Pokemon Nationals...
So, most of my friends know the news by nao… I’m the Third best Pokemon.. wrangler??..something… in the country, and then Fourth best in the World of Pokemon Video Game battling...
When J-oppa bought me my pink DS last year, I started playing Pokemon. I'd pretty much stayed away from the franchise earlier in my life because with my general OCD, completionist nature, I knew that I'd probably get hooked. It wasn't all that cute, and I had other things on my mind. So a year and a half ago, I started playing. And I played to collect; some of those pokemans are pretty darn cute. And they also come in shiny form...cute and shiny, not to mention free (after you've purchased the cart), what is there not to like?? And soon after that, I started trading with people all over the country and the world using the DS wifi connection thingy... and somehow, through the course of trading, I'd inadvertently come to acquire an extensive amount of pokemon game mechanics knowledge than I would have preferred; of course you'd never get me to admit such a thing *whistles innocently*
Then it was announced this past spring: a shiny, pretty fishy pokemon distributed to people who register to play for the Pokemon Video Game Championships (VGC). There were multiple locations, and I ended up dragging J-oppa and Sharon up to Fremont, Norcal to get one. So while downloading multiple milotics, I'd also hoped to make some new friends who also enjoyed pokemon. And of course I can't help but enjoy causing trouble, so I had some fun in Fremont. Of course, I didn't play, even though I passed the random drawing selection. And Chris Tsai was also there: Chris is one of last year's American champions, and placed 4th at Worlds. Oh, and I'm related to him.
Chris was totally serious about making it back to the top this year at the VGC for a repeat performance, but as the season progressed, he was making no headway. So with one last chance at St. Louis, where a random pool of players would be selected to round out the swiss round flights with the other Regional Champions, he asked me to come and hang out with him for support. Oh, and his mom made him ask me... Just kidding!! haha I had actually planned to go to St. Louis a year earlier to spend time with one of my closest friends, Vikki, was attending school out there; but alas, I never made it, and she'd long since returned to civaliza..er..Socal. So this time, I dragged Sharon, another close friend who I've dubbed the "Dumb Luck Princess", to STL so we could have adventures and such. She had also been bitten by the travel bug at the time(but was unable to coordinate with me during my troublemaking stint in Manhattan), so it was a happy coincidence that she wasn't going to be picky.
So we arrive at the Armpit of Middle America, and get up way early, earlier than I'd have liked, to register to the event. Only registered players get to download milotics, and I wasn't going to miss a second chance of getting more of those pretty fishies. But I should have known, in the entourage of the Dumb Luck Princess (DLP), we all get selected to play. Sharon forfeits her spot, since she couldn't care less about pokemon. So while Chris is in line to register as a confirmed competitor, I dither around in panic, trying to figure out what to do. I never intended on playing and had nothing prepared. Chris, bemused by my antics as per usual, figures that it wouldn't be a bad idea to play, since I understood the game pretty well, even though I'd never battled against anything other than an NPC. I mean, hell, who likes having their butt kicked by a younger sibling?? I categorically refused to play against Chris even while he was the one to introduce me to the game.
Nervously, I registered to play, and Chris and I get grouped into the same flight for swiss rounds. While they are determining the first round matchups, Chris trades me a team from among his backups; all I asked for was a cute team that didn't require much strategy/attention to use. I expected to have a complete losing streak before the day was done anyway. I won't go into details about my team; I'll just say it was a weather based one. And no, it didn't have many cute pokemon in it.
So with swiss tournaments, in case you are unfamiliar (if you know, then skip this part), the first round is matched up randomly. All subsequent matches are determined by your win-loss record, so winners are matched up with winners with the same win-loss ratio (it's also the same system for losers). Everyone was divided into four flights and played 5 rounds. Single elimination rounds to determine top ranked players would be on the next day out of the top finisher in each flight with the strength of your opponent also factored in to determine actual rankings.
The rest is a blur mostly, since I was nervous, but trying my best to have fun. All I remember is goofing off, posing for silly pictures, and hoping that Chris was doing well. He did he best to keep me calm through the day, to buffer me from the intensity and aggressiveness of the other competitors. Miraculously, I won my first round... and then kept winning. Oh, and I was still pretty much new at battling, so I made a TON of stupid mistakes. (A month later, Chris watched some of my videos and winced everytime he saw me make those really stupid mistakes.) And looking back, I remember how INCREDIBLY lucky I was with some of the secondary effects from my attacks kicking in at an alarmingly frequent rate. I was able to disable my opponent's pokemon to the point where I'd fainted them without giving them one chance to attack.
I remember that my match with Glenn, one of the nicest people evar, in round three, was the turning point of when my matches started to get more difficult, and I had to deviate from the original strategy that Chris gave me. But even so, my fabulous luck didn't let up all day.
The answer to that should be pretty obvious: I had Sharon tethered to me pretty much all day in that convention center hall. All she could do was take some awsum photos for me.
By the end of the afternoon, Chris had lost two matches, ending up with 3-2 record. His last match was somewhat memorable for me, as his opponent was soooo antsy and nervous(I'm still pretty peeved that his fat ass somehow found it way into a lot of my photos), that he started twitching and twirling in a sort of uncoordinated, awkward dance. I later heard that he was also famous for this at Philly, when he played at the Regional Tourney there. Perhaps he will later spawn a new varietal of PokeTourney, the Pokemon Dance Battle. Yeah, I haven't quite figured out that one just yet...
As for me, while I was shamelessly flirting with some of the more attractive male staff(who were normal people who had no idea/interest in pokemon) and poking holes on the foam covered floor with my heels, I finished with a 5-0 record. I had no losses at all, and was the top finisher in my flight.
None of the implications had sunk in yet as I was ushered to the table covered in legal documents, where I signed away much of my rights. They told me I was in the US Team with an invitation to compete in the World Championships in San Diego in mid-August. And I had to come back the next day to finish off some more rounds to determine the exact player ranking for the country.
Chris and Sharon had already returned to the hotel. As I walked back, I was overwhelmed with guilt, shame, and confusion mostly. I knew that I had hardly deserved any of this. I knew about the copious amounts of time and preparation that go into even building one basic team. A total n00b, a collector, who just happened to be a casual fan who wasn't a complete idiot had beaten everyone who was waaay more passionate about pokemon and battling than I ever was. And when I saw Chris, I couldn't help but cry. I felt so awful. I didn't want any of it, I never asked for it, and I knew I didn't deserve it.
So after everyone managed to calm me down, we went for a bit of sightseeing. We convinced Chris to come with us, and we headed for the arch. It was HORRIBLY humid. And the line to go up the arch would take three hours. We just took some pictures at the base and decided to go back. Oh, and I almost lost my purse at that point, but a really nice taxi driver gave me a free ride to retrieve it.
Chris had never planned to stay for Sunday because of work related commitments, so he left that very same afternoon. Sharon and I did some more sightseeing, and ended up having dinner at Obama's favorite pizza joint. It baffled us, since we figured he favored Chicago style pizza... from Chicago. Vikki had given me some great advice about things to do, as well as Matt (Mattj from smogon), so we roamed the city, taking more silly pictures. STL is a weirdweird place.
Anyway, the next morning, Sharon and I get back to the STLCC to finish up the tourney. Sharon decides to leave to get some more sight seeing done, and so I'm left alone to for the photo shoots and upcoming matches. The second day at the VGC was noticeably more depressing. There were a lot less people, and I was starting to get kinda lonely. Thankfully, Duy kept me company before all the battles started.
I went into my first match again John Michael, who was wearing hobbit shoes!! This one took forever, since it single elimination format with best two out of three battles. His team had a cresselia, which I wasn't very strong against. But I managed to barely scrape by with two wins, with the most god awful music blaring from speakers right next to where we were playing. And it wasn't really the fact that it was country music, which I generally don't enjoy, but it was made worse by the fact that the song would change every 10 seconds. >_< I must have sounded like a total bitch to the staff(and John Michael) since I couldn't complaining about it. But it was horribly distracting, and not in the good way either. >_< I didn't enjoy this matchup as much because of the music. But John Michael was a really tough opponent, and even while I was ahead by a couple more pokemon (I told him not to count his chicks before they hatch when he about dismissed the game as his loss), he managed to catch up, becoming a really close match. We almost went to the time limit and had marriland (YAAAY) hovering over us, timing our move selection.
I spent the time in between matches talking on my cell phone. It was my one connection to the outside world, with friends who can make me feel at ease. I mostly spoke with J-oppa, ho would encourage me and keep me focused as I gave him updates as to what was going on. It helped that he also didn't care about pokemon. I also spent some time talking with Chris, who helped me not to forget the strategies and moves my team was capable of.
Ss after that, I went into Quarter finals, and my opponent ran a team with a fundamental type weakness against mine, and I beat him easily (I'm sorry!!). I don't remember much about this, other than the cradily in his team, which was really unusual. Although I've played with it before, I still can't decide if I think it's cute or not. I'm mostly inclined to say that cradily is not.
Then, will wonders never cease, I move into the semi-finals. I'm matched up against Mike, who was a really funny guy. He was totally fierce (a la Tyra Banks), and he even let me pull on his arm hairs. We had a bit of a cat fight about who got to the the room leader, but I won that one since I happened to maneuver my chara there first. Haha... By this point, with the lack of pokenerd bodies, I finally notice how cold the place really is. And I'm lonely and suuper nervous without anyone physically present to calm me down. Oh, and my battle is being shown on one of the monitors; I really couldn't handle the pressure from the idea that the audience would be able to watch me play and second guess my choices. So despite how funny and cool Mike was, I was falling apart.
My semi-final match starts well enough. I don't remember much about it, I was starting to panic, really panic. I felt totally out of my element, and I just kept hoping my previous day's luck would somehow kick in. What's worse, somewhat dubiously, while I was playing against Mike, a get a phone call. Anyway, I lose this one without much of a fight. My poketourney debut, at Nationals no less, was with a 7-1 record. And depending on who won the finals, I would be third or fourth place in the nation.
So after I'm done with my exit interviews and such, having returned to normal mode Gracie now that the pressure was gone, I finally check my phone. It was Sharon, calling me from the top of the arch. Apparently, she had gone back in the morning and stood in line. It was about a two hour wait, but just as she got to the front of the queue, a single ticket for the next pod going up became available. Her dumb luck had struck again, but since she wasn't trapped in the convention center with nothing to do, her dumb luck had abandoned me to be with its rightful owner again. Without quite realizing it, I had hoped that her luck would be there to help Chris, but I guess since I was the person closest to Sharon, it latched onto me instead during the weekend.
I didn't stick around to watch the finals. I was just so relieved that it was over for me. And I had some sight seeing to do.
Turns out Mike won the Championship; so it made me the third ranked player in the States.
When J-oppa bought me my pink DS last year, I started playing Pokemon. I'd pretty much stayed away from the franchise earlier in my life because with my general OCD, completionist nature, I knew that I'd probably get hooked. It wasn't all that cute, and I had other things on my mind. So a year and a half ago, I started playing. And I played to collect; some of those pokemans are pretty darn cute. And they also come in shiny form...cute and shiny, not to mention free (after you've purchased the cart), what is there not to like?? And soon after that, I started trading with people all over the country and the world using the DS wifi connection thingy... and somehow, through the course of trading, I'd inadvertently come to acquire an extensive amount of pokemon game mechanics knowledge than I would have preferred; of course you'd never get me to admit such a thing *whistles innocently*
Then it was announced this past spring: a shiny, pretty fishy pokemon distributed to people who register to play for the Pokemon Video Game Championships (VGC). There were multiple locations, and I ended up dragging J-oppa and Sharon up to Fremont, Norcal to get one. So while downloading multiple milotics, I'd also hoped to make some new friends who also enjoyed pokemon. And of course I can't help but enjoy causing trouble, so I had some fun in Fremont. Of course, I didn't play, even though I passed the random drawing selection. And Chris Tsai was also there: Chris is one of last year's American champions, and placed 4th at Worlds. Oh, and I'm related to him.
Chris was totally serious about making it back to the top this year at the VGC for a repeat performance, but as the season progressed, he was making no headway. So with one last chance at St. Louis, where a random pool of players would be selected to round out the swiss round flights with the other Regional Champions, he asked me to come and hang out with him for support. Oh, and his mom made him ask me... Just kidding!! haha I had actually planned to go to St. Louis a year earlier to spend time with one of my closest friends, Vikki, was attending school out there; but alas, I never made it, and she'd long since returned to civaliza..er..Socal. So this time, I dragged Sharon, another close friend who I've dubbed the "Dumb Luck Princess", to STL so we could have adventures and such. She had also been bitten by the travel bug at the time(but was unable to coordinate with me during my troublemaking stint in Manhattan), so it was a happy coincidence that she wasn't going to be picky.
So we arrive at the Armpit of Middle America, and get up way early, earlier than I'd have liked, to register to the event. Only registered players get to download milotics, and I wasn't going to miss a second chance of getting more of those pretty fishies. But I should have known, in the entourage of the Dumb Luck Princess (DLP), we all get selected to play. Sharon forfeits her spot, since she couldn't care less about pokemon. So while Chris is in line to register as a confirmed competitor, I dither around in panic, trying to figure out what to do. I never intended on playing and had nothing prepared. Chris, bemused by my antics as per usual, figures that it wouldn't be a bad idea to play, since I understood the game pretty well, even though I'd never battled against anything other than an NPC. I mean, hell, who likes having their butt kicked by a younger sibling?? I categorically refused to play against Chris even while he was the one to introduce me to the game.
Nervously, I registered to play, and Chris and I get grouped into the same flight for swiss rounds. While they are determining the first round matchups, Chris trades me a team from among his backups; all I asked for was a cute team that didn't require much strategy/attention to use. I expected to have a complete losing streak before the day was done anyway. I won't go into details about my team; I'll just say it was a weather based one. And no, it didn't have many cute pokemon in it.
So with swiss tournaments, in case you are unfamiliar (if you know, then skip this part), the first round is matched up randomly. All subsequent matches are determined by your win-loss record, so winners are matched up with winners with the same win-loss ratio (it's also the same system for losers). Everyone was divided into four flights and played 5 rounds. Single elimination rounds to determine top ranked players would be on the next day out of the top finisher in each flight with the strength of your opponent also factored in to determine actual rankings.
The rest is a blur mostly, since I was nervous, but trying my best to have fun. All I remember is goofing off, posing for silly pictures, and hoping that Chris was doing well. He did he best to keep me calm through the day, to buffer me from the intensity and aggressiveness of the other competitors. Miraculously, I won my first round... and then kept winning. Oh, and I was still pretty much new at battling, so I made a TON of stupid mistakes. (A month later, Chris watched some of my videos and winced everytime he saw me make those really stupid mistakes.) And looking back, I remember how INCREDIBLY lucky I was with some of the secondary effects from my attacks kicking in at an alarmingly frequent rate. I was able to disable my opponent's pokemon to the point where I'd fainted them without giving them one chance to attack.
I remember that my match with Glenn, one of the nicest people evar, in round three, was the turning point of when my matches started to get more difficult, and I had to deviate from the original strategy that Chris gave me. But even so, my fabulous luck didn't let up all day.
The answer to that should be pretty obvious: I had Sharon tethered to me pretty much all day in that convention center hall. All she could do was take some awsum photos for me.
By the end of the afternoon, Chris had lost two matches, ending up with 3-2 record. His last match was somewhat memorable for me, as his opponent was soooo antsy and nervous(I'm still pretty peeved that his fat ass somehow found it way into a lot of my photos), that he started twitching and twirling in a sort of uncoordinated, awkward dance. I later heard that he was also famous for this at Philly, when he played at the Regional Tourney there. Perhaps he will later spawn a new varietal of PokeTourney, the Pokemon Dance Battle. Yeah, I haven't quite figured out that one just yet...
As for me, while I was shamelessly flirting with some of the more attractive male staff(who were normal people who had no idea/interest in pokemon) and poking holes on the foam covered floor with my heels, I finished with a 5-0 record. I had no losses at all, and was the top finisher in my flight.
None of the implications had sunk in yet as I was ushered to the table covered in legal documents, where I signed away much of my rights. They told me I was in the US Team with an invitation to compete in the World Championships in San Diego in mid-August. And I had to come back the next day to finish off some more rounds to determine the exact player ranking for the country.
Chris and Sharon had already returned to the hotel. As I walked back, I was overwhelmed with guilt, shame, and confusion mostly. I knew that I had hardly deserved any of this. I knew about the copious amounts of time and preparation that go into even building one basic team. A total n00b, a collector, who just happened to be a casual fan who wasn't a complete idiot had beaten everyone who was waaay more passionate about pokemon and battling than I ever was. And when I saw Chris, I couldn't help but cry. I felt so awful. I didn't want any of it, I never asked for it, and I knew I didn't deserve it.
So after everyone managed to calm me down, we went for a bit of sightseeing. We convinced Chris to come with us, and we headed for the arch. It was HORRIBLY humid. And the line to go up the arch would take three hours. We just took some pictures at the base and decided to go back. Oh, and I almost lost my purse at that point, but a really nice taxi driver gave me a free ride to retrieve it.
Chris had never planned to stay for Sunday because of work related commitments, so he left that very same afternoon. Sharon and I did some more sightseeing, and ended up having dinner at Obama's favorite pizza joint. It baffled us, since we figured he favored Chicago style pizza... from Chicago. Vikki had given me some great advice about things to do, as well as Matt (Mattj from smogon), so we roamed the city, taking more silly pictures. STL is a weirdweird place.
Anyway, the next morning, Sharon and I get back to the STLCC to finish up the tourney. Sharon decides to leave to get some more sight seeing done, and so I'm left alone to for the photo shoots and upcoming matches. The second day at the VGC was noticeably more depressing. There were a lot less people, and I was starting to get kinda lonely. Thankfully, Duy kept me company before all the battles started.
I went into my first match again John Michael, who was wearing hobbit shoes!! This one took forever, since it single elimination format with best two out of three battles. His team had a cresselia, which I wasn't very strong against. But I managed to barely scrape by with two wins, with the most god awful music blaring from speakers right next to where we were playing. And it wasn't really the fact that it was country music, which I generally don't enjoy, but it was made worse by the fact that the song would change every 10 seconds. >_< I must have sounded like a total bitch to the staff(and John Michael) since I couldn't complaining about it. But it was horribly distracting, and not in the good way either. >_< I didn't enjoy this matchup as much because of the music. But John Michael was a really tough opponent, and even while I was ahead by a couple more pokemon (I told him not to count his chicks before they hatch when he about dismissed the game as his loss), he managed to catch up, becoming a really close match. We almost went to the time limit and had marriland (YAAAY) hovering over us, timing our move selection.
I spent the time in between matches talking on my cell phone. It was my one connection to the outside world, with friends who can make me feel at ease. I mostly spoke with J-oppa, ho would encourage me and keep me focused as I gave him updates as to what was going on. It helped that he also didn't care about pokemon. I also spent some time talking with Chris, who helped me not to forget the strategies and moves my team was capable of.
Ss after that, I went into Quarter finals, and my opponent ran a team with a fundamental type weakness against mine, and I beat him easily (I'm sorry!!). I don't remember much about this, other than the cradily in his team, which was really unusual. Although I've played with it before, I still can't decide if I think it's cute or not. I'm mostly inclined to say that cradily is not.
Then, will wonders never cease, I move into the semi-finals. I'm matched up against Mike, who was a really funny guy. He was totally fierce (a la Tyra Banks), and he even let me pull on his arm hairs. We had a bit of a cat fight about who got to the the room leader, but I won that one since I happened to maneuver my chara there first. Haha... By this point, with the lack of pokenerd bodies, I finally notice how cold the place really is. And I'm lonely and suuper nervous without anyone physically present to calm me down. Oh, and my battle is being shown on one of the monitors; I really couldn't handle the pressure from the idea that the audience would be able to watch me play and second guess my choices. So despite how funny and cool Mike was, I was falling apart.
My semi-final match starts well enough. I don't remember much about it, I was starting to panic, really panic. I felt totally out of my element, and I just kept hoping my previous day's luck would somehow kick in. What's worse, somewhat dubiously, while I was playing against Mike, a get a phone call. Anyway, I lose this one without much of a fight. My poketourney debut, at Nationals no less, was with a 7-1 record. And depending on who won the finals, I would be third or fourth place in the nation.
So after I'm done with my exit interviews and such, having returned to normal mode Gracie now that the pressure was gone, I finally check my phone. It was Sharon, calling me from the top of the arch. Apparently, she had gone back in the morning and stood in line. It was about a two hour wait, but just as she got to the front of the queue, a single ticket for the next pod going up became available. Her dumb luck had struck again, but since she wasn't trapped in the convention center with nothing to do, her dumb luck had abandoned me to be with its rightful owner again. Without quite realizing it, I had hoped that her luck would be there to help Chris, but I guess since I was the person closest to Sharon, it latched onto me instead during the weekend.
I didn't stick around to watch the finals. I was just so relieved that it was over for me. And I had some sight seeing to do.
Turns out Mike won the Championship; so it made me the third ranked player in the States.