Picollooooo :((( Really sorry to hear that =/
I'll be rooting for Germany to win German nats :D
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VGC '11 France National - Paris - June 25th - WON BY bharmalm
- Thread starter froggy25
- Start date
- Status
I'll be rooting for Germany to win German nats :D
I was there
I just got home from Paris (my flight arrived at 11 PM last night) and I had a nice time.
I lost to tblakey in the TOP 16 after winning my first 4 matches. As Dozzalon stated correctly, there were exactly 22 people in the finalist lounge (I was #17), which would imply that there were 176 people attending the masters, but I think there were a bit less people. I´m almost sure that there were a few less than 176, because I saw a guy´s trainer card in the finalist lounge and he had a bye round 2 IIRC.
As always when it comes to stuff like this, I wasn´t one of the 10 guys in the finalist lounge who got a bye card to the TOP 16 and had to play the incomplete top 32 round. Funny thing was the organizer sent me to the table where Druck_Duck was already sitting and I told him I knew the guy, he answered in German that at this stage you can´t choose oponents...well I did sit down at that 4 person table, but not in front of DD lol, but in front of the guy sitting next to DD at the table, go me. I think DD was glad I did that. EDIT: I just remembered that there was a problem with one finalist who had a loss marked on his card or something, or maybe he failed a hack check but in the end there were only 5 matches in the top 32 and not 6, a name got announced that moved onwards and got another bye...so it was 21 finalists, actually.
Anyway, out of those "a bit less than 176 masters", there were like 10 germans, 4 spanish guys, 3-4 brits and me the slovak, that sort of knew each other, but none won the 2 places that matter at the end of the day. So the "this VGC sucked" emotions around here are understandable as many people are disappointed and were visibly disappointed on site....so "we" kind of failed to conquer Paris, props to the French guys who defended well. The final was crazy and felt like salt to some people´s wounds lol, but congrats to you two, whoever you are.
As for me, I didn´t go to the tournament with high expectations, the main reason I felt I had to go was the fact that over the last 2 months, I trained over 20 Unova pokémon which would´ve been futile had I not gone to one of these tourneys. I tested a bit here and there on PO and created a solid team that felt "mine" because of some stuff I was using (specific EV spread and moveset on a common pokémon and one other pokémon that isn´t in the top most used)...what felt great was that the particular spread was very useful in two of my matches.
Also, pokémon battles against humans give me an adrenaline kick/thrill with my heart beating fast and loud, it´s awesome.
At first, I wasn´t disappointed much, but it hit me the next morning, when I couldn´t stop going through the losing battle in my mind all over again...why oh my didn´t I TW turn 2, it would have been a memorable match...
Anyway, this topic might imply that there was unsportsmanlike behaviour or something like that, but I didn´t have such experience. Everyone I played was cool and we said good luck / good battle / thank you etc. I know my friends, the Germans, and they´re really nice people (and competitive), they prepared hard for this, for many months and the disappointment was visible on their faces. Guys, I´m sure you will bounce back in no time and Cologne will be yours.
Hmm, what else to say. I really liked the place the tournament was held, Grande Arche is monstrous (a must see) and the actual tournament area was underneath it, there was a lot of space (Cologne last year was too small for the amount of people) and nice, fresh air inside heh. The tournament organisation was really nice, it´s awesome that they´ve got people who speak not only French, but also English, Spanish and German and that helps a lot. The tourney staff is great plus there were a few French ladies among them that were good for the eyes if you know what I mean.
What disappointed me a little was the fact that despite the number of staff members I still had to stand in line for like 2 hours for my first match (because of the "low" number of players they didn´t use the first area but jumped right away to the second area with half of the seats, so the whole tournament took longer than it should have, IMO).
So, at the end of a single elimination tournament, the one with the best combination of skill and luck gets the paid tickets...yes, luck plays a big part of the game but don´t forget that pokémon IS a luck based game to an extent...people tend to get emotional about that, it has happened to most of us (I´m no exception) and I think it´s natural.
Let´s look at rock slide, most people use it in this metagame and it´s 90% accurate...so it´s bound to decide battles sooner or later...for example in my case, I didn´t miss a slide in my first 3 battles but in the 4th, I missed twice in a row (didn´t matter because I was 4-1 and 3-1 up but it probably would have mattered in one of my previous matches which was close). Yeah and as DD posted, the crustle guy in the final (the runner up) missed three slides in a row.
After the tournament, over the last two days, I did some rushed sightseeing in really hot temperatures (the worst was yesterday) and because I´m not used to walk that much, I´m terribly exhausted and my feet and lower back aches :(
Anyway, I was at the top of the Eiffel Tower at noon yesterday, which was a highlight, La Défense was great, as well as Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysées, Louvre and Notre Dame. Yes I spent the whole sunday in Disney Land lol.
Well, I´ll try to recover and decide today/tomorrow whether to take the 14 hour bus drive to Cologne on friday or not.
It was really nice meeting you guys again and some for the first time ;)
I just got home from Paris (my flight arrived at 11 PM last night) and I had a nice time.
I lost to tblakey in the TOP 16 after winning my first 4 matches. As Dozzalon stated correctly, there were exactly 22 people in the finalist lounge (I was #17), which would imply that there were 176 people attending the masters, but I think there were a bit less people. I´m almost sure that there were a few less than 176, because I saw a guy´s trainer card in the finalist lounge and he had a bye round 2 IIRC.
As always when it comes to stuff like this, I wasn´t one of the 10 guys in the finalist lounge who got a bye card to the TOP 16 and had to play the incomplete top 32 round. Funny thing was the organizer sent me to the table where Druck_Duck was already sitting and I told him I knew the guy, he answered in German that at this stage you can´t choose oponents...well I did sit down at that 4 person table, but not in front of DD lol, but in front of the guy sitting next to DD at the table, go me. I think DD was glad I did that. EDIT: I just remembered that there was a problem with one finalist who had a loss marked on his card or something, or maybe he failed a hack check but in the end there were only 5 matches in the top 32 and not 6, a name got announced that moved onwards and got another bye...so it was 21 finalists, actually.
Anyway, out of those "a bit less than 176 masters", there were like 10 germans, 4 spanish guys, 3-4 brits and me the slovak, that sort of knew each other, but none won the 2 places that matter at the end of the day. So the "this VGC sucked" emotions around here are understandable as many people are disappointed and were visibly disappointed on site....so "we" kind of failed to conquer Paris, props to the French guys who defended well. The final was crazy and felt like salt to some people´s wounds lol, but congrats to you two, whoever you are.
As for me, I didn´t go to the tournament with high expectations, the main reason I felt I had to go was the fact that over the last 2 months, I trained over 20 Unova pokémon which would´ve been futile had I not gone to one of these tourneys. I tested a bit here and there on PO and created a solid team that felt "mine" because of some stuff I was using (specific EV spread and moveset on a common pokémon and one other pokémon that isn´t in the top most used)...what felt great was that the particular spread was very useful in two of my matches.
Also, pokémon battles against humans give me an adrenaline kick/thrill with my heart beating fast and loud, it´s awesome.
At first, I wasn´t disappointed much, but it hit me the next morning, when I couldn´t stop going through the losing battle in my mind all over again...why oh my didn´t I TW turn 2, it would have been a memorable match...
Anyway, this topic might imply that there was unsportsmanlike behaviour or something like that, but I didn´t have such experience. Everyone I played was cool and we said good luck / good battle / thank you etc. I know my friends, the Germans, and they´re really nice people (and competitive), they prepared hard for this, for many months and the disappointment was visible on their faces. Guys, I´m sure you will bounce back in no time and Cologne will be yours.
Hmm, what else to say. I really liked the place the tournament was held, Grande Arche is monstrous (a must see) and the actual tournament area was underneath it, there was a lot of space (Cologne last year was too small for the amount of people) and nice, fresh air inside heh. The tournament organisation was really nice, it´s awesome that they´ve got people who speak not only French, but also English, Spanish and German and that helps a lot. The tourney staff is great plus there were a few French ladies among them that were good for the eyes if you know what I mean.
What disappointed me a little was the fact that despite the number of staff members I still had to stand in line for like 2 hours for my first match (because of the "low" number of players they didn´t use the first area but jumped right away to the second area with half of the seats, so the whole tournament took longer than it should have, IMO).
So, at the end of a single elimination tournament, the one with the best combination of skill and luck gets the paid tickets...yes, luck plays a big part of the game but don´t forget that pokémon IS a luck based game to an extent...people tend to get emotional about that, it has happened to most of us (I´m no exception) and I think it´s natural.
Let´s look at rock slide, most people use it in this metagame and it´s 90% accurate...so it´s bound to decide battles sooner or later...for example in my case, I didn´t miss a slide in my first 3 battles but in the 4th, I missed twice in a row (didn´t matter because I was 4-1 and 3-1 up but it probably would have mattered in one of my previous matches which was close). Yeah and as DD posted, the crustle guy in the final (the runner up) missed three slides in a row.
After the tournament, over the last two days, I did some rushed sightseeing in really hot temperatures (the worst was yesterday) and because I´m not used to walk that much, I´m terribly exhausted and my feet and lower back aches :(
Anyway, I was at the top of the Eiffel Tower at noon yesterday, which was a highlight, La Défense was great, as well as Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysées, Louvre and Notre Dame. Yes I spent the whole sunday in Disney Land lol.
Well, I´ll try to recover and decide today/tomorrow whether to take the 14 hour bus drive to Cologne on friday or not.
It was really nice meeting you guys again and some for the first time ;)
yeah, come to cologne peterko :D
The team was not so random, as it was properly trained with EVs, perfect IVs, items, abilities... plus: you'll probably agree that the variety of pokemon is limited and thus obviously I knew enough of the metagame to beat some random "newbies" (although admittedly I'm one, too) or be lucky using spore (thinking of poor ash from belgium!). :P
But I still don't know what you did there with my terrakion, Dozzalon. :D
@Dozzalon:
I didn't use CC, I switched it in, but I calculated it... The chance for killing me like that was about 10% or something like that. ^^ And if your nature was adamant your chance would have been about 50 %.
Of course all that doesn't mean I would have won if I had been lucky again. ^^
@drug_duck: btw Sanchan's boyfriend =! Appi's brother
I didn't use CC, I switched it in, but I calculated it... The chance for killing me like that was about 10% or something like that. ^^ And if your nature was adamant your chance would have been about 50 %.
Of course all that doesn't mean I would have won if I had been lucky again. ^^
@drug_duck: btw Sanchan's boyfriend =! Appi's brother
Oh yeah. I forgot about that. Unfortunately, although I'd like to, I can't save all my battle videos, and as I never really intend to write a warstory, I don't take notes. I didn't even know there was a 10% chance, better than expected.
I must say, for this event, it was nice meeting some Continental people. If I wasn't at Foo Fighters, and I had spare money, I'd be going to Cologne.
I must say, for this event, it was nice meeting some Continental people. If I wasn't at Foo Fighters, and I had spare money, I'd be going to Cologne.
yeah looking forward seeing you again! and seems like you had a great time in paris despite of the round4 loss!!
Might be that your team was properly EV'd, RNGed and all but you gotta admit it's a poor showing for the metagame as a whole that someone like you who just did a bit of practice with a random team like yours (mushroom and Scarf Outrage Haxorus IS random) was able to place better than a lot of the players who have been practicing for months, including your girlfriend. It's not like you'd have been going anywhere in this without her helping you :P
here´s the only group photo from Paris that I have (Germans, Spaniards and one Slovak)
Bienvenue!
One gentle push
Check out those trees
Buzz!!!
La Défense in the distance (view from Eiffel Tower)
Louvre & Notre Dame in the distance (view from Eiffel Tower) - not easy to see
Small part of the colossal Louvre
Notre Dame
Bienvenue!
One gentle push
Check out those trees
Buzz!!!
La Défense in the distance (view from Eiffel Tower)
Louvre & Notre Dame in the distance (view from Eiffel Tower) - not easy to see
Small part of the colossal Louvre
Notre Dame
@drug_duck: That's what I was trying to say. I knew enough to get an invite, because the metagame is limited and quite obviously so random. And of course I wouldn't have won anything without Sanchan and some others of the BPE. But it seems this year it's 10 % proper preparation, 10 % skill and 80 % luck and what I lack in skill (still not sure which elemental type is effective against one another) I counterbalanced with luck (remember my rockslide against your volcarona? :P).
I'm sorry to say this because it may offend some people but I've just seen Master finals and the winner sucks badly from what I saw. I expect him to lose hard in worlds.
So as to avoid misunderstandings and fights:
I'm not saying french players are bad nor making any generalisation about anyone. I could even admit that finalists weren't under pressure and didn't pay effort to win, but I doubt it. Some of the mistakes were so basic that can only be explained if the player doesn't really understand what's going on or just can't reason out an easy plan.
Just to give an example:
user has just lost two pokes to a scarf jellicent (he has evidence to figure out jellicent is scarfed since it has moved before his landorus).
sends in his last poke, a full health hydreigon against full health scarfjelli locked on water spout and an almost dead and paralized crustle (that has already used shell smash).
He uses dark pulse against jelli.
Big irony is that after taking 35%ish dmg and OHKO'ing jelli, crustle is fully paralized and a average player gets the French Cup.
So as to avoid misunderstandings and fights:
I'm not saying french players are bad nor making any generalisation about anyone. I could even admit that finalists weren't under pressure and didn't pay effort to win, but I doubt it. Some of the mistakes were so basic that can only be explained if the player doesn't really understand what's going on or just can't reason out an easy plan.
Just to give an example:
user has just lost two pokes to a scarf jellicent (he has evidence to figure out jellicent is scarfed since it has moved before his landorus).
sends in his last poke, a full health hydreigon against full health scarfjelli locked on water spout and an almost dead and paralized crustle (that has already used shell smash).
He uses dark pulse against jelli.
Big irony is that after taking 35%ish dmg and OHKO'ing jelli, crustle is fully paralized and a average player gets the French Cup.
Agree.
Found the video btw. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZq3875KJ4
Found the video btw. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZq3875KJ4
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