The GGFan Experience
As the retrospective of SPL IX is too daunting for me at the moment, I figured it would be prudent to step away from Smogon for a while and focus my efforts elsewhere. I begrudgingly decided to write about my experiences in RBY2K10, an organization that I, for the most, vehemently disdained to the point where I wanted to avoid even mentioning it, as I feel its founders and most of its community don't deserve any kind of recognition from me, positive OR negative. However, after some thought I realized it's important for me to cover my time here, as it highlights how toxic the Pokemon scene can truly be--especially when you earn renown in the game. Thus, this article has a secondary title: "The dark side of competitive Pokemon."
The competitive scene developed in various territories such as Azureheights and Purelimit, and flourished on GameFAQs in 2003. However, due to the rise of Netbattle and especially RSE, RBY was left in the dust and was near extinction. It resurfaced in 2005 thanks to the creation of THE Alternative, which averaged about one tournament per month from 2006 until its death in 2008. Afterwards, RBY was only featured sporadically until its successor, RBY2K10, came into fruition in February of 2010, which was an attempt to put the ancient arts back into the spotlight. Its founders, icy and waterwizard, were, to the say the least, immensely immature and irritating people who were on a mission to convince everybody else that they were the best players on the planet. They would challenge people to meaningless exhibition games and post the logs, but only if they won, of course. They also espoused opinions that I found outrageous, such as arguing that Gengar was horrible and that everybody who played before them was bad. I was, however, the one exception, as they had accounts on THE Alternative and told me that my forum was the impetus behind their desire to create something of their own.
Fair enough. THE Alternative was dead and RBY was in dire straits, so I accepted their invitation and signed up (they told me previously that they had a "big surprise" for me). Thus, I left the German circuit, where I had been playing regularly since 2006, as I saw RBY2K10 as a new challenge and felt there wasn't much left for me to accomplish in the land of the Germans. I wanted to prove that I could excel against these brash, arrogant neophytes in spite of their incorrigible behavior. I couldn't stand seeing those logs, them making threads in this nascent community about how much better they were than everybody else even though nobody was there to listen, or magicmushroom bragging about how much better he was than "random Netbattle player," or the stupid opinions like how atrocious Gengar was (which is also hypocritical because they devised counter teams against me which had Gengar as the lead). I also hated how icy and waterwizard had no backbone; for example, borat, who is another miserable bastard I usually avoid mentioning, called them cocksuckers. Their response was to make him a moderator because they were also interested in winning over the Smodrones on Smogon.
Because they were respectful to me (at first), I ignored most of the trolling and degeneracy and focused on the main task at hand: winning their first tournament. In this event, eight people signed up: me, icy, waterwizard, nerd/Giga Punch, subsmoke, Garrin Red, and two other people I don't remember. I was paired against waterwizard in the first round; luckily, I saved the chat beforehand.
Round one - vs waterwizard
Agnfg: Good luck.
Water___Wizard: i’m gonna win. i’m gonna beat you just like i did before in TOS9. you were the best player in the world in the past but we’re the future. i don't think you're that good anymore to be honest.
Agnfg: You got lucky in TOS9. Let’s see if you can do it again.
Water___Wizard: i didn’t get lucky. i played better. icy and i are better than you. This tournament will prove that.
Agnfg: OK, let’s find out since I can’t be bothered to argue right now.
Water___Wizard: let's go!
Back in 2009, I held one tournament on THE Alternative, which was TOS8 (TOS was an annual RBY tournament that I ran from 2002 to 2009). I played waterwizard in the semi finals and lost in three games to bad luck, setting the stage for a heated rematch. I saved the log of the first game, in which we exchanged words at the start. Let's see how it went:
Begin Turn #1
Alakazam used Reflect!
Water___Wizard's team's Reflect raised Defense!
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Jynx used Lovely Kiss!
Jynx's attack missed!
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End of turn #1
Agnfg's Jynx: 333 HP
Water___Wizard's Alakazam: 100% HP
Begin Turn #2
Alakazam used Thunder Wave!
Jynx is paralyzed! It may be unable to move!
---------------------------------
Jynx is paralyzed! It can't move!
---------------------------------
End of turn #2
Agnfg's Jynx: 333 HP (Par)
Water___Wizard's Alakazam: 100% HP
Begin Turn #3
Water___Wizard withdrew Alakazam!
Water___Wizard sent out Gengar (Lv.100 Gengar)!
---------------------------------
Jynx is paralyzed! It can't move!
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End of turn #3
Agnfg's Jynx: 333 HP (Par)
Water___Wizard's Gengar: 100% HP
Begin Turn #4
Gengar used Explosion!
(333 damage)
Jynx fainted!
Gengar fainted!
Agnfg sent out Exeggutor (Lv.100 Exeggutor)!
Water___Wizard sent out Chansey (Lv.100 Chansey)!
---------------------------------
End of turn #4
Agnfg's Exeggutor: 393 HP
Water___Wizard's Chansey: 100% HP
Begin Turn #5
Exeggutor used Sleep Powder!
Exeggutor's attack missed!
---------------------------------
Chansey used Sing!
Chansey's attack missed!
---------------------------------
End of turn #5
Agnfg's Exeggutor: 393 HP
Water___Wizard's Chansey: 100% HP
Begin Turn #6
Exeggutor used Sleep Powder!
Exeggutor's attack missed!
---------------------------------
Chansey used Sing!
Exeggutor fell asleep!
---------------------------------
Talk about a horrible start. I fail to land sleep on the first five turns, which allows him to not only kill my Jynx but also put my Exeggutor to sleep (yes, Sing Chansey has been a thing since antiquity). Was I able to overcome this severe disadvantage?
End of turn #31
Agnfg's Tauros: 26 HP
Water___Wizard's Tauros: 39% HP
Begin Turn #32
Tauros used Hyper Beam!
(39% damage)
A critical hit!
Tauros fainted!
Agnfg: yes!
Water___Wizard sent out Alakazam (Lv.100 Alakazam)!
---------------------------------
End of turn #32
Agnfg's Tauros: 26 HP
Water___Wizard's Alakazam: 100% HP (Par)
Begin Turn #33
Tauros used Body Slam!
(52% damage)
---------------------------------
Alakazam is paralyzed! It can't move!
---------------------------------
End of turn #33
Agnfg's Tauros: 26 HP
Water___Wizard's Alakazam: 48% HP (Par)
Water___Wizard: omg
Water___Wizard: omg
Water___Wizard: omg
Agnfg: wow
Agnfg: how epic
Begin Turn #34
Tauros used Body Slam!
(48% damage)
Alakazam fainted!
Water___Wizard: damn.
Water___Wizard: who was left?
Agnfg: i come back from the d/c
Water___Wizard: sleeping eggy, and...
Agnfg: lax
Water___Wizard: full health?
Agnfg: full health
Water___Wizard: kk
Water___Wizard sent out Chansey (Lv.100 Chansey)!
---------------------------------
End of turn #34
Agnfg's Tauros: 26 HP
Water___Wizard's Chansey: 79% HP (Frz)
Begin Turn #35
Tauros used Body Slam!
(41% damage)
---------------------------------
Chansey is frozen solid!
---------------------------------
End of turn #35
Agnfg's Tauros: 26 HP
Water___Wizard's Chansey: 38% HP (Frz)
Begin Turn #36
Tauros used Body Slam!
(38% damage)
Chansey fainted!
End Battle! Agnfg wins!
Score: 3 to 0
Agnfg: gg
Water___Wizard: gg
Of course I was. I won the Tauros ditto and then his Alakazam was fully paralyzed, which was well deserved (didn't stop him from moaning about it--typical behavior from the likes of him). Unfortunately, I don't have the second game saved, but I do distinctly remember him apologizing for being stupid and wishing me luck in the next round.
Round two - vs subsmoke
Subsmoke was an insignificant sycophant (more on him later) who thought that saying The Rock's catchphrases was still trendy in 2010. Before our first game I remember him writing, "lets go jabroni," which didn't help him much as he lost in two games. I could have sworn I saved the logs, but I couldn't find them.
Winner's finals - vs nerd/Giga Punch
Mix anti social, autism, and anger in a blender, and out comes this piece of shit (I apologize for being unable to express myself more gracefully, but it's hard). If borat, get backer, elodin, and Tsunami are the measuring sticks for intolerable human being, then this dreadful human being is in a class of his own. I honestly found him downright creepy by how evil and abrasive he was towards somebody he didn't know for the sole reason he didn't like Smogon (well, he is, at least, an accurate portrayal of the archetypal Smdrone--hateful, lonely, and psychotic). Whenever I look back at my run, I always consider 2010-2011 to be the most horrid period of my tenure in the competitive scene: not only were icy and waterwizard constantly defecating all over their own forum, but I had to deal with people like this. I was only hoping to have some compeititve games against a new playerbase, not have evil virgins from the seventh layer of hell wish death on me.
Giga Punch (I was told he was nerd; correct me if I'm wrong) was actually quiet for the most part (he did try to annoy me at the end of the third game to try and throw me off) during our set in the winner's finals (this was a double-elimination tournament); he had his friends from Smogon do the talking for him, such as Steelicks, another loser who never amounted to anything other than being socially awkward in a forum sponsored by the autism foundation. This was another one that I was sure that I saved but was unable to retrieve in spite of painstakingly searching my vast collection of logs. Anyways, it was a clean sweep with only maybe the third game being close--his ego was shattered.
Grand finals - vs nerd/Giga Punch
Giga Punch managed to win the loser's bracket, setting up a rematch in the finals. I refused to play it because of what transpired beforehand:
GGFan: hey, are you ready to play?
nerd: i am going to expose you.
GGFan: expose me how, and why? i already swept you in three games before.
nerd: you are a fucking retard and i hope you die in a fire. i hate you so much.
GGFan: are you autistic? do your parents or caregivers know you're up past your bedtime?
nerd: shut the fuck up. I’m going to beat you and show everyone on smogon.
GGFan: why would i waste my time playing an idiot like you?
nerd: LOL. are you scared? don’ t be a coward.
GGFan: you’re beyond stupid. My condolences to you, your disappointed parents, and especially your caregivers.
Naturally I complained about my opponent's embarrassing bout of autistic flailing to the tournament host, icy, but he was apathetic and told me, "lol, just play him. we need the finals done." I still refused but was declared the co-winner anyway, which meant I had won RBY2K10's inaugural tournament without dropping a single game.
Aftermath: While I obviously wouldn't describe the first tournament as auspicious, it was certainly a harbinger for the ensuing plague that would lead to RBY's dark ages. Neither icy nor WaterWizard were fit to run a burgeoning community, and their behavior (along with the brunt of its userbase, I presume) irritated many people who could have been major players in its tournament scene. Only a handful of events were completed from 2010 to 2012, and its anniversary tournament--which offered a cash prize to the winner--was canceled in the finals. It attempted a revival in 2013; although promising at first, it lapsed into its usual petulance that would lead to its death in early 2014.
Publication date: 10/9/2020