The tourney was fought in "Free Battle" mode, where the computer gives you six Pokemon and you pick three of them to fight. I picked Pikachu, Sandshrew, and Clefairy while my opponent (a little kid, like everyone else in the tourney that I saw) picked Vulpix, Psyduck, and Cubone.

The battle starts. Pikachu uses Thunder Wave and paralyzes Vulpix, who Digs. I switch to Sandshrew, who takes minimal damage. One Earthquake later, Vulpix is gone.

Out comes Psyduck. I decide the Sandshrew is expendable (not SE against any of his other types) and his high Attack and STAB will do a lot of damage to Psyduck, and trust that he can survive the initial attack. Thanks to a critical hit, he didn't.

Assuming that the kid will immediately switch to Cubone if I bring out Pikachu, I send Clefairy. Clefairy does some attack that I can't remember, and Psyduck uses Ice Beam... which freezes!

I realize that Pikachu doesn't stand much chance against Cubone, but this kid hasn't made very impressive choices so far, so you never know. I let him kill off Clefairy and send out Pikachu, who uses Thunder and misses. (Why don't these blasted rentals ever have Thunderbolt?) Psyduck uses Ice Beam again... AND GETS ANOTHER FREEZE!!

Well, as you can guess, that was the end of the match. Perhaps God doesn't like adults messing around in little kids' tournaments. I got a poster for participating, plus a Participation Badge (which I already had from the Stadium tour). The top prize in the tournament was the choice of Pokemon Snap or a Pokemon Stadium T-shirt. (Yes, that's right, it was the actual game vs. a shirt.)

Other stuff: None of the reps there had Pokemon cartridges either, so I didn't bother battling them. At one point I was fighting the Prime Cup Master Ball, and a guy who was older than most (early teens). I was fighting a close match, and he seemed to know what he was talking about, so I accepted his offer of advice. He grabbed the controller (which I was less than impressed with), looked at my Starmie's moveset, and said that Thunderbolt was the best attack to use (which was wrong, because Surf has the STAB and both attacks had normal effectiveness against the opponent).

Then all my respect for him went out the window when he said "Now I'll hold down the A-Button to make the attack do more damage!" When I scoffed at him, he sniffed "Well, don't believe me then." I made a note of the damage dealt, then did the same attack without holding down the button, and gleefully pointed out that it did more damage than before. At this point the kid slunk off without saying anything...

Well, that's it for this report. I wonder if I'll ever have the opportunity to win a Cascade Badge...

quote:

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Originally posted by White Cat:
The top prize in the tournament was the choice of Pokemon Snap or a Pokemon Stadium T-shirt.

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Lessee, the T-shirt you can wear. And the cartridge can be used as a paperweight, a doorstop, or something to help level out that wobbly table.

Tough choice