2012 VGCS Winter Battle: Post-Tournament thoughts

[PokeMaster366]

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Okay, so we're finally into the last legs of the competition. I'm sure that most everybody is excited by how well they did. Well, here's the thread to talk about your experiences in it. You can post about your favorite Battle Video, that time you managed to get two freezes and 12 turns of Sand Veil misses in a row, or even whine about that one time Trainer X, the one with the 2000+ points, ragequitted on you after you splattered the remains of his Pokemon all over the battlefield. Try not to go too crazy having fun on this thread.

[Morpher01]

I have to say that this was a fun first tournament for me. Although, choosing a Hail-themed team solely to go along with the "winter" aspect may not have been the best idea. XD

My only complaints: ragequitters and the rating system. The former I can live with because there's always going to be some sore loser who thinks "GAH INEVERLOSETHISDOESN'TCOUNT RAGEQUIT HA-HA I WIN". The latter...ugh, I've probably complained enough about the rating system in the main thread, but they might want to at least provide an online guide to GBU ratings so that you won't be completely lost as to whether or not you're doing well.

Good game to everyone, and I hope to see at least some of you in the January tournament, where I will hopefully have a team that won't be destroyed by the first Heatran/Volcarona/Ninetales/Tyranitar/Scizor/Metagross/Politoed it runs into. XD

[Zachmac]

I did awful. For both tournies I've entered, I've been really unprepared, and in this one especially, it came to bite me in the back. But, since the next tourny is already stated to have to same rule sets, after having the taste of the metagame here, and I have plenty of time to get everything ready, especially with my winter break.

I'm really looking forward to the January tourny.

[Bestgamepearl]

I did much better in this one than the other 2 tournaments I did, coming in around 1710 i think? The rating system, once again, needs a tiny bit of work, and while the ragequitting penalty is ok right now, i think it could still be a little more punishing. Nevertheless, for only battling a bit thursday, about an hour friday, and then last night and an hour today i think that's pretty good compared to my 1590 in the autumn friendly with a bit more time xD No battle videos though, i always forget to record them

[Lorenzo The Comic]

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Did better with this one than the Eievui Cup. I'm probably at 152x after around 39 matches. I never defeated any Hitmontop or Conkeldurr user. I hope the Christmas Cup goes well.

[zozo]

This was a lot of fun! There was a fair amount of variety between the teams, which was something lacking in the last tournament. Last time, 90% of the teams I faced seemed to be the standard Ttar, Garchomp, Zaptop, Cresselia, + something individual set. It was getting so that I kept checking and rechecking everything just to make sure that I wasn't battling the same person over and over again.

I am more in love with Sableye than ever now. For years they have been a favourite of mine in terms of design, but seeing the way they're able to decimate teams in battles makes them that much more awesome to me. Prankster Will 'o Wisp alone was an absolute blessing to the team, as it neutered threats before they had a chance to act, giving Dusknoir a better chance of getting Trick Room up or prolonging the life of my slow sweepers. Then being able to shuffle items around with Trick (Passing a Life Orb to an already-boosted Gastrodon and healing off some damage with a stolen Leftovers were two of the funniest ones) and Taunt TR reversers or statusers makes it an incredible threat. That one Pokemon made my team a lot less dependant on Trick Room than it was in the past. Besides that, it made TR reversers basically harmless.

Gastrodon was another one that really shone this time around. Even as it is, I rarely have much trouble with weather teams thanks to Lickilicky, but this time I messed around a bit with an opponent by using Gastrodon to soak up a few expected water attacks, so I didn't even need to clear weather that time. I think I ended up taking 3 free boosts that battle (32-02809-91939). That was too hilarious, seeing Kingdra being one-shotted by a sea slug.

Of course, with so much depending on Sableye, I find myself more at the mercy of hax. Even 1 WoW missing its target can, and did, spell disaster for the team. But oddly enough, I think I'm okay with that. Usually, I'm not very keen on "high risk, high reward" strategies, but seeing how often this one did pay off, I don't mind the occasional loss that I take from it.

Can't wait for the next tournament now! I do need to work on my team a little more, but I'm very happy with what I have so far. It was really nice to see how well these guys work with each other.

[jstinftw!]

This is kind of what the other thread is for... And end-all, catch-all to the Winter Battle tournament so that the Competitive Discussion forum won't be cluttered with it, especially since Doubles has such limited appeal. :/

Anyways, I personally did not do a great job. I used the pretty same team as last tournament, which I did fairly well did, but the end results were vastly different. I'd say it was a combination of multiple things that led to my overall performance; lack of practice, the meta getting better, certain threats no longer being threatening, etc. I definitely need to get more practice in next tournament.

I also did not see too many ragequitters this time around. The last few tournaments were plagued with ragequitters, but I saw a huge decrease in it this time around. I guess the realization that you're gonna get kicked off for an hour was a great way to scare people off.

However, I am much more excited about this new metagame. When before this tournament, teams were fairly standard. Cress, Ttar, Scizor, Hitmontop, Garchomp, Zapdos and Metagross pretty much dominated, and everyone was using them. It might simply because it's so early in the VGC season that everyone is excited about trying out different things (or maybe it is the predominance of original teams made by people like Wolfe and Huy), but it's still really nice to see so much variety. Ultimately, I think that's what led to my performance; I'd inadvertantly made a team that countered common threats, and once those threats were no longer commonly used, my team struggled.

Also, it was really nice seeing my peers on this forum do well! A lot of people who struggled last tournament actually did fairly well this time, and that's exciting for me. I love seeing my friends do well, even if I don't, and it was a super fun experience (although my own time was limited due to the real life world taking me away. T^T)

All in all, I hope the metagame stays this way. It's really fun, and can provoke some really interesting team ideas. Maybe this year, Wolfe and Huy won't be the only ones running super non-standard teams, but still do well.

[bobyjoe5000]

I did not like this D: Next time I'm replacing Vaporeon with eiither Kingdra or Starmie

[Arande]

I had fun. Just really wish my schedule would let me start playing when the tourney actually starts. i did worse than in the past W/Lwise, but that got more points than before. Will definitely be in the next ones, just gotta decide whether to use the same team or new ones (poor milotic was useless D

Anyways, videos. Don't suppose someone would be willing to get these as files I can save on my comp somehow would there? :P

91 83734 76161
19 79576 68839
44 30008 76256
79 75229 31214

69 42839 95362 yes, even this frusturating but amusing match one of my opponents uploaded. (yay internets, also find it interesting my best match I lost to someone from Poland, surprising players everywhere)

[JTrainer]

This was the first tournament I've ever been in. It would've been a lot of fun if it wasn't for the fact that practically everyone I won against rage-quit before it could count. And I know that it was not just a connection problem, because it only ever happened when I won or was close to winning. But I took my losses like a man; after all, I was really only in it for the custap berry.

*Sigh* It seems to be like this whenever I play a competitive game online. It's like my opponent is allowed to win, but whenever I win or have a chance to win, it's evil or something.

Maybe I'll have more luck in the next one.

[your boss]

Personally it went smooth with the less existence of Ragequitters, even though I have no problem with then disconnecting in general but overall my team had some sweet and intense battles, leading me to 1804.

[Zak Attack XIII]

I did ok, about 50/50. It was fun but it's taking forever for them to post rankings! I want my Barry! The wait Is killing me! = )

Any guesses how long it normally take?

[1quacka1]

I did ok, about 50/50. It was fun but it's taking forever for them to post rankings! I want my Barry! The wait Is killing me! = )

Any guesses how long it normally take?

It should have been announced almost 36 hours ago (00:00UTC 20th December), they're late.

[PokeMaster366]

It should have been announced almost 36 hours ago (00:00UTC 20th December), they're late.

Some of the workers were probably panicking because of what today is.

[Zak Attack XIII]

Personally it went smooth with the less existence of Ragequitters, even though I have no problem with then disconnecting in general but overall my team had some sweet and intense battles, leading me to 1804.

I was 1701, not bad for the team I was playing. I just kinda threw it together from some flawless event pokes I had. I just ev trained them and changed some of there moves and items.

I wanted the team to all be in cherish balls just to look cool so I went with;

PC adamant garchomp@ haban barry.
PC adamant metagross@ lum barry.
PC adamant tryanitar@ chople barry.
PC adamant scizor@ life orb.
McDonald's modest hydreigon@ dragon gem.
NoK Anime tie in timid thundurus@ electric gem.

It worked pretty well even though its just thrown together. I was surprised how well it did. I only went about 50/50 out of 100 battles but I beat some very good teams! I even beat a few copy's of Ray Rizzo's 2012 team( good team btw, well rounded...) Just go to show you anything can happen in a battle, no team is unbeatable.

[1quacka1]

hmmm 48 hours late now... To those who've participated in GBU events before: is it normal for the rankings to be this late?

[zozo]

hmmm 48 hours late now... To those who've participated in GBU events before: is it normal for the rankings to be this late?

From my experience, yes. I never really keep track of which precise days rankings are supposed to be up for this very reason, it always seems like the rankings go up several days after the event is over. The first couple were the worst, if I recall correctly.

[Lorenzo The Comic]

I'm thinking we're going to have to wait until Season 7 is over for the rankings to finish calculating.

[Gundam Leafeon]

This is one of my favorite battles from the tournament. Hitmontop reveals his entire moveset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQfD...e_gdata_player

[Zak Attack XIII]

This is one of my favorite battles from the tournament. Hitmontop reveals his entire moveset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQfD...e_gdata_player

Good video! The winning team has some pokemon not seen in wi-fi battle very often, well other then Hitmontop.. All 4 of the pokes on the losing team were in every division champ's teams at 2012 VGC. Good use of Feint with Hipmontop protect got used against me a lot during the tournament, and I used it a lot myself, and nobody even tried to us Feint. I was wandering when I would start seeing people using Feint as popular as protect has been the last 2-3 years..