Hello readers, my name is Brian Collins and I go by Angelohunter online. I'm an American VGC player currently sitting 30,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean on my way home from my first Pokemon World Championships. Most of you have probably not heard of me, since I'm a relatively new player with only a select few accomplishments in VGC. This article is meant to be a reflection of my first competitive season and the things I've learned along the way, so I hope there's something here for you to enjoy.

I started playing VGC in 2019, right before the pandemic, going X-3 at my first regional in Collinsville. During the pandemic, I was quickly introduced to the online competitive scene, getting involved in player draft leagues, pokemon draft leagues, and weekend online tournaments. Entering beginner-friendly draft leagues was a crucial part of making my first friends in the community, some of which I'm still very close with to this day. My accomplishments and growth during the online era can be summarized with a few big online tournament top cuts, qualifying for a Players Cup, and having several successful seasons in draft leagues. When in-person tournaments came back in 2022, I felt ready and excited to jump back in.

The 2022 season was uneventful; no top cuts, not a ton of preparation, and no meaningful results. I was busy with college and finding a job, so I didn't have high expectations, and I was having a great time playing and hanging out with friends. Towards the end of the season though, I felt a desire to take the next step and wanted to qualify for the World Championships. I told myself no matter where the next World Championships would take place, I would do my best and work my hardest to get there. I remember vividly sitting on my couch watching the 2022 World Championships in London. The competition was so strong, and some of the new teams were so creative and inspiring. When the tournament concluded and they announced that the 2023 World Championships would take place in Yokohama, I felt a great sense of determination; to compete in the first-ever Worlds in Japan, and to have an excuse to visit Japan? Sign me up.

I knew I would have to improve my play and team building to make it, showing up to regionals with someone else’s team and only ~100 games on showdown wasn’t going to cut it. I decided early on that I wanted to stick to an archetype throughout the season, as this was key to some players’ success in 2022. I also knew that I wanted to be a part of a group with similar goals. It’s nice to be in Discord groups with your friends to throw around fun teams, but I wanted people who were serious about doing well. Finding the right people to work with would be difficult, but I quickly found the group that could get the job done.

My first job after graduating college led me back home to Southern California, where bi-weekly locals were held at the start of Scarlet and Violet's release. It was here I was reunited with someone I knew from previous events, Kortex. Kortex and I had chatted before with our SoCal connection, and I was always intrigued by his unique team building, utilizing underexplored Pokemon like Kyurem, Umbreon, and Talonflame in 2022. Nate and I actually brought a nearly identical team to one of these locals, and began collaborating from there, where I got a glimpse of his approach to team building. In 2022, I had done coaching sessions with notable players such as Wolfe Glick, Aaron Traylor, and Paul Ruiz, and the takeaway I got from each of them is that team building is really hard, and maybe the hardest aspect when it comes to success in VGC. I was very fortunate to have become good friends with someone who is regarded as one of the world’s best team builders. The beginning of my journey to Yokohama would be the San Diego Regional, where Kortex, RyanPbHebert, and I would come up with a one-of-a-kind team, consisting of the new "love to hate" duo of Armarouge and Indeedee, paired with uncommon picks of Focus Energy/Scope Lens Salamence, Sash Breloom, and Choice Specs Skeledirge.

After constant laddering sessions, bo3 practice, and discussion with Kortex and Ryan, this team would lead me to my best regional finish thus far, going 7-3. I, unfortunately, lost my Round 10 win-and-in, but Kortex was able to top cut, so we were clearly doing something right. In fact, had he not had a team sheet error in Top 32, I believe he would have made a deep run. Despite having my best finish, I was unsatisfied. I was so close to my first regional cut, and I dropped the ball. Having been so close I was determined to work hard to get that one more win.

Following San Diego, I impulsively booked an affordable flight to Orlando for the next regional. Additionally, Kortex had proposed the idea of creating a discord server including other friends he had worked on teams with in the past, exactly something I was looking for. And thus the Lilypad Boys were born. When I first joined the server I was excited to see notable players such as ColdingLight, the winner of the first S/V Victory Road Tournament, and ChefVGC, a very successful and respected player in the community who I had known from their stream appearances in the past years. Of this group, seven of us planned on attending Orlando, and we had something special cooking in the kitchen. Kortex had dropped a concept in Discord one day that took one of the newly introduced Paradox Pokemon to a new level, Belly Drum Iron Hands. After some convincing, this idea became the focal point of our Orlando team next to our trusty Psyspam duo from San Diego and a new supportive Friend Guard Moushold, something that was relatively unused at the time. After many nights of Colding and Kortex at each others throats in the Discord calls, and many hours of group testing, Dondozo and speed-boosting Tatsugiri were the duo to complete this now insane-looking team. A good team is nothing without a creative theme, right? Maushold and Iron Hands’ resemblance to Remy and Gusteau from Disney’s Ratatouille quickly inspired the team’s name: Anyone Can Cook. 

I had never felt more confident going into a tournament. We had discussed all of the relevant matchups, played lots of games together, and gotten some solid bo3 practice. For myself, just listening to such experienced players discuss the thought process of using the team helped me tremendously. Going into the tournament, we all felt very confident, and we were right to be, because we were about to absolutely crush it.

We arrived at the Orlando Regionals, the largest VGC tournament of all time at this point, with our chef hats ready to cook up this 10-round tournament. After the most grueling and craziest day of Swiss a person could ever experience, I finished with an 8-2 record, top cutting my first regional. The run included some of the most insane games including Dondozo mirrors, Psyspam bringing back hopeless looking 4v2’s, and Sleep Talk Choice Specs Tatsugiri saving the day in my win and in. I was just so happy and felt so fortunate to be there. Orlando was the last regional that didn’t include Day 2 Swiss, so there was some uncertainty following Round 10 on if I was in or not.  I'll never forget the moment when Kortex ran over to check the results, let out a huge scream, and ran over to give me a hug. I was overwhelmed with emotions and started crying. Top-cutting a regional for most established players is nothing to bat an eye at, but after my first season full of so much mediocrity, and working so hard just to fall short in San Diego, I really didn't know if I was capable. Unfortunately, I was the only one of the group to top cut the tournament due to Kortex, Zero, and Colding having some of the worst luck in the final sets. After leaving the venue at 11:30 pm (yikes), and finishing dinner with the Lilypad boys at 1 am, it was time for some quick prep. My opponent for the next day in Top 32 was Paul Chua, someone you should all be familiar with. Kortex and I played about 12-15 individual games to figure out a general game plan while getting to bed at a reasonable hour, which ended up being about 3 am. The practice games didn’t go great, but we were able to come up with ideas knowing Paul Chua’s very safe play style, something I would never have known without having such a good group of players helping me. Day 2 comes around, and to my and everyone else's surprise, I win. And then before I know it, I win again. All of a sudden, I'm in the Top 8 of a Pokemon Regional. I couldn't believe it, but at this point, I'm 3 wins away from becoming a regional champion. I go into Top 8 with blind confidence against Chuppa Cross IV, feeling unstoppable, but after a close set, my run is over. To my surprise though, I wasn’t even upset. To make it this far with all of my hard work paying off while having all of my friends watching and cheering me on, I was just so thankful to be able to experience that.

My finish at the Orlando regional is the epitome of how a group effort can yield great results in VGC. The preparation leading up to the tournament led to 300+ combined CP for the group. If there's anything I can recommend to have success in VGC, it is to find people who have similar goals as you and work together all the time. Constant communication about team ideas and replays really helped foster a productive environment. One thing about our group in particular that I love, is that nobody is afraid to try anything. The group has used Pokemon like Vivillon, Orthworm (before it was meta), Bruxish, and Iron Moth to great success. None of these ideas were shot down early because they were uncommon picks, which exemplifies why the Lilypad boys are the perfect combination of crackhead team builders. This group would continue to work together throughout the season and contribute to multiple notable finishes.

I would personally go to several more events, including Vancouver, Charlotte, Portland, Fresno, and NAIC. I was only able to make Day 2 in Charlotte, using the same team as Orlando with only an update of offensive Maushold. I learned how difficult it is to be consistent in VGC, at least in relation to my goals. My goal every event since Orlando was to make Day 2, anything else would just be a cherry on top. I felt like if I could consistently make Day 2’s, I would give myself opportunities for the occasional deep run, and then could start striving for more ambitious goals like winning regionals and InternationaIs. This is VERY difficult as it turns out, and making the deep runs is even more challenging with the introduction of Day 2 Swiss. Add this to the influx of other new insanely good players like Semprq and Justin Tang, and making Day 2 at every tournament was looking very challenging. I'm happy to say that this season I did no worse than 6-3 on any given Day 1, with the third loss coming at different rounds in each, but still having objectively good consistency and something I'm proud of given the difficulty of tournaments this year. I give a lot of this credit to the Lilypad boys because of the teams we produced and the prep we put into every tournament. Thankfully, I had my first-ever Worlds invite secured after Portland, so I was able to put my focus on Worlds earlier than most.

Leading up to Yokohama, life became very busy, especially at work, and I didn't have as much time to dedicate to preparation as I would have liked. I was okay with this, as my goal for the season was to make it to the World Championships and enjoy the time in Japan. Kortex and I had worked together on a really unique Trick Room team, something that was unexplored in the new Regulation D ruleset, and included the previously mentioned Bruxish, Power Band Urshifu, and Enamorus-Therian. This team would stray away from the thing I consistently used all season, Psyspam, but was very similar to a Hard-TR team I used in Fresno, so I was comfortable taking a step away from my bread-and-butter. Chef, the only other member of the Lilypad boys to secure their invite, brought a similar version of the team we worked on which centered more around Choice Specs Torkoal, something that could dominate most common Regulation D teams if piloted correctly. I ended up going with the Enamorous version because I felt it had a better matchup spread, despite losing some of the dominating matchups you get with the Torkoal version.

It felt like everyone going into the World Championships didn’t have enough time to prepare, given the newness of the format. This gave me a sense of confidence, especially since I believed we had a team that was overlooked by a majority of the field. The tournament would not go so great however, as even though I believed to have positive matchups against all my opponents, I was simply not prepared for the level of play I was up against. I was outplayed out of matchups that should have been near auto-wins, which was a very humbling experience. I would also learn later on in my Japan trip that many team building groups and notable players made adjustments to their team to help in their matchup against us, as they noticed the strength and potential of the team from our success on the ladder leading up to Worlds. The World Championship was my worst finish of the season, going 3-4. The difficulty of this Worlds became very clear when I realized many former World Champions and very notable players were unable to make it out of Day 1. Given the lack of time I had to prepare and the craziness of the new format, I was okay with not making a deep run at my first Worlds. The other Lilypad Boys at Worlds, Chef and Kortex, also were unable to make it out of Day 1, both going 4-3. They were both closer than me, losing some close sets in the later rounds, but it was clear that the competition at this tournament was like no other, as to be expected when you put the best players around the world together. 

I got over the result pretty quickly, watched the rest of the tournament, and was ready to enjoy my vacation. I would spend the next 5 days in the Kyoto area of Japan, exploring sites with other VGC friends. This trip was the best of my life, and included amazing experiences like Nara Park, the Fushimi Inari Shrine, and indulging in the incredible Japanese cuisine. Experiencing a country with such rich culture alongside new and old friends was something I'll never forget. The ultimate accomplishment of my VGC season was getting the privilege of experiencing Japan. I'm sure I would have visited Japan at some point during my life, but having a purpose to go that was so personal, and being able to take in the experiences in such an amazing country is something I’ll always be grateful for.

Overall, I'm sitting on my flight home with no regrets. I loved using Pyspam all season, loved all of the different teams I used, and loved seeing and making new friends at all the events I attended. I'm so happy that I was able to work so hard at something, even something that might seem so abstract as a children's video game, and have life-changing experiences because of it. After this trip, I think those game-losing crits, Heat Wave misses, and Rock Slide Flinches will still hurt, but definitely will hurt a little less. I’m still a relatively unknown player, I don’t always make the optimal play, and I don’t win every game I play. But I’m okay with that. Pokemon is such an amazing game because it lets me be creative, while also pushing me to constantly improve, and I’m so happy I decided to dive deeper into this game when the world was on hold. Winning is important, but for me, it's also important to keep in mind the big reason I play, to have fun. I'm so thankful for this season and all the friends I made along the way, and can't wait for where Pokemon takes me next. Don’t get me wrong though, next season I’m going to work harder and try my best to do even better!

Thank you all for reading if you've made it this far, I hope you were able to take away something from my experience, and will make some unforgettable memories of your own!

- Brian

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