Online Competitive Pokemon Battle Showdown Happy Fun Times

[Heather]

Originally Posted by Kyro12

Myles, he's not saying or insinuating that you would do anything, he's purely trying to put you in the mindset of the people you were "challenging" They wouldn't have any reason to believe you wouldn't do something like throw the match. At least, if I'm understanding Talon correctly.

Well same goes for them too. If they're going to be THAT disrespectful, they have no right to make me respect their rather stupid rules.

[Jerichi]

Just short of a perfect sweep (LC, 10 turns)

Spoiler: show

So LC is doing their own suspect and I'm making an attempt to ladder, which means I get to start from the bottom of the barrel again with my already-well-proven LC team. This has definitely been the best highlight thusfar out of the 5 or so games I've played - a near perfect sweep of Archen vs. a Sun team, ruined at the last moment by a bulky Rufflet.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Myles Fowl II

You're still insinuating that I would in the first place

No, I am not.

Originally Posted by Myles Fowl II

And I don't think Smogon staff is going to think I'm throwing a match.

Yes, they are. Or at the very least, more generally, they are not going to trust battle replays from strangers with low records.

Originally Posted by Myles Fowl II

After all, I said that I specifically have tried to improve recently. I don't think that implies game throwing in any way.

I am not normally one for posting image macros on UPN. But this one is just too relevant:



What you claim in your post and what you actually intend to do are two separate things. You can tell people that you plan to give everyone who posts today $5,000 if Smogon ends up banning Aegislash. Doesn't mean you're going to follow through with it if/when they do. Just because you've told people that you're trying to improve ... does not constitute persuasive evidence that any games you lose with Aegislash were not thrown by you just to try and prove your point that Aegislash isn't broken. (Nor, for that matter, do such claims disprove the possibility that you were taking the match seriously but that you lost because you are unskilled.)

Part of the problem with your test is that you have assigned the roles to the wrong parties. If you were to swap things around, your test could become more compelling. What do I mean by this?

• Your current argument is that Aegislash is not a big threat. And you've said that you will show people this by using Aegislash in battles against them. When you lose to challengers while using Aegislash, you suggest, that will be proof that he's not that good. But like I've told you, this is not going to persuade anybody. There's no way for them to know whether you really lost because Aegislash isn't that good or whether you lost because a) you suck or b) you threw the match.
• Now let's say your argument is still that Aegislash is not a big threat. How would you convince people of this through battle? The correct approach would be, "Come one, come all! Bring your Aegislashes! I will let you decide before the match begins which of seven Aegislash counters I name you want me to bring. I have prepared teams to go along with each of these. I am confident in my ability to win with all seven teams. I will show you that Aegislash is nothing to fear so long as you have one of these counters by your side!" And then you put your money where you mouth is by winning as many of the challenges you receive as you possibly can. Since the punishment for losing is your credibility, people can now trust that you won't throw the match. And since people are confident in their own skill level, they will be inclined to admit that the only way you could have beaten them is if you are better than them, your words about Aegislash are true, or both. There's of course the fourth possibility of "HAX! You just got lucky!", but that quickly dissolves if you welcome them to challenge you again and again, as many times as they like, and they see for themselves that the W:L ratio favors you and not them.

See the difference? The way your test is set up right now, it's too easy for you to a) suck or b) throw the match, "proving" your claim even though it's not necessarily true. But if you were to reverse the nature of the test such that it's now up to you, Myles, to slay all of the Aegislashes that people bring to your doorstep, then people would be more inclined to listen. Although even then there would still be caveats. A, your opponents would also have to be decent. If they were all sub-1450, then you can bet that no one on the Smogon staff is going to care that you beat them all. B, it's less persuasive if your victims are all strangers to the Smogon staff; it's more persuasive if among their number are some of the Smogon mods and mentors. But anyway, yes: the way you have the test set up right now is backwards. If you want to convince anybody your claims are right, you have to be able to do it by proving that you never lose to Aegislash.

[Heather]

I've addressed this already. If they're not going to respect my opinion because of my ranking and only such, then they deserve no respect from me, and a I won't respect their opinions for a belief that they're merely elitist pricks. Two can play at their game. But here's the big caveat to your argument here.

In my original post, part of my ending was me saying that they could ignore me for my low skill of they liked. However, people are actually giving legitimate responses to my posts, which means that rather than ignore, they chose to listen. Asking them to agree? A bit far fetched. But all I had to do was ask for them to listen up for a little while and it turned some heads. Not all of a Smogon is a bunch of couches to their lower folk. Now, it might just be the rare courtesy or someone admiring a perceived guts ones of me admitting how bad I am yet still putting my case in, or something else. Heck if I know. But I did what I intended! and I got some people to listen and think critically.

[Jerichi]

Frankly, they probably don't give a shit, so.

The only way to change Smogon is from within, so unless you're willing to git gud or start a new meta, they won't be changing anything, at least not on your behalf.

[Rangeet]

The very way getting qualifications works means that Smogon ends up caring only about the people who're at the absolute top.

[Chiko]

Ow... My legs...

I placed in the Top 16 of 430+ masters at Nationals.

[Heather]

Originally Posted by HeroicRein

Ow... My legs...

I placed in the Top 16 of 430+ masters at Nationals.

Great Job Chiko! Not sure of this means we'll be seeing you at worlds, but dang, that's great.

[rotomotorz]

Wait Chiko are you actually eligible for worlds?

Also lol Water Spout

[Cloneblazer12]

Originally Posted by Rangeetsuper

The very way getting qualifications works means that Smogon ends up caring only about the people who're at the absolute top.

Reqs aren't /that/ hard to achieve. Last time I literally just used the standard DeoSharp team to get the acquired reqs. I still got my ass handed to me 75 times. It's dependent on how well u start off.

[Shuckle]

pls clone we aren't GOOD like you are okay????

[Cloneblazer12]

Originally Posted by Shuckle

pls clone we aren't GOOD like you are okay????

In the grand scheme of things, I'm considered above average at best. I still can't build teams for the life of me and I get rekt daily when I battle. I don't even know if I'll be able to achieve reqs this time. I delved into the ladder and it literally feels like the beginning of XY again. Te team i used was okay on the normal ladder but wasn't getting anywhere on the suspect ladder.

If it comes across as me bragging, then I'm sorry. That is not my intent in any way. I know my limitations and how good I am (above average like I said earlier). I'm not gonna claim to be anything else unless I feel that i am, which I don't.

[Talon87]

It's unfortunate that it had to happen with a match filled with so much WoW miss hax for my opponent, but a new personal best afaik: 1374 in VGC.

Though I suppose it was counterbalanced by the riDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIculous Scald hax I suffered here (Random Battle). Noticed that Zuisho's score had already slipped sub-1700 so I felt like doing a few battles. Won two, lost two, so the score is still sitting in the upper 1600s right now instead of where I would like it to be. :\ But after this latest game, ugh, I think I'll take a slight break. ^^;

[rotomotorz]

Omg the hax I've had in so many f my recent battles is enough to make your average person attempt suicide. But I shall persevere! And I bet other people have had it worse

[Firewater]

So I've decided to go on the crawl to get good at rand-bats and I figured, why not try. After a rather unfortunate forfeit that just had to happen, I get a chance at redemption. I also find out why Talon loves Staraptor so much, and as it saves the day for me this time.

[Talon87]

Wherein I burn a kangaroo Godzilla and paralyze a water bunny. (VGC 2014, 10 turns)

Spoiler: show

New personal best: 1390.

[Chiko]

Originally Posted by Myles Fowl II

Great Job Chiko! Not sure of this means we'll be seeing you at worlds, but dang, that's great.

Only Top 4 qualifies for Worlds.

I'll be aiming for that next year.

[Cloneblazer12]

Originally Posted by HeroicRein

Only Top 4 qualifies for Worlds.

I'll be aiming for that next year.

You were still in the top5%, which is a pretty big deal. Congrats.

[Kyro12]

You hax my back, I hax yours. (9 Turns, VGC)

Spoiler: show

I broke (back?) into the 1300s! I'm not sure if I was ever in the 1300s, but it's certainly been awhile. I felt really bad about winning to hax, then I remembered my Play Rough and Muddy Water misses, and figured it was actually fairly even. For those of you (everyone, I assume) wondering why the hell I have a Seaking on my team, it's because I'm actually a Dave alt *shot* But really, it's there because I was feeling gimmicky and decided "Hey, let's take something with Swift Swim, put it on a rain team, then actually give it Lightningrod to trick people!" It's only really good for if my opponent has a strong electric presence. (Mega Manectric can sorta stomp this team otherwise, more or less) Sadly, it doesn't get Knock Off /or/ Drill Run for VGC rules, so I guess I'll be waiting for ORAS tutors or something to actually make it decently useful from an offensive standpoint.

[Talon87]

Despite some poor choices in hindsight (and a couple even in foresight ^^; ), I manage to win this VGC battle and achieve an all-time personal record of ... 1401! :o I finally did it. Even if I'm going to plummet back into the 1300s, the 1200s, or (God @_@) even the 1100s soon after, at least I managed to make it past 1400.

Spoiler: show

Turn 1, I really should have had Gardevoir use Protect. However, a) I was optimistic she wouldn't be OHKOed ¬_¬ and b) I was desperate to kill the Gengar (or deal damage to a possible switch-in) as soon as possible. I've seen Gengar-Raichu cores before in VGC 2014 and they're never pretty for my team.

Turn 4, I was expecting Raichu to switch out. Stupid of me given I'd just seen him use Protect on Turn 2 and that he would have had to have expected Aegislash to come a-calling. I'm very lucky that Aegislash not only wasn't OHKOed by Politoed's Scald but that he wasn't burned by it either.

Turn 5, I still call the switch out for Raichu. I also do not favor Aegislash's chances for sticking around much longer. So I opt to use Discharge. It works wonderfully, with Politoed getting paralyzed and Raichu being switched out at the top of the turn for Kingdra. It even fails to kill or paralyze my Aegislash! Wonderful.

Turn 7 was very bad for my team. A brilliant decision to encore my Rotom-W into Discharge -- not only does it harm my Charizard but it also will boost Raichu's power every time he's hit. Damn. I've liked Discharge for its high paralysis chance and the fact that it hits both opponents in Doubles, but maybe it's time I follow the crowd and replace it with Thunderbolt. We'll see.

Turn 8 is another sucky turn with a lucky break: I deal damage to my own Charizard and to my own Charizard only, the two opponent creatures each using Protect; but it doesn't deal *too* too much damage to Charizard; and more importantly, she isn't paralyzed.

Turn 9, my opponent makes the smart play with Politoed that, had he been luckier, would have cost me the game: a double Protect. Thankfully, it fails -- and I manage to KO the frog even at the cost of boosting Raichu's power further. He targets Charizard with his Raichu ... but I use Protect! Now my blunder on Turn 4 is canceled out by his mirror blunder here. He'd just seen me use it on Turn 7. He should've aimed for Rotom-W instead! Well, hindsight bias is 20/20. He took a risk and it didn't pan out.

Turn 10 seals the deal. He can't Encore Rotom-W into more Discharges and kill Charizard at the same time. And he has to: his Raichu is too weak and the sun is up. I can kill him with either Heat Wave or (probably) the more accurate Solarbeam. So he aims for Charizard out of necessity ... and frees me up to break away from being encore-locked into Discharges. I opt to go for Hydro Pump since I'd rather be hitting him for what I figure will be 20%-25% HP chunks of damage than being locked into Will-o-Wisps and risking that he can kill me before he dies to burn damage. My decision pays off with, to even my own surprise, a kill that very turn. Despite the sun being up, Hydro Pump manages at least the ~36% HP damage needed to KO Raichu.

My opponent instantly left the moment Raichu fainted. His guest left shortly afterward. I would've said "gg" but there didn't seem to be any point with both of them gone.

[Kyro12]

And suddenly Talon's accomplishment stomps all over mine ^^;

[Talon87]

Sorry. ^^; @_@ If it's any consolation, 1401 is probably a joke of a score to HeroicRein, so ...

Your game started off kind of shaky for you, so it was a solid turnaround that took place mid-game where you managed to wrest control of the match from him. Amoongus could have been much scarier but for your decision to Encore him and his decision to ... well, clearly not Giga Drain Politoed as otherwise he'd have Spored you and that would have been that. ^^;

Congrats on (re-?)entering the 1300s. I was in the 1200s not but 24 to 48 hours ago myself so I know what it's like to be in the 1300s for only a short while and then drop again. I'm thrilled to be in the 1400s but, sigh, I know it's not going to last any time soon. More practice and perhaps a better team. (The team still feels very inefficient to me. :\ I've just gotten so used to them that I guess I understand their chemistry very well now and can use it to my advantage.)

[Talon87]

Wherein Discharge redeems itself. (VGC 2014, 5 turns)

Spoiler: show

I don't think I really needed either paralysis, to be honest. The score was 3 remaining to 2 remaining, my lead, at the time Rotom-W fired off its Discharge on Turn 3. As we see from the designation of his attacks on Turn 4 and their damage outputs, I would have still killed Talonflame that turn; as Mega Gyarados's Earthquake failed to 2HKO anyway, it doesn't matter that Mega Gyarados went last because of paralysis: I would have still gotten off my Discharge at the end of the turn and killed Talonflame. And then I would have still been free to order Charizard to use Solarbeam at the top of Turn 5 while ordering Rotom-W to use another Discharge. With Talonflame still waiting in the wings with its priority Brave Bird, yeah, I'm like 98% sure the match would have still been mine even without paralysis.

A new personal best of 1421. I think I'll leave the account be for a bit. ^^; I want to enjoy this 1400s-ness for longer than thirty minutes. hahaha

[Kyro12]

Wherein FUCK YEAH SEAKING (VGC, 8 Rounds)

Spoiler: show

Seaking pretty much won me this game. The problem with most other Lightningrod-ers is that they get taken out by Rotom-W's Hydro Pump or Overheat, whereas Seaking still resists. It shuts down MegaManectric entirely, leaving things like Politoed and Talonflame open to come in and attack without worry. Discharge /is/ an issue with this, but I've found that, more often than not, people will forego the spread damage for reliably NOT paralyzing your partner. Especially in rain, Discharge is more of a hindrance to your team than a benefit.

[Jerichi]

I wish Seaking had better Special and Speed. If it did, it'd be the optimal Lightningrod user.