Online Competitive Pokemon Battle Showdown Happy Fun Times

[Emi]

For what tier? OU?

[Heather]

Eeeyup.

[Emi]

For me, I've tested a lot of pretty cool sets.

Aegislash @ Spooky Plate
244 HP / 252 Sp.Atk / 12 Def
Quiet Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Shadow Sneak
-Sacred Sword
-King's Shield

Really powerful, has great bulk, and is almost never dead weight.

Landorus @ Life Orb
4 HP / 252 Sp.Atk / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
-Earth Power
-Focus Blast
-HP Ice
-Gravity

No need for U-Turn anymore, Rock Polish is sacky. This Lando is the best wallbreaker in the game.

[Talon87]

Greninja (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- U-turn

Note that the standard item recommendation is Life Orb but in my experience, for my personal team, Expert Belt is the clearly better choice. I've placed Life Orb above for you but just know that it's not what I actually run myself. Everything else is as I run it.

Staraptor (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Double-Edge
- U-turn

This is a very easy set for a beginner to understand. Staraptor almost always goes first (he only loses to priority attacks, creatures with higher base speeds and Choice Scarves of their own, or creatures with higher base speeds and +1 Speed level boost), and when he does he hits like a freight truck against all but the most physically defensive of Pokémon. Yes, you will be choice locked. Yes, you will want to switch him out often. Yes, that makes Stealth Rock a pain in the ass. No, it doesn't mean that Staraptor is suddenly crap. Used correctly, Staraptor should be netting you two KOs per game. In some games, he will net you three or more KOs.

[Heather]

Ily Talon/Blaze

I also Love Staraptor (Starly is to me like Caterpie is to Ash so)

I'll feel kinda guilty using Landy but I think its time I got over myself.

[Red Panda]

I couldn't resist the call of RU

I've since subbed out Drapion for Tangrowth as it wasn't doing much for me. Jolteon is amazing, a bit underwhelmed by Ambipom, etc. Should probably use Return over Double Hit. Emboar is pretty great.

[Cloneblazer12]

@Myles: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads...-1700.3509483/

Take your pick. This is my most successful team.

[Heather]

I'm not great at controlling weather to be honest, but ill take Chomp likely. Ill roast Ferrothorn and Skarm any day.

All some great suggestions guys. Now to think up nicknames that aren't predetermined.

[Talon87]

So, I just decided to do an OU battle on a whim (20 turns) ... and I apparently was randomly assigned to the wrong dude. (Story time!)

Spoiler: show

Because this guy ... had like over thirty spectators who joined the room to watch us fight. 100% of them were on his side, rooting for him. All who opened their mouths acted like really immature children. Most of them mouthed off like the 4chan /b/ angry basement dwellers that regrettably pervade competitive gaming culture. (I encourage you to pause the match every turn and to read the comments. Edifying! ) You'll notice that I didn't talk once until the end of the match. I knew that my silence would drive these kids nuts if I ended up winning.

And win I did. It didn't take long for my opponent to realize that I was, despite my low Elo score and innocent creature nicknames, a competent player. We both played seriously and aggressively, on a razor's edge, every turn mattering. I won't lie: I got "lucky" (insofar as hax is a part of Pokémon and Serene Grace is meant to take advantage of this) on several turns. But it obviously wasn't just luck which determined the outcome of this game; even if I had lost, I know that my opponent would have recognized that I wasn't the chump that his peanut gallery mistook me for.

Weeeeeeeell ... About that peanut gallery. The match ends and I decide to finally break my silence. And the crowd goes apeshit. Sooooooooo much rage. Sooooooooo many laughable attempts to pretend that I'm the one who's crying tears right now and not them and their precious king. And one spectator in particular ... well he, he decides to try and scare me. xfd;

zuisho confirmed for faglord. also banned. got ya ip. better run away petty loser. ;)

I'm preeeeeeeeeeetty darn confident that Showdown would not promote a toilet stain like this asshat to staff. But I decide that it's better to play it safer than sorrier and look up who he is. No alts ... and no rank. So he's just some idiot kid. An idiot kid who thinks that by putting "MOD" in his name he's going to fool me into believing that he's a staff member and that if I don't want to be banned then I'd better do as he says. He continues:

ban happens in an hour form now on, have fun

And then he leaves. So what do I do? I go to the lobby ... I look for a good staff member who's online right now ... I see that Relados is online, cool ... and I write him this:

Originally Posted by Talon87

Is staff impersonation, however petty and obviously false, something that wants reporting?

Was in an OU battle with someone pretending to be a mod. Threatened me with a ban. I don't really care as the threat is obviously false, but figured that if he's done it once, he's done it multiple times.

Relados is silent. I go to the room. I see that he's joined it. Ten seconds pass in silence. And then ...

MOD} M&M was locked from talking by Relados. (do not impersonate authority)

... and as quickly as he appeared, he leaves. Writes me back by private message, "I've locked him," to which I reply, "Sorry for the trouble. He's probably just a kid, but hopefully he'll learn from this."

And that's the end of that. So the lesson of this story, kids, is 1. don't be a shitstain upon the fabric of society and 2. if you must be a shitstain, do not be a shitstain that impersonates staff.

Just so we're clear: that was one of the spectators who acted inappropriately and wound up silenced, not the guy I actually battled. The guy I actually battled was, as far as I can recall, relatively polite. Like, he wasn't kind towards me , but he didn't join in the smacktalking with his rude friends.

However, who was he? How does someone like him attract so many followers? He must surely be a Smogon celebrity, I reason. Let me look up who he is and what his rank is so I can see for myself just how amazing this guy is --

User: IDM CTC
Format	Elo	GXE	Glicko-1	COIL	W	L	T
ou	1373	57	1552 ± 43	--	39	26	0

...

For comparison, my own record (poor as it currently is on this alt):

User: zuisho
Format	Elo	GXE	Glicko-1	COIL	W	L	T
ou	1386	66	1625 ± 60	--	33	17	1

So either this is an alt to a more famous account attached to a different IP address (likely) ... or else one exasperated word for you:

Kids.

[Selena]

Originally Posted by Talon87

Greninja (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- U-turn

Note that the standard item recommendation is Life Orb but in my experience, for my personal team, Expert Belt is the clearly better choice. I've placed Life Orb above for you but just know that it's not what I actually run myself. Everything else is as I run it.

Staraptor (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Double-Edge
- U-turn

This is a very easy set for a beginner to understand. Staraptor almost always goes first (he only loses to priority attacks, creatures with higher base speeds and Choice Scarves of their own, or creatures with higher base speeds and +1 Speed level boost), and when he does he hits like a freight truck against all but the most physically defensive of Pokémon. Yes, you will be choice locked. Yes, you will want to switch him out often. Yes, that makes Stealth Rock a pain in the ass. No, it doesn't mean that Staraptor is suddenly crap. Used correctly, Staraptor should be netting you two KOs per game. In some games, he will net you three or more KOs.

Any particular reason you're not running grassknot? I mean I know there are some targets where HP-grass is stronger, but are they really that important?

[Heather]

Talon, I hate being in matches like that, as they make me unable to think straight. I want the option to turn off spectators because they are extremely annoying.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Selena

Any particular reason you're not running grassknot? I mean I know there are some targets where HP-grass is stronger, but are they really that important?

A fair question. Rotom-W, who only weighs 0.3 kg, and Gastrodon, who only weighs 29.9 kg, are the two main reasons that come to mind. Gastrodon takes equal damage, I believe, while Rotom-W takes superior damage from Hidden Power: Grass. While I may be losing some damage output against heavier creatures, anything that isn't likely to be KOed by Greninja's attack(s) before it can fire back at Greninja and OHKO him, I really don't care. Like ... it would be ideal if he could learn Energy Ball, obviously, but if HP:Grass fails to put much of a dent in a Drapion or a Galvantula, it doesn't really matter much to me as they'll be forcing me out anyway and it's not like Grass Knot would've done much better.

Originally Posted by Myles Fowl II

Talon, I hate being in matches like that, as they make me unable to think straight. I want the option to turn off spectators because they are extremely annoying.

I haven't tested it out myself, but if your opponent agrees to it, I believe that PS recognizes you two as the room owners and thus you might be able to use the following room command to pull that off:

/modchat #

# is the code for room owners, and so if a game room acknowledges you as one of two co-owners, then I would think you'd be able to use that command to set the modchat level to owners only and mute everyone else. Of course, your opponent, as a fellow owner of the room, can just as easily fight back with a /modchat {I don't know what he'd have to type here} to restore non-staff members' permission to talk. So I don't know how well it'd work for you. But I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that your average opponent isn't very likely to know this command.

[Fallen Icarus]

There is an Ignore Spectators option whenever you are in a battle located in settings (upper right) button.

[Heather]

Yeah I know I've been in a few battles with Spectator Hordes. Imagine the embarassnent when you're forced to pass your scolipede's boosts to a Rotom because thats all that won't get OHKOd. I've broken down on more than one occasion on those.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Fallen Icarus

There is an Ignore Spectators option whenever you are in a battle located in settings (upper right) button.

Yeah, but choosing not to attend a hate rally is different from taking away their microphones.

And on that note, good news and bad news. The good news is, you can use the /modchat command to set the voice permissions for your battle rooms! The bad news is, regular users appear to be prohibited from blocking + (voiced) rank and higher members from talking. So like, even though you'd be able to mute most of the asshats in a game like the one I played, there'd be sure to be at least a couple of voiced individuals in there. And so yeah, it's not really an ideal fix. You're better off just ignoring them, either mentally (as I did) or through the use of the Ignore Spectators feature (as Fallen mentioned).

[Heather]

I think ill combine the two, really.

But the frame of mind most spectator hordes can put you in is unacceptable and I feel that battlers should be able to do a little more than mute them. If someone's being a shithead spectator in my battle, I'd be more than happy to show them the door and tell them to come back when they can be respectful.

On a more positive note, time to see if I can do PS from my phone, as I am getting impatient.

I can teambuild at least, but likely not battle. Oh well.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Myles Fowl II

I think ill combine the two, really.

If you're going to do Fallen's, then you should just do Fallen's. By doing the other thing (muting people in the chat), you risk causing the very drama you seek to avoid. It's sort of like the Streisand effect in that the more attention you draw towards trying to silence people, the more you make people want to be loud and obnoxious. Part of the very reason I did not engage the crowd until after the match was in the hopes that:

1. they would get bored upon seeing that I couldn't be provoked into a response
2. I might win the crowd

Neither of those two things happened anyway, but they certainly wouldn't have happened had I gone out of my way to try and take away their talking privileges. Really, like I said, the only time you should be trying to mute a battle is if and when you have the other battler's consent.

[Shuckle]

they were kind of amusing

i'm not sure why m and ms wanted to be such a little bitch because he could have just had fun like the other spectators seemed to be doing.

whatever, people are weird.

[rotomotorz]

Everybody loves surprises!(VGC 2014)

Spoiler: show

Basically everything was neck and neck until I misplayed and use Ancient Power insteead of Heat Wave, leaving Mienshao alive to do massive damage to Ferrothorn. Flinch makes me more sure of certain until Venusaur. Mamoswine wa obviouly scarfed into Rock Slide, doing little damage, and Venusaur had Energy Ball with did even less damage. A few Gyro Balls and Protects later, I went from 1-3 to 1-0.

[Schala]

Originally Posted by Talon87

So, I just decided to do an OU battle on a whim (20 turns) ... and I apparently was randomly assigned to the wrong dude. (Story time!)

Spoiler: show

Because this guy ... had like over thirty spectators who joined the room to watch us fight. 100% of them were on his side, rooting for him. All who opened their mouths acted like really immature children. Most of them mouthed off like the 4chan /b/ angry basement dwellers that regrettably pervade competitive gaming culture. (I encourage you to pause the match every turn and to read the comments. Edifying! ) You'll notice that I didn't talk once until the end of the match. I knew that my silence would drive these kids nuts if I ended up winning.

And win I did. It didn't take long for my opponent to realize that I was, despite my low Elo score and innocent creature nicknames, a competent player. We both played seriously and aggressively, on a razor's edge, every turn mattering. I won't lie: I got "lucky" (insofar as hax is a part of Pokémon and Serene Grace is meant to take advantage of this) on several turns. But it obviously wasn't just luck which determined the outcome of this game; even if I had lost, I know that my opponent would have recognized that I wasn't the chump that his peanut gallery mistook me for.

Weeeeeeeell ... About that peanut gallery. The match ends and I decide to finally break my silence. And the crowd goes apeshit. Sooooooooo much rage. Sooooooooo many laughable attempts to pretend that I'm the one who's crying tears right now and not them and their precious king. And one spectator in particular ... well he, he decides to try and scare me. xfd;


I'm preeeeeeeeeeetty darn confident that Showdown would not promote a toilet stain like this asshat to staff. But I decide that it's better to play it safer than sorrier and look up who he is. No alts ... and no rank. So he's just some idiot kid. An idiot kid who thinks that by putting "MOD" in his name he's going to fool me into believing that he's a staff member and that if I don't want to be banned then I'd better do as he says. He continues:


And then he leaves. So what do I do? I go to the lobby ... I look for a good staff member who's online right now ... I see that Relados is online, cool ... and I write him this:


Relados is silent. I go to the room. I see that he's joined it. Ten seconds pass in silence. And then ...


... and as quickly as he appeared, he leaves. Writes me back by private message, "I've locked him," to which I reply, "Sorry for the trouble. He's probably just a kid, but hopefully he'll learn from this."

And that's the end of that. So the lesson of this story, kids, is 1. don't be a shitstain upon the fabric of society and 2. if you must be a shitstain, do not be a shitstain that impersonates staff.

Just so we're clear: that was one of the spectators who acted inappropriately and wound up silenced, not the guy I actually battled. The guy I actually battled was, as far as I can recall, relatively polite. Like, he wasn't kind towards me , but he didn't join in the smacktalking with his rude friends.

However, who was he? How does someone like him attract so many followers? He must surely be a Smogon celebrity, I reason. Let me look up who he is and what his rank is so I can see for myself just how amazing this guy is --

User: IDM CTC
Format	Elo	GXE	Glicko-1	COIL	W	L	T
ou	1373	57	1552 ± 43	--	39	26	0

...

For comparison, my own record (poor as it currently is on this alt):

User: zuisho
Format	Elo	GXE	Glicko-1	COIL	W	L	T
ou	1386	66	1625 ± 60	--	33	17	1

So either this is an alt to a more famous account attached to a different IP address (likely) ... or else one exasperated word for you:

Kids.

You're not far off with the 4chan thing. I'm 99% sure you were just unlucky enough to run into the /vp/ Showderp crowd (I recognize some of those sets/nicknames, and the spectators). They pick a "champ", give them 6 usually gimmicky sets, send them to Showdown to fight people, and then heckle. There's always a thread running on /vp/, so if you battle enough in OU, you're going to run into them eventually. Don't bother to take them seriously. They do all sorts of things to throw the match, from pretending they're mods to making fake reports that you "have to press CTRL+W to challenge".

[Shuckle]

Originally Posted by Schala

You're not far off with the 4chan thing. I'm 99% sure you were just unlucky enough to run into the /vp/ Showderp crowd (I recognize some of those sets/nicknames, and the spectators). They pick a "champ", give them 6 usually gimmicky sets, send them to Showdown to fight people, and then heckle. There's always a thread running on /vp/, so if you battle enough in OU, you're going to run into them eventually. Don't bother to take them seriously. They do all sorts of things to throw the match, from pretending they're mods to making fake reports that you "have to press CTRL+W to challenge".

Wow that's actually kinda cool that you ran into them. That's the kind of thing that always happens to "someone else."

Crit City.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Schala

You're not far off with the 4chan thing. I'm 99% sure you were just unlucky enough to run into the /vp/ Showderp crowd (I recognize some of those sets/nicknames, and the spectators). They pick a "champ", give them 6 usually gimmicky sets, send them to Showdown to fight people, and then heckle. There's always a thread running on /vp/, so if you battle enough in OU, you're going to run into them eventually. Don't bother to take them seriously. They do all sorts of things to throw the match, from pretending they're mods to making fake reports that you "have to press CTRL+W to challenge".

Hmm, it seems like you're right. I just got off a phone call and so the page is probably long since dead now, but about an hour ago when I saw your post, I snuck into that wretched hive of scum and villainy to confirm your suspicions -- and found a thread, then on Page 09, which contained a set for a Crustle who had the same nickname as the Crustle I fought. Curious, I looked up the ID code of my battle to see if it was linked anywhere in that thread or not. And ...



... sure enough it was. No one replied to this guy's post; and I've no idea whether he's just some wannabe with a triptag or whether he's a /vp/ celebrity; but either way, it confirms Schala's suspicions that the person I fought was from /vp/ and so were most if not all of the audience.

That stated, you say "they do all sorts of things to throw the match," but I feel like that would be cheap of my opponent or any of the spectators to try and suggest happened in our game. It was obvious from start to finish that he was trying his best to win. There was not one turn where he made an insane decision. It was clear he not only knew what he was doing but that he was putting that knowledge to full use in order to net a win. He didn't get it, and he should have to accept that fact. He shouldn't get to hide behind the claim that Showderp battles are staged. Maybe some of them are, but this one clearly was not.

[Schala]

Originally Posted by Talon87

No one replied to this guy's post; and I've no idea whether he's just some wannabe with a triptag or whether he's a /vp/ celebrity;

Last I knew, champs used trips to prove it's them so people don't pretend to be them and post random matches, call for new champs, or call for new teams. I would assume they've kept up that practice. That was just the champ linking the battle so people in the thread could go watch.

Originally Posted by Talon87

That stated, you say "they do all sorts of things to throw the match," but I feel like that would be cheap of my opponent or any of the spectators to try and suggest happened in our game. It was obvious from start to finish that he was trying his best to win. There was not one turn where he made an insane decision. It was clear he not only knew what he was doing but that he was putting that knowledge to full use in order to net a win. He didn't get it, and he should have to accept that fact. He shouldn't get to hide behind the claim that Showderp battles are staged. Maybe some of them are, but this one clearly was not.

I might have worded that badly, sorry. I meant that the spectators use cheap tricks to try to scare off/mess with opponents (like the fake reports and fake mods). The champ is trying to win, and usually has very little to do with what the spectators are doing. So the champ wasn't trying to lose, and I have no doubt that you won fair and square. The stuff I mentioned earlier is just common things the spectators do to try to throw the match in the champs favor (ex: The opponent thinks the report is legit, presses CTRL+W, and exits out of the match as a result. If they can't get back to it in time/don't want to bother trying to get back, they lose the match).

[Heather]

Originally Posted by Schala

Last I knew, champs used trips to prove it's them so people don't pretend to be them and post random matches, call for new champs, or call for new teams. I would assume they've kept up that practice. That was just the champ linking the battle so people in the thread could go watch.



I might have worded that badly, sorry. I meant that the spectators use cheap tricks to try to scare off/mess with opponents (like the fake reports and fake mods). The champ is trying to win, and usually has very little to do with what the spectators are doing. So the champ wasn't trying to lose, and I have no doubt that you won fair and square. The stuff I mentioned earlier is just common things the spectators do to try to throw the match in the champs favor (ex: The opponent thinks the report is legit, presses CTRL+W, and exits out of the match as a result. If they can't get back to it in time/don't want to bother trying to get back, they lose the match).

Ill admit I've falken for the CTRL+W one once. I was pissed off, and that hekped start putting me off from PS

[Cloneblazer12]

Another Day in the World of Getting Reqs...

Spoiler: show

And what better person to face than Reyscarface himself? For those of you who dont know, hes a mod on Smogon, and hes a pretty damn good battler too. He brought a rain team (seen here) that is at tournament level, against my sand team (a variation of the one I posted earlier for Myles). Luckily for me, Mega Venusaur pulled his weight this match and was my win condition. Walling Kabutops, Politoed, and taking out Deo-S in one hit (even though it was an expanded hit, mind you), he easily earned the MVP spot. Additionally, he was able to KO Scizor, who wouldve otherwise have had a bit of fun with my team as Keldeo was my only relevant resist (I needed Talon for late game). Anyways, once I got the spin off, it was GG. Talon broke Kingdra, and Scarfchomp won me the match.

Playing on the suspect ladder is a nice change of pace from the normal ladder. Most people there go in with the determination to win so they can get reqs, and that alone mimicks the upper OU ladder. Add on the fact that I come across famous Smogon battlers and am able to beat some of them, it feels good (I also faced one of my friends, The Dragon Knight from Serebii in a ladder batle). At the pace Im going at, I feel that I can make reqs within the week bar a big losing streak/I tilt heavily.