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| John William |
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
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