Pokemon Database Stories: What's yours?

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Pokemon Database Stories: What's yours?

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Wow, this thread really blew up!
Hi, I'm Scraf. And this is my story:

Seven-year old me really wanted a Game Boy Advance for my birthday. I opened up a grey, glossy box to find a Spongebob GBA and three games: Arcade Games, Galaga Remastered, and Pokemon Fire Red. I clocked in about 800,000 points in Galaga before I put it down for the next eight years, and Arcade Games was a bit too hard for seven-year old me. Fire Red, however, I didn't quite put down just yet.

I clocked 999:59 into that thing faster than you'd expect. I chose Squirtle as my starter and set off out of Pallet Town. My sister got Leaf Green the year later, and I traded my Lvl. 100 Blastoise over to her game. She restarted it. Nooooooo :D

That over the following three years, I purchased Pokemon Games in quick succession. Pokemon Ruby, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver and White all were welcomed into my collection. This was about when I was in Grade 6.

...then I just stopped playing. Pokemon became unpopular. Anyone who played it was the dunce.

Three years later, around the release of X & Y, I stumbled upon this site. The news section helped me out a ton, deciphering all of these new Pokemon, the Fairy Type, why Aegislash looks so great, etc. Then, I discovered Pokebase.

It was like a cool breeze with the smell of freshly fallen rain blew out of my laptop screen that day. There were so many resources and such an amazing community, I quickly identified Pokebase as a safe haven of the Internet.

I quickly proceeded to pump out answers and questions. People generally liked my answers, and I kept getting more points. And then, around January of 2015, I left.

Well, what can I say? I've lost interest in Pokemon for the time being and OR is my last game for the time being. As I listen to YEHEHE, this is my sendoff.

Thanks for being awesome.

That's my story. What's yours?

Post stories about how Pokebase changed your view on Pokemon, rekindled your love for it, or just helped you out overall!
Pokebase, or Pokemon Database, is a great site. A lot of good has happened here so lets tell our experiences of how this site helped us!

asked Dec 30, 2013 by Le Scraf
edited Jun 6, 2015 by Le Scraf

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Mewderator · Answer 1 · 2013-12-31T06:15:04+0000

Ah, my times at the Pokemon Database. Such wow.

I started my love for Pokemon when I was about 5 years old. Every day, I used to watch this guy named Danny play Pokemon Emerald on the GBA, and that just triggered everything. I wanted to get my own Pokemon games, but unfortunately, I didn't get one for awhile.
This all changed when my friend Christian gave my FireRed and Emerald for my Birthday. It was one of the best days of my life. I whipped out my DS Lite and finished both games in 3 days. They were so much fun, but Diamond and Pearl had been released for awhile, and I wanted to get my hands on them. By the time I did, HeartGold and SoulSilver had been announced, and I wanted them all. Of course, I never ended up doing that, but close enough.
I finished Diamond and got my hands on HeartGold and Platinum, and finished both within a month. After my DS got taken away from my parents after they thought my grades were slipping from playing too much, I went online and sought another way to be involved in Pokemon. After going through Bulbapedia and Serebii, the two well known ones, I stumbled onto the Pokemon DB. And that's when the story all began, my friends...

I started on this site as a complete noob. With the username MeW2011, which was crappy as hell....
I was confused on the difference between what a Physical Attacker was, what a status move was, and all that good stuff. In terms of points and all that jazz, what was I? Nothing. I was struggling to get 100 points for the first 3 months on being on the site. When I finally reached 1000 points on the site, Pokemaster changed the points system and I was at 800 again. Nooooooo :D

I worked my way back up to 1000 points, and started going to the one place that changed by DB life here - the chat room. Now, the chat room was absolutely nothing like it was today. None of those roleplaying shenanigans, but people actually interacting with each other about the various things that interested them, and people actually paying attention to each other. I met some of my closest DB friends there - trachy, ψPsychic., Pokenubz, Josh, and Fate Itself. Although most of you only know ψPsychic. and Pokenubz, those other two are bound to show up sometime.

Once I braved the chat, I started to become more active on Pokebase, rocketing my points, little by little. I got my username changed to Mew, and that's what most people called me until I received a higher ranking. The DB slowly became my home, where I'd procrastinate from doing my HW, where I could have a chat, and talk about Pokemon, which was sweeping the nation. Once I got a little known, I decided to try for Expert. Me being at 500 and the Expert limit being at 10,000 at the time, I thought I would take a year to reach that. Until Pokemaster redid the ranks.

The Editor rank was returned, which was now situated between Moderator and Expert. Expert was lowered down to 6000 points, and now I thought I had a chance. This chance was further increased by a troll named Mr.Shadow, who would spam the chat and write inappropriate questions on all 3 sections of the site. No Moderators were really active back then, and I'd frequently have to bring on via email or something. That New Year's Eve, I was very close to Expert. That also happened to be the night Shadow was spamming again, and nobody was online to stop his posts. The users online at the time pushed me up some points in order to become Expert, and I quickly began to dismantle his posts. I remember changing " u **, i eat ***" to something like "I fart rainbows and ride on ponies <3", which was a great edit for me at the time.

After becoming Expert, I thought I would stay there forever. However, I just kept answering questions constantly, and apparently people liked my answers. Quite odd. I got past 10,000 points and was now a pretty well known member. I was making more friends at the site, and I quickly gained the ability for competitive battling. I began more activity at the RMT section, and my teams were decent, at most. I spent a lot of time helping people edit sprites and stuff into their answers.

A couple of months later, when I had about 16,000 points here, Psychic decided to ask Pokemaster about promoting me to Editor, a rank I never thought I'd receive. PM did a round of promotions, and I received the coveted Editor, while Psychic got Moderator. I was ecstatic because of this new world I was in, being able to see all the hidden posts. Pretty soon, Pokemaster added moderation, meaning Editors had a new job :D

After a couple of months as an Editor, I was really well known, mainly due how fast I gained points and how fast I answered questions. I also had 30,000+ points, which was a ton of points at the time. After I passed Speed freak, a former moderator of the site, Psychic decided to ask Pokemaster to promote me to Moderator. The post, magically, is still alive today:

http://pokemondb.net/pokebase/meta/23007/alright-lets-gift-one-closest-friends-for-efforts-promotion

And Pokemaster agreed to the post, and I became the moderator. And everyone dubbed me as the Mewderator, so that's what I'm stuck with today. I banned my fair share or people, of course, and had a few arnings and such. I made a great deal of enemies, and at the same time, a great deal of friends.

Around this time, the DB Pokemon Showdown server came along, and I decided to be active on it. I quickly worked my way up to & (Leader), which is the highest next to Admin. Although the power is enticing, I hardly need to use them unless trolls come along. However, the friends I made there, such as PikaDaGreat, i suck qq, Oncoming Storm, JarJar, MrKijani, Le Scraf, and many more users, were definitely more important.

And today, I accomplished one of the impossible. With the help with friends and me answering questions, after 2 1/2 years, I have finally taken over the #1 spot in Pokebase. Thanks to everyone who had helped my achieve that goal.

Although this post I just made was all about points, points, and more points, and ranks, ranks, and even more ranks, keep in mind that even though points are a staple on this site, the friendships you have, even though they are just internet friends, are more important. Being social is way better than being rich.

~ Mewderator

trachy · Answer 2 · 2014-02-27T04:59:22+0000

This isn't necroposting, it's being fashionably late.

Pokemon was actually my first "real" videogame. I mean real in the sense that it wasn't a Disney PC movie shovelware title. And it took me a month to get to Viridian Forest. That's what happens when you're too young to have full reading comprehension, and when you don't understand how video game mechanics work. But through luck, I finally found out that I HAVE TO BACKTRACK and I finally made it through the old guy dying in the middle of the road. Later down the line, I accidentally restarted that save file, so all that work was for nothing. :'(

Since then, I played every Gen of Pokemon that came out. However, some time around Emerald, I stopped playing Pokemon. It just wasn't cool anymore (nor was it that time when it would have the huge nostalgia value it currently has) so I stopped playing for a few years. Then Gen IV finally came out, and I ended up becoming interested in all that changed since I last played. I mostly cared about new moves, so I searched "Pokemon moveset database" and found this place. I used the database parts of the site for a number of months before finding my way to the PokeBase. I met Swampert my first day there when he answered my question, and thus this site established its reputation of having pretty awesome people to talk to. Inspired by the movesets posted by Fritjof (who left before I joined the site) I started posting the moveset questions (UNTIL THAT DAMN MOVESET BOT STOLE MY JOB). That was pretty much when I met DT and Will, both of whom are awesome people, as well as others such as Speed Freak and Mike. Eventually it got to the point where DT, Swampert, and I were prominent enough to gain the rank of Editor. Will got the rank a while after. And now I'm Moderator. And I've met so many great people that I'm not going to list them all here, since that will take up my character limit.

I ended up getting hugely into competitive Pokemon, and was part of the movement towards a more competitive focus from the members of the site, organizing our first tournament and later creating a set of tiers (which were just dreadful). And while I'm not the best battler on the site, I'm pretty good and have given my advice to plenty of people who have since become way better than me.

I would also say this site also helped me from falling into a deep depressive state earlier than I did. It gave me a place to hang out with people, and although it wasn't fully able to substitute for a "real" social life, it helped reduce the pain. And that's good, because it was able to get me far enough along that when I did fall into a more dire depressive state, I had the support I needed in order to get out of it.

So while I'm slowing down my activity here, I freaking love this place and can't tear myself away from it.

Speed freak · Answer 3 · 2014-08-02T22:52:59+0000

Wow it has been a while. It is interesting to see all the different stories and memories here.

First Memories

Well let's see I joined about four years ago because I was just getting into Pokemon and I was immediately impressed by how user friendly it was. One of the most notable features was that unlike other Pokemon websites it had a simple, easy to read black on white print and well designed pages for each Pokemon. The Q and A section was very interesting I met many users and quickly learned that I had a LOT to learn. I eventually become one of the top users, and had the most asked questions for a long time. The first Pokemon battle I ever had was against Pokemaster I remember that I won one and he won one, and I asked the first "Rate my Team" immediately after to see if I could get feedback.

Hard Times

It did not take long for the chat room to cause drama, which I often found myself in the middle of due to my big mouth and very opinionated attitude. I made many friends and MANY enemies, eventually to point where I got spam downvoted/flagged a couple times and was told I just wanted points when I brought it up, eventually it was proven that I was being spammed but my attitude did not help my case. I was very pushy with my opinions and I was not very good at debating. I had nearly constant arguments, frequently with DT who was much better at debating than me (though my views remain the same). It was until later during my time at the Database that I finally was able to be out of drama. However playing Pokemon competitively on Showdown eventually annoyed me with the rude users to the point where it contributed to me quitting Pokemon.

The Fun times

Despite the hardships there was plenty of fun. I had lots of fun conversations and "imagination battles" with various users. I remember the big imagination war with Rio XD. And the chat room Dalek who would exterminate bad users. I had lots of battles and trades and learned lots about Pokemon. Even my arguments were fun sometimes as I learned more about the opposing side of the debate.

Now

Now, over a year after I quit Pokemon, looking back there is much I might have done differently, and some not. The arguments made me better at debate, the different views helped me to develop people skills, and the chatting helped me to type faster XD. But in all seriousness I believe that my time hear has helped me to do much of what I have accomplished since leaving. Graduated High School the top student with all the academic awards and a leadership award. I thank all you for helping me. I would mention all my friends here, but I do not want to forget anyone. I know that it has been a long time and I did not say much before I left but it was for a combination of reasons ranging from annoying competitive players to my scholastic endeavours.

EDIT: By the way I am going into Robotic Engineering, I plan on making prosthetics for the disabled.

Blobyolo · Answer 4 · 2013-12-31T12:31:56+0000

Well where do we start?

A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while

But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step

I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died

So bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Now do you believe in rock and roll
Can music save your mortal soul
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

Well, I know that you're in love with him
'Cause I saw you dancin' in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues

I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died

I started singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

Now for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin' stone
But that's not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me

Oh, and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned

And while Lenin read a book on Marx
A quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died

We were singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast

Now the halftime air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance

'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?

We started singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
And singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan's spell

And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died

He was singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
And singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play

And in the streets, the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken

And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died

And they were singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin' "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"

They were singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
And singin' "This'll be the day that I die"

Then I joined the site

I joined the site looking for advise on my team I had built in Pokemon Pearl in late November 2011. At first, like most users I become hooked on the idea of points. I would be refreshing the All Activity button every minuet or so. Points were much harder to get when I joined because there was half the amount of users as there is today. Less users meant less questions to be answered and fewer users willing to give out upvotes.

During early January I decided to venture into chat to where I was greeted by Speed Freak who was almost always on because he was home schooled. About a month later I met Rio who had been at the site much longer than me (but was still a noob hehe). Everyone loves Rio <3 and I guess you could say she was my best friend on the site to whom I would talk to regularly. Months later a user by the name of Abnormal joined (and not for the first time). Not only did he terrorize every user, he has the record for most dupe accounts pumping out hundreds every hour. We even had a meta thread with about 20 listed of accounts waiting to be deleted. He came back and behaved himself however. Me Rio and Abnormal (who is now banned again, lets not talk about that) became a trio of very good friends.

But towards the end of 2012 we all stopped talking, not because we chose not to but because timezones were difficult (that and Abnormal was probably banned at that point O.O). Still good friends with Rio, just never talk :(. So I made very good friends with Jona, JCM and Spoink. All three kind of left quickly. JCM banned and now at Smogon and Spoink (may have been banned, can't remember). Jona didn't like many of the users on the site and the overall negativity surrounding the users on the site so left and occasionally comes back. I still talk to Jona over xbox live when my nat isn't screwing me over.

I'd got Expert after about 11 months. Before getting put up for Editor around July (I think) due to the lack of auth. Editor was nice and all that but I felt pretty lonely on the site. Sure I had good friends such as Ben, Kyron and Mew, however I had no very close friend that was on when I was. Then I started to talk to Hex who is easily the coolest guy on the site. He is incredibly friendly and makes some pretty sick dupstep and remixes. I also became very good friends with MK who is also a pretty epic guy :P. Now you will find me on Showdown chat being a bit of a joker because the Chat room is a scary place filled with people I haven't even heard of or names I can't pronounce. :L

Rio · Answer 5 · 2014-08-03T18:33:33+0000

Hey, it's Rio!
I have been a Pokemon fan, like many others here, since I was a child.
I remember walking into my TCG place the first time, with cards that were no longer "legal" (TCG has legal rotations), and these two kids reaching over the table to look at my cards, telling me that I can't use them.
Those kids would become my best (and only) friends (there), and they were Brother and Sister. I really enjoyed playing with them, whether it was TCG, a card game, or a board game.
I remember that one time, we were at the store's other location in the mall, and they gave us Pokeball beach balls. The brother and his friend were tossing it back and forth, and the Sister would steal it. She took the ball and walked into a nearby store, with the boy and friend (and me) following. The Brother kept asking for it back, and just as she was about halfway towards leaving the store, the old, senile security mall cop showed up, telling her to give him the ball, and that he'd kick us all out if something like this happened again.

Nonetheless, why I'm here. I remember using the actual database part of the DB for a while before actually signing up in 2010. I was in the fifth grade at the time. It wasn't until December 5th, 2010 that I signed up to be apart of the DB Community.
Yes, my userpage, says I signed up on March 21, 2011. Yes, I have another account. I signed up with Pokemisstress, a username my Dad made for me. I also used his email, one that has since gone inactive. I, being a 10 year old noob, had no clue what it meant when I couldn't post because I needed to "confirm my email".

Yeah, I'm smarter now.

These accounts have never interacted in any way and the only reason I made it was because I was a total noob and didn't understand rules and didn't understand that the invalid email wasn't acceptable. Additionally, I don't remember the password

I chose the name "Rio" based on the animated movie that was in theaters at the time, btw.

This is during the time where I was ultra-secret about my identity, and didn't associate with an actual name, or a gender. I remember these two guys on chat who were talking, and how I mentioned I'm a bit of a tomboy, and that they responded by asking me if I liked girls, because I was a tom boy . This bothered me, and I left for a while.

When I came back, I started making friends. I still had no points at the time, not that it mattered too much. This was about the time that Shadow came back, swearing he'd be good, and begging for forgiveness. I saw him in chat, and told him "Even though I don't know what you did, and it doesn’t affect me, I forgive you, and want to be your friend."
Ab and I became friends. We earned points together, racing each other to the front page. Back then, the lowest amount of points a user on the front page had was 800 something.
It was during this time I made friends. I would love talking to everyone about everything (as long as it wasn't competitive battling stats, as pointed out by Ben one evening). Ah, those days in Chat.

It was one morning, before school. I would get on early and talk to Dr.Flame before he left for school. Ab and one of our friends had been talking weirdly recently, and I confronted the friend and found out some information about Ab, which explained their behavior. Additionally, I found out Ab's name, and state (two vague pieces of information, but he was very private about it, as was I, at the time). He confronted me the next morning, and he yelled at me. He yelled because I knew his vague information, because I was showing Ninja "my true colors" (I still don’t know exactly what he means by that), yelled because I meddled where I didn't belong, etc. After this, he started getting sketchy. Our year-long friendship ended that morning. He changed his name (something I choose for him, and asked he didn't change), and started getting more and more aggressive, until he started being the Troll he originally was, and left the following November. The fight was in June, I believe. However, that was also the day I met JCM. Probably not the best first impression, but we became good friends regardless.

After that fight with Ab, I started contemplating life, going for walks more often, and started becoming more self-aware. At first, I felt angry, than guilty, about the fight. Then I say that I forgave him for the fight. Now, it's obvious the fight was something inevitable. If I, one sole person, was the only person he was sticking around for, it was obvious he'd leave at some point. Evidence by his prior history, he'd go out with a bang. It was only a matter of time.

I still never told anyone, Ab.

I pride myself on not having been banned, not being kicked, having lots of friends, and being a generally all-around good user.

Now, I'm no longer an active member in this Community. I left mainly because the newer users bothered me in Chat (due to lack of understandable spelling, role play, uninteresting conversation, etc). I leave as a legacy to this site.

Some people that’ve helped change my life:
> , Poke'slash, Mew, DarkTyphlosion, Trachy, Speed freak, Mike, Ben, Ninja, Starpower, Blobyolo, Dr.Flame, Hex, Sciz, JCM, Ayan, Abnormal/Shadow, Jona, Kyron, AlphaDraconis and a couple other's I have favorited. I hope I didn’t forget anybody.

(Due to character limit, I had to cut out the messages)

My life has been shaped and has become what it has thanks to Pokemon, and this site specifically. It gave me my best friend, lots of amazing people, and experiences I'll cherish forever. Thank you, Pokemaster, (for stealing the username I wanted) and for making this amazing site that I have been able to flourish on for so many years. Thanks to all my friends, and thank you for reading this entire post. Because it's obnoxiously long.

I love you all. <3
enter image description here
~Rio

unownddhow · Answer 6 · 2021-02-11T16:07:33+0000

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Poke'slash · Answer 7 · 2013-12-31T00:24:08+0000

Hey guys. I'm Poke'slash. I've been a member on the site for a little more than a year.

My first Pokemon game ever was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team. I was about 8 when my grandfather bought it for me. I read the ENTIRE manual before playing, even the Health and Safety warnings, and fell in love with the game as soon as I started playing. The Personality Test really described me.
When Platinum version came out, I heard about it and went on Pokemon.com to find out more. The idea of capturing Pokemon and battling with them instead of being one was an entirely new concept for me, and I waited eagerly for my game and Walkthrough Guide to be delivered from Amazon. When it finally did, I read the entire guide. Every bit, even the Move Index in the back. I loved it so much I reread it for about 3 days before I finally played the game. My decision was set, and I chose Piplup. I don't regret it. I talked about my game for weeks. I was a little disappointed, because I thought the Kanto starters would be available to me(I hadn't quite grasped the concept of the different regions yet). But I enjoyed it, nonetheless. I was so happy when I finally beat the league, after so much struggling and marking down strategies on my Walkthrough Guide. I was the Champion, and nothing stopped my happiness.
Since then, Sinnoh has held a special place in my heart. I still have my Platinum and Red Rescue Team games, with the same game files, and Platinum is now where I store most of my Pokemon.

I got Explorers of Darkness and became a member on a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon forum. I loved it, even though there were lots of trolls and people asking repeat questions. But whenever I needed help on the games, I would always return to the same site. The Pokemon Database.
About a year or two later, I finally discovered that the site had a forum, and asked my mom to let me be a member. I showed her all the rules of the website(which I faithfully read, although I forgot some of them, as those who had to hide my questions and answers will probably remember). She deemed it a safe website, and I made my account. For my username, I took my username from that forum I mentioned before(which I no longer used), and played around with it slightly. I got Poke'slash, and it felt right. I changed my name once for only one day, and changed back. Poke'slash is too comfortable for me to change for longer than that.

When I first entered the chat room, it was only a little while after Shadow had been banned for the 3rd time or so(he was banned again a few months later). I typed a tentative "Um, hi?", a little overwhelmed by all the people talking about competitive play.
The first person to address me was Stealth Scyther, who posted a very friendly hello, and I immediately felt more comfortable.
About 2 seconds later, Giga(then known as Gigaslash), posted in ALL CAPS, "POKE'SLASH?! I'M THE ONLY SLASH HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". He was joking, of course, but I felt a little startled, having payed close attention to the rules and knowing that ALL CAPS wasn't allowed. He got a quick warning from someone, and assured us he was joking. It's since become very memorable for me, so I felt obligated to tease him when he changed his name to just "Giga". Haha, now I'M the only Slash here!
Then people started joking that I was a Shadow dupe, which only confused me more. But I liked chat. I did my best to make friends and made a large friend list, which has only expanded.
I was also captivated by Swaggron's Pokemon fanfiction on his profile(incidentally, the first fanfiction I'd ever read and partial inspiration for my own fanfictions) and showed it to my friend, who also liked it. Ben, if you're reading this.. Seriously, get back into writing. It was amazing.

The next day, I was caught in my first online fight, which introduced me to the sad fact that regular users cannot kick people from chat.

I was very excited when I answered a question on this site for the first time. Ironically, the question was against the rules("What is a good nickname for my Shiny Charizard?"), but I didn't know, and a bunch of other people answered, too, most of them before me. I got my first BA that day, before the question was hidden, and got the ability to flag.

For weeks, my parents(mainly my mother) didn't get to have a conversation with me without me mentioning something from the Pokemon DB, some funny clip from chat, or a question I had answered or asked. I still occasionally tell some of the more memorable moments to them when something awesome or funny happens here(which is often).

Note for Speed Freak: Sorry that I raged so hard when you hid my first RMT. To me, it was a competitive team and didn't break the rules(although I now know that to other people, it looked like an ingame team). But I was way more upset than I should have been.
When I started competitively battling, my first tier was Ubers, because it allowed me to use Giratina. I basically copied some of my Sinnoh ingame team into teambuilder, although I liked how I could use ANY Pokemon on the Pokemon Showdown! simulator, and tried that a little bit, too. I remember attempting to battle people with Chatot, Empoleon, and a bunch of other UU Pokemon in Ubers. Eventually, thanks to the help of the other DB users and a few of the Showdown! users, I got a slightly better grasp of competitive and starting working on that. I really would have appreciated it, though, if my RMT didn't get 2 downvotes. I was new, and in these days, the worst someone gets is a flag. But oh, well. That's all past.
I thought that I was being original by using damaging weather AND entry hazards in one team. I thought I had discovered a new way to inflict a ton of damage on people, and asked a question wondering if the game actually made it impossible to do so, or if it was banned on Showdown.
I was still quite the nub when Leboss agreed to tutor me, despite faithfully looking up Smogon's suggested sets to learn more about using EVs and items properly(I always edited them slightly so I wouldn't break the rules by copying Smogon completely).
I already knew Leboss quite well at that point. I didn't talk to him much, until the day that I started asking people who wanted to be a character in my fanfiction, Legends of the Flight. He asked to be in it as a character who was the partner of the Pokemon Cressilia. I asked him to pick a different Pokemon, preferably a Flying Type, and if he could, a bird, because the characters would be doing lots of flying to make travel more efficient. And I wasn't sure if I should have a character with a Legendary Pokemon in the story. He picked Staraptor.
Upon actually starting the writing of the story, I realized that a character who was the partner of the Legendary Pokemon Cressilia could be just what I needed for the plot, so his character got to have both Pokemon on his side.
Afterwards, we chatted a lot, and a friendship was born. I discovered that we live very close to each other, hence why we were on at the same times.
Note: If any of you recall Legends of the Flight and the Pokemon of Afisia, I am going to rewrite the stories slightly, since I have improved as a writer.

Leboss tutors me excellently, and many people have told me I have improved a lot. I think I have, although it always puzzles me when people on Showdown or the DB tell me I'm an awesome battler. Honestly guys, I'm not THAT good at battling competitively. I still need a lot of improvement.

I would write more about the awesome community, but I broke the character limit, just like I often do on my profile.

I'd like to thank the people who put up with my nubishness and still do, the friends I made(even those who are inactive nowadays), and even the people I didn't really get along with that well, because I forgive you now, even though you didn't really commit any particular crime. :P Let's be friends, please?

Slash, how do you do it? You're an expert AND a nub. - Quote by Prof. X

Stella Midnight · Answer 8 · 2014-01-01T07:50:24+0000

My own bibliography on my experience with Pokemon throughout my childhood and DB time eh? Well let's get started then!

Childhood

I've liked pokemon ever since I was 2. My cousins intoduced me to Pokemon (both sides of the family) and I liked the consept of it (then again I was 2 what would you expect xP). My first pokemon item was the VHS copy of the first pokemon movie and believe it or not I went to the local premier of that. At least that's what I remember watching that day with my family and older brother xD. When ever I went over to my grandmothers house I would want to watch that every time I went to sleep. Because I was so young I would call every pokemon either Pikachu/Pokemon/Togethree reason for this is because I didn't know their names and I would repeat the sound I always heard.
As I got older (4 years of age) I got a Nintendo DS Lite with my own copy of Pokemon Ruby. I eventually got my hands on my younger brothers copy of FireRed. No matter what game I played I sucked when it came to the E4 xD I could never get past the first one (I was under leveled and my movesets weren't great). Younger me got irritated with this so my solution was to restart every time I got near the E4.
My favorite part of my pokemon child hood was 3rd grade (8 years) because everybody and their cousin have played / heard of pokemon. I got better when I played Pokemon Pearl though I still wasn't as good as I am today. I also had been introduced to Trading Cards and because the school prohibits electronic devices we played that. I remember the first time I saw Giratina I thought it was a glitch xD. Pearl was also the first game that I was able to beat the E4 which for me was an accomplishment. I was also into hacking then so I used an AR (particularly the walk through walls cheat) to get pokemon I couldn't normally get such as Darkrai and Shaymin.
When I was 10 I got the Pokemon Ranger and Explorers of Time games I took a real liking to the side games alas though I still had trouble. In EOT I couldn't get very far without failing right away until I found the combo of Piplup and Chimchar. I got real excited because this was the first combo that I not only liked but it was perfect. Especially when the special of Mystery Dungeon came out and the combo was the one I had picked.
When B/W came out I was even more into cheating pokemon into my game. I had found that I can change my DNS to get just about any pokemon I want. This is where I found the DB. I used the PokeDex pages and the Moveset questions to find moves I wanted to use. Yet I had no idea what IVs and EVs were at the time so I ignored it. It was one day when I saw I could sign up that I decided to join the community of the DB.

DB Experience and first few days

I saw that you can ask questions on here and because I was into hacked (but legit) pokemon I wanted to make sure before getting Genesect, Meloetta, and Keldeo. That was the first question I asked though because I sucked at spelling pokemon names at the time I just put "the last three" xD. Three days after I saw there was a chat room I entered and to my surprise I was greeted with the normal "Welcome to the site!" it shocked me a little as I'm pretty shy. The first people I met were WhiteWarrior and Ninja that's about as much as I can recall from my first day xD. I started off as a noob thinking I knew quite a lot about pokemon but that's until I saw a few users talking an unfamiliar convo. I didn't want to say anything so I kept quiet and did research by myself starting with the basic IVs and EVs. Then I started getting into competitive about 1 month. By then I'm 13 years old and getting a hold in the competitive world. I created a stupid sand team then got carried away and built a team for almost every tier. They all sucked but I only won due to luck and hax. Hehe that reminds me of when I battled Sent_By_Ravens to a Übers match and my Darkrai lived his attack he was pretty upset about it and even posted a question onto how it was possible my Darkrai survived the attack. It made me laugh so much I even have that question under favorites. By then I was well on my in points and I had met a good amount of people. My friends know who they are and though I may not make it noticeable all the time I love all my DB friends as if they were family... No the DB is family. Because like my blood family you people taught me new things. The DB in a way helped me mature a little. From the little toddler who saw every Pokemon as Pikachu to the girl who now knows what tiers are and how they help you sharpen your skills as a battler.

As Chuck from the tv show Supernatural said. "Endings are hard. You try to tie up every loose end in a nice little bow but it just seems impossible. The fans are always gonna talk bad about certain parts of the book that made no sense." Well he said something around that can't remember it all. From starpower to (musical note here)$tarPower(musical note here) all the way to Oncoming $torm. I have changed and if you see my change for better or for worse is your view but know that there are something's about someone's personality you can never change.

Victini Victory · Answer 9 · 2014-01-01T18:18:00+0000

Ayan: a Life

Chapter 1: Introduction

It all started in third grade. My mom forced me to try out for the most pristine, prissy and well, best school in the city. Did I want to go? No. I had tons of friends at my old school, but my mom made me. I thought, if I was taking the test, might as well do my best, right? So, naturally, I got in. I tried, I really did, but everyone there were such spoiled brats. The girls were SO prissy. The guys who didn't want to watch the smoking decided to act like bums. They act so rough, always fighting all the time. I wasn't like that. The others were all spoiled brats. It was hard to find someone decent. The girls were always acting really mean. There was a group that insulted me like, EVERY DAY. I found a group of kids and became good friends with them. About five girls and three guys. So I just hung out with them everyday. Then the deadly moment came. I remember when I was younger I used to watch Pokemon!

I watched it everyday on TV until they stopped airing it for some reason and then, my cousin visited from America and showed me his Pokemon Platinum Version, and I asked my parents to get me a DS just for Pokemon games, and got Platinum as my first game. When the school kids found out, I never heard the end of it. When fourth grade rolled around, HeartGold and SoulSilver were being promoted like crazy and everyone wanted it. I was the first one to get it, and everyone thought I was cool. I was the first one to get it, and the first one to finish the Johto story. We had a DS Marathon at the last day of school and my best friends and I crossed Tohjo Falls at the exact same time. It was so sweet. :)
__

Chapter 2: Munchlax Forever

After that, Pokemon became uncool again. Boo hoo. But I still played. Then people still made fun of me. Then in January I stumbled upon this site looking for some evolution sites. In April, I found out we could make an account on the Pokebase. So I did. BACKSTORY TIME.

At this time, I was in sixth grade and pretty much all my friends moved away. I was alone. Oh, I had friends. Many. Just not in school. I was dorky, nerdy and just weird. I couldn't help it. I wasn't funny, either. Then I repeatedly visited this site's chat room. I met some pretty amazing people. Mainly "The Pika" (I don't know his name now) and he was like my role model here, he was really polite, nice and cool. He had tons of points and everyone liked him. He was super epic. JirachiCelebiMew. What? You know him? Not a surprise, pretty much everyone does. He's a troll now, but before he was funny and awesome. Ooh, and Rio! I'd heard so much about her, so when I first met her I was like "OMG You're Rio! I've heard so much about you!" and Dr. Flame was there and Rio was like totally creeped out like "Um yeah..." but, jokes aside, she's quite down-to-earth and amazing.

Chapter 3: Victini Victory & others

Ahh, I remember this. This is when my popularity soared high up. This is my most famous name. If you've heard this name it's me. Then my other names. Any questions? I'll add them.

There were a few times my account was hacked. The first time, someone came and starting saying racial slurs on chat to everyone. This was a very controversial thing that happened to me. The second time, someone deleted all my posts. Like, what? Why? Anyway, now I frequently change my password and that problem is gone. Don't even get me started on my duplicate scandal. The point is, I've caused much controversy here, but my friends have always stuck my by side and supported me, often imploring Pokemaster to unban me. This site has some of the greatest people.

Chapter 3.5: Summer, 2012

This was an incredibly special summer for me. See, I've spent most of my life here in Pakistan. Let's start from the beginning, all the way back to April. Well, I came home from school, school bag clutched tight in my hands. I was daaaang tired. I was acting sluggish, and just flopped down on the couch. The kitchen was right next door to said couch, and my mom asked me if I wanted a sandwich. I told her I wanted a chicken sandwich (my memories are quite sharp). Then, while I was eating, my mother sent me upstairs to go to my dad so he could tell me something and she told me it was a surprise. So, assuming it was the good kind, I ran upstairs and barged into the room. He reminded of my family in America, and my cousins and all of them. Then he told me, for the first time in years, that we're gonna go to America for the summer.

Now, if you've ever lived in a country like Pakistan you know it's not fun. Places like America seem like paradise. So, I packed one month early xD. I was just that excited. On the twentieth day of May, we set off. My parents decided to go to Malaysia and send my brother and I to America (not that I cared). So, we went alone. Then, we reached America and I met my whole family. How does this relate to the PokemonDB? Well, here's how it went down:

Every night, I used to visit this site. Like a fruit, the Chat Room had a time when it was ready to enjoy. A ripe moment, you could say. And this was around midnight. I didn't have a problem staying up, I'm quite the Night Owl. My cousin who's a bit older than me would chat with me or watch me chat. He'd sometimes talk to the others as well. I talked to so many amazing people at this time, but a lot of them went inactive after summer. I tried to go back every summer and look for them, but some of them never seemed to return. This summer was a time of happiness, relaxation and amazement for me. America is beautiful, you guys are lucky to live in places like that. Whenever I think of that, I think about how good those memories were - I felt nostalgic.

Another note, the song "Take a Hint" from that show, Victorious, reminds me of this summer and the DB. I'm pretty much on the verge of nostalgic tears every time I hear that song or think of that summer. I freaking LOVED that house I was in. It was a gorgeous house, but they sold it, and now I'll never get to see it again. It's really unfair, but as life goes on, we must learn to accept this as we learn and grow. A lesson I learned by experience.
_____

Chapter 4: The Present

This site grew my sense of humour and made me somewhat funny. I have tons of friends at school, better grades (All A's!), and overall my whole life is better. Even my grammar is better. I was pretty fat in my younger years, I'm even skinnier now. So this site improved my life hundredfold.

And furthermore, I left the site for six months or even more possibly, because, it's sad how all my friends were leaving. One by one, each of them left. I was soon only one of the few from my large group of friends left. They became inactive, my best friends. Sometimes they got banned. Some became trolls COUGHjcmCOUGH. So, I did what anyone else would do. I focused on real life. Worst decision ever. I really had the best memories of this site (See Chapter 3.5).

Chapter 5: Some Special Mentions

Emma
Emily
Azmain
Ben
$tarpower
Ben (Flare)
Xerilia
Shadow
Absol
Hello
Gligurr
Leboss
Arran

JackZero · Answer 10 · 2014-06-05T16:17:16+0000

Well mine isn't that special but here goes. :D

Exactly one day after my birthday I joined this site, I didn't know about the existence of it or anything about it.
I was really, really bored because it was more or less the start of summer vacation for me and I wasn't sure what to do. I loved Pokemon as a kid and I didn't really have time for it during school so I thought I'd do something Pokemon related. I got out my DS and started playing Platinum.

I didn't really want to know any stats or anything so that is not the reason I came here. I just played a lot of Pokemon a few days before I came here and thought I'd talk about it with other people.
I did try out Showdown before but I didn't know anything about competitive Pokemon so I just popped in and out as I couldn't really fit in, or so I thought.

Anyways, one day after my birthday I decided to finally find someplace to talk about Pokemon on the internet since none of my friends really played it. So I just searched up "Pokemon online chatroom" and found a bunch of links leading to different sites that I didn't really like(because of people, the look of it, etc.)
So I came across this place and I really liked the design(I kind of forgot how it looked like before it got updated, though >_>) and I decided to stay and give it a chance.

I lurked for a few minutes because I'm the kind of person that finds it really hard to start talking to new people(well, I was like that but now the internet has changed me e_E), but it wasn't too long until Jojo aka DB~Valet at the time gave me a long intro to the site and I started talking and meeting new people.

I spent my days on the chatroom and never really payed attention to the Q&Q, Meta and Battle Subway. Eventually a friend invited me to a Showdown server to talk and battle so I went there and I discovered many new servers, eventually became a moderator on that first one and I found it really hard to keep up with servers and the site and I sadly kind of left this place for a while.
One day I remembered all the good times I had on here and decided that I was an idiot for even leaving so I just came back and everyone remembered me. :D
That's when I decided to beat Mew in points on Pokebase(kidding, of course, but it may be a very long term goal) and started gaining points, people usually liked my answers so I liked helping further.

I still want to get to know some people better, and I hope I'll get to do that soon.

Didn't think I would meet so many great people on here, but I did.
Thanks to everyone who helped me get started and to everyone else for taking the time to read this, though many just thought TL; DR.

Doge for life. o3o

melcakes · Answer 11 · 2013-12-30T20:05:44+0000

I had a story here, but it was basically about extended family member doing stuff like joining the army or whatever. Run Rattata Run was thing too. Anyway I met real cool people, but I have to shout out a couple of you :DD Basically, my pal emeritus, CWegz, my pal associate and pro-tem pal, Gligurr, Lescrub, JarJar, SofA, Brotad, and other losers, but I had to list these guys because they either left a dent in my heart when they left and I need to honor them or they're just really gud frens.

My story basically is I joined, trended stuff, and got people to post Katy Perry on my wall.

The only thing you need to know about me really is /secret, nah son, sail, and remain content. :1

[23:10:21] rockeon: well im gonna go get naked

MrKijani · Answer 12 · 2013-12-31T02:32:36+0000

My first ever encounter with pokemon was actually the day my Mom and Dad got married. I had been promised a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards if I was good, however at the end of that day (yes I'd been good) Mom revealed the fact that she had only been able to get one Yu-Gi-Oh pack, but she'd also gotten a pack of pokemon cards. Well my brother was into Yu-Gi-Oh way more than me so I let him have that pack while I accepted my pack of pokemon cards. Well after opening it I couldn't stop staring at them, no I didn't understand them, but they looked really cool!

Well after that moment I started collecting more and more and more pokemon cards. My brother got a gameboy and we got the FireRed game for it which I was allowed to play when he was bored and played a different game.

And then, it stopped.

I gave away all of my cool cards, stopped playing FireRed and teased my brother about it.

I was out of pokemon until all of a sudden I talked to my Bro and he had gotten himself a DS and the Soulsilver game. Well all of a sudden, I was really enjoying myself, just watching him play it was kinda fun. When he got a version of the Platinum game he gave me the Soulsilver game and his old DS. Well I had the time of my life playing that game, to this day it's my favorite one.

And then Gen 5 came out and I got my Bro's Platinum game so I played that one too well my Brother played his new White game. Pretty soon I talked my Bro into buying me the Black version.

Up until about 14 months ago I had used Serebii as my main information resource, but then one time I googled something and the "Pokemon Database" showed up as one of the results. So I opened it, got my information and left.

After that I explored the non Q&A parts of the site and I LOVED the pokemon info pages. Well I occasionally came onto the Q&A to look at stuff, read some answers. I was frustrated because I couldn't upvote anything, so I signed up and I still couldn't upvote. So I went played games, used the pokemon info pages, then one day while I was playing Platinum I grew frustrated because my Budew wasn't evolving. So I asked a question. I asked a few more, got some really friendly answers, and was very happy. Well then there was the day I answered a question for the first time. Less than satisfactory, it opened a whole new world of possibilities.

Well I won't bore you with my learning of EVs and competitive stuff or anything, happened like a lot of other people's learning happens.

I've been a user on the site now for a year, It's given me many wonderful friends and experiences.

I'm incredibly grateful to this site, and it's given me so many things that I've enjoyed immensely for that year I've been a user. I plan on many good things ahead.

Great people, great community, and above all, great friends.

y-chai · Answer 13 · 2020-08-01T06:18:59+0000

wow.

i wrote this answer a long time ago. i have been inactive for a while, and i don’t think i’m planning on coming back. but i just wanted to give everyone an update on my life.

i left db for the most part in nov of 2020. i still had some activity after this, but this was the main turning point.

i don’t regret it.

i felt pressured to be popular here. pressured to maintain my legacy. i was beaten at my own game. it was insufferable. i’m glad it ended.

this seems like the only answer i could write all of this into, since this does relate to db.

contrary to popular belief, i am still very much active on the internet and i continue to write answers to q&a questions. you can find me here (i just started three months ago TT), if you care.

thank you for all of the memories and friends i gained here. i will forever be grateful. now, on with the answer…

I haven’t answered this so.... why not?

The first taste I had of the Pokémon franchise was the trading cards. When I was in 3rd grade, I liked this guy in my class, and he really liked Pokémon cards, so I told him I was going to start collecting Pokémon cards as well, and he gave me 2 cards. One was a Caterpie and the other was an Ampharos. And then my other friend, he gave me a Trapinch. Then I started going broke buying Pokémon cards, and my favorite card was one of those super common Raichu GXs. Anyway, fun fact, the first ever card I pulled from a pack was a Dialga GX. I did this for about 3 months, but I got sort of sick of buying them, so I stopped collecting Pokémon cards.

Then I got into the XY/XYZ anime, and wow, I really, really loved it. The strategies were so cool, and the concept of dodging and countering attacks really appealed to me. I tried watching the Indigo League, but it never really grew on me. The one thing that disappoints me about the video games, since I’m mostly an anime fan, is that a lot of the super cool strategies you see in the anime won’t work in them. Also, Goodra makes Bide look like an amazing move, jeez.

Once I went into 4th grade, I got super into writing. I started writing Pokémon fan fiction, and I really enjoyed it. The problem was that I didn’t know what stats/moves/abilities each Pokémon had. So this is when I first went to db. I loved the simplicity of this website, and I didn’t get Smogon and I was too lazy to read through all of Bulbapedia. Another thing I loved about Pokémon fanfics was that you could make them with anime style battling, so I found it super cool.

I went this whole time without knowing that Pokemon video games existed, and then...

I was super bored one day, so I typed “role playing games” into the google search bar. One of the first options was Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, and, well, I researched these games for so long. I learned about their version exclusives and signature moves and everything. And this was so new to me, since I didn’t know Pokemon expanded past cards and the anime. Also, my 4th grade teacher was amazing enough to let me use his 2ds, and I played my first bit of a Pokémon video game (Pokemon Moon) on it. The problem was that I couldn’t afford the game.

So, I bought a 2ds just last year in September. A month after that, in October, I finally bought my first Pokémon game, Ultra Sun. It was incredible. I feel like Ultra Sun will always be special to me since it was my first game, even though it wasn’t my favorite.

Then my birthday rolled around in November, and my gifts were all Pokemon games. Y, Alpha Sapphire, and Detective Pikachu. Y was definitely my favorite Pokémon game, and that’s sort of obvious by my nickname here, Y.

After that I bought a Switch Lite and Shield, Pokken Tournament, and LGPE (wow, finally). I will say, Pokken Tournament is my second favorite Pokémon game. Even though it’s a spin off, I loved it so much.

Onto the part about db. I always used this place for in game movesets while playing through my games, so I was still using it. One day, April 3rd 2020, I really wanted to upvote an answer, I think it was on a Gardevoir moveset. So I signed up here. Then I realized you needed points to upvote, so I started doing moveset answers, which I really sucked at. Why? Because I didn’t know competitive Pokémon existed, which I probably should’ve learned about before posting a competitive moveset for some Pokémon.

So I signed up for Showdown!, and I absolutely sucked. Then I dug through a bunch of movesets from the site, and I started actually getting OK, but I still mostly only play random battles, gen 5 to be exact.

I never ever planned to go into the Chat Room, but I did. That’s where I met my best friend, and she introduced me to some incredible people.

Really, why I’m here answering questions is because I want to help the community that helped me so much. This place is so incredible, and I love it here. I went from being a complete Pokémon noob to being fairly knowledgeable in the subject.

So, that’s my story :)

Senjumommy Senpai · Answer 14 · 2020-08-10T18:27:41+0000

For me, the main thing that pokemon db has helped me with was expanding the pool of pokemon I use. Before, every single one of my team would always have Garchomp or Milotic and that was because I was once obsessed with defeating the battle frontier in gen four at one point

But my real poke journey began in april 2014. My cousin gave me the emulator for a gba along with emerald. I really couldn't play it much because in one week, I was gonna leave my province and I can't bring my grandma's tablet with me. Luckily for me, there was a level seventy Rayquaza that I can catch before the eighth gym. With Rayquaza's help, I was able to defeat the elite four with nothing but a level fifty seven Sceptile to help it. It did take me a couple tries because of freaking Milotic. That thing wouldn't go down to a single outrage until I gathered a bunch of levels that finally allowed Rayquaza to power right through it. It was perfect timing as the next day, I was already leaving the province

It took me a couple weeks to find an emulator for the ds and when I did, I started playing diamond. Halfway through the game however, I realized that diamond was only gonna be a half game so I downloaded platinum. I decided to just repeat my strategy in emerald with just an overleveled starter and the boxart legendary, which was Giratina. This worked, until I ran into Cynthia. That Garchomp ripped apart my entire team and I was trying my hardest not to smash my phone into the wall. Like, how in the world could a dragonshark stand up to a deity? What's the logic in that? I didn't even realized that said deity was taking orders from a being not even half its age. After a few tries, I managed to get lucky and defeat the Garchomp thanks to a dragon rush miss but then Cynthia had Milotic and that serpent sent me crying back to my mom. So I took a break and had to actually analyze the game. Brute force was not gonna work against Cynthia although at that point, Garchomp and Milotic finally caught my interest. Eventually, I decided to just grind the levels of my other pokemon in my party and finally beat Cynthia, the one npc that made me rage that hard

After defeating Cynthia, I moved on and downloaded the gen five games. I couldn't even begin playing the gen five games. The battle animations for the pokemon moves just made me wanna puke. It was so messy when compared to gen four's battle animations. It was also at this point that I found that the emulator had a cheat database so I just activated the 'catch trainer pokemon' cheat and it was hilarious. The battles ended really quickly but that was what I wanted since honestly, I didn't want to see those horrible move animations unless I had to. It was literally the only thing that stopped me from enjoying the game's story but at least the story wasn't half bad. Gen five did teach me one very important thing though. If anything can be known, it is known by google. There is a god and its name is google. I learned this because I was too lazy to figure out the password on team plasma's boat

I then decided to revisit my platinum and found the battle frontier but I couldn't even defeat seven opponents. I had no idea what the moves were about and I couldn't even use Giratina in it so I went, meh. I quit pokemon for a few years after this since there wasn't an emulator for the 3ds and the fact that there was a type that was immune to dragon really grinded my gears. Plus, I'm mainly a pc gamer anyway so I really wasn't used to playing on a handheld device

In mid 2019, I got back to pokemon and this time, it was competitive pokemon and not in game. This was because youtube suddenly suggested me False Swipe Gaming's 'How good was Garchomp actually' video. When I watched it, I realized that Garchomp destroying my Giratina was no coincidence. It was literally one of the greatest pokemon ever released. Since that video also mentioned something about a Tyraniboah, whatever that is, I decided to learn more about the game. That was also the moment I realized why I sucked at the battle frontier. I gave dragon pulse to my Garchomp instead of dragon claw or outrage and I finally understood that stats actually matter. So I decided to experiment starting with the two pokemon that really pissed me off, Garchomp and Milotic. It turns out, both were basically the gods of the battle frontier, especially Milotic. i will admit, I did cheat them into the game with proper natures with perfect iv and infinite vitamins so I don't have to ev train because honestly, there was no way I would spend one whole day looking at my phone breeding these pokemon. That's not even counting how annoying it is to get Milotic. Even though I did cheat, I still used legal movesets for the pokemon

It was at this point that I found out about the db. When searching for a good moveset, the db was always the first result. At first, I was confused by how the moveset threads worked but eventually, I realized that there was no highlighted answer because the one looking at the thread had to choose among the movesets suggested by the members. With the help from the moveset threads, I was able to fight my way through the battle frontier. Most of it was thanks to Milotic. It almost single handedly defeat the entire battle tower all on its own with just the simple toxic stalling or just hydro pumping the ai's pokemon to death. This was basically as close as I could get to competitive battling and I didn't want to go online with a pirated version of the game as that might get my ip address banned

By early 2020, I finally managed to get myself a 3ds. Part of it was because of my cousin yapping to me about the gen seven games. Omega Ruby was my first game and it was pretty meh when compared to how much I raged at platinum but at least there wasn't a level seventy Rayquaza to destroy the eighth gym. I didn't really play the game too much since nobody in the pss ever accepts batles. By february, I finally got my claws on ultra moon and after a few days of raging, I finally beat it. My first course of action was to breed a Garchomp and Milotic, the two pokemon that defined my main battle style, which was balance teams. After that, I also decided to add in some pokemon that were cool looking or had half decent designs. My first time was composed of Garchomp, Greninja, Blaziken, Milotic, Ferrothorn and Metagross. I decided to pawn the guys who spam six shiny legendaries and unless I ran into the primals, it was hilarious. Milotic just stalls the crap out of every legendary I encounter and not even extreme killer Arceus could take it down without a crit. Eventually, I got tired of this team so I just decided to use Mega Garchomp with sticky web support and swords dance to one shot everything in its path. After a few weeks of owning the legendary spamming trainers, I felt bad because most of the ones I battled lately were not using legendaries so I decided to do some team building

As usual, like ninety percent of the time, my team would have Milotic and Garchomp since they were both my favorites and the ones that got me into pokemon. Garchomp being that one that got me hooked after it destroyed me in platinum and Milotic after it was such a big help in the battle frontier. At this point, I found a group that did some battles with custom rules, no legendary pokemon. It was for the most part, boring as I quickly made it known that I spam these two a lot and they would bring the likes of Golurk or Shuckle against me. Around april 2020, one guy figured out that these two were the cores of my main balance teams and destroyed them with Kartana. This was when the db really became a big help to me as they gave me suggestions on how to kill that annoying piece of paper. I was already aware of the rmt so I decided to ask some advice for some of the dumbest teams I've ever made and they were really helpful. It gave me the chance to expand the pool of pokemon I was using. Before, it usually just consisted with either of my two favorites at the center, then some random pokemon that synergize well. However, after asking how Tangrowth worked, I decided to use it a lot and it became the perfect partner for Milotic. I'm really grateful to the db as I finally realized that relying on one pokemon was a really bad idea

With that advice, and me discovering that there is a giveaway on the gts, I basically reigned undefeated in that group until recently. The guys in that group would actually allow me to set up three hone claws and a substitute on Mega Garchomp and it wasn't until recently that they improved to the point where I had to pay attention to the battle. I might be bragging a little, but that was how my battles went

To the present day, I decided to expand my battling style. Battling in those no legendary rules was getting me nowhere. The guys were just so predictable so I decided to find some gen seven discord channels and it was a good thing. Since they play it in smogon ou rules, I finally got the chance to battle on how most competitive players do and I sucked. I was defeated about six times in a row before I won my first match and that match was only a couple weeks ago. It was then that I realized that I didn't suck that bad at the game and the only reason I lose so much is that when I play pokemon, I quickly engage auto pilot mode. My first ou win was the first game that I actually took the time to analyze the situation and my opponent's battle style. Basically the first time I didn't engage auto pilot

To sum it up, the main thing the db has helped me with has always been my choice of pokemon. If I never asked here, I would never even consider using something like Tangrowth, Toxapex or the ultra beasts. I'm usually active on the db and I would answer some questions if I know I could help. The second thing the db really helps me out is the rmt. I could come up with decent teams on my own but having an outside opinion really helps and my team building really has improved tenfold after the db helped me expand the pokemon I use

Amethyst · Answer 15 · 2020-08-12T23:00:21+0000

I started playing Pokémon when I was around seven. My father gave me a copy of Black 2 one day, and I didn't think much of it, as I was more interested in other video games at the time. Then one day, I was bored, and decided to play it.

It was amazing.

Once I started playing, I simply couldn't put the game down, and my parents had to pry the DS away from me at times. However, I was a complete noob, as I forgot to save on numerous occasions, and all my Pokémons' moves were garbage. (Seriously, why did I put four Water moves on my Samurott?)

Many months later, I finally beat Black 2 for the first time, and I was quite proud of myself. I bought Pokémon X, and enjoyed that just as much as Black 2.

Then I discovered the DB. It was simple, easy to read, and amazing for the information I needed. I signed up in late 2016, but never really did a whole lot. I got a couple hundred points, then essentially left the forum until 2019.

In late 2019, I started getting more active. I asked and answered more questions, and went to the chat room a bit. I began to get more points quickly, and earned (I hope) a decent rep on this site. I made friends, and I met some amazing people on chat.

This site has been a wonderful resource, and a great place to spend my time. Thanks, DB!

MeepTheMareep02 · Answer 16 · 2013-12-30T10:03:52+0000

Hi, you might know me as GlidingEmpoleon02 before the name change, and here's my story...

Longwinded story below..

I started with Diamond when I was 6(which I used an Action Replay on) and chose Piplup. I didn't know why, but I realized Empoleon was AWESOME (yeah, yeah, my opinion) Furthermore, Empoleon had a unique typing. Water and Steel! (Come on...who doesn't like a steel plated emperor penguin with 3 huge horns?) About my old username, I wished Empoleon could fly (glide, whatever),due to that pesky Ground immunity, and so, GlidingEmpoleon02 came up. (BTW, I ♥ Steel types) I finished the game eventually (Unlimited Rare Candies, PP Maxes, EVERYTHING!!!)

I then moved on to HeartGold, Black, White 2, which I never finished. (Curse Action Replay...)

Due to having a mother who hated Pokémon, I was stuck to having my dad to sneak it out on weekends and public holidays when we went out to have breakfast (That's partly why I take forever to finish a game)

In school, Pokémon was never big talk. The Pokémon craze ended about 1-2 years ago
In my new class, I found a 'Pokémon Club' I was rather good in it and the only girl in it. Mainly,I ended up holding the club together. Then the teacher found out. The club owner, who I think is on the DB, but I don't know if he ever uses it, claimed the club was still on, lost interest in Pokémon. This year, the club was revived again. We had Pokémon battles on paper. (don't ask me how we do it). Then it died down.

Despite this, my love for Pokémon remained. I collected the figures, willing to pay about six dollars for one. I now have about 50+ of them. And a deck of cards.Anything Pokémon that appeared in my school bookshop, I bought. Stickers, mostly. But I lost so many of them which I tried to keep in a safe place....(and forget where that safe place is.) In Singapore, Pokémon figures (and stuff) are getting increasingly hard to find. One thin file could cost about six dollars! (Price of one figure)
Now, on to how I knew this site..

I knew this site from since Pokémon Black, loved it, but never got the courage to sign up due to my age...

This year, I finally signed up, in June. I took a look at the Chat Room, saw some people roleplaying and sighed. I wanted to roleplay, but being new here, no one said even a 'Hi' to me. 2 hours later, I returned. More roleplaying. It wasn't until I came at 11pm last night where I actually found someone to chat with. Since it was the holidays, I could stay up VERY late. I even stayed up until 3am once! (I started chatting at 11pm!)

About competitive battling, I didn't know much until about this year. Still though, I preferred all out sweepers (Maybe 1 or 2 healing moves, 1 or 2 entry hazards the occasional Toxic and the very rare Nasty Plot or Swords Dance). If you saw the movesets on my wall, you would know what I meant. I could very barely build a team, which was why I preferred Random Battles.

2014 (this year) is a GREAT year, . This year is also the year I finally finished a game, Pokémon Y. I STILL love Pokemon, especially the spinoffs...

I loved Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, starting with Blue. I finished it halfway but as a Bulbasaur, Moltres was INSANELY tough. I gave up, working on my Diamond.

One day, I decided to play it again, lost to Moltres again (Partner was a Fire-type, can't remember) and finally decided to restart. This time, I got Cubone. My partner, I decided, would be Squirtle. I finished the game, with much effort. Soon I moved on to Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time (Which I kept losing to the first Pokémon at Waterfall Cave) I was a Charmander.

Soon, my way-too-early-birthday-present arrived, a 3DS. (Birthday: 19 November. 3DS day: Mid March -_-") I had only Dream Radar, Pokédex 3D Pro and Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity at that time. I decided to start as a Pikachu and my partner, Axew. Soon, I found back my White 2 and started transferring Pokémon (and items) from Dream Radar to it. (Tonnes of Riolu and Swablu, a Tornadus, a Drifloon,a Munna and a few more, most which I transferred to my Pokémon Y then Wonder traded away.)

1-2 weeks after X&Y came, my father downloaded Y from the E-shop. It soon became my favourite game due to the graphics and new Pokémon. I've finished the game with a Lv 74 Hawlucha, a Lv 73 Delphox, a Lv 69 Doublade, a Lv 67 Tyrantrum, a Lv 70 Lapras and a Lv 70 Gogoat.

Nowadays, you probably won't find me anywhere. I have a really important exam soon. (And I am too lazy/busy to change my profile. So don't expect any updates soon)

EDIT: Remember the guy who started the Pokémon Club? We are nowadays battling on paper with another classmate and we still can't decide on the damage a Trevenant's Shadow Claw can do on a Darkrai..... (He said that his DB account is Starfire Rayquazza... He said it was Bloodthirst like 5 months ago! Oh my god, have I been posting on a random guys wall???)

I''ll just keep editing stuff on until I get bored...

~-~WILL~-~ · Answer 17 · 2013-12-30T13:34:13+0000

Hi, my name's Will, and I am a Pokémon addict.

"Hi Will!"

WARNING: This is really freaking long! My bad.

I started playing Pokémon at four years old. The first game I played was Yellow, although it was a cousin's copy of the game and not my own. I'd play it when I went to visit, and one time he even let me borrow it, once I had my own Gameboy Colour. I absolutely loved collecting monsters and battling with them!

But it was my devoutness to the game that convinced my parents to get me a copy of Pokémon Blue for my fifth birthday. I remember them wrapping it in a big box, but continued to wrap smaller and smaller boxes within each until it was just a ring case with the game inside. I was so psyched!

So despite the art featured on the cartridge, I didn't really want Blastoise - funnily enough, I wanted Pikachu like on Yellow version! Nonetheless, I took Charmander because he was my favourite in the show. I captured a Weedle and evolved it into Beedrill, making it my first actual catch! Kanto was a big deal for me - it all started here, and I loved pacing my playthroughs of the game to match the progress of the show as it aired. It was a magical, childlike time.

For my seventh birthday, I got a copy of Pokémon Gold, which I was also excited to play: Pokémon in full colour?! I must be dreaming! Then I got my first fully-boxed Pokémon game on my eighth Christmas: Pokémon Ruby. It still remains as one of my favourite games ever, and as such, I hold the memories of that first day with the game very close to me. This was also the generation I started looking into the competitive scene of Pokémon: I started learning the basics of EV training, the deeper mechanics of some moves, memorizing abilities, etc. Every Christmas, my cousins and I would host big tournaments up on the top floor of my grandparents' house. Many intense battles were had via link cables.

Then in the spring of 2007, I picked up Pokémon Diamond on launch day! I was absolutely floored by how much they packed into one little DS card. Although it's not my favourite in the series, I still hold a lot of good memories with the game; the age I was at (11-12) was also the perfect time to have a DS, as all the other kid had one too. And what did all the kids also have? Pokémon. It made for some awesome bus rides home!

Several years had gone by - I was still madly in love with the series, but in 8th and 9th grade, I took up a bit of Sonic fever, so I skipped out on all the hype around Platinum and the new Giratina. In the summer going into 10th grade though, I was looking up stuff online regarding how the Pokéwalker worked in-depth with the recent release of a pair of remakes. As I was searching for some information, I found a link depicting an internet thread: someone was asking the same questions I was.

I have no idea what became of it now, but that was the link that directed me to this website!

I started lurking on June 18th, and by June 20th, I had registered an account to answer a question regarding an Empoleon moveset. I answered a few more questions, and read up on some other cool pieces of info I never would've known if I had skipped that link! I continued to answer moveset questions for this user named Trachy. I could tell by the answers I was giving that people were warming up more and more to my answers on these moveset questions.

So on top of teaching Trachy everything I knew about movesets for the competitive scene, we completely built the skeleton of the moveset questions together as the generation transitioned into the Unova games! It was especially fun to read other people's answers on those questions too - especially for some of the Pokémon that I literally never used or knew anything about. :P

So to complement my love for Pokémon analysis, I started a website focusing on it which lasted for almost three consecutive years, after which I abandoned my own website and the DB because of how busy my life was becoming, with the prevalence of Senior year in high school and prep for college.

That was a year and a half ago, and here I am, once again on the DB and reviving Poké Profiles! Looks like I've come full-circle, really. I wouldn't have it any other way, either - I've poured way too much of myself into the franchise and this website to just disappear out of lack of interest. This is my Internet home.

Flafpert · Answer 18 · 2013-12-30T14:49:56+0000

(Before reading, excuse the length and cheesiness)

So my first Pokemon game was Blue, way back in the days. I had no idea what I were doing and couldn't even read properly at the time. But with the help of some friends I got into it and started annoying myself.

However, in third grade the Poke-Mania started dying of on my school, and people moved on to the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon, but I kept on playing Pokemon. As I went to secondary school I became increasingly lonely (I were a weird little asocial kid), but my Pokemon stayed with me. In high school I finally became more social, and I made some really good friends, but none shared the same passion for Pokemon.

During this time I started using the Database for my ingame movesets and learning how the crap EVs worked. As I were entering my first (and so far only) official tournament, I wanted a second opinion on my team and remembered the RMT section. I created a account, posted the team and got excellent feedback, and that was it, or so I thought.

About a week later, I saw the chat button, and entered a whole new world. This was my first real contact with the Internet, and I were pleasantly surprised. Apart from a few idiots, people were fantastic. I kept coming back, started answering questions and started battling seriously as well, and had the time of my life.

But it wasn't just the Pokemon that lured me in, it was the fact I finally had other people that were like me. I had friends, and I've had so many good times with so many people. I've ranted about koalas, gotten smacked by Cresselias, eaten Korv Stroganoff, talked about Tolkien and had so much fun, it would take a essay to even start describing it all. I've bee able to help people, and people have helped me through a tough year.

So as the DB's latest Expert, thank you everyone, who makes this place so good. Thank you DB, for the fun I had and for the friends you brought together. Thank you.

Pokemon Database Stories: What's yours?

That's my story. What's yours?

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64 Answers

The Ugly Barnacle

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First Memories

Hard Times

The Fun times

Now

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Then I joined the site

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Childhood

DB Experience and first few days

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Ayan: a Life

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Munchlax Forever

Chapter 3: Victini Victory & others

Chapter 3.5: Summer, 2012

Chapter 4: The Present

Chapter 5: Some Special Mentions

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Well mine isn't that special but here goes. :D

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