TOS8: Finals

[GGFan]

And we have reached the finals of TOS8! Let's learn a little more about the finalists:

ice
Ice began battling a couple years ago where not much could be said about him. Well, he went AWOL on here that one time where he called everyone on this site my alt and left. Then some time later he came back to the competitive Pokemon scene and joined a Smogon tournament where he performed quite well. He came back to THE Alternative recently with his newly-acquired abilities and signed up for TOS8.

In the first round he was able to score the biggest high-profile victory of his life by beating yours truly and becoming only the 4th person to do so in a TOS tournament. Ice's victory was crucial because it put him in position to win the WB, and he did just that by beating his good buddy, waterwizard, in 2 games to 0.

Ice is now in the driver's seat with a car full of gas. Will he go full speed ahead and become only the 3rd person to say they've won an installment of the longest running tournament in competitive Pokemon history, or will his battery die out just before he reaches the finish line?

waterwizard
Little to nothing was known about waterwizard upon his entry in this tournament other than the fact that he was ice's friend. He wasn't a washed-up hasbeen who was trying to have one last taste at glory, he wasn't a revered battler trying to put another feather in his already-gallant cap, and he wasn't the next big-thing after winning 2 battles on Smogon. He was just waterwizard, a Gators fan who likes Pokemon.

In round one waterwizard played another unknown by the name of zilch. Zilch was the ying to waterwizard's yang, and the two supposedly had a tense, down-to-the-final turn encounter for the ages. Waterwizard came out on top and instantly found himself in position to reach the finals of his first tournament. But it wasn't going to be so easy as waterwizard lost 2 games to 0 in the match that decided the WB.

Not one to go down so easy, waterwizard wiped the dust off his keester and stared me down with the heart of a lion. A nobody going up against the most established RBY battler in history....so what? Waterwizard knew he had the tools and the determination to not only take me to the limit -- but beat me -- and he did. In a best of three that came down to the pivotal third game, waterwizard won and became the first person in 6 years to eliminate me from a TOS tournament.

Waterwizard has already made history, but he isn't going to stop there. This tenacious, resilient young man will not rest until he is declared the winner of TOS8 and only the 3rd person in THE Alternative's history to win his debut tournament. The last person to do that was none other than ViL 3 years ago. Needless to say, waterwizard can end up walking away making a decade's worth of history in the span of two days.

~This is Bo3. Since ice has conquered the WB, waterwizard must win two Bo3 series. Ice only needs to win one.

Good luck to both of you.

[t3hicy]

EPIC.

Let me add my own little blarb about this. I ended up here back just before 2007 from a GameFAQs post regarding high-level battling in RBY. Unfortunately back then I was lacking braincells and created gems like this topic. After bitching and being super awesome and lolrandom, I read about the GGFan story on Smogon and since everything there is obviously true, I yelled angrily at GGFan, which resulted in me getting banned.

Despite being a nobody on both here and GameFAQs, I practiced RBY a lot and ironically, became "sparring partners" with SamTheDigital, despite me calling him one of GGFan's Alts. After several months of practice, I completely scrapped my RBY Guide in progress to start anew seeing that being a paper-player and a real player completely changed the perspective. I published my guide on GameFAQs which had much more detail than Jolt's, although only about RBY and not GSC. It received great reception, and players on Netbattle started to recognize me, and I even battled players that used the team in my guide that I called "My Team" (Jynx/Exeggutor/Chansey/Alakazam/Tauros/Golem). Eventually after enough practice, I was able to beat Sam consistently.

Becoming a newschool veteran on GameFAQs, becoming a better player after every battle and redoing parts of my guide, I was becoming one of the top RBY players in an incredible rate.

During the Summer, Sam and I were on a server practicing as usual where two RBY players came on. After a few hours of playing, both of them were already becoming exceptional players. Although one disappeared shortly after, the other player stuck with it, who also happens to be my Grand Finals opponent.

The three of us, GunBladeLad and Articuno all entered the Smogon tournament, Back to the Basics, in hopes of becoming better players, and proving ourselves. While Water Wizard was eliminated early, myself and Sam both finished in 9th place, Sam due to a dropout, and me due to incredibly bad luck (2 CHs from Snorlax KOing both Alakazam and Chansey, losing a Sleep War, having a Pokemon frozen, yet still bringing it to 1-0, losing due to a 1st turn wake up by the opponent).

After some more practice, Water Wizard became even better and was already within my level, swapping games back and forth. His Lapras was almost his signature, a Pokemon that counters my team well.

Shortly before the start of TOS8, I met Zilch who showed me a gameplay idea that I had never thought of, using the combination of Gengar and Jynx. Almost every game, he would explode on my own Jynx, and put my Exeggutor to sleep by his Jynx. For the first time ever, I lost 5 games in a row; I had even beaten GGFan before he claimed that on me. Shocked, I asked Zilch a lot of questions and began to think about his style. After trying his Gengar/Jynx style, I began winning, and winning and winning, only losing a couple games to Zilch.

At the beginning of TOS8, I was against GGFan. While I had used my Jynx lead team ever since I started, I wanted to use the Gengar lead team. It worked like a charm and due to some added luck, I defeated GGFan 3-0. Zilch and Water Wizard played next and when things looked grim for Water Wizard, he made an amazing comeback with Tauros, bringing a 4-1 game to 1-0 for him, finishing with Tauros having 5 HP left and paralyzed.

After that Zilch wasn't seen again, and GGFan went straight into Loser's Finals.

Before Water Wizard and I knew we were automatically in Winner's Finals, we had played each other dozens of times. We reached a point where both of us could use almost any combination of 6 Pokemon, and the game down to luck and rock-paper-scissors of our teams, although I still had an upper hand against his prediction skills. Before the tournament, we had a series, and I won 5-4, with several close games.

When we began Winner's Finals, we knew it was going to be close and climactic. Similar to Water Wizard vs Zilch, I made an incredible comeback with Lapras going through Chansey, Cloyster and Starmie to win Round 1. Following that, Water Wizard seemed a bit shaken from the comeback and he made some mistakes. I had won Round 2, and was set for Grand Finals.

Next was GGFan vs Water Wizard in the Loser's Finals, and boy that was going to be a real treat. GGFan the veteran player vs Water Wizard the newcomer. Although I didn't see what happened, Water Wizard took Round 1, GGFan won Round 2, and Water Wizard finished it winning Round 3, eliminating GGFan from his own tournament for the first time in over half a decade.

Now is the final clash between me and Water Wizard. So far, I've flawlessly driven through the tournament, but Water Wizard has a lot of potential and spirit. Even then, can he win two sets against me? Will I take him down just as I did him in Winner's Finals? We'll have to find out.

[t3hicy]

It's all over. I won 2-0 in the first set to claim the win for TOS8 and to have done so without losing a single game.

Logs going up in a sec, but I forgot to save Grand Finals 1.1. I started with Jolteon vs Gengar and it finished with me exploding my Exeggutor on his Chansey, leaving just a sleeping Jolteon left.

GGs Water Wizard.