Feel The Ground Shake (Pokemon - Ground-type specialist)

[Artful Lounger]

You mean the same loophole that Brad exploited? Even if you ignore his years as a gym trainer, he still had his foreign travels before he started the gym circuit.

Besides, claiming that it's some major loophole exploit feels somewhat disingenuous when, ultimately, this isn't a high stakes tournament. It has alright prizes, but nothing spectacular. Really, the idea of planning so much around getting an advantage on such a small pool feels pretty weird to me.

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There's similarities, but its also pretty different. For starters, he's had most of his pokemon for less than a year and has been actually gathering badges. He didn't enter the tournament intending to smurf the hell out of it, as seen with how he actually had a hard time in certain matches, especially against Alton in the semi-finals. Its not like he sent out Grundy against the likes of Sally or that fire trainer in round one.

As for loophole exploit, a person started the league year with a team that wouldn't be out of place in the top eight of the Silver Conference. She started with six badges. Six months later, she still has six badges and is attending events like this one. And managed to get sponsors somehow in the interim. It doesn't take six months to get two badges when you have a team like that. Especially if she has people with money backing her. She could have gotten to the two she was missing inside the first month easy. But she didn't. Everything we've seen thus far spells out a Smurf.

Maybe the prizes are nothing too special. Did she know that before the finals started? The prizes were kept secret until the final day. Not to mention other little events here and there. All I know is that this person has no business being in this event, and the other circumstances point to the conclusion that there's no way this sort of thing happens without being deliberate.

 

[Hans Bloodsmith]

Huh, Grundy doesn't have any multi hits move to deal with Sub? Something like Double Kick or Fury Attack pershap?

 

[LordVishnu]

There's similarities, but its also pretty different. For starters, he's had most of his pokemon for less than a year and has been actually gathering badges. He didn't enter the tournament intending to smurf the hell out of it, as seen with how he actually had a hard time in certain matches, especially against Alton in the semi-finals. Its not like he sent out Grundy against the likes of Sally or that fire trainer in round one.

As for loophole exploit, a person started the league year with a team that wouldn't be out of place in the top eight of the Silver Conference. She started with six badges. Six months later, she still has six badges and is attending events like this one. And managed to get sponsors somehow in the interim. It doesn't take six months to get two badges when you have a team like that. Especially if she has people with money backing her. She could have gotten to the two she was missing inside the first month easy. But she didn't. Everything we've seen thus far spells out a Smurf.

Maybe the prizes are nothing too special. Did she know that before the finals started? The prizes were kept secret until the final day. Not to mention other little events here and there. All I know is that this person has no business being in this event, and the other circumstances point to the conclusion that there's no way this sort of thing happens without being deliberate.

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I wasn't trying to build her as such a malicious character. Yes, she has an unfair advantage, her participation is against the 'spirit' of the tournament, but that's how life be sometimes. Her hiatus was to do legitimately good work.

Besides, it's not like she was bullying a bunch of 10 year olds. Very few people in the tournament are Sally's age. Bradley's in his mid-20's. As were Clarissa and Ronald. The Hiker from the Quarter-finals is even a few years older.

In this story you can do the Gym Circuit at any age. And it's not like Badges reset every year. Once you have 'em, you got 'em.

 

[LordVishnu]

Huh, Grundy doesn't have any multi hits move to deal with Sub? Something like Double Kick or Fury Attack pershap?

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Since I went in the direction that Substitute allowed a 'blink' effect, multi-hit moves still being able to connect didn't make much sense to me conceptually so I didn't go that way.

 

[Artful Lounger]

I wasn't trying to build her as such a malicious character. Yes, she has an unfair advantage, her participation is against the 'spirit' of the tournament, but that's how life be sometimes. Her hiatus was to do legitimately good work.

Besides, it's not like she was bullying a bunch of 10 year olds. Very few people in the tournament are Sally's age. Bradley's in his mid-20's. As were Clarissa and Ronald. The Hiker from the Quarter-finals is even a few years older.

In this story you can do the Gym Circuit at any age. And it's not like Badges reset every year. Once you have 'em, you got 'em.

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May not have been the intent but that's definitely how it came across. Joining up in the gym circuit after five years? Sure, no problem with that. Showboating with sponsors and, six months into the season, still not getting those last two badges?

For sponsors to get their money's worth, she's gotta be showing off. That's how sponsors work. But she doesn't have the last two badges six months in? That means she's dodging the gyms. So how is she making use of the sponsorships? It can only be in tournaments like this, where she goes in and wins like its nothing. So she's deliberately not advancing so she can get into easier events like this one, that's about the only explanation that makes sense.

The five year ranger stint may have been good work, but that doesn't make her actions any more palatable. If anything she's making the rangers look bad by pulling this stunt.

 

[Goldenrah]

Grundy sounds like a nightmare to use in battles, hopefully he'll figure out some way to mellow his attitude out.

 

[Retexks]

Did we get the full Grundy Poem yet?

 

[Greatazuredragon]

If this was the games he would need more badges fir Grundy to listen to him. XD

 

[Hickity]

Almost done with the Quagsire backstory, really looking forward to the ending since you've said no one figured it out yet.

It was great seeing Grundy fight but the way he lost felt a bit forced. The Ranger just so happening to have such a cheesy pokemon is odd. Hopefully we learn why she made such a choice, otherwise it just kinda feels like fate or something.

 

[Greer]

The loss left a bit of a bitter taste. Not really cause of the loss itself but how it happened. Bradley did not use nidoking properly out of consideration for the opponent's pokemon and that cost him the match (though an argument can be made that it is on him for being unable to fully control his pokemon). Also the fact that his opponent was essentially using a loophole to punch below her weight class (the tournament may be small potatoes in the grand scheme of things but still it is a bit too much).

All I know is that this person has no business being in this event, and the other circumstances point to the conclusion that there's no way this sort of thing happens without being deliberate.

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Yeap, take the breeder guy a couple of chapters back. When he realized how above he was from most contestants he bowed out, no sport in dominating people below your level.

 

[ThunderBasilisk]

Yeah ill be honest as much as I love that we got to see a miniature Kaiju fight its the way he lost that irritates me. It may not have been intentional but the way this ladies done things just screams hitting way below her weight class. Especially with her just coincidentally having such a niche mon that can oneshot Grundy.

 

[Zeroguard]

I'll say this. Of all the posts so far in the thread, no one has correctly guessed the problem with Quagsire yet.

It's not a matter of training.

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My guess is it has Unaware and keeps attacking even after an opponents pokemon fainted ignoring their 'status' as no longer a threat. Maybe it 'play fought' its trainer at one point and killed him again not being able to tell it was hurting him. And that maybe it has a grudge against Brad for making his old rival 'weepinbel' too strong for it to keep up.

Cool chapter otherwise, yeah once Grundy went down Brad wouldn't have a shot considering all his pokemon are in rough shape, maybe if Bubbles got back in time but his friends couldn't manage it. Grundy's been hyped up pretty hard and his power doesn't disappoint, his ego is obviously his biggest drawback right now. I bet showing off a monster like that in a relatively big tournament like this just got a ton of eyes on Brad, I wonder who was paying attention.

 

[vongoladex]

Brad feels partially responsible for Eric and Ashley's incident, so he decides to keep Quagsire. Quagsire managed to hold its own against Weepinbell even with x4 damage from type advantage for a while, but after Weepinbell evolved, Quagsire was no longer a match for Victreebel.

Either Eric pushed Quagsire too hard, or Quagsire couldn't accept being left behind by his rival, so his nature changed to violent.

 

[Pensive Rumination]

I wonder what this match has done for Ranger Madison's prospects of winning? She was probably has at least a full roster of 6 Pokemon to draw on after 5 years as a Ranger, but I'm guessing her Meganium and Wobbofet are down for the count due to severe injuries. Which also means she can't use her ace in the hole held item Pokemon anymore.

Unless she's one of those Rangers who has a very limited roster cause she brainwashes recruits local Pokemon, she should still do fine in the tournament. Might be a bit shaken from seeing Grundy in what she expected to be an easy sweep tournament tho.

 

[DrThoth]

I think the Ranger laughing with her corporate sponsors seemingly at Bradley's expense (admittedly it might be an unreliable narrator situation) was what created the most negative impression, given that she doesn't have any non-battle dialogue.

I look forward to seeing what the prizes are- I forget what Bradley's ranking is and if he's eligible for any of them?

It would have been cool (no pun intended) to see him debut Mamoswine to a crowd of people who don't know the Pokemon. Hope Junior becomes a good one down the line. I'd also like Vlad to evolve and he seems ready, Gliscor is one of my favorites.

 

[Arkon]

I cashed in a favor with Ron and Clarissa to send them running down to the reserve to try and pick up Bubbles for me right after the match with Alton. Theoretically it's a trip you can make in an hour if you hustle. Then one hour back, and maybe they could hand me my 'mon before the Finals got going.

They didn't make it.

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His friends coming in with Bubbles right as he is about to forfeit would be appropriately shonen.

This match is also a 3-on-3 right?

 

[LordVishnu]

I wonder what this match has done for Ranger Madison's prospects of winning?

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she should still do fine in the tournament

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Uhh. The tournament is over friend. This was literally the finals.

I look forward to seeing what the prizes are- I forget what Bradley's ranking is and if he's eligible for any of them?

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Bradley lost in the finals. That's second place.

His friends coming in with Bubbles right as he is about to forfeit would be appropriately shonen.

This match is also a 3-on-3 right?

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That would be rather shonen, but I'm imagining there'd have to be some sort of regulation against it. Just accepting a Pokeball from what is effectively "the audience" when your opponent's on their last fighter? No ref worth their salt would allow something like that.

 

[Pkbwgsc]

From what you've been displaying as a small tale, then I'd say Quagsire if you had dealt with the trauma and issues of such a choice beforehand. Otherwise, I'd say this may prompt you to train said Quagsire to help lighten your load of no mid level available Pokémon. Though again I may be wrong entirely if that is an option since we still don't have the full story of this Quagsire yet. But I can't wait to find out.

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Is that fact that Grundy, the thing that's always liable to kill something is usually a maybe but quag is an absolute no at all times not a tip off?

I'll say this. Of all the posts so far in the thread, no one has correctly guessed the problem with Quagsire yet.

It's not a matter of training.

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My guess is on severe PTSD rage-inducing panic attacks backed by the fact it's probably a pretty monstrous ground type, arguably the most wide destruction typing. To an extent where it won't fight the opponent, but try and kill everything around it.

What about a recently reawakened Ursaring or Gligar? Sure, they aren't in the best shape, but again, half health. And even if Clefable can heal, that would take time, time that they could use to attack or set up.

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On a meta level, we can assume if the substitute minimize is so well ingrained and fast on one mon, the preferred tactic of one of the most infuriating stall mons is equally well implemented.
Not to mention half-health is… not the same as recently unfainted. Insofar as equating "half health" versus crawling back to half dead of exhaustion in a real setting.

 

[UwU_MasterRace]

This what happened when you didn't pay respect to wobbuffet

 

[Vanargandr]

I mean Wobbuffet for a Ranger does make an immense amount of sense

 

[Zeroguard]

Honestly I think Madison played this match kind of perfectly. Once she realized Brad had a pokemon outside of what her team could deal with what with her starter getting OHKO'd she went for stall tactics to tease out more info and potentially setup for a baton pass which Brad called and put a stop to. Unfortunately she had already figured out that Grundy had control issues and that her Wobbuffett was a perfect counter for him... though I doubt even she realized it's focus band was going to save the day for her. A mix of luck and better play won Maddison the match, Brad was kneecapped because he had a much closer recent match and while his final member was really damn strong he didn't have fine enough coordination with him to deal with meta strats like the Ffet.

 

[DrThoth]

Bradley lost in the finals. That's second place.

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Well that's pretty good. And despite whatever arguable unfairness he may have faced, it's still a good lesson for him to take advantage of all his opportunities and prepare better to always put his best foot forward, like having Bubbles on hand when he knows a lot of his Pokemon aren't operating optimally for various reasons (Nidoking, Golett, Quagsire).

I do hope we see the aftershocks (my word choice is very intentional) of fielding an alpha Nidoking, in terms of social ramifications and how people perceive and react to him.

 

[Artful Lounger]

Eh, for all that people are saying things like 'Bradley should learn from this loss and address his weaknesses'.... That's kinda not anything new? He knows full well his team is super unbalanced. He knows that Simon and K. Rool need to be brought up to snuff. And Junior too. That's the reason why he uses them primarily in battles and then uses his heavy hitters when he can't.

Having Bubbles on hand? Bubbles is retired. He's done, put out to seed. Bradley sent his friends out there to get him in a last minute desperation move because the tournament rules ensured his main two pokemon wouldn't be allowed to recover before the finals and he was stuck using his second stringers and, eventually, Grundy. But he never intends to use Bubbles in a battle again. He's not getting any stronger, so he set up his childhood pokemon with as good a situation as a pokemon could hope for, made sure he was taken care of, and got a replacement.

Quagsire can barely be considered his pokemon. He's a known killer, he's killed pokemon, he's killed trainers, and the league knows about both. He doesn't intend to use Quagsire ever. The only situation that would make him think about it is when the chips are down and lives are on the line and he doesn't need to worry about authorities getting involved. Not for gyms, not for tournaments, not for a match against the Elite Four or the Champion. Its for if he runs into something like a hostile legendary or something like Team Rocket wanting to cut out a loose end and sends a hit squad in the middle of nowhere.

But for this battle, there's not a whole lot to take away from it. Grundy is unruly, yeah, but not uncontrollable. His pokemon are strong, they are skilled, they have deep move pools. Bradley knows how to battle against a number of strategies, the Roar against the Clefable was the perfect move to shut down its bullshit and if the Clefable came out again then it would eat continuous Earth Powers before it could get set up again.

The Wobbufet Counter was a cheap shot. But that alone wouldn't have beaten Brad if the tournament rules didn't screw him. If he was given proper time to rest and had Gligar and Ursaring behind Grundy, he would have won. By the time of the conference, where Simon, K Rool, and Junior have had time to catch up and Mama and Vlad are stronger and, likely, evolved? This smurf wouldn't stand a chance in a 6v6 format with both teams fresh. She's had five years and her pokemon are in the low to mid 50's. Not bad at all. Brad's had less than a year and the pokemon he got early are in the mid to high 50's and the newer pokemon are in the mid 30's. Junior will be a challenge. But in six months Ursaring and Gligar will be in the 60's, maybe 70's. Grundy might get into the 80's if he isn't capped at 70. And the rest of the team will be around as strong as Vlad and Mama are now.

The only lesson to be taken here is that he needs more time, which is something he already knew.

 

[Zeroguard]

Eh, for all that people are saying things like 'Bradley should learn from this loss and address his weaknesses'.... That's kinda not anything new? He knows full well his team is super unbalanced. He knows that Simon and K. Rool need to be brought up to snuff. And Junior too. That's the reason why he uses them primarily in battles and then uses his heavy hitters when he can't.

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I mean it was a learning experience for Brad, now he has a better idea of who his competition for the conference is and the rough power level he can expect to face there. He also learned to always come as well prepared to a tournament as he can, its a small lesson but one he learned. Grundy will hopefully have taken this as a learning experience the best. Simon got more battle experience, K.Rool as well though his overconfidence is probably more what got checked. Vlad and Ma are fine though Brad now has now had more close matches with them now so he can keep on building there. Winning would've been nice but that would've probably checked whatever Grundy hopefully learned from all this. Depending on what Madison chooses for her prize the tournament may have been basically all upside for Brad even though he only got 2nd.

 

[Scarled]

Hahaha.

'I lost.'

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Good that he lost, he's too arrogant to think he's the best already with just one ultra strong pokemon with little control.

 

[LordVishnu]

Having Bubbles on hand? Bubbles is retired. He's done, put out to seed.

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But he never intends to use Bubbles in a battle again. He's not getting any stronger, so he set up his childhood pokemon with as good a situation as a pokemon could hope for, made sure he was taken care of, and got a replacement.

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True facts. Other than in the most technical sense, readers should not consider Bubbles as a member of Brads party. He will hardly be mentioned once we leave Mahogany.

 

[Pensive Rumination]

Uhh. The tournament is over friend. This was literally the finals.

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Oh, lol. Guess I'm just so used to reading about bigass tournaments that seeing the final round was called just the 'finals' as opposed to the 'grand finals' threw me off.

 

[Zatch P]

I'm guessing whatever happened with Quagsire was traumatizing enough that it became a Shadow Pokemon. Accidentally killed its long time rival and both their trainers, mentally broke down entirely as a result, maybe. Or after a crushing loss to Victreebell and the realization that without their own third stage they'd never catch up, Quagsire's trainer... well, tried some drastic training methods with "Gone Horrible Right" results. Or possibly got "help" from someone from Orre.

Unlike the gameplay where Shadow Pokemon are if anything worse than normal, here we'd be going with the story lore where Shadow Pokemon are really powerful but totally uncontrolled. In fact in the games they sometimes do outright attack their trainers.

That would explain why Pryce would suggest just euthanizing it; pretty sure in the first game the only way to purify a Shadow Pokemon requires help from Celebi. Either indirectly after a long healing process where the Pokemon becomes even more vicious and you take it to do a ritual at the Relic Stone, or with Celebi personally showing up to do it for you. With those as your only options, I doubt anyone even knows it's possible at this point.

Becoming a Shadow Pokemon is just about the only way I can think of for a Quagsire to become strong enough to be considered a last resort when a level 70 Alpha isn't enough. But even trying to help it will take a long time, be very dangerous, and only make it act worse until the final Purification. Which might not even be possible short of a trip to Orre, though the shrine in Ilex Forest might work just as well.

Not sure what I'd do in this situation. Best case, and probably the only good, safe option is to hang around Ilex Forest and ask local Pokemon near the shrine to try and get word to Celebi, asking for help. I'm not sure I'd risk getting mauled trying to help a Shadow Pokemon. You probably can't even use your own normal Pokemon for protection without ruining the attempt to build trust.

 

[ZeroMaverick08]

I wasn't trying to build her as such a malicious character.

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It may not have been the intention, and internally you may write Madison as a mature, experienced and compassionate Ranger that did good work, but I have to agree with everything @Artful Lounger said, and ask for myself, how can you reconcile her external actions with the good scout Ranger? Obviously, I don't expect you to spoil me, I'll just wait for the next chapter.

 

[Brotk]

I did the most important research for this chapter: pokedb says Nidoran and primeape are compatible in the field group.

Clearly we a now know what species Grundy's dad was.

how can you reconcile her external actions with the good scout Ranger?

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By not overvaluing the stakes? This is a local tournament open to a huge range of trainers. Think of a marathon in RL.

You'll have Semi-Professional runners who'll go in there to beat their time and each other. You'll have hobby runners there to see how they measure up. And a huge range of other motivations besides that including "just for fun". Hell even the price pool is set up in a way that the winner doesn't really matter.

With how close the tournament is to the conference, it is probably specifically one of the goals to have a low stakes way to get used to the tournament setting for the top contenders.

Ranger lady probably was the most surprised when she had to reveal her "anchor ace" here. Chances are she just brought focus-buffet because she wanted to have her exact conference setup for this trial run, never expecting that she'd have to actually buckle down.