Active First Experience of Competitive Play

[Matt_192]

Hey guys! In this thread, post any funny/sad stories that you had when you started playing competitive. At the time, most of us were still trying to work out what was best to use, resulting in quite a few mistakes from most of us, be it through team building or through our battling itself.

My first Smogon Singles competitive team (as far as I can remember) was built exactly 2 years 9 months ago (according to YouTube at least) and consisted of Gastrodon / Ferrothorn / Rotom-W / Latios / Gliscor / Heatran. In fairness, it wasn't really a bad team, but I definitely had my fair share of problems...

• Latios had a Dragon Gem. 'Nuff said really, but I also gave it Tailwind and Protect.... Yeah, I think I just C+P'ed my VGC team from the time.
• Gliscor had Acrobatics with Poison Heal. Whilst it gets the Flying coverage it needs, it wasn't exactly losing its Toxic Orb.
• Heatran had Magma Storm... Yeah, this is pretty cringe-worthy in itself.

As for the rest of my team, it wasn't too bad. SpAtking Gastrodon with Storm Drain was my first slot, and I went with Substitute to give me extra longevity when giving my offences more investment. Ferrothorn was a decent spiker with a good set, and Heatran was my rocker. Latios was supposed to be my main offensive mon, but it kinda failed due to having Psychic over Psyshock and Dragon Gem Draco Meteor. Rotom-W wasn't that bad as a Tricker with Choice Scarf, and it made up a decent Stall team, at least, for a noob.

Have fun reflecting on your cringe-worthy team options, guys!

 

[kopy456]

Oh god, I made a team based on a simple format I had online. I wouldnt say it was a bad team, in fact when I use it nowadays its pretty good, but its not meant for singles. My first team was a doubles orientated team
To be honest, I think the highest tier pokemon I had on that team was a Noivern, but man, Cofagrigus pulls through quite alot (Cofagrigus for UU).
I remember my biggest mistakes were giving noivern a scarf, making abomasnow adamant, and makingmy luxray have a burn orb instead of toxic.

 

[PunSniperSylveon]

I remember when I was still learning how to breed proper pokes, a friend would show me competitive play earlier this year. She would set up singles matches for me, and I just didn't understand it. I think I spent a few days trying to breed for a Jolly Noivern thinking it would be fast enough to counter her team, and she floored me.

I didn't mind though, I had fun learning the type advantages/weaknesses and basic mechanics with her.