Marriland

My sister and I were big fans of Pokemon when it first came out here in America. I remember vividly the day I heard from some kids at school about the missingno glitch in red/blue, that day I came home from school and tried it out and sure enough my 6th item had been multiplied. I immediately restarted my game, because I had at that point used up my Masterball, and all in game PP ups and Rare Candies. However, I quickly grew bored of how easy the game became, it simply was no longer fun, so I released all my level 100 pokemon and played the way the game intended. As hard as I tried though, I could not convince my sister to play without cheating. A few weeks later my sister "trained " her first Dragonite, by training I mean she used many many Rare Candies on it. She was so disappointed that her new Dragonite could not learn HM Fly. She was prone to little sister fits back then, so to egg her on I told her that the reason it couldn't fly was because it was too fat from eating all of these Rare Candies! She believed me throughout the rest of Generation 1 and 2, It was awesome, not because I was pranking my little sister, but because I was actively manipulating her behavior, because since that time she she has always raised her Pokemon with out glitches or cheats, and has since decided that the only way to play Pokemon is through legitimate means, sans cheats.

Chosen Prompt: What is your favorite Pokemon experience?

I can remember exactly when Pokemon first made the jump from being "a fun game I like to play" into "a near all-consuming facet of my life from which there is no escape," and that was the summer of 2009, when my friend, Steven, first gained a rudimentary understanding of effort values and their function within the game.

His goal was simple: to create The Ultimate Dragonite. By hatching a Dratini in his Platinum Version and stuffing its poor, newborn face full of as many of each stat-raising vitamin as it could endure, he began training it up with the hope of it becoming an unstoppable, rampaging Pokemon.  Not to be bested, I myself began to chase after The Ultimate Salamence, via the same process.  Of course, once we compared our fully-trained Pokemon to their max possible stats according to Bulbapedia, we were confused and frustrated that they didn't quite meet the mark.

With some further study, I learned more and more about effort values: where they come from, the max amount a Pokemon can have total and within each stat, what items grant them or increase the number of effort values earned, etc.  On top of that, we learned about natures, how they affect stat distribution, individual values, and how both of these could be controlled via careful, tedious breeding.  To this day, the straight path connecting Route 209 and 210 through Solaceon is seared into my memory like the branding on cattle.  With a party of five eggs -- birthed from an inbred level 1 Pokemon with the right IVs and a Ditto with the right nature holding an Everstone -- and a Magmortar, whose Flame Body ability could not expedite the hatching process quick enough, I rode past the Day-Care Man a number of times that can only be expressed in scientific notation.  Pokemon was no longer simply a game; it was a science.

Our goals expanded beyond our dragons, to creating entire teams from scratch.  We were too stubborn to use Smogon, and insisted on coming up with our own strategies, combos, movesets, and sharing them with each other and testing our teams against one another.  They may not have been the most effective Pokemon, but they were ours.  The rest of the summer was spent like this.  Sometimes we would develop entirely new teams in secret to battle against each other, just so we could see who came up with the best strategies.  I eventually ended up with an entire PC box full of EV-trained Pokemon, with a few of the same species.

I had never nicknamed Pokemon in the games before, but that summer really helped me gain an appreciation for the Pokemon I would raise, and truly taught me how to have a sentimental value for what is essentially just data on a game card.  Even after the introduction of Generation V, with a lot of my favorite partners rendered almost laughably ineffective with new Pokemon, moves, abilities, and items, I still keep all of those Pokemon I trained in their own box, just for them.  When you've gone through the effort of breeding, training, and raising a Pokemon of your own, how effective or powerful they are in the current metagame matters less to you than the bonds you've made with your teammates.

What got me into Pokemon? It all started a couple years ago....

I was about seven years old, in first or second grade. It was October 27th, my birthday. One peculiarly shaped package caught my eye. I, with the go-ahead from my parents, grabbed it and started tearing the wrapping paper away like my life depended on it. When I saw what it was, I was curious. It was a box of rectangularly shaped pieces of paper. They had colorful designs depicting imaginary monsters with various appearances. On the top, it said "Pokemon Trading Card Game". I flipped it back over. There was a handwritten note on the back of it. It simply read, "To Quil, from Grandma". I turned around,, and typical of my seven year old self, made a beeline straight for my grandmother. I jumped on her lap and gave her a great biiiiiiig hug. Tears of joy flowed from my eyes as I whispered "Thank you!" over and over again. After my birthday, I played with the cards a bit, however, contrary to my behavior at my party, stashed them in a draw and promptly forgot about them.

4 years later~

Now, four years later, I was in fifth grade. My grandma was very sick, in the hospital with a very serious disease. But I knew she would recover. School had started again, and I knew my birthday would roll around before I knew it. One day, however, I was playing in the basement. My dad was at the computer. He turned around, with tears in his eyes. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what. "She's gone," my dad whispered. I started bawling and had to be carried upstairs. I was mad. At everything. I picked up one of the drawers in my dresser and promptly started taking everything out, purposefully making a mess. When I reached the bottom, however, I saw a stack of cards. The first one read, "Tauros". It had a picture of an animal and more text under the picture. As I looked at the card, I vaguely remembered my grandma's name on the back of the box. "Pokemon Trading Card Game", it had read. What was a Pokemon? I asked myself. I remember looking it up on the Internet, and liking what I saw. When my birthday came around, I found a red Nintendo DS Lite, with a brand new Pokemon Diamond version in the cartridge slot. I logged 999 hours on that thing, and played it almost every day. It was my first Pokemon game, and the one that sealed my admiration all these years. I later amassed Emerald, FireRed, Platinum, SoulSilver, Black, White, Black 2, and White 2. All those games were brought on by that one faded "Tauros".

pokemon I started with pokemon red and i just borrowed it from my cousin but as soon as i started playing it i was HOOKED. pokemon is a part of my life now i have been going after completing the national Dex for a long time before when i was little i didn't know pokemon was a game i just watched new pokemon episodes then as i got older i saw it was a game but back then i didn't even have a ds so now i am one of the only pokemon players where i live so most of the time when I'm trading it is with people from different states if not countries i have two pokemon games now and have seen 540 something pokemon on my pokemon black i just really want a 3ds for my little sis

 Alright... Pokemon... I would have to say pokemon has been there for me anytime. In hard times, when I didn't know what to do or anything. I mean, my first game was Yellow, I thought it was SO cool how pikachu would say "PIKACHU!" I still have the game and I had just played it recently. I mean, Pokemon wasn't something that we could play, finish and then sell, it was apart of us. I mean, if you ask me to name the first 150 (Not a GenWunner) I could do it in a minute, It's really apart of me.

I know it only said one, but I'm gonna say 3 or 4 times where I had an awesome experience in any game. It was a sunny Saturday and I just got pokemon yellow, I start it up and my brother came up to me and took it away from me. I asked him why he did it and he gave me his red, I hugged him so hard and started up my games. When I beat yellow, I moved right to red, by that time, Gold and Silver had came out and my adventure started.

My favorite pokemon experience...... well as recent as it is it was getting all of the silver symbols in Both Emerald's and Platinum's Battle Frontier.  It was tough but i EV trained 10 Pokemon in my Emerald and it took me days to get all of them good. but finally, i knew i was ready. my best friend Austin with me, i went to the battle dome(My favorite facility in emerald) and i made my way all the way up to Dome Ace Tucker. man was i nervous! I had brought my Sceptile,Milltank,and Hearacross with me. i knew tucker had a Swampert,Salamence, and Charizard and all of those gave me nightmares. i decided to lead with Milltank and bring Sceptile as backup. and man it was a fight! he led with swampert and surfed my milltank and did 25% to her as i went to a max happiness return, it only did about 10%. i was scared to death of an ice beam from it and did not want to bring sceptile into battle but he needed to take out this swampert and so with a hinge of fear i switched into Sceptile...... to see that Swampert used Mirror Coat! YES! i thought as my sceptile took it out with a leaf blade. but then, he sent in the thing i was fearing the most: Charizard. i used rock tomb on him but even though it was Super Duper Effective! it did only a forth. But then a key thing happend:Charizard's Speed fell but his white herb negated it. Charizard going for the Faint, used Overheat for an over kill.Then Sceptile's Attack was not in vain because Charizard's SP.Attack did not go back up from the white herb! Miltank whom i was debating weather she could take a overheat(even though she had thick fat) now i KNEW she could tank the hit and KO Charizard with a few Body Slams. I had won my 1st Frontier Symbol in Emerald! man i felt great! and from there on out the rest fell. The Tower,the Pike,the Palace,the Factory,ect... i had some good times and some LONG 200 turn stall fights between a Milotic and Kingdra. but no defining moment and SEALED Sceptile at my #1 Pokemon slot. it was in Pokemon Platinum VS Tower Tycoon Palmer. to put it short He DESTROYED ALL of his pokemon even when he was at 15 HP Frozen and against All 3 of Plamer's guys! and he still won! so yea the frontier was a literal frontier for my pokemon abilities and helped strengthen me as a trainer in the long run. that is why it is my fondest Pokemon memory :D

Pokémon has really inspired my life throughout the past 6 years I have been interested in the series. I received my first Pokémon games for my 7th birthday, January 26th, 2006. The games were Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen for the Gameboy Advance. I was at a Laser Flash for my birthday party that year and I got two copies of FireRed, one from my parents and one from a friend. When I got home that night I went in my room, started up FireRed on my Gameboy Advance SP and played the crap out of the game! I stayed up all night until I beat all eight gym leaders and tried to challenge the Elite Four. I wasn't a very experienced trainer at the time so of course I only had a level 86 Blastoise and a level 3 Pidgey to use Fly on my team. I couldn't beat Lance because I always ran out of PP on my moves. I ended up being caught on my Gameboy that night and had it taken away until the next day. The next day I tried to beat the Elite Four and never could beat it on that save file. My dad came home one night and had brought a cartridge of Pokémon Silver home from a garage sale he had been to. I put the strangely big Gameboy Color cartridge into my Gameboy Advance SP and the first thing I noticed was... the graphics weren't as good as in FireRed and LeafGreen. If it weren't for my Gameboy Advance SP I'd probably not be into the series as the back-lit screen really helped see the game up close. Along with Silver, my dad brought a Gameboy Advance that was there. After starting my adventure on my Gameboy Advance SP I tried the game on the new system and was shocked. I couldn't even see the game on the dark screen! I turned the system off after attempting to play with it for about half an hour and then had to go to bed. For about a year I wasn't into Pokémon very much until Diamond and Pearl came out that is, I got Pearl and my brother got Diamond for Christmas of 2007. I played through Pearl, the same playing style I had been using for a long time, the "starter" team of your starter and an HM slave. As history repeats itself, I got stuck at the Elite Four again, not being able to beat Lucian with his Bronzong. At this time I had not been on the internet very much but I had looked up how to beat the Elite Four on Google and found... Marriland. :) I watched Marriland's Diamond Walkthrough and noticed something different about his style of play... He actually used six Pokémon. I went around catching other Pokémon to use to fight the Elite Four, catching a Shinx, training the Riolu from the egg you receive on Iron Island. I also trained my Starly up to an epic Staraptor. These four Pokémon (not a full team) helped me finally beat the game for the first time. I went on to beat the post-game and then with my new knowledge of how to have a successful Elite Four run went back to FireRed and tried to beat it again, on a new save this time. I had a final team of Charizard, Raichu, Vaporeon, Clefable, Exeggutor, and Fearow. This team was really strong, I almost got every member up to level 100. After playing Diamond and Pearl for a little over a year I got bored of Pokémon and didn't start playing again until around HeartGold and SoulSilver launched. These games were just amazing and after playing the original Silver, really struck me with awe. I loved that you could catch so many legendaries in the game and could do so much! The reintroduction was a real throwback to when I originally played FireRed and LeafGreen but with the new 4th generation Pokémon which was a nice touch. I played HeartGold and SoulSilver... I still play it today to be honest. :) This is the first time in my life where I hadn't taken a break from Pokémon until the next games came out. When Black and White came out I was disappointed to be honest, it felt like Hoenn Pokémon all over again, bad, bad, and more bad. Garbodor, seriously Nintendo? I played through the game the first day I got it with ease. This is the time I took a long break from the series and got interested in Minecraft, I played Minecraft for... about all of 2011 and all of 2012 so far. I stopped all playing of Pokémon as I am in Middle School now and Pokémon is lame to like. I recently got back into the series about a week before Black 2 and White 2 came out. I got both games on launch day and liked the improvements from the 1st game such as Join Avenue. I joined the forums that month in October and here we are now today. :) I can't wait for future Pokémon games and changes in the series and I'll probably follow the game for a very long time. :) 

-Elite

P.S. FireRed/LeafGreen re-remakes anybody? Just a thought. :p

Wow! Pokemon has been a huge part of my life since I was about six or seven. My brother first got Pokemon Red Version, and I always wanted to play it. I'd been asking my parents for a Gameboy for about a year before they final came through. I recieved my brother's old Red Version when he bought Yellow. Every time he would get a new one, I would get his old one. Then, when Emerald Version came out, I decided that I wasn't going to get a hand-me-down from my brother! I buy it for myself. I was so exciting when I got home, and got to play my very own Pokemon Game! Then , both my brother and I would each buy our own versions of the games that just kept on being released. Then, when Daimond and Pearl Versions came out, I had to get a DS! My parents refused to buy me one, and after about 10 weeks of saving up my allowance, I bought one for myself, along with Pokemon Daimond Version. Next was Platinum, HeartGold and SoulSilver, Black and White, and finally Black 2 and White 2. They just kept on coming. I found out about Marriland when I was watching a Platinum walkthrough on YouTube a few years back. I though, "Jeez, who makes these? " I read the name of the YouTube name, and saw it: Marriland! I visited the site immidiately, and is now the most visited site on my computer.

Now, Marriland has surpassed my expectations for about the one hundreth time. He is giving away a bunch of 3DS's! How nice it would be to have a nice, new 3DS! I'm still stuck with my old DS Lite, because I'm saving up for other things these days. The 3DS is somewhere on my list, and it would be really nice if I could take it off. But, there's no telling who will win these things, so, MAY THE BEST WRITER WIN!

I'm not really sure where the epic experience began... I wasn't even born when Red and Blue came out, and the first games I recognized were the GBA games, R,S, E, FR, and LG. I was never allowed to play video games as a child, and was sad that I couldn't experience the phenomenon of catching them all. On my 7th birthday, My parents bought me a black Nintendo DS Lite, along with a Diamond Version. This little gift, the one my parents reluctantly bought me, has changed my life to the extreme. I can't even begin to think about my life without Pokemon. When I moved back to Texas, I met a kid who was also into Pokemon, and, days later, we found out we were playmates when we were 2 years old, and after eleven years of separation, Pokemon had brought us back together. We still hang together, as best friends, and every time a new game is released, count down the days until the American release date. One of the best moments was when Black and White came out. Having to pick a team out of completely new Pokemon was a memorable experience, all leading up to today. Pikachu, Cyndaquil, and Snivy, along with 646 other Pokemon, have been there to enlighten me to the outside world, and every day I think to myself, "Who needs to catch them all with a Pokeball? They're all in here,' as I hold my hand to my heart.

~Kilowott

Pokemon has always been an important part of my life, it may sound silly but it was always there for me. My first ever game I ever played was Pokemon silver. I really didn't understand the game, being only three years old, but I still had fun and was able to catch my very first Pokemon, Mareep. Since I didn't really grasp the whole starter Pokemon "rule" I just used him all the time because he was my first catch. It was a very hard journey but eventually my newly evolved Ampharos and I made it to the elite four where we dominated, my first even champion win...

Now I am much older and have almost mastered the game. I bought Pokemon black 2 and couldn't wait to start playing. I don't use starters, instead I create a team of my favorite Pokemon, i try to span my types of Pokemon in my team, you know, a grass type, a fire type, a fighting type etc, and of course as an electric type, Mareep. Throughout the game Mareep seemed to be the underdog always the first to faint, but he did supply some paralyze support so my others could wipe the slate.

By the time my team and I had reached the elite four my Pokemon were about average level and I had never lost a battle, I wasn't going to let this be my first loss. Grimsley, the dark type trainer, Caitlin, the physic type trainer, Marshal, the fighting type trainer and finally Shauntal, the ghost type trainer, all defeated. After those battles I only had 2 more Max Health Potions, I decided to use them on my strongest ones, Scrafty and Golbat, leaving my Ampharos at about 150 HP. And there I was, my whole journey was almost finished. As i walked up the sand covered stairs a Stadium started to appear on the horizon, that was were the champion was. one more set of stairs and there she was, Iris, the champion.

The battle began with her hydreigon, a good match up to my Scrafty. High jump kick was a 1 hit K.O. The battle was looking good. At her 2nd to last Pokemon I started to worry, all I had was my Ampharos and my very low (30 HP) Scrafty, but with a couple moxie buffs I was able to take it down. Then Iris tossed out her last remaining Pokemon, Haxorus. I was now really scared, I knew Scrafty didn't have enough speed to defeat this Pokemon and I didn't want this to be my first loss, I was almost there. As I thought that, he went down. All I could do was send in my final Pokemon, Ampharos.

With the Haxorus at full health I knew a single thunderbolt would not be enough so i took a chance. I hope that the thunder would be able to hit it let alone make it faint. As the attacks started she did a devastating blow, bringing me down to about 40 HP. "AMPHAROS USED THUNDER!" and the animation started, ZAP-BAM! "A CRITICAL HIT!" bringing the Haxorus down to 2/5 of its health. "HAXORUS BECAME PARALYZED!" This was it, since he was paralyzed I was able to strike first next time. My Tyranitar's sandstorm hits bringing Ampharos down to the 20s. I couldn't delay this any longer or the sandstorm would wipe Ampharos out. I decided to use thunderbolt because I didn't want to chance missing with thunder, but it wasn't enough with the Haxorus very low he used his final attack to finish it "HAXORUS USED DRAGON PULSE!" I didn't want it to end like this I was so close... "HAXORUS IS PARALYZED AND CAN'T MOVE!" YES! the sandstorm didn't knock either of us out. I could do this. And with one final lightning bolt It ended.

The first thing I could think of was about how great of a journey I have had with Ampharos, weather it was dominating the flying and water gyms or just getting unlucky and failing, he was always helpful and a wonderful friend. Now I always imagine when I was little, what if I caught some other Pokemon back on route 32, like a Bellsprout, where would I be now, still back at the bug gym wondering why I can't win? But I am glad that on that day I found Mareep and caught it. Ampharos is and will always be my favorite Pokemon. He has given me all the greatest experiences in Pokemon I will ever have.

Pokemon isn't just a game it's an adventure, a journey, and any real gamer should know this.

Pokemon, what can I say other than it being the game that truly made me the gamer that I am today. I was five years old when I first discovered the amazing game of Pokemon Red version, I don’t remember much about my first experience playing the game but the thing I do remember is the first time I got to pick my starter Pokémon. I chose Charmander due to its fiery cuteness; and yes that was something that a five year old girl would definitely look out for. While I was tempted to choose Squirtle there was something about Charmander that drew my curiosity. I’m proud to say that it definitely didn’t let me down.  To this day I stick with fire Pokémon as my starter (except Black and White, I just can’t stand the look of Tepig’s later evolutions).

Growing up as a girl gamer wasn’t exactly the best of times, girls teased me and boys thought I was weird (not all of them though). My friends thought it was a bit weird that I wanted a Pokemon game instead of a Barbie, but I mean Pokemon will always be cooler than Barbie (as well as the game being a better influence on kids than a plastic doll). As long as i had my gameboy and my favorite pokemon game i could drown out all of the mean and cruel things kids could come up with by simply turning on my gameboy and jumping into the wonderful world of Pokemon.

December 25^th, 2001. I will always remember this day as the best Christmas ever. Running down to the Christmas tree I remember being drawn to the smallest gift under the tree, there was nothing special about the gift wrap or its size it was just a feeling that I had and I wasn’t going to question it. I’ll never regret opening that gift first because inside was the game I had been waiting for, Pokemon Crystal. Now not many people would be as excited as I was to get this game but Pokemon Crystal changed the way we could play; I was finally able to choose my character to be a girl. Finally they had accepted girls as gamers into the Pokemon world! Best Christmas present ever. (I did get a new Gameboy color as well but I mean I was way more excited for the game!) To this day I still have that game safely hidden inside my Pikachu plushie. (Don’t tell anyone, it’s a secret hehe)

Pokemon has definitely changed my life, I hate to think that I wouldn’t be a gamer if I hadn’t discovered Pokémon but it could have been a possibility a really horrible possibility, but thankfully the wonderful pocket monsters made their way into my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Pokemon is a game that truly took my interest and kept me entertained for hours, from training my Pokémon team to earning badges. This game never disappointed me, and I am truly grateful for the work and originality the team at Game Freak put into making Pokemon.

I am 19 years old and I am proud to say that I am a Pokemon trainer, and I always will be.

     I first got a Pokemon game for Christmas in 2002.  I got a red Gameboy and Fire Red version.  I remember that I was incredibly happy to get it, but also sad because I had wanted Ruby version since that was the one my cousin had.  But when I showed him, he told me, "Fire Red is even better than Ruby!  I wish I had it!"  After that, I was overjoyed to own the game.

     Before owning the game, I remember some good times of borrowing my cousin's Gameboys to play their Pokemon games.  In particular, I was playing my cousin's Ruby version while he texted.  I came across a wild Wingull and, being that I knew nothing about Pokemon at the time, asked him, "Do you care about a Wingull?"  His response was, "No, not really.  Just run from it."  I then came across a wild Latios.  I'm sure anyone reading this knows just how incredible this discovery is, but I figured everything was common and unneeded.  But just to be safe, I asked,  "Do you care about a Latios?"  The look on my cousin's face was priceless.  A mix of surprise, excitement, and admiration that I could find that was awesome.  He yelled, "LATIOS!?!"  I remember that he took the Gameboy back and attempted a capture.  I don't remember the result, but it was an awesome bonding moment for me.

     Another moment happened while I was playing my cousin's Ruby.  He let me start over the game under the condition that I didn't save.  I went  through rescuing Professor Birch and going back to the lab.  I had saved him with a Torchic and he was giving it to me as my starter Pokemon.  When it asked for a nickname, I asked my cousin what it meant.  He said, "You can give it a name to call it instead of Torchic.  It can be anything."  So I thought.  Then the perfect name came into my head; Macaroni!  So I played through the first few towns of Ruby with a Torchic named Macaroni.  To this day, I name every Torchic, Combusken, and Blaziken that I get, Macaroni.

     I have one final memory I can remember and this happened after I got my own Emerald version.  I was playing with my cousins and my friend, who were all playing their Pokemon games.  I was laying my head on my cousin's butt (don't ask me why), and my friend was battling a wild Oddish.  He accidentally used Growl instead of Tackle and said, "Oh man!  I used Growl!"  I remembered my cousin saying that status moves were important too so I told my friend, "But it's good to use Growl."  Right as i finished, my cousin farted, very loudly, in my ear.  This led to a saying that is still around with my cousin's and me where if anyone farts, they say, "It's good to use Growl."

     Starting when I got my HeartGold version, my cousin introduced me to competitive battling.  We started without paying attention to EVs or IVs and just sort of throwing cool Pokemon on a team, regardless of tiers, as long as they weren't legendaries.  I would always lose to my cousin and I could never figure out why.  Then one day, he pulled out an EV trained Blissey.  I sent out a Special Attacking pokemon, which most people know is a bad idea, and he proceeded to wipe out my team.  At that time, I started to learn about base stats, EVs, and team balance.  It has stuck with me through my life since then and I can now build successful teams and have even beaten him a few times.  It has given me something to do with my beaten Pokemon games, since I can't do much else on them.

     Recently, I've learned about the Nuzlocke challenge.  I think it's a great idea and makes playing the Pokemon games fun and challenging.  I hope to have many fun and exciting moments during my Nuzlocke playthroughs of Emerald, HeartGold, and SoulSilver.  I've aslo found PokeMoshpit, and Haydunn on Youtube.  Haydunn especially gives me the opportunity to watch an expert play the games, along with make me laugh throughout the whole video.  Even though I know I won't love Pokemon forever, I love that I can enjoy it now.  Anytime I hear of a new game coming out, I'm saving money like crazy.  Websites like Marriland, Serebii, and Smogon allow me to learn and be entertained by Pokemon and the website Showdown! is a way for me to battle others when my cousins aren't around.

     I'm sorry for the incredibly long story, but I hope that whoever is reading this has enjoyed it.  I can't wait for the future of Pokemon to come.  My dream job is to learn Japanese and go to Japan to work for Nintendo on making new Pokemon games.  I already have good ideas for games, but I don't have the resources to make one.  It would be a cool job for sure.  Thank you, Marriland worker, for putting up with this story thrown together as I am typing these words.  I look forward to the contest results.  If your eyes are tired, I'll send some eye drops!:pleased:

Where will i start. Ah, i know, i will start with how pokemon has affected me. I have some friends due to pokemon. I met Ty in school because i had brought my DS light with pokemon Diamond. he wondered over to me and asked me what my partie was. i went to me partie and showed him my beloved team. my team consist of Torterra, Staraptor, Bibarel, and a few others. he was a bit impressed by there levels. so we made a deal, to bring our DS's to school and we were to battle! After school was out, i spent the whole after noon trying to beat the game (i was only on Wake). i only got to spear piller after getting Dialga. so i did the natural thing, swich out one of my pokemon with Dialga. so i turned off the DS and put it onto the charger for tomarow. 

During lunch i looked for him, and i didn't see him anywhere. so i though this was a perfect opportunity for me to train and get farther in to the game.  after doing what i do i got most of them to lv.60, which wasnt a bad level and i got to past the victory road. but then i realized that i don't know what his team is or what there level is. an i did the natural thing. I panicked :/. then i tough i will just spend all night training, and it was only an hour or two before passing out.

Now there levels are around 70 which i was proud of. when recess came around i saw him and we decided to do it at lunch. after eating and stuff we got ready for the pokemon battle. i gave all my pokemon a stratus berry before we started just to be safe :D. when the first pokemon came out i was soooo surprised! his pokemon was only around 54 of somewhere around there. so i defeated him with ease. he complamented me and i did the same. But this time we diced to to battle after we beat the ellet four and the champion. but sadly enough he lost entreat in pokemon and went to yugioh, which isn't that bad. But we still remained friends to this day :D. so that's one of my stories, i might make another one on the other topics :D

Where do I begin to describe my favorite past-time of the day? Well it all started when I was about four years of age with Pokemon FireRed. I remember playing that like it was yesterday. During my Pokemon journey in the game I couldn't figure out how to get past that tree you needed to cut down for the 3rd gym badge. I wasted 27 hours of gameplay on figuring out where to get HM 1 cut. My sisters friend finally took my gameboy ,and couldn't figure out where to get cut. Finally I went through my items and there it was. By the time I made it to the gym my Blastoise was already level 58. Ever since then I've improved by beating versions Red, Blue, Yellow, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, SoulSilver, White, Black, White 2, Black 2, Pokemon Colosseum, Pokemon XD, Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Stadium 2,and Pokemon Green. Some games I enjoy so much I've beat them multiple times. One day though I came across ev training. I got so involved in it because my Pokemon were so much better. Now every once in awhile I wifi battle Japanese people ,and kick there butts. 

The impact Pokemon has left on me is one I hope never goes away. Pokemon for me is what I do to get away from it all, the schoolwork, the finals, and stress. Every chance I get I play Pokemon.

My favorite Pokemon experience is battling the champion of the Elite Four. That feeling you get when your out of revives and you've only one Pokemon left and win is awesome.

I AM A POKEMON LOVER AND I'M PROUD.

A True Pokemon Fan,

Blaziken27 or Ben