Seeing as, for some reason or another, there are a lot of people in our neighborhood that can't attend the UK Championships for some reason or another, me and my brother decided to organise our own Pokemon Tournament. Matches were held on Pokemon Stadium Free Battle, using the Anything Goes Rules. The qualifying matches were held using a team of 6, the Semis using a team
of 3 and the finals were also 6-on-6. Just like the american tournaments, the 8 attendees were competing for a set of Pokemon Leauge Badges. Here are the trainers competing in this rough hash of a Pikachu punch-up-

#1- Jonathan Ward (That's me, Hoppip)
Pikachu, Seadra, Fearow, Ninetales, Vileplume, Hypno (all at L91)

#2- Joe Ward (Also known round these parts as Jolt, and will be referred to as such hereafter)
Jolteon, Golem, Haunter, Slowbro, Muk, Lickitung (all at L65)

#3- Luke Bona (Or Mr Poison, as we called him)
Snorlax, Nidorino, Venomoth, Onix, Muk, Weezing (Levels from 30 to 50)

#4- James Bona (Has a Muk named MESSYPUPPY, and is proud of it.)
Zapdos, Blastoise, Ditto, Muk, Gengar, Alakazam (Levels in the 50s)

#5- Tom Seymour (or at least, his Pokemon)
Charmeleon, Venusaur, Blastoise, Snorlax, Rhydon, Articuno (levels 30 to 55)
(Tom couldn't make it, so James is standing in for him with Tom's team, you see.)

#6- Shane Upham (The local master)
Dragonite, Venusaur, Zapdos, Blastoise, Marowak, Charizard (Levels 58-100)

#7- Mark Woodland (He who supplied the prizes, very important bloke)
Charizard, Jynx, Vulpix, Exeggcute, Drowzee, Magmar (all at L50)

#8- Jessica Ward (Caution! Woman at work!)
Charizard, Dodrio, Nidoking, Weepinbell, Starmie, Raichu (Levels 40-55)

ROUND 1- QUALIFYING ROUNDS

BATTLE 1- Hoppip V Shane
There's no better way to kick off the tourney than with the 2 strongest competitors!

I was looking forward to a heated match, as Shane was leading with his L100 Venusaur against my Hypno. Using Razor Leaf, Venus carved a lot of HP from Hypno, but several attempts to Sleep Powder failed and it was KO'd by Psychic. Next up was Vileplume V Charizard. Thanks to Swords Dance I managed to Body Slam Charizard, Zapdos and Marowak flat, but Dragonite gave me trouble until I paralzyed it. Finally, it came down to Blastoise V Pikachu, and I floored it with Thunderbolt.

BATTLE 2- Jessica V "Tom"
This match was desperately 1-sided- no matter how much "Tom" switched around, all of his pokemon were beaten in 1 hit by Starmie's Surf and Psychic.

BATTLE 3- Jolt V Luke
Another sadly 1-sided match. Jolteon easily wiped out Snorlax with a critical Thunderbolt, and mowed all of Luke's poison-typed array down with Pin Missile.

BATTLE 4- James V Mark
Heh heh heh, this fight was very funny. Exeggcute was an easy meal for Blastoise's Ice Beam, and Drowzee backed off after being hurt badly by Hydro Pump. Next up was Jynx, who froze Blastoise with a lucky Ice Punch. Jynx then wiped up Muk and Ditto with Psychic, but was eventually taken down by Zapdos' Thundershock (!). Zapdos also beat Drowzee, and James then began his first of several efforts to defrost Blastoise via a fire attack from Mark's Magmar/Vulpix/Charizard. Mark wasn't having any of it, though, and Mega punched Blastoise into oblivion. Alakazam took out Magmar but was beaten by Vulpix, and Zapdos finished the job. Zapdos then unleashed a critical Thunder on Charizard, enabling James to pull off an unexpected win.

ROUND 2- SEMI-FINALS

BATTLE 1- James V Jolt
It was Jolteon against Blastoise. Jolteon won, no surprises there. A critical hit Pin Missile took care of Alakazam, but Jolteon lost to Zapdos' Hyper Beam (critical). Golem came in, used Rock Slide and picked up the win.

BATTLE 2- Hoppip V Jess
Hypno and Starmie traded Psychics until Jessica pulled Starmie out. After Raichu fainted from Seismic toss, Jessica conceded the match.

ROUND 3- FINAL

Hoppip V Jolt

This was meant to be 1-on-1, but we mutually agreed that it would be much more fun if we had it 6-on-6. Fine then!

Jolteon was up against Fearow. Fearow's Hyper Beam missed, and Jolteon's Thunderbolt KO'd Fearow. Ninetales was up next, and beat Jolteon with a critical Dig. Ninetales fainted in turn to Slowbro's Surf. Hypno slogged it out against Slowbro, becoming paralyzed by Thunder Wave but beating Slowbro with Seismic Toss. Hypno then beat Muk with Psychic. At this point Jolt started complaining Loudly, saying that if it was 1-on-1 like it was meant to be, he would have
won by now. He started getting snotty, refusing to fight and asking for the prize, but everyone else pointed out we both agreed to fighting 6 on 6, and that Jolt had no right to say otherwise (Stuck-up brat). The fight resumed, and even though paralzed Hypno managed to beat Lickitung with a Psychic followed by Seismic Toss. Haunter was next up, and managed to really put a dent in Hypno, using Night Shade (Hypno was fully paralyzed for 2 turns). Hypno shook itself out of its paralysis and beat Haunter with a Psychic, but finally fell to Golem's Mega punch. I sent out Seadra, Ice Beamed, and beat Golem to win the Tournament!

The prize was a set of 8 wooden Badges, but the Tournament was my idea in the first place, so I didn't feel right winning them. Instead, I gave a badge to each person as a momento. I didn't care for a prize anyway, all I wanted was a chance to have a decent fight. And I certainly got it!

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ICQ: 75872424
AIM: TEbranners

Tournaments are a lot more fun than simply playing Stadium against a guy with a lot of rentals.

Good show!