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Friday 7 August 2015

[VG] 2015 June International Challenge Recap

Hello friends. I don't have a clue if anyone actually noticed, but yes, I've fallen behind in releasing my teams a bit these last weeks -- let's say purposely so. The most interesting stuff I have posted after all, and all that is left is a bunch of unfinished or simply bad teams. I will get to posting them...eventually. But for now, I've actually been getting back into playing this game recently. There's one last inofficial tourney left to play that I don't really know if I care about it at all, but soon after, there will hopefully be the new season. The post-Nats depression hasn't killed my lust for revenge, and revenge will probably...hopefully...maybe start in September.

Ok whatever, ignore this dreamer's words on a distant future. What I'm actually here for now is to simply repost some stuff from this tourney mentioned in the title. If you have read my post on Nugget Bridge already, you won't find anything new here except for the final result and what I think about it. I'm doing this mostly for the record and because there's probably some interesting stuff among it, but it's hard to find in a long ass forum thread like that.

How Did It Go?

24-6 record, 1728 rating, 33rd in the rankings including Japan and South Korea, and 10th for a CP reward of -- brace yourselves -- 6. That's a single-digit number and you're already getting around 30 for choking your sore ass through a benevolent PC.

I guess it's a good run to an extent. What bothers me is that it's the same record as back in February although my team back then was way worse, and it's an even lower rating. Shoutouts to matchmaking, idiots, greetings and with love... Oh well. The other thing that bothers me is that this in fact had the potential to be a 29-1 run, but yeah, I gave a total five games away by making one bad move each. Looks like I'm the king of freely giving away games that I should win, haha. Really need to do something about that eventually... Anyway, this is pretty much why I'm not too happy with it all. It's like millimetres away from the illustrious first page and it's most definitely my fault that I'm not on it.

Anyway, I had a great time playing some more with this team and want to thank my various opponents for great matches.

Compilation of Fun Facts

The only player that disconnected against me was the lowest rated one, at 1356.

Rock Slide is such a good move. *cough* If I remember correctly, I stole absolutely no game in the whole run thanks to Rock Slide (but didn't get to try it a lot either, just won or lost in other ways). However, unfortunately the 29th of all games went lost to White Herb Rock Slide Blaziken that did White Herb Rock Slide Blaziken things. The White Herb ended up being clearly better than Life Orb in this game and he had one single attempt to see my Salamence flinch, and that turn would be deciding the game based on whatever the RNG said. Well, I'm not complaining about losing only 1 game out of 30 to the best worst move in the game! It's actually an excellent ratio, and one that's basically not feasible to get with various popular archetypes like a lot of which we saw at Japanese Nats. Rock Slide hate is a good thing to include.

I had to play a full 21 games before I ran into my first Greninja, bane of my existence (usually I find most of them in the early stages). I faced two total of them at the end, and I won both games. As for Talonflames, found only one and didn't even have to trade for it. Talonflame sucks.

I faced Kingdra rain two times, and no Ludicolo rain. Normally, Ludicolo rain would be everywhere on Battle Spot with Kingdra rain nowhere to be seen...

Faced one Calm Mind Cresselia. I played slowly as soon as I saw that move, but ultimately still ended up killing her and winning the game without timer. Building on that, I actually had not a single game that went to time. (Contrary to Italy, where I had won one by successfully stalling a damaged Charizard with Amoonguss of all things.)

Oh yeah, one "Cybertron sand" mirror. It was a good game and we both eventually figured, it just had to be decided on the Salamence Speed tie, because not going for it would have been the free loss if the other player went for it alone. I lost.

Chronological streaks (longest bolded):
4 wins
1 loss
2 wins
2 losses
6 wins
2 losses
11 wins ("high ladder is easier than low ladder")
1 loss
1 win

Compilation of Battle Replays

So if you are into watching games outside of YouTube and Twitch, these actually still should be online, and will be for some days more. Order is chronological.

VWYG-WWWW-WW29-F8DM
#8: vs. Azazel (NB), rated 1532 at the time

Charizard/FWG/Cresselia, remotely similar to what Christian used but less hostile to my team. I got the best start into the game I could possibly ask for, but then something unexpected happens...

CXCG-WWWW-WW29-F8HW
#13: vs. Red from the USA, rated 1649 at the time

First Gardevoir matchup of the marathon. As much as I generally hate to face Gardevoirs with about any team out there, I actually really like the matchup with quicksand, not remembering a single loss ever. This game shows how to almost surgically dismantle it.

YU3W-WWWW-WW29-F8YH
#15: vs. Ben from the USA, rated 1569 at the time

Hail Room, even with good old Toxic Orb Hariyama. One could say I had to face the beast I had awoken a long time ago, and I was legitimately afraid of this matchup as soon as I saw it. But I have one very important anti-TR tech, and that is my trusty German sword. Without it, there'd be no way I could win.

ZJ8G-WWWW-WW29-F8L9
#17: vs. Zi-ma from Japan, rated 1628 at the time

Mawile rain with Kingdra, a matchup I'm not too experienced with. It was a great game and I felt like I was in control for most of it, but then...I played one turn wrongly and got totally wrecked. The classic rain shone trough!

2XGW-WWWW-WW29-F8MW
#18: vs. DannyTDS (NB), rated 1589 at the time

Already had Gardy and rain + bulky Steel before, now here they are combined in one matchup. Opinionated but most definitely right: Guys, don't run Assault Vest Scrafty when you don't absolutely have to. Lum is better!

LGUG-WWWW-WW29-F8Z4
#20: vs. Japanese, rated 1570 at the time

Standard Kangaskhan legends Tailwind. Temptation led me. I played this matchup twice in a row and the guy right before that seriously led Heatran Landorus against my team. I was way too greedy to see that again and thus ended up bringing a rather suboptimal selection. Did I still turn it around? Eh, no fun when I say it right here. Prepare for heart attacks.

64UG-WWWW-WW29-F8QP
#23: vs. Japanese, rated 1591 at the time

Your typical Terracott + double Mega cheese. One would think I'd have a solid matchup against that, but something like a lost coin flip on turn 1 can go a long way in giving us an actual game.

7DHG-WWWW-WW29-F8T8
#26: vs. Josh from the UK, rated 1539 at the time

Copypasted Wolfey's Perish team. Again, my team is probably the best against Perish trap I ever had, but still I have already found a way of losing to Perish trap with it before. But this game here...not so much. He didn't bring Gengar and this ended up making it easy for me to never let him get into the game. I'm curious if he in fact played badly, and if I could have legitimately fallen apart with how I approached the matchup.

9PKG-WWWW-WW29-F8TT
#28: vs. EB4 from the USA, rated 1623 at the time

Another Kang legends Tailwind team, one of the best games of the run. Naturally, the moody RNG stepped into it right near the end to first let it feel like one player wins...to then still flip it around in favor of the other. Pokémon™, friends.

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