A Pokken Story

It started with the release of Pokken Tournament in 2015 for the Wii U. This was a first-of-its-kind fighting game based around the simplified mechanics of Tekken using the Pokemon franchise. At the time, I was working night shift at a hospital and figuring out my long term career plans and wanted a social outlet.

The VGC announced a tournament on campus a month or so after release. I had been part of the VGC since I came to my university, so it sounded like a good last event to go to before heading out into the world beyond my college town. I could no longer make it to the VGC weekly meet ups due to work but could manage to make it to the tournament itself, so I practiced Pokken when I could leading up to it.

I was looking for someone local to play with to connect with leading up to the event, when my fiance (now-husband) introduced me to an old friend of his, a guy I'll call V. V, my fiance said, proudly held the title of "Best in the VGC" but was willing to humble himself with some matches at our place to help me prepare for the tournament.

I was really excited for a chance to meet another nerd who was into the game, likely having more time to practice than I did. I looked forward to what I could learn from him so I could make the best impression possible at the tournament.

The day came, and V made it over to our place one weekend. My fiance, TarotBerot from my friends list, was the one that knew him so just for fun they decided to play a match together first. TarotBearot knew he was going to lose and that was okay. Fighting games were never his thing but he still likes playing them casually to this day. V went in with the confidence of a successful car salesman prepared to show us both how it was done. TarotBearot was effectively going to be a warm up punching bag, and we all knew it.

TarotBearot trashed him 2-0.

So V played as Blaziken, a traditional melee fighter taking the form of a flaming, slender karate chicken. I suspect he had only fought others who picked characters who were the same playstyle. TarotBearot had learned to use Braxien, a long range, tiny fox spellcaster. V clearly hadn't yet the faintest clue how to deal with ranged attacks in the game.

V then lost against me just as badly. I had learned Gardivore, some forest fairy in ballerina attire and another long-range spell caster with a focus on beams, tricks, and traps. He said no one has played like this before, and that sort of playstyle had the game rigged against him. The game was fairly new without updates and I like to assume the best in people, so I offered him a different challenge. I would still play as Gardivore, but avoid using ranged attacks.

I was still able to win against him easily, using half my character's move pool. His basic movements in general were good so he clearly had some fighter experience, but he hadn't apparently the faintest clue of even the fundamentals of this game. In Pokken, there's what's called an "attack triangle" : (Red) Attacks beat (Green) Grabs beat (Blue) counters which in-turn beat attacks. By "beat" I mean, the attacks break through and are prioritized - characters flash the given color to make the situation clear.

He got really quiet. So did I. He was either salty or embarrassed, and I was irritated that I didn't find a good coach or even a rival. He left soon after, and that was the last time we would ever see the Best in the VGC.

--

The day of the tournament finally came. I had to push the organizers to start after 15-20 minutes had passed by the supposed start time. The problem was a Street Fighter V tournament happening at the same time, in the same room and they wanted that to finish first. But I hadn't the luxury of time to hang there all day with my night-shift brain. So I could feel some angry glares from the start ; now everyone involved in both tournaments had to exhaustively go back and forth between games.

My first match was against another Blaziken guy. He was more challenging than the last, with more varied mix-ups of his move set and knew moves that could close distances. I still managed to win, but he proved Blaziken did have the tools to overcome distances.

My second match was with a Suicune, a blue wolf with some mid-range ice attacks. This was much more challenging to deal with another ranged user, but I managed to win again.

Next up would be the semi-finals.

By this time, a crowd of players had begun to form around TarotBearot (all oblivious to the fact that he knew me, let alone that we are engaged). According to TarotBearot, there's this serious meeting between players going on here trying to figure out wtf to do about this playstyle I've learned, how Gardivore is possibly rigged, strategies to get around it, etc.

My semi-finals match is against a chill, laid-back dude who politely introduces himself. He picks Machamp. Machamp is -the- melee fighter, literally a four-armed wrestler. I know he has exactly one ranged move and it is grotesquely slow and unreliable. I groan internally - I'm about to wipe the floor with this guy and my win is going to look and feel empty, proving what everyone is thinking. I really do feel like a villain now, ruining everyone's fun because the pretty sorceress character I like happens to be mechanically broken.

We start from opposite sides of the stage, so I begin with some ranged attacks from the air to get this over with, and something amazing happens. He uses a (Blue) Counter move, cancels the move mid-way, and dashes forward. I would later learn this to be an advanced technique called Counter Attack Dash Cancelling (CADC). He is able to preform this action faster than I can launch my ranged attacks, all the while closing the distance with each of these small victories. This was someone who played a character weak to ranged users, who had learned more than I had about the game's mechanics. Once he finally got in striking range, it was like Jerry having been caught by Tom. He handily beat me 2-0.

It was a relieving loss to myself and everyone involved ; I preferred it ending that way even after giving my best.