Kommo-onism for Everyone -- Prague Special Event Top-16 Team

(Link to rental team on PGL)

Alola friends. The grind for the invite is now officially over, I have booked Worlds too, and here I present to you the team that helped me finish the job.

Return of Quicksand (I Tried)

(Link to rental team on PGL)

Alola friends. Long Leipzig weekend behind me now, time to share the team I brought. I'll talk more about the events in another post later into the season, but the summary of it is that I got top-32 at the main event and some chip CP from mostly irrelevant stuff, putting me currently at 239/300 CP.

But before I actually go into the team... Might as well take a little moment to say this: This was my last Regional and it will be my last year, with Worlds in Nashville being my final competitive event in VGC. The specifics about my decision, which I have long mulled over, will also follow in another post, which will be released some time this summer, but just telling you now. This is my last ride...but I will not go down easily.

WAYLeaders X Freezing Beauty -- A Decent Post-Worlds Team

(Artist: Foxeaf)

Alola friends. While I just barely missed the 1/3 invite in September, I now got the 1/2 invite in October from a weekend at local events that turned out really nice for me. Actually, I'm gonna write a bit of a half-invite report soonish which will have various tournament stories, so stay tuned for that...if you're interested, anyway. Today, I'm just gonna focus on this "new" team that I made. I didn't play a single test match with it, I just brought it to the two tournaments, knowing already it would work for me as long as I'm not running into those classic unpreparable matchups, you know. Out of 65 possible total CP, I took home 55 -- lost to 3 people across the weekend, where I got revenge over one of them in top cut, entirely dodged the other in top cut, and rightfully lost again to the last one because he simply was the better Trainer that day.

The 2017/18 Season and I

Ayelola friends, Captain Dreykopff the Eastern Kingbird writing. It's been a while...and I'm overusing this phrase a lot. This time for real though. Yet another rambly post ahead, but will also feature a paragraph or two of Pokémon talk near the end. Short version of it all: I'm back and you may have to deal with it if ol' uncle Tom so chooses.

Hot Memes -- International Challenge April 51st Place

Alola friends. Results got released earlier than expected, so I guess I can also release the team earlier than planned. Record is 35 wins and 10 losses, 1804 rating, final and peak. Please don't copy it for a serious tournament, it's just not good. It's a fun meme though. Possibly improvable too, but I don't see myself doing it. Anyway, here goes nothing.

We Are Your Leaders -- Updated Version

Alola friends. This will be the promised appendix to last week's report: the changes I made to the team. Here's the pretty Battle Box picture, but I also slightly changed some EVs. For that, go read more.

We Are Your Leaders -- IDM 2017 Champion's Team

Alola friends. One month ago, I did the unthinkable: I've finally won this prestigious online tournament that we literally call "inofficial Nats of Germany", hosted on Bisafans and sponsored by Nintendo and other partners. I've written a more detailed report in German, click here for it. It's slightly more "noob-friendly" and also contains the tournament run, whereas in here, I'll just focus on the team.

I Am the Guardian of Alola -- February International Challenge 10th Place Team

Alola friends. Wrote most of this some weeks ago already and just figured I have no good reasons left to hide it any longer, so: Here it is, the team that brought me to the first page of the global rankings for the 2017 International Challenge February!

And you're in for something that you aren't seeing every day, I can tell you that much in advance.

Facing My Weakness

Alola friends. Very different post today. Much rambling, little to no game-related content. Just been thinking a lot about the game and my place in it recently. Spoilers: no, not quitting it entirely (sorry not sorry haters!), that wouldn't be right. Just some things I noticed and might want to change.

Last Rites of Freezing Beauty

Alola friends. I did end up doing some more work on the team I released a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I came to conclusions that are strongly suggesting me to...let it go, and move on. But, more on those thoughts at the end of the post. A quick word about the results obtained with it: I won a week in NPA with it and scrubbed out at a Premier Challenge because I evaluated situations wrongly and, in turn, made awful plays. For full details about how the team came to be as well as details on unchanged sets, I recommend also reading the previous post. Let's go.

Captain Dreykopff's Treasures, Piece 2: Go Fast

Alola friends. Sorry for the delay, but hey, still less than a month! This will be the second out of 3 games featuring StarKO's team, and as promised last time, we shall have a look at the same Premier Challenge's final today. The last one, coming up in 1.5 weeks as currently planned, will be a Battle Spot game. Anyway, let's go.

Freezing Beauty -- A Ninetales/AFK Team

Alola friends. I've been patiently waiting for this moment ever since Alolan forms were revealed, and it was worth it. My first team with Ninetales turned out better than I had expected and here I am sharing it now. (Actually, it wasn't just my first Ninetales team but my first self-made team in this format, not counting things I threw together for Battle Spot without much thought before.) However, if you for whatever reason want to copy it, I recommend not actually copying it straight away but changing a thing or two. I promise you the team is good, but I know it can be better.

(Artist: GralMaka)

For those judging stuff by results: I brought the team to my first MSS yesterday, finished Swiss as first seed but got knocked out in top 8 in a nightmarish matchup that still went to the third game, which then possibly was decided against me due to a lost Kartana Speed tie. So yeah, I've played many worse teams in my life. If you have a fighting chance, you know there's hope. Well then, on to the good stuff!

Captain Dreykopff's Treasures, Piece 1: These 'Mons Are Poisoned

Alola friends. At the end of last year, I announced on Twitter that I'd go back to doing some nice little YouTube stuff, and now here it is. Actually, it's not just YouTube stuff but rather YouTube and blog stuff combined -- first thing you'll see every time is the link to the video (or, the embedded video) and below you'll find my turn-by-turn analysis of the game shown. I'll explain a bit more about this series and its purpose at the end of this post, but first let's just have a look at the first piece of my treasures!

[VG] Trainer Dreykopff Chooses Death

Hello friends. It's been an open secret ever since London was announced, but now it's time to make it absolutely official to the world: VGC has lost me for the time being. I will not be competing in the official Championships for an indefinite amount of time. If that's all you wanted to see, you can leave and party hard now. That's the tl;dr.

For those who still want to read up on the details, unfortunately I need to start with a disclaimer. I still remember how my good pal Adib went just a little overboard expressing his opinion on Twitter and then got harsh reactions by the usual mob for it. Not much later, he deleted his Twitter. If these two events are connected or not, I can just speculate right now, but for sure as hell it reminds me to make one thing clear before I start my rant: you are free people, so you are free to make whatever the fuck you want out of this circuit. I am free to disapprove of any of your decisions but I am not telling you what to do. Note the difference.

[VG] A Devil's Pact -- A Groudon/Yveltal Team Analysis

Hello world. Just yesterday, I've randomed my ass throughwon my first Premier Challenge of the season, and this post will focus on the team I brought. I probably have about as much to write about the circuit we currently have and I'll definitely do that too, just...not right now. That will have to wait for another day. Team report just before going into the last month of VGC 2016 it is.

[VG] 2016 German Nationals Aftermath

Finished DE Nats 8-1, top 32. Tournament systems are dumb period. See you in Italy. #PlayPokémon pic.twitter.com/W1FhbJzhhB

— Bleykopff (@Dreykopff) May 22, 2016

Hello world. The actual report with all the Pokémon stuff etc. will have to wait for a few more weeks, but there is some other, more informal stuff I'd like to just get out of my system. It was a Nats different than all I've played before and in many ways. I shall keep it in good memory.

[VG] Team Building Goals, 2016 Edition

Hello friends. As I start writing this, I don't even have too much of an idea yet where this is gonna be going in some aspects. Anyway, two months and a few into the format, we have all had our fair share of experience with it and some teams. Looking at my own experience, I can only say that some things will always be the same, haha. So this will be just some informal article about what I personally look for in my teams and why I want it like that. This is in no way the holy grail to the metagame or something, just personal observations, opinions and preferences.

[VG] RIP Some More Teams

This bitch's been lying around here for a while now, so let's just get this off my chest, I guess. Anyway, there will be nothing overly important in this post. If you're looking for somewhat important stuff, go read my Innsbruck Regionals report instead. This post basically covers all events leading up to that Regional.

[VG] I Somehow Won Another PC

Hello friends. Just played a weekend of PCs, again went pretty much just as this chaotic format really goes. I won the Saturday event with a mostly standard Xerneas team on a 6-2 (9-4) record, and I got last freaking place at the Sunday event with a different team that I'm obviously not posting here (which also happened to be my first ever negative record at an official event, fun fact). Happy reading! *cough*

[VG] Nugget Bridge 2.0 and First 2016 Victorious PC Team

Hello friends. I've played my first Premier Challenge of this format a week ago. It was somewhat resembling of Regionals: I felt shit going into it, then I played, and then I took first fucking place. Looking forward to all the tournaments not won when I'm actually feeling good...weeelll, what might help me in that regard is that there's a realistic chance that I'm just never feeling good this year. That's just what a nice new format we have! *cough*

Anyway, before you actually read further in this, you might want to check out the two articles I posted on Nugget Bridge recently, which are first my Regionals report and second a new entry of Dreykopff Explains the Game. The latter also has a few bits about the PC I'm talking about, so I'm not gonna repeat that stuff here and just show and explain the team.