Smogon: Why you came here and why you stayed

[bro fist]

I started playing competitive Pokes about two years ago on other sites. I got Shoddy Battle and decided to make an account on these forums because I heard about what a good battling community Smogon has.

 

[versailles]

i came to smogon after user moot was trolling the serebii chat with a few other smogoners and instructed me to join warau on dejatoons

i stayed because i've formed some great friendships on here and despite the fact that liking pokemon is more of a memory for me, i enjoy browsing the forums and keeping up to date with new happenings (mostly the friendships though)

 

[makiri]

In 2005 I was a big poster on Pojo.com, but during that time I was into Yu-Gi-Oh! but I still dabbled into some of the GBA games but never anything too serious. Someone messaged me on AIM one day asking to trade some of his Yu-Gi-Oh! cards for my FireRed, he wanted it for the Emerald tournament. My interest was piqued and I rejected the trade and entered the tournament myself. I came across Smogon at this time, but never signed up, I made it pretty far in the qualifying but I barely missed the last round and didn't get to Seattle but I was hooked on Pokemon again and started to NB off and on because it was much cheaper than Yu-Gi-Oh!. I was still on Pojo in 2006 when cookkirby sent me a message similar to the one in 2005, I again rejected this trade but he got me to sign up on Smogon. I eventually ditched Pojo, discovered IRC and quickly made friends with people like DM, Steelicks and cloud. I enjoy playing the game still, but the main reason I have stayed over these many years were the friendships I've gathered on the boards and IRC, some of the closest and best friends I've had are from Smogon. I've tried to quit before (like 9 months ago) but Junior dragged me back, some days I still want to leave, but it is hard to leave some of the friends I've grown close to over the years. It is almost like moving to a new state, its really tough leaving the people you love behind.

 

[Limewire]

Although I only recently joined in May, I arrived at Smogon waaaaaay back during the RSE era (you know, when everyone was using Netbattle instead of Shoddy?) Back then, I was one of those n00bs who thought putting Hyper Beam on all six of my ubers made me cool.

I got thrashed.

And then I arrived at Smogon. Reading all of the analysis made me realize how retarded my team was, but I never really hung out around the forums (partly because I was 12 at that time). For some reason, I stopped playing competitive pokemon for a while, and then came back around March, and FINALLY got the guts to make an account.

 

[min min]

Pokemon: Well, I got a Gameboy and RSE was just out so...meh.

After a while I decided to get Crystal on my phone's MeBoy and I didn't have a guide or anything so I went to Bulbapedia to see the moves and such, followed some links, found a site full of stuff that people figured out for you, became intersted in the stuff, saw Shoddy and I was hooked. I made this account in January to join in the fun.

 

[Renosaur]

Preordered Yellow version prior to it's release in Australia! I was barely 10 at the time, and the whole 'wait 1 week until it arrives' drove me crazy!

I got funny spin-offs such as Pokemon Puzzle Challenge + Pokemon Pinball.