Finally, it all came to an end.
In my country, there´s a saying, it claims that the second place is the most painfull, which I confirm as I write this post.
Fortunately, this pain is merely a necessary evil, as it does not come close to the happiness I had throughout this tournament, for being able to represent my continent and fight alongside my new friends.
To some, my dream, Team Europe´s dream, has died, but the truth is, for me, this is just the beginning, and for us, a new step forward, closer to the light at the end of the tunnel than ever before.
With that being said, there are many people I would like to congratulate and thank on this journey:
Firstly, congratulations to Team Spain, the only team responsible for my losses in this tournament, to which I bow down and thank the great experience. Their win is more than deserved and I look forward to battling them again next year.
Regarding everyone I have to thank, this list is so big, this post might not be finished today, but after all everyone has done for me, it would be disrespectful to not include these amazing people.
Ruft
I wouldn´t be here if Ruft had not invited me to the team. In a certain way, Ruft changed my life by giving me an opportunity to prove to the world that I deserve to be on this team; for that, I am eternally thankful.
He is also a great manager and a player that improved considerably throughout this journey. (even tho he choked using my team)
McMeghan
Roro is the ace of the team, he is withouth a doubt the most experienced player on our side and taught me a lot on this adventure. I am honored to be on his team and tremendously sorry for letting him down after such a great show he gave us in these later wcop rounds. I hope he can forgive me for my failure and I wish to fight alongside him again next year.
Lily
Lily is a player that surprised everyone in this tournament. She demonstrated being capable of much more than people expected from her and was clearly one of the top players from our team. I do believe pressure occasionally got to her, but she still managed to keep a great record despite a few losses in tiebreakers. She is very supportive when it comes to teambuilding and I thank her for all the advice she gave me throughout this tour.
(even tho I sometimes ignored it)
Eeveeto
Eeveeto is a heat player and an inspiration. He always managed to defy the current understanding of the metagame and build teams featuring heat mons and techs that were still incredibly successfull. I hope he keeps this element that makes him a unique presence in the team and that he can keep the heat wave coming.
Kushalos
Similarly to Eeveeto, Kush also brings creative teams and manages to show that the metagame is much deeper than it seems.
However, Kushalos´s main trait is his ability to overcome hard match-ups and hax, as demonstrated in his last game against Soulwind.
He certainly taught me to never forfeit. Good job Clutchalos.
Mana
Mana is certainly an interesting player, just like Kushalos, the ability to overcome hard match-ups was a great factor to his success.
I believe Mana could improve a lot if, just like me, he left his comfort zone more and experimented with different kinds of teams, because even tough a great skill level is demonstrated in his games, I feel like he got bad match-ups most of the time.
(Regardless, beating rain with a ceruledge team makes him the goat)
tlenit1
I honestly feel bad for tlenit. I feel like whenever he did play for us he got cteamed and didn´t get to reveal his true worth as a player.
Regardless, the teams he brought to the table generally seemed consistent and balanced when it came to teambuilding.
Very tactical and calm player.
ZoroDark
Zorodark was a very active presence in our team in the second round of the tournament and certainly contributed for our success by the way he supported us in testing and teambuilding. Unfortunately, as time went on, he became less active and was replaced by our substitute players. I hope he can come back stronger than ever next year and show more of what he has to offer.
TheFranklin
Franklin was the active team player I tested the most against, and was very supportive in the later rounds of the tournament. I thank him for his availability and for giving his best whenever he could, even tho his vacation hurt his skill level a bit judging by his last game.
He seemed very diverse in teambuilding and it was a pleasure to get to know him.
As for the Substitute Players that didn´t get to play.
Alhen
I owe you a lot in this tournament. You and Savouras were the people that supported me the most throughout Wcop in terms of testing teams and approach to battles. Withouth your support, I could never have beaten players like MichaelderBeste, I thank your incredible patience, letting me repeat 200 turn games over and over again as we explored different game paths.
The knowledge I gained testing against you will certainly stand the test of time, and so will our friendship on this website.
GoldCat
Not much to say, didn´t get to play, and never battled me, although he certainly helped other team members a lot in testing. I hope he is given a chance next year and that he can surprise us all with his quality of play.
Other Amazing Team Supporters:
Savouras
Sav was one of the first people on this website to recognise my strenght as a player. Since the beginning of this generation, he has helped me improve a ton, and I certainly wouldn´t have made it this far in the tour withouth his previously mentioned support. I hope he is allowed to play for Team Europe in the future, because once he joins, the trophy surely will be ours.
Leru
Larry did the "paperwork" for the team, but let me tell you, he did it well. All information about our opponents, meta trends, team recreations, it was all thanks to him. Even tho he did not fight in the "battlefield", he was still one of the hardest working members of the team and deserves his credit for that.
xavgb
It is funny how someone I was destined to play in a tiebreaker but never did, became one of our greatest allies after the UK´s elimination from the tournament. He is one of the best players in this tier, and his overall teambuilding contribution to the team definitively proves it. I think he shared as many pokepastes with our team as I have in my entire teambuilder, with the difference being that 2/3 of my teams are garbage and his are all high level ones. He also owned me in our mathematical competition to calculate what the odds of outplaying 8 sucker punches were. (nerd)
We Three Kings
Lasse was the funniest member of the team, he was definitively our "cheerleader" if we had to elect someone. I can´t count how many times we were 2 minutes away from playing a game and he said "Are you really sure about this team?" As if someone would change their mind 2 minutes away from a game even if someone pointed a gun at us. Seriously tho, he never missed any of our games and was constantly rooting for us.
Pohjis
Maybe I regret what I wrote about Lasse, because Pohjis sure gave him a fight in cheerleading. The big difference was that Lasse´s natural habitat is the team chat, while pohjis was the smogtours lobby room. I guess we have to count the votes from the entire team at deciding who was the best at this role. (Also we needed that "can you hurry up? I have to go walk my dog" miracle in finals).
TWiTT
Ye, uh, not much to say, Trubbish profile pick is based but Clodsire is still superior.
Other Individual Supporters
Finally, I would like to thank
zReptar ,
MAVERICK SHOOTERS ,
Finchinator, El Quixana , Pinecoishot , SetsuSetsuna , Srn, Rubyblood, Storm Zone (and everyone else that supported me and I can´t remember because it´s 1 AM.)
Sincerely, thank you team for this amazing opportunity, and forgive me for roasting everyone after I just lost Wcop Finals, but let´s be real here, we have to share the pain.
I don´t really know how to conclude this post since my brain has stopped functioning properly ever since Tornadus revealed taunt, so here´s a picture of Clodsire to please Eeveeto:
The End
No sé q es mejor; que España gane wcop o ver a todos estos dinosaurios vivos.
