This is an excerp of sorts from the report I'm writing up on the recent Nintendo run Pokémon tournament. It'll be posted in full at pietriots.com when I finish. NWR's new Australian corrospondant Casey Basire DID NOT GO! While that would be excuseable if he lived in say, Darwin, the fact is I stayed at his house the night beforehand.
Round Two Battle - Enter FEAR Phanpy
I promised myself when the tournament was first announced that I would get myself a battle on the big screen and open with a FEAR Pokémon (if you won’t understand the term, bear with me.) Apparently they had been discussed at most of the tours around the country but at the end of the day, nobody yet had the audacity to use the most hilarious, humiliating and reckless tactic in the Pokémon world. I had made myself a level 4 Ratatta who was a good candidate but the day before my friend Dan called me to say he wont be coming to Pokétour, choosing Harry Potter instead. However he said that his sister who wanted to go but found herself stuck in Kalgoorlie had trained up a FEAR Phanpy for the tournament and he asked if I wanted it. I said sure as Phanphy is generally regarded as the ideal FEAR Pokémon, being able to withstand sandstorms. He sent it over and I lolled when I saw it’s nickname was XBOX-360.
The setup for round two was different. If you were one of the 64 contestants left remaining you simply walked up to one of the battle stations with a partner and away you went. The main screen cleared out and some kid eagerly stepped up “We need one more” the attendant announced and I pushed my way through for the second spot. My opponent was one of those dorky 11/12 year old kids who reckons he’s tip top but is in actual fact a total loser, ie. He was perfect for FEAR.
I am trembling with anticipation at this point and busily swapping around my team and items to accomodate XBOX-360 into the party. The kid is getting agitated “yeah sorry just saving now” I innocently reply. The other thing about big screen battles is that one player (in this case me) has the oppurtunity to view his opponents Pokémon prior to battle. The kid understood this and tryed to negoiate looking at my Pokémon in return. I declined and quickly chose my team. Being the good sport I am I looked away and chatted to the small crowd that had formed.
Battle begins.
“Roland sent out XBOX-360” the screen announced. The nervous giggles from the crowd at the sight of the nickname quickly turned into outright laughter when XBOX-360 turned out to be a Phanpy, at level 1.
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Phanpy, n/named XBOX-360, Lv 1
Original Trainer: Rachael
Fissure
Endeavour
Ice Shard
Rollout
Hold Item: Focus Sash
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“Don’t laugh I just caught him” I told the crowd. I did however, over the laughter, hear a few gasps of joy and excitement from the maybe 2 or 3 people watching who knew what was about to happen.
He sent out Gyrados and the crowd was in stitches, even the attendants who Nintendo just hire through local modelling agencies were amused at what appeared to be the biggest missmatch since David and Goliath.
“Are you serious? How did you get to round 2 with a level 1 Pokémon?” the kid asked with a snear.
“Oh I dunno, I have a couple of others”
Gyrados attacked with Hydro Pump, hitting poor Phanpy. The crowd is still laughing their heads off, and the noise was getting louder as other people stopped to look at what the fuss was about. Phanpy’s health bar was plunging downwards and then stopped! “It’s super effective!” the screen proclaimed. In this second or so, the crowd was just gasping in amazement, a Nintendo rep stopped in her tracks, stunned “Woah!” she says. “Hax?” someone watching nervously asks. “XBOX-360 hung on with Focus Sash!” the screen explained to the stunned crowd.
“XBOX-360 used Endeavour” the crowd started up again but this time instead of laughing they were CHEERING! “OH MY GOD MAN” some kid is yelling at me. I have this huge smile on my face, my opponent is totally flabbergasted. Gyrados' HP bar plunges to match mine at 1HP. Facing the crowd, I triumphantly raise two fingers in the air and bring them down again, selecting Ice Shard, an attack that always goes first. “XBOX-360 used Ice Shard” as the screen fills with the blue Ice Shard effect the crowd has gone totally crazy, a couple of guys pretty much mobbed me, wanting to shake my hand and swap high fives. Nintendo reps are telling everyone to get back behind the white line. Everybody is laughing their heads off, even the people in the other battles who had paused to watch. Everybody except my opponent who was absolutely livid in anger, the colour draimed from his face.
The battle still wasn’t over, and at that point I didn’t care if I won or lost, the highlight of the day had just happend. I can’t be botehred going into much detail but his Arcanine was pretty formidable, taking out my Metagross, Crobat came to the party though, U-Turning Arcanine and then hynotising, confusing and U-Turning his shiny (!!!) Luxray for the win. Crobat was pretty lucky when his Thunder missed but the kid should’ve been using Thunderbolt anyway, Lax Incence was a wise choice of hold item.