Pat Ball's Internet Island of Naive and Happy Blog Posts

Fair Warning: This post is about to get really geeky... and I don't care! The Art and Culture of Pokemon Plushies I remember my first big tournament in Nationals 2013. If memory serves me right, the winner that year, Gavin Michaels, had a horde of plushies with him. When I asked various people what they were for, it was apparently "an intimidation factor." I saw a number of the veteran players do this and like the young sheeperson I was at the time, I was all too willing to embrace the growing trend. This trend is basically a VGC tradition for me now. This post, I'm going to geek out  talk about my weird obsession fun hobby (a metahobby, if you will?) that I do while I play at live tournaments. The Main Squad I tend to use these four when I go to tournaments, only changing it up as my mood allows. Lapras For anyone who knows me in this community very long or seen my other team report, I am pretty much obsessed with the Plesiosaur now...

Taking Down the Fort and Port with Hornets - Part Two Philadelphia  Regionals With my car in unsure shape after a car accident in Columbus, I decided to take a bus to save my car the trouble of driving all the way there. I brought my wallet with me for the trip, but decided not to take my license, and having no picture ID on-hand ended up making the security of the Ryan Gadea's dorm panic and issue me a temporary ID (yay city-schools lol). It was on the Megabus that I made some of the final decisions for my team and what to run exactly (and almost  re-eving  my Aegislash to something halfway-acceptable). Actually getting to Ryan's dorm--AKA riding in Philly on a Saturday night in the city in a taxi--was a huge cultural experience for a non-taxi'd West Virginian boy like myself.   That morning we got there bright and early, and since coming to Philly was a largely last-minute decision for me, I didn’t pre-register. I also wanted to finish...