The 2019/2020 season of the Hungary’s National Football League (NB1) – being one of the first leagues to restart play - came to an end on 27 June. If a casual observer (for whatever reason) decides to check out the
final standings, he would be not surprised at the first two positions: record-champion Ferencváros defended their title, while regional powerhouse Fehérvár (Videoton) came in second.
However, the third place team, Puskás Akadémia FC might seem unusual and one could think that there is a story behind that. Is there a team named after Ferenc Puskás? Did some academy youths make an incredible run for the Europa League qualification? Well, the observer is right, there is a story behind all this, but it’s absolutely not a fun story.
It’s a story about how one powerful man’s obsession with football stole a legend, misused state funds and killed the spirit of Hungarian football. (Warning: this is a long story, feel free to scroll down for a tl;dr. Also, I strongly advise checking out the links, those images are worth seeing). Naturally, political influence in football has been present ever since the dawn of the sport and we know of numerous state leaders who felt confident enough to use their influence to ensure the successful development of their favored clubs –
Caucescu’s FC Olt Scornicesti and
Erdogan’s Basaksehir are well-known examples of such attempts. However, I fear that very few of the readers are aware of the fact that Puskás Akadémia FC is nothing but
Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s grandiose project for establishing his hometown’s club as one of the country’s top teams. Considering that Orbán managed to achieve this goal using state funds in an EU member democracy in the 2000s, one might even say that it might be one of the most impressive attempts of cheating your way through Football Manager in real life. Now that Puskás Akadémia FC escaped the desolate football scene of Hungary and is getting ready for the European takeover, I feel that it’s high time to tell its true story.
Part 1: Part time striker, part time PM
Our story begins in 1999 when the
36-year-old striker Viktor Orbán (recently elected as the country’s Prime Minister) was signed by the sixth-tier side of Felcsút FC residing in rural Fejér County. It might sound surprising that an active politician would consider such a side job, but given that Orbán has been playing competitive low-level football throughout his whole life and has always been known as a keen football enthusiast, people seemed to be okay with his choice for a hobby. Orbán spent most of his childhood in the village of Felcsút (population: 1,800), so it seemed only natural that he would join the team after one of his old-time acquaintances became team president there.
Orbán’s arrival to the club seemed to work like a charm as Felcsút FC immediately earned a promotion to the fifth league. The Prime Minister’s busy program did not allow him to attend every training session and game but Orbán did make an effort to contribute as much as possible on the field – there is a report of a government meeting being postponed as Orbán was unavailable due to attending
Felcsút FC’s spring training camp. The 2001/2002 season brought another breakthrough for the side as Felcsút was promoted to the national level of the football pyramid after being crowned the champion of Fejér County. Sadly enough for Orbán, he suffered a defeat on another pitch – his party lost the 2002 election and Orbán was forced to move to an opposition role.
No matter what happened on the political playing field, Orbán would not abandon his club. Just before the 2002 elections, Felcsút was surprisingly appointed as one of the regional youth development centers by the Hungarian FA. Orbán continued contributing on the field as well (he had more spare time after all) but his off-the-field efforts provided much more value for the team as he used his political influence to convince right-wing businessmen that they should definitely get sponsorship deals done with the fourth-division village team.
Club management was able to transform the influx of funds into on-field success: Felcsút FC was promoted to the third division in 2004 and achieved promotion to the second division in 2005. Although these new horizons required a skill level that an aging ex-PM is not likely to possess, Orbán regularly
played as a late game sub and even appeared in cup games against actual professional opponents. The now-42-year old Orbán did not want to face the challenge of the second division, so he retired in 2005 – but this did not stop him from temping as an assistant coach when the head coach was sacked in the middle of the 2005-2006 season.
Success on the playing field did not translate to political success: Orbán lost the elections once again in 2006. However, this was only a temporary loss: the ruling party committed blunder after blunder and by early 2007 it became absolutely obvious that Orbán would be able return to power in 2010. Now confident in his political future, Orbán opted for the acceleration of football development in Felcsút – by late 2007 he took over the presidency of the club to take matters in his own hands. Sponsors seeking to gain favor with the soon-to-be PM were swarming Felcsút FC, so the club was able to stand very strong in an era where financial stability was a very rare sight in the Hungarian football scene, accumulating three medals (but no promotion) between 2007 and 2009.
On the other hand,
Orbán realized the value of youth development as well, and started a local foundation for this purpose back in 2004 that gathered funds for the establishment a boarding school-like football academy. The academy opened its doors in September 2006 (only the second of such institutions in the country) and Orbán immediately took upon the challenge of finding an appropriate name for the academy.
He went on to visit the now very sick Ferenc Puskás in the hospital to discuss using his name, but as Puskás’ medical situation was deteriorating rapidly, communication attempts were futile. Luckily enough Puskás’ wife (and soon to be widow) was able to act on his incapable husband’s behalf and approved the naming deal in a contract. According to the statement, naming rights were granted without compensation, as “
Puskás would have certainly loved what’s happening down in Felcsút”. However, there was much more to the contract:
Puskás’ trademark was handed to a sports journalist friend of Orbán (György Szöllősi, also acting communications director of the academy) who promised a hefty annual return for the family (and also a 45% share of the revenue for himself). Ferenc Puskás eventually died on 17 November 2006 and
on 26 November 2006 the football academy was named after him: Puskás Academy was born. Orbán shared his vision of the whole organization after the opening ceremony:
“It’s unreasonable to think that Felcsút should have a team in the top division. We should not flatter ourselves, our players and our supporters with this dream. Our long term ambition is the creation of a stable second division team that excels in youth development and provides opportunity for the talents of the future.” Let’s leave that there.
Part 2: No stadium left behind
Orbán became PM once again in April 2010 after a landslide victory that pretty much granted him unlimited power. He chased lots of political agendas but one of his policies was rock solid: he would revive sports (and especially football) that was left to bleed out by the previous governments. The football situation in 2010 was quite dire: while the national team has actually made some progress in the recent years and has reached the 42nd position in the world rankings, football infrastructure was in a catastrophic state. Teams were playing in rusty stadiums built in the communist era, club finances were a mess, youth teams couldn’t find training grounds and the league was plagued by violent fan groups and lackluster attendance figures (3100 average spectators per game in the 2009/2010 season).
Orbán – aided by the FA backed by business actors very interested in making him happy – saw the future in the total rebuild of the football infrastructure.
Vast amounts of state development funds were invested into the football construction industry that warmly welcomed corruption, cost escalation and shady procurement deals. In the end, money triumphed: over the last decade, new
stadiums sprung out from nothing all over the country, dozens of new academies opened and pitches for youth development appeared on practically every corner. The final piece of the stadium renovation program was the completion of the new national stadium, Puskás Aréna in 2019 (estimated cost: 575 million EUR). Orbán commemorated this historic moment with a celebratory video on his social media that features a majestic shot of
Orbán modestly kicking a CGI ball from his office to the new stadium. Obviously,
Orbán understood that infrastructure alone won’t suffice. He believed in the idea that successful clubs are the cornerstone of a strong national side as these clubs would compete in a high quality national league (and in international tournaments) that would require a constant influx of youth players developed by the clubs themselves. However, Orbán was not really keen on sharing the state’s infinite wealth with private club owners who failed to invest in their clubs between 2002 and 2010. The club ownership takeover was not that challenging as previous owners were usually happy to cut their losses, and
soon enough most clubs came under Orbán’s influence. Some clubs were integrated deep into Orbán’s reach (Ferencváros and MTK Budapest club presidents are high ranking officials of Orbán’s party) while in other cases, indirect control was deemed sufficient (Diósgyőri VTK was purchased by a businessman as an attempt to display loyalty to Orbán).
Pouring taxpayer money into infrastructure (stadium) projects is relatively easy: after all, we are basically talking about overpriced government construction projects, there’s nothing new there. On the other hand, allocating funds to clubs that should be operating on a competitive market is certainly a tougher nut to crack. The obvious solutions were implemented: the state media massively overpaid for broadcasting rights and the national sports betting agency also pays a hefty sum to the FA, allowing for a redistribution of considerable amounts. However, given that the income side of Hungarian clubs was basically non-existent (match day income is negligible, the failed youth development system does not sell players), an even more radical solution was desperately needed. Also, there was definite interest in the development of a tool that would allow for differentiation between clubs (as in the few remaining non-government affiliated clubs should not receive extra money).
The solution came in 2011: the so-called
TAO (“társasági adó” = corporate tax) system was introduced, granting significant tax deductions for companies if they offered a portion of their profits to sports clubs – however, in theory, funds acquired through TAO can be only used for youth development and infrastructure purposes. Soon enough, it became apparent that state authorities were not exactly interested in the enforcement of these restrictions, so some very basic creative accounting measures enabled clubs to use this income for anything they wanted to.
Companies were naturally keen on cutting their tax burdens and scoring goodwill with the government, so TAO money immediately skyrocketed. Opportunistic party strongmen used their influence to convince local business groups to invest in the local clubs, enabling for the meteoric rise of multiple unknown provincial teams (Mezőkövesd [pop: 16,000], Kisvárda [pop: 16,000], Balmazújváros [pop: 17,000]) into the first division.
Although it’s not the main subject of this piece, I feel inclined to show you the actual results of Orbán’s grandiose football reform. While we do have our beautiful stadiums, we don’t exactly get them filled – league attendance has stagnated around 3000 spectators per game throughout the whole decade. We couldn’t really move forward with our national team either: Hungary lost 10 positions in the FIFA World Rankings throughout Orbán’s ten years. On the other hand, the level of league has somewhat improved – Videoton and Ferencváros reached the Europa League group stage in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Too bad that the
Instat-based top team of 2019/2020 Hungarian league consists of 10 foreigners and only 1 Hungarian: the goalkeeper.
Part 3: Small place, big game!
As seen in the previous chapter, Orbán did have a strong interest in the improvement of the football situation Hungary, but we shouldn’t forget that his deepest interest and true loyalty laid in the wellbeing of Felcsút and its academy. Now that
Orbán had limitless means to see to the advancement of his beloved club, he got to work immediately. Orbán handed over formal club management duties to his friend / protégé / middleman / businessman Lőrinc Mészáros in 2010, but no questions would ever arise of who is actually calling the shots.
First of all,
no club can exist without a proper stadium. Although in 2011 Orbán explicitly stated that
“Felcsút does not need a stadium as stadiums belong to cities”, no one was really surprised in 2012 when the construction of the Felcsút stadium was announced. Orbán was generous enough to donate the lands just in front of his summer home in the village for the project, locating the entrance a mere ten meters away from his residence. Construction works for the
stunningly aesthetic 3,800-seater arena (in a village of 1,800 people) started in April 2012 and were completed in April 2014, making Felcsút’s arena the second new stadium of Orbán’s gigantic stadium revival program.
The estimated budget of the construction was 120 million EUR (31,500 EUR / seat) was financed by the Puskás Academy who explicitly stated that they did not use government funds for the project. Technically, this statement is absolutely true as the construction was financed through the TAO money offered by the numerous companies looking for tax deduction and Orbán’s goodwill. However, technically, this means that the country’s budget was decreased by 120 million EUR unrealized tax revenue. Naturally,
the gargantuan football stadium looks ridiculously out of place in the small village, but there’s really no other way to ensure that
your favorite team’s stadium is within 20 seconds of walking distance from your home. Obviously, a proper club should also have some glorious history. Felcsút was seriously lagging behind on this matter as though Felcsút FC was founded in 1931, it spent its pre-Orbán history in the uninspiring world of the 5th-7th leagues of the country. Luckily enough, Orbán had already secured Puskás’ naming rights and they were not afraid to use it, so Felcsút FC was renamed to Puskás Academy FC in 2009. The stadium name was a little bit problematic as the Hungarian national stadium in Budapest had sadly had the dibs on Puskás’ name, so
they had to settle with Puskás’ Spanish nickname, resulting in the inauguration of the Pancho Arena. But why stop here?
Orbán’s sports media strongman György Szöllősi acted upon the contract with Puskás’ widow and
transferred all Puskás’ personal memorabilia (medals, jerseys, correspondence) to the most suitable place of all: a remote village in which Puskás never even set foot in.
While the off-field issues were getting resolved, Orbán’s attention shifted to another important area: the actual game of football. Although academy players started to graduate from 2008 on, it very soon became painfully obvious that the academy program couldn’t really maintain even a second division side for now. In 2009, Orbán reached an agreement with nearby Videoton’s owner that effectively transformed Felcsút FC into Videoton’s second team under the name of Videoton – Puskás Akadémia FC. The mutually beneficent agreement would allow Videoton to give valuable playing time to squad players while it could also serve as a skipping step for Puskás Academy’s fresh graduates to a first league team. The collaboration resulted in two mid-table finishes and a bronze medal in the second division in the following three seasons that wasn’t really impressive compared to Felcsút FC’s standalone seasons.
It seemed that the mixture of reserve Videoton players and academy youth was simply not enough for promotion, and although Orbán had assured the public multiple times that his Felcsút project was not aiming for the top flight, very telling changes arose after the 2011/2012 season. Felcsút terminated the Videoton cooperation deal and
used the rapidly accumulating TAO funds to recruit experienced players for the now independently operating Puskás Academy FC (PAFC). The new directive worked almost too well:
PAFC won its division with a 10 point lead in its first standalone year which meant that they would have to appear in the first league prior to the completion of their brand-new Pancho Arena. Too bad that this glorious result had almost nothing to do with the academy -
only two players were academy graduates of the side’s regular starting XI. Orbán did not let himself bothered with the ridiculousness of an academy team with virtually no academy players being promoted to the first division as he stated that “
a marathon runner shouldn’t need to explain why the other runners were much slower than him”. Orbán also displayed a rare burst of modesty as he added that
“his team’s right place is not in the first league, and they will soon be overtaken by other, better sides”. The promotion of PAFC to the first division made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. Supporter groups were united in hatred all along the league and not surprisingly, away fans almost always outnumbered the home side at PAFC’s temporary home at Videoton’s Sóstói Stadium (demolished and
rebuilt in its full glory since then). One of the teams, however, possessed an extraordinary degree of anger against PAFC: supporters of Budapest Honvéd – the only Hungarian team in which Ferenc Puskás played – felt especially awkward about the transfer of their club legend’s heritage to Felcsút. Tensions spiked at the PAFC – Honvéd game when home security forced Honvéd supporters to remove the “
Puskás” part of their traditional
“Puskás – Kispest – Hungary” banner – the team answered the insult with style as they secured a 4-0 victory supported by fans chanting “you can’t buy legends”.
Despite Orbán’s prognosis, other better sides did not rush to overtake his team, so PAFC, now residing in their brand new Pancho Arena, came through with a 14th and a 10th place in their first two seasons. Naturally, conspiracy theories began to formulate, speculating that government-friendly owners would certainly not be motivated to give their best against PAFC. However, as the league size was reduced to 12 for the 2015/2016 season, PAFC found themselves in a dire situation just before the final round: they needed a win and needed rival Vasas to lose against MTK in order to avoid relegation. PAFC’s draw seemed to be unlucky as they faced their arch-enemy Honvéd at home, but Honvéd displayed an absolute lackluster effort – fueling conspiracy theories – and lost the fixture 2 to 1 against a home side featuring four academy players. Vasas, however, did not disappoint, their 2-0 victory resulted in PAFC’s elimination and a very relaxed sigh all over the football community.
PAFC’s relegation seemed to be in accordance with Orbán’s 2013 statement, so public opinion supposed for a while that Orbán’s project came to a halting point and the Academy would go on to actually field academy players in the second division (especially as rostering foreign players was prohibited in the lower leagues). However, if you have read through this point, you know better than to expect Orbán to retreat – obviously, PAFC came back with a bang. With a ballsy move, PAFC didn’t even sell their foreign players, they just loaned them across the league, promising them that they would be able to return next year to the newly promoted team. The promise was kept as PAFC went into another shopping spree of experienced players (easily convincing lots of them to choose the second division instead of the first) and easily won the second league.
Orbán – now aware of his negligence – opted
for the doubling the team’s budget, making PAFC the third most well-founded club in the whole country (only coming short to his friend’s Videoton and his party minion’s Ferencváros). With an actual yearly influx from TAO money in the ballpark of 30-40 million EUR, PAFC management had to really work wonders in creative accounting in order to make their money look somewhat legitimate. The books were now full of ridiculous items like:
- Construction of a new tea kitchen for youth players for 650,000 EUR
- Construction of a new “sports and conference center” for 40 million EUR
- Employment of a 45 person “cleaning and maintenance staff” for the academy.
Naturally, in the country of no consequences, absolutely nothing happened: PAFC went on with its spending and signed 35 foreigners between 2017 and 2020. They did so because
they could not hope to field a winning team in the first league consisting of academy players, despite the fact that Puskás Academy has been literally drowning in money since 2007. This seems to somewhat contradict Orbán’s 2013 promise, stating that
“Puskás Academy will graduate two or three players to major European leagues each year”. To be fair, there have been players who managed to emerge to Europe (well, exactly two of them: Roland Sallai plays at Freiburg, László Kleinheisler played at Werder Bremen) but most academy graduates don’t even have the slightest the chance to make their own academy’s pro team as it’s full of foreigners and more experienced players drawn for other teams’ programs.
Despite their unlimited funding, PAFC could not put up a top-tier performance in their first two years back in the first division, finishing 6th and 7th in the 12-team league. Many speculated that the lack of support, motivation and even a clear team mission did not allow for chemistry to develop within the multinational and multi-generational locker room. Consistency was also a rare sight on the coaching side: club management was absolutely impatient with coaches who were very easily released after a single bad spell and
there were talks of on-field micromanagement request coming from as high as Orbán. Even so, their breakthrough came dangerously close in 2018 as PAFC performed consistently well in the cup fixtures and managed to reach the final. Their opponent, Újpest played an incredibly fierce game and after a 2-2 draw, they managed to defeat PAFC in the shootout. Football fans sighed in relief throughout the country as ecstatic Újpest supporters verbally teased a
visibly upset Orbán in his VIP lounge about his loss.
Obviously, we could only delay the inevitable. While this year’s PAFC side seemed to be more consistent than its predecessors, it seemed that they won’t be able to get close to the podium - they were far behind the obvious league winner duo of Ferencváros and Videoton and were trailing third-place Mezőkövesd 6 points just before the pandemic break. However, both Mezőkövesd and PAFC’s close rivals DVTK and Honvéd fall flat after the restart while PAFC was able to maintain its good form due to its quality roster depth. PAFC overtook Mezőkövesd after the second-to-last round as Mezőkövesd lost to the later relegated Debrecen side. (Mezőkövesd coach Attila Kuttor was fined harshly because of his post-game comments on how the FA wants PAFC to finish third.)
PAFC faced Honvéd in the last round once again, and as Honvéd came up with its usual lackluster effort,
PAFC secured an effortless win, confidently claiming the third place. PAFC celebrated their success in a
nearly empty stadium, however neither Orbán, nor Mészáros (club owner, Orbán’s protégé, now 4th richest man of Hungary) seemed to worry about that. While Orbán high-fived with his peers in the VIP lounge, Mészáros was given the opportunity to award the bronze medals
(and for some reason, a trophy) to the players dressed up in the incredibly cringe worthy
T-shirts that say “Small place, big game!”. Big game, indeed: in the 2019/2020 season,
foreign players’ share of the teams playing time was 43.6% while academy graduates contributed only 17.9%. On Sunday evening, less than 24 hours after PAFC’s glorious success, György Szöllősi, now editor-in-chief of Hungary’s only sports newspaper (purchased by Orbán’s affiliates a few years back) published an editorial on the site, stating that “
the soccer rebuild in Felcsút became the motor and symbol of the revitalization of sport throughout the whole country”. Well, Szöllősi is exactly right: Felcsút did became a symbol, but a symbol of something entirely different.
Felcsút became a symbol of corruption, inefficiency, lies and the colossal waste of money. But, hey, at least we know now: you only need to spend 200 million EUR (total budget of PAFC and its academy in the 2011-2020 period) if you want to have a Europa League team in your backyard. Good to know!
Epilogue: What's in the future?
As
there is no foreseeable chance for political change to happen Hungary (Orbán effortlessly secured qualified majority in 2014 and 2018, and is projected to do so in 2022 as well), PAFC’s future seems to be as bright as it gets. Although consensus opinion now seems to assume that Orbán does not intend to interfere with the Ferencváros – Videoton hegemony, we can never be really sure about the exact limits of his greed. One could also argue that entering the European theater serves as a prime opportunity for making splashy transfers who could be the cornerstones of a side challenging the league title.
However, as all political systems are deemed to fall, eventually Orbán’s regime will come apart. Whoever will take upon the helm after Orbán, they will certainly begin with cutting back on the one item on Orbán’s agenda that never had popular support: limitless football spending. Puskás Academy, having next to zero market revenue, will not be able to survive without the state’s life support, so the club will fold very shortly. The abandoned, rotting stadium in Felcsút will serve as a memento of a powerful man who could not understand the true spirit of football.
But let’s get back to present day, as we have more pressing issues coming up soon: PAFC will play their first European match in the
First qualifying round of the Europa League on 27 August. We don’t have a date for the draw yet, but soon enough, a team unaware of the whole situation will be selected to face the beast. I hope that maybe one of their players does some research and maybe reads this very article for inspiration. I hope that the supporters of this club get in touch with Honvéd fans who would be eager to provide them with some tips on appropriate chants. I hope that other teams gets drawn as the home team so Orbán wouldn’t get the pleasure of walking to his stadium for an international match.
But most importantly, I very much hope that this team obliterates PAFC and wipes them off the face of the earth. 5-0 will suffice, thank you.
And if this team fails to do that, we don’t have to worry yet. Due to our shitty league coefficient, PAFC would need to win four fixtures in a row. And that – if there’s any justice in this world – is a thing that can’t, that won’t happen. Ball don’t lie – if I may say.
TL,DR Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán redirected some 200 million EUR of taxpayer money over 10 years to fuel his ambition of raising a competitive football team in his hometown of 1,800 people. He built a 3,800-seater stadium in his backyard, expropriated football legend Ferenc Puskás’ trademarks and heritage and built up a football league where almost all clubs are owned by his trustees. His team, Puskás Akadémia FC was originally intended to be a development ground for youth players graduating from Orbán’s football academy, but eventually the team became more and more result-orianted. Finally, a roster full of foreign and non-academy players came through and finished third in the league, releasing this abomination of a team to the European football theatre. Please, knock them out asap!
The vast majority of participants in this sub are here for one reason; they want to have a higher solo queue rank. The questions and methods vary, but that's the point of most of it, isn't it? And hey, it's not a bad sub. Many questions are answered to the point, and succinctly. The biggest problem I'd say is atrocious grammar. (You people know who you are!)
But, the fact of the matter is that there's a lot to do with this game that has nothing to do with the game. My favorite post of this kind is a variation of “how do I not get mad at people who make me mad?” My apologies, but most of us aren't really qualified to answer that question, unless you've got plenty of life experience or a psychology degree that no one knows about.
So, I'm going to get my thrity-year-old ass typing and try to help you out. Here's a bunch of stuff that you probably won't hear elsewhere that can help you. Tips are in boldface,
so you can just skim through and read only those if you want. Enjoy.
There's no need to convince yourself that you're better than your rank. You already are better than your rank. League of Legends isn't soccer, where the outfielders (that's everybody but the goalkeeper) have relatively similar roles and skillsets. Everyone can run, pass, defend, and use their head. It's much more like baseball, where the players' skillsets are all over the place. Half of the players can't hit (pitchers), the other half can't pitch (everyone else), many players can't field (designated hitters, pitchers, and most overweight power hitters), many players can't run (anyone who bats third through eighth), and so on. In baseball though, that's understood. No pitcher is really expected to be a good hitter. Instead, pitchers are measured on their merits as a pitcher, and most everything else is ignored.
That's not the case in LoL. Your rank is the result of every ranked game you play, and that means you have to suffer the consequences of not only the ragers, trolls, and idiots, but also other circumstances. For example, can you
really play each position equally well? I bet you can't. I'm willing to bet that most of your success comes with one position or one champion; if you took that out, your record and rank would be much worse than it is today. This isn't a bad thing, no one expects you to be good at everything. Well, actually, most people will expect you to be good at everything, but ignore those mouthbreathers.
The point is that your current rank is an average, and it includes those games where you played out of position, had disconnects, or what have you.
When you're playing your best game in your best position, you are better than that average. No two ways about it.
Elo Hell exists. It's just a few bad games you remember. Have you ever heard of
confirmation bias? This is the thing that kicks the shit out of people in all walks of life, not just in this game. It's the phenomenon where people look for things that they want to believe, find them, strengthen that belief, and then go look for more things that they can believe. US politics is crippled by this, along with most major industries. I bet even your family has one person that just won't shut up about something they believe, and they LOVE saying “see? What I've been believing all along is TRUE!”
In LoL, the fact of the matter is that most players are losers. I don't mean that the lose games, but I do mean that they're ready to. I know you've seen it; when one player trounces another in lane, it's NEVER because the trouncer is good, it's ALWAYS because the victim is bad. The narrative is “I'd be so much higher if my teammates weren't bad”, and people LOVE proving to themselves that this is true. People think about it, put energy into it, and reap the returns. It takes effort and is noteworthy. Right now, I bet you could tell me a story of a game where there was just this one idiot on your team that fucked everything up, and if it weren't for him you'd have won that game easily.
But what I bet is that you can't tell me a story where the opposite happened. Do you remember a game where the other team was hamstrung by one idiot who singlehandedly threw the game for them? What champion was he playing, and which were you playing? How exactly did the laning phase go? Etc. Unless this game just happened today, I bet you won't be able to tell me,
because almost every human being remembers the bad stuff more than the good stuff. Climbing is the result of making better decisions than your opponents, over time. There are two types of decisions in LoL; “noncombat”, which is everything outside the actual game (runes, masteries, champ select, etc) and combat (laning, combo execution, rotations and objective choice, etc). All you need to do is make the right decision for this game here, over and over. That's all there is. This is not a super-reflexes game like competitive fighting games, where players will scratch and claw to get a 3-frame window (that's one twentieth of a second) of advantage time. It's more akin to chess, where the better player is better because of the decisions he makes. There are mechanical needs and it's possible to swing a game by being a badass with the mouse and buttons. But, for every game that is swung by a Reddit-worthy play, there's a boatload of much less interesting, simpler games where the best team won just by pressing advantages and backing off when they're unlikely to succeed.
Now, I know many of you watch pro streams and the like, where you see these guys keep coming out on top over and over again. But,
the truth is that you're not going to win every game, so don't expect to win every game. In fact, you don't need to do much more than a 50% win rate. Not 50% +1, 50% will do. So,
just keep making the right play, don't sweat short term results, and in the long term it will work out. After all, did you know that...
The ranked system is on your side. Really, it is. I've tracked over 200 games along with my LP movement, including a rather amazing stretch where I played about 60 games without winning or losing three in a row (and went 50% throughout). Know what I learned?
If your rank is right where your MMR thinks you should be, you will win more LP per game than you lose. I've tested this a lot and can confirm that if you're where you're supposed to be, you'll win about 20 LP and lose about 17 per loss. What this means is that if you can maintain a 50% win rate, all you need is time. So...
Put in your time. It's distressing to see the posts that say “I'm nervous about playing ranked”. Quite frankly, you're not going to climb if you don't play. Furthermore,
we've already established that everyone's better than their rank, if they play their best game. So, if you're in a good mood and thinking you can play your best right now, get in there and play. Noncombat decisions are the most important ones. No, not those. Earlier, I described “noncombat” and “combat” decisions. To be blunt, this sub is almost entirely about noncombat decisions: build advice, runes and masteries, what champion I should play, etc. While that's all fine and dandy, there's other very relevant decisions that you're making that I bet you're not even aware of. For example, are you about to play a ranked game with a champion you're not as good as your best with? How about deciding to play ranked instead of practicing with a friend, or even alone against bots? How about deciding to play without even knowing what your champion can do, like the Gold player I did a replay review for last week that didn't know he could use Caitlyn's net to jump through walls? The truth is that this is life, and
life's not like a video game, where you do something over and over until some experience bar fills, and then poof! You're better. That's not how it works. Here's how it really works:
You need to practice; mechanically and mentally. The truth is that you can spam games all you like, but getting better means that you need to automate all of your actions. I don't mean macros or botting,
I mean that you need to be able to do all of the little things automatically, without thinking. When playing Singed, do you get your autoattack off while the other guy's in the air from Fling? Can you still CS well when the gas is making the minions die at inconvenient times? How about tossing an opponent over a wall when you're being chased? That's champion specific, but what about global skills like checking the minimap often, buying wards and finding time to go drop them, or analyzing the teamcomps and deciding what your strategy is for the next teamfight? (Hint: If they have a Katarina, you need to deal with the Katarina.)
Furthermore, are you even prepared to make the right decisions? For example, take your main champion, whoever it may be. Against every opponent you could conceivably see,
are you prepared to play the matchup? You'd better be, because if you don't know what to do, you will make wrong decisions, and you will lose. If you're not, get in there and find a good guide. Championselect.net isn't good enough, it doesn't tell you what to do. Hell, even most guides are trash, and don't tell you what to do. Fortunately, there are some good ones. For example,
here's InvertedComposer's Singed guide. In the matchup section, he tells you if it's a farm or bloody lane, what items to emphasize, and general pointers about the matchup. That's a good guide. After all,
if you climb by playing your best game, improving your best game will just let you climb further and faster. So, take the time to improve your best game.
Play your best game. If you can't, play another game. This piece of advice is actually a two-way street. Sometimes it's you that will hold yourself back. If you're playing mad, tired, scared, or distracted, you're only hurting yourself. But, you can also be thrown off your game through no fault of your own. Let's say you're a good mid player; but what if you're picking 5th? Best of luck getting mid. Or, what if you're really good on a champ, but they have a common hard counter and you can't pick them first? So, you need to be versatile and not have these things happen.
You don't need to play every role well, but you need more than one and one of them should be support. Why support? It's the least popular position. So, if you get stuck with it, this way you can at least be useful. I'm sure you've all see what happens when one team's support is competent and the other's is not.
Other than that, bring a couple of champions with you to champion select, in case your champ gets banned or hard countered. Or, better yet, be comfortable in hard counter situations. I had about 400 ranked Singed games last season....do you have any idea how many fucking Teemos I saw? Well, it got to the point where I wasn't afraid of that bastard anymore. Want to pick Teemo into me? All right. See you at level 6.
But what about yourself though? If you just got robbed last game by a ghastly throw by someone who ignored you pings and just had to clear that jungle camp, trading the entire game for about 60 gold, you've got to prevent yourself from taking that into another game. Some people say to quit after a loss, or at least take a break. That works for them, and it may even work for you. For me, I go into team builder and play the champ I want in the role I want. It's my form of LoL stress relief. It works for me. If it doesn't work for you, find something that does.
There's a whole world out there, from the internet to real life, that you could be experiencing instead of playing LoL while pissed. Do yourself a favor and don't play LoL pissed. Hey guys. I'm mgmfa, also known as ck49 on Smogon and NB. Over the last two days I participated in
pokemon's VGC tournament, and managed to win the thing. Here's a report of my matches (note: it's really long. Part 1 is my team, 2 is the swiss matches without replays, and 3 is the top cut, with replays.)
The Team: World XI During the top 8, the streamers mentioned one of my pokemon seemed to be names after a WWE fighter, but that he didn't know much about WWE. At some point someone pointed out to them that these were all soccer references, which made me laught. In other words, this team is the World XI.
I hadn't made a serious VGC team since the start of the format.
The team I made then
did pretty well, but due to changes in the meta, I figured it was best I made a new one. I struggled with a lot of different things before eventually going back to the basics.
Zlatan (Kangaskhan) @ Kangaskhanite Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Return
Power-Up Punch
Sucker Punch
Fake Out
On what Zlatan bought his wife for her birthday: ”Nothing, she already has Zlatan.”
Ah, Kangaskhan. Nothing to see here. I didn't want to mess around too much, so I went with the tried and trusted strategy of using the best pokemon possible.
Messi (Articuno) @ Charti Berry Ability: Pressure
EVs: 252 HP / 60 Def / 164 SpA / 12 SpD / 20 Spe
Bold Nature
Freeze-Dry
Tailwind
Protect
Hurricane
So named because he's blue and Messi is best known for wearing his blue Argentina kit.
Articuno was here to hit Grass types, rain dance, water types, and fighting types. It also could set up tailwind. I brought it to two battles. It was useful in one of those. Essentially, I wanted something to shut down rain teams, and this was it, but I didn't face any rain teams. It was an experiment, but I didn't trust it to KO the things I needed it to – fighting types and grass types – so it sat on the bench most of the day.
Silva (Landorus-Therian) @ Assault Vest EVs: 68 HP / 252 Atk / 188 Spe
Adamant Nature
Rock Slide
Earthquake
Superpower
Knock Off
You can't say 'I'll sell Silva and buy a similar player'. There are no similar players around, only worse ones. - Alessandro Nesta
I'm a big fan of Assault vest Landorus. It still hits like a truck, and doesn't die to stray HP ice. It also wins games by letting you switch moves. The Kang/Lando core was crucial to my old team, and I knew I was using it again. Again, if it works, why change it?
Neuer (Heatran) @ Leftovers EVs: 180 HP / 252 SpA / 72 Spe
Modest Nature
Heat Wave
Substitute
Flash Cannon
Protect
The spectator tends not to remember that as a goalkeeper I make difficult saves at great risk and start moves with my efforts." - Manuel Neuer
Heatran covered up my big fairy weakness, while also eating up will-o-wisps directed at Kang and Lando. I ran flash cannon over earth power specifically for that reason. I love sub-protect heatran. It draws so much attention to it, and nothing is more satisfying than protecting behind a sub and watching your opponent double into it.
Vidal (Virizion) @ Life Orb EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
Taunt
Protect
Close Combat
Leaf Blade
They have arguably the most complete midfield player in world football within their ranks. That man, of course, is Juventus’ Arturo Vidal.
This spot was originally for Terrakion, but I swapped it to Virizion when I realized how I had nothing to take a water type attack. Virizion deals with Kangaskhan while also putting the hurt on bulky waters. It also avoids rage powder and is a safe switch in against amoongus. It also has taunt, which combined with its speed lets me shut down annoying strategies. Virizion puts in work. My team's MVP, hands down.
Ronaldo (Milotic) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Competitive
EVs: 236 HP / 140 Def / 132 SpA
Modest Nature
Scald
Icy Wind
Recover
Protect
As sexy as he is good at soccer, and he is very, very good at soccer
Milotic was the other pokemon which came up huge for me. It ended up getting a good number of competitive boosts, and was bulky enough to take a lot of hits. I rarely used recover, and I'm thinking about dropping it for ice beam. The sheer presence of milotic helps me dictate lead match-ups, and it's bulky enough to take all sorts of weak hits. Icy Wind was another form of speed control, which ended up doing some real damage thanks to competitive.
Swiss rounds Note: I don't remember everything about my swiss matches, and I couldn't save replays. I saved the replays for my top cut matches, however. Here's what I remember.
Round 1 against Greiver1337: I came into the battle and I remember being nervous, because the team looked pretty standard but had some match-ups I hadn't tested against. In particular, gengar was intimidating. It turned out my opponent hadn't really played much VGC. He ended up using sludge wave mega-gengar, which hit his own whimsicott. I don't remember anything else about the battle, but it was a comfortable win. Greiver1337 seemed to turn it around, however, since he went 5-2 and just missed top cut - 10th place. We spoke briefly about his team, so I assume he switched it up a bit before the ensuing rounds.
1-0 Round 2 against Edavis707: Davis ended up coming in 9th place, meaning I beat both the players who just bubbled out. This was a great match. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I remember it ended with my heatran against all 4 of his pokemon, all weakened. My heatran, hiding behind a sub, managed to not miss with heatwave enough to get him down to Charizard-Y, which had no good way of damaging me. I ended up winning with 8% HP on Heatran, so it went down to the wire.
2-0 Round 3 against Morga95: Morga ended up coming in 7th overall, also cutting at 5-2. This was another great match. I knew he was running trick room from the offset, seeing Hariyama, Gothitelle, and Mawile. Against teams which require set-up, I ran my standard Kangaskhan-Virizion lead. He lead Gothitelle-Hariyama, as expected. Gothitelle protected on my taunt, and I faked out Hariyama. I looked up Gothitelle on Pokemon-GL, and noticed that only 14% run mental herb, so I figured I was safe taunting it. In hindsight, he saw one taunt and probably would have expected a second had he not had a mental herb, so taunting a second time was probably a bad idea. I also ran a calc and saw that most Jolly Kangaskhan with return can do enough to KO Hariyama from where it was at. As such, I returned into Hariyama and taunted Gothitelle. Hariyama survived with 1% health, and close combatted Kang to get the KO. On the other hand, Virizion's taunt was dealt with by a mental herb, and I had no shot of coming back once he put up trick room. After the battle, Morga mentioned his Hariyama had extra physical bulk, which was the deciding factor. He also apologized for a critical hit poison jab(?) to KO Virizion, although I think he would have won regardless.
2-1 Round 4 against Nyle420 and Round 5 against NoRiceForP: Following the pattern, Nyle420 came in 11th place. NoRiceForP had one loss all tournament, and ended up in 3rd. I confess, I don't remember anything at all about one of these games. I do remember the other one, but I can't figure out who was who, so they both get clumped together.
One of these guys had a sun team. I remember that my goal was to get him down to just charizard, since heatran would finish the game off from there. I ended up having Heatran, Landorus, and Virizion against Charizard, and got caught off guard by HP ground on charizard. However, I did end up winning because rock slide didn't miss (thank god).
The other match I remember more clearly because I was playing against a chansey. He also brought amoongus, Kangaskhan, and rotom-w(??). All 4 of the pokemon he brought were dealt with by Virizion, which was key to this battle. I remember leading with Kang and Virizion against amoongus and Kangaskhan (or chansey, I don't remember). I faked out Kangaskhan and taunted amoongus, but of course amoongus had a mental herb. He managed to get Kangaskhan to sleep, which played a big part of the battle. I can't recall exactly what happened, but a lot of switching occurred. One turn, I saw a will-o-wisp coming into one of my pokemon and switched in my sleeping Kangaskhan. Kangaskhan slept for the maximum of 5 turns, and was burned as soon as it woke up. This game had me on my feet, because I had to conserve Virizion as much as possible while also keeping threats on the field. I ended up with heatran (behind a substitute) and virizion on the field against amoongus and chansey. Amoongus used rage powder, which doesn't effect Virizion, allowing me to KO chansey with Close Combat. Amoongus then went down to a heat wave, and the battle was effectively over.
4-1 Round 6 against foolish_swami: Foolish_swami ended up going undefeated in swiss, going into top cut as the #1 seed. He had a pretty standard team, but had mamoswine on it. I led with Kangaskhan and Milotic against Mamoswine and Ttar. He had protect on Ttar, which he used turn 1. That should have tipped me off to the item, but I was oblivious. Icy wind and fake out did little to Mamoswine. I then made the mistake, which was power-up punching Ttar. It survived with ~30% and its weakness policy kicked in, Koing my Kangaskhan with rock slide after mamoswine did its part. Milotic had a bit of Hp left after the sitrus berry kicked in. I switched in Virizion, and I used scald and Leaf Blade on Mamoswine and Ttar respectively. Ttar went down, but mamoswine survived on 1% and hit back, Koing something or the other. That's all she wrote. I probably forgot a turn here or there, but the decision to use scald instead of leaf blade on Mamoswine might have lost me the game. I wasn't sure if scald would do enough to Ttar, and didn't want to risk it. Thinking about it, I might have led with articuno, since I think I had a tailwind up. Whatever, it was a great game and I learned from it.
4-2 Round 7 against FunkyToucan.
I was at 4-2 with the best tiebreak score of all players in the tournament, so all I needed to do was win to get in to the top 8 – no bubble angst required. I don't remember much about this match, but I do remember it being very close. I do remember him using thunder wave on Kangaskhan with his rotom-w, instead of thunderbolting milotic. I was fairly certain that lost him the game, although having un-paralyzed Kangaskhan might have dealt with him anyhow.
5-2 At the end of swiss, I had gone 5-2, and played against players ranked #1, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 20. As such, I got the top seed among x-2 finishers, and ended up #4. Not playing against any teams with confusion on it was pretty awesome, and the one smeargle I saw was taunted pretty easily. The Chansey I saw was a pain, but it never got a minimize off and was very well used. I was pretty happy with the team I had just built, although I hadn't used articuno much at all. Virizion is pretty good against rain on its own, so I might not have needed it as much as I did when I ran terrakion. I faced a lot of amoongus, and never felt confident with Articuno against it – although between heatran and virizion, dealing with it was pretty easy. We could use 3 teams in this tournament, and I had only used 1, so I had the chance to do some testing before the next day and possibly change up my team. I didn't want to go into the knock out rounds cold with my old team, even if it had served me well in the past, so I resolved to fix up my current team instead.
I did this by adding in Latios for Articuno. Articuno originally was there to hit water types, grass types, dragon types, flying types, and set up tailwind. Latios does the latter 3 with Ice beam, and most grass types are also part poison. Here's the set I ran:
Messi (Latios) @ Focus Sash Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Protect
- Tailwind
I debated the item choice for a long time, but I ended up going with the oft-unused focus sash. I couldn't use sitrus berry because of milotic, nor could I use Life Orb because of Virizion. In the end, I'm pretty content with the focus sash, because it gives me some reassurance that I'll get the KO's I need to get, even if I do have reasonably bulk. The only thing I do regret is using psychic over psyshock. While this never came up in the tournament, psychic has the ability to ohko Amoongus which don't invest in SpD. However, most amoongus switch out when they see Latios, and psyshock would do enough in most cases anyhow. On the other hand, psyshock actually lets Latios beat Sylveon which don't run quick attack, which could come in handy.
Top 8 against ET3RN4M Game 1 Game 2 Game 3
Set with my new team, I entered my battle against Eternam. This was the only round of 8 match which wasn't a rematch, so I had no idea what to expect. His pokemon were Suicune, Landorus, Hydreigon, Metagross, Thundurus, and Terrakion. I knew Metagross was his mega. I also assumed he wouldn't lead with Landorus because of my milotic. As such, I was pretty comfortable leading with two physical attackers in Virizion and Kangaskhan.
He led with Metagross and Suicune. Now, most metagross run protect, and most suicune don't, so I figured it was a safe bet that he would switch suicune (in fear of leaf blade) and protect with metagross to avoid fake out. As such, I power up punched into suicune, hoping to get the +2 boost. Instead, suicune protected and metagross KO'd my Virizion with zen headbutt. Ouch. I needed to play aggressively to get back into the game, so I sucker punched metagross and protected heatran. He got a sub up, and from there it was pretty much game. I played out the game, however, and watched his -2 Landorus nearly KO my (60%) heatran with super power, telling me he was running choice band Lando – very important information.
0-1 This time around I led with Kangaskhan and Latios. I knew he had a fast team, and I wanted to get tailwind up. I also knew I could power-up punch my own Latios if I felt like a protect was coming. Latios had a favorable match-up against this team – hitting 4 pokemon super effectively – so not bringing it game 1 was probably dumb. He led Terrakion-Thundurus. I had to fake out Terrakion – most have a focus sash and it could KO my Kangaskhan if I didn't. I fully expected a protect, but I couldn't take the risk. I also ice beamed into Thundurus, because I figured he would paralyze my pokemon, and tailwind wouldn't help much at that point. He actually switched Thundurus out into Metagross, who took my ice beam like a champ. However, Terrakion didn't protect, allowing me to break its sash.
At this point I knew I could KO terrakion with psychic. Most Latios carry choice scarf, so I figured he would be caught off guard by me switching moves, and wouldn't switch out or protect. Even if he did switch, I would do a decent chunk of damage to any pokemon switching in bar Hydreigon. On the other hand, I expected metagross to set up a substitute. I couldn't sucker punch it, and I didn't want to switch out, so I went for the power up punch into it instead. Terrakion protected, and Metagross did a chunk of damage to my Latios with iron head. Meanwhile, I went up to +2 attack with Kang. I
figured sucker punch and psychic would be good enough, but he predicted that and quick guarded with terrakion – stopping my sucker punch. My Latios is timid with max speed, and if his Metagross was max speed jolly nature we would speed tie (he claims it was, meaning I won the battle on a coin flip). Psychic got rid of terrakion, and then metagross knocked out Latios.
I brought in my milotic, expecting Landorus to come in and intimidate my Kangaskhan. However, Hydreigon came in instead. I wasn't optimistic, since scarf Hydreigon Draco meteor has a chance to KO Kangaskhan. I figured he would set up a substitute to avoid sucker punch, so I scalded into that slot and returned into Hydreigon, hoping I could survive or outspeed him. It turns out he wasn't running scarf, so I got the KO with return, and broke Metagross's sub with scald. A perfect turn.
At this point, I went in to KO his thundurus with return, and hit metagross with another scald. I wasn't sure if he would substitute or not, so I opted not to risk sucker punching. It turns out he ran a slow thundurus, and I outsped and KO'd it. Metagross iron headed my Kang, but I scalded, and the damage had been done, and the game was basically over.
1-1 I didn't save game 3's replay, and I don't remember what happened. Oops. It was on stream, however, since I think ours was the only one to last that long. Anyhow, I managed a win, and got off into the semifinals.
2-1 Top 4 against Foolish_swami Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Up until this point, Foolish Swami hadn't dropped a single game yet. I had played Foolish Swami earlier, so I knew a little bit about his team. In particular, I should have known that Tyranitar has weakness policy and can survive a power up punch – but I didn't remember that, because I'm stupid.
Latios + Kangaskhan was turning into my standard lead pretty quickly. I brought those against Ttar and Milotic. Afraid of a dark type attack, I switched in Virizion (with Justified), but he protected with Ttar and Milotic ate a fake out.
Here, I expected Ttar to switch out, staring down a Virizion close combat. As such, I went for a power up punch into it, hoping to get a +2 attack Kang and a leaf bladed milotic. If it weren't for his salamence's intimidate, Milotic would have been dead. Milotic was in kill range for sandstorm next turn, however.
Next turn I protected with Virizion, afraid of a flying type move and Kangaskhan's potential speed tie. I returned into Salamence, only to be met with a Chendalure. Milotic went down to sandstorm after firing off an icy wind, and in came Ttar.
I expected a will-o-wisp into Kangaskhan, and switched it out into Latios. What I got was a (choice scarf) heat wave, Koing Virizion before it could move. Ttar also froze Latios with an ice beam.
Next turn I hit his choice-locked Chandy with a sucker punch, Koing it, while tailwinding with my happily unfrozen Latios. Ttar protected, presumably afraid of fake-out. Now, at this point all he had left was Ttar and Salamence. Here's where I misplayed: I needed to get rid of salamence before he mega-evolved. As such, I ice-beamed into the spot, hoping he wouldn't protect. Meanwhile, I power-up punched Ttar, hoping to boost Kangaskhan to a high enough attack to KO salamence next turn with sucker punch. Of course, he took the PuP like a champ and got the weakness policy boost, and KO'd by two pokemon with a rock slide. I also forgot that I had tailwind up, and could outspeed Mence regardless. Oops. He quickly dispatched of my Landorus and took the win.
0-1 Game two I lead with Kang and Landorus. I'm pretty confident he's not going to bring Milotic to start, and I want the ability to get rid of Ttar without worrying about Chandelure. He brings out Chandelure and Mamoswine, who I know is not scarfed. He assumes I can't fake out Chandulre, and protects with Mamoswine. I decide to fake out Chandelure anyways – thanks scrappy – by not mega-evolving. I also bring in Milotic to take a potential ice-type attack and dissuade a salamence switch-in. In hindsight, I could have simply sucked punched Chandelure and been done with it, but hindsight is 20/20. Of course, this Chandy wasn't running flash fire. It also wasn't running Infiltrator. Nope, it was running flame body. So of course I get burned through my own fake out.
My sucker punch can't KO the Chandelure, so he gets off a heat wave. He also brings in Milotic to take my scald. Next turn I power up punch into milotic, mostly because Kangaskhan is useless otherwise. He predicts a sucker punch and switches Chandy into mamoswine, who eats a scald from my milotic, which (as I learned in the swiss rounds) doesn't quite KO. His milotic does damage to Kang with scald.
He protects with mamoswine, which makes sense – Kangaskhan would likely KO it with sucker punch or PuP before it could move. I go ahead and Return into milotic, doing a good amount of damage, while he puts Kang into burn KO range with scald. I bring in Virizion for Milotic and then Milotic for Kangaskhan.
At this point, there's no way his pokemon survive another turn, both being down to 15% HP. I go for the simple scald-leaf blade, but first he ice shards into Virizion, bringing it down to the red. I didn't expect it to do that much, but I got what I needed.
Finally, his Salamences shows itself and boosts my full health Milotic. His target is Milotic, my Virizion will KO itself with LO recoil anyhow, so I protect milotic to get more pressure on my opponent. He heat wave and returns, getting rid of virizion but leaving Milotic intact and allowing landorus to show itself. A rock slide and icy wind would end the game.
1-1 Game 3 I lead with Kang Latios and he brings in Ttar and Mence. I fake out Ttar, knowing that Salamence would have to do something to avoid Latios. It switched out into Milotic, and I get a tailwind up safely.
Now, me being an idiot and all, I power up punch Ttar while protecting with Latios. My hope was that he would focus on Latios and I could get the boost and KO it next turn. Instead he rock sldies and Kang takes 60%. I power up punch into Ttar again, assuming I'll get the KO, but he protects. Milotic takes a psychic and uses icy wind. This was an odd call, since I had tailwind up and he could have KO'd Kangaskhan with scald.
Now he switches out Ttar, avoiding the PuP with Chandelure. I bring in Milotic, expecting a Salamence switch in. He harmlessly ice beams into what was my Latios, and Kang drops to the point where sandstorm will KO it next turn.
At this point, I know I have to sucker punch with Kangaskhan to avoid getting hit by Chandelure. However, I expect Chandy to switch out to avoid getting hit by a sucker punch. I hit milotic with SP, Koing it, and KO Chandy with scald after taking a heat wave. Edit: This reasoning confused me... Essentially, I didn't want to risk losing Kang for nothing, so I went for the safest option and it paid off.
Ttar and Mence come in, boosting Milotic's Special Attack. On the other hand, my Latios comes in, threatening Mence. Knowing he has to protect, I set up tailwind while scalding into Ttar. Scald KO's Ttar and that effectively ended the game.
2-1 Finals against Gil4: Now, the top 4 was not played simultaneously, meaning we all got to see the opposite side battle. I played first, and knowing I'd be in the championship game, I took notes on the Bo3 which I saw Gil4 and Serapis play. I took notes on both players and tossed out Serapis's stuff because I didn't need it. Here's what I wrote coming into the battle:
Conk @ Assault Vest (NO PROTECT), Iron Fist (NOT GUTS), Drain Punch, Ice Punch, Mach Punch + ?
Thundurus @ sitrus, tbolt, taunt, ?, ?
Togekiss ???
Heatran, flash cannon
Kangaskhan, PROTECT, return, sucker punch, PuP (NO FAKE OUT), not bulky, probably max speed
Togekiss, In the semi-finals, was brought once and died immediately. His last pokemon was never brought. The most notable thing I knew was that I would probably speed tie with Kangaskhan, but I didn't have to worry about Fake Out. That meant I could safely assume he would protect turn 1 if he led with it.
Also, note that this was a Best of 5 set.
Game 1 Game 2 Game 3 Game 1:
Not seeing intimidate and knowing his Kang doesn't have fake out, I'm happy to lead with my own Kangaskhan. I also bring Latios to deal with Conkeldurr, which he brings to go with Thundurus.
Now, I know that Conkeldurr can't run protect, but I also know psychic wouldn't KO on its own. He doesn't have anything which wants to take a psychic, so I double into Conkeldurr, Koing it. He taunts my Latios to stop the non-existant tailwind play. In comes Togekiss.
Now, Togekiss can redirect my attacks, and Thundy doesn't pose a real threat to me beyond using thunder wave, so I go ahead and double into Togekiss. As intended, that Kos it, while thundurus does 35% with a thunderbolt on Kang. I also learn that Thundurus is not max speed, and probably not max SpA either, since Kang outsped it. Thunderbolt did paralyze me, however. Enter his Kangaskhan.
Knowing he can't fake out, I assume he will sucker punch my taunted Latios. I switch that out into Landorus, intimidating Kang. He tries to paralyze the Latios spot, and hits Kang with a PuP. Meanwhile, I get fully paralyzed.
Now, I'm still not worried about Kangaskhan because of Virizion, so I double into Thundurus. Sucker punch does a chunk to Thundurus, and my Landorus-T surprises him by taking his HP ice (thank you, assault vest). Rock Slide brings it down to 10% or so before sitrus increases his HP back to the Yellow. At this point, he has to sucker punch my Kangaskhan, so I bring in Virizion safely. This might have been slightly risky, but the alternative was letting both my pokemon die. Landorus went down to a HP ice, but Virzion came in unscathed, and I got a second fake out to make use of.
I went ahead with the fake out + close combat, and his Kangaskhan went down. On the other hand, my Kang was fully paralyzed, so he got off a thunderbolt to finish off Kang. I believe he would have had a shot if he had thunder waved Virizion while protecting with Kang, but he couldn't have known I'd get a full paralysis. In comes Latios, and the game is effectively over.
1-0 Game 2:
I go ahead and keep the same leads, as does he. This time around, I know he wont taunt Latios, nor will he keep Conk in. As such, I double into Thundurus instead, nearly Koing it with Fake out and Ice beam. He switches out Conkeldurr into Togekiss.
Now I keep it simple with Ice beam into Thundurus and Return into Togekiss. Even if he did use follow me, I'd get a KO. Instead, Thundurus switches out for Kang and Togekiss hits the red because of a crit. He gets up tailwind, however.
Here I get a little cocky. He doesn't have fake out, so I didn't protect, but he went ahead and KO'd Latios with return anyhow. I believe I chose tailwind in order to avoid sucker punch, but it didn't make a difference. Kang took a dazzling gleam to the face but KO'd his Kangaskhan with return. He brought Thundurus back, while I brought in Landorus for its rock slide and ability to intimidate the conkeldurr he had sitting out back.
His only way of keeping one pokemon alive is by HP ice and air slashing Landorus. Going off that, I decide to sucker punch Thundurus, but end up trying to punch and incoming Conkeldurr. On the other hand, he got the air slash flinch on Landorus.
At this point I considered my moves for a while. I figured he would mach punch my Kangaskhan, but he could also have chosen to ice punch my Landorus. I also knew that Virizion could only do around 50% to a conkeldurr. Because of this I chose to Sucker punch Togekiss and EQ with Landorus, which risked Koing my own Kangaskhan. It worked out, however, as his togekiss died to sucker punch and mach punch KO'd Kang, allowing EQ to hit Conkeldurr at full force as tailwing expired.
Facing off against Thundy and Conk, I knew he couldn't protect. As such, Close Combat and rock slide more or less guaranteed the win, putting me up 2-0.
2-0 Game 3:
As tempting as it was to change leads, I only had to win 1 of the next 3 games to win the title. As such, I went with the same group of 4 once again. Meanwhile, he brought in Kang and Milotic. With no fake out to worry about, I predicted the protect from Kang. I PuPed Milotic and got tailwind up. Given that my opponent was staring down what was effectively a +2 +2 Mega-Kangaskhan, I was pretty confident I had the win. His ice beam did 75% to Latios, as he revealed a life orb on milotic.
Here I was over-confident, and let Latios die to a sucker punch. I got rid of Kang wtith a +2 return, and didn't get burned by his scald. I ran some calcs on Conkeldurr vs Kangaskhan and found that at -1 it would do a max of 50% on me with mach punch, meaning I could live it if I brought in Landorus. However, that meant giving milotic a huge boost.
As planned, mach punch didn't quite KO Kangaskhan, and Conkeldurr went down to a +2 return. Meanwhile, Landorus KO'd Milotic with Knock Off, which really surprised me – then again, I suppose LO milotic isn't that bulky. Togekiss then came in and went down to a return, giving me a third win and the
pokemon VGC title!
Thanks for reading! I really enjoyed playing in this tournament and it was really well run. I got to watch and play against a lot of great battlers.
The 101 Great Goals website is constantly updated with live streaming information and football betting tips, as well as football (soccer) news, video and social media updates by the hour. Every ... Soccernews.com is news blog for soccer with comprehensive coverage of all the major leagues in Europe, as well as MLS in the United States. In addition we offer breaking news for transfers and transfer rumors, ticket sales, betting tips and offers, match previews, and in-depth editorials. Tips: Both teams have nothing to play for but pride. But City’s quality will be too much for the home side. (City Win) Lazio vs Sassuolo (Serie A): Lazio’s title hopes are gradually fading following consecutive losses to AC Milan and Lecce. The Eagles went seven points behind Juventus after a shocking 3-0 loss to AC Milan at home last weekend. On this page we give you the best free Premier League tips from our community of expert tipsters with impressive betting resumes. See what the best EPL betting tipsters think and get inspired or po... Soccernews.com is news blog for soccer with comprehensive coverage of all the major leagues in Europe, as well as MLS in the United States. In addition we offer breaking news for transfers and transfer rumors, ticket sales, betting tips and offers, match previews, and in-depth editorials.
1/2 HTFT KUPON ALTTA LİNKTE TIKLA GÖR,LIVE BETTING,iddaa,bet strateji,htft,bet tips SOCCER BETTING TIPS TODAY,FOOTBALL PREDICTIONS, 25/01/2020 GOALOO, İDDAA ... Get a Free Soccer Product https://www.bestsoccertricks.com/newsletter/ Today, we will be giving you 3 tips for young soccer goalkeepers. The first one is t... Soccer Betting Tips: How to Bet on Soccer - Duration: 7:28. WagerTalk TV: Sports Picks and Betting Tips 50,837 views. 7:28. A profitable and easy football betting strategy. Goalwatch Strategy. Here are the today's betting tips Football predictions kindly subscribe for tomorrows free predictions Don't forget to share #subscribe #like # comment #foot... 3 golden tips for live soccer betting you must follow if you want to win consistently every week. http://www.the80percenter.com
