Anime Milwaukee 2013-Pokemon Video Game Tournament

John Williams

Me: Hi, I’m Steven Reich, here at the Milwaukee Hyatt Regency in downtown Milwaukee at Anime Milwaukee 2013. I’m here with John Williams-no, not that John Williams-one of the participants-he actually placed second-in the “Elite Four” Pokémon video game challenge here. First off John, this is sort of a specialty tournament-it doesn’t strictly follow the VGC rules. What were the basic rules for this tournament?

John: Well, they banned [some] legendaries, like Palkia, Dialga, Manaphy-you know, the casual legendaries that you’ll meet in game. They did allow Keldeo however, which I thought was pretty cool-I didn’t really use it, but going on, some of the rules were you couldn’t have a Drizzle team-you couldn’t have Drizzle and Swift Swim on the same team. Also, they didn’t have an item clause, which I thought was pretty interesting, and I did take that into consideration. Another thing is that you could use as many of each Pokémon as you like-you could use a full team of Tauros if you wanted to.

Me: Definitely some interesting rules there. So basically there was a preliminary stage where you had to battle against some of the [convention] staff members. What was that like and how did that go?

John: It went pretty well. I did have a close encounter with the psychic Elite Four person. It actually came down to me having [Impostor] Ditto. I ended up copying his Reuniclus, and my Ditto is Scarfed, so I ended up going first [and taking his Reuniclus out]. After that, we were both down to our last Pokémon, his last Pokémon Gallade had Shadow Sneak, but it didn’t do enough to KO Ditto, so I ended up Shadow Balling him and winning that match. I think Ditto was probably my VIP for this tournament.

Me: And after you finished off the convention’s Elite Four, you then had to face off against other people who had beaten them, how did that work?

John: Yes, what had happened was there was actually only one other person who had done it, so we had to face off for the champion’s spot. It could have gone better if I had led [with a better Pokémon]. He led with a Salamence with Intimidate, and I led with my Therian forme Landorus which also had intimidate, and it just got kind of messy.

Me: If you had a chance to do it over again, would you change anything on your team or something like that?

John: I probably should have led with my Zapdos, because it has Hidden Power ice, and I almost guaranteed would have been able to take out both of his Salamence with it.

Me: Well, all right, thank you very much John. This has been Steven Reich, at Anime Milwaukee 2013, with John, one of the top finishers of the Trainers Rendezvous  Pokémon Video Game Tournament.

John’s Team:

Landorus ~Therian Forme~
-Intimidate-
Outrage
Earthquake
Protect
Stone Edge
Item: Lum Berry

Zoroark
-Illusion-
Protect
Sucker Punch
Counter
Flamethrower
Item: Focus Sash

Gastrodon
-Storm Drain-
Stockpile
Recover
Earth Power
Scald
Item: Brightpowder

Zapdos
-Pressure-
Hidden Power -Ice-
Thunderbolt
Thunder
Heat Wave
Item: Choice Scarf

Infernape
-Blaze-
Fake Out
Close Combat
Mach Punch
Flare Blitz
Item: Focus Sash

Ditto
-Impostor-
Transform
Item: Choice Scarf