VGC '12 United Kingdom National - Birmingham - March 3 - WON BY KobraTail

[twash]

Firstly, congratulations to everyone who got invites and did well, and good luck at Worlds. Ruben is an awesome guy, he was one of the most sporting people I have played in the two years, and he was very talkative and polite this year too. Who gives a fuck if he decides to pay to come here and play. Very impressed by the Ben/Gary guy too, I briefly chatted to him whilst waiting for ~Georgia~ in the finalists lounge, he was clearly there to have fun and I'm pretty glad he did well. Themed teams look like fun.

I probably won't write a warstory because Keely is doing one probs and I think he will probably get most of it and it will be better with pics (apart from my matches obviously). I am more than happy with how I did (top 16), thanks to R Inanimate for the team. I won round one against a random, two and three I knocked out two chinese friends who ran 5/6ths of the same team, round four I played a really awesome guy called Chris. That match was way too close, probably the closest match I have had in the two years, basically coming down to whether my Blizzard would hit Garchomp in sand (it did). Round 5 against gec I am sure everybody knows about by now... yeah lol, and then I lost to IAmMarti because I completely underestimated how bulky Cresselia could be. And I messed up my team preview badly (used same four in previous rounds and then changed it up here), and made a minor mistake in the battle... but eh. I think that is just lack of practise. Still pleased, kept up a solid record. Sorry for gec here though :'( best and worst way to lose together.

Other things that happened included excellent speeches from Pokerob (full applause from keely there), Davina scouting gec and my teams, Snivy being a fucking bitch, the best fucking interview in the world, Dozz, Chris and keely playing danger can, a bed broken in two places, and gec actually completing the twenty nugget challenge.

Thanks to SkyNet, Peng, Kinny, Keely, gec, Pokewaii, and everyone else who I spoke to for making this weekend so awesome. :D

YES YES YES YES YES YES

 

[Linck]

a french guy won the tournament last year ^^'

 

[Picollo]

a french guy won the tournament last year ^^'

type error , yeah thats what i was trying to tell.

 

[Fantom0]

Darr r4 again -_________-
Ahh well, grats to everyone in the top 4 (especially the seniors with their rain teams LOL), and especially Ruben for winning twice in a row ^_^
I was very pleased on the day, no hax for me (except maybe the Kangaskhan in a Master Ball - clearly not hacked -__-)
and I lost to a very good player.

...
...lost again to a Dragon Gem Latios.

 

[keelhauled]

RUBEN PORRA

i like how people bitch about sportsmanship but aside from his group of friends me/kinneas/gec/dozz/twash were the only people who actually cheered for him (as well as cheering for ben) at any point in the final, good sportsmanship guys

i suck at vgc but im gonna make a warstory anyway because it is my favourite weekend of the year and this was amazing except snivy woman leading snivy away and not letting me and twash hug photo it :( >:(

but yeah i'll probs warstory tomorrow or somethin cause i'm only home for a few hours before i go back to my flat at uni

vgc :D
pokemon 9.9
YES
YES
YES

YES
YES
YES

 

[DreamTalon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxQ-cBNIX_g

Video of the champino. Hitmontop has nothing on him.

 

[Osirus182]

Massive Congrats to Ruben, Piccollo and the other finalists and players that did well on the day and I hope all top four players have an amazing time in HAWAII!!

This whole weekend was awesome and it was great seeing everyone and being introduced to a few new faces that I haven't met before (Keely and Twash :D)!

My performance on the day was well, not really worth mentioning. I had a gimmicky team and to be honest I just played badly so I didn't deserve to do any better than I did.

(hopefully I can redeem myself in Paris)

Big thanks to DanielAcorn, Marcoos and James for room sharing and giving me a place to crash for the night, was fun hanging out and I'm gutted I missed you after the event (my phoned died and I couldn't find you guys).

Weekend Props!

-Hanging out and meeting up with everyone (to many to name but you know who you are)
- The Weather Spoons Cup after the event with Rees, Tim, Dozz, Porkloin, Koryo and Tblakey, which me and Koryo stormed, and Dozz no excuses with your leads haha!!
- Sitting across from GEC at our romantic F&B's Meal
- Speaking with Kin for longer than two minutes, like I have done other years <3
-Sharing a bed with Piccollo ;)
-Kefka Translating Rubens excuse for being kicked out and banned from all the hotels in the NEC which would make an epic inbetweener's episode.

Weekend Slops

-Waking up and heading to the event at 4am
-Knocked out of the tourney before 9am
-Zogs Shirt
-and not speaking with Zog to tell him how gay I thought his shirt was (j/k's) :D.
-Pokewaii's promises of a Ditto Cupcake, still waiting for one!
-People bitching about Hax (man up and take it)
-People bitching about European players taking our prizes, this does make me lol, deal with it we can travel to their events so I don't see why they can't travel and attend ours especially when the majority of them are all pretty nice guys and obviously on the day the better players!

I just wish we had more than one tournament like this every year, we have such an amazing community and its something I'm already looking forward to next year. Thanks to everyone I spoke with and saw over the weekend for making it so enjoyable.

Cant wait for Paris, two weeks :D!

 

[EspeonX]

Me and my mates were part of the six cosplaying champions (Gary Oak included) and we had an awesome time - me (Steven) and Clare (Wallace) went out in the first round, while Kay (Cynthia) went out in the second round. Niall (Alder) went out in the third. Alex (Lance) didn't turn up in time to compete.

And Ben (Gary Oak!) as you all know, made it into the finals.

I think there was a noticable atmosphere when the crowd was chanting "GARY," so much so that the official was shushing and motioning for us to quieten down. I'm sure videos will be uploaded!

I want to congratulate Reuben for his victory, but I really would appreciate it if he could develop a little sportsmanship. Confidence is understandable when you're that good, but outright arrogance? It just comes across as downright rude. Ironic that Ben should be cosplaying the most arrogant of all the characters in the franchise, yet was the more humble in his victories and loss.

Also, I find it incredibly odd that a bunch of Spanish players choose to compete in the UK Regionals. It's quite irritating that Reuben is representing the UK when he is not from the UK. It might be a less bitter pill to swallow if our main representative wasn't so cringingly arrogant.

Regardless of sportsmanship, the battle was awesome to watch, and it was well played on both sides. Reuben is a good battler, and his prediction was spot on. Ben did an incredibly good job to get so far with a themed Gary team (all of his Pokemon have been used at some point by Gary in the games.)

Congratulations to all who made it to the finals! =]

Glad that he won it!

Also, really made me smile how everyone chanted "Gary! too.

Anyways, I do agree that it should be region locked until the World Championships take place each year.

So, I will start trying a themed team for a couple of years time. Hmm...Cynthia based team anyone?

 

[Tyranitar.armaldo]

i like how people bitch about sportsmanship but aside from his group of friends me/kinneas/gec/dozz/twash were the only people who actually cheered for him (as well as cheering for ben) at any point in the final, good sportsmanship guys

People cheered for him last year, this time people probably wanted to see someone different winning.

And on the flamboyance issue. One mans flamboyance is another mans arrogance, and vice versa. People interpreted his actions differently, and while I have no problems with him getting up and celebrating, the flag waving is right off.

And to everyone defending people from inside Europe going to each others tournies, alot of the people I spoke too who didnt like it were not able to go to other countries to take part in a tournamant, either because of time constraints or (most likely during the current econamy) it is just unaffordable to go hop around Europe. So it seems kind of unfair to them that some people get one chance while others get several. And I am sure people not likeing other people coming here to take places in our tounamant dont like the idea of english people going to a tournamant elswhere just to compete either.

Although a big answer to the issue is to get rid of the stupid single elimination tournamant style, sure its similer to the anime but in reality it makes hax all the more dominant.


Despite how negative my post sounds it really was a good day, and there were some fantastic battles, I normally dont go and watch the battles taking place but this time was drawn to them. Some brilliant games.

 

[Kinneas]

I cannot go to other european regionals because I am poor, but I would never dream of taking away somebody else's opportunity to go and compete in another country. I know several UK players are bunking in a dirt cheap hostel purely to compete in France in a couple of weeks. I can't go, but I wish them the best of luck.

I wonder if anybody thinks it's unfair that Dozz qualified for worlds last year at france...

Sorry if my posts last night were a little harsh, but I was disgusted by some of the things I was overhearing people saying at the event about one of my friends. You can justify your arguments for region locking however you like, but I know for a fact that a lot of the people who want to ban overseas competitors want to do it purely because they can't beat them. I know this because I was there at the event and I heard it from several people in the crowd, and I've also been around the internet long enough to know the difference between jealousy and a legitimate point.
I was there in 2009 and 2010 for the Belgians and French, and I was there for 2011 and 2012. This discussion never came up until foreign players started winning.

[00:58:17] <+Ray> how they expect to win worlds if they can't even win their own national

 

[Zog]

Oh damn just realised I forgot to actually mention the positive stuff ;_;

Got so caught up in the BS to mention it all lol. It's just, with the whole day's events it feels like the game hates me. Not a good feeling to be honest, and it's almost as if it was like pokemon was getting back at me for saying you can prevail through hax if you're good enough. Which is the absolute truth and it's what I had to do in most of my games, but still, there's a limit here. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitching about how pokemon's a flawed game with luck elements, it's more... I don't know it's probably that I don't like looking as if I was beaten. Sounds dumb yeah but I have pride in my gameplay and in being perfect as possible at the little game we call pokemon. That, and the inevitable "Top 24? I thought you were the best" is actually going to wind me up when I know it could easily have been me in 1st place had stupid luck things not happened every damn game. I can do so much better than that and most of all, I want my trip to Hawaii. That's why Zog is sad (and note sad not angry lol i dont get angry). I'm not going all autistic puss puss fuck here I just want people to remember that Zog is still as much a wonderful tactical genius as ever. :(

Shit. Went off about hax again.

Anyway, well done to everyone who did do well and who didn't luck through absolutely everything. When you know you're bad and that you've completely lucked someone out and have no hope of winning, to be honest I think you should just resign and let them have the win. Hard thing to do maybe but come on guy who won vs gree, that was just awful and if I were in that position I would honestly just run and let him have it. Not in the "Saying I'd do the moral thing but really wouldn't" way but as in, for real. At least with my loss, Nido's actually a good player and it was fairly far in.

SHIT I DID IT AGAIN

ANYWAY as Zog was intending to say, RUBEN MUY FUERTE and SHOWSNI!!! GREAT TO SEE YOU DOING WELL you were always quietly competent and it made me happy to see you'd made top 4! Piccolo too! I'd been gone eating a thai chicken pasty during t8/4 and so didn't realise you two were 3rd/4th until after the final. And OSIRUS DAMN I saw you a bunch of times but only while I was playing, bummed I didn't get to talk to you this year. And yeah I recognised Gael he's strong jajaja. Also Devastation I'm pretty sure that in the station/nec/coffeshop thing I did tell you that Ruben and LOS HABAKIANOS are actually complete bros except maybe for that one thing that happened on the hallway of the etap

QUESTIONABLE

Also, crappy UK people stop being jelly of the spaniards. The UK has a weirdly high number of people who spend ages playing pokemon but are still no good at it, and far far too many people resembling the "pokemon hipster (BAN ME PLEASE)" stereotype. I overhear "Only the first 150 are good the others are unoriginal" so many times and it's only ever in the UK. If you legitimately hold this opinion please, I beg you, stop being a mong. Although that one time one of those guys approached me with "Yeah I bet I know something about pokemon that you don't: there were originally gonna be 190 of them" was incredibly funny when it was me who posted that in the first place. To be honest, now I wish I'd made it up just to be able to laugh at those guys.

Anyway, pretty sure I'll be going to Paris. I've always wanted to go to Paris. ZOG THE FROG

Oh yeah and guess what

I STOLE THE TOILET SIGN AND IT'S ON MY WALL NOW

 

[Tyranitar.armaldo]

I STOLE THE TOILET SIGN AND IT'S ON MY WALL NOW

Hahahaha! Thats brilliant, I love it when people take stuff like that. I saw other people with them too, I wonder how many got taken?

 

[Last Requiem]

I don't like "region locking" because there is no qualifier in my country and I like to play :'( . I also like to "steal" prizes, but haven't been very good (read: have been awful) at it as of late :P ...

Congratulations Picollo :) ! No need for facebook donations this year :P !

Y mis felicitaciones a Ruben :) ! Eres demasiado fuerte! A ver si nos vemos en Madrid!

 

[Shoeman]

Well we got 3 of them.

(Credit to Jack (Rebel) for the pic)

Zog has the top one, I've got the middle and Jack has the bottom. The foreign ones were all stacked behind the english one for some reason.

I lost round 3 due to stupid play on my part and timestall to Kefka who used an Ivysaur. Yes, I got dunked by an Ivysaur.

So not the best day in terms of battles for me but I had the most fun getting up to shennanigans at the hotel and the NEC. This has easily been my favourite year.










(Oh yeah, Zog got assaulted and raped in the travelodge. It was hard to tell what order they happened in.)

 

[tblakey89]

i like how people bitch about sportsmanship but aside from his group of friends me/kinneas/gec/dozz/twash were the only people who actually cheered for him (as well as cheering for ben) at any point in the final, good sportsmanship guys

Please stop generalising us, there was a lot of people supporting Ruben, he is a great player, and a really nice guy, i know i was supporting him, and i know of many others as well. No wonder people think badly of british players if our own kind posts stuff like this.

 

[NidoRich]

Please stop generalising us, there was a lot of people supporting Ruben, he is a great player, and a really nice guy, i know i was supporting him, and i know of many others as well. No wonder people think badly of british players if our own kind posts stuff like this.

Agree with this 1000x Don't generalize every because of a majority.

 

[Synre]

Probably bragging about taking things on a site tpci has been known to read not the most clever of ideas...

I don't blame people for being irritated Ruben won their regional -- I'd be mad, too -- but the solution to that is to actually beat him at a game of Pokemon, not to whine about losing mostly on the internet. Like Ray's quote points at there, even if Ruben wins in Spain instead, how are you gonna compete with the best in the world if you can't hang with him(especially since almost all of you lost to someone other than him anyway)? I'll admit it's a little silly the Canadians are getting protected from American competition but the same isn't happening in Europe, but with the rest of the EU format lagging behind the changes in NA I don't think single elim, only allowed to enter one tournament no matter what is a particularly good method, either. Honestly, if they were to do anything to make it "fair" without changing the format, I'd just alternate starting in the Eastern and Western ends of the EU countries they have events in rather than starting in the UK every time. You'd have the best players qualifying at earlier events making the UK regional easier rather than the other way around every other year... though the whole "you have to actually beat the best players eventually" thing would still be an issue.

 

[Baz Anderson]

Hahaha, I randomly took a picture of that sign. Didn't think about taking it though... hmm... there's always next year, haha.

 

[aqualta]

Wow. A weekend to remember, most definitely. I finished 26th, losing in Round 4 to Ben/Gary.

It's been fascinating reading this thread, seeing how controversial this tournament has been...I always say that you need some luck to win a Pokémon match. I'd liken Pokémon to poker; yes, there is a huge amount of skill involved in bluffing your opponent into thinking you have a better/worse hand than you do, but if you don't have the hands to win the rounds, it's very difficult.

And that brings me to Ruben...what a character that guy is. He is massively skilful - very possibly the best VGC player on the planet, and deserves his victory completely. He has to have had some luck to win 17 matches at the UK VGC on the bounce, though. He will have faced players who were good enough that one crit or miss here and there will have turned the match around.

And his behaviour...OK, confession time here. I, like a lot of people, thought he was too arrogant when he shouts and celebrates everything that goes right for him.

I was disgusted by some of the things I was overhearing people saying at the event about one of my friends.

That may well have been me - any time I mentioned him, it was usually in the context of "I really hope Ruben doesn't win." You're right, Kinneas, that is disgusting, and if anyone overheard me saying that, I wholeheartedly take it back. After reading this thread, seeing the way he shook Ben's hand at the end, and hearing his comments live after the final, I see that he's just a guy who really enjoys playing the game and is having a good time. I think that we should be quiet during matches, in order to let our opponents concentrate - if this is a 'tactic' that Ruben employs, I'd suggest he puts it on the shelf and saves the celebrations for when the last Poké goes down. Those comments were also partly because it's fun to see different people winning and taking spots at Worlds, getting that opportunity of a lifetime - although I realise that the best players should be there too. Could I point out that it was nothing about his nationality - actually, it might have annoyed me more if he were British.

So that's Ruben. And then we have this comment, the best on the thread imo:

My point is that what I intend to do in future years is concentrate on having a good time and whatever happens in terms of results, happens.

This is so true. Unfortunately I'm so competitive that for me this will never be the case, but this is what everyone should have in mind as they go to a VGC. No-one can rely on reaching the semi-finals - just enjoy the day, make new friends, embrace being amongst Pokéfans.

I'd love a Swiss format for the EU Nationals - could it work? 400 people playing, at a minimum, 5 matches each, making 1000 matches, to do in, at most, three hours (leaving an hour for a top 8). They would have to have everyone playing at once, wouldn't they? Reporting results and entry of those results into the system would take ages. We all agree it would be fairer, but maybe the logistics let it down.

I'd now like to introduce the exclamation mark to this post...Well done Ruben, Showsni and Picollo! I hope you all have a great time in Hawaii! (Showsni particularly, you've been a bit of a hero to me since we used identical teams last year =D) Thanks to all the cosplayers for welcoming me into your group for the day (and what a day it was!) Ben, you may have met your Ash in Ruben, but you did Gary Mother******* Oak proud, thanks for being such an awesome guy! And finally, sometime within the next day or so (depending on whether my laptop decides to go to sleep or not), you will be able to watch

Ben vs. Brajan in the quarter-finals:
http://youtu.be/FoWJw8aAXzYhttp://youtu.be/Xo6cI3fBKWw

and, available to watch now, Ben vs. Picollo in the semi-finals:
http://youtu.be/7MYsOgMifOM

...and see you all in Essen, where my luck will surely run out and I'll be out Round 1! HERE I GO!

 

[Hoyle]

It's often said that the 2 things the British do best are queueing and moaning... After this weekend's VGC, I'm fairly sure that's impossible to deny.

 

[gec]

 

[Drifblim]

It would be funnier if something like Skuntank that pisses out Flamethrowers in Pt/HGSS was on the bathroom sign, would make it even more worthy of mugging!

 

[Dimsun]

So immature it's hilarious. I broke out laughing.

On a side note, since it's late(here anyways) and I don't want to rant, I'll just contribute my two cents in a little post; gosh, calm down guys. Ruben won. He won last year too. He beat you fair and square, he proved that he could outcompete you. While I definitely understand those of you who can't leave the country, and I'm sorry about hax Zog and 7014gree, Ruben did exactly what anyone would want to do. No reason to get so mad.

 

[Yoshiken]

Okay, long post incoming. I'll start by saying, though, congratulations to all of the winners. Definitely deserved and best of luck in Worlds.

I want to, first and foremost, apologise for some of my behaviour on the day. In retrospect, I was needlessly harsh with some of my comments about Ruben. Ruben, I guess you're reading this topic so, whether you heard anything or not, I'm sorry.
I am definitely someone annoyed about the region thing, but I don't fault the players at all, and would never hold it against them. As I said on the day, I just hope that TPCI makes the UK the last European national next year. (Although Swiss pairings is much more urgent than some stupid region issue.)

However, I do want to say that I would still have preferred Ben to win the finals. Call it what you like - jealousy, xenophobia, bad play, whatever. I'm not saying I should have won; I lost to a good friend in a fair match. I'm not saying Ruben didn't deserve to win, and I don't think any less of anyone who travels to play. But really, there's a line between confidence and arrogance, and Ruben is far across that line. I'm not saying he's not a nice person, as he definitely seems like a nice enough guy, but really? Celebrating repeatedly before matches end? Acting like you've won after every turn? I still see it as arrogance and, if you're reading this, Ruben, I only hope you'll save it until after the game next time.
I'm not really going against what other people in this thread have said - only one person's actively defended his arrogance and, well, I'd expect nothing less. But really, if anyone has the right to celebrate, it's Ruben. Just next time, save it until you've actually earned it.

Sorry for the negative tone of this post, and again, congratulations to all of Ruben, Ben, Picollo and Showsni. It was a fantastic day and I'm already looking forward to next year. :)

 

[Kefky]

Ruben's celebrating when something goes his way is part of his strategy, and it definitely works for him. It's not really meant to make his opponents lose their confidence or their concentration, though it does help.

Ruben's prowess at VGC is greatly affected by his mood. He needs to think (no, he needs to know) that he's going to win to actually do it. He celebrates every little thing to boost his morale, it's not meant to be arrogant.