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Feel The Ground Shake (Pokemon - Ground-type specialist)

I guess they are going to patch the roar if he does that in the conference, maybe limiting the times he can spam that.
I hope not, it always irritates me when a good strategy is banned simply because most people cannot beat it, but if its just for that reason why bother having a tournament at all if you can just complain that a strategy is unfair. I could understand if it put the pokemon in danger but that's not the case. Brad has already pointed out one way to beat it with soundproof. I am sure there are others either via skills or held items
 
Well, he needs to basically sacrifice Vlad, his single best mon that's not Grundy (for now, Simon's stonks are on the rise) to set it up, and as the enemy can pick the mon they send out, if they have some kind of counter, it works immediately, and they can still outspeed the kroododile to get a hit in, theoretically.

And remember, rapid spin. Move pools can be pretty damn deep in this universe. Wattson just wasn't prepared.
 
I guess they are going to patch the roar if he does that in the conference, maybe limiting the times he can spam that.

Without 4 movepool restrictions, there's a lot of ways for hands to be dealt.
That's before the implications that fast enough pokemon can just dodge hazards as was implied with a comment on Manectric or that they can just get blown up with enough AOE.


I think this battle was probably the best one written so far. The of push-pull of the fight was written great.
Well paced and easy to follow while still feeling the pressure of thinking Brad was under. Though knowing that Defog fact off hand felt a little out of left field in how it broke up flow and questioning how tf he remembers that off hand in the middle of a fight.
I guess prep might explain it
 
I hope not, it always irritates me when a good strategy is banned simply because most people cannot beat it, but if its just for that reason why bother having a tournament at all if you can just complain that a strategy is unfair. I could understand if it put the pokemon in danger but that's not the case. Brad has already pointed out one way to beat it with soundproof. I am sure there are others either via skills or held items
Depends on how dominant and niche the strategy becomes. They literally banned dunking in basketball for a while back in the day cos one guy was just too good at it
 
I guess they are going to patch the roar if he does that in the conference, maybe limiting the times he can spam that.

Honestly, if you're a conference-level trainer and don't have more than a few ways to deal with strategies like hazard stacking and phasing, at that point, it's a skill issue on your part.

Hazard removers like Rapid Spin or Defog, abilities to prevent being switched out like Suction Cups or Soundproof, moves such as Ingrain, or even one that makes you immune to hazards such as Magic Guard. Alternatively, you can just try to prevent hazards in the first place by using moves like Taunt or Pokémon with the Magic Bounce ability. There's also items such as Heavy Duty Boots or Air Balloon, tho, I don't exactly know how they work in this world.
 
I hope not, it always irritates me when a good strategy is banned simply because most people cannot beat it, but if its just for that reason why bother having a tournament at all if you can just complain that a strategy is unfair. I could understand if it put the pokemon in danger but that's not the case. Brad has already pointed out one way to beat it with soundproof. I am sure there are others either via skills or held items
The thing you need to remember is that the purpose of sports is to be entertaining to the audience.

One person who reliably steamrolls everything all the time because they have mastered one cool trick that nobody is skilled enough to stop is not entertaining to the audience.
 
He didn't note that Grass Knot was also being used differently here? It's normally a remote attack that strikes from below tripping you and converting gravity into Grass damage. Not a contact move that leaves a lash scar.

I'm guessing that Volt Swotch here was being used by striking himself. Because normally Volt Switch does nothing if it can't damage.

The thing you need to remember is that the purpose of sports is to be entertaining to the audience.

One person who reliably steamrolls everything all the time because they have mastered one cool trick that nobody is skilled enough to stop is not entertaining to the audience.
On the other hand this is also the pokemon world, wherein the primary purpose of the battles is to prove yourself better than your opponent.
 
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On the other hand this is also the pokemon world, wherein the primary purpose of the battles is to prove yourself better than your opponent.
If that were true, tournaments would not be televised and held in giant stadiums that can hold tens of thousands of spectators.

Individual battles are for proving yourself, gym battles are for proving yourself, the big tournaments are for entertaining the audience, exactly the same as tournaments are in real life.

The league does not build gigantic stadiums and broadcast major tournaments to every television in the land so that people can prove themselves, they do those things because people buying tickets to tournaments and watching them on tv makes the league money through ticket sales and advertising revenue.

The fact that the competitors in said tournaments can also prove themselves is of secondary concern to the league.
 
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Complete and utter silence followed by laughter is a first though.

"BWAHAHAHA!" Wattson lets loose his biggest, deepest, most full-bodied belly laugh to date. The man almost toppling over from how far he's leaning back. His hand is slapping his thigh over and over as he tries to control himself. "Well son you certainly played me good on that one! I concede!"
Wattson's team is actually good enough to take down Grundy. But not in a 1v1 and he knows it.
 
The thing you need to remember is that the purpose of sports is to be entertaining to the audience.

One person who reliably steamrolls everything all the time because they have mastered one cool trick that nobody is skilled enough to stop is not entertaining to the audience.

...Assuming that mastering a single trick is enough to dominate an entire competitive style.
There are several issues with looking at it like that, foremost of which is the assumption that apparently nobody has ever thought of it before and that reasonable countermeasures don't exist.

Not to mention that apparently it would be enough to steamroll opponents. I doubt hazards do the same kind of ridiculous universal damage as they do in the games, so their effectiveness at the highest levels is still questionable, excluding all the ways there are to deal with them in a real battle setting.
Would they give a definite edge? Yea. Damage is damage. Enough to offset the risk of something just doing an absolute suicide move like Electrode did? Well, now you've either lost a hefty chunk on a mon that could have done a lot more than chip. Or even lose it outright.

The idea of something being banned for being unsporting isn't outlandish. But hazards in the context of this story seems way out there.
 
Ah Wattson my favorite Hoenn Gym Leader. Something about an old man just having fun doing his job is priceless.

It also helps that the Mauville-Vernadurf Town route is probably the most time I've spent in a Pokemon game due to the copious amounts of eggs that I've needed to hatch.

Bonus points for the berry patches you have access too there as well!
 
He didn't note that Grass Knot was also being used differently here? It's normally a remote attack that strikes from below tripping you and converting gravity into Grass damage. Not a contact move that leaves a lash scar.
Grass Knot and Draining Kiss are both contact moves even though they deal special damage.
 

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