Greninja by one point instead of outspeeding him, Electronic Battle Weapon 7 was sent to a re-education camp aka Super Training and came back for a second shot at glory. Simple to use but hard to master, Choice Scarf Rotom-Heat was my primary answer to Greninja, Talonflame and other popular and new but kinda bad Pokémon. He’s best used early on to neuter said fast and frail and therefore bad opponents, then brought back out later on to finish off anything else that’s been weakened. He has a good type for switching, too.

Electronic Battle Weapon 7 was, overall, exactly what I expected him to be. People didn’t expect the Choice Scarf (as for the one who did, it won him the game), and when I brought him, he did everything he could to lock down the opponent and force them into playing defensively. Exactly what I wanted for the next member in the team…

Forgive Me– Infected Mushroom

“Can you tell me a story that I don’t know? Can you show me a picture that I haven’t seen before?”

Amoonguss @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 204 HP / 124 Defense / 4 Special Attack / 172 Special Defense / 12 Speed
Sassy Nature
– Giga Drain
– Ragepowder
– Spore
– Protect

Oh, I love Infected Mushroom. I love Amoonguss, too. The way he punishes people for playing too defensively just makes me happy. Like the world’s best producers of psychedelic trance music, Amoonguss puts the uninitiated to sleep. But unlike them, he isn’t from Israel. He’s from Unova, which is not Israel. Other than that, the two have everything in common. That said, Amoonguss is brutal and just a little bit old hat, hence the name.

His main purpose is to counter Rotom-Wash, possibly the most boring competitive Pokémon ever. He also puts everything that can’t KO him to sleep, which fulfilled a helpful niche in stopping Trick Room from being set. Amoonguss, again like Mawile and Garchomp, is very much a Pokémon that has one clear best moveset and does as well as you play it. The general role of absorbing hits, spreading sleep and damaging anything with a Grass weakness should be familiar to most of you reading this.

Forgive Me, while only brought in around half of my battles, was a real asset. Every time I used him, the opponent was terrorised so hard most of their Pokémon fell asleep. I consider that a success. He KOed a Liepard, too! Mushrooms whaling on cats? I’d pay good money to see that.

Finally, my favourite of the bunch:

Doomsday– Nero

“WUUUB WUUUB WUUUB WAAAAAAAA WUUUB WUUB WUUB”

Clawitzer @ Assault Vest
Ability: Mega Launcher
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Special Attack / 4 Special Defense
Modest Nature
– Water Pulse
– Dragon Pulse
– Dark Pulse
– Aura Sphere

Mainstream dubstep. It’s so simple; so stupid; so… adorable. Okay, maybe that’s not the word, but there’s a distinct charm to it. The adulation when, with one momentous press of the play button on his Macbook, Skrillex drops the bass and the crowd goes wild. It’s quite beautiful. Doomsday, a shining star in the world of excessive synthesisers, is a befitting moniker for the loud, stupid, curiously compelling creature that is the mighty Clawitzer.

Doomsday exists to hit everything, and to hit it hard. Almost always there is something on the field that it can hit super-effectively, and almost never is there something on the field that can KO it before it attacks. Almost every common Pokémon is hit hard, most of them enough to go down in one shot. The Assault Vest is key to helping it survive Thunderbolts and random spread moves, and has won me a lot of games since I’ve used it. The major problem with Clawitzer is using him properly without getting put down by the opponent. But since I’m amazing at Pokémon and everything, and more likely because I’ve used it since the game came out, I didn’t have too much trouble using Doomsday properly and he was a real help on the day.

So, that’s: Mega Mawile, Garchomp, Mega Charizard Y, Rotom-Heat, Amoonguss and Clawitzer. A little bit of standard and a little bit of different, fitting together perfectly.

Travelling Down to London

The day finally arrived. At 5am I pawed at James’s door, pretending to be a cat to wake him up, but he was already awake. After collecting my ever-excitable brother, we made the trek to Chris’s house, which is directly across the street. Then, we set sail.

Having been busy with work for most of the week since the North Wales qualifier, I didn’t have too much time to prepare my team on the game itself. So, a few of my Pokémon were actually EV trained and levelled up on the way there. After experiencing the sheer horror of the middle back seat in a full Peugeot 306, Doomsday the Clauncher became a man. Actually, it was a relatively pleasant 260 mile drive down, and we made it to the event in good time.

The event itself took place right in Soho, one of the most fashionable places in London, in a huge basement full of colourful lights and Pokémon stuff: quite impressive really. I helped myself to one of the complementary starter-themed mocktails on offer, choosing Fennekin. Pouring from the jug, immediately I missed my cup and spilt some on the table, because I’m an idiot, before enjoying my juice and waiting for Rob to announce the first round pairings. Musing pensively over his plastic cup, James says to me “I bet you I get Koryo.”

Some time later, Rob announces the pairings and, in a shocking revelation, Chris pulls James’s number from the hat. It’s a close game, but Chris wins by a slim margin and my padawan is out of the tournament before I’ve even been drawn. But he isn’t the only one. Looking up at the board, the veterans were dropping like bad dubstep (permission to slap granted). Ben Kyriakou (Kyriakou), Sam Bentham (SuperIntegration), Adam Dorricott (Dozz) and Lee Provost (Osirus) were all out in the first round. It was like Battle Royale, but with considerably lower stakes.

Meanwhile, my opponent is still listed as an ominous “002” on the pairings board, and news is coming in that the fan-organised coaches from Liverpool and Manchester have dropped their occupants off several miles away (how this happened is beyond me).

At this point, while stressing over a tasty piece of free Domino’s pizza because “WHERE IS NUMBER TWO”, I realise that, since fate isn’t a very nice person, my opponent is probably my other rival Christopher, Chris Barton (Havak), who was on the coach. Funnily enough, I’m right, and as soon as he gets here we get down to battling. This being our third tournament matchup, we both know it’ll be a tough one.

Round 1 vs Chris Barton (Havak)

vs

Chris leads with Venusaur and Charizard to my Rotom-H and Garchomp. Predictably but efficiently, he Protects with both while mega-evolving Charizard into Mega Charizard Y, the sun then activating  Venusaur’s speed-boosting ability of Chlorophyll for the next turn. Knowing Venusaur will outspeed me and use Sleep Powder on one of my Pokémon, I decide to bite the bullet and use Overheat and Rock Slide, to KO at least one of Chris’s Pokémon. Garchomp is put to sleep, while Charizard is switched out for Mamoswine and Venusaur goes down to Overheat, and is replaced with Mega Charizard Y.

At this point I know that I need Garchomp to win the game, so I make a risky move and switch her out for Mawile. Things quickly go south when Mamoswine, as suspected, turns out to have a Choice Scarf, and outspeeds and flinches Rotom-Heat with Rock Slide before Charizard uses Heat Wave for some reason and one-shots Mawile before she’s even had chance to do anything. I replace her with my sleeping Garchomp. I switch Rotom-Heat out for Clawitzer as Garchomp (I imagine) is trying really hard to wake up. Next turn, Mamoswine switches out for a Gyarados, and I hit it with my now-awoken Garchomp’s Rock Slide and Clawitzer’s Aura Sphere. I realise that once Mamoswine goes down, I’ve won the game: it’s Chris’s only answer to Rotom-Heat. After Charizard gets KOed failing a double Protect, Mamoswine comes in for the final face-off. In a tremendous clash of wills, Rock Slide fails to flinch Clawitzer and Doomsday strikes back for the KO.

It’s a really tough battle to start the day, but I manage to pull through. Had Mamoswine flinched Clawitzer and Garchomp that turn, then not missed Rotom-Heat, I could’ve been out first round. Shame I had to play Chris so early, too.

Soon after, it’s time for the next round.

Round 2 vs Chez Kirby

vs

After checking out each other’s shiny collections, we get down to business. I lead with Mawile and Rotom-Heat to her Mamoswine and oh wow- a shiny Greninja. I can’t get over how good that shiny looks. I Volt Switch off sexy Greninja into its Focus Sash, while Mamoswine Protects along with my Mawile, and Greninja uses Surf on my Clawitzer. She switches out Greninja into Aegislash, and Earthquakes it to activate Weakness Policy before being KOed by Clawitzer’s Water Pulse. I’m quite impressed, having never seen anyone do that before.

Eventually I make yet another ridiculous play, and switch Mawile into my own Earthquake. I’m not sure why I did that. (Un)fortunately, it doesn’t matter anyway when poor Windowlicker gets KOed by a +4 critical hit Shadow Sneak, leaving only Garchomp, Rotom-Heat, Greninja and Mega Venusaur in the game. After picking off Greninja, I manage to whittle Venusaur down over the course of three turns, but it’s another hard-earned win.

Round 3 vs Shaun Godly

vs

???

Next round I face an exuberant fellow with a Trick Room team, Shaun Godly, who knocked out Dozz in the first round. Eager to avenge my fallen friend, I brought Forgive Me the Amoonguss and his amazing sleepy powers. It was a tough game to make decisions on, but I made the right ones and ended up putting nearly everything to sleep and cleaning up with Mawile and Garchomp. It was my only 4-0 win of the tournament, but to give Shaun credit I think had I made any mistakes and let him set up things would’ve gone differently.

 Quarter Final vs Joe Wilson (RussianGG)

vs

After spending a while watching Koryo playing on the stage, and then some more time accidentally watching the next game because I’m an idiot and forgot I was playing the next round, I found Joe again and we got down to the match.

I did save this battle, but to be honest having Amoonguss is the reason I won. Joe knew he hadn’t brought a counter to it, and put up a good fight regardless. Hooray, I was in the semi finals!

Semi Final vs Justin Miller

vs

I’d already played Justin before: I lost to him at the last Manchester Gamerbase tournament, from his cautious plays countering my risky ones which didn’t pay off. Kids, even if your Garchomp has Sand Veil and Brightpowder and Substitutes, it’s not necessarily gonna dodge anything.

After some strange technical problems, this match was kind of over in much shorter time than it started. To put it simply, I screwed up the first turn. Against his lead of Rotom-Wash and Talonflame with my Amoonguss and Rotom-Heat, having spent such a long time playing online with Choice Band Talonflame, I totally forgot it could use protect, and went straight in with a Volt Switch and lost Rotom-Heat to a Hydro Pump. From then on I was relying on Garchomp to KO Talonflame, only to lose her to Tyranitar coming out of nowhere with an Ice Beam. Totally forgetting the fact I’d seen loads of Ice Beam Tyranitars on rated battles was a bummer, so I should really have known better. I did bring it to 1-1 with just Mawile and Amoonguss, but they’re no good against Talonflame, so that’s all I could manage. Oh well, at least I could still play for some cash.

Justin played hard for the win and used a solid team, but I’m gonna get him next time, hehe.

Third Place Playoff vs Alex Monks

I meant to save this battle but didn’t! It was a really good one. Alex had come from the South Wales qualifier, so this was basically North Wales Vs. South Wales for the third place cash prize. Unfortunately, I can’t really remember every turn of it.

This was the only match I brought Charizard for, and he really proved his worth. I paired him with Rotom-Heat to lead and KO Klefki, which went as planned. There was some switching and some tradings of Pokémon until it came down to just Mega Kangaskhan and Rotom-Heat. If overheat hit, I won, if not, I lost. And as you can probably guess, yeah it hit. That’s how I got third place. Good game! Free money! Woo!

Closing Thoughts

Aside from winning, I really had a great time. It was lovely seeing everyone again, and I’m looking forward to the next Pokémon day out. My team did me proud, and I’m still happy with third place: this was a really difficult tournament, as you can probably tell by looking at the matchups board. As much as I’d have preferred winning, that’s just me being a perfectionist. So, some random things to round up my report!

• While the organisation was definitely shaky before the event, the setup itself was brilliant. The location, staffing, prizes, I don’t think could meaningfully be improved upon. Thoughtful touches like the juice, pizza deliveries, mascots and free TCG packs (Hooray I got Zapdos EX) were really nice and much appreciated. Let’s just hope Nintendo UK are as on the ball with sending the prize money and travel reimbursements!
• Thirty six quid for parking? Thirty six pounds?
• Fennekin headbutted me three times. Please, Nintendo UK, train your Pokémon better. And yes, the Pokémon mascots were all completely in character and had guides talking to them like they were Pokémon. Disturbing, yet whimsical.
• We have no idea how, but on the journey back we ended up on an 80 mile detour. Pros: I was treated to a surprise sighting of Meadowhall, the eighth-largest shopping centre in the UK. Cons: It took seven and a half hours to get home. In the middle seat of a Peugeot 306 full of men.
• It really reminded me of how awful best-of-one single elimination is. VGC 2012… dark times!
• I apologise for wearing so much orange, but not the cat hat.

So, it was a great little tournament for the off-season. Hope to see you all at the next one!

And huge thanks to Koryo for driving myself, my brother and Ninjames!

About the Author

Zog A veteran tournament player, Daniel "Zog" Nolan is proud of his no-nonsense attitude and silly sense of humour. When he's actually doing work, Zog likes to hide toy snakes in the wilderness (and other decidedly more lab-based activities) in the name of scientific progress. Follow on Instagram at dan_z_nolan and Twitter @Zoggykins!

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