Written on 3rd-4th April 2023.
Introduction
So…as a hobby, I play a funny little game called Pokémon. You might’ve heard of it. It’s only the best selling video game franchise of all time. Not just the story mode, but also the competitive mode, also known as VGC, or Video Game Competition formats. I played on Pokémon Showdown, but this year, I had the chance to attend a physical, official event known as the Perth Regionals.
This event was spread out over 2 days, the 3rd and 4th of March. Players would compete in 7 rounds of Best of 3, and the top 8 would move onto the 2nd day. 3 points were allocated for a win, and 0 points were added for a loss, with 1 point being added for draws. The 8 players with the highest amount of points would move on to the next day. Your ranking was also determined by the opponents you faced. For example, someone who beat the top player but only had 1 win would be ranked higher than someone who beat the bottom player with 1 win.
This was in the Series 2 format, which allowed Paradox Pokémon, and the regional Paldea Dex, apart from the Ruins. If you have no idea what it is, just search it up. It was an Open Team Sheet format, which meant we could see our opponent’s Pokémon and their moves, abilities, items, and Tera-type, but not their stats.
I competed in the VGC Masters Division, which consists of people 16 years and over.
Teambuilding
Alpharad
“I don’t know if any of you dabble in competitive Pokémon, but if you do, you should know what Flutter Mane is!”
I had a lot of trouble making/finding a team to use, as I hadn’t finished the game yet, and I didn’t get much time to play. My friends Kat and Preston were kind enough to build the team for me, so all I had to do was find a team. I ended up settling on this team here, which was covered by CybertronVGC in a youtube video.
The strategy revolved around Iron Moth’s Acid Spray, which does damage and lowers Special Defence by 2 stages. Flutter Mane and Glimmora, being special attackers, would take advantage of this. Kingambit and Dondozo were for physical moves and bulk, as my team was a hyper-offense team. Tatsugiri was there, because…it just works well with Dondozo. All had defensive Tera-Types except for Flutter Mane and Tatsugiri.
I managed to squeeze in a bit of practice on Showdown, but only managed to get a few games off in the in-game ladder.
The Start of the Event
The day arrived on 3rd of March, 2023. As always, I didn’t sleep well, and saw immediately that most of the competition was adults. Most of them had flown in from other states. I saw a few people with merch from Worlds (the Pokémon World Championships, which was held in London last year). Daunted, but still determined to win, I entered the venue.
There were 131 people registered for the tournament, but only 113 participants for some reason…I have no idea why.
There were some people wearing awesome merch. There was a Greninja cosplayer, a person with a Tera-Ghost Garganacl shirt with the phrase, “It gets worse”, a guy with a Palafin t-shirt (that alone terrified me…) and a Mimikyu cosplayer.
The Playoffs
Round 1
My first match was against Chris Marr. His team was a hyper-offensive team. It had 2 main strategies; 1: use Beat Up with Maushold on the Annihilape to increase its power for Rage Fist, and 2: Tailwind with Murkrow, and sweep with Iron Moth, Flutter Mane, and Tyranitar. Overall, this match-up was good for me, but I just couldn’t do anything. I made some bad plays, and lost the set 2-0. I hadn’t gotten warmed up, so I played pretty badly.
Round 2
The next match was against Matthew Robinson, someone who had flown in from Melbourne. His team was a full Trick Room team. He always started off with his Armarouge and Indeedee, and always used Trick Room. I couldn’t do anything to stop it, and looking back, there’s nothing I could’ve done. His team was just too good, and it was a really bad match-up. I lost the set, 2-0. Again, I still wasn’t fully warmed up, but even if I was, I don’t think I could’ve won
Round 3
My third match was against Zack Stalker, another Trick Room user. However, he also had some fast Pokémon in the back, like Hydreigon, Flutter Mane, and Iron Bundle. I still hadn’t fully warmed up, but was getting into my groove. I played way better this match, but I still couldn’t win. I lost the set, 2-1.
I was feeling pretty down at this point. I had gone 3 losses, 0 wins, and I really didn’t want to lose any more. Kat was on 2 wins 1 loss, and Preston was also on 3 losses, 0 wins. We all felt really bad, and resolved to win our next matches.
Round 4
My next match was against James Powell, a Perth local who had participated in a few local tournaments. His team was a pretty standard team, with 3 support mons, and 3 strong offence mons. He always lead with Iron Hands and Gothitelle. I deduced that he would double Fake Out on the first turn, so I Tera-Ghost’d my Iron Moth, and become immune to it. He did this in both rounds, and I took advantage. I made some pretty good plays, and won the set 2-0.
Round 5
My fifth match was against a Chinese player named Jiangyue Chen. His team was a stall team, and was based on 1 major strategy: Mortal Spin with Glimmora or Salt cure with Garganacl, and just Protect/Spiky Shield, or bring in some bulky mons like Dondozo, Corviknight, or Iron Hands. My team was really bad against his team, but Glimmora and Kingambit carried, and I made some good plays. I won the set, 2-0.
Round 6
The next match was against Jackson Lee Kong, another Perth local about my age. He was kind enough to give me his team. His team was a very offensive team, much like mine. His main strategies were:
- Using Scope Lens and Focus Energy to hit Critical hits, and ignore stat drops
- Use Iron Bundle and Weavile in tandem with each other, as Assurance has 120 base power when the target is hit. He could use Icy Wind and Assurance to sweep teams
- Just using all of his mons to provide offensive pressure
I was pretty used to offensive teams, so I didn’t have too much trouble. I will say this though: He included Weavile because it was his favourite Pokémon, so I don’t care what anyone says, that man is BASED.
Round 7
By now, I’m feeling pretty good. I’ve evened out my losses and wins, and am now at 3 wins, 3 losses. My last match will decide my ranking. Determined to win, I go into the 7th round.
It’s the Palafin guy. Oh my days, his team was so good. His team was another hyper-offensive team that I didn’t match up well against. I won the first set by manoeuvring well. He took the 2nd set by taking advantage of my Pokémon choices. In the third set, I was feeling pretty nervous. I didn’t want to have a bad win:lose ratio, but it was my last match, so I wanted to have some fun. In the past, I always lead with Iron Moth and Flutter Mane, and Terastallised my Flutter Mane, and it worked pretty well. The thing is, he always lead with Iron Bundle. I knew that he was going to Hydro Pump into the Iron Bundle like he did in Game 2, and this would OHKO it. I could’ve protected Iron Bundle and attacked with Flutter Mane, and in retrospect, this was the safest thing to do. But I didn’t want to do that. I thought, “What if Hydro Pump missed?“. I took a 20% chance that it would miss, and based my whole strategy off that. The first turn comes. His Iron Bundle uses Hydro Pump. The seconds tick by…and he misses Hydro Pump. My Iron Bundle uses Acid Spray on his Flutter Mane, and I Terastallise my Flutter Mane, use Dazzling Gleam, and OHKO both his Iron Bundle and Flutter Mane. He brings out Tyranitar and Arcanine, but the sheer force of my hyper-offensive team overwhelm him. I win the set and the round, 2-1.
Conclusion
Overall, considering that I was against adults that flew in from all over the country, I think I did rather well. I placed 55th out of 113 participants, and had a Round win to loss ratio of 4:3, and a Set win to loss ratio of 9:7. I finished with 12 points, and got a participation price of a “Boss’s Orders” Pokémon Regionals Card, and a Regidrago playmat. I didn’t manage to get into Day 2, but I still had a ton of fun.
I had a great time there. I met some new people and made some new friends, and everyone there was so nice. Never once did I encounter a bad sport. I would 100% do this again, and would recommend anyone who is able to, to do so as well.