PKMN-PH December VGC 2014 3rd Place Team Report

Hello fellow trainers, My name is Matthew Sarmiento from Sto. Tomas Batangas, and a member from Team LGBT. I am glad that I discovered PKMN-PH thanks to my teammate, I am really happy i'm not the only one playing pokemon in the philippines haha because I thought no one is playing here, I just enjoyed playing RSE in the emulator in High School and College until now, and gba in my elementary days. This is the firs time I am writing a team report, sorry if there are a lots of mistakes in grammar.

This Team is build in such a short amount of time just to join the previous November tournament, and I do a lot of changes for the December 2014 VGC Tournament.

Mienshao @ Focus Sash
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Fake Out
- High Jump Kick
- Rock Slide
- U-turn

Here is my kitty that is flexible in all of my battles, for playing as support role, I usually fake out the mons of my enemy that are faster than mine and mons that are status inducer or prankster users. for wallbreaking, its STAB move High Jump Kick can 2HKO or even OHKO most of the mons that doesn't resist its, Rock Slide for OHKO common flying types such as Talonflame and Charizard Y.

With the ability regenerator and hold item focus sash with U-Turn, my mienshao is a Ninja Scout that heals it self and also to counter Shadow Tag users and bring out my other mons that can knock out them. The EV spread is self explanatory.

Hydreigon @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Fire Blast
- Dark Pulse
- Protect

This three headed dragon can wallbreak or even OHKO anything that doesn't resist its moves with the help of Life Orb and with the help of meowstic support with its Helping Hand. I choose life orb to maximize the full power of this beast, I have meowstic to slow down faster mons and knock them. I choose protect to let my meowstic do some thunder wave support.

Lapras (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 220 HP / 4 Atk / 8 Def / 160 SpA / 116 SpD
Quiet Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Freeze-Dry
- Psychic
- Ice Shard

Before using this, my original was vaporeon but lapras is so much better than vaporeon. It has access to Freeze Dry which I can almost OHKO any Dragon that has 4x weakness and also to OHKO or 2HKO the common Ludicolo and Gyarados that are not heavily EV invested in HP and Special Defense. The EVs are from one of the team reports in nuggetbridge and sorry cause I forgot who is the player.

I choose Assault Vest to take hits from the famous rotoms with their thunderbolt. But sadly I only invested 8 EVs in Def which is not good because mons like Mega Kangkaskan and Mega Mawile hit my Lapras very hard. Another mistake I made here is that my nature is not suitable for my lapras because I have Ice Shard which does not hit very hard because its -Atk, but gladly I revenge KO some of the most dragons like Salamence and Garchomp.

Venusaur (F) @ Venusaurite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Def / 125 SpA / 57 SpD
Bold Nature
- Leech Seed
- Protect
- Sludge Bomb
- Giga Drain

I choose Mega Venusaur as a bulky counter to most common Fairies which is really popular. Its EVs are originally from Alvin Rambano(one of my favorite players in the PGP which is really strong hehe). I change it a little bit base on my preferences, I invested 76 EVs on Defense to survive a Brave Bird from talonflames out there. Hydreigon and Lapras are weak to fighting which mean I can safely switch my Mega Venusaur with the right prediction.

Mawile (M) @ Mawilite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Sucker Punch
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
- Protect

The Powerhouse of my team, design to OHKO any mon and deal a lot and lot of damage to them. With the support from meowstic, this monster can oblitirate an entire team. Nothing much to say about its moveset, the EVs are spread to be bulky, and I choose adamant nature to maximize its sweeping capabilities. Mega Mawile is also one of my counter against trick room users.

Meowstic (M) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 100 SpD / 56 Spe
Bold Nature
- Helping Hand
- Thunder Wave
- Charm
- Safeguard

The MVP of the team, fully capable of supporting its teammates at its best. My team originally don't have a support because I really want my team to deal a lot of damage, I really need a support because there are many mons that are so annoying, and the most annoying one is Dark Void Smeargle, thats why safeguard from meowsctic is a really big help, blocking status really help my team.

Thunder wave is use accordingly to slow down fast threats and 25% chance not to attack is really good. Originally my meowstic have Trick Room to surprise my opponents, and it work from the previous tournament, after I set up trick room, I just switch my Lapras with Mawile and start sweeping my opponent's team. But I change it to Charm, thanks to my teammate Jess for suggesting this one, I manage to bring down a Garchomp to -6 that a Rock Slide is not doing any damage at all and a Gyrarados to -5 with intimdate from Mawile, but in the round 6 of swiss round, a Waterfall that lands a critical hit really do a lot of damage with my Mega Mawile which is very scary hehe.

Last but not the least, Helping Hand which really helps my team to OHKO most of the mons, I manage to OHKO a nidoqueen with Draco Meteor and KO another Mega Mawile with Iron Head, I forgot other OHKO moments with the Helping Hand from meowstic but it was worth it to put Helping Hand in its moveset. Meowstic is pretty bulky too, the EV spread is for pure bulk and i put some speed to outspeed other prankster that are not EV invested in Speed.

Thank you to all the players that I have battled, really want to write a commentary for each match but I forgot most of the matches to save and I don't really remember most of the battles, sorry :)

Swiss Rounds:
-Round 1 vs. Fernando Luis = Win
-Round 2 vs. Allan Cantaoi = Lose
-Round 3 vs. Marv Lava = Win
-Round 4 vs. CG Descalzo = Win
-Round 5 vs. Revin Antonio = Win
-Round 6 vs. Rey Allyson = Win
-Round 7 vs. Alvin Rambano = Win

My final score is 6-1 and manage to get the 2nd place in swiss rounds hehe, I really enjoyed all the swiss round, the hax is my bestfriend in all the swiss rounds :)

Topcut:
-Round 1 vs. Mark Nasuli = Win (2-1)
-Semifinals vs. JM La Torre = Lose (0-2)
-Bronze Match vs. Migz Garcia = Win (2-1)

The battles I have on the topcut is really the best! And I exprience a lot of pressure and gain a lot of lessons from this matches, Sadly my bestfriend hax betray me that my Hydro Pump and Rock Slide became Hydro Miss and Rock Miss hehe, but its part of the game so its ok with me :)

I manage to get the 3rd Place in this tournament, thanks to PGP family for this tournament, I really enjoyed all the tournaments. My dream as a child is now starting to come back hehe. My path to becoming the Pokemon Master is not yet finish, Thanks for reading this Team Report I hope you enjoyed reading it hehe :)

Is Fixed Gear worth riding?

Before I answer that question, let me give you some information about this bike. Fixed gear or fixed for short is a bike that has no brake and no freewheel. The weight of the fixie is so light you can lift it with one arm.

Here is my fixie, I just bought it a month ago, I’m really excited riding this one because I can see my friends doing skid all around, that is just so cool when they do it. When I start practicing it, guess what?? I just got a lot and lot of wounds! Haha, I thought it was that easy, but it was really really hard.

I also started practicing uphills so that I can have more stamina on long rides and can ace a lot of uphills if we are on long rides. While practicing uphills, of course, there are downhills that I encounter, It was really scary when I’m riding downhills because I can’t stop my fixie. And then when I’m riding downhill there was a car that I was just about going to hit, I’m panicking that time and don’t know what to do, what I do is skid my fixie to make a full stop, and boom! I just did it just like that! After I did it, I don’t stop practicing it. That awesome feeling when I’m doing a skid is priceless.

Here is the result of practicing skid, you can see the lines that my tire just draw haha. I really want to buy a new tire to skid more longer. I am not worrying anymore about going downhills.

Here is a YouTube video link on that shows a lot of fixed gear skid tricks, you can achieve too this by practicing every day. There are many tricks to do when you learn how to skid.

My final thoughts are fixie are not recommended for beginners who want to learn how to bike, but if you really want to learn biking using fixie, I recommend putting a front brake on your fixie so that you can easily stop if you can’t skid for the first time. Also, where a safety helmet and buy straps or toe clip. My fixie has only one strap and its on the right pedal because I use my right leg to skid.

Is fixied gear worth riding? If you are the type of person who wants a challenge and thrill while riding like me then it's definitely worth riding! Just be careful when riding in highways, be more alert to your surroundings, you can never tell when accidents will happen. Goodluck on riding your fixie! :)