Charles Randall Larenas-Leach

Luckily Entei didn't kidnap my parents  The past weekend, there was a double header in Greenfield. IN for the Rustboro and Dewford League seasons. For the first, I played Night March and didn't do spectacular (3-3), but changed it up for the second and played Tool Drop to a 4-0-1 win. Both League Challenges were Best of 1, Expanded format. Focusing on Dewford, the 2nd lc, my matchups and some overviews were as follows: 1st Round: Jared Huth: Night March This being the second tourny, and it being a long day in general, everyone was a little exhausted going into the first round of the tournament. This becomes relevent because: Wait, that doesn't have Safeguard     During the first round, I started Trubbish, and Jared started a Joltik. I immediately realised what he was playing, but he started off under the impression I was playing Toad/Garb. He took an expectedly lengthy first turn, dumping as many Pokemon and as many items as he possibly could, anticipating m...

As the title says, I went 14-2-1 at three League Challenges this past weekend. On Saturday my local friends and I drove the two hour drive in three different cars to Greenfield, Indiana for a double League Challenge. Then, on Sunday, I made another two hour drive up to Chicago to pick up my grandparents, and I made a League Challenge out of it. On Saturday morning, my friend Brandon Flowers picked up my friend Jake and I from our dorm (I just started college!). We drove through Taco Bell to get energized with some breakfast burritos, and we got on the road. The sun was awful and gave me a headache, but luckily Brandon had good taste in music and he let me play Pokemon Shuffle on his phone (Actually, that last part wasn't so lucky because now I downloaded it myself, the game is addicting, and I play it every thirty minutes). Brandon, Jake and I were all going to play Night March, although Jake is new to the game and did not have Shaymins yet. Two hours later, we arrived at ...

I live in a city called Champaign, Illinois. Champaign and its twin city, Urbana, house both the University of Illinois campus and a vibrant Pokemon community. Over the course of this past league season, the C-U (Champaign-Urbana) Pokemon League has been hosting weekly tournaments. We nicknamed this tournament series "the Mossdeep Open," and made it open to anyone who wants to join in and play some Pokemon. On the final weekend of the Mossdeep season, we invited the top six performers from the weekly tournaments to compete in a single-elimination tournament. The bracket was as follows: The first and second seed got a bye, and the other four players played off to see which two would continue onto the top four. Two rounds later, we had our winner! When we were creating our weekly tournament system, we decided that we would switch the format often to keep things fresh. Our first three tournaments were held in the Expanded format, but the finals were held in the sta...

Note: In this post I will only be referring to the Masters age division. The accomplishments of younger age divisions matter, but there is no easy way to directly compare results from one division to another. What counts as success in Pokemon? Does winning a City Championship count as "succeeding," or does one have to qualify for the World Championships to feel success? What if one qualifies for the World Championships but then can't win a single game once they arrive? The thing is, everyone has to set that measure for themselves. If someone wins Worlds one year, then by definition they won't be as successful the next year, because almost no one has won Worlds more than once. At many events, some people just want to win some games, while others could feel disappointed if they fall short of winning the entire tournament. Who Reaches Top Eight The Most? Jason Klaczynski has won Worlds three times, but up until this year, he supposedly had a lot of troubl...