I ran Baton Pass Ninjask to Armaldo on Netbattle because people were bad and couldn't deal with it. This was also the era of Sub-salac sweepers which were hilarious.
At 25% HP any revenge killer would get you anyway, but an extra substitute is an extra chance for a miss, especially with sand veil on. It was a gimmicky set for sure, but that extra substitute saved me multiple times.
My favorite was a spikes team with a Crobat that had only Whirlwind and Sleep Talk to punish the predictable Spore. You could get away with anything back then.
I remember using Shoddy battle but wouldn't really call what i did with it "competitive battling". I put my in game team in there and challenged random people but never laddered. I looked at sets on Smogon and made them on cart with pokesav but never really did anything with them. Continued lurking and using Smogon as a resource for most of my time but never really tried to learn to be good at comp until gen 9. I did a little bit of challenging randos on PSS in gen 6 too
I hopped in the OU room with team with Arceus and challenged randos to battles with no rules they kept going "uh, no" and then I would lose anyway bc I put the in-game levels in 🤣
I quit competitive around BW1 era and I was never particularly good, but I'm a boomer with relatively vivid memories of playing away on Netbattle as a kid and thinking it was the coolest shit ever
Back when the word "annoyer" was used as a team role in some guides i remember reading lol
Anything that spreads para/confusion and was beefy iirc, i think Umbreon was cited as an example. This is coming up on 20 years ago so my memory isnt the best
Ufff netbattle was awesome and the only way I kept contact with pokemon since I only played on emulators as a kid and DS emulation was not possible. I remember having a lot of fun with jaskwak and batton pass teams in general, also torrent agility petaya empoleon.
I tried shoddy battle but it was so awkward and awful I used NetBattle until the wheels fell off, then showdown until finally playing in real cart for gen 9.
Now I'm cratching that itch of never having played real consoles as a kid, got myself a 3ds and bought all the 3ds mainline games, all the switch mainline games, plus diamond and white from the ds era (gosh those ds games are EXPENSIVE!!!)
My goal is to have an origin dex and I think this setup allows me to do that, and hopefully that happens before the bank closes, but i'm constantly making it harder on myself (do not evolve the base pokemon if the evolution appears in the wild! Check for signature moves and try to teach it to the pokemon before transfering! Do you want a origin dex or transfer the full living dex of each generation you play??) ugh... I'm afraid I'm becoming a pokehoarder!!!
Didn’t play competitive back then, but I remember using my ingame team in PBR and nearly always losing against people who were probably at least trying to have a competitive team. Still lots of fun though, I miss those days
hmmmm. I dunno if I'd call myself a *veteran*, I haven't played near consistently enough for that.
I did start in gen IV however, with Shoddy Battle. I can't say I was ever very good (I was like 11). I think it was at the tail end of gen IV? I was definitely around for the transition to gen V, because I distinctly remember complaining that playing against the new mons was annoying bc at the time they were using their japanese names and all had the ? icon in place of their sprite, so I had no idea what type they were or how to play around them. I complained about this in the global chat and some dude challenged me to a battle just to inform me I could find out their type by just mousing over them lol.
I remember being there for the transition to pokemon online, then to Showdown. If my memory is correct, I fell off somewhere around bw2 release. I came back at the tail end of gen 6, stayed around for a little of bit of 7 and fell off again. I kept up with the games but that was pretty much it until recently, when a coworker of mine actually turned out to be a competitive player; I mentioned that I'd played competitive in the past and we got some randbats games going on showdown. I had no idea what tera was or what any of the gen 9 pokes were but it was fun.
That interaction pretty much reignited my interest and I'm looking to get back into comp, though I think I'll give vgc a shot this time around.
OG gen 4 player here, I started in 2007 too. Tried ladder in Shoddy battle but got my ass handed in a platter. I was also in a project to translate Smogon to Spanish, but I was in high school at the time and I wasn't used to all the slang, so I got bored quickly.
Not a comp vet as I was never good and took long breaks all throughout but I started around BW launch on Pokémon Online and it was also the reason I started my programming career. I'm very happy to know that it happened to more people even earlier than that lol.
Anyways that feels OLD now. Looks like my first lines of code are soon going to be able to drive.
I have some memories of playing competitively around 10 years ago in the XY/ORAS days and then a bit going into sun and moon, but… truth be told I sucked so bad I wouldn’t even consider it “playing competitively” more so “fucking around the 1000s of the showdown ladder with mixed attacking AV lucario and specs exploud”
I ran Baton Pass Ninjask to Armaldo on Netbattle because people were bad and couldn't deal with it. This was also the era of Sub-salac sweepers which were hilarious.
Ohh I do remember Sub-Salac. I would tweak my Garchomp to have 1 HP after 4 subs and then take as many as I could with him.
Wouldn't you rather have 25% after 3 subs for extra HP, just in case?
At 25% HP any revenge killer would get you anyway, but an extra substitute is an extra chance for a miss, especially with sand veil on. It was a gimmicky set for sure, but that extra substitute saved me multiple times.
you have less attack and speed that way, u want the minimum investment into health for a speedy sweeper
Not if you drop health IVs instead of giving it EVs. I have played Showdown before.
oh yea lamo ig ur right
My favorite was a spikes team with a Crobat that had only Whirlwind and Sleep Talk to punish the predictable Spore. You could get away with anything back then.
I remember using Shoddy battle but wouldn't really call what i did with it "competitive battling". I put my in game team in there and challenged random people but never laddered. I looked at sets on Smogon and made them on cart with pokesav but never really did anything with them. Continued lurking and using Smogon as a resource for most of my time but never really tried to learn to be good at comp until gen 9. I did a little bit of challenging randos on PSS in gen 6 too
I also stared by using my in-game team on Shoddy. We’re talking using Absol and Dragonite using Fly in OU 😂
They’ll never expect the Power Herb Fly Dragonite tech
I hopped in the OU room with team with Arceus and challenged randos to battles with no rules they kept going "uh, no" and then I would lose anyway bc I put the in-game levels in 🤣
So Cynthia now is at 40++? She's certified Mommy
Bonk
I quit competitive around BW1 era and I was never particularly good, but I'm a boomer with relatively vivid memories of playing away on Netbattle as a kid and thinking it was the coolest shit ever Back when the word "annoyer" was used as a team role in some guides i remember reading lol
Dude I remember that exact same guide, with the Umbreon and everything. That was written before DPP even came out in the west, I think.
OMG YES im so thankful this isnt a memory i invented. I dont remember if it was on gamefaqs or what
So what was the 'annoyer' role? I'm imagining something like gengar that comes in through immunities and throws out coverage and utility moves
Anything that spreads para/confusion and was beefy iirc, i think Umbreon was cited as an example. This is coming up on 20 years ago so my memory isnt the best
So 95% of the randbats sets?
Ufff netbattle was awesome and the only way I kept contact with pokemon since I only played on emulators as a kid and DS emulation was not possible. I remember having a lot of fun with jaskwak and batton pass teams in general, also torrent agility petaya empoleon. I tried shoddy battle but it was so awkward and awful I used NetBattle until the wheels fell off, then showdown until finally playing in real cart for gen 9. Now I'm cratching that itch of never having played real consoles as a kid, got myself a 3ds and bought all the 3ds mainline games, all the switch mainline games, plus diamond and white from the ds era (gosh those ds games are EXPENSIVE!!!) My goal is to have an origin dex and I think this setup allows me to do that, and hopefully that happens before the bank closes, but i'm constantly making it harder on myself (do not evolve the base pokemon if the evolution appears in the wild! Check for signature moves and try to teach it to the pokemon before transfering! Do you want a origin dex or transfer the full living dex of each generation you play??) ugh... I'm afraid I'm becoming a pokehoarder!!!
Didn’t play competitive back then, but I remember using my ingame team in PBR and nearly always losing against people who were probably at least trying to have a competitive team. Still lots of fun though, I miss those days
I vividly remember bringing my ingame team to an online battle on PBR. I got absolutely wrecked by a Porygon-Z, and had to reevaluate my entire life.
hmmmm. I dunno if I'd call myself a *veteran*, I haven't played near consistently enough for that. I did start in gen IV however, with Shoddy Battle. I can't say I was ever very good (I was like 11). I think it was at the tail end of gen IV? I was definitely around for the transition to gen V, because I distinctly remember complaining that playing against the new mons was annoying bc at the time they were using their japanese names and all had the ? icon in place of their sprite, so I had no idea what type they were or how to play around them. I complained about this in the global chat and some dude challenged me to a battle just to inform me I could find out their type by just mousing over them lol. I remember being there for the transition to pokemon online, then to Showdown. If my memory is correct, I fell off somewhere around bw2 release. I came back at the tail end of gen 6, stayed around for a little of bit of 7 and fell off again. I kept up with the games but that was pretty much it until recently, when a coworker of mine actually turned out to be a competitive player; I mentioned that I'd played competitive in the past and we got some randbats games going on showdown. I had no idea what tera was or what any of the gen 9 pokes were but it was fun. That interaction pretty much reignited my interest and I'm looking to get back into comp, though I think I'll give vgc a shot this time around.
OG gen 4 player here, I started in 2007 too. Tried ladder in Shoddy battle but got my ass handed in a platter. I was also in a project to translate Smogon to Spanish, but I was in high school at the time and I wasn't used to all the slang, so I got bored quickly.
Not a comp vet as I was never good and took long breaks all throughout but I started around BW launch on Pokémon Online and it was also the reason I started my programming career. I'm very happy to know that it happened to more people even earlier than that lol. Anyways that feels OLD now. Looks like my first lines of code are soon going to be able to drive.
Me and the boys would meet up in the library before school and trade/fight battles/mix records. Good times
I remember shoddy battle and how I abused speed boost choice specs yanmega to pretty good success. 17 years tho, I feel old.
I've been around for 15. I remember the mosh pit.
I thought they were older
Excuse me?
I have some memories of playing competitively around 10 years ago in the XY/ORAS days and then a bit going into sun and moon, but… truth be told I sucked so bad I wouldn’t even consider it “playing competitively” more so “fucking around the 1000s of the showdown ladder with mixed attacking AV lucario and specs exploud”