UPN 2011 Champion League Tournament

[Celebii151]

I only need to battle Kratos.

[Talon87]

Speevy vs. Kuno and Kratos vs. Celebii should have been completed seven hours ago. If you haven't completed these matches already, then please try and get these done as soon as possible. Thanks. Given how we've been doing this tournament -- mega-casual and any order for the battles works just fine -- these earlier deadlines are more of a formality than anything else. All the same, please try and get them done ASAP.

Kinda sad to sign in today after being afk all day filming a video for a research group only to discover that no one posted a single battle log video today. Did no one battle today? ^^; Granted, we've gotten most of the battles already out of the way, but still ... there are eleven battles still on the chart. ^^;

[Talon87]

Red vs. Will

The Elite 4 master of the Psychic element surprises Red atop Mt. Silver with a bold challenge.

Spoiler: show

I messed up quite a bit. Right from the start -- I had just gotten out of a CC match and was ready to click on "Find Battle" when Xander's pop-up showed up. I accept random challengers so I said "Sure, why not?" Then I realized it was Xander and that we hadn't fought yet. XD ^^; So I was like, "Uh ... I wasn't expecting a tournament match so soon, but sure. Tournament match? ^^;" He said yep. And the battle began.

I thought Espeon could do more damage with all of those Calm Minds under his belt. I was proven quite right, and I was left immediately regretting that I had not opted to use Reflect on either Turns 3 or 4. Out went Pikachu to finish things off and after Bronzong fell Xander sent out Exeggutor to represent his side. Not good, but what can you do?

Pikachu fell promptly, as expected, and in went Charizard. I had thought that I'd be Dragon Dancing for one free turn while Xander switched Exeggutor out for somebody a little speedier or less fire-prone. Instead he surprised me with an Explosion to the face, crippling poor Charizard and neutering Flare Blitz quite nicely. In went Gardevoir and I was left to settle for a suicide Earthquake Outrage ....... which, even after one Dragon Dance, didn't even amount to all that much.

So here we are, and Xander's only lost two Pokemon (Bronzong and Exeggutor) while I've lost three -- Espeon, Pikachu, and Charizard. So I'm really feeling the hurt and thinking, "This is it. I've lost."

But it's around this point in the battle that Stealth Rock is really catching up with Xander. You see, he made the same mistake as Kuno and tried to use Stealth Rock on me when I had Espeon out. This meant that he had Stealth Rock on his side of the field, and with two Xatus on the team, that was no good for Xander. Through a series of lucky breaks on my part and some questionable switches on Xander's, Venusaur is able to pull off a sweep of the rest of Will's team, juggling between Sunny Day, Sludge Bomb, and Solarbeam as he takes on Gardevoir, two Xatus, and a Slowbro.

[lilboocorsola]

Cynthia vs. Steven

Spoiler: show

I made a very silly mistake by panicking when my Togekiss got taken out by a single attack from Metagross. Wanting to kill it fast and without even thinking of the type of attack it used... Well, just watch the vid and see. XP

However, that's when good ol' Gastrodon and my marvelous Milotic came to the rescue. ^^ Exciting match, with a surprising turnaround.

Think I just have Wallace (Kratos) left to fight now?

[Talon87]

Update: as we head into Week 2 of our tournament, all but seven of the tournament's fifty-five matches have already been completed. Well done, guys! Well done! However, three of these seven matches were supposed to have been completed by today. These matches are:

Steven vs. Lance (Speevy vs. Kuno)
Bruno vs. Wallace (Celebii vs. Kratos)
Will vs. Wallace (Xander vs. Kratos)

Seems like a case of schedule conflicts for all involved, so I'm willing to extend things since this is a casual tournament rather than saying "you all get a tie for these rounds" as I probably would have done were this more strict. We've all been battling quite a lot and I know that everybody has tried multiple times to get their battles done on time but have not been able to because whenever they are free the other person is absent. In fact, I've been in the channel and witnessed it for each and every one of you personally. But still: please try and get these done as soon as possible. The best way to do this, instead of signing on to P-O at random times, would be to PM your opponents on UPN and to formally schedule a meeting time. Better yet, schedule two times: a main time you both intend to make, but also a back-up time in case something comes up.

If we complete all remaining matches before the final day of the tournament proper, I'll move the awards ceremony and celebration up. Otherwise, it'll still be eight days from today, one day after the last day of the tournament proper.

[Lonely Cubone]

Karen vs Will

Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

Good lord I did my best to lose that: big mistakes with Absol and Houndoom, my switch prediction is pretty abysmal. Still, my last battle done and with 3 Wins and 6 Losses, I did about as well as Karen should do in the company of such Champions...still, with another run at this I reckon I could have won a few more battles.

Overall then:

MVP: Gengar, obviously. Made at least half my Tournament KOs and was an excellent Sash lead.

Most surprisingly good: Vileplume. Basically on the team due to being awesome, it did a very good job with Aromatherapy support, confusing opponents and even a near sweep in one battle.

Most surprisingly bad: Umbreon/Weavile combination. Pretty much every match I tried to set up Curse boosts onto an Ice Shard Weavile. It didn't work ever.

[Talon87]

Shouldn't be your last battle if you're only counting 3 wins and 6 losses. Everyone should have a total of ten matches.

EDIT: Yeah, I don't have a match recorded for you for Karen vs. Steven. Have you fought Speevy yet?

[Lonely Cubone]

Hmm, I thought I had fought everyone but perhaps not.

[Lady Kuno]

Lance Vs Steven
http://pokemon.aesoft.org/replay-Kun...ivate141611120


Thoughts:

Spoiler: show

My thoughts were mostly in the match. I had a string of random crap luck, but then luck turned in my favor. I still think she should of won, I only made one good call with DDance, where she had a few better calls.

[Lonely Cubone]

Karen versus Steven

Thougts:

Spoiler: show

After a few losses that could easily have been wins, a lucky one. Gengar beats Metagross by extreme luck, and once more Heroplume saves the day. Viley is definitely my favourite Pokémon on this team. And Sneasel actually KOed something!

[Talon87]

Red vs. Green

"Rivals" ... "Friends" ... these two, who have such an enigmatic relationship with one another ... these two, who both strove to become the League Champion ... these two, who succeeded in that goal at only 10 years of age ... these two souls, destined to cross paths innumerable times in immeasurable ways, meet for their titanic battle in the Champion League!

Spoiler: show

... or so I'd like to say. ^^; I'm so sorry, guys, for putting on such an abysmal performance. (Though I'm sure Blaze is stoked! ^^; ) A Cloyster sweep is nothing for the defeated to feel good about, but a Cloyster sweep you see coming from ten miles away? That's just blagh. D: This battle -- and the rematches Blaze was courteous enough to allow me afterwards -- were riddled with poor switch-in decisions and even poorer luck on my part than I am accustomed to dealing with. (Much to the delight of our headmaster, I am sure. XP ^^; ) Blaze gets quite lucky with the Hypnoses he places in this match -- and at such crucial junctures, too! -- and I foolishly switch in Venusaur (a mistake I even more foolishly replicated in the rematches >.>) against a Drought Ninetales packing Heat Wave. Not very smart. I feel like I've let the Red fans down, and I feel like I've let Blaze down, too. This was supposed to be an epic match. Instead, it amounted to little more than a "LOL CLOYSTER" fizzle. Sorry, guys.

And so ends my tournament run. It was a lot of fun representing Red and I had a good time. I hope you guys had fun watching and/or participating, and best of luck to our contestants in any future Champion League tournaments we may hold in getting the Champions they most want and achieving great things with them.

We still have a few matches left, but after tonight's matches, 1st and 2nd place have been locked in and 3rd place is halfway determined. (The other half will be up to whether Celebii can win his final match or not.) The battle logs have been posted, the tournament standings chart has been updated, and the tournament standings text list has also been updated.

EDIT: Blaze entertained a third rematch (a fourth battle) and in it I end up winning 3-0. I'll upload the video here so that those of you who were rooting for Red during this tournament can see what might have been. I should warn you, though, that the victory hinges on two very lucky things, neither of which could be counted on to happen again with any sort of regularity:

Spoiler: show

The first lucky thing occurs right away on Turn 1: Megahorn misses. Because of this, who gets to dictate the flow of battle shifts from Blaze, as it had been in every other match tonight, to me. Now Espeon is the one who gets to stay put as something new comes in, not Rhyperior. Now Charizard is able to kill Ninetales will still having 100% health instead of Ninetales killing Charizard or otherwise not dying to his Earthquake or Outrage attacks.

The second lucky thing which happens is that Blaze opts to Air Slash with his (speedier) Charizard. Had he instead opted to Dragon Dance, as I'm sure he now will after having read this post , then we would have both Dragon Danced, and then he would have outsped me once again -- only then he would have been able to OHKO me with Air Slash instead of "only" taking off 76% of my HP.

So yeah. Thanks to a one-in-eight chance of Megahorn missing and thanks to Blaze not opting to Dragon Dance when he really should have, I end up winning this with a combination Charizard+Snorlax sweep and finish it with three Pokémon remaining. I hope this battle will at least somewhat comfort those of you who were rooting for Red. Yes, I could have won ... but it looks like it would have required me to dip my hand into my magic bag of hax. ^^; And sadly, the magic bag was out of reach during our tournament match proper.

Thanks to Blaze for being a good sport and allowing this rematch. And congrats once again on your tournament win.

[Tyranidos]

???

I thought blaze had Ninetales as his first 'mon, not Rhyperior.

[Lady Kuno]

It was Rhyperior.

[Tyranidos]

No, I mean, he started all his other matches with Ninetales. Are we allowes to switch around like that in between battles?

[Emi]

Originally Posted by Tyranidos

No, I mean, he started all his other matches with Ninetales. Are we allowes to switch around like that in between battles?

I don't see why not.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Tyranidos

No, I mean, he started all his other matches with Ninetales. Are we allowes to switch around like that in between battles?

Yes. You can change team membership, for Christ's sake, so you can certainly change team order. If this would have affected your results, I'm sorry if you didn't know this until now. Thought it was kind of obvious though. I myself led with Charizard in my first one or two matches before switching to Espeon and comfortably sticking with it for a very long time. In tonight's match against Blaze, I actually considered leading with Snorlax. (Was expecting to see an Alakazam lead.)

[Emi]

Red vs Green

Spoiler: show

This was the match that was supposed to be completely epic. And while it may have let some down, I think that most of the people who watched this match loved it.

I started off with my good friend Rhyperior for a reason. I knew there was no way Ninetales was going to be able to fight Espeon. Rhyperior had Megahorn, and as you can see, it would have been a clean OHKO if Reflect has not come up.

Then came in Blastoise. I knew that I was not going to survive anything from him, bar a Rapid Spin. And..he is not going to use Rapid Spin. So, I took the oppurtunity to set up Stealth Rock. Then, Rhyperior went down for the count.

Out came Ninetales. Drought got rid off his fire weakness, so, nothing to fear. My standard strategy is to start off with Hypnosis. And it worked! Yes! Next was Clam Mind. This shot up Ninetales Sp. ATK AND Sp. DEF to amazing levels. Talk about 500 Sp. DEF. Then Solarbeam. I have to give it to Talon, that Blastoise is pretty bulky. It took the hit like a man, woke up, and used Rapid spin. Well, there went Stealth Rock.

Well, he knew that Blastoise was going to be finished. So, he switched out, and, I may have made a small boo-boo. Out came Venasaur. Took the hit like I though it would. Now was a matchup that would be surprising. Sleep Powder misses, and out comes a +1 Sun Flamethrower coming towards the plant. It got *sunglasses* ROASTED!

Then came out Charizard. Knew what was coming, and needed to stop the sweep before it even took root. He used Earthquake, and failed to KO my Ninetales. Hypnosis hit, and suddenly, he is down and out. Well, asleep maybe.

I saw my chance to end this match. And hell, I am like Series 1 Gary in that I don't give a damn. I go for the Shell Smash, turning Cloyster from a slow weakling to a monstrosity. Then, Rock Blast. If Charizard survived this, I would literally kill myself.

Good thing it did not. Otherwise, I would not be typing this. Then came.....*drum roll* ANIMECHU! He went down like a lead ship. Cause lead balloons float. Of course.

Then came in Snorlax. I began to crap myself. I needed actual power. I needed MORE POWAH! Another Shell Smash. This was EXTREMELY risky, as it could have backfired greatly. But, thankfully, Return did less than 50%. Safe, unless mister 6.25 decided to rear his ugly face. And he did not. But, his Snorlax has Thick Fat. Not expecting that. So, even with the +4 boost, it did little more than half. But, I was quarenteed to win. His Snorlax went down after that.

Then was the weakened Blastoise. It was all over. Green was going to win this one. One more move, and Blastoise finally keeled over.

Blastoise is unable to battle!
Green and Cloyster are the winners!

But, good game Talon, I mean Red. You did a fine job for Red.

[Tyranidos]

>change team membership

I thought you said you couldn't change anything! (It wouldn't have mattered for me anyways ;;)

[Emi]

Originally Posted by Tyranidos

>change team membership

I thought you said you couldn't change anything! (It wouldn't have mattered for me anyways ;;)

um....I had a tdos......

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Tyranidos

>change team membership

I thought you said you couldn't change anything! (It wouldn't have mattered for me anyways ;;)

Here are some direct links to some of the posts which should serve as clues or reminders as to this tournament policy:

• while I'm out at lunch, Kuno asks about reservemon. And I tell him it's okay
• Concept asks about items as it pertains to switching guys in and out from his active roster, and I answer him
• Here, I mention to Kuno that he's free to use Guy A, Guy B, Guy C, or all three guys in "any given fight," implying that he can change things up between matches

I think that first post in the list, though, should more than sufficiently answer your question. Sorry if you missed it.

[Tyranidos]

K. It doesn't really apply to me, so whatever.

Three battles left, all involving Kratos. Where is he?

[KratosAurion]

I'm right here. I'll interrupt my studying for today since I got Biology tomorrow and get my Battles done. I'll be waiting around the Champion's Room (Otherwise known as PO) on the PO Server as ElegantWaterArtist.

Also, listen and listen well. I am NOT Kratos Aurion. I'm on as ElegantWaterArtist as a reference to Wallace.

[Celebii151]

Well, I'll be on for about 30 minutes. Anyone that wants to battle me, should now. This means you, Kratos

[Talon87]

click thumbnail to see full-size version

With just one more battle to complete, the tournament is almost over. The tournament standings have been updated. So has the list of battle log videos. I am still waiting on a number of battle log video links from various members who have promised me to upload them. So please do. I'd like to have them for posterity. It'd also be a nice courtesy to your fellow members who may have missed those battles but wish to see them with their own eyes.

Other than that ... good luck to Kratos and Celebii in our final tournament match. The winner will tie for 3rd place at 7 wins and 3 losses. The other will take 5th place with a respectable 6 wins and 4 losses. Both teams have done very well in the tournament and so it's anyone's guess as to who will win.

[lilboocorsola]

Cynthia vs. Wallace

The battle log list has already been updated, but thought I'd post a link anyway.

Spoiler: show

Paraflinch was my friend this time. Google was not. Overall, I was pretty lucky.

And so ends my role as Cynthia in this tournament. *bows* It's been fun, mates, and thanks to several for teaching me the art of pogeyman battles. Hope to do this again sometime!