The GGFan Experience
Despite having created THE Alternative and how important it was in keeping RBY alive in the second half of the 2000s, I've never written any kind of retrospectives on it. From 2005 to 2008 I would estimate that I played somewhere in the neighborhood of 150-200 tournament matches in my own turf (remember that this was the best-of-one era, so that number is actually enormous), and this isn't even counting the tournaments that were regularly held on its Netbattle server in 2006. For the sake of brevity, I'll just say that THE Alternative was highly successful for what it was. My organization dedicated to the ancient arts hosted about a tour per month on average from its inception until its death, and during that time I picked up some meaningful victories within THE Alternative and outside.
5. Hosting the IRBYT - 11/10/2006-12/10/2006
The International RBY Tournament (IRBYT) was the first tournament of its kind where an American organization (as I saw it) competed against a European organization (Pokemonexperte). What made the IRBYT more important, however, was that Pokemonexperte was the largest competitive organization at the time, so to host a tournament of this kind was a unique achievement in its own right. In the first round, eight players from THE Alternative played each other in the first round to determine who would earn the right to play against the players from Pokemonexperte, who were also facing each other. The four players from each group that had the best record would advance into the elimination stage and represent their organization. The top four of THE Alternative were me, HcM, SamG, and Yellow, Pokemonexperte's best consisted of peter pan, cune, Buster, and Jakira. I was eliminated in the second round by Buster, but HcM scored an upset victory over peter pan, and would end up being one of the two surviving members along with SamG who won the event for THE Alternative. It truly was a victory that highlighted how far this small proboard had come over the year, and that THE Alternative was legit as far as competition was concerned.
Although this was a highly successful achievement, it's only #5 because I didn't actually win it (my team won, but I was eliminated).
4. Winning the Tag Team Season - 10/12/2006-11/15/2006
The Tag Team Season (TTS) was a highly competitive event in which four teams competed against each other throughout six weeks, with the two highest ranked teams at the conclusion of the season squaring off in the championship series. Team Lidle (myself and SamG) made it into the finals undefeated, and, thankfully, our momentum did not flag in the championship series, resulting in one more victory over team THE BANANAS (Billtog and Cygnus) and the trophy. Also, to successfully host a tournament that went this long was a significant confident booster.
3. Hosting the IRBYT 2 - 8/27/2007-9/26/2007
Yes, I know it seems redundant to include both IRBYTs in this list, but this one stands out for certain reasons. The IRBYT 2 had more players, the pools were stronger, and I manged to pull of an 8-0 record going into the finals against my rival, Majin Tupac, in games that were heavily spectated. The Germans wanted to take home the cup this time; they were rooting for their hero to pull of the victory, which he did in two games. Sure, to lose was disappointing, but I got to have a high-profile match with a big fight feel against one of my best opponents in a tournament that was my own creation. Moreover, this was an event in which over 50 games (again, best-of-one era) were played between both organizations--the competition was off the charts here.
2. Winning the 2007 RBY League -11/23/2006-2/1/2007
Just like its predecessor, the 2007 RBY League was a long, competitive event that took place over the course of two months. There were two divisions, the North and South; the two players with the highest record in their respective division after the six-week regular season advanced into the North/South Division Championship Series. Obviously, the winners of the divisional championship series collided in the Undisputed Championship Series, which was actually a best-of-eleven. That's right, the host of the event, Slayer, wanted to the best to have to win six times. I ended up facing Kampfer in the finals, who was a solid player in his own right who did his homework by preparing for my famous Jynx team well. I won the first three, then he won the next three, and then I won three in a row again to win the championship. What was just as important as winning, however, was what I used to win, specifically my invention, Reflect Snorlax. Sometime in 2006 I had begun experimenting with a Snorlax that had Body Slam/Earthquake/Reflect/Rest to counter Tauros as well as other Snorlaxen (it was especially potent back then because of paralysis mechanics), and the finals of the 2007 RBY League was its debut in tournament play. A decade later and Reflect would change the metagame to extreme degrees--you're welcome.
1. Winning TOS6 - 3/4/2007-5/1/2007
TOS6 was sort of a mega event in that it was where several organizations converged, resulting in the biggest RBY tournament of the year. You had players from THE Alternative, PLDH, Hell's Flames, GameFAQs, AAMS, and maybe one or two other places. It was in TOS6 that I had, perhaps, my best game of the year against PLDH's Jimmy Kudo in the third round, who would go on to have a controversial encounter in the semi finals. Ultimately, the last two standing were THE Alternative's best: myself, who had been undefeated, and Slayer, whose only loss was to me. This match had an interesting "student vs teacher" dynamic in that I was the one who discovered Slayer back when he was on the old Netbattle forum in 2005 and trained him. It was a competitive game that I won thanks to making a great play at the end, which may very well be my overall most prolific victory in my backyard.
Publication date - 1/19/2020