WAR SEASON II: Discussion

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

I often feel the way you do, Speed. I refrain from competitive battling in general because I dislike losing. xD And I have had similar issues with feeling that way about WAR in the past. This year I have taken a completely different view. I'm only in it for fun and I'm treating the whole WAR as a means of boosting PXR's activity rather than as something I want to win. It's hard to change that point of view sometimes, I know. But by focusing more on my team (and newer members from other teams!), encouraging and supporting them, rather than running around trying to earn points in everything, I am actually having a lot more fun!

Something more concrete that might help is entering contests that you don't expect to win. Entering events you're good at is hard because of the pressure you and your team and the forum at large put on you by expecting you to win. If you enter something that you're not the best at and not expecting to win then it is a nice surprise if you do rather than a huge failure if you don't!

I know it's hard but I guess the thing to remember is that it's all about having fun. If you're not enjoying yourself then maybe it's a good idea to give a particularly stressful contest a miss for that week. Within Trainer, I have done my best to emphasise that it's all about fun and participation. I don't want anyone to feel pressured to enter anything they don't enjoy/feel like doing, let alone pressured to win. In the end, it's not like it will all make a difference a week after WAR when everyone forgets what happened and starts looking forward to the next year. :)

I would probably feel a bit stressed if people were rooting against me in a battle too. But especially for this week, it's challenge cup right? You have absolutely no control over your team or anything. If you lose, it's not really a reflection on you. That's one of the reasons I enjoy challenge cup matches! :D

[lorii]

Aw Speed... *pats you* I can't really comment on URPG or Showdown mechanics since I don't participate in them, but I can see how constant losses would be frustrating and feel really unfair. That's why I've never been into competitive (or even casual lol) battles. I know there's going to be people more invested time-wise in building the most impenetrable team and are more knowledgeable about moves and whatnot than I am, which obviously should pay off for them, but going into the battle knowing my chances are close to nil kinda drains the fun and wonder that I've associated with pokemon battles and how they're illustrated on the show. The only thing I can suggest is doing something not as intense and fun with friends. :)

[Neo Emolga]

Ah, Speed, sorry to hear that but I'm sure people know you didn't mean what you said. If you haven't already, I'm sure people would understand if you just apologize and let them know you just got too caught up in what was going on.

From a personal standpoint, I just can't competitively battle, whether it's something like Showdown, URPG, or whatnot. It's almost to the point where I feel like I don't even know how to battle Pokémon at all anymore. I'm not sure who is still good, what movepools need to be considered, if some crazy move combos came along, or whatever is going on now.

But in terms of your situation, I think it's a pressure-related thing, almost to the point where you feel like it's not a game anymore. Instead, you feel like you're trying to defend your reputation and if you fail, you'll be ridiculed and exiled from teams for years to come. Don't feel that way, by the time the next competition comes around, most people don't even remember that much from what happened last time. Besides, everyone improves, so looking at battles or performance from months ago is just silly.

This may sound stupid, crazy, or maybe even funny, but sometimes... you just need to embrace failure. There was a time when I was RPing a super-powered made up legendary in a Team RP, and suddenly I understood what it feels like to be a MMO raid boss when six or seven opposing RPers ganged up on me attacked me all at once! I wasn't sure whether to panic, complain, or try and work something out, but what I decided to do was probably the most reasonable and realistic thing that I could think of. I just decided to let my character bite the bullet and croak, because hey, after his head got blown open (literally, it did), he had to cash in his chips. And you know what I did after that? Just started a fresh new character, jumped back into the fight, and everything worked out fine. Some people still remember the incident, but you know, it's not like I've been banned from RPs because I had a character die. In fact, quite a few times I had characters bite the dust for various reasons.

Also, a favorite quote from Fight Club I like to remember is this:

"It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything."

Sometimes, you just need to it let go (great, got that song from Frozen stuck in my head again!). Other times, when you fail, see it as an opportunity to start over, learn from the loss, and improve on your strategy or try something fresh and new. If you're ever ridiculed, don't take it to heart. Those that ridicule others are either cowards or have yet to bump into the person that will put them in their place.

Honestly, when it comes down to it, I think we need more forum competitions besides the WAR, because I have a feeling people feel the stakes are way too high when this is like the only one BIG forum competition of the year.

[SassySnivy]

Thanks a bunch for the support, everyone. I think I just...I've just been stressed out, I guess. The fact that I want to get involved in so many competitions in WAR and hardly have any time to get everything done also doesn't help. It's like, I never seem to have enough time. And that causes even further frustration, especially since it feels like I'm not even getting any results.

I know how you feel. I'm one of those people who gets easily discourage in competitive situations- or even in non-competitive areas. Especially when I feel overlooked or everyone else's threads/work/etc. seems to be getting significantly more notice/attention/feedback.

Over time, I think I've gotten a bit better about competitive stuff, even though I actively avoid it being the sore loser I am. I'm in the same boat as you- I don't think I'll win anything in WAR and I'm a bit worried that I'll go in some sort of depressed streak and lose motivation for a while.

Yeah, hahah I can 100% understand that. That's how I used to be. I mean I still can get like that to an extent, but I've gotten a little better as of late. But you know, I wonder if some of the sections on PXR did what Sarah just suggested and maybe had a steady flow of like, minor contests throughout the year. :o That can help get people warmed-up so that when WAR comes around it doesn't feel like so much is at stake. x]

And about the rooting, I don't really feel guilty for getting annoyed about it anymore. You guys are right: it really is frustrating, even if they aren't actually rooting against you, per se. But all's well, we both apologized and everything

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that feels a lot of pressure, though. I mean, WAR is fun, but if you're not really used to being competitive regularly then it can kinda stress you out. But I suppose that's kinda inevitable!

I also took the entire day yesterday to go out and have fun. I think that helped; another source of stress probably has just been that I've been working way too much. It's all the little things, y'know?

But thanks again for all the support and advice you guys, it really means a lot to know that I'm definitely not the only one here who's felt discouraged during this WAR.

This may sound stupid, crazy, or maybe even funny, but sometimes... you just need to embrace failure.

Ah, but of course! I :> think the main thing about being afraid to fail in this case, though, is the pressure that you put on yourself to win. Especially seeing how this is such a big competition. :o Thanks for your motivational speech! ^^

*group hug for everyone*

I guess another thing is that it's just really, really easy to get really discouraged when you set goals for yourself that you can't seem to achieve. But it's just a thing that happens...
@Nekomata @Pokemon Trainer Sarah @Neo Emolga @lorii @Sou Cleife

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

I just wanna say I am so impressed with everyone's entries this week! You guys are seriously talented! I hope you're having fun!

[Elbub]

Am I being incredibly dense, or has the scoreboard thread not been posted yet? Only I've got some results I want to claim a point for.

[Suicune's Fire]

How is everyone finding week two? :] I reckon the hype has died down slightly...or maybe Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon stole the spotlight! xD

[Ash K.]

WEEK #1

NOTES:

• Judge results submitted after the 12:00 AM 6/15/2015 EST deadline did not gain a judge point.
• Judge points count toward personal Hall of Fame.
• GCEA Results: 1st Place Tie winners received 2 points each. 2nd Place and 3rd Place Received 1 each. (Please mark point distribution next time, Comatose).

TEAM RANKINGS

Team Trainer - 19
Phoenix Battalion - 18
The Prism League - 8.5
Team Yoga Bears 2 - 8
Team Magma - 5
Jupiter Mining Corp. - 5
Team Awesome - 3

HALL OF FAME

Pokémon Trainer Sarah - 9.5
Velocity - 6
Neo Emolga - 4
Felly - 3
Grassy_Aggron - 3
FedoraChar - 3
Suicune's Fire - 3
Fawkes - 3
TheoreticalSelkie - 2.5
Elysia - 2
PTGigi - 2
HKim - 2
Sou Cleife - 2
lorii - 2
Speed-X - 2
Nekomata - 1.5
Morzone - 1
Monbrey - 1
Wander - 1
VoltChen Magneton - 1
Vultan - 1
Brettles - 1
Ash K. - 1
WinterVines - 1
Elbub - 1
bronislav94 - 1
Saraibre Ryu - 1
Corrupt_Voidlich - 1
Lord Celebi - 1
The Frost Dragon - 0.5

@Neo Emolga;

I seem to get different totals for week one.

Trainer
2 (ASB) + 1 (RP Judge) + 2.5 (Pixel Art) + 1 (Showdown) + 1 (Drawn Art) + 1 (Drawn Art Judge) +1+1 (Humor) + 1 (Humor Judge) +1+1 (GCEA) + 1 (URPG) +3+1 (Graphic Art) =18.5

Phoenix Battalion
3 (ASB) +3+2 (RP) + 3 (Creative Writing) + 1 (Creative Writing Judge) + 2.5 (Pixel Art) + 3 (Drawn Art) + 1 (Humor) =18.5

Prism League
1 (RP) + 1 (Pixel Art) +2+1 (Drawn Art) + 2 (Humor) +2 (Graphic Art) =9

Yoga Bears II
1 (ASB) + 2 (Creative Writing) + 3 (Showdown) + 2 (GCEA) + 1 (URPG) =9

Jupiter Mining Corporation
1 (ASB Judge) + 1 (Creative Writing) + 1 (Humor) + 2 (GCEA) =5

Magma
1 (Showdown) +2+1+1 (URPG) =5

Awesome
1 (Pixel Art Judge) + 1 (Showdown) + 1 (Showdown Judge) =3

Even if you did what I assume you may have done without saying so and split the Drawn Art 3rd place results as .5 each, that's still 18 for Trainer, 18.5 for Phoenix Battalion, 8.5 for Prism, 9 for Yoga Bears, 5 each for JMC and Magma, and 3 for Awesome. That means you have an extra point for Trainer (maybe including a Comatose's judge point even though it's an hour after the deadline you said neutralizes judge points), a half point missing for Phoenix Battalion (the most obvious of the errors as your total points shown is not an integer), and a missing point for Yoga Bears (I don't even have a guess for that one).

[Neo Emolga]

Bleh... alright, I'll look into that tonight. I decided to try using an Excel spreadsheet to calculate everything and organize it for better accuracy, but it might need a bit of tweaking given this is the first time I've used it.

And if it so happens I dropped a number or two in the wrong place, color coding the columns might help prevent that. I could also send it to your email if you want to verify.

[Neo Emolga]

Okay, I realized I went wrong when I calculated Showdown scores.

Also, I divided Corrupt_Voidlich's 3rd Place scores into .5 for Team Trainer and .5 for Prism League instead of having one point be taken away from Week #2. This is why Trainer has 18 and why Prism League has 8.5



So this should be right now, but if anyone wants the Excel to verify, I'll gladly email it to them.